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    The man is the Swiss army knife of Canadian soccer.
    In recent times, when an important soccer job falls open – technical director, interim coach of the national team – the Canadian Soccer Association turns to Steven Hart.
    And all Hart does is understand the problems, and ride out hard to get results.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    So what’s the catch? He’s got both jobs now. And either one of them could easily cripple somebody’s career. It’s not a stretch to say that one of the most vexing problems facing Canada’s fading, flickering, fanciful World Cup aspirations is …
    There’s only one Steven Hart. So … how good is he?
    As always in Canadian soccer, it’s hard to know for sure. He has coached very well – and successfully – at two consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cups. He was robbed of a place in the finals two years ago, and wrecked on some bad officiating and terrible ball-handling in July’s quarterfinal loss to Honduras.
    In between those two tournaments, under Dale Mitchell, Canada earned two draws and four losses as yet another World Cup qualifying dream crumbled to ashes. Check that. Dirt. Not enough heat for ashes.
    Under Hart, though, there was heat. Here’s a coach who sends Canada out in forward-looking formations, and lets them run the ball. That suits the DeRosario and DeGuzman types. Deeper, still, the players genuinely like this guy. By the end of last summer, many openly despised Mitchell.
    Begs the question, though: why not just leave Hart in charge?
    The pro-Hart argument is simple. He’s already got the job, and the results. He’s already on the payroll, too, and we all know how comically little money the CSA raises for itself.
    But the anti-Hart arguers have merit, too. Very limited experience as a head man, and the Gold Cup is a watered-down splash pool compared to the heat and hatred of battling for a place in the World Cup. Perhaps a more established general – who would cost a lot more money – would have a better chance of guiding Canada to glory.
    There’s also the issue of Hart as technical director. After two decades of astonishing bureaucratic neglect, the player development system in Canada is a shambles. The Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC aren’t even waiting for Ottawa to act. Both clubs have started their own extensive academy systems, and are beginning to reap results.
    Hart – bless him! – gets it. He knows people are frustrated, and why. He’s ready to work with any and everyone to set up systems to more reliably turn today’s under-10s into tomorrow’s World Cup squad. In that sense, he is all but irreplaceable.
    My “It’s Called Football” colleague Ben Rycroft wrote a fine piece last month, about why Hart must not be given the head coach job permanently. But effective player development needs two things desperately. A strong overall vision, and money. Hart has the vision, but unless the CSA has signed a gajillion dollars worth of backroom corporate sponsorships no one out here yet knows about, there is punishingly close to no money.
    Ah, but if Canada ever qualified for the World Cup? That would bring in oceans of money. Torrents. Floods. It’s the kind of money that could bring in a front-line World Cup coach – but we don’t get it until we’re already there.
    Which leaves us – still – with Steven Hart doing two jobs.
    So why not … let him? Even if the CSA plans to hire a so-called real coach, this is not the time to do it. It’s a good eighteen months until the run-in to the next Gold Cup, which is the natural springboard to World Cup qualifying. Given there will be no meaningful games, why not let Hart run the squad while he continues to lay the groundwork for his new player development vision?
    He’s a fine leader. A year from now, he may well have enough reforms in motion, he could step aside from the tech role, and become the full-time coach of Canada. Or, if he is more needed in the TD role, that would be the perfect time to go coach-shopping on the international market.
    Perhaps the only good thing about Canada’s latest World Cup faceplant is it bought us some time. Whatever combination of happy chance and bad bureaucracy threw Hart into two crucial roles simultaneously may, in spite of itself, have gotten it right.
    We’ll examine this deeper in part two, focusing on the CSA.
    For now, who do you think should coach Canada in the next World Cup cycle?
    Onward!

    Guest

    Canada – looking ahead

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    I’m going to start a new Onward! series tomorrow.
    (Yes, I know I haven’t finished the artificial turf one yet. Bens are like that sometimes.)
    Now that the Gold Cup is lost, Canada’s senior men’s soccer team faces two long years without a meaningful game. Three, if all you really care about is trying to qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
    We find ourselves at several difficult crossroads.
    - The team has a popular coach, who seems able to win. But he’s also hugely inexperienced on the world stage – and seemingly the perfect choice for his other job (his real job) as Canada’s technical director. So who should be the coach? And how do we fill the other job?
    - Our oft-embattled soccer bureaucrats have entered a period of seeming stability, where some things seem to be progressing, and others aren’t being massively screwed up. Is it real? Is it illusion? How will we know – and what happens next?
    - How many promising young players will develop into useful internationals? How many more will simply walk away to pursue their World Cup ambitions in other nations?
    - What is happening with the Voyageurs? Canada’s national fan group is losing members, and its website is no longer Canadian soccer’s forum of record. How did that happen? How can it unhappen?
    These questions now will be tackled – one at a time – more as a form of rabble-rousing than hard journalism. The stories will ask more questions than they answer – but the whole point will be to stir up some badly needed discussion.
    Things are just a bit too quiet down here right now. Let’s see where this can go.
    Onward!

