TFC 2018

[Bison44]

Depth is still good.  But when you take out #1 striker, the top 3 defenders, and your best offensive midfielder for extended periods, there isnt a lot that a strong bench can do but keep things afloat until those guys come back.  Now I dont think Vanney has done the best job of using what he has on hand to squeeze out a few more wins.  He cant just throw out the best lineup in the league and bask in the applause like last year.  This giving up a goal in the first 5min crap reminds me so much of the first 5-6 years of TFC.  Dont tell me that isnt mental, they are not ready to go right off the hop and are playing catch up for the rest of the match.  We get Moor, Mavinga and Altidore back in the next few weeks, strong together some wins, eeck into the playoffs and its a whole new ballgame.  But for a long suffering TFC fan (soon to be a suffering WPG Valour fan) the odds of it all coming together for a playoff run seem very long.    

[Keegan]

Spot on, you can say as much as you want about injuries but when you’re constantly conceding early there’s no excuse.  

Last season we always had 2 good wingbacks for width, 2 star mids and 2 star strikers.  This year Vazquez hasn’t made any contribution whereas last season he was a stud.. same with Morrow.  Obviously both have had injuries play a role but it’s clear they haven’t been at 2017 standards.  

The only player you can say is a step better than last year is Osorio, that’s a big issue.

[Big_M]

Vazquez hasnt made any contribution..has 5 goals 6 assists in 10 starts

[Free kick]

3 hours ago, Big_M said:

Vazquez hasnt made any contribution..has 5 goals 6 assists in 10 starts

That is true.  But he is still not at the same level as last season.  Thats not a criticism of him or his play.  But he was phenomenal for a certain stretch last season.  Sometimes thats the fine line.  

[Club Linesman]

FFS down 2 in 19 minutes.  What the hell is being done to right this. Unless they come back and win this think playoffs are done. 

[BrennanFan]

Amateurish team defending today. 

I hope the club uses this poor run of form to get rid of Vanney.  He is an "ok" coach, and is not the cause of (or solution to) anything, but he can certainly be upgraded on.  Its been almost 4 years, Vanney has had his time, and theres no time like the present to move forward and hire an experienced manager.

Of course, this will never happen, as Bez and the front office love having a puppet for a coach. 

 

[Gian-Luca]

On 6/30/2018 at 11:28 PM, Bison44 said:

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.  

Are you sure you haven't? Pretty please? If not, can we please start some? How about David Edgar? I don't think TFC should be panicky and change the team entirely, particularly as they have consistently had 6-7 guys out of the line up and lead the league by a country mile in man-games lost to  injury, but they need to make some changes if they want to salvage the MLS season, and its starts at the back IMO.

It seems to be a different goat every night (although tonight there were multiple goats on every goal) but its apparent to me that Zavaleta & Hagglund can't start together at the back, there needs to a be either a veteran leader who can read the play and position themselves better or a speedster like Mavinga who can make up ground even if they aren't positioned perfectly. Those two have not played together as a tandem before for this length of time. While they each have their strengths and I prefer Hagglund overall, seeing them compete for the "who can back away from Quintero the furthest" award was mortifying. If that game doesn't convince the TFC brass to pick up another CB, I'm not sure what will. Yes, you can argue Irwin should have done better and those were some magnificent chips but they never should have had those opportunities to begin with.

TFC's 27 goals for is decent enough given that Altidore has barely played and Vazquez has missed half the season and they are still one of the top teams for this so-called "expected goals per game" stat.. But their 34 goals against is nearly the worst in the league and I think it is the worst in terms of goals per game. In two of the last 4 games they have scored 3 or more goals but have only picked up a single point.

Granted, it's not great that they have a guy making $1.2 million who either doesn't play much (wasn't dressed for this game) or seems to cause goals against and doesn't create any when he plays. I wonder if he's going to be transferred somehow because that's a lot of money either not playing or not playing effectively.

