2016 Red Team Playoff Clinching Watch (aka Toronto FC 2016 MLS season thread)

[Free kick]

It would be disappointing if Ricketts ends up taking playing time away from someone like Hamilton.  

 

[Grizzly]

2 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

Like Oduro.  He's been in this league for 10 years and looks to have had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus.

Oduro has a lot more ball skill than Ricketts from what I have seen from the two, He is actually pretty good with the ball at his feet and a pretty decent passer as well. Oduro is really an underrated player especially as a winger. He gets a bad rap because he misses so many sitters when he plays striker (though he always seems to score a decent amount too) but apart from poor finishing he is a pretty good player beyond just the speed. Ricketts seems to be a lot more limited to being a hard working guy who is fast but really lacking technical ability. That is not to say he won't be able to play in MLS but I see him as a bench player at most unless he turns out to be a good defender. If Oduro were Canadian he would be a clear choice for the national team above Ricketts.

[Yohan]

5 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Oduro has a lot more ball skill than Ricketts from what I have seen from the two, He is actually pretty good with the ball at his feet and a pretty decent passer as well. Oduro is really an underrated player especially as a winger. He gets a bad rap because he misses so many sitters when he plays striker (though he always seems to score a decent amount too) but apart from poor finishing he is a pretty good player beyond just the speed. Ricketts seems to be a lot more limited to being a hard working guy who is fast but really lacking technical ability. That is not to say he won't be able to play in MLS but I see him as a bench player at most unless he turns out to be a good defender. If Oduro were Canadian he would be a clear choice for the national team above Ricketts.

I remember one TFC vs SKC couple of years ago when Oduro absolutely torched SKC left side so badly that Vermes had to sub out Sinovic.

Inconsistently has always been Oduro's problem. 

[Yohan]

7 hours ago, Free kick said:

It would be disappointing if Ricketts ends up taking playing time away from someone like Hamilton.  

 

Well Ricketts sure isn't going to take mins away from Giovinco. lulz

With Altidore coming back from injury, Ricketts looks to be a sub off the bench

[BearcatSA]

9 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Ricketts seems to be a lot more limited to being a hard working guy who is fast but really lacking technical ability.

That's pretty much it, no disagreement there.  As a more central attacker his first touch inconsistency really limits him when dealing with a competent CB and defensive mid support.  However, as a wing player in a three man forward line I think he would do much better:  gets a bit more real estate to offset the technical issues and room to run at guys, while his work ethic plays well into team defensive support.

[Free kick]

8 hours ago, Yohan said:

Well Ricketts sure isn't going to take mins away from Giovinco. lulz

With Altidore coming back from injury, Ricketts looks to be a sub off the bench

My quote and comment was posted before knowing that Altidore was coming back from injury today.

[Trillium]

Trillium Cup this Saturday in Toronto.....

2016 Results so far:

 

 

2016		1–1	BMO Field	May 21, 2016	0	0	[9]
			MAPFRE Stadium	July 13, 2016	1	1
			BMO Field	July 31, 2016

 

So in two games ... two ties, in Trillium Cup play. 

TFC in it's first year of the new "Playoff Clinching Watch" the winner of the game tomorrow gets the Trillium Cup and 3 critical points in the race to playoffs, a loss to Columbus and good bye hardware and perhaps goodbye playoffs, a win is critical to keeping pace in the standings even with two games currently in hand. 

Will Vanney get his team hitting on all cylinders tomorrow or will TFC revert to the norm in Trillium Cup games and tie or lose to the Crew who are seven points behind a sixth place playoff spot, they will certainly be hoping for win on the road after three ties in a row ...TFC has one tie, one win, one loss and one win in the last three....Vanney might be wishing for one or two of Gio's hat trick goals come the final 20 minutes of the game on what should be hot humid night.

TFC with 27 points after 20 ( 60 points ) games has earned .45% of available points in games played.

TFC has 14 games left ( 42 points ), if they garner .45% of available points ... they get 19 points for a total of 41 points at season end... not enough for the playoffs. 

In 2015 somewhere above 44 points were needed to be in sixth place, TFC had 49. Looking at 2016 results we can predict TFC needs to get 22 points in the next 14 games to match the clubs most magical year. to get 18 points ...to reach 45 points and a hope for sixth, which means winning .45% of remaining points.