    Guest

    The eyes have it

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    In the end, I decided to take Friday evening off. I cooked up a steak, cracked open a cold beer, and settled in comfortably in the fan-cooled living room of Onward!’s palatial East York estate.
    With all preconception and argument set aside, I watched Toronto FC lose 5-1 to Spanish giants Real Madrid. And, through my eyes, here is what I think I saw … through theirs.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Emmanuel Gomez: Eighteen years old, and Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Raul are bearing down on you. That’s one of the finest strike forces in human history.
    You’re still trying to get used to this new place called Toronto, thousands of real miles and millions of cultural ones from your distant home in Gambia. And now you’ve got to deal with this.
    You’ll go crazy if you watch Ronaldo’s feet. Those step-overs are a blur. There’s no possible way to read them. And he’s not there anyway. He’s already gone, streaking goalward with blinding confidence – and pace. Trying to read the others won’t do you much good either. There’s too many of them, and they’re just too good.
    So forget about them. Watch the ball. Even at the feet of the Galacticos, it’s still just a ball. Just like back at home. Just like any game you’ve ever played. When you see it coming just that way, and you put your foot just there, the ball stops. The ball is yours. Then, just keep your head, and get it going the other direction.
    And no, of course it’s not that simple. But that’s what Gomez mostly did. He ignored the bravado, and played the ball. As cool and composed as the greatness all around him. So what if he couldn’t equal their talent? He held his purpose, and won a couple of well-earned possessions. And he didn’t throw them away, either.
    Keep your dismissive talk of this just being a pre-season scrimmage for the soccer gods from Spain. This kid hung in there – by keeping his eye on the ball.
    Brian Edwards: He hasn’t complained, but lord this has been a wrenching season! How’d you like to be a second-year pro on a mediocre team – who is only allowed to play in international friendlies! A full game against River Plate, and now the second half against Real Madrid.
    A lot of what you see out there discourages. Two Real players – two! – unlock seven Torontos in your six-yard box and hammer home Real’s fourth goal. And then – you had to know this was unavoidable – you see your overmatched, struggling central-defender teammate Marco Velez get sent in to man-mark Dutch superstar Arjen Robben.
    That’s as close to inevitable as an imminent goal can ever be. It comes quickly, with Robben wearing Velez like a badly fitting bathrobe all the way to beating you soundly for goal number five.
    But that’s not all you saw – thank the soccer gods! Two other times, the swirling white dragon that is Real Madrid sent dagger shots flying for your goal. And twice – once leaping high, once straining to your side – you got an outstretched hand on the ball and deflected away the danger.
    Your eyes burn with righteous confidence. You scream in joy.
    Does the bench hear you? Does coach Chris Cummins catch the empowered victorious roar of perhaps the most captive and underrated player in all of Major League Soccer?
    Heck if you know. You weren’t looking his way at the time. Hell! Why should your eyes be anywhere near the Toronto FC bench? You’ve already seen far too much of it, in this cruelly stolen season of 2009.
    Gabe Gala: And then, we all saw what could easily be the greatest moment in all of this hard-working young man’s life.
    Getting late. You hear Cummins call to send you in. Chad Barrett went on at halftime. The struggling striker’s only been out there 26 minutes, and it’s time to make a change.
    You’re hopping up and down on the sidelines while the fourth official signals your number to the referee. Here comes Barrett. He’s not happy, but he slaps your hand for luck and respect on his way off the field.
    Two years older than Gomez. Also born in Africa, but raised from boyhood in Toronto’s northwest suburbs, way out past the airport in Brampton.
    You don’t think. You just run. Those are Real Madrid shirts you’re running past. And even though a lot of the front-line stars are sitting now, this is still way more opponent than you have ever even remotely gone running against.
    It forms up off to your right. Big Danny Dichio makes a cunning turn off the ball. It creates room for O’Brian White to shoot. Real goalie Jerzey Dudek dives, gets lots of fingers on it, but can’t hold on.
    Your eyes are huge! You know you’ve got a step on whatever superstar is marking you. You know where the ball has to go. Has to! You put everything your heart and legs and courage can give you to get … to … that … spot!
    You do. The ball’s there. Kick it clean. Watch it fly.
    Way up in the broadcast booth, a Spanish announcer shouts the world “goal” many times in a row.
    And then we all see his ecstacy. This whole crazy business of the mid-season friendly. The seventy-odd teams that didn’t want to come and play on BMO’s plastic grass. The expensive temporary real-grass field. The supporters upset about the price of tickets and wrenching around of the schedule.
    And here, in Gabe Gala’s eyes, is the astonishing joy and miracle that makes everything worth it. The “1” in a 5-1 loss. The one moment from this entire odd exercise of hope and hysteria true Toronto FC fans will never, ever forget.
    No, it was never Toronto’s “game of the season.” But that moment is surely going to take some beating.
    It goes in the books, forever, as Kaka’s first game for Real Madrid. But I’ll remember it for Emmanuel Gomez’s composure, Brian Edwards’ scream for freedom – and Gabe Gala’s goal.
    Onward!

