seeingred

One Thousand Miles Away

2010-01-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

By noon (here anyways!) everyone was celebrating this goal:

(1:00 mark)

2hrs later, an 18-year old in Spain celebrates beating Sevilla with this goal:

Good story on it here.

From Triumph to Tragedy

2010-01-10T14:02:00.000-08:00

With the new work routine still taking some getting used to, this might sound crazy, but there is one reason why I miss the 1+ hour commute.

Well ... it's the commute. Because there is nothing better to do on a long streetcar/subway ride than listening to podcasts and reading books. I was in a really solid routine for over a year of listening to three/four different pods (WSD, Football Weekly, The Game, Footy Show) and getting through books like it was nothing.

This past week I realized that I haven't downed a football book since November. Well that is just unacceptable. So when I thought about it, the only place that seems to have a somewhat reliable section is the World's Biggest Bookstore. Not a huge fan of Chapters/Indigo, but you gotta do what you gotta do. When you don't have the patience to wait two weeks for an ebay victory to arrive, this will do.

So today was only -4 and sunny so I hopped on my bike and rode out to the other side of town to check out the selection.

Well wtf, they had it all ... that I already owned! So if you want some of the good stuff: Brilliant Orange, Fever Pitch, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro - it's there right now. So this is great if you need these but I'm looking through the rest and I don't really care about Graham Poll's book or biographies of players still playing (Michael Owen?! Who cares!?!). This was tough. But there are quite a few books and finally I stumbled across one that I wanted:

This is right. I am going to try and commit myself to reading up on Brazil as well as World Cup 'centric' books for 2010. I'm feeling the Verde e Amarelo, which is weird because I look horrible in both colours but what can you do? Fabiano, Diego, Kaka, Melo, Maicon, Alves ... I don't know man, I'm just feeling these players and can't wait to watch their games.

So the edumacation begins. 2010 is going to be an awesome year.

Where to begin

2010-01-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Everything, at least on the Canada front, circles around the likes of Montreal and Vancouver, who will officially (and by officially I mean it literally!) will be playing next ... errr I mean this year. I'm not really qualified to make any bold commentary on this, as I casually followed this drama. By casually I mean I can make some awesome sweeping statements (USL loses big time!) but this is great news for Vancouver and Montreal. Bare minimum they will be in an organized, North American, league this season and everything looks to be in order.

Six teams in USL, Six teams in NASL and they will meet for a super finals!!

Not to mention Marcus Haber won't be playing in said league (NASL) as he has just been sold to West Bromwich Albion. He had an interesting 2009 where after failing to sign on with Leeds United, he then missed out on Hartlepool and linking up with Simeon Jackson at Gillingham. There seems to be many throwing around how if he couldn't get in at Leeds, how is he going to find a place at West Brom? The only thing I can think of is momentum is carrying him through as he was a key player down the stretch for Vancouver and into the USL-1 finals and he clearly improved by leaps and bounds over the last ten months.

I for one am hopeful this pans out and he sees the pitch. Bare minimum, West Brom could gain promotion and even if he isn't in the starting XI, to get a season in for the reserves in the EPL and possibly even some time on the field for the first team (even if it's in the Championship) is a good place to be at 20 years old.

Year of the Tiger

2010-01-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

Pretty symbolic. We'll see who takes it to heart. It was a crazy 2009 and I'm sure '10 will be no different. We laid back at RNO in terms of content for the last week or so, but focused primarily on R&D for the next phase of the site. I don't feel like I'm compromising anything talking about it here because there are about 10 people who read this!

It was nice to sit back and work on other things for a bit, thinking about layout, balance, legibility etc ... instead of only content. So we missed out on posting Top 10s ... oh well everyone read those all over the place. We'll get to it next year no doubt. Which as I think and ponder should be a time to upgrade the old blog. I know blogger rules but at the end of the day I'm not 100% sure it fits the bill.

Anyway, change is good. Winning is sweet but change is good, right guys?

At my desk

2009-12-29T09:18:00.001-08:00

At home! Yessir, Last night I was more than a few sheets to the wind when I stopped everything and thought to myself, "Holy shit do I have to work tomorrow?!?" Well after few frantic text messages and emails I was informed that I in fact have the whole week off. Success! Which means about five days of non-stop football nerdery. Nerdery? Well I said it, can't go back on it now.

I've laid out my various sources of entertainment from where I watch games online to what podcasts are IMO the best to listen to. The Guardian, Times, 606, EPL Talk and even the now free thirty minutes of World Football Daily are staples, but with this extra time on my hands I've had to scour around a bit and see what else is out there.

So I'm trying to open up to more VCasts, and as I download the one from Al Jazzera, I noticed that UEFA puts out a VCast and it's not half-bad! Obviously nothing groundbreaking but still pretty cool to see well produced interviews and shots of players and teams that are at the forefront of European Football.

And as I'm watching this I'm thinking to myself, do they use the same guy for every voice-over of a European athlete into English? Don't know about you but I definitely grew up (well I was about 10 or so) watching Trans-World Sport and I swear to god it's the same guy. And I definitely remember watching this wondering when the hell are they going to show some baseball or hockey highlights?!!?! Well once a year we saw the Super Bowl highlights but it was always a week late and by that point I'd seen it one hundred times. But at least there was always Rally-Car footage and I always wished my parents would buy a decaled-out Toyota Celica.

Getting back to the topic at hand, the UEFA Vcast is pretty sweet and the last one up there is on Genoa, which works because Serie A has definitely grown on me over the last few years. Berlusconi getting punched in the face literally and figuratively with AC Milan has definitely had something to do with it.

The day of the boxe

2009-12-26T14:59:00.001-08:00

Clearly the craziest time of the year. On the roads, in the malls, and in the EPL. Maybe they could squeeze in a few more games? I mean only TWO games on Tuesday and Wednesday? Unacceptable. Surely there are a few clubs that have had a days rest that could suit up.

Good to see the Reds get it together for the holiday season. Strange coincidence that the poster below was made by none other than Wolverhampton. Not a bad game at all for the reds, although you can clearly see something is still off. You gotta take it when you can though. It will be interesting to see what 2010 will bring. I do not anticipate any signings, and if there are they would be on the cheap. Hard times for scousers that is for sure. But it is soon January and things always begin to take shape. This time last year Liverpool began the string of draws (Stoke) and losses (Middlesbrough in Feb) that cost them the title. Now is the time to get it straight because as we saw, by March it will be too late.

So here's hoping Yossi stays in the starting XI and Hicks can sell the Rangers!!

And to all a good night

2009-12-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

Simpson in the inflatable blue boat?

2009-12-21T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have to say, over the last year one of the CMNT players that I've really taken notice of is Josh Simpson. His attitude, determination, desire ... is everything we need in a player to go over and above to get us to qualify. I am really excited to see how his career continues to develop considering he has looked really good an Manisaspor.

Speaking of the team that I always have to spell check over and over. We run the Across the Pond, which may seem repetitive week in and out, but checking game stats every week of CMNT players in Europe has actually given me what I'd like to think is a pretty good handle of what's up with about 10-15 starters at their respective clubs and their current form.

Which is why I was somewhat surprised to see that Simpson hadn't played this past week. So with the magic Google search (the same one I used to find out about frozen pitches in England and did Simeon Jackson actually as a defender this weekend?) I was somewhat surprised to see that there are some transfer rumours attached to Simpson. Ok well not surprised but surprised that through the usual channels no one's picked this up yet.

1860 Munich? Linking up with Kenny Cooper? Or Fenerbahe!? Besiktas!? Galatasaray!? Could he be getting coached by Frank Rijkaard in 2010?!

Well it's nice to see that a somewhat ridiculous fantasy line-up actually wasn't that far off in Simpson making a move within Turkey.

Well here's Josh scoring on his potential future club, and Harry Kewell gets the opener to once again keep the blog 100% Reds!

Where do we go from here?

2009-12-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Wow. Out of Champions League. An "easy" draw in Europa League. Then the Reds lose to last place Portsmouth. A terrible run, some terrible signings over the years. Rafa is still in (for now).

And I can't help but throw in a contrast - Man City. Heaps of cash, incredible players, exciting games, they beat Sunderland, a club Liverpool didn't beat, and the sack Mark Hughes.

Embarrassing.

How can anyone seriously support this team? I am one turn away from any club that is built on a open wallet with endless funds (Yankees, Rangers, Chelsea, Madrid), but over the last two years Man City takes the cake. From trying to sign Kaka for a disgusting fee - for ditching Dunne for LESCOTT for a disgusting fee, to going through Sven and now Hughes - what is there to look forward to? Mancini? What player IS Man City? Please.

I guess I should sympathize - because two teams who are really passing each other in opposite directions are at the mercy of their ownership who clearly have their heads up their asses.

Again, can't help but throw out the Blues are nothing more than a poor man's Real Madrid. And it's too bad because they don't have to be. Hughes, I am certain of it, could have gotten the results. But when you are buying the hot shit players and coaches, for 2-5X their worth, you don't have the balance to have truly long-term greatness. Chelsea, who I hate, are essentially the same team as the last year and you can see why they are doing well because there is legitimate chemistry and stability.

Such a messed up era in sports. I think back not even that long ago, within my lifetime anyway, where coaches/managers are brought in and you can look back over a long span of their career with a certain team (especially baseball - Sparky Anderson, Tony LaRussa, Tommy LaSorda etc ...) and see seasons with success and failure - but the teams stuck with them. You can even look at Shankly who wins the First Division in '63/'64 but finish seventh the next year. If this was today, he would be canned and we all know what happens after this.

I shake my head and as much as I flip flop on Benitez I have to say I'd rather be a Red (in their current state) than a Blue any day of the week.

Pizza Day

2009-12-18T05:17:00.000-08:00

Well it's Friday at my new(ish) job. Which means PIZZA. I could eat it ever day, but then I would be fat. Don't want to be a fat guuuuyyyyy.

After the first month was down at my new place of employment, my blogging was almost at a record high. But alas, my obsessive ways once again ruin a good thing. The above photo is a slight exaggeration ... in fact it would be 100X cooler if I was spending my lunch hours playing NASL Soccer. After finishing dead last in a MarioKart Tournament I am now in serious training to at least finish in the top 10 next time.

Actually if I was playing Football Manager like I used to (I'm sure many can share this experience) of every morning before work, during my lunch break, as soon as I came home and all through the night (I did this for no joke at least a year solid ... maybe two), then it would be a more appropriate to make posts about video games.

But once again in the wake of missing the week's most exciting stories (Liverpool WINS, Hutchinson AND Klukowski through to the 32 in Europa League!) I am left with writing about ... what I do on my lunch break? Agh. Get it together Spark.