About the only positive tonight was that I thought Akinola looked promising and it was good that Hamilton got the goose-egg off his back. And Bradley has looked better the last two matches. I am curious about what is going on with Ricketts though - unused sub once again. My only guess for tonight is that because of the crappy turf, Vanney figured that Ricketts would have a tougher time controlling the ball than most of his teammates as he isn't the top ball-control guy on the team (and if that's the reason fair enough, because his teammates who are better with the ball on their foot had loads of trouble completing passes and trapping the ball properly, but that wouldn't explain his absence on the weekend).

 

[Gian-Luca]

Haven’t seen the game yet just the goal highlights  but after a demoralizing loss to Minnesota mid week TFC get a point in KC with a 2-2 draw which should hopefully have the opposite effect. Osorio with a career high 6th of the season to open the scoring and Hamilton with a strike from outside the box to tie it after another couple of mistakes by CB’s spotted KC a 2nd half lead. In terms of Canucks Fraser also started for TFC and Ricketts came on with 23 minutes to go. Morgan, Chapman and Telfer left on the bench.

[Bdog]

23 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Haven’t seen the game yet just the goal highlights  but after a demoralizing loss to Minnesota mid week TFC get a point in KC with a 2-2 draw which should hopefully have the opposite effect. Osorio with a career high 6th of the season to open the scoring and Hamilton with a strike from outside the box to tie it after another couple of mistakes by CB’s spotted KC a 2nd half lead. In terms of Canucks Fraser also started for TFC and Ricketts came on with 23 minutes to go. Morgan, Chapman and Telfer left on the bench.

Zavaleta has been so shit this year, Delgado has also been nowhere near the player he was last year.

Good point tonight though.

[jpg75]

Both goals by Canadians. The Hamilton equalizer was a beauty curler into the bottom corner, near side from 20 yards.

[Gian-Luca]

I'd say it was from more than 20 yards out, it was a couple yards out from the top of semi-circle above the 18 yard box. Always nice to see a Canadian who can shoot & score from distance (and against one of the better keepers in the league, to boot).

[Gian-Luca]

Transfer window opens tomorrow. After hearing an interview with Bezbachenko yesterday (which was recorded Friday on Sportsnet), I will be shocked if the team doesn’t bring in some CB help. I think Aketxe maybalready be gone and is back in Spain as he hasn’t been on the bench the past two games. 

[Ruffian]

 

[Ivan]

1 hour ago, Ruffian said:

 

Hopefully, that translates to "Aketxe returns to Cadiz".

[Gian-Luca]

According to google translate it says:

"Ager Aketxe returns to @Cadiz_CF on loan. It comes from the MLS. The operation has just been closed and will be made official soon. Great signing!"

Even though it's a loan, presumably this means  his salary & roster space are taken off the books for this year. This leaves room for 3 roster spots (with Spencer & Mino gone) and a lot of salary cap space.

[Unnamed Trialist]

4 hours ago, Ruffian said:

 

I didn't realise this was a topic here, a few days ago he was rumoured to Rayo Vallecano, who are back in La Liga. That is a high rating for a marginal MLS player. It is also interesting to see the enthusiasm for the guy, when really he has done little of note in this half season in a supposedly "inferior" soccer milieu.

 

[Free kick]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I didn't realise this was a topic here, a few days ago he was rumoured to Rayo Vallecano, who are back in La Liga. That is a high rating for a marginal MLS player. It is also interesting to see the enthusiasm for the guy, when really he has done little of note in this half season in a supposedly "inferior" soccer milieu.

 

What this tell me is that this guy probably arrived here thinking it was going to be easy.  Thats a you problem with you face with players of similar pedigree.  They think its a cakewalk and that you just need to showup and you will dominate the league. Bottom line, mls is not as bad as what they will tell you it is in europe.   Its takes about a year for players to acclimatize hence, with time, he might have turned out to be something special.  

[Gian-Luca]

Aketxe strikes me as more of a finesse player and perhaps he just wasn't prepared or fond of how physical the league is. I think his best game for TFC was actually when he came on as a sub late in the CCL final 2nd leg and actually started the play (with a tackle) which led to what should have been the CCL winning goal (but was instead the infamous Delgado miss). But then that wasn't against an MLS team.