    Guest

    Real TFC

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    Tonight, in my beloved home town of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a galactically famous soccer squad is practicing on real grass.
    The grass is laid down over BMO Field’s battered, dying artificial turf. Any takers at $15 a head are in seats normally held by Toronto FC season ticket holders to watch the Spanish giants practice.
    Friday night – game night – most of the regulars will be absent. Thousands of curious event-goers who have scarcely ever heard of the home team will be in their seats instead.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    They won’t much know about the MLS East playoff race, or TFC’s early, optional exit from the CONCACAF Champions League. Many will be Real Madrid fans – and why not? Real is huge news – particularly in the wake of a record-shattering spending spree that has brought Ronaldo, Kaka and Xabi Alonso to the Bernabeu.
    But before these newly re-gazillioned gazillionaires get to tread that sacred turf, they get a run-out at the Canadian National Exhibition. They will be much better-known than the home side, who will be playing on unusual grass in front of thousands of total strangers.
    Okay, it’s a sideshow. It raises the profile of TFC and MLS – and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment gets serious room on the sports pages that won’t be devoted to the ongoing struggles of their other teams – the Maple Leafs and Raptors.
    It’s a soccer game – but it ain’t TFC.
    Yeah, we’ve only been at this for a little over two years, but there is now such a thing as a genuine TFC experience. It includes:
    - Pounding heart-soaring vocal support from a full complement of Red Patch Boys, U-Sector, the North End Elite and all the other red-waving, streamer-chucking TFC supporters.
    - Thousands of other loyal subscribers who, while not as conspicuous, cheer at the right times, buy lots of concessions, pay too much for parking – all the while falling ever more in love with Toronto’s all-but-impossible pro soccer dream-come-true.
    - A hideous misery-floor of crippled Field Turf, ours to enjoy until a new artificial field can be sectioned off elsewhere, and the provincial government drops its contractual objection to real grass in the playpen.
    - A team that consistently upgrades its roster, leaps briefly forward, then starts air-mailing lost standings points all over the continent.
    - Heroes (Danny Dichio, Dwayne DeRosario), wannabe heroes (Chad Barrett, Pablo Vitti), aspiring stars (Stefan Frei, Sam Cronin), noble veterans (Jim Brennan, Carl Robinson), a Honduran dive villain we all forgive when he puts on red (Amado Guevara) and a whole supporting, dramatically pleasing cast of hopers and no-hopers.
    Aside from DeRosario, most of the fans at BMO Field on Friday night will not have heard of most of them. Maybe 500 will know anything at all about once-soaring, now-struggling Toronto coach Chris Cummins.
    And while there’s not really anything wrong with that, let’s be clear. This is NOT a Toronto FC game we’re cuing up here. It’s a slightly glorious dog-and-pony show – which Madrid will likely show up and play well in, given that the Spanish season looms and arch-rivals Barcelona waxed the Seattle Sounders 4-0 in Microsoft land last night.
    You’ll see the Toronto players, but you won’t see the plotlines, the melodrama, the plight and most of the people who care so deeply – and give so much – to all of it.
    I’m planning to at least attempt to wander into a bar and watch a half. I have dreams of my own I owe that to.
    But the real Toronto FC experience – and this team’s real story – will be getting the night off. All that will resume a week Saturday, when we get our stadium, our seats, an MLS opponent and our terrible, terrible turf back.
    Make some money, lads, and don’t get hurt. Oh, and what the heck? Have some fun with it, everyone who’s actually going to be there.
    And if any late-arrivers watch the Madrid game and actually get curious about this team and want to come along for the ride?
    Well, good luck getting a seat.
    But there’s always room for new friends at the Dufferin Gate, Shoeless Joe’s and all the other TFC fan bars – if you’re ready to match our passion, and take the whole long and rough and sloppy ride.
    Onward!

    Guest

    Death by lack of Dichio

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    Really, there isn’t much point looking for excuses.
    In their very first two-leg taste of CONCACAF Champions League soccer, Toronto FC wrecked on a packed defence and hot goaltender. The loss to the Puerto Rico Islanders of USL-1 is now confirmed and in the books, and whining about anything won’t get it done.
    So, if not excuses – how about causes?
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    I find myself concerned this morning about TFC’s strategic approach – particularly in the second leg, last night’s punitive 0-0 grind job in a baseball stadium in San Juan.
    The Redcoats didn’t play a lot of what you’d call lovely soccer. Mostly it was a disorganized defence somehow surviving, and hoofing the ball upfield to attackers who were clearly hearing footsteps, feeling pressure, and trying to do far too much on their own.
    Teamwork was, to be kind, strained. Movement away from the ball – essential against hard-bunkering underdogs – was woefully inadequate.
    Ali Gerba was getting to the long balls, certainly, but had nowhere left to operate. What he really needed was the ball to get to him. As I’ve already said, what he really needed was Danny Dichio.
    Dichio spent so much time on the bench in the two Puerto Rico games, I was becoming convinced he must be gritting out an injury. Why else leave on the bench the one man on the roster who can corral a high ball and flick it into Gerba’s path?
    On both the strategy and the Dichio deployment, eyebrows are being raised in Toronto coach Chris Cummins’ direction. But you can’t really blame the coach for what happened after he did – finally – insert Dichio on 73 minutes last night.
    Dichio’s teammates got him the ball just once – and he just about tore down a goalpost with it. This a nice companion to the fully extended fingertip save Dichio forced from Islander goalie and U.S. Marine wannabe Bill Gaudette at BMO Field a week ago.
    TFC was launching long balls galore, but there was nothing Dichio could lay in front of the onrushing Ali Gerba express. Chad Barrett e-mailed things past the post. Dwayne DeRosario fired everything over the crossbar. More than one corner kick landed short – directly on the ankles of forward-posted Puerto Rico defenders.
    Entirely inadequate, in other words. That’s certainly where the Toronto half of 0-0 came from. Puerto Rico getting whitewashed was more about ill luck and bad shooting than anything TFC’s back four did to shut them down. So many tentative touches from the Torontos! It was like they felt there was some rule they all had to touch the ball before it could be randomly hoofed over the centre stripe.
    Once again, an MLS team falls to a USL-1 side. And once again, I tell you that games like this aren’t about talent. It’s applied talent that advances in cup competitions, and Toronto FC did not apply itself adequately to the task.
    Dichio was their best bet, and he hardly played. When he did, the service simply wasn’t there. The opportunities were there in abundance, but high-probability plays were chronically dumped in favour of the good ol’ hit-and-hope, which clearly – over both games – had almost no hope of hitting.
    Toronto FC stands exposed as a team with decent enough talent for the level they’re playing at, saddled and dragged down by dreadful deployment.
    If that’s the coach, if that’s the talent: I don’t know.
    But I sure would have liked to have seen a whole lot more of Danny Dichio, and I believe this team would have advanced to the group stages had that wish been granted.
    At least they won’t have any more fixture backlog problems, as they hit the road and try to qualify for the MLS post-season for the first time in franchise history.
    A dreadful, optional loss in my books. It simply didn’t have to happen that way.
    Onward!