This is mostly a joke as weeknight have been used plotting 2010 and writing for RNO, but there was a good run going on here and I have to refocus.

Stay tuned!

Dalglish for Manager!

2009-12-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

Of the Tampa Bay Rowdies?!

That's right. You better watch out. When you come down to play in Tampa Bay shit's gonna get Rowdy. Noogies, wedgies, knocking things over, lots of yelling, not givin' a care, the whole lot. No parents allowed.

Normally you'd be thinking of Kenny as a possible manager, and with the Reds in absolute shambles his name has been bandied about as a possible replacement for Rafa or at least buffer until someone else can be sought out.

But the OTHER Dalglish, the Son of Dalglish (nobody steal my movie title!) the one who played for the Houston Dynamo in MLS is now the manager of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Hmmmm unless my blog roll's information is off point, is he aware the state of the "league". As in there might not be one?

These are all debates for another day because there is a more important question to ask:

Which logo is more brutal? Tampa Bay circa 1984

ORRRRRRRR Tampa Bay 2009?

Wow. I'd have to say 2009. At least the 1984 one doesn't look like it was done in Microsoft Word. Although their website would have you think differently - mix of traditional and contemporary ... yikes. On a sidenote, did anyone else ever notice there are some very terrible crests in the former USL?

These are the kind of things I'm thinking of this Tuesday night ...

It's a juggling act

2009-12-09T16:13:00.000-08:00

Well with this amazing weather it makes it harder to come home at lunch to blog. I guess we can't complain considering it was warm up until about a week ago. I actually tried to ride my bike out in this mess this morning but pretty much got to the curb and said F#$& it! Within thirty seconds my pants were soaked as were my shoes. As a result, no Blondie's and I had to drink Druxy's coffee and walk to work wearing rain pants and jacket. Trust me I looked cool. In case you are wondering, that is me on the right juggling and beside me tearing it up on the vielle is my good friend Augustine Aldous that old scamp, and the lovely lady playing the harp is his girlfriend (who I hate!) Florence Margaret.

Once again you blink and everything happens all at once. After last friday's World Cup draw it was all quiet until the email came through on Sunday (I think) saying Canada would be announcing their next head coach. Hmmm hmmm who could it be? Well there was never any doubt and the CSA all but admitted it wasn't like they were actually 'looking' for a new head coach. Per usual it just takes them about 6 months to make any kind of decision on anything. Ah the perks of associations.

Part of me is fine with Hart being named the head coach, however, there is a part that looks at it and thinks ... nothing has changed at all, we're just lucky that on the shortlist of ONE he happens to be a decent coach. I shudder to think who would have been picked had he not been up for it, or who will be his successor one day.

To round off an interesting week (well by hump day anyhow) the good ol' Reds lose at home to Fiorentina!! Now like many out there I have a soft spot in my heart for cities I've actually been to so I do think that it is a good story that they have gotten out of the group stages, and considering all the hoop-la with Italian football (which in the last year I've actually begun to really like) I think it is a good think overall. But Liverpool ... oh my ... through failure comes success? Jeez I hope so because this is getting too much to bear. I mean ... no offense to Blackburn supporters but they are not quite Europa League quality so I'm honestly not sure how Liverpool, in their current form, will handle the likes of Juventus, Wolfsburg, Rubin Kazan or Marseille.

A moment out of the day

2009-12-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

Just riding around today. Thought I'd cross over from the West side (WHAT!?) to the East side and stop by some spots I might not get to see now that it is getting FREEZING outside. First stop was Mercury Coffee just before Carlaw for a much needed coffee at 1:30pm, then it was on to check out some badass posters at none other than Telegramme.

This place is dope and has an amazing selection of prints from Charly Harper to Tavis Coburn, Music to Nature to old Cuban movie posters. I've been in there a bunch of times and asked if they have access to any football posters. I could eBay it but would rather buy it locally and after trolling around I forgot how cool some of the old ones were.

These are so sweet. Uruguay 1930, Switzerland 1954, and Spain 1982 by Joan Miro:

The big draw!

2009-12-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

Well what can you say? I felt like I was watching a cross between the Grammy's and Bumper Stumpers. Here's your beauuuuuuuutiful host ... Charlize!!! Not sure if you can say the actual event is exciting but the results and now anticipation to the opening kick off is. I was going to sit at work on lunch watching this on the FIFA site (you know just the results building the groups on a web page) and then realized I can snag it somewhere on TV. Presto! And this was the first thing I saw:

YIKES!!!!
And then this:

YEEEEOOOOOOWWWWWW!!
I wonder if anyone told her what a sausage-fest this was going to be.

I have no idea what the hell Beckham is thinking with this hair style. Seriously who actually maintains their faux-faux-hawk? Not punk.

Some big results and it's times like these where I sit back and wonder what the footballing landscape would be like if Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were still countries. But not for long because then I look at Brazil and think holy shit this team is insane and you still have the likes of Grafite and Nilmar (or Robinho) on the bench.

All in all I have to say I can't wait for June!!

50 years ago

2009-12-02T15:29:00.001-08:00

SIGH

Too slow

2009-12-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

Well geez you get tied up for two days and miss the window for a perfectly timed post!! Trying to not always be second place (ok fifth) I went down to BMO Sunday morning to scope out the turf getting all ripped up and shed a single tear. But alas it wasn't the idle machinery and concrete pitch I took note of, it was the missing beer garden and the first time I'd seen the north end completely cleared out. Well, I thought to myself, this really would be a perfect spot to fit a pretty decent permanent stand. The RM Game a good start - hell tear down those stupid VIP bunkers and we'd have a badass south and north end! As noted ... well, everywhere, looks like MLSE (or the Globe and Mail) have set up some futuristic mind reading device around BMO Field. Much like a force field, anyone who breaks it's plain their thoughts will be transmitted to MLSE IN THE FUTURE where they can make it look like they had been planning the whole thing for weeks.

No clue what that was all about.
Either way, here's hoping the north end is for supporters, but knowing those suits it'll probably seats that are $40 a pop and scalpers will now have even more real estate to keep empty.

And not to mention the bubble is where is always should have been.

Lights, camera ...

2009-11-27T11:19:00.000-08:00

Heading into uncharted territory ...
Back from a 4+hr excursion as RNO begins it's foray into video! Wellll we'll see. We had been talking back and forth with David Monsalves, Rick has a camera, why not? Let's see how this goes.

Per usual (well in my experience across different mediums and subject matters) the best stuff comes out AFTER the red light goes off. But that's ok, it was cool to just hear stories, especially those pertaining to Canada and TFC.

It's sorta funny because I'm sure as with anything, as it grows more and more, ideas sprout in your head and especially where we are from in the time that we live, your time always has $$$ tied into it. It was awesome last night to put something out and feel good about sticking to the mandate of why we launched RNO, which was to give exposure to the teams and players in Canada who deserve it. That's it. If we play even the most minute fraction of helping that happen, if the profile of the players and sport here goes up just enough so some 10yr old thinks "I want to play football in or for Canada" - amazing.

I guess what the point is amoungst so much else out there, it's easy to get lost, but we don't seem to worry about it because we're not trying to BE something, we're trying to DO something.

We were standing on the balcony overlooking the indoor pitch and I thought to myself (and said it) - those kids down there should know who David Monsalves is. The guy is one of a small handful of Canadians who have lifted a European trophy. The dude doing laps on the balcony knew who he was (but said nothing to me wtf?) and that was pretty cool.

Come marching in ...

2009-11-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

It's pretty rare to actually get excited about receiving mail. Even when something good arrives like an ebay purchase, it's more like "jeez, finally". But not yesterday! I was about to send an email of inquiry when I got home for lunch, opened the front door and saw this:

WOOT!
That is correct, delivered right to my front door. Now the story (yes, story. Get yourself a drink, snack and get comfy) as you may recall from the beginning of the month was that I just switched jobs, from way the hell up in North York to literally 2 minutes from my house in Liberty Village. The best part about this as will also notice on the right hand side, is I am able to blog almost every day! In fact, the conversation went something like this:

Spark: I'm giving my notice.
Old Boss: What?!
Spark: Yeah. This place is cutting into my blogging big time.
Old Boss: I had no idea.
Spark: It's true. I was hardly getting in one a week.
Old Boss: That is unacceptable.
Spark: I know!
Old Boss: People need to know what the Spark-dog thinks about football!
Spark: I'm glad we are on the same page.

And would you believe that in order to help foster my passion for blogging about all things football (in my mind anyway) my going away gift was a year's subscription to the writers I jock so hard - When Saturday Comes!!

And who was on the cover of my very first issue!? Gerrad and Torres! Yesterday was going to be great! Liverpool on the cover, a Champion's League match, it's all coming up roses. Except Fiorentina wins and gives the Reds the boot. So I am super bummed because Europa League is LAAAAMMMMEEEE. Oh well, at least I have WSC and their Liverpool feature to go home and read. So I pour myself a bourbon (you read that right, Christopher Hitchens here likes a stiff drink when he reads his footy mags) and get comfortable. 32 pages later and there's no Liverpool feature!? Is this some joke?? It is! Sonofabitch.

No Champions League. No feature stories. Is this all we have to look forward to?

Who will stay and who will go?

2009-11-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

I did this exact title and record cover last year!!! Think of it as a yearly feature. Spark's Annual MLS Expansion Draft Protection List TFC Debate. Also known as SAMLSEDPLTFCD. Say it again. SAMLSEDPLTFCD. There you have it. The list came out and some eye-brow raising protected and unprotected players. The most notable for Toronto FC are Guevara and Robinson left unprotected, while some are seriously questioning why Barrett stays. There are legitimate arguments both ways as to why Barrett should remain in the line-up for 2010, same goes for Robinson who bare-minimum has a wealth of experience he can give to the likes of Sanyang, Cronin, even Gomez or De Guzman to an extent.

Guevara on the other hand seems to be a name bandied about as very likely to be making his exit. Whether or not it's directly related to Preki, well go ahead and speculate. I will say I was greatly disappointed with his play in 2010 and I'm pretty sure I pinned the success of the team on him finding his 2005 form and bagging somewhere around 10 goals. Well World Cup Qualifying hangovers don't help the domestic club cause. And with the actual World Cup this summer, I would think his head will be in South Africa for most of the season.

I think if TFC sort out the defence and find a true finishing striker, this will more than make up for him leaving. De Guz slides into his position, case closed. The only thing that still is in the back of my mind was the DC United game where in the first half both Sanyang and Robinson were horrible paired together. At half time, cue a substitution Robinson out, Guevara in, and now Sanyang is the second coming and TFC win 2-0.

Great talent, but for me the cons outweigh the pros and at 34 it's about time to cut the cord.

The East Wins!!

