Rocket Robin

Wow so one year later and no Ottawa Fury. Remember all those fans who swore there'd never be soccer in the city if there was no continued sanctioning for the USL? USL Championship starts up this weekend with a home and away schedule to play well on ESPN. The compromise reached is that conferences have been divided up into smaller groups. Fury would have been in the conference containing teams from Pennsylvania and New York state (at least avoiding the Florida and other teams from the Covid/southern states). Note there are some crossover games as NYRB II visits Atlanta U 2 in September. I expect the Fury would have not have been allowed to play because of cross border restrictions. This is what's happening at USL League One level where Toronto FC II and the league have agreed that the team will sit out the season because of quarantine rules. (Can't isolate two weeks with any type of compressed schedule). At least you'll be able to watch Atletico on OneSoccer until there are possible home games after their tourney in Victoria or Charlottetown.

I can think of five players from last year's TFC II team who have now signed TFC MLS pro contracts. Now I wouldn't expect them to break into the MLS team but since the pros are in a tourney now, then there'll be a compressed regular season followed by playoffs. I'd expect there'll be a lot of two games per week especially with TFC not being given a bye to the semi-finals this year to the Canadian Championship like previous years. That would mean six games instead of four. I expect the five subs allowed per game rule will be extended until the end of the season. I won't count MLS contracted players to drop down like Jacob Shaffelburg last year. So those players are defenders Julian Dunn age 19, and Rocco Romeo age 20 midfielders Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty age 16 (youngest ever TFC pro), Noble Okello age 19 (named to full CMT last year) forward Jayden Nelson age 17 So that leaves a few good players, forward Jordan Perruzza age 19 who finished second in the scoring race in the USL League One with 15 goals. Selfishly I'd like to see midfielder Luca Petrasso age 20 join his brother Michael on York 9. Midfielder Luke Singh age 19 is listed on the TFC II sub-website as being 'loaned out' but I've read elsewhere that his deal to Brondby Denmark ended in December 2019. I also don't expect CPL would be interested in their six or so non Canadians. Also remember that defender Robert Boskovic is loaned out to Cavalry FC for the 2020 season (last year he was on a season long loan to Ottawa Fury in the USL but ranked one level higher than the USL level that TFC II played in). https://www.torontofc.ca/players/squad/tfcii Here's the squad listing!

TFC II defender Robert Boskovic is already on loan to Cavalry FC this season.

Well here's our answer. TFC II won't be playing in USL Division One this season. https://www.torontofc.ca/post/2020/07/08/toronto-fc-ii-withdraws-2020-usl-league-one-season

https://www.uslleagueone.com/news_article/show/1111806 July 2nd, 2020 USL League One announced their schedule. 12 teams. Play one team ("regional rival") four times, one team 0 times, seven teams twice, two teams once each. 20 game season. Regular season between July 18th to October 24th One game final October 31st between first and second place team. To 'cut travel expenses' TFC II's regional rival is new boys New England Revolution II and their omitted team is South Georgia (by geography it should be Tucson Arizona) and Orlando and Fort Lauderdale are further south than Georgia but...Sounds like the teams will play 'home' games in their own cities. Hmm Florida and Texas teams are in this league. I wonder if there will be trouble at the airport with any team (all the teams except TFC II are in the US). I also wonder if the TFC training ground in Downsview will be used. With their usual crowds from last year of about 150, the fans could certainly social distance easily enough but we'll probably be banned. The dates the teams will play will be announced shortly.

And just two years ago this group was complaining about '(City Name) (animal name)'. "Oh don't be like every other North American league." "Hey a big game coming up...FC United vs United FC. Really important as United is four points ahead of United. I hope the craft beer is cold."

Here's the audio of the last 25 minutes of the Zoom conference in today's 1812 FC Barrie announcement. http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports20/20l1o021.htm

Here's the audio of the last 25 minutes of the Zoom conference in today's 1812 FC Barrie announcement. http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports20/20l1o021.htm

Name drop at today's Zoom press conference of possible player for @1812FC (Barrie) in their first season in @League1Ontario is Jeremy Hall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Hall_(soccer) He does tick the box of 50 @TorontoFC appearances!

Name drop at today's Zoom press conference of possible player for @1812FC (Barrie) in their first season in @League1Ontario is Jeremy Hall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Hall_(soccer) He does tick the box of 50 @TorontoFC appearances!

https://www.simcoe.com/news-story/10022670-the-beautiful-game-set-to-grow-in-barrie-group-heading-toward-professional-soccer-franchise-goal/ Article says the club will play at J Massie Field at Georgian College. I looked it over from Google Earth. It does have a lot of seats for L1O. Artificial turf with gridiron lines is also not unusual for L1O.

https://www.simcoe.com/news-story/10022670-the-beautiful-game-set-to-grow-in-barrie-group-heading-toward-professional-soccer-franchise-goal/ Article says the club will play at J Massie Field at Georgian College. I looked it over from Google Earth. It does have a lot of seats for L1O. Artificial turf with gridiron lines is also not unusual for L1O.

Because of problems with new League 1 Ontario teams in previous years, L1O put in a rule that a team could enter a team in either their MEN's division or WOMEN's division in their first year. 1812 has made a statement of having a team in both. OK Which league will they enter first? or have they received an exemption to start both?

They may have a problem using city of (insert town name) fields going that late into the year.

Hopefully disclosed at the virtual press conference next Thursday.