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Canadians in MLS 2016 Season


Gian-Luca

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Fraser Aird goes the full 90 for us in our 2-1 win over Portscum. He was up against Darren Mattocks who for all his lack of finish is one hell of a fast player. Handled it no problem. That and he cut in and took a left foot shot that was just wide but damn was that a hard screamer. For a RB to shoot like that with his left foot is really nice to see.

Mattocks is not a good player to judge Aird's defensive ability against but he did great. So we know he can keep up with very fast sprinters from Jamaica. That bodes well for CONCACAF competitions.

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Aird goes the full 90 in our 2-1 win over Chicago. I finally had some time to go over the stats for Aird. 30 out of 33 passes complete, 2 tackles won (none lost), 1 interception, 2 clearances, no shots.

He is improving at a very quick rate. One thing is that he does seem to lose concentration late in games. A lot if not most players do. They are exhausted by then. He hasn't had to face a tricky quality type player in a while just sprinters and they can't beat him.

I'm really looking forward to see how he handles Gio. Now that will be a test.

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On 12/5/2016 at 6:11 AM, TRM said:

Aird goes the full 90 in our 2-1 win over Chicago. I finally had some time to go over the stats for Aird. 30 out of 33 passes complete, 2 tackles won (none lost), 1 interception, 2 clearances, no shots.

He is improving at a very quick rate. One thing is that he does seem to lose concentration late in games. A lot if not most players do. They are exhausted by then. He hasn't had to face a tricky quality type player in a while just sprinters and they can't beat him.

I'm really looking forward to see how he handles Gio. Now that will be a test.

I agree, Aird has his defects in defence, but his learning curve, talent, enthusiasm, and upsides going forward, are all exciting. 

I don't watch TFC a lot but it seems Gio is more dangerous moving from the attacking midfield and not down the wings. He's for an agressive holding mid to hold, as I see it, with help from a back coming out or another mid. If Aird is on Gio I am going to be relaxed cause it means he's not in an obvious scoring position. 

Since the Whitecaps are a big fouling team, expect them to try to foul TFC out of the game. I predict a 1-1 with Caps playing with 10 men in the end.

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Damn, that must be a record of some sort. 5 Canadians on the field and 4 of them starters in one game? Fucken eh!!

Pity one got himself red carded (2 yellows) injuring another and taking us down to 3 but damn that was sweet. 4 starters, two for each team and all acquitted themselves in a most excellent fashion.

UT you were partially correct. We ended with 10 men. Second in the league in fouls committed. Got to fix that one but not by losing our aggressive defending.

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On 5/15/2016 at 9:55 PM, TRM said:

Damn, that must be a record of some sort. 5 Canadians on the field and 4 of them starters in one game? Fucken eh!!

Pity one got himself red carded (2 yellows) injuring another and taking us down to 3 but damn that was sweet. 4 starters, two for each team and all acquitted themselves in a most excellent fashion.

UT you were partially correct. We ended with 10 men. Second in the league in fouls committed. Got to fix that one but not by losing our aggressive defending.

6 assuming you mean on the field at any one point. Chapman and Babouli both subbed in

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56 minutes ago, Coramoor said:

6 assuming you mean on the field at any one point. Chapman and Babouli both subbed in

Yea 5 on at one time time was what I meant. Babouli came on at 38' for Altidore but went down to 3 after the 76 ' foul-injury with Aird-Osorio (get well soon). Chapman came on at 80' to bring it back up to 4.

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Johnson, Babouli & Chapman each play 90 (though Chapman was subbed out in the 91st minute occasionally clutching his thigh, suggesting now that he might be slightly injured) in a 1-1 draw with NYCFC. Johnson scored scored the goal with Babouli picking up an assist (on the first TFC goal this season that Giovinco didn't score or assist on). Morgan was left on the bench unfortunately, which is a shame since in a game like that, with NYCFC not threatening at all in the 2nd half, it would have been nice to have Morrow replaced by someone who can actually get the occasional cross into the box & has more speed. Morrow has been killing the Toronto attack down that side of the field the last two games.

