tmcmurph Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:30pm ET Well I hate to jump the gun and write off the season but the 4 wild card slots are looking pretty grim Dallas 40 in 22 (# points in # of games) Colorado 34 in 22 San Jose 32 in 21 Seattle 32 in 23 Kansas 27 in 22 Toronto 27 in 22 Chicago 25 in 20 A draw in Chicago keeps your playoff hopes alive but you really need a win and the full 3 points. With 2 games in hand on you Chicago going to bump you down another slot if you lose and you can't afford that. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgnewf Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 My server for my blog is down so I wanted to get my pre game thoughts out before game time, plus some thoughts on the discussion here about season tickets for 2011. TFC v Chicago Pre Game + Season Ticket Angst TFC v Fire On one of the TFC fan message boards I posted earlier this week, with some disagreeing with my assessment, that the game this evening away against Chicago is nothing less than a must win. I stated in my post that I felt that for Toronto to have any hope for the playoffs it could not allow itself to not only lose ground to a club with games in hand but having yet another club to climb past for the playoffs would only make the situation they re in even worse. 40 points gets a club into the playoffs last season but with the additional team this year in Philadelphia and with the points teams ahead of us have accumulated already I think it'll be 42-43 points needed to get into the post season in 2010. So let’s say 42 gets you in. Toronto FC has 27 today. That's 15 points needed with eight games remaining. Three wins at home are of course a necessity (assuming we can beat Columbus, DC and San Jose). I don’t think we will beat the Columbus Crew, we never have, so perhaps a draw at home is all we can hope for there. That means that three wins on the road is what is required. And Chicago is one of the clubs TFC can really put the sword to with a win. A loss means TFC will be going into the weekend five points out of the last playoff spot and they will be looking up at Chicago who will still have a game in hand. A loss means of course that TFC drops into 11th place. No matter how you cut it this game tonight is an absolute must win. And there are some reasons for optimism. Maicon Santos may factor into the mix this evening. He was rounding nicely into shape before his injury a few weeks ago and his ability to play well with Mista was leading to both players getting offensive chances. Ty Harden has frankly been a revelation at the back since Nana Attakora was away with Team Canada and suspension for the past two games. His emergence gives Preki the chance to not only perhaps go with a more offensive tactical approach but also keep gaffe prone Nick Garcia off the pitch. Maybe we might see Attakora play fullback tonight along with Usanov. The effort in Dallas which fell a little short was definitely something to build upon. With De Rosario, de Guzman and the aforementioned Attakora back in the mix the only significant loss this evening is midfielder Martin Saric suspended due to yellow card accumulation. Now it all comes down to Preki. He needs to set up the club properly to give it a chance to win the game. Toronto has never won in Chicago. In three previous trips the Reds have drawn once and lost twice. Earlier this season at home Toronto demolished the Fire 4-1. We will see I guess later tonight if the playoffs are either a possibility or a pipe dream. MLS Cup and TFC Season Tickets for 2011 I have been reading the following thread on the Red Patch Boys web site with great interest today, as I think it captures very well a lot of the angst among supporters of Toronto FC about their upcoming season ticket renewals for 2011 and the lack of information to date about tickets for the MLS Cup Final at BMO Field on November 21st. I urge you all to take a look at the thread here: http://64.13.252.151/forums/showthread.php?t=24454 With just over ten weeks to go before the Cup Final is held here in Toronto, to date there has been no news whatsoever from the club about the ticketing information for the game. And the general fan consensus appears to be that with the annual 2011 season ticket renewal campaign upcoming soon there is likely to be some arrangement made whereby if fans renew their seats for 2011, they will have the option to purchase MLS Cup tickets first. With the strong possibility that Toronto will for the fourth season in a row not be able to reward fans with playoff soccer there is a possibility that Toronto FC may see for the first time a big drop off in season ticket renewals. And there is definitely anecdotal information out there to back this up. In each season so far in their history there have been season ticket price hikes that average about 15% across the board. And it would not be surprising if that continues, even though it would be a serious error on the part of the club if they think that it should business as usual. One of the posters on the Red Patch Boys (well done Mikey!) took it upon himself to take a look at where the prices for the most expensive TFC season tickets compare to some of the top teams in the English Premier League to try and provide some context as to where TFC prices its product. Here is what he came up with: Manchester United: $1,494.37 Newcastle: $1,564.99 Chelsea: $1,942.20 Tottenham: $2,720.68 Arsenal: $2,929.35 Toronto: $3,439.00 Are you as surprised as I am to see these figures? And these sums are all in Canadian dollars! So for a club that has yet to get into the post season in their history their top ticket is $1,500 more than what my Gunners charge their fans in north London to see Premiership soccer. These numbers shocked me when I saw them and they again back up the anecdotal evidence out there that at the higher price points Toronto may indeed have some problems for the first time in their history filling their building in 2011. Many fans are saying they will be only renewing if there is a change of leadership at the club that sees Mo Johnston fired. Others are saying they will only renew if they can obtain cheaper seats next year. Fans are reporting that scalpers are having a harder and harder time getting rid of their seats on game days. Some of the more committed fans, who spend large sums on merchandise, road trips, and displays/tifos within the ground feel that another increase would be something simply put that could not be justified and if price increases take place some of them may simply walk away. Driving away even a few of your most committed ardent fans who add so much to the game day experience in the stadium would be a huge error. The bottom line for me is this. With a few glaring exceptions, Toronto FC has made few significant mistakes that have seen them totally read their fan base wrong in their short history. Another significant price increase considering the continuing problems on the field would be arguably the biggest mistake they have ever made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted September 8, 2010 Author Share Posted September 8, 2010 More than EPL top clubs? Ouch. That is truly shocking but not out of character for MLSE. Nice writeup by the way. Don't Chicago have 2 games in hand on TFC? According to MLS they do which makes it all the more important to grab points tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Very good analysis and good to pick up that price comparison. The problem though is the size of BMO, it simply does not allow for a more sharply tiered price structure. You would need quite a bit more seats to do that, have a family priced section or sections that were NOT in the supporter group end zones, lower prices in these places. Of course they could do it as a policy, as a matter of principle, but do not. That would mean apparent income loss. Instead they are working like exclusive pro teams (like the NBA) that have only upper middle class fans and who do not go to games with the family. TFC needs to keep pushing to increase the size of BMO to be able to keep prices down, selling more but not more expensively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 Well, those prices are going to be misleading as the Canadian dollar has become significantly stronger in relation to the British pound recently - far stronger than the historical average. Typically it's about $2 per GBP, these days it's more like $1.60. The TFC prices are still pretty ****ing high, but if this guy was using the current exchange rate it's skewing the numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted September 8, 2010 Share Posted September 8, 2010 One thing TFC does do is keep the price of the cheap seats ($323) relatively low in price. Looking at ManU's ST prices the cheapest is 513GBP, that's $820 at todays exchange and roughly $1026 at traditional exchange rate. Perhaps someone should get some data on the price of the lowest ticket prices and median ticket prices and see what comes out... http://www.torontofc.ca/season-seat-renewal http://www.manutd.com/pdf/Season_Ticket_waiting_list_booklet.