2009-11-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

Yessir! Real Salt Lake - Eastern Division Champs take the Cup. I gotta say I'm feeling a lot of pride as a supporter of a club in the East right now. EAST RULES!

I can't help but think of a bunch of issues that need to be addressed with MLS that, to me, are pretty whack. Yes I said "whack" - as in wiggity whack.

Number one is listed above. I can understand why many things in this league were/are set up the way they are in the beginning, but at some point it needs to change. Eight teams in the playoffs to me makes no sense. And if there is going to be eight teams, then cross over makes no sense. One table makes sense so you don't have something so obviously stupid as a team on the West coast as your Eastern champs.

So last night I had to watch the game at home as it was my RNO responsibility to write up the post game. Issue number two - Rogers Cable sucks! That's right I lost my connection after about thirty minutes. WTF!? Ok I'll whinge some more in a minute but here is Spark's office play by play of the evening:

#1 - Real Salt Lake fans come out in force. Will this championship increase season tickets sales and overall attendance? See: Columbus.

#2 - SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH

#3 - WORST! CAN IT! NOW!!!

#4 - YOUR 2009 MLS CUP CHAMPS!!!

Well my last point to lament about is I'm hoping Garber took note of the red flag NYRB was waving last year. Eighth seed into finals, shit imagine if they had won!? I'm going to start trumpeting that parity is bullshit and something needs to give in order to ensure we see the best match-ups possible. If I'm an MLS club I'm not going to sweat trying to finish first. "Hey guys just chill, just finish sixth or seventh, hell even eighth! Don't expend all your energy, we just need to be able to turn it on for four games and we are set!" Is there really incentive to finish top of the league? Other than a trophy are there good bonuses handed out?

Sure it was a good game, but will RSL repeat? Part of being champs is walking around with a target on your backs because you are the best. If any team was set up to do it, it was Columbus who actually had a great season.

Anyway, whinging over! RSL wins! Will Johnson pukes his way to Canadian content on the 2009 trophy!!

Super Sunday

2009-11-22T11:07:00.000-08:00

Well considering many football fans in N. America will have their eyes on the MLS Cup tonight, hopefully some witnessed this destruction. WTF!? I thought Tottenham would 'sort themselves out' and end up where they normally do. When was this supposed to happen? When the weather gets cold? Holy shit.

Jermaine Defoe!? Making his claim to get some action with the England WC squad and five goals in a game can't hurt. I'm more shock though at Wigan who aren't the best but have had some good games this season and, I thought anyway, no THAT brutal. Well this one will go down in history and I'm sure over the next week everyone will be checking their almanacs feeding us facts about the highest scoring games ever. I think though this is the largest win margin in EPL history? Download all your favourite EPL pods this week as I"m sure you will find out!

MLS CUP IN ...

A Hard Man

2009-11-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

As much as I try to always find the wrong in everything MLSE does, it looks like today they may have got it right (although I probably said the same thing about Burke and Colangelo!). Despite Squizz's pretty funny, but actually dead on comments about his track record, here's hoping this is the right environment and make-up for him to take the team to the next level (not MLSE next level, winning attitude next level).

The only thing missing from his resume is clear post-season success, but he had it as a player and three years at Chivas probably isn't enough to take Bradley's team and make it into his own. But now that I think of it, they have been on the decline since!

Regardless (ha!) I am happy for the supposed hardline approach we should soon be getting because nothing annoys me more than players giving up or walking around with their hands on their hips acting all pissy.

Tactics?! Defending!? Oh my! I can not wait. These are parts of the package that we can look forward to. Could we have gotten a bigger name? Probably, but one step at a time. Next year I will be happy with a winning record (playoffs) and organized football.

So here's signing off keeping it 100% TFC related:

South Africa bound!

2009-11-17T18:37:00.000-08:00

Well not on a Senior Team, but a pretty sweet gig none the less. Stefan Frei is off to the land the Sundowns, Capes and Great White Sharks!! He's added another accolade to his list of accomplishments for 2009. Along with an MLS nomination for Rookie of the Year, he was TFC's Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and is now traveling with the Generation Adidas Team to South Africa for a couple of exhibition games and seeing the sights.

Frei came with (and still has) a lot of hype given his play this season. I think the only other keeper to play this much as a rookie was Brad Guzan who is now at Aston Villa. I didn't follow Guzan's rookie year so I don't know where he was at this stage of development but it is clear that Frei has talent yet still has a ways to go before he legitimately earns the "europe bound" tag.

A slight but not complete sidenote - I'm curious to see what is in store for Brian Edwards. He must be chomping at the bit knowing he's fully capable of competing and winning games at this level and is roughly at the same stage of his career. For our sake I hope he stays on because IF Frei jumps ship, we could have a keeper who has paid his dues and is ready to take hold (and not let go) of the #1 position.

Late Pass Pt. II

2009-11-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

I have no idea if this has been circulated everywhere but I got this link and laughed my ass of... eerr ... I mean LOLMAO!!!

You can see the back and forth which may or may not be real here.
Just to give you a hand with this, the President of France is 5'5. It also would have been 10X more amazing had Ireland won.

This also reminds me about a priceless crank call some comedy troupe in Ireland did pretending to be Steve Staunton wanting the Chelsea manager position. I couldn't find the audio file which is way back somewhere in an episode of World Soccer Daily.

Hats off to the Irish and their sense of humour!

Do MLSE read FourFourTwo?

2009-11-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

This is a bit of a late pass, but I don't think I saw anyone talking about this elsewhere and thought it was a pretty interesting article and was relevant to the good 'ol Reds (which one I'm referring to, take your pick!!). In the October issue there is a good article on How To Rebuild A Club and lists some important points on what it takes to do it right. Bear in mind that this mostly relates to the UK so the point about a Stadium doesn't totally apply here in North America, but some of them are pretty dead on and you can see that at least TFC are missing the mark on some key areas to building a successful team. Either way, you can decide if these are being applied here or abroad, but in summary here are the key points to the article:

1. Build the Business Plan - Fill the boardroom with experts, hire dynamic staff, think big-time.

2. Hire the Right Gaffer - Take time choosing a candidate, do your background research, stay patient during the lumpy bits.

3. Grow Your Own - Cast a wide net for young players, encourage good behaviour, blod them early.

4. Freshen Up Your First Team - Try before you buy, go for quality over quantity, be conservative with contract.

5. Stadia - Only move if you must, choose quality materials, tread carefully in the world of rock.

6. Keep Fans Onside - Keep active in the community, get the fans involved, get the fans excited.

Overall a good read and lots to think about. A really interesting point with regards to a well run team and a poorly run one ... when Leeds was competing in the Champions League, the Doncaster Rovers were in the Conference. Not even ten years later, they are in the Championship and Leeds are in League One. That is how quickly things can go from good to bad (Newcastle?! Liverpool!!!) or if you keep the glass half full, from bad to good.

Drumroll please

2009-11-12T11:26:00.000-08:00

And the award goes to ...

M-V-P! M-V-P!
As if there ever was a doubt. What was the expression Tim used in our last podcast? One of the few this season without blood on their hands? Yes something like that. I can count four players who fit that tag: De Ro, Frei, Cronin and Attakora. The rest are middle of the pack to major disappointments.

But back to De Ro, as there were some talk about certain supporters groups perhaps not naming their MVP this year, which I hope is not the case. Towards the end of the season with all the banter about problems in the dressing room, selfishness, play on the pitch, etc ... but seriously get rid of all that - what is an MVP? Or what defines one? Most obviously is the player that made the difference, and without them your team is noticeably worse off. Any player on this team this year could have been replaced (within our line-up). Except De Ro. If he's gone, 11 goals are gone. The left side attacking is gone. Any balls moving forward is gone. A trophy is gone. It's as simple as that. I understand what some say about his particular style on or off the field, but I'm looking at the results and he delivered where many could not.

If there was an award for major disappointment of the season, without a doubt it goes to Marvell Wynne. At the end of last year, he looked like his ticket was booked to Europe. I thought it was a miracle he stayed on, or didn't get any noticeable interest, even with his known defending skills (or lack thereof) he was making things happen. This year ... just not happening on the right side, his crosses were brutal and some good chances (I'm thinking Colorado off of the cross from De Ro) was just terrible. I don't know what happened between '08 and '09, but here's to hoping next year he gets it together or we're able to find someone to take over that spot who puts a priority on defending/positioning.

It's obvious!

2009-11-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

All this talk about players defecting, no patriotism, disorganization, missed scouting etc ...

None of it matters. We do it for the Maple Leaf and all we need is someone like Smithy to sit down the likes of De Guz, Bagovic, Lensky and give them "a right talkin' to!!"

Big Orange

2009-11-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

Well yes, I spent a good portion of yesterday indoors. Shame on me. But I wanted to keep on top of the MLS playoffs, as much of a pain it is not having full cable and having to watch it online.

At least there are good storylines; the LA derby, Columbus out (Will Johnson still in!) and pretty much following Houston who are really the only team IMO that can lay the claim to any kind of 'dynasty' in MLS right now. Well, maybe I'll be eating my words after this weekend but their line-up is just so solid front to back and it's obvious that they are a well organized and disciplined team that being from Toronto you can't help but envy what is in place there. Ching, Davis, Holden, Clark, Hainault, Onstad are all amazing to watch.

Man I just checked the playoffs schedule - Friday at 11pm?! LA v Houston WTF. Ok fine I guess I'll be staying in Friday night!

RNO Week in Review

2009-11-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's just hard to keep on top of things. This week was insane front to back, top to bottom. I'm home now, Friday night, just looking to chill in and take a minute. RNO is full steam ahead and it's a tough balance between keeping on top of what is up there and gearing up for 2010. Alot going on on that front in terms of development, but maintaining what is currently in place is tough as well.

Some big steps taken since this all began ... man, four months ago. Seems like we've been doing this forever but in that amount of time we've managed to leap canyons, and we are still far from the summit.

The interviews we've managed to get a hold of have been bananas, and this week was no different. Usually it's one a week or two weeks - this week we took care of three. The most notable was none other than Jacob Lensky who seriously must not have been two seconds away from hitting send to us when the CMFS emailed him to play for their U21 team. Well everyone now knows how this played out.

Then thanks to a long chain of people we've been lucky enough to meet, Stephen Hart will be up, no doubt ready to talk about the infamous email. And in the midst of those interviews, Carl Robinson lays it all out in what Steve B said was a pretty good call.

Throw in there the usual aftermath from last weekend and CBC's story on Tom Ansemli's "winning" comments about TFC. UGH it was a rough start to November. Geez man, no wonder this team hasn't got it together, this rust is coming from the very top. "We didn't expect to make the playoffs for the first three years." Oh great! Thanks for telling everyone now. Here we are spending thousands of dollars a year, under the impression winning *might* be up there on the priority list. I don't know about you, but I always love cheering and spending all my money on teams that are expected to lose.