Of the two young Canucks, I thought Babouli has the better game - he was occasionally guilty of trying too much but in addition to setting up the goal he hustles aggressively and whipped in at least three excellent, dangerous crosses that TFC did nothing with unfortunately.He was also never given "striker service". Chapman had an inconsistent game I felt - some good moments but also some poor ones. Mind you, I'm not sure how often he's played right mid before, but he wasn't as offensively aggressive as he was when he came on late against Vancouver. He had a couple of chances to score (one where he chose to pass instead of shooting), while Johnson missed a glorious chance to score a second early in the 2nd half.

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37 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Johnson missed a glorious chance to score a second early in the 2nd half.

Johnson had so much time on that shot. He should have put it away. Chapman looks great on the ball, similar to Bradley when in possession but does not have the motor Bradley has. Did contribute with some nice defensive takeaways. 

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50 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Johnson, Babouli & Chapman each play 90 (though Chapman was subbed out in the 91st minute occasionally clutching his thigh, suggesting now that he might be slightly injured) in a 1-1 draw with NYCFC. Johnson scored scored the goal with Babouli picking up an assist (on the first TFC goal this season that Giovinco didn't score or assist on). Morgan was left on the bench unfortunately, which is a shame since in a game like that, with NYCFC not threatening at all in the 2nd half, it would have been nice to have Morrow replaced by someone who can actually get the occasional cross into the box & has more speed. Morrow has been killing the Toronto attack down that side of the field the last two games.

Of the two young Canucks, I thought Babouli has the better game - he was occasionally guilty of trying too much but in addition to setting up the goal he hustles aggressively and whipped in at least three excellent, dangerous crosses that TFC did nothing with unfortunately.He was also never given "striker service". Chapman had an inconsistent game I felt - some good moments but also some poor ones. Mind you, I'm not sure how often he's played right mid before, but he wasn't as offensively aggressive as he was when he came on late against Vancouver. He had a couple of chances to score (one where he chose to pass instead of shooting), while Johnson missed a glorious chance to score a second early in the 2nd half.

Morrow was just awful period last night.  I haven't seen him play that bad in a TFC shirt so hopefully it's just a one-off but his body language was off from the start.  Within the first 10 minutes he seemed to still be at warm up pace as he gave the ball away, you could see it coming too because he was playing so lackadaisical.  He was also consistently out of position or beat down his side and when he got a chance to cross the service was beyond awful.  

Beitashour was at fault for the goal.  To let a guy get that much time/space on the edge of your box is unacceptable.

Babouli really seemed to grow in confidence as the game went on, he started really slow to the point where it looked like he might be a HT sub.  But then once he got that break down the right where he crossed into Giovinco he settled down a bit, made some really impressive dribbles 3-5 by my count and of course had a hand in the goal.

Chapman was okay as well, made some nice plays but still needs to work on his strength if he's going to be a regular.  

Vanney was awful as per usual with no faith in his bench and questionable decisions (or non-decisions).  Like, yes we need a goal let's wait until injury time so we can kill the clock... unbelievable.  I know Chapman might have picked up a knock but he should have been taken out a little bit earlier.. what's the use in giving Lovitz 30 seconds?  I'm not even a Lovitz fan but that's just ridiculous at home when you need a result.

The sad thing is that last night showed us that Bezbatchenko for the 3rd year in a row has failed to put together a proper squad.  We are missing ONE player up top (Altidore) and we have NO options after Babouli?  Bez KNEW going into this year that us losing Bradley, Altidore and Giovinco in the summer was all but guaranteed and we're already feeling the heat before it even hits.  Imagine how toothless the attack will be when we lose Giovinco?  We're not even in an injury/call-up 'crisis' yet and last night showed us how weak the bench is.

We need to bring in another forward... Simeon Jackson, Marcus Haber or Tos Ricketts would be decent signings to replace Altidore when he inevitably misses 3/4 of the season.  Actually the most ideal replacement for Altidore would be Occean but that's probably unrealistic.  

 

 

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The three players that played up front are all not very tall. Endo, Babouli and Giovinco. They probably need a different type of player to give the defenders a different look. Maybe give Hamilton a run up front to put more physical pressure on the defenders. He hasn't done much lately other than the CanM23 goal, but maybe a start with the first team will give him some confidence.