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dyslexic nam Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Two handballs, no penalties. Frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesW Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Not sure about that last handball, but that first one should have defiantly been given as a PK. Hard luck for Toronto and without Mista/Micon/Barret, they don't look likely to score during open play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dyslexic nam Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I'm watching the feed online - it is a raw feed so you can hear everyone talking during breaks. Funny hearing the conversations... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesW Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 I love these web feeds with open mics during the half. Dobson: "Hello. Craig has just gone to tinkle." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKottonmouthed1555362307 Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 They need these 3 points, so bad. It's a joke they missed that handball that was so blatant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dyslexic nam Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Man Gerry gets a lot of names wrong. He just confused Collins John (Chicago) with Santos (TFC). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dyslexic nam Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 We're cooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackTheBlizzard Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Did enough to keep hope alive but really needed three points tonight. Six points pretty much a must now from the DC United and San Jose games at BMO field this month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 This team needs Chad Barrett, what's going on with him? Still injured? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted September 9, 2010 Author Share Posted September 9, 2010 Did enough to keep hope alive but really needed three points tonight. Six points pretty much a must now from the DC United and San Jose games at BMO field this month. I'm not dead yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Wow Preki was not happy to have the camera in his face after the 2nd handball...! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackTheBlizzard Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Definitely a long shot now but unexpected runs of form can happen in MLS due to the competitive parity and relative lack of roster depth. FC Dallas almost made the playoffs last years after winning five of their last seven games, a run of form that very few people saw coming, and I seriously doubt that anyone would have rated RSL as a contender to win MLS Cup after they were beaten by 1-0 by TFC at BMO Field in the second last game of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreverthursday Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Definitely a long shot now but unexpected runs of form can happen in MLS due to the competitive parity and relative lack of roster depth. FC Dallas almost made the playoffs last years after winning five of their last seven games, a run of form that very few people saw coming, and I seriously doubt that anyone would have rated RSL as a contender to win MLS Cup after they were beaten by 1-0 by TFC at BMO Field in the second last game of the season. Isn't that part of what makes soccer "the beautiful game?" Not expecting an outcome that you thought for sure should be? No one thought the Kiwis had a prayer, but they played very well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadasBest Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 It's also about good runs of form. New Zealand played really well in the lead-up to the World Cup with a few upsets. I had picked them to go through the group stage which was a little bit too optimistic. With Toronto they seem to be in the same rut they were at this time last season. Loyola mentioned Chad Barrett who is an important absense from the team. O'Brian White is just terrible in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BringBackTheBlizzard Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Maicon Santos would probably be the main hope right now rather than Chad Barrett. Looked quite good immediately prior to his injury in the Chivas game a month ago and finally playing again in the second half against the Fire. De Rosario returning to early season form would also help obviously. With the exception of the 1-4 New York game the team has been competitive in all of the recent games so one of the strikers rediscovering the way to goal is very much the missing ingredient right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intim0dating Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 White is just so ineffective. I know the last couple games he has been working harder, but that is simply not going to cut it. He is way too passive for this league. He is sluggish and slow; very painful to watch. Pretty frustrating game, lots of whistles and surprised about the handballs in the first half. Should have at least given one of them, just brutal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Hombre Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Not sure about that last handball, but that first one should have defiantly been given as a PK. Hard luck for Toronto and without Mista/Micon/Barret, they don't look likely to score during open play. Based on the calls that went againt Wynne last year, I think it isn't unreasonable to expect both being called. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruud Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Did anyone watch the game on-line last night? During Commercials, you can hear the sportsnet team setting up for the next segment - its hilarious - Gerry and Craig were makin fun of all the retired jerseys in the park - with one of them joking that Mo would soon have his kit on the wall of fame...and then Craig mentioning that Toronto has never looked like scoring, and even a remark about the Nats in Montreal - "how long will it take to put two wins together". Anyways, it was the best commentary I heard all night - cause Forest must be being paid for not being overly critical - so instead he says almost nothing... One comment I recall that seemed somewhat positive was "DeRo rushed back to support our defense who were caught up after a corner kick. Otherwise my brothers - that was an awful game...I agree with everything James said today in the G&M - poor advertisement for MLS. Ljunberg was terrible and we just looked tired. Outside of Frei, I would say that Attakora looks like he's the most polished guy on the pitch. The rest just look happy to be there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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