I could keep ranting about those comments but I'm really at a loss for what else to say on this front. When he was on TFC TV after the NYRB loss I was pretty disappointed that all he was was disappointed. Man I was so pissed after that game! And he's just like MEH. Straight into PR/Damage Control mode. For once I would love to see some sort of actual passion from these guys and say this team played like shit. $3 million bucks made ZERO difference.

At least Sam Cronin had the stones to say what is what. Cronin jersey for '10.

Wednesdays aren't so bad

2009-11-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

Boss: Hey did you see the Danny Dichio jersey at the front?
Spark: Yeah!
Boss: He came in, great guy.
Spark: I bet!
Boss: You like football?
Spark: Football?
Boss: "Soccer"?
Spark: Oh yeah!
Boss: Yeah, I like Liverpool.
Spark: So do I!
Boss: Saw a game at Anfield last year.
Spark: !!!
Boss: Also saw a game in Japan.
Spark: !!!

Spark: Hey Champions League is on now.
Boss: Put that on! Justin TV that!
Spark: OK!!
Boss: Dirk Kyut is a hard worker. I like him.
Spark: Me too.

Something notable

2009-11-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

That's right - East Side Stand Up (not the chant!!). This is kinda cool considering we don't really track this stuff and the whole idea of the podcast is just DIY. I wish it got up there while the season was going on since we've done the last post-game trauma report for the 2009 season.

Next season I would anticipate us recording after every game, home and away, since we started doing it anyways down the stretch. It's pretty simple to get it all together and online and not once have I ever wished I was doing anything else on a Saturday night.

Tim and Stephe are awesome co-hosts and I feel offer pretty sound assessments of the going ons in the game in question. You can be an encyclopedia of football knowledge, or the proverbial fly on the wall for TFC, but you get three guys together who love the sport and the team and just talk about the game at hand, and none of that matters. Stephe's played at a pretty high level, Tim grew up following the game in London, and I used to be obsessed with Champ Manager - what a triumvirate!

Although I must admit I disagree with Stephe's views on Marvell Wynne.

A new beginning!

2009-11-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well this could have more than one meaning, but for now it's all about Spark. It was all quiet on the blogging front last week because I quit my job and spent every day getting shit done that I wish I wasn't swamped with so I could get on here. But alas, these were things I had to do, and now that means more time for this and RNO. Lots to talk about and big tings happening but they are on the DL. For now let's just go over day one:

It was a beautiful day! A new day with new OCD routines. Most importantly being able to get a good cup of coffee in the morning. Sorry Seattle's Best, your days are over!

A new job with plenty of nerves but these are things that at least put you at ease a bit.

Right around the corner from home. Right around the corner from BMO, couldn't get much better. Much more to say but I'll leave that for tomorrow.

Haven't woken up yet

2009-10-25T15:13:00.001-07:00

from this nightmare!
Good grief. Well time heals all wounds, and clearly 22hrs is not enough. You know the links, blogs, forums etc ... so I'll leave you to those devices. Nothing I'll say here you won't be able to find anywhere else. Yes I will leave it at that. I had a decent night despite the 90 minutes of pure hell.

Rode my bike north of bloor for a dinner party and saw this along the way. I threw a quarter on the field for good luck. Should'a parted with a twenty!!

Locked up my trusty ride.

Token screen shot. Yes had to watch it online, and am lucky enough to have a great girl who didn't mind me sneaking away for two hours to whinge and get wasted in a different room.

End of story, end of season. I'm sure there will be some good posts in the future madly bitching about this team - get ready!!

A night at the pub

2009-10-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

Well it's been another crazy week. At least I was able to get a sweet vid up for all to see. But gotta keep moving along and keep up the football hustle. Last night was a good one were once again I got to spend some time on AM980 with the man who knows all sports, Norman James. Norman put together a timely panel of myself, a Reds supporter here and abroad, with his good friend Mike Boothman a ManU supporter leading up to the massive match this Sunday.

It went pretty well but it's hard to hold your ground as a Canadian boy through and through who grew up on a steady diet of hockey and baseball and didn't get into football until I was in my teens. It's one thing to talk about the history of your club, but it's completely different when you were actually there to follow them as it happened, as Mike has done.

Norman promised me no curveballs but when he asked me (along the lines of) historically why Liverpool is better than ManU it kinda threw me for a loop. Using what I mentioned above about when I started to follow Liverpool, which was during the Fowler then into Owen era, well it's kinda hard to argue how great Liverpool is - especially compared to ManU. I would feel a bit ... phoney? going on how great they are and titles won in the 70s and 80s that I had no idea were happening at that time. Ask me about the Leafs and Jays from '82 on, ok then, but for me to be honest about my club and my support towards them, I feel like I can really only comment on what I've actually seen. I'm proud to call myself a Liverpool supporter and as I found out earlier this year my link to them is more than an exciting goal scorer or Champion's League title.

I wanted to throw out one more story of being a supporter of Liverpool, but didn't have time. It would have been perfect. My first game at BMO Field (2007 keep in mind) I was walking through the concourse when this stout, grouchy guy in a ManU shirt says to me as I walk by "SHIT SHIRT MATE". I thought it was kinda funny given we were at a TFC game so as I walked back to my seats I saw him again and said, "Hey nice kit MATE. Better luck in Champions League next year, eh?" he came back with something like, "Champions of England! AGAIN!" so my only comeback was "Hey that's great, you can have England, we'll take EUROPE." (Woops I spoke too soon on that one!) By now there are two security guards watching this conversation (bear in mind there was definitely more jibber jabber going on) then he had a doozy where he said "You know what's the best part of being from Liverpool? FORTY-FIVE MILES FROM GREATNESS." Ouch. My only comeback was "Or you could say YOU are forty-five miles from seeing what it takes to beat Chelsea!" (They had just lost the FA Cup that morning to Chelsea). Anyway I had a laugh but he clearly hated me. I'm pretty sure that wasn't Mike Boothman.

With that in mind, Liverpool won at home last year without Gerrard and Torres starting. And didn't have Glen Johnson. So much negativity circling the club they need a massive effort from some unlikely players. COME ON YOU REDS.

Extra! Extra!

2009-10-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well I figured it out today how to get a few more awesome blogs in during the week that had the whole "no fuss no muss" feeling. Heard about this today (or last night) dorking out to one of too many podcasts.

Apparently this was a game for promotion and at some point this team was winning 2-0. They then found out the team they were up against won 5-1 or something like that. I won't spoil the rest but just watch the other team this is too much.

Who said pack it in!?

2009-10-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

NOT ME!! Good grief - no shortage of drama with this motley crew! 2009 home season is in the books and what a season it was. However, after defeating Real Salt Lake 1-0 I guess I shouldn't be talking in the past tense should I? There is still a game to go and we are just as much in it as ... FC Dallas? That is correct. FC Dallas. I don't know if it's because of the playoff race, all the off pitch drama this year, but this was not the same season finale like we've had for the first two years. We've gotten a good result since '07, but those two years there was really good energy at BMO for those games and yesterday felt, well, different. Dichio's tribute was pretty amazing, the game not so much. For real, everyone had to know if Danny was still on the team he would have scored in this game and it would have been the greatest ever. Ah well, I will keep my memories of #9 locked away forever *sigh sigh*. Ok let's get to another wonderful Saturday afternoon south of the Gardiner ...

Caught a bit of the USL championships ... who should I be cheering for??

A perfect walk up to the grounds until this! What the?! I hate detours.

Ok into the stadium and take off our hats for the anthem

And for Danny Dichio.

Alright guys three points is all we need.

Not an exciting first half at all. We almost got scored on within the first couple minutes but Brian Edwards stood tall.

JIMMY B!! I was so excited I couldn't bother to get off a shot. Ah well. Hmmm Jimmy B scores the first goal of the year and the last one at home. Any more proof he shouldn't be at left back and bare minimum could be on the wing?

Holding it off ... LOCKING IT DOWN!

Holy crap TFC wins ... 'topes win? Yes you heard right. No last minutes collapse, no goal in the final 15-20 minutes. Jeez it was like Deja Vu all over again, minus the game tying goal. Not a proper last home game celebration but what can you do when FO want to keep the players away from the fans.

JIMMY DOESN'T CARE!!

MOM!!! Except it should be shared with Brian Edwards. Lots of heart.

ART.

NEXT WEEK - NYRB GOES DOWN. TFC PLAYOFF BOUND '09?!?!

Wednesday night lights

2009-10-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Nothin like catchin a few streams of the best South America has to offer. Hey the quality is shite you gotta take what you can get. I know everyone is going on about a WC without Ronaldo or Messi, but wtf? If your team isn't good enough to make it, then tough luck son! But at this stage it looks like both at least will make the playoff round and everyone at FIFA can quit shitting themselves. Your cash cows will play in your super tourney and Adidas and Nike will be happy and the world will be right.

TFC in mid-week preparations for their "MOST IMPORTANT GAME". I feel like we've been playing our most important game for almost 2 months now. I know I looked at that mini west coast swing in August as what would define our season. Winnable games that we failed to achieve anything. Very disappointing this year. I'm thinking back and the only thing worth mentioning is Montreal. Even if we make the playoffs, I really hope the fact that this team is not a team and plays terribly 90% of the time is dealt with.

Anyway just a rare mid-week post/rant to put out there while I watch Argentina v. Uruguay.

Pack it in

2009-10-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

Man, what to say about this? Can't beat one of the worst teams at home, in a critical game to WIN if we're going to make the playoffs. Did anyone else recognize how casual this team plays? Honestly we've been harping on it since the Chivas game in August how this team clearly doesn't have the stones to make it happen, which is completely ridiculous considering the amount of talent on the pitch. Go through our line-up front to back and individually, these are good players - but this is not a good TEAM. Who that falls on, well we can talk about that for hours. Anyway ... at least it was sunny out?

A solo walk to the stadium on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, maybe to see some beautiful football? Well ...

Warm up looks good.

Brian Edwards with the start. Hey, even with the players out, this line-up was still solid.

Nice Yellow boots De Ro!

First half booooring. We said it on the whingecast - did these guys just show up to call it in? No sense of urgency. No pitbull mentality. I was shaking my head by this point.

But second half - OH MY - NANA ATTAKORA!?! One of the best stories of the season - this was almost his second goal as well. He has really come up well, let's just hope he doesn't turn out like Wynne.

I'm looking at the clock at the 72nd minute and started getting worried ...

FOR GOOD REASON!!! W - T - F!!!!