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10 minutes ago, shermanator said:

2016 MLS player salaries are out today: https://www.mlsplayers.org/images/May%2015,%202016%20Salary%20Information%20-%20By%20Club.pdf

Lots of Canadians on minimum salaries in MLS. A few surprises to me are Aird (51K) and Morgan (120K). Would have thought Aird was making more. Morgan is making a good chunk of change to see limited minutes.

Aird is probably making more but as it's a loan there were a few ways they could have twisted it for a lower cap hit.  I think it's something more Canadian clubs should look into to be honest.  For example if you look at TFC there Lovitz makes $63k, for that cap hit you could probably get a guy like Petrasso on loan.. someone who could really make a difference when you have depth issues.  

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As far as the TFC squad make up goes,, at least they shored up the back line.  Endoh, Babouli, Hamilton are all inexperienced, but hopefully 1 of them (a CDN cross your fingers) can step up when they get minutes while ALtidore takes half a season off.  I am really hoping they dont go out and get some gabage american journeyman up front to push the CDN players back down to TFC2 for another season.  Its really time for Hamiton to get some minutes and prove he deserves them.  I was really pleased with Babouli attacking down the wing and whipping in crosses yesterday and Chapman (he had alot more confidence and was unlucky not to score his first MLS goal).  

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15 minutes ago, Ruffian said:

A lot tied up in back-up CBs also:

TOR Simonin Clement D $ 63,000.00 $ 63,000.00
TOR Williams Josh D $ 131,250.00 $ 131,250.00
TOR Zavaleta Eriq F $ 110,000.00 $ 140,600.00
TOR Hagglund Nick D $ 63,000.00 $ 63,000.00

They have a lot of CBs, period, not to forget last year's first rounder Thomas at TFC2.  Not much bona fide positional versatility in any of them, either

(As an aside, for the true starting quality and positional versatility that Zach Loyd ably provides at Dallas, I'm surprised he doesn't make more money).

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1 hour ago, Ruffian said:

A lot tied up in back-up CBs also:

TOR Simonin Clement D $ 63,000.00 $ 63,000.00
TOR Williams Josh D $ 131,250.00 $ 131,250.00
TOR Zavaleta Eriq F $ 110,000.00 $ 140,600.00
TOR Hagglund Nick D $ 63,000.00 $ 63,000.00

You didn't even include Skylar Thomas. This was a clear problem with the roster from day 1. They need to ship out Zavaleta for an attacking piece, if anyone will take him. I'd be more loathe to give up Williams but if he's what they need to get rid of to bring a forward in, he's expendable as well.

I was also puzzled by the weird lack of energy TFC seemed to have last night. The whole team looked exhausted and uninterested.

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5 hours ago, Ruffian said:

Johnson had so much time on that shot. He should have put it away. Chapman looks great on the ball, similar to Bradley when in possession but does not have the motor Bradley has. 

I think he could match Bradley's drive as his confidence grows. He's improved no doubt. I blame his inconsistent game on TFC's horrible first half game plan, which was mostly Bradley's fault. Every chance Bradley got, he gutlessly opted to lob the ball up with the hope that Gio would meet it instead of building the play up through the back. It's like he didn't want the new guys involved with any of the build up play.

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42 minutes ago, Dub Narcotic said:

I'd be more loathe to give up Williams but if he's what they need to get rid of to bring a forward in, he's expendable as well.

I don't think Williams is a world beater (I still think he's a 2.0 Harden) but to me he's the clear number three CB at the club so I really doubt he'll be going anywhere.

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21 hours ago, Dub Narcotic said:

You didn't even include Skylar Thomas. This was a clear problem with the roster from day 1. They need to ship out Zavaleta for an attacking piece, if anyone will take him. I'd be more loathe to give up Williams but if he's what they need to get rid of to bring a forward in, he's expendable as well.

I was also puzzled by the weird lack of energy TFC seemed to have last night. The whole team looked exhausted and uninterested.

Not be a tinfoil hat wearer, but I think Zavaleta is one of Vanney's "boys" that won't get shipped out. He's Vanney's nephew and a connection to his Chivas era.

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