    Guest

    Ali Gerba needs Danny Dichio

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    So, here’s my stupid question – volume 26:
    Why isn’t Danny Dichio getting playing time for Toronto FC?
    1) He’s old.
    2) He’s injured.
    3) Where you been, Knight? Ali Gerba is the TFC target man now.
    The answers are yes, maybe, and the rest of this blog item.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Ali Gerba has played three real games now for Toronto FC. He has scored, and created – and struggled to kick loose from defenders who line up six feet either side of him.
    TFC has two losses and a draw to show for it.
    The biggest problem? No aerial threat. Toronto is a team that struggles to cross the ball effectively at the best of times. Without Dichio in the middle, there is very little in the way of a good high target for what few good crosses bleed through.
    At halftime of the Puerto Rico Champions League loss on Wednesday, this was blindingly, howlingly obvious to all. But TFC coach Chris Cummins chose not to bring Dichio in at halftime. Indeed, the big number 9 didn’t feel lumpy plastic under his feet until the match’s dying moment, when he would have scored the equalizer but for a blinding, diving reflex had save from the Islander netkeep.
    So – what about Dichio and Gerba playing side-by-side?
    Or – to rephrase – what about having the team’s only legitimate holding forward up there alongside the most powerful finisher in franchise history?
    The ball comes in, and Dichio flips it on. This lets Gerba drop back a bit. Those two defenders flanking him only get away with it because Big Ali is so far forward, he’s easy meat for the goaltender.
    Suddenly, TFC can get Gerba the ball – and spring him for his shots. And Dichio’s a fine finisher, too – with good reflex reaction skills for loose rebounds in the enemy six-year box.
    So maybe that means less midfield digging from a Chad Barrett or a Pablo Vitti? If it means more goals, I’ll make that deal in a heartbeat.
    Columbus was a winnable loss. Puerto Rico was a winnable loss. New England was a very winnable draw.
    Please let’s don’t forget that Dichio can, in fact, go ninety minutes. He even did it in consecutive matches, not that long ago.
    It may seem better strategy to let the short-endurance Gerba play an hour, and have Dichio mop up in the final 30. But I would rather chuck losing strategy in favour of what should be the most versatile and pounding pair of finishers this struggling team can ever reasonably hope to deploy.
    Gerba and Dichio, getting service from DeRo and Guevara? Shouldn’t we at least get a look at that, Chris?
    Also: Why was Ali Gerba not given an assist on Dwayne DeRosario’s goal? An incoming Chad Barrett shot hit him flush in the face, and fell perfectly for DeRo – who smoked it home to give Toronto the lead. Officially, the goal is unassisted. Perhaps the scorer felt that Gerba did not intend to donate his windshield to the cause like that. Well, it says here that goal is impossible without the Gerba’s involuntary facewash, and that should be the one and only standard for awarding an assist. After all, don’t we want to reward players … for using their heads?
    Onward!

    Guest

    Way too predictable

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    For Toronto FC, this was a textbook case of how to lose a match to a lower-division opponent.
    In Wednesday’s franchise debut in the CONCACAF Champions League, our Runnin’ Rushin’ Rebuilt Redcoats ® knew exactly what was coming … and managed to faceplant anyway.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    In strong and loveable TFC tradition, they now have to overcome a 0-1 deficit, on the road in a tough, hostile park, or dreams of continental glory shall be set to the curb with the trash – something that is almost possible again up here, following a long and bitter city strike.
    It’s not like there was any surprise about what the upstart Puerto Rico Islanders (CCL semi-finalists back in February) were going to do.
    Pack the midfield, fall back into a defensive bunker, and try to burn Toronto on the counterbreak.
    So TFC sent out Dwayne De Rosario, Pablo Vitti, Ali Gerba and Chad Barrett – which should have given them enough creating, ball-moving ability to seal the deal.
    Thud.
    (Sidenote: Urban legend: Working journalist gives back free beer at TFC fan bar.)
    (True! And I know because I’m the guy that did it.)
    (Pre-game at an anonymous beverage dispensary which shares its name with a famous Toronto landmark a few blocks down the street. The draft taps are not happy. Foam everywhere. I don’t always drink beer, my thirsty friends, but when I do I prefer an icy pint of draft. The odds are looking … bad.)
    (Then, miraculously, the bar gal pulls two consecutive decent-looking pints out of the tap right in front of me. “I’ll have one of those,” says I. Halfway through the pour, fa-whooooooomph! Out rockets a spurt of foam evil enough to break any discerning beer-lover’s heart. She battles with it, scraping away bubbles, pouring actual beer, but she knows the fight is lost. She gives me the ill-born libation, “on the house.”)
    (I appreciate this – the gesture, anyway – and naively take a heady swig. Stale. Don’t care. Thirsty! Exhausted! Need beer! Swig two – bad stale. My fevered synapses haven’t retained whatever odd justification set up swig three. Appallingly stale.)
    (I put a free glass of beer back on the bar, and walked away. Thirst was unsatisfied, but the urban legend is true.)
    (Where were we? Oh, right …)
    Thud.
    Let’s be clear. This game wasn’t lost because of the two wonderful saves Puerto Rico goalkeeper and designated time-waster Bill Gaudette made late on both Jim Brennan and Danny Dichio.
    Nor was it fried when TFC target man Ali Gerba was flagged for a questionably narrow offside. That ball only went in the net because the defenders quit when the flag went up. Bad call, I thought (body leaning but feet level), but far from a disallowed goal.
    This was a far-too-predictable case of concrete and counterbreaks – one that shows how far Toronto FC still has to go.
    Puerto Rico had a good share of the play early. But as soon as the ball would turn over, they would fall back in numbers, taking up positions just left and right of any red jersey in the vicinity. This meant Toronto’s point men – usually Cronin or Barrett – were staring at 3-on-8s when they tried to spring a striker.
    Folks, you are never going to beat a 3-on-8 with slow passes on the ground to immobile teammates. Cronin alone served up that misplay at least three different times.
    The situation properly calls for air support. A good rain of consistent crosses. Glaring problem is, though, unless Jim Brennan is playing left wing against a last-place MLS team, Toronto FC has never been even as good as sub-adequate at crossing the ball.
    The one clear set of chances they were gifted in this match? Corner kicks. The home side out-cornered the visitors 11-0 on the night. So – why do we always have to have two men in the corner? What is the ongoing fascination with short corner kicks?
    Puerto Rico saw this coming, and then some! On one kick, they took their defenders off the post. DeRo rolled the ball eight feet to Cronin, who tapped it right back – causing a “we-don’t-do-this-in-grade-school” offside.
    Then there’s the obligatory corner kick on the ground to Carl Robinson moving up from defensive midfield. Toronto likes this play because it worked once. It hasn’t since.
    Too many wasted chances, in other words. As good as Gerba is at shredding defenders north-south, he struggled mightily to free himself from guys just standing beside him. No doubt a healthy Amado Guevara would have ruffled the ‘Ricans. He’ll have to now, in the return leg next Tuesday.
    Coming back the other way, youthful Gambian Emmanuel Gomez – forced into action by injuries to defenders Nana Attakora and Adrian Serioux – absorbed a lot of pressure and showed good composure in his competitive debut.
    But 67 minutes in, a Puerto Rico counter forced a free kick, and by the time Toronto goalie Stefan Frei fumbled it and the back four vacated, Islander ballhawk Kendall Jagdeosingh found twine from a bad angle for the game’s only goal.
    TFC coach Chris Cummins was miffed about the misplay, saying he’d been telling his players all week the one-and-only thing Puerto Rico does on set pieces, and that’s exactly what they did and they scored.
    The game actually looks a lot better in the highlights than it did going by in real time. That’s because the highlights don’t show all the wearily fizzled short-pass plays to nowhere.
    Toronto, charitably, did enough to win this match, and that bodes well for a desperately needed away win in a tough and sweltering Caribbean park next week.
    But the Reds also wasted more than enough to lose. And that is where the improvement – crosses, mobility, give-and-goes – is going to have to come.
    Thoughts?
    Onward!

