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Vancouver vs. TFC - Season opener


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I put my money on Whitecaps for this one based on the chemistry they already have and of course them being the home team. A draw would be good for TFC.

 

Edit: highly entertaining start of the game. Gotta love Kakuta Manneh, that is raw talent.

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TFC shuts down Whitecaps in 2nd half.  Jozy is a beast out there!    Gio was good in this game and he will only improve once he gets used to his new teammates and play more games on grass (Plastic turf was awful and made it hard to play the ball on ground).  

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I know this is obviously a biased message board, but could a Whitecaps fan tell me what Jordan Harvey offers that team? He looked like a mess out there. If he has games that bad you have to figure Adekugbe isn't far from starting.

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I know this is obviously a biased message board, but could a Whitecaps fan tell me what Jordan Harvey offers that team? He looked like a mess out there. If he has games that bad you have to figure Adekugbe isn't far from starting.

 

He's not Canadian, which is the important thing.

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I must say the quality has improved quite a bit. However, TFC and Vancouver are probably two of the better teams so I might have to reserve judgement until a I see a few more games.

 

On another note, how is Benoit Cheyrou not commanding DP money? The man must have been making at least $3 000 000 annually at Marseille. Was this a life style change move for him where he felt like he made enough money during his time in Ligue 1 and he decided to take a massive pay cut for a quiet place to retire? It is rare but some wealthy individuals/celebrities do retire in this region....probably due to our favourable estate tax laws compared to most States in USA. My friend said he remembered seeing Colonel Sanders living in Milton during the 1970s.

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You know, I was a big Harvey detractor a couple years ago...he ACTUALLY changed my mind many times last year with solid games.

 

That said...I hope he has more games like he did against TFC last night so that Adekugbe gets a look sooner rather than later as well.  Not biased at all right? lol

 

 

I must say the quality has improved quite a bit. However, TFC and Vancouver are probably two of the better teams so I might have to reserve judgement until a I see a few more games.

 

On another note, how is Benoit Cheyrou not commanding DP money? The man must have been making at least $3 000 000 annually at Marseille. Was this a life style change move for him where he felt like he made enough money during his time in Ligue 1 and he decided to take a massive pay cut for a quiet place to retire? It is rare but some wealthy individuals/celebrities do retire in this region....probably due to our favourable estate tax laws compared to most States in USA. My friend said he remembered seeing Colonel Sanders living in Milton during the 1970s.

 
I watched Dallas vs San Jose yesterday too, and I have to say, that game was pretty ugly with sloppy passing, nothing at all like what I watched with TFC vs Vancouver.
 
I'm going to reserve judgement on Cheyrou until I see him in more than one game, but he looked like someone that didn't work hard enough during the offseason.  That's happened before to European players, thinking they are coming to a much lower level and then being surprised at the work rate MLS defenders offer, if not the skill on the ball.  

That said, he's a definitely skilled player, a couple times he was moving on the ball and absolutely ripped a defender with good footwork yesterday.  You are right I as well was surprised to see him signed non DP status.  
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Only had a chance to watch a few minutes but the standard in this game was VERY high. I am so impressed by the quality that was displayed. 

 

Morales is so good it is scary. I really hope he gets another chance with Chile. They'd be dumb not to give him a second look. 

 

Cheyrou was fantastic as well. I am more excited about him than Giovinco. Also curious how the man comes in without a DP slot. Wonder how he never ever got called the into France squad during his career as well. He had multiple seasons during his time with Marseille where he made the Ligue 1 team of the year. Played lots of Champions League football too... 

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^^^^And how did TFC get his discovery rights? Or was it a situation where he said Toronto or bust?

To that last point, while it's going to be awesome watching TFC play attractive soccer and trounce the opposition, MLS' strange roster rules and allocation of players will slightly taint these victories for me. It just seems like the league did everything in its power to build us a great team....

The only silver lining is that it was at least done on MLSE's dime.

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Wonder how he never ever got called the into France squad during his career as well. He had multiple seasons during his time with Marseille where he made the Ligue 1 team of the year. Played lots of Champions League football too...

It is surprising especially considering France was absolutely abysmal 5-6 years ago.

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I've noticed a lot of Toronto/Montreal fans here underestimate the level of MLS as they only watch Toronto and Montreal play. The level of many other teams, especially in the western conference, has been pretty good for a few years now. TFC and Montreal, along with Chivas, have done quite a bit to hurt the league due to their bad front offices and poor squads bringing down the overall quality of the games. That looks like it's going to change this year, especially for Toronto.

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First half was great soccer both ways. Excellent action. TFC made some very effective adjustments at halftime and the Caps couldn't counter it. Their subs were not effective. Harvey? Bad night for him out there. Altidore? I don't know why he wasn't effective in the UK but he looked very good out there. 

 

I didn't realize you guys play the first 7 games away while renovations are done. If you can come away from those 7 games with 12 points you will have a very nice run of home games to finish the season. I think you might get more than 12 if you can play consistently like you did last night. Solid 90 for TFC but only a solid 45 from the Caps. 

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^^^^And how did TFC get his discovery rights? Or was it a situation where he said Toronto or bust?

To that last point, while it's going to be awesome watching TFC play attractive soccer and trounce the opposition, MLS' strange roster rules and allocation of players will slightly taint these victories for me. It just seems like the league did everything in its power to build us a great team....

The only silver lining is that it was at least done on MLSE's dime.

 

 

Each team has a discovery list.  TFC obviously put him on their list when they found he was interested ahead of any other MLS club.

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I enjoyed watching this match in person.  TFC were business-like in their second half performance and to me were full value for the win.  It seemed like Vancouver "shot their bolt" in the first half and then couldn't get momentum going to start the second half, when everything seemed pretty flat, almost like a "crash" once an energy drink wears off.  The winning goal came out of TFC capitalizing on the Caps' defensive lethargy during that time. 

 

I noticed that when Rosales is on the field, it gives the VWFC attack a few more dimensions/craft.  When he goes off (early season and he's not a 90 minute man anymore), Morales then becomes the sole focal point for having to provide the service for the attack.  For all his skill the Chilean had some pretty wayward passes in the second half and TFC made the tactical adjustments needed to counter the problems they had in the first half.  All three Caps' subs had no impact on the proceedings.

 

Giovinco is fun to watch and I think Osorio is going to learn a lot from the little Italian.  He made a nice play to elude Tiebert on the first goal.

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Giovinco's move around Laba was a true highlight. It is not often you hear the phrase "he just went right around Laba". Osorio and Teibert I thought played very well. Russell getting subbed out when he was 30 for 31 in passing and should have had an assist was a head scratcher for a lot of us. The reason Gershon gets played ahead of Russell is for physical situations. 3 fouls plus a yellow and not much more. 

 

I do hope some of Giovinco rubs off on Osario just like I hope some of Rosales rubs off on Russ. It's great that they get to play with players of that quality.

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Russell getting subbed out when he was 30 for 31 in passing and should have had an assist was a head scratcher for a lot of us.

 

 

At the start of the second half I felt that TFC were controlling the midfield situation and they scored their winner off of fairly uncontested midfield build up play, so I wasn't surprised to see a change in personnel in that area.  

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This game set a new television viewing record for an MLS game in Canada at 353,000, with 1.9 million tuning in for a portion of the game.  Pretty good considering the game was up against the Leafs and the Brier semis.

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