TFC 2018

[Ruffian]

This clip shows it all.

 

[Gian-Luca]

Yeah, if someone can tell me what Bradley is doing on that play, I would be interested to know. Physically and/or mentally that is not the Bradley we have been accustomed to, nearly every game he is at fault for a goal against these days and he plays 90 minutes every single game and has during this whole stretch of play. He never gets subbed off or rested in favour of Fraser , barring when he was playing 90 mid week in the CCL.

[Ruffian]

Bradley at least was behind the ball for most of the play. Vasquez should have at least tried to prevent the first pass and slow the transition. Also in the background Osorio is doing the fake run, like when a player is getting subbed while leading by 1.

[Club Linesman]

When Champions league ended and we were well under the playoff line, I was not concerned. I also thought that there would be no CCL hangover.

But after watching some of the recent games making the playoffs is starting to become unlikely.  Previous posters were right in pointing out that many of the most important players are over 30 and perhaps the CCL did have an impact.  If somehow we make it to the post season I wouldn’t want to be our opponent as TFC could gear up and do some damage knowing there were only a few games left.

[Gian-Luca]

1 hour ago, Ruffian said:

Bradley at least was behind the ball for most of the play. Vasquez should have at least tried to prevent the first pass and slow the transition. Also in the background Osorio is doing the fake run, like when a player is getting subbed while leading by 1.

Vazquez was gassed at that point as well and they were already waiting to sub him off - he's one of the two players that slumps to the ground when the pass is missed & you can see Ricketts already waiting on the sidelines to come on the field & replace him as the play goes down the field. Bradley  is just a passenger on that play, casually jogging alongside Morales and neither covering the man that the ball will be passed to nor attempting to confront the player with the ball or cutting out the passing lane to the player in question. He doesn't seem to wake up until after the ball is passed and by then it is too late (and Hagglund might have done better being able to cut out the pass). All in all that was a ridiculously-easy goal for NYCFC to score, just jog down the field and pass it into the net.

 

[Bison44]

Put Mino on waivers...is this a move to open up some cap space for another signing.  I thought he was a spark plug for TFC2 (USL level).  

https://www.torontofc.ca/post/2018/06/30/toronto-fc-place-mi-o-waivers 

[Gian-Luca]

1 hour ago, Bison44 said:

Put Mino on waivers...is this a move to open up some cap space for another signing.  I thought he was a spark plug for TFC2 (USL level).  

https://www.torontofc.ca/post/2018/06/30/toronto-fc-place-mi-o-waivers 

That would be my guess......somebody must be coming in (my guess is a CB). He made the bench the last 4-5 games for the first team so I didn’t see this coming.

[BearcatSA]

How much cap space did Mino take up? 

[jpg75]

23 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

How much cap space did Mino take up? 

Probably not much, but i assume TFC still have a bunch of TAM.

[Bison44]

Maybe the international spot is the key then because he would be on minimum salary, 55g i think.  Havnt heard any rumors about some big CB coming in.  

[Gian-Luca]

Hamilton and Osorio to start for TFC against NYRB, Ricketts, Chapman, Morgan, Telfer, and Fraser on the bench. No Vazquez, Auro, or Van Der Wiel dressed for TFC, in addition to the other 3 starters out. Back three of Hagglund, Zavaleta and Hernandez against the NYRB press, a recipe for disaster IMO 

[Club Linesman]

Had four great chances and scored none of them including a Giovinco pk.  Our vaunted depth only exists when we have our starters available and the backups are on the bench.  Delgado shouldn’t play again this year.  Bono lets in a howler.  Bradley is gassed. And Hernandez isn’t MLS back up caliber anymore.  Vanney isn’t the puppet master I thought he was. Barring a return for the rest of the year of Mavinga, Vasquez, Altidore, Auro, Van Der Wiel we are done.  Guess we can focus on the Canadian Championship and give the Concacaf Championship another run next year.

[Soccerpro]

It's clear that this team was reliant on altidore to do everything.

its also clear by looking at body language that some TFC players have given up.

[Stryker911]

Can someone else please start taking pks?

[rkomar]

I'm sure that his contract is weighing on Giovinco.  He needs to score more goals.  That's why he takes pks , even if his mind is in the wrong place.  The team needs to break him out of his desperation, and back into his happy place.

[Bison44]

His happy place involves Altidore doing a lot of the work up front, opening up space for him to operate in.  He has always been streaky, he'll get back to scoring again. 

But its the managers job to get the most out of his guys.  Bradley doesnt seem to be rejuvenated by the break, Nothing seems to be klicking and time is running out.  I dont know what the answer is but he better figure out something that will work.  Golden boy, manager of the year, best MLS team ever to not making the playoffs wont look good on his resume when he is looking for his next job.

[rkomar]

Harsh, but probably valid.  There's a lot of bad luck involved this year.  The real job is figuring out what needs to be changed and what doesn't.

[Club Linesman]

9 hours ago, rkomar said:

I'm sure that his contract is weighing on Giovinco.  He needs to score more goals.  That's why he takes pks , even if his mind is in the wrong place.  The team needs to break him out of his desperation, and back into his happy place.