    Guest

    MON! TRE! … al

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    Ah, rumours.
    Rumour walked the night on Monday that MLS commissioner Don Garber was about to anoint Montreal as the league’s 19th franchise.
    Instead, he announced next year’s all-star game in going to be played in Houston.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Whiff!
    The story blew up in my e-mail inbox on Sunday. I wasn’t buying it.
    I have sources who are gold, and everything they tell me happens. I have others who mean well, but aren’t quite well-enough connected to know for certain what’s coming next. Sometimes, they score. For me, a lead from them means it’s worth my while to ask around.
    Then, there are the folks who contacted me on Sunday. I’m not going to publicly out anyone, but these are folks I never, ever, ever trust.
    I was, therefore, never in any mood to buy this particular Montreal story.
    But MLS Rumors certainly was. I’m not trying to trash these guys. They are exactly what they say they are – a one-stop clearing house for every juicy MLS rumour out there – true, false, neither or both.
    They led with an anonymous source (natch!) saying Montreal was very likely to be announced as a front-runner at Garber’s Monday presser.
    Well, hold the phone. Where’s the news angle? We all know Montreal’s a front-runner. They have been ever since the Province of Quebec agreed to pony up legal tender towards the expansion of Stade Saputo.
    The story gets vaguer as it goes along. What is actually suggested is that Montreal is giving the league a progress report in or around the all-star break.
    Um … so what’s really being said is that all the MLS bigwigs are convening in Utah for a couple of days, and wouldn’t that be a good time for possible expansion candidates to drop them a line?
    Yes. Obviously. No way I’d bore you with that one.
    How this got from common-sense backroom obviousness to a rolling, rippling rumour of Montreal expansion is down – mostly – to the misguided enthusiasm of a few easily excited – and honestly never accurate – fans.
    Folks, Montreal has a chance. So does St. Louis. So does a possible second team in New York (or even a first team in New York, if you check the current league standings).
    The anonymous MLSR source even predicted that Garber would say much work remains to be done in Montreal, but that things are looking good.
    How can anyone interpret that as the granting of a franchise? And that’s how the story starts!
    Again, I’m not trashing MLSR. They’ve been good, loyal friends of “It’s Called Football,” and the site certainly has its uses. But when even the main anonymous source undercuts the headline in the opening paragraphs, I think most discerning observers would pop that particular bit of soccer sensationalism into the “false” category.
    The less-discerning ones – well, my in-box was buzzing, but these bees were sorely out of honey.
    Don’t despair, Montreal. You’re in great shape here – as long as Riverboat Slim Saputo doesn’t try to show off anymore of his fancy “never-fail” poker tricks at Dealer Don’s table.
    I’ll let you know Montreal’s in, the second my best sources start e-mailing me the high sign.
    Onward!

    Guest

    Hot time in Chicago

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    A video today, lovingly dedicated to everyone who thinks the Section 8 support group’s recent bouts of pyromania at Chicago Fire soccer games are “wicked,” “awesome,” and “incredibly beautiful.”
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP6KXF-Og8c
    What I really love is that the few fans who actually see what’s happening have the colossal, self-indulgent idiocy to be surprised.
    Onward!

    Guest

    Gol gol gol gol gol – against!