 

Remaining game predictions:

 

Jul 31

Toronto FC

vs

Columbus Crew TIE

 

Aug 3

Toronto FC

vs7:00 PM

Real Salt Lake TIE

 

Aug 6

Toronto FC

vs7:30 PM

New England WIN

 

Aug 13

Houston Dynamo

vs9:00 PM

Toronto FC WIN, ( a must win on the road vs lowest in the west )

 

Aug 20

Philadelphia

vs7:00 PM

Toronto FC LOSS

 

Aug 24

Orlando City

vs7:30 PM

Toronto FCLOSS ( TFC lost to Orlando earlier this season )

 

Aug 27

Toronto FC

vs7:30 PM

Montreal Impact LOSS ( Drogba motivated to win golden boot leads Impact to an away win )

 

Sep 10

Chicago Fire

vs8:30 PM

Toronto FC WIN ( but can Chicago stay horrible all year ? )

 

Sep 18

Toronto FC

vs7:00 PM

New York LOSS ( NYC will be in top form )

 

Sep 24

Toronto FC

vs5:00 PM

Philadelphia LOSS ( Philly showing they are real this year Son's of Ben turn up big time in stadia )

 

Sep 28

Toronto FC

vs7:30 PM

Orlando City  Tie ( After two games lost at home in previous weeks TFC demoralized gets a tie )

 

Oct 1

Toronto FC

vs7:30 PM

D.C. United LOSS ( DC United fighting for 3 points puts it all out on a torn up pitch Gio negated)

 

Rightly or wrongly I think TFC gets 12 points out of remaining 42 points on offer. 

 

For real TFC fans looking at the numbers and the individual games to go, will help to understand the difficulty TFC face, the predicted LOST games above have to be converted to wins, the TIE games need conversion to wins, when you read through can you make arguments why a predicted LOSS or TIE is a wrong prediction and a win is assured ?

[jpg75]

8 home games and 4 away. If you think they're getting only 12 points you're mistaken.

[Trillium]

14 hours ago, jpg75 said:

8 home games and 4 away. If you think they're getting only 12 points you're mistaken.

If I am mistaken .... the proof has to begin with a win versus Columbus.

What you need to look at is the eight home games and ask yourself ... which one's can TFC certify as win with the current battered line up, three loss run at home with some of the TFC DP's out of action surely puts huge pressure on the squad in the remaining five home games. Teams in pressured positions week after week often drop games they logically could have won, even negating the TFC historical record as an influencer leaves you with a tough road to hoe.

Gio has shown he cannot carry the full weight of TFC fan expectations on his own, someone needs to get him the ball in scoring area's or someone needs to be in place to take balls he passes and convert to goals in the net. Altidore is back but likely not for 90 minutes...can Hamilton fill in or Babouli in terms of delivering ball to Altidore let alone Gio ? Should be fun to watch.

[shermanator]

This is nice to read! Good on Hamilton making it tough for Altidore to get back his starting spot after returning from injury.

 

[Gian-Luca]

Looks like Cheyrou is now injured as he is not dressed for TFC tonight against Columbus. Bad news for a very busy week (3 games in 6 days) as he has been the TFC MVP the last two months and neither Bradley or Johnson are back yet. Delgado will play in his spot tonight, the fourth-string choice for that spot. Chapman, Osorio and Hamilton to start with Ricketts and Babouli on the bench

[Gian-Luca]

Altidore came into tonight's warm up late and then before the warm up ended walked off the field with a trainer into the dressing room....

[jpg75]

TFC def. Columbus 3-0 to claim the Trollium Cup.

We now move into a tie with Montreal for 3rd place in the East. NYCFC are within sight, 6 points ahead but TFC have 2 games in hand.

[Gian-Luca]

Altidore must have been getting treatment for something because he wasn't on the bench for the first 37 minutes, then did his own warm up on the sidelines before he finally came on

As such, I get the feeling that on Wednesday we'll still see Hamilton (despite not doing too much in his 57 minutes today) start or perhaps Ricketts or Babouli (neither of whom played today) for some squad rotation as I don't think Altidore is close to being able to play most of a match & they are obviously being extra careful with him.