In that shoot-out though you may recall that while the rest of TFC were standing arm in arm together as one he stood separate and apart like he didn't want to be there and you have to wonder if he just didn't ever feel comfortable over here or with his teammates. In the last game he played, against NYCFC, I saw Vazquez yelling at him because he wasn't taking up a position that he was supposed to on the field as part of a team press.

[jpg75]

Good riddance. $1.2M of TAM freed up.

[Grizzly]

Sometimes players just don't fit into the style of play on another team or league and might do better elsewhere even if the level is higher. On the other hand Aktexe had only played in 14 La Liga matches in his whole career most of which were short substitute appearances and often he did not even make the bench for Bilbao. Even his La Liga 2 record was only 37 matches. It is not like they were signing a regular La Liga player or even top La Liga 2 player. He may simply have not been good enough for MLS. We will see his career progression in the future and have some idea about whether he simply did not fit in or was not good enough.

[Unnamed Trialist]

4 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Sometimes players just don't fit into the style of play on another team or league and might do better elsewhere even if the level is higher. On the other hand Aktexe had only played in 14 La Liga matches in his whole career most of which were short substitute appearances and often he did not even make the bench for Bilbao. Even his La Liga 2 record was only 37 matches. It is not like they were signing a regular La Liga player or even top La Liga 2 player. He may simply have not been good enough for MLS. We will see his career progression in the future and have some idea about whether he simply did not fit in or was not good enough.

This is true. I mean, I follow the Liga closely, and frankly I had no information on him and really did not know how he played. It was an odd signing for me, but I gave TFC the benefit of the doubt, especially having revived Vazquez so well from Mexico. I figured they had some special idea and were going to show it to us. 

If the MLS teams want a certain kind of player I could happily recommend options to them from Spain, but I never get asked☹️

[BearcatSA]

I was surprised at how easily he got stripped while on the ball.  His tight possession under pressure wasn't very good for a guy of his playing background/training.

Because of the current glaring personnel needs at the moment, coinciding with the club's place in the table,  they didn't have the luxury of giving him at least a full season to sort it out.

 

[Gian-Luca]

6 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

This is true. I mean, I follow the Liga closely, and frankly I had no information on him and really did not know how he played. It was an odd signing for me, but I gave TFC the benefit of the doubt, especially having revived Vazquez so well from Mexico. I figured they had some special idea and were going to show it to us. 

If the MLS teams want a certain kind of player I could happily recommend options to them from Spain, but I never get asked☹️

I can't speak to why his salary was so high (which was the real eyebrow raising part for me once I saw it) but I think they were hoping that he might be a long-term replacement for Vazquez and that in the short-term he could provide what Vazquez does but from a left-footed player. I think they also valued his ability to strike from distance which, other than Giovinco, is something that was missing from the overall team and would give them more options for offense and for teams to worry about someone else other than Altidore & Giovinco. To be fair to him and them, I think the skill level was there and above-average by MLS standards but not sure whether the mental or physical aspect was.

Ironic then that Vanney told Osorio at the start of the season the club didn't really need him to score a bunch of goals this year -  in part because they were thinking that Giovinco, Altidore & Vazquez would get the lion's share but also that someone like Aketxe would be chipping in regularly - so not to worry about it.  And yet he's the club's leading scorer halfway through the season.

[Big_M]

Good shooting but almost everything else was bad..some awful turnovers and mistakes that led directly to goals or big chances the other way which was surprising for a player who played at that level..anyway his only seasons as a starter in spain was one in the third tier and one in the second when his team finished dead last..and a half season with cadiz last year where he seemingly did well and looks like they want him but if he plays this way it wont be good enough

[BearcatSA]

28 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

I can't speak to why his salary was so high (which was the real eyebrow raising part for me once I saw it)

At least they have some kind of terms where they have been able to move him (and a team interested in taking him).  They didn't sign him to a deadweight deal that they couldn't shed (Brek Shea's DP contract in Vancouver comes to mind).  I wonder if you can still do what Portland did with Valeri, where they first brought him in on a loan, he paid off big time, and then they signed up outright.