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    (I had a dream last night. Toronto FC fans entering Crew Stadium in Columbus were ordered to take their shoes and socks off, leave them in a big pile on the concourse, and watch the game barefoot. Discuss among yourselves.)
    So, maybe Toronto FC got a little bit too excited about its rebuilt attack.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    With big, forceful Canada target man Ali Gerba finally wearing the red number-10 shirt, and a team-wide willingness to keep the ball moving on the carpet, the Redcoats looked really dangerous at times.
    Sure, they were a goal down early, but all it took was a surging run from Marvell Wynne and a cheeky little Pablo Vitti redirect to set up a charging Duane DeRosario for an emphatic tying goal.
    Then, later, the ever-embattled Chad Barrett intercepted a dreadful Columbus clearance, and worked an utterly splendid double give-and-go with Gerba, which the brute finisher buried in-close to howitzer Toronto into the lead.
    And then Vitti – yeah, I’ve been down on the kid, but this was gorgeous – made good, patient space for himself, and rocketed a curving outswinger straight off the far Columbus post. So close the 3-1!
    But …
    It would not be TFC’s attack that would ultimately sign their names on this one.
    First, Marco Velez guessed wrong and tied himself into useless knots – again – as he watched hot young Crew finisher Steven Lenhart knot the match 2-2 on 76 minutes.
    Bad, but a draw would still be a decent enough result. So how, then, with all eleven Torontos collapsed back to defend, did no one even bother Columbus’s Frankie Hejduk as he sent in a perfect long cross in injury time? And why was no one even close to the in-form Jason Garey, as he rose to bull home a splendid header past helpless goalie Stefan Frei to win the match right at the death?
    I say again what I said at the beginning: Toronto FC is going to play some high-scoring matches this year. They almost need to score three or more goals a game – because you know they’re a good bet to give up at least two.
    Hey, this was a very entertaining little game. And for long stretches of it, Toronto was dictating terms. Yes, they’d already earned a pair of 1-1 draws with the defending league-champion Crew this year, but Columbus dominated those matches, and had to feel unlucky not to have taken maximum points from both.
    This loss is really going to hurt down the road. A win would have leapt the Reds into a first-place tie with Chicago in the MLS East. The loss leaves them dangerously vulnerable to chase teams Kansas City and New England. New England managed to win at league-best Houston yesterday, which is going to get the rest of the league’s attention.
    Great to see Gerba score on his debut. Wonderful to see both Barrett and Vitti again respond positively and creatively to the pressure their ongoing employment is under.
    But it means nothing divided by squat if the team can’t seal the deal.
    As good as Columbus is – even without injured MLS scoring leader Guillermo Barros Schelotto – this was a very sealable deal. It was all there for the Reds – big win on the road, knock off the champs, win the stupid Trillium Cup, clinch the season series against a very tough team, move back into first place.
    Instead, they’re sitting cold and exposed on the playoff back porch, and hungrier wolves are circling around out there, getting the job done.
    Yikes!
    Get ready for some serious defensive drill work in practice this week, lads. You freaking earned it!
    Onward!

    Guest

    Artificial turf: part I

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    Just walking on artificial turf offends me.
    The feel of plastic blades mooshing under my feet – the uneven feel of the unnatural surface underfoot – this is one of my least-favourite things.
    Even bladeless turf, like the concrete-based hard, flat carpet that once covered old Exhibition Stadium in my native Toronto, never felt right to my feet.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    And I wasn’t trying to play soccer on it.
    Where that awful bomb-crater of a ball park was brooded joylessly on the Toronto waterfront, there now stands a cute little gem of a soccer stadium. BMO Field is far from luxurious, but its sightlines and atmosphere far surpass any outdoor stadium yet build in Canada’s biggest metropolis.
    And it is choking on its artificial turf. Now a lumpy, lamented “upgrade” to the FieldTurf brand, it seemed soft and grasslike enough just over two seasons ago, when the Toronto FC dream began.
    But now, compressed and condensed by a battering schedule of year-round athletic action, it has become a gruesome green menace – hated by the players, lamented by the fans, and required by law to be there as a condition for the millions of dollars the Ontario government donated to help build the stadium in the first place.
    The ball no longer runs true at BMO Field. Its bounce is no longer certain. Injuries – well, we’ll get to injuries.
    To begin: how did we get here – and how do we ever kick loose?
    Astroturf came first. For decades, any artificial turf surface anywhere carried the name, regardless of its make or manufacturer.
    Really, it was air conditioning that kicked the whole thing off.
    Back in 1962, Major League Baseball’s National League created the New York Mets to compensate The Big Apple for losing both the Giants and Dodgers to the west coast in 1954. But you can’t have an odd number of teams in a baseball league, so here came the Houston Colt 45s.
    A baseball team named after a gun? Not to worry. The moniker didn’t last long. See, you can’t really play baseball in Houston in the summer. The city sits in a wide, flat bowl, the air is utterly still, the main industry is oil refining, and the average summer temperature would keep your morning coffee warm till long after sundown.
    Swelter! Gasp!
    Ah, but this was the sixties, and the entire southwestern United States was being transformed by refrigerated air. If Houston was going to have baseball, it was going to be air-conditioned!
    Hence – the Astrodome. Opened for the 1965 season, it revolutionized pro sports. The first dome – and the very first artificial turf playing surface. Of course it was called Astroturf. And of course the ball team became the Astros.
    Houston was the centre of the American manned space program, after all. When the astronauts of Apollo 13 had their oxygen tank explode, they didn’t say “Sheboygan, we have a problem.” “Astro” was the coolest pile-up of letters you could bolt to new stuff. It was everywhere.
    And it wasn’t just baseball they were playing at this glass-roofed gem of modern stadium construction. These were the pre-merger days of American pointy-throwball. The Houston Oilers weren’t in the National Pointy-Throwball League yet, but they were very much alive and well – and hugely happy to be playing in an air-conditioned dome.
    Thing about pointy-throwball: it destroys grass fields. Close-packed hordes of 300-pound behemoths – okay, 250-pound behemoths back then – violently collide for three hours, digging in hard down the middle of the field. Grass can’t take it. Plastic grass can.
    The Astrodome didn’t really change the world because it brought outdoors sports inside. It’s real influence was as the very first multi-use artificial turf stadium.
    Soon, they were everywhere. Montreal, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Toronto – home of the largest artificial-turf playing field on the planet, because the pointy-throwball endzone didn’t start until out around second base somewhere.
    Partly, it was cool. Mostly, it was a way to save – and make – lots of money. Purists howled, but throughout the seventies and eighties, multi-use turf parks were conquering the continent.
    It didn’t last – and that’s what we’ll chat about in part two.
    Onward!