Unfortunately he is demonstrating that he isn’t worth 6 or 7 million a year going forward in his current form and as he is getting older doubt TFC will pay him that kind of cash.  Will be interesting to say the least.  Then we need to figure out where an aging Bradley fits in.  

[grasshopper1917]

On 7/1/2018 at 8:12 PM, Club Linesman said:

.  Guess we can focus on the Canadian Championship and give the Concacaf Championship another run next year.

At this point after seeing what happened this year - would they even want to give Concacaf another try? 

[Club Linesman]

Without a doubt. First MLS team to win CCL.  Trophy case has a spot open. Don’t think they will rest until they win it and if the league crushes us then so be it.

[grasshopper1917]

19 hours ago, Club Linesman said:

Without a doubt. First MLS team to win CCL.  Trophy case has a spot open. Don’t think they will rest until they win it and if the league crushes us then so be it.

Well I'm not sure if the management of the team would see it exactly that way. If they continue to get crushed in league (which most fans at BMO field know and care about) attendance will drop. For instance June 23 game against DC only barely drew 23,000. 

Most people pay very little attention to the Canadian Championship or the early rounds of CCL as attendance to these matches is abysmal. Sure if a club in NA makes it deep in the CCL they may get a good gate in the Semi-Final or Final. However the most casual fans follow the league play closest and generally care less about CCL and even less about the Canadian Championship. 

[Club Linesman]

Thought I read management was who wanted the CCL.  Pretty sure they didn’t think we would suck this badly in the league and maybe they would change their minds knowing how badly the season went. For what it is worth the DC game was a midweek redo for a cancelled game during the CCL run so 23000 was not bad. And playing a legitimate game against Real Madrid would pay off in a number of ways!

[red card]

53 minutes ago, grasshopper1917 said:

 

Most people pay very little attention to the Canadian Championship or the early rounds of CCL as attendance to these matches is abysmal. Sure if a club in NA makes it deep in the CCL they may get a good gate in the Semi-Final or Final. However the most casual fans follow the league play closest and generally care less about CCL and even less about the Canadian Championship. 

That is more of a function of casual fans not understanding how soccer leagues work vs North American pro leagues. With the deep runs from Montreal & TFC, there is a growing appreciation of the Cdn Championship & CCL beyond the supporter groups. It will take more time to match MLS attendance but CCL tv ratings hit 1 million plus for TFC's 2nd leg match in Mexico even though it was the night when Leafs & Raps were playing playoff games and a Jays game was on.

Also MLS game attendance gets a boost because the MLS game schedule is well known in advance and part of a season ticket package. Cdn Championship and CCL are sometimes part of the package and often times not. 

The post CCL downfall shows TFC needs to build more depth. But with the salary cap in place, they'll need to have more academy players ready to be starters rather than just a good sub.

[Keegan]

5 minutes ago, grasshopper1917 said:

Well I'm not sure if the management of the team would see it exactly that way. If they continue to get crushed in league (which most fans at BMO field know and care about) attendance will drop. For instance June 23 game against DC only barely drew 23,000. 

Most people pay very little attention to the Canadian Championship or the early rounds of CCL as attendance to these matches is abysmal. Sure if a club in NA makes it deep in the CCL they may get a good gate in the Semi-Final or Final. However the most casual fans follow the league play closest and generally care less about CCL and even less about the Canadian Championship. 

TFC had no trouble drawing to the final last year, about 800 behind their MLS average.  

Vanney was growing on me as a guy who was versatile in the CCL but he's given that up and he's sticking to the versatility that worked for him.. if that makes any sense.  We need a shake up for sure.. hopefully a signing or two and one or two guys shipped out to send a message.  

I don't think I've ever seen a player miss as many penalties as Giovinco - time to have someone else step up because it's costing us points.  

 

[Free kick]

On 7/2/2018 at 10:37 AM, Club Linesman said:

Unfortunately he is demonstrating that he isn’t worth 6 or 7 million a year going forward in his current form and as he is getting older doubt TFC will pay him that kind of cash.  Will be interesting to say the least.  Then we need to figure out where an aging Bradley fits in.  

Yes. This is why i had to roll my eye in frustration when hearing of certain group protesting the fact Giovinco wasnt yet re-signed.    There is reason why there are people who get paid to make these kind of decisions (ie.; how much to pay a player ).   They have consider, perfomance, age, progression, team chemistry....etc etc etc. 

Dont get me wrong,  Giovinco is still one the best players in the league. Maybe even the best. And, he will continue to be, at worst, a very good player in MLS in one or two years from now.    But he is not today what he was two years ago.  So the question is, do you want to pay him like the best player in MLS?  Or do you want to pay him what he worth today and will be worth in two years.   Soccer players, over the age of thirty, decline very quickly;  especially Attacking players.  You see this in europe with the transfer dollars and how a players age factors into it.   Plus, he takes a pounding.  

Long in short of it,  we definitely over rated the depth on this squad.  But its not just that, its also that the play of the top players on the teams has dropped slightly.  For example,  Vasquez is still pretty good, but he was awesome last year.  Same could be said from Bradley and Giovinco.  It shows you the fine line between winning trophies and missing the playoffs.   Soccer is a lot like basketball, isnt it?  you will go as far as your top talent will take you and if the top talent is awsome, then it will make everybody else look good.