TFC 2018

[jonovision]

I know Moor has had his injuries this year, but to me it looks as if he's become so lead-footed as to be almost unplayable.

[Bison44]

Hey where is Trillium when you need him?? Remember 3 years ago when he gave us a very detailed prediction of  every TFC result (most of the losses) to demonstrate how TFC could never make the playoffs??  

[Gian-Luca]

2 hours ago, Free kick said:

 

Seattle is making a serious push. And it looks like they are going to make it.  Thats the  part that stings for TFC because they too had very short off season coupled with tough schedule and many injuries.   They just played two fewer CCL fixtures than TFC did. 

 

Seattle lost in the Q-F of the CCL so they played four fewer fixtures than TFC in that regard.

[Gian-Luca]

2 hours ago, Bison44 said:

I dont see if Moor, Mavinga, ZAv and Hagglund are all healthy...why do you start Hernandez?? 

Mavinga was suspended, Moor hasn't yet played 90 minutes since he has come back from his long injury layoff and Zavaleta had played 90 mid-week and IMO is no great shakes either in defending. Where the question comes into play for me is to why not use Van Der Wiel back there if you are going to play Morrow at right back while Auro is injured. Granted, Morrow was very poor at right back last night, he looked exhausted the whole game and was constantly getting taken to the cleaners by the SJ attack down the TFC right. He played a bit better when he was moved to the left and Van Der Wiel looked much better here than last week.

Defense has been the achilles heel the whole year though and I'll repeat what I said before, I find it surprising that they didn't shore up the defense during the international break (in fact, they weakened it by trading Hasler away, to make up salary cap space). True Janson showed more in one partial game than Aketxe did in 8 or 9, but that has to be the main concern heading into next season as Moor isn't getting any younger and neither is Hernandez. I wouldn't be surprised if Hagglund is left unprotected to be claimed by FC Cincinnati - I think Vanney will have felt very let down by him in this game, I will be surprised if we see him play again for a while if Moor & Mavinga are 100% for next weekend.

 

[BearcatSA]

7 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

 I wouldn't be surprised if Hagglund is left unprotected to be claimed by FC Cincinnati - I think Vanney will have felt very let down by him in this game, I will be surprised if we see him play again for a while if Moor & Mavinga are 100% for next weekend.

Oddly enough, both whoscored.com and the vaunted Audi Index listed Hagglund as the best TFC player on the night, followed by Bono.

[Gian-Luca]

1 minute ago, BearcatSA said:

Oddly enough, both whoscored.com and the vaunted Audi Index listed Hagglund as the best TFC player on the night, followed by Bono.

Yeah, that's odd and another example of how often it is wise to not put too much stock into these things. I see Giovinco got a very low score for the Audi Index given that he was credited with an assist on the goal (his total is barely more than half of what Hamilton got and while I think people are being too critical of him in this thread, it's tough to see how Hamilton could be seen as being twice as productive as Giovinco on the night).

On the other hand, Morrow & Morgan having the two lowest Audi scores for TFC on the night makes sense to me (with the notable exception of Hagglund ought to be down there with them).

[Free kick]

3 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

z. I wouldn't be surprised if Hagglund is left unprotected to be claimed by FC Cincinnati 

 

This had crossed my mind the minute I heard that Cincinnati was awarded an expansion team.  Hagglund is from that area.  He may want to go there or they may want him for that reason.

[BearcatSA]

5 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

Yeah, that's odd and another example of how often it is wise to not put too much stock into these things. I see Giovinco got a very low score for the Audi Index given that he was credited with an assist on the goal (his total is barely more than half of what Hamilton got and while I think people are being too critical of him in this thread, it's tough to see how Hamilton could be seen as being twice as productive as Giovinco on the night).

On the other hand, Morrow & Morgan having the two lowest Audi scores for TFC on the night makes sense to me (with the notable exception of Hagglund ought to be down there with them).

People cherry pick when to use these metrics depending upon the player in question. 

[Gian-Luca]

MLS decides to take a week and a half to decide that Altidore should be suspended for this weekends game as well. While you can certainly argue that it deserves a two game suspension (although it is much closer to three given the 80 plus minutes of the first game), it is somewhat ridiculous for them to take this long to let the club know. 

[RickC]

I watched the Cardiff v Newcastle match (to watch Hoilett) this weekend and there was a similar incident involving a Newcastle player kicking a Cardiff player. The referee had awarded a free kick and missed Kenedy's kicking the Cardiff player, so no card issued. The FA disciplinary committee didn't issue any other sanction as the free kick was deemed to have been the "punishment". I was surprised nothing more was done, but the FA did rule on it on Monday after a Saturday game. Much better timing.

[Blackdude]

43 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

MLS decides to take a week and a half to decide that Altidore should be suspended for this weekends game as well. While you can certainly argue that it deserves a two game suspension (although it is much closer to three given the 80 plus minutes of the first game), it is somewhat ridiculous for them to take this long to let the club know. 

Only question is whether there was an appeal on TFC's side. If there was, it would explain about the delay since they have to go through the proper channels and it wasn't urgent to rule it since they might not have appealed for the Red but for the supplemental discipline.

[Gian-Luca]

17 hours ago, Blackdude said:

Only question is whether there was an appeal on TFC's side. If there was, it would explain about the delay since they have to go through the proper channels and it wasn't urgent to rule it since they might not have appealed for the Red but for the supplemental discipline.