    Guest

    Notes on the new guys

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    Some quick thoughts on Wednesday night’s pleasant but utterly meaningless friendly between Toronto FC and River Plate of Argentina, which one side or the other won on penalties after ninety minutes of scoreless ball:
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Ali Gerba: The free-scoring Canadian international whiffed on his first scoring chance for TFC, a baseball-bat-style leg swing at a wonky cross from Dwayne DeRosario. I was looking right down the line of that pass, and it was a very difficult ball.
    Gerba then forced a splendid save out of River Plate’s goalie just before halftime. Is that an improvement? Well, says here that when Chad Barrett misses, the netminder just stands there and catches the ball. On Gerba misses, goalie arms and legs fly all over the place, and the enemy backstop gets a face full of turf. Works for me.
    In the PK shootout, Gerba took a one-step approach, and three-wooded a screaming shot into the top left corner. Ka-BOOM! Nobody else on the TFC roster can do that.
    O’Brian White: We finally got to see the young draft pick who was one of the hottest prospects in NCAA ball before he detonated his knee last season. White didn’t do much on the ball, but showed commendable pace and desire. Very strange running style. He looks like he’s constantly accelerating with one leg, and slowing down with the other. Don’t yet know if that’s the injury talking, or just the way a unique athlete moves.
    Emmanuel Gomez: The young Gambian centreback had a couple of awkward giveaways, but held his ground pretty well in his first Toronto start. Seemed naïve at times, not unusual for a teenager in a position that requires a lot of thought, guile and experience.
    Other notables:
    Pablo Vitti: Wore the captain’s armband against his countrymates, but once again created absolutely nothing, and shanked his post-game penalty kick over the bar. I’ve seen enough. You guys?
    Brian Edwards: I continue to believe TFC’s long-idle backup goalie can play – and even start – in MLS. Good anticipation, fine reflexes, and man, does this guy get rid of the ball on his throws and goal kicks! Needs more playing time, and I believe he’s earned it.
    Gabe Gala: I like this kid so much! Huge heart and enthusiasm. Back in late ’07, he got a good run of playing time, and looked very poised out there. Seems more nervous now – probably because he gets so few chances to show what he can do. I think there’s a bright, useful, opportunistic attacker here. I wish he’d got some of the late outings that used to be squandered on Rohan Ricketts.
    Huge game coming up in Columbus this Saturday. Gerba must start.
    Onward!

    Guest

    “Special”

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    We’ve known forever that David Beckham is a “special” player.
    Now we’re finding it out, all over again, from a new and not-expected direction.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Two full working business days have dawned and declined since The Pop Star’s Husband © hauled himself up on a barricade to challenge a member of the Los Angeles Riot Squad fan group, who weren’t exactly pleased to see the former England captain kitting out – eventually – for their favourite team.
    It was halftime of a really rather good 2-2 friendly draw with Italian giants AC Milan. Becks, playing well, had been getting consistent stick from the Riot Squad, though other portions of the biggest crowd in Hope Depot Centre soccer history had been warming to his act as the opening half progressed.
    Becks looked very angry as he motioned to one particular fan to come down and meet him. Becks’ second challenge came after he put his hands atop the barricade, and leapt.
    Beckham claims he wanted to shake hands with the fan – who subsequently leapt down, was gang-nabbed by security, and now faces a lifetime ban from the building. As bizarre as this claim sounds, there is a video where Beckham – immediately after his barricade bump – has his hand extended in a handshake motion.
    Hey! Maybe the guy’s telling the truth. The fan says Beckham challenged him to a fight – and it’s easy to see why. Up until the hand comes out – which the fan might not have seen because that’s when he would have been making his leap – Beckham looked nothing short of furious, and more than ready to duke it out.
    Personally, I want to see a bit more composure out of my front-line international superstars. It’s not Galaxy fans don’t have a legitimate gripe, after the golden-haired globetrotter has shown no convincing interest whatsoever in playing for them this season.
    My concern, tonight, is more with how MLS is reacting to the barricade leap.
    It isn’t. At all.
    The Galaxy – through head coach Bruce Arena – has issued a statement, reaffirming its desire to be loved by its most ardent fans. Not exactly an apology, though. More of a “this is what we’d write if we weren’t happy with Beckham, couldn’t say so publicly, oh and maybe league office gave us a hard nudge in the ribs after the game” kind of thing.
    But if that’s all league office has got, honour is not yet satisfied.
    A player went after the fans. A player leapt up against a barricade, in an escalating effort to go after the fans. If that player isn’t David Blessed Beckham, says here the league has already issued a fine and suspension, and forced a public apology.
    Beckham, for his part, steadfastly says there is no need to apologize. Okay. Glad we sorted that, Becksie! Now, back to practice with yer! Good lad!
    Good luck getting away with something like that if you’re any other player in MLS.
    And I know this playing field’s not equal. I know there’s too much money and image at stake for MLS to sit out an aging, apathetic pseudostar who finally condescended to kick a ball or two in their backwater backyard.
    I just wonder where the league’s pride is.
    An interesting sidenote – as this latest round of Beckham bluster has swirled across Our Little League, I’m seeing a notable uptick in the number of people rising to defend it. Folks who never really had patience for MLS and its creeping oddities are stepping up to say Beckham is wrong, and wouldn’t it be nice if he just caught the next high-fashion junket ride back to Milan?
    I include my own good self in that number.
    Beckham is wrong. Again.
    Don Garber should fine and suspend him, for the good of MLS just having any self-respect left at all.
    A single game will do it. I’m sure the Riot Squad will be happy not to have David Beckham for one more match.
    Onward!