There is nothing to say about this. Nice MOM Nana, but for real this game should have been 4-0. San Jose did not come to win, they came to hang around and steal the point. Well hats off to a team that hung in there and got the point they knew they could steal from us. Not feeling optimistic against Real Salt Lake next week who is 10X the team San Jose is.

Hey maybe it will be sunny out.

The countdown begins

2009-10-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

270 minutes and counting ...
I don't know how I feel about this whole "most important in club history blalblalb". Please. Personally I'd be more stoked if we were fighting to win first overall, not squeek into the playoffs, most of which will determine on other teams losing. But I like to think that I'm a positive guy. Hey, when I step into BMO Field, I am there to cheer the team on and hopefully watch us win.

I'm back into what my pal/co-host Stephe Perry has dubbed "The Silence Pit" aka Section 105. Swapping tix with Timmy V so he can sit with his dad who is hilarious listening to when a game is going on. I've watched the last two road games with Steve (not co-host Stephe, but Mr. V) and he yells out the most obvious/basic things but TFC can't do it. "CROSS IT INTO THE MIDDLE!! COME ON NOW!!" Hmmm put the cross into the middle? Who'd have thought?! "GO FORWARD!! NO!! NOT BACKWARDS, FORWARD!!!" Holy shit! Sometimes I think Stefan Frei makes more passes than anyone else on the team. I think I will start referring to the team as the broken wheel. It makes sense to me.

But back to 105. Interesting comment from Chris Cummins this week with regards to needing a 12th man today to get behind the team. I will now beat a dead horse. Sorry Chris, in case you were unaware, TFC/MLSE does not promote this kind of behaviour outside of their Marketing Sect .. err.... I mean Supporters Sections. It bums me out that in the next two games, which are super important, missing key players, where the team NEEDS that 12th 'man', that in 70% of the stadium we have to sit and watch in a polite, baseball game/tennis match manner. Because if they/we become overwhelmed with the urge to cheer the lads on - well that is not acceptable and such types will be removed from the grounds. I'm sorry but BMO will never be a fortress in this regulated, carefully constructed way.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Hey well at least we have the wave!! BARRFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Ok, who cares? One hour to go - time to get red!

It's Saturday!

2009-10-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

And what a day. The only thing missing is a TFC home game. This weather is disgusting. I almost got in a fist fight biking around earlier when at a red light some jerkoff thinks it's his right to ride his horn trying to make a right turn when I'm waiting for the light to change to go straight through. Do I need to have a copy of the Highway Act every time I go out? Hey man, 20 seconds isn't going to kill you. Take a deep breath, count to ten and say "serenity now".

So that ruined what was an already ruined Saturday due to horrible weather. BUT when taking my sweet time home last night I was able to find this:

I guess it's not that big a deal but considering I'd much rather not step foot in Chapters/Indigo, I was pretty shocked to see this WAAAY at the back in the football section of the magazine rack. I was looking for the Champion's League mag, but this was a nice surprise. I've hooted and hollar'd about the guys who write for this a couple times through My Favorite Year and I just read the sort of Encyclopedia of football in the UK they put out. I want a subscription to this! And this is super nerd but they even have cool shirts - STUFF YER SUPERLEAGUE! HAR HAR HAR!!

Well I'm glad one decent thing happened so far this weekend. And as I look out the window now, it seems to be clearing up! WHoo-Rah!

Weekend Update

2009-10-02T12:38:00.001-07:00

Well it looks like it has come to this. I'm just such a busy man! Mon-Thurs I just can't hack it at night to come up with a post or two. Actually now I'm getting down on myself - what's wrong with you spark!? Not even a line or two? or even a pic!??! Man, you've changed.

Ok, ok. No excuses. The above is the truth as RNO is a bit of a monster and it's growing like a mofo. In the last five minutes (I was working for the last five minutes and now i'm back blogging) I've decided that I just need to come up with some kind of frequent post topic that I can pump out more often. Whatever happened to the Magic Eight Ball?! That shit was funny.

Case in point. This was a good one - my top five for 2009 - GRASS! BOOYA!! Ahhh wishes do come true.

Crazy week so far and my head spins and spins. Jesus is TFC actually going to make the playoffs? It's almost looking that way with their last three games against pretty bad opposition. However, I don't think any of the games will be a walk in the park. San Jose hasn't been the worst thing ever since August and if they can shock Seattle and DC United at home, there's no reason to think it couldn't happen here. RSL are terrible on the road, but I still don't put it past them given the talent they actually have. I think too many people are looking at everyone else and not directly at ourselves. TFC aren't exactly a squad that has their shit together. We finally scored on the road but as long as we keep defending ... errr or lack there of ... crosses the way we do, Toronto will keep hemorrhaging goals in this manner.

Well at least there is a weekend off to sit back, watch all the games and come up with new stats monday morning on how we're going to make the post-season!

Where have I heard that before?

2009-09-27T14:24:00.001-07:00

Is it me or does TFC and Chicago have the exact same songs? I'm sitting there last night thinking "geez it's the 26th minute and they're still singing Danny Dichio?!"

What a bummer that game was. It had it's moments but it seems with each passing week it becomes more and more clear that we are past the point of no return with respect to TFC developing any kind of strategy or plans. Can't teach an old dog new tricks I guess? So many things to still be positive about - just not this season! I feel bad for De Guzman right now because I'm sure this is not the ideal football he wants to be playing - what I mean by that is he's kinda been thrown into the fire and seems like there's nothing in terms of the development of a team but just trying to keep things for spiraling out of control. It doesn't seem like he's being used effectively and for the 3 million (is that the number?) he's making, for him to not be used in an impact position is such a waste. Here's to hoping this will all be addressed in the very near future.

What a night that was. Actually I had a pretty good time, despite the rain.
Jumped on the old IRO and rode over to Tim's place to watch the game with his dad and Stephe.

THE RETURN OF TV PICS!! 5 mins in - DE RO! I can't believe people rag on him. I can understand some of the criticisms but seriously, bottom line - if Frei wasn't in net and he wasn't scoring - I SHUDDER TO THINK!!

An up and down game ... BARRETT!?!?

Another highlight - FLARES. Oh man well done. Here's hoping it wasn't followed up by railings being thrown on the pitch and someone getting tazered.

2-2 draw. ugh. Well Stephe was MAD during the podcast. I think my tone calmed him down, as I wasn't as pissed because I'm actually not expecting TFC to make the playoffs so anything more than that I'm pretty happy!!

Two weeks off. A much needed break!

The leaves a changing

2009-09-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

Ahh, from green to red. That ain't so bad. I have to admit, I am looking forward to TFC's next home game, if for the only reason of the weather. There's something about football in the fall that just seems right. Well ... it's not 'something' it's that almost everywhere else plays then so it just seems appropriate to be at a game this time of year.

Not to mention changes at RNO. Friday we posted our first interview/column by Paul James. No introduction needed, you know who he is. We met with Paul months back with a simple request out of respect for his knowledge and analysis of the game. He has graciously given us a valuable piece of his time to use for content on the site. The goal at RNO (well in it's most simple definition) is to bring exposure to this game in Canada. I think Paul has an important voice in this country on the game that brings balance and cuts to the bone.

We are working hard for the next step, which will be bananas and why I'm in this weird pattern of posting here Saturday-Monday. Where it's at now is tough enough, but it's super fun. So work - it is not.

Stay tuned!

Start fresh

2009-09-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

Well there will be no pics of a television screen today. Thank god for that. After feeling so encouraged all week long, we have been brought back down to reality that there is a lot more going on here than just signing a quick DP to turn the season around. Anyone else getting the feeling this contract was pushed hard to deflect the fact we are likely to miss the playoffs again? Bring in the fan fave so we can all say "hmmm well Mo did bring in De Guzman ... not to mention De Ro!" forgetting the fact that this is a black & white issue - winning and losing. Not making the playoffs is losing, three strikes you're out. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, which there isn't, there is really no excuse IMO.

Once again this was the only good thing that happened tonight. Brewed in small batches? Refreshing hints of Vanilla and Oak? HELLO!! I bought this specifically for the design of the bottle. I got REAL drunk after this game to drown away my sorrows. WHAT? IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD.
Note to self: clean that window sill it's disgusting!

T-Minus ...

2009-09-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Can not lie - this is the most exciting night for TFC in a while. I don't want to use the term "finally" with regards to quality, because I believe we have it - but there is now someone you can trust with the ball and hopefully be the engine or glue and take some of our good players to another level. Win or lose, I'm pretty happy right now because there is alot of good things to look forward to. If MLSE don't pull some Jedi mind tricks over us and pretend like there isn't a ton more work to do - specifically ... well improving everything sans keeping and midfield. IMO we should start to do this right and build this team from the back to the front. And with the middle taken care of we should be able to do it pretty quick.

Anyway just a quick pre-game post. A CRAZY busy night - Part I of the Reds has snatched 3 points on the road, now onto Part II. A decent UFC, A SOLID night of boxing with Mayweather v. Marquez, and then TFC! Life is good.

Can't Stop. Won't Stop.

2009-09-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

A busy weekend finally over and now rolling into the usual weekdays of working 9-5 then 7-11. Is blogging considered work? I say yes. Well it is when you are wearing red plaid and have a beard. I have both. Still feeling a bit wiped from a non-stop weekend, which always feels that way when TFC play a home game.

Now that the insane schedule is over from April and May, that one game a month really stands out. And it makes it 10X more important that when I get a chance to add something to RNO it gets taken advantage of. With a completely bananas week of drama with TFC (they suck on Sunday, Dichio retires on Tuesday, Grass imminent on Thursday, De Guzman signs on Friday, and they rule again on Saturday) there was so much to talk about.

The shitty thing was that my two co-hosts for East Side Stand Up (This name IS NOT about that ridiculous chant, which they don't do on the East Side of BMO - they prefer THE WAVE) were out of town and true to form I left trying to find guests to the last second. This has happened a few times this season and I resigned to the fact that I just wouldn't do a podcast. But this time I had in the back of my mind the guys from Some Canadian Guys Talking/Writing About Soccer who I recall reading a post a while back about their podcast on hold or on hiatus so I thought, maybe they'd be up for getting a podcast in and talking shop. Well needless to say it all worked out and they brought along Ben Knight from Onward! to boot! That was pretty cool considering I think that in the first two seasons of TFC (you know, before the 'recession' ruined football coverage in the newspapers here) his and Morgan Campbell's columns were the best in the city.

When we do our podcast it's usually focused on analysis from the game in question from the three of us who all sit in the same section. Tim has a great sense of seeing the game from growing up in London following West Ham United. Stephe has played the game at a high level and still plays to this day and I'm really into Championship Manager. So together I think we can cover alot of different perspectives of what went on that day. But it was really cool to listen to Ben, Squizz and Jamie give their take on TFC - not just from where they watch at BMO but as fans of the team and in the media. You don't always get to sit in a room (well I don't) and talk like that so it was pretty sweet.