I've searched but haven't found any record of an appeal attempt by TFC. Doing a pre-emptive appeal about a possible 2nd game to the suspension would have been bizarre - I think you have to wait for the sentence to be handed out before you can actually appeal it.

I suspect this simply took everyone off guard (include Garde, except he will no doubt be pleased by the news). Further suggesting this is that I see that Jordan Hamilton started and scored again for TFC2 last night (another 30 yard long-distance curler, similar to the one he scored against KC in MLS play that got them the 2-2 draw - as an aside, he's starting to become quite proficient at long-range strikes, which not too many Canadians are). My guess is that they started him (and Bakero) mid-week on the road for the farm team thinking that it was unlikely that he would see the field on Saturday with Altidore back (they prefer him as a starter over Ricketts but not as a sub). I suspect they may not have done so if they had known there would be another game tacked on to Altidore's suspension because the chances of either of them playing would have been increased. Perhaps it's the case that they are already content to go with Janson (assuming he has recovered from his injury) up front alongside Giovinco or maybe they will play Giovinco as a lone striker. But I figure they must be annoyed that these guys took 10 days to look at what was a pretty clear video in order to tack on an extra game, as it would have adversely affected their planning for what is for TFC the most important game of the season and an undoubted must-win.

[mtroads]

Vanney had some comments today that he's known about this for a week and this announcement was just them losing the appeal. They still had enough time to pull Hamilton from the game last night, if they wanted. Between Giovinco, Janson and Ricketts (assuming everyone is healthy), there should be enough to people to eat up the minutes.

[Bison44]

 

30 minutes ago, mtroads said:

Vanney had some comments today that he's known about this for a week and this announcement was just them losing the appeal. They still had enough time to pull Hamilton from the game last night, if they wanted. Between Giovinco, Janson and Ricketts (assuming everyone is healthy), there should be enough to people to eat up the minutes.

Plus Akinola.  

[Gian-Luca]

41 minutes ago, mtroads said:

Vanney had some comments today that he's known about this for a week and this announcement was just them losing the appeal. They still had enough time to pull Hamilton from the game last night, if they wanted. Between Giovinco, Janson and Ricketts (assuming everyone is healthy), there should be enough to people to eat up the minutes.

Thanks - I stand corrected then. It looks like TSN came out with the video of Vanney saying this at the exact time I was typing my post. I see the reporters asking Vanney about this were also similarly puzzled about the timing.

I guess Janson and/or Vazquez must be good to go for Saturday then, which is good news.

[Bdog]

18 hours ago, RickC said:

I watched the Cardiff v Newcastle match (to watch Hoilett) this weekend and there was a similar incident involving a Newcastle player kicking a Cardiff player. The referee had awarded a free kick and missed Kenedy's kicking the Cardiff player, so no card issued. The FA disciplinary committee didn't issue any other sanction as the free kick was deemed to have been the "punishment". I was surprised nothing more was done, but the FA did rule on it on Monday after a Saturday game. Much better timing.

I was actually going to comment on this but forgot. iirc it was worse than Altidore's kick because he turned around to kick him and I think he also got him higher. I thought the ref saw him but I could be wrong. Probably should have been a yellow (I guess I'm in the minority in thinking this since it's not that painful when you get kicked like that)  

The player didn't even stay down for minutes acting like he just got shot which is nice to see. 

[Gian-Luca]

Given how loud the bang in this video is, I suspect they smuggled more than just flares into the Ottawa stadium:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/tfc-bans-inebriatti-fan-group-over-fiery-display-in-ottawa-1.4796028

[Grizzly]

10 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

Given how loud the bang in this video is, I suspect they smuggled more than just flares into the Ottawa stadium:

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/tfc-bans-inebriatti-fan-group-over-fiery-display-in-ottawa-1.4796028

I think the bang is their drum exploding, ie. the drumskin popping off. 

[Moldy9]

Inebriatti = PNG persona non grata. Now what?

1. Do they become an underground supporters group having been banished and abandoned by the suits of the club as if they were orphans and watch matches from bars and visiting stadiums.

2. Does everyone that’s part of the group, even though it was the action of a few, as a “so-called supporters group” (quote from CBC) take fault and pay out of their pockets for MLS/MLSE fan protocol education (I guess a program as such would entail stadium safety, prohibited items as well as fans are there just to pay MLSE money)

or

3. rejected fromTFC as outcasts do they join Unattached FC or York 9?

[Club Linesman]

Huge game tonight. Pretty much decides the playoffs  for TFC - let’s hope that Jozy absence is offset by Jansen and that Gio has a monster game.  

[Gian-Luca]

42 minutes ago, Club Linesman said:

Huge game tonight. Pretty much decides the playoffs  for TFC - let’s hope that Jozy absence is offset by Jansen and that Gio has a monster game.  

No Mavinga again. As good as he is, man has he ever been injury prone.

Osorio to start, 5 Other Canucks on the bench

[Club Linesman]

Mavinga is probably our biggest loss when he doesn’t play. His first game and s bit were awful but since then he has been a rock.  Let’s hope Moor’s legs have some life in them tonight.  

[Bdog]

2 minutes ago, Club Linesman said:

 Let’s hope Moor’s legs have some life in them tonight.  

And let's hope Vazquez is actually fit enough to play and doesn't get hurt again. I'm really happy to see these two and Janson starting but they might be a bit rusty.

[Bdog]

Joe Fletcher is the real MVP so far this game. Bono on the other hand...

[Gian-Luca]

I will take the win but still way too sloppy at the back and in central midfield