    Guest

    Honduras – again

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    On the morning after the nightmare before, it’s crucially important to separate fact from fiction.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    Yes, the structure of the CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer tournament does favour the United States and Mexico. The mathematical irregularities of a three-group format, with eight teams advancing to the quarterfinals, make it inevitable two of those teams will have easier routes forward.
    That is not a conspiracy, folks. It’s no more out-of-line than letting two conference champions be the top seeds in the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, CFL or MLS playoffs.
    And there is no proof whatsoever that any one referee in any one game has been bought off to ensure a particular team does not advance.
    If you’re still stewing on either of those points, you’re having a tougher day today than you need to.
    That said:
    Once again, Canada has been slain at a major tournament. And for the third time in five years, horrendous officiating is at the heart of the demise. The fact that it’s Honduras – as it was in Edmonton in 2004, and Stade Saputo ten months ago (though that particular one was neither a loss nor the referee’s fault) …
    Well, it hurts and hurts a sore and awful lot.
    To review …
    - 2004 World Cup qualifying: In two separate matches against Honduras, three officiating gaffes gift the Hondurans an undeserved penalty kick, and rob Canada of a pair of earned and needed game-winning goals.
    The kill shot – fatal even though mathematical death did not come until two months later – was Mexican referee Benito Archundia’s dangerous-play call against Canadian striker Olivier Occean, even though the foot in question never got above waist-level, and was never even remotely near to the face of the Honduran defender who say seemingly dead on the Commonwealth Stadium turf for seven minutes.
    - 2007 Gold Cup: Canada seemingly nabs a late equalizer in the semifinal against the States. But scorer Atiba Hutchison is wrongly ruled offside, even though his run was perfect, and he was played cleanly through when the ball struck an American defender. The referee – once again – Benito Archundia.
    - 2009 Gold Cup: At least it was a different referee this time. Joel Aguilar or El Salvador etched his name in Canada’s collective backside late in the first half, when he called a penalty kick against Canuck defender Paul Stalteri for arm-hauling down Honduran striker Walter Martinez.
    No question Stalteri had a hand on him, and no question Martinez went down – making a bicycle kick at the Canadian goal! Stalteri didn’t drop him. He dropped himself, making a bold attacking move which – by necessity – ends up with the guy taking the shot flat on his blue blessed backside!
    Oh, and Martinez’s foot was vastly closer to Stalteri’s face than anything Occean did back in Edmonton in 2004.
    The correct call? You play advantage on Stalteri’s tug, letting Martinez shoot. You then flag Martinez for dangerous play. Even if the ref misses the dangerous play call, the most that happens is Honduras gets a corner kick.
    The penalty call is either a naïve mistake, or a volcanic, overhand screw job. Since I cannot prove anything more than mistake, that’s what I’m going with.
    To his slight credit, at least Aguilar wasn’t buying the sickening dive-and-die tactics. Hondurans were hitting the deck in appalling numbers, refusing to rise even after it was abundantly clear the ref wasn’t buying any of it. Canada was getting calls, in other words.
    But the one call they most needed – the one that hurt the most and was most utterly destructive – that one, they didn’t get.
    What’s the message folks? Three times in five years, however hard Canada has worked, however well they have overcome deep and daunting disadvantage, however far their pluck, luck and courage has carried them, utterly horrendous officiating calls have destroyed their entire campaigns.
    We already know CONCACAF has an allegedly corrupt leader, Jack Warner of Trinidad, whose shenanigans are tolerated because he heads a vast coalition of nations that keeps FIFA president and gaffe-o-matic Sepp Blatter in power. We also know Canada is a tiny soccer nation, even in comparison to El Salvador and Honduras, who routinely put thousands more fans in stadiums for national team games than we do.
    Sure, Canada got a big push from Warner to host the 2007 World Youth Cup, and we have BMO Field – and therefore Toronto FC – as a result. A similar push may soon land the women’s World Cup, as well. That tends to work against the anyone-but-Canada conspiracy claims – especially since Canada did actually win this self-same tournament as recently as 2000.
    No, I don’t believe there was any particular backroom agenda that got Paul Stalteri called for grab-and-slam in the penalty area yesterday.
    And there still remains the gnawing fact that Canada squandered a half-dozen corner kicks in the second half, and that while their overall possession was pretty good, they showed about as much useful movement away from the ball as your average Rocky Mountain.
    The penalty kick wasn’t, of itself, the only reason Canada lost. But I believe they had, at least, earned a grim, gritty 0-0 draw, and the right to try to save themselves in penalty kicks. Maybe that isn’t much, but bigger teams have won bigger prizes doing less than Canada did on the day.
    A very clear message was sent – intentional, or not:
    Do not expect a fair result. Do not expect to settle it fairly on the pitch. Sooner or later, The Call comes. And Canada will have no answer for The Call.
    It’s a dark and depressing day to love Canadian soccer, folks. Even though hard proof remains elusive, the illusion that CONCACAF is a fair game has been broken, battered, and ground into the turf by a referee’s heel spikes – once again.
    And one more happy time – it’s Honduras.
    Onward!

    Guest

    BMO Field brew-ha-ha

    By Guest, in Onward Soccer,

    So what happens if they hold a soccer match on the Toronto waterfront, and no one is allowed to overpay for beer?
    We’re all about to find out.
    Seems some over-stressed BMO Field beer jockey dealt froth to a teenager last season, and Ontario liquor laws must be appeased.
    [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
    The fans, of course, have known about this forever. They just didn’t know which game was going to be affected. Many had set up contingency plans, mostly involving an extra hour or two at the pub pre-game.
    Then, suddenly, it was announced the taps would be dry for – the Houston game. A one PM start! Precious little time for increased imbibing. Plus! Security is being increased for the match. Fans are being warned to get there early, because firewater-frisking will be the rule of the day.
    Ingenious fans won’t be troubled at all. Thems that wants to will always find a way to get a drink. But lesser intellectual lights will be caught and tossed out, and it won’t be pretty. That’s the kind of thing that can really fire up tensions in the south end – but without brewski to fuel the outrage, perhaps it all washes out.
    And you know what? As much as I’m a free enterprise guy, I just flat refuse to pay ten bucks for a beer. Okay, I’m working on game days, so it isn’t an issue – but unless it’s a Guinness draft in Ireland or a huge icy mug of German suds in Munich, no glass of beer is worth that anyway.
    A lot of money will be saved on Saturday – no doubt to immediately be spent at the city’s many soccer pubs as Canada kicks off against Honduras in the Gold Cup quarterfinals, just two hours after TFC and Houston get done kicking each other’s shins.
    Beer at BMO is most vital as a Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment revenue stream. The fans love it, but most will do just fine without.
    It’s just business, in other words.
    Look for some great, inspiring stories of TFC-fan ingenuity when it’s all over. The best “how I got a drink on Saturday” tale in the comments section below wins a busted vuvuzela and the fleeting admiration of dozens.
    Onward!

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