But even before that - within two weeks of my last appearance on Norman James THE HOOK I got the call again. Football was the topic of the week and this time Norman hooked (heyoooo) us up with something like 20 minutes on his show. Seriously check out his blog and see how fast this show is growing. One of the reasons we started RNO is because the media in Canada has football (especially Canadian football) as such a low priority, or 5th page news if you will. Regardless of whether or not we are on this show, it is awesome to see that someone is out there willing to give it 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes of exposure. I'm really grateful for being included in that show, but most importantly for the fact that I own the all-time guest appearance title!!

That is right - and you are right Norman, Saturday night I did drink to that!!

Math Rules!

2009-09-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well we are still alive. Mathematically still in the hunt. I don't want to make it an issue of optimism or pessimism, it is what it is. TFC look horrible one week and are able to pull it out the next. It feels a bit 'too little too late'. Given our recent road form, LA is going to be tough next week and Chicago the next no easier. But yesterday there was alot to be happy about. #1 - NO RAIN = HOT GIRLS! Ok this is how the day played out:

Rolled up to the stadium, why is it that every game I tell myself I'm going to be there 30 mins early to watch the warm up and get there 5 mins before the kick off. I missed the Danny Dichio tribute (I could hear it) so that sucked.

But did get a chance to see this. I haven't dug around on the deal with Oct. 17 but this was a good start. These two ends of the pitch are what makes the games for me - except when the game is dry and it's all NEE :) HAHA

Let's kick 'er off!

DE RO!! I don't care about the criticism (yeah can you believe it) this guy is all heart and gives it 110% every game. I really think when De Guz comes, he will play so much better with someone close to him on the pitch he can trust through and through.

Ok - this is really starting to grind my gears. Look at the clock. How is it that people are thrown out of the stadium for standing and cheering on the team but it's A-OK at 20mins, 32mins, etc ... for people to continuously to walk up and down rows to buy nachos/beer/hot dogs, BLOCKING MY VIEW. Maybe if they could find a way to charge for cheering they'll let us stand up again?

Second half - oh man. 1-1. Conor Casey AGAIN. We said it on the pod, De Guz brings so much to the team except for the 2 main things we have never had - defending and goal poaching. We clearly can't defend a cross, no matter who is our CB.

67min ... Cummins makes the sub ... WHAT!? WE TAKE THE LEAD!!! OBW!!

WHAT IS THIS!? AN INSURANCE GOAL!?!? Nana!! Let's just throw this out. Attakora, Frei, Serioux, Cronin, De Ro, De Guz, Guevara, Gerba, OBW. We almost have an amazing XI.

Yes. Insurance goal. Obviously we need it because TFC almost choke big time!

A win is a win and there was good things this game.

Next week will be tough, it will be great to see De Guz stretch his legs but I'm already thinking about what it will look like if we can get our back line sorted out.
Ok that's it. Beautiful day, good result!

De Guz or not De Guz

2009-09-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

Unless we are going to try to payback Colorado for last week's 'last minute' roster change, looks like De Guzman won't make his home debut today. But that is fine. Could it be possible that TFC aren't in it for the short term solution and are going to build a team? Or maybe Mo has waved his hand ala Obi-Wan Kanobi and in a month will say "We've done good this season. Look who we've signed. Success." Well there's not too many ways to take that as De Guzman doesn't remedy any of the team's most glaring issues (goals in and goals out) - but here's to the benefit of the doubt and the off-season!

Bottom line, of course, I am so stoked to see this guy play here week in and out. The last time he played at BMO was a dominating performance that put him undoubtedly in the class of best midfielder in CONCACAF and we could see with our own eyes why 07/08 was a year of accolades for him in La Liga. There has been chatter here an there about how he should have tried to stay there, MLS step down etc ... and as I've mentioned possibly here but definitely in conversations - this is the best move for everyone. TFC wins, Team Canada wins (yes they do) and fans win. I'll leave it at that because a colleague will elaborate on it in a few days.

Today is one thing - a tough game that will probably result in a draw and put one more nail in our chances of the post-season. But the class of the squad has just increased big time and the end of this season and the next three will be exciting to watch!

When Mo closes a door ...

2009-09-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

He opens a window!

One minute it's a press conference to announce Julian De Guzman, the next Danny Dichio is retiring. One might have thought by the amount of playing time he was getting he already had retired. Something about this smells funny, but I say hat's off to Dichio. The guy loves the city, his playing days (figuratively and literally) almost over, the team (well this seems to be in contention) needs to free up $$$ to sign De Guzman, so they get him in a coaching position. He stays with the team he bleeds for, he's still getting paid and he remains in TO. It would be 10X sweeter for him to play in the last game of the season - because you would know he would score!!!

HEY WTF!? I CAN NOT BELIEVE WE'VE BEEN ROBBED OF THAT!

But in return, we will be expecting a De Guzman press conference which will be it's very own post in the very near future.

Oct. 17 - still looking forward to that though! Good memories Danny.

No Labour Today

2009-09-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well this wasn't the most exciting weekend in the football world. Outside of MLS pretty much everyone was on a break for friendlies/qualifying matches. Argentina?! Oh my! Looking forward to Wednesday - England v. Croatia, Hungry v. Portugal, Mexico v. Honduras, Serbia v. France ... some pretty good match-ups! I will have espnsoccernet gamecasts in full effect. Now that we're getting down to the wire, these games are going to get pretty sweet.

Well on the Spark front, took advantage of a beautiful weekend to get out of the city for a few hours and check out some old stuff (ok antiquing) BUT I was keeping an acute eye for anything football worthy and boy did I hit the jackpot!

Ok well maybe not. Sporting Club poster from 1977-78? Hello Cup of Portugal Winners that season? Surely worth $100!

And this was about the only other thing of note in about 100 booths. I actually wish I had bought this. I am one of those OCD guys who if I was watching the Champions League, I would have to exclusively use this bottle opener to for my beer.

And a tip to all the heavier readers out there.

HOLY SHIT! Are those eye holes? Is someone supposed to wear this?

My only purchase of the day was an April 11, 1966 issue of Sports Illustrated with Ali on the cover socking George Chuvalo. Pretty cool.

My my my

2009-09-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well another late night disaster! Curious to see how this week plays out - if damage control central can make the moves to make this De Guzman rumour a reality. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it's just another round of BS to be used as leverage for a better contract offer abroad. My gut feeling is it ain't happening but everyone seems to think this is going down so we'll wait and see. But ... last time I checked he isn't a goal scorer and isn't a defender and those are the two most dire needs on this team. If it's a 6 game contract? WTF is the point? Anyway, I hope that is not the case or I shake my head. Last night we put ourselves in a hole so deep we're hanging posters. The night was a crazy one and I took pics! Well don't worry next week I'll actually have live photos.

So we pulled off a road podcast last night and I spent about 2 friggin' hours trying to get files off my computer onto the laptop. What a pain!

Good grief yes I took pictures of the tv. TFC acadamy! Gets whooped by Serbian White Eagles.

And I could not bear to really take anymore except at this point. Sigh sigh where do we go from here?

And we push aside the train set and pound out another East Side Stand Up podcast! Shit I don't like doing 1am sessions. It was a bit mental and I did not makes sense a few times.

Wow what a night! Like the FC Dallas road game, I think the best part was the beer we drank. TFC have a steep mountain to climb and put out the best form we've seen pretty much, well ever! And I gotta say, at this point, if De Guzman comes here, I kinda don't think it'll make any difference. Anxious to see how this season finishes off and really all I want are for good home games at least. Stand up for the TFC!

A half decent football book

2009-09-02T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't done an official 'review' in a while. Mostly because this book isn't really a book per se (it's just shaped like one!), and I ended up reading it over or in between three other books. How did I come to finding and picking this one? I was oh so close to grabbing Futbol, the history of brazilian football and was really trying to get Verona, but I had just finished reading the Miracle of Castel Di Sangro so I wasn't into another "season with" book. So in one hand was Futbol ready to be bought but then I saw it ... I knew that copy treatment. When Saturday Comes. I'm not from England, nor have I actually ever read a copy of it, but I've read a few things from their contributors, enough to know that this was definitely a book I had to pick up and would enjoy reading. There is a quick chain of events that made me know this was the book to buy.

Really all you need to know is this:
Nick Hornby - My Favorite Year - When Saturday Comes

I don't need to explain Nick Hornby (I hope!!) but years back I was going through some bookstore shelf and saw his name. I thought he had written the book, but it turned out it was only one chapter. I read it and didn't think too much of it, but decided to pick it up again a year ago. MAN. First off that book was written by contributors to WSC, who pretty much started as a reaction to the way football was being portrayed and written about during the late 80s. My Favorite Year is a collection of it's writers ... um, well, favourite year of their club. I'll let you read the review because I can't summarize it again.

So the book in question, or review, or blog, WSC: The Half Decent Football Book is pretty much an encyclopedia of everything football in the UK. Players, Teams, Events, Stadiums, Uniforms etc ... you name it, it's probably in there. The good news is that it's not like the football version of Encyclopedia Britannica - it is an A to Z, but each entry is more anecdotal rather than simply factual. It has also proven to be a very useful resource tool!

FOR EXAMPLE - Canadian International Richard Hastings has just switched to Hamilton Academical. DID YOU KNOW, They were formed in 1874 by the rector and pupils of the local school? They were the first Scottish club to recruit players from Eastern Europe (3 poles!).

Football made quite a stir just over a week ago in the West Ham v Millwall match. How long has that rivalry lasted?

In 1906 The East Ham Echo report describes a game in which 'all attempts at football were ignored', climaxing in West Ham's Jarvis smashing the head of Millwall's Deans against a metal advertising board, seriously injuring his opponent, for which he received only a caution.

Aaaaaand I can now return you to my bookshelf until the next time I need gain a bit of knowledge or steal an anecdote. So as I had mentioned above, I clearly wasn't able to get through this all in one go, but have gone back to it several times since finishing it. If you are into football in the UK and the history of clubs/players/events this is a pretty solid resource to have to refer back to whenever you need to.

A day to reflect

2009-08-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

Well two teams in red, up and down results, but not a bad weekend at all. A 3-2 win over Bolton ehhh not the greatest but it'll do as long as it's a win. TFC on the other hand, I think was a bit soft on them considering how terrible they were last weekend. At least they decided to show up for the full 90 minutes this week, even though as some people have pointed out, the finishing needs to be there. I can recall having that conversation that the most frustrating thing with them is it takes them 5-10 chances to convert and leave themselves open to their opponent scoring in their first or second chance. Chicago at home was a game where the Fire hardly had any opportunities, but they scored on them. Either way, after last week a point is a point, I'm just really hoping when they go into Colorado next week it's not another 180 back to the week before.