 

[matty]

#EndohMLSGoaloftheYear

[Bison44]

I liked how Endoh explained the goal at half time interview...a little payback for Gio though....keep yelling at Delgado and Endoh and they'll take credit for your goals.  

Chapman had another good game, and Osorio created more chances than usual.  That young midfield played pretty damn good (against the poor old crew).  If I was Bradley/Johnson/Cheryou I would be wondering if my spot for next year was safe.  I feel bad for Q though.  He isnt getting any playing time, and by rights could have gotten a nice 6-7 game run with TFC2 but now hes stapled to the bench.  Maybe he'll get the midweek game as part of a squad rotation exercise.  

[Free kick]

43 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

I liked how Endoh explained the goal at half time interview...a little payback for Gio though....keep yelling at Delgado and Endoh and they'll take credit for your goals.  

Chapman had another good game, and Osorio created more chances than usual.  That young midfield played pretty damn good (against the poor old crew).  If I was Bradley/Johnson/Cheryou I would be wondering if my spot for next year was safe.  I feel bad for Q though.  He isnt getting any playing time, and by rights could have gotten a nice 6-7 game run with TFC2 but now hes stapled to the bench.  Maybe he'll get the midweek game as part of a squad rotation exercise.  

You gotta be impressed with this year's squad. Its been decimated by injuries for over a month ( add to that the commitments to international matches) and they haven't been able to field their full team for over two months.  They have managed to keep their heads above water with players like Chapman, Hamilton, Baboulli, Delgado and Endoh. These are all rookies or sophomores (Delgado).  And they have even managed to win the V-cup.  Yes, Cheryou has been great all along since his arrival last year but even he wasnt there tonight. Beithshor has been solid along with the whole back line. 

The constant of course is Giovinco but even he went into a scoring slump for a while there.   With all the home games ahead and return to a full squad, things look promising until the end of the regular season. 

[Yohan]

I'm going to enjoy Trillium eating some crow

[jpg75]

TFC beat RSL 1-0 off Ricketts' first MLS goal tonight. The club is riding the karmic wave from Trilliums' trolling and are now in 2nd place in the East only 3 points behind NYCFC with a game in hand. LOL!!!

[jpg75]

Noticed some idiots set off a smoke bomb behind the TFC goal in the 80th+ minutes of the match. Seriously guys, it's your own end! Your goalie might be affected by the smoke and you could cost your team a result. WTF is wrong with some of these "supporters"?

[Dub Narcotic]

Impressive they are doing this with literally their entire starting midfield injured.

[rob.notenboom]

On ‎2016‎-‎07‎-‎30 at 11:09 AM, Trillium said:

Teams in pressured positions week after week often drop games they logically could have won, even negating the TFC historical record as an influencer leaves you with a tough road to hoe.

How do teams on a roll perform?

And 'road to hoe'?

[Free kick]

Just got back from the game.   This a game that TFC (aka Red Team) probably should not have won.  But the fact that they did is encouraging.   RSL controlled the midfield for most of the game and especially in the first half.   Compounding that problem was the fact that there were no mf subs available on the bench, TFC was restricted to playing a direct style and relying on the counter attack (ie.: bypassing or playing balls over the MF).  Not something that they are accustomed to under Vanney. 

It showed today what it means to not have a Cheryou or bradley or Johnson in there.  Ricketts scored the kind if goal that you expect him to score. A goal that was all about his speed.  Good result, but its time for some of the injured players to come back. 

[shermanator]

2 hours ago, jpg75 said:

TFC beat RSL 1-0 off Ricketts' first MLS goal tonight. The club is riding the karmic wave from Trilliums' trolling and are now in 2nd place in the East only 3 points behind NYCFC with a game in hand. LOL!!!

TFC are clearly proving that my trolling > Trillium's trolling.

[El Hombre]

10 hours ago, rob.notenboom said:

How do teams on a roll perform?

And 'road to hoe'?

In Ontario it's common to hoe roads.  People call it "urban gardening".  Really big with the hipsters (ie. Trillium).  Doesn't usually work too well if done by an amateur, but professional road hoe-ers can yield bumper crops of gravel berries, asphalt beans and concrete arugula.