So yeah, I watched the game at home and took pictures of my TV. Lame!

But after the game I was lucky enough to get called back to go onto the air with Norman James' THE HOOK out of London. This time we talked TFC, an article RN posted that pissed alot of people off, and EPL! Outside of doing our own podcast which is super DIY and totally free-form, it's a little bit tougher being mentally prepared for something live that you don't know 100% what you're going to be asked. I can think of more than one time where I started rambling on about something and halfway through asking myself "Holy shit what was the question again?" Or forgetting the last name of Stoke City's manager. Tony Pulis guys - PU-LIS. So yeah, it's stuff like that that gives you a bit of anxiety because football supporters have zero tolerance for a bullshitter or people who don't have their facts straight. Thank god I make up for it with my good looks.

And last but not least today was a day to celebrate the lord and listen to a slew of football podcasts since WSD is off the air. Well apparently they are back as World FOOTBALL Daily, but it will be subscriber based (which I say go for it), so I have to mix it up. 606 Phone in was first and the host Alan Green is pretty intense. Actually I just googled him - YIKES. Now it's onto Football weekly from the Guardian and it's not half bad. I guess I'll have to try these out to see which is best.

Final note - I know nobody ever comments here but is there a Bundesliga/La Liga/Serie A equivalent of BBC/Times/Guardian football site? Inquiring minds would like to know.

One down, one to go!

2009-08-29T12:02:00.001-07:00

So as of right now, we have one win for the Reds and we'll have to wait and see how the other Reds fare in a few hours. Something tells me it's a little easier for Liverpool to win at Bolton than Toronto FC at Seattle. But you have to stay positive. If we can strike early, and given TFC's usual first 20mins it's possible, take out the crowd, who knows!?

It might seem unlikely to come away with points in Seattle, but fear not! A wise man once said (to Toronto FC no less):

Remember Reds, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Still lots of games left so I'm going to say regardless of this road swing, still plenty of hope to go around and chances to take advantage of. See you in a few hours!

Recovery Room

2009-08-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

Wow. Well after last night I'm not sure who was celebrating with these on Friday night more - myself or TFC.

Who knew the starting XI of TFC all had the same BDay weekend as me! What else could explain how after 15mins everyone looked like they were nursing a massive hangover. "Oh man I just tried really hard, ok well i'll take it easy now for a bit". We've harped it over and over the schizo nature of this club, how the second things look pretty good and I have to admit even though we predicted a 1-0 victory it took everything I could think of to not just throw up my hands and say "come on it's a road game against a western division team - we lose 2-0." Well they say listen to your instincts and my instinct right now says we are going to get WHOOPED in Seattle.

I took it easy last night even though I was officially one year grayer, Friday night was when I made a mess of myself. Not to talk about age or partying, but to keep it on the topic of this blog. A few sweet things came through the mail this week that is worth sharing, most notably this:

Pretty much anything of historical reference I'm totally in to, so when Brother Lemoine (check blogroll - the Canadian in a City of Angels) sent me this the reaction was nothing more than "whoa!" Argentina '78 was something else and if you check out the reviews tab, more than one book in there covers that World Cup. Brilliant Orange talks about it from the Dutch perspective and Soccer Against the Enemy from the socio/political end in Argentina.

Now that I'm on the topic of items of historical reference, I might as well show these. A month or so back on my trip to Barca I went to the Nou Camp and the tour was ok, but what I was into was this wall of all the membership cards. It's cool seeing an evolution of design from the past 100 years all on these little 3.5X5 cards.

So as I was walking around the city a few days later ... ok I was going to not specifically mention this to keep as my own secret for when I go back, but hey, I live to give, so I'll pass this one forward. At the main cathedral (you can see in the pic) they have an antique market and there's only two rows of stalls/tents but if you walk down the middle row there is a lady that has these two glass cases and in them is pretty much every Barcelona Membership card from the past 80+ years, as well as tickets to numerous international games from the past fifty years. Well I nearly shit myself.

There you have it - the 50th anniversary membership card, one from 1954 and the 25th anniversary of the Nou Camp 1982 Membership card. A pre-birthday present for myself (fyi they cost 20-30 euros. ouch) BUT in that I also saw this ticket (photocopied in the photo) and thought to myself - oh my buddy rick who works for RedNation, his kids are part Hungarian, this would be cool so they could have a memento to know they have football in their blood from both sides of their family. Well holy shit, do you know about this game?? Look it up. 100,000 people - the first game England loses at Wembly, and in the midst of Hungary's 3-4 year unbeaten streak. Anyway, look it up and if you decide to visit beautiful Barcelona, maybe you could check for me if she has another one of those tickets :)

WSD WTF

2009-08-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Well that was something. Not sure if anyone else out there is into this show and I know there are definitely some strong opinions in all directions but I'm going to be bored on the subway ride to and from work! World Soccer Daily is apparently off the air after various Liverpool boycotts took great offence to host Stephen's Cohen's venomous opinion towards the Hillsborough Disaster.

1989 was the year of said disaster, and coincidently it was the year Ice T released his third album "Freedom of Speech ... Just Watch What You Say". I agree with freedom of speech in all forms but know that at a certain point/level you have to be careful, especially to think you can't be touched. Personally I think Mr. Cohen thought he was too big to be brought down, but it happened. For now anyways.

I thought he was a complete tool for his opinion and stopped listening it frequently, but have to say that show had great guests - Tim Vickery, Graham Hunter, Robbie Earle, only to name a few - and their five part series with Grant Wahl of The Beckham Experiment was awesome. Alot of mixed thoughts/feelings about the whole thing because this was a really good show but at the same time I don't think you can talk such utter rubbish and not get people geared towards you (not saying most of the behaviour towards him is acceptable). Maybe you have no idea what I am talking about but I'm sure if you google the said information you will find some info on it.

I guess now I'm going to have to listen to The Game!

Dog Days

2009-08-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

Ugh please, believe me, this hasn't become a once-a-weeker blog. So much to say but worn down a bit and I don't think the wrath of Apollo and Thor (Yes i'm pagan TO THE MAX) has helped. Just hoping to get through the next few weeks until the fact I don't have A/C doesn't matter anymore. RedNation is a full time job and working on some things with that to take it up a notch. If only I didn't have an actual full time job ... bah a man can only dream!

But all the leagues are in full swing and it's a beautiful thing. EPL looks awesome this year as IMO nobody is a clear cut favourite, which is perfect - Tottenham? Ehhh yeah right, LIVERPOOL! :) TFC go to the left coast and my gut tells me they can pull it out even though my logic is saying they can't. Chivas has just turned into such garbage, they can't score anymore, so this looks good considering our defence can be hit an miss. Another good opponent to get the young kids some match time.

Anyway, lots of action on Saturday so let's make a date. To end it off let's keep this theme 1975. Shit it should have been '77! Oh well. HERE'S TO THE CHAMPS OF 1975!!!

Keepin' pace

2009-08-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well I've had a day to digest this one, maybe a little too excited about the result, but man, a win when we needed it and two goals to boot! TFC 2-0 over DC United and alot of gloss for the victory but a win is a win. Clearly some things to iron out for much tougher opposition over the next three weeks, but we can't be losing 3 points at home any more if we're going into the playoffs. Quite a few positive things to take from the game - I'm thinking Sam Cronin ... that guy delivered nice crosses and got himself open, and busted back to cover for Attakora. I can't wait to see him develop over the next few years. So I won't give too much post game jibber-jabber and get right to the pics!

Holy sheet this was the hottest day ever. A long walk in, and a Mo Edu shirt sighting!!

Grrrr won't give it to the DC fans as I can appreciate they giver all 90 mins home and away but it's such a drag that anyone around there has to sit on their hands and take it for the full match.

Good tings in the south end

and in the north. Curious now if the rumours about permanent stands in the beer garden materialize if they will take over that end and make it a supporters' section? How awesome would it be to see a standing, singing, boisterous north and south end of the stadium!? QU'EST-CE QUE VOUS CHANTEZ?

Oooo O'Brain White and Sanyang get the start!

Not long in DE RO!!!

An alright first half but things looked promising on the OBW front.

Chad Barrett shoots for $250K

2nd Half looking good ... except Jimmy B will be takin' a seat next game thanks to this.

OH MY! O'BRIAN WHITE!

And Frei keeps the clean sheet

An interesting portrait

That's the game. TFC 2 DC United 0! OBW MOM

DERO IMO MOM

Next home game ... man I hate the once a monthers. Oh well. I haven't been neglecting the blog I have a few posts I haven't put together yet so hang tight! So much to see in my very own football world :)

Breaker Breaker

2009-08-08T16:07:00.000-07:00

Was lucky enough to hit the airwaves today and talk shop on 'The Hook' with London's own Norman James on AM980. My alter, more positive, ego talked about the Reds and their game against Real Madrid. I've never done something live like that so I was a bit worried I'd be all "Deerrrr meeeehhh Ronaldo bllahahah" but I managed to string together quite a few sentences! You can check it out here.

The only thing I didn't get into, which I wish I had, was what happens after this game to 'raise the profile' of football in Canada. I don't think one person, one team, and especially one game can do this. It might in the short term, but ultimately it's developing successful Canadian players and Canadian teams that will grow the sport here. I can think on a personal level the likes of Paul Stalteri in 2003/04 at Werder Bremen, Julian De Guzman in 2007/08 at Deportivo and Christine Sinclair ... well for most of her career, as players who have raised the profile of the sport in this country. Teams like the 2002 U20 woman's team and the Montreal Impact's 2008 Champions League run received massive exposure. When Vancouver, and hopefully Montreal, join MLS, we will have three teams that get the nice glossy marketing and promotion that comes with being in the league. Maybe Hamilton, London, Quebec City or Victoria will get a USL1 team one day, and that would be amazing for the players and game here. But in terms of exposure and 'raising' the profile of the game, I still think the operative word is SUCCESS. Real Madrid won't come in here, wave a magic wand, and *poof* football is #1 in Toronto. This task falls on the players, team and organization - and when they are successful, by winning games and trophies, then I think we will see (well, continue to see) the game growing here in Canada.

So in celebration of the Real Madrid spectacle today I put on ...

MALAGA C.F.!! Anyone? Anyone? Come on, they have a player named POPO - nuff said.

What we be talkin' about?

2009-08-06T04:25:00.000-07:00

I like to fancy myself a bit of a nature photographer. All things that mother earth brings us: beautiful skies, water, birds, trees and GRASS.

Oh my. So yes I am that guy. The one with the camera at the stadium dorking out taking pictures of a grass field - is this what it has come to as a TFC fan!?! All I have to get excited about is beautiful, lush, green monocotyledonous (ok I wiki'd to get that one). I realized pretty quick what a nerd I was so I only snapped off two pics. LOOK!

And of course since MLSE is so pinched, they have added a few seats up north. I mean $175 is peanuts so we gotta try to make our money back and don't forget this game is like seeing the Rolling Stones at the El Mo! WTF?! Pretty sure Bill Wyman didn't go backstage after half the set while Danny Bonaduce finished the concert.

Can't say I give a rats about this whole Real Madrid weekend. I got my "RAH RAH" email from TFC just now and those things make me puke. I remember the one for River Plate about their storied history and what a great deal this was, which should have just read, "Come see TFC players get injured against some of South America's most promising sixteen year olds!!"

Anyways unless you can't tell, I'm firmly in the camp of hating these friendlies, this one in particular for too many reasons to count (But for starters reasons 1 and 2 - I hate Ronaldo and Real Madrid). Anyone who thinks there isn't a cash grab then you can head on down to watch them PRACTICE for $15. You get to watch them PRACTICE for $15. I could say it over and over to emphasize how utterly ridiculous, shameful and petty this is, but instead I will leave you with some words a very wise man once said:

"I mean, listen, we talkin about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, we talking about practice, not a game ... Not the game we talkin about practice man."

Jet laaaaag

2009-08-04T11:52:00.001-07:00

Ugh. Oh man feeling a bit rough. Is it 9pm or 3pm?? I have no clue. Back from two weeks across the pond working on the man tan and seeing the sights. Tried to squeeze in as much football as possible but had a tough time making that a priority when I was short on time and spent over a week with people who don't really care for the sport. But regardless saw some good stuff. It was cool seeing games and coverage on TV all the time, specifically Bundesliga and Eredivisie. The latter I think would be a sweet league to follow as there is some cool teams, specifically there was alot of VVV highlights with their captain Keisuke Honda who looked pretty damn good. Anyways, let's get to the football specific roll of film. The trip went a little something like this - Barca-Valencia-Sete-Vevey-Berlin-Amsterdam. And here are the highlights:

Started the trip off in a mad dash because I was doing too much bloggin/podcastin/websitin when I should have been packin! So I jump in the cab to rush off to the airport. I live right by BMO field so the guy floors it outta my neighborhood, is flying through traffic, onto the highway ... EAST. I'm just sitting there waiting until this moron realizes that Pearson is not located downtown Toronto. Finally he says "Ummm. Hmmm. I think we are going the wrong way. We might need to turn around." REALLY? YOU THINK? MIGHT? HOW ABOUT TURNING THAT METER OFF PAUL TRACY CUZ I'M NOT PAYING TO SIT IN TRAFFIC DOWNTOWN. So after that I finally arrived to the airport, rushed to the nearest bar and snapped this picture off that pretty much summarizes Team Canada. Tough loss guys.

Flew into Barca here and wanted to find where Espanyol is playing this season but for real I think you really won't find much in this city unless you know where to go because it's 100% Barcelona FC. After getting settled in, went up to Camp Nou but this time (I've been once before) decided to take the stadium/museum tour.

First thing you do is watch this super cheesy 3-D movie that left me thinking man this is going to be the most ghetto tour ever, but it actually wasn't that bad.

No grass on the pitch yet but pretty impressive inside. I am such a loser that I was here before when a game was going on (Getafe, so give me a break) and didn't go.

Maybe MLSE should take a good hard look at this.

The museum has cool historical memorabilia of posters, uniforms, membership cards and whatnot.

The Treble!

This was a bit of a sight - seeing tons of people just standing around the outside fence watching players board the bus to training.

So after that I headed down to Valencia. I unfortunately only had one day and could not get to the Mestalla BUT, I thought to myself, I can definitely get down with a Valencia kit or shirt, their crest is pretty badass. Until I saw THIS:

WTF! Have some dignity! UNIBET? Ok, maybe not the name but that is the ugliest logo ever and those shirts look brutal. I couldn't get out of that team store fast enough. So instead my hard earned money was spent at the bull ring. I did not go in because it had already started but it was super loud and I bought a sweet t-shirt on the street of a bull chucking a matador out of the ring! GO VEGETARIAN!!

So after a few more days around that area of Spain I drove up to Berlin, which took about three days. Stopped in Switzerland and had to practice my Italian.

Continued north and on the way saw ... HOFFENHEIM!

AND THIS. This picture does not do it justice, trust me it was a monstrosity.

My battery died in Berlin and had to wait a day to buy an adaptor. Rolled into Amsterdam but could not get to the stadium. Instead just found a few things here and there and watched football on TV late at night.

Good times, sucks to be back in a way but stoked to get to work on RedNation starting tonight with the TFC game. Missed alot of action over the last two weeks. My only regret was missing Liverpool play Espanyol in Barcelona, I seriously should have looked at the schedule and flown out of there. Another trip, another bungled football experience. Oh well, it's good to be home and being able to see TFC!

DEDICATION

2009-07-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

This is what it is all about. The taxi will be here in 5 mins but i'm still blogging! Actually it is pretty lame. I should be chillin and actually going over my luggage but I've been more preoccupied with the game today and making sure this shit is all up to date. Wow. Oh well no captions today but you can make up your own!

Dry game = BOOOOORING
Where is everybody? OH YEAH OUTSIDE LINING UP BAAAAAAAH

COME ON LADS!

Serioux injured - Dichio on annnnnnd

GOOOOOOOOOOL

"Just in case anyone has forgotten that we are dicks, if you stand we will throw you out. No standing and cheering, it could lead to a home field advantage and we don't want that. Just money. More money. Yours."

Ohhh shit

MY CAB IS HERE GOTTA RUN
SEE YOU SUCKAS IN 2 WEEKS
GO REDS BEAT PUERTO RICO
SEE YOU TEAM CANADA AT THE AIRPORT!!

Adios Muchachos!

2009-07-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

Ok well obviously not until tomorrow after the game - I do have my priorities in order!

#1 - TFC.
#2 - Self Well Being.

That is right I am off for Dos Semanos, to return with football inspired backlog of blogs, so worry not. I am pretty down about missing the Puerto Rico game, but what can you do? Things will carry on for the time I'm out of here so watch out for big tings happenin wit RedNation UH!

Worst part - will be checking in luggage while the Canada game is going on. Hopefully it'll go quick and I can see it on the bar somewhere in the terminal. Anways, a bit of a pointless post but want to get it out of the way so the blog doesn't look dead. There'll be one tomorrow after the game and then it's time to get a sunburn!

Tomorrow - GO REDS X2!!!

A rising tide lifts all boats

2009-07-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

La satgione e lunga e dura. The season is long and hard. Although the statement is specific to one, this is an expression that can be said of any season and league in football. We have all read about, followed, or possibly even been a part of an amazing season in sports. When it is all said and done, you look and think back to how it all began, perhaps ten months earlier, did you know this is where it would have ended up? In the case of The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro, it is the mantra for the 1996/97 season of Castel Di Sangro and their ascension into Italy's Serie B. In just over one decade, this team rose from the very lowest division in the country, in a town of just 5,000 people, to gain promotion into the division below Serie A, which at that time was arguably the top league in the world.

I carry a note in my wallet that has a list of books I add onto whenever I come across mention of one that sounds like I need to read. It's gotten pretty long and for the most part they aren't in stock at Chapters or Indigo, or even if they were I probably would keep looking in a smaller shop until I found it there. One that I had on the list for a long time was The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro. I don't even remember when I would have jotted this down, possibly a few years back and the only way I would have probably found it was through my #1 way of choosing new books - "people who read this book also read ..." on amazon.com.

Pretty much every football book I've read recently has been with the purpose, or result, of gaining historical knowledge of a time, league or team that I knew nothing about or missed out on. I really never cared much for Serie A, always focusing on the Premier League and La Liga. But like the last book I read, Brilliant Orange, after getting through this one, my appreciation for the game, specifically this league, has grown immensely - or possibly where it should have been all along.

The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro is an account of this 96/97 season as seen through the eyes of the American writer, Joe McGinness. Instead of writing a book on O.J. Simpson (for a million dollars), he decided that he would spend the next nine months in the Abruzzo following this team's first season, their miracle season, in Serie B. McGinness at this point is what some would call a nOOb - having only started following the sport during the '94 World Cup. However, he genuinely becomes obsessed and passionate about football and after the World Cup contacts fellow American Alexi Lawless to stay in Italy and get his first taste of a domestic football league. As some of us know, nothing compares to seeing a live football match, and certainly after watching a game at the San Siro, that would be it.

Only a year later, through reading La Gazettea dello Sport, he finds out about this team that against all odds, against all logic, has climbed up to Serie B in the span of just over ten years. Their promotion was dubbed "Di Miracolo in Miracolo!" - miracle of miracles. Castel Di Sangro would be playing one step down from the top of Italian football - against teams who only last season were IN Serie A! McGinness had to be there to witness this season, and tell the story. We see him mixing his first hand account with the history of the team, the history of the owners and the history of the players. Since he is relatively new to the sport, and possibly because the target audience for the book might have been American, he takes care to explain thoroughly the rules, and situations as they apply to the team and to events that play out during each game he follows. So it ends up not just being a linear "A to B", September to June journey, but an overall trek that has dozens of side stories, seguays and tangents that make up one of the most insane, bizarre seasons you'll hear about ... or very possibly this could have been just another year in Italian football.

I've written a lot but not given much away as to details and that is the way it should be. Maybe you know this story already, but if you don't this is worth a read regardless of the fact it's about a little town's season in the second division. This is a book that you should check out for yourself, and despite it being ten years old (yeah yeah late pass) it holds up as one of the best. It's these kind of reads that actually find ways to encapsulate and remind you what the game is all about (passion!), so you can take a step back from $80 million dollar signings and the latest "he said he said" gossip books. If anything it's worth it to follow these players for a season then try to find them on wikipedia to see how their careers panned out.

One thing that I'm sure we can all relate to as TFC fans, or Team Canada fans (not Leafs fans though) that The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro epitomizes, is La Potenza della Speranza - The power of hope. Definitely something worth remembering in a city where we so easily give up on our team, or players. La satgione e lunga e dura, so make sure you are there at the end to witness something amazing.

Would I lie to you?

2009-07-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

I miss you baby.
For serious.

Only six more sleeps.

Those are some lads

2009-07-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Whoo-Ah! Top of the group to ya! Wow what a difference a year makes. Now I won't get into theories and all that hippy mumbo jumbo but I'm sure if we all thought real hard we can figure out why Canada is doing well this Gold Cup. But it doesn't matter to me. I'm a "what have you done for me lately" kinda guy and right now it's winning!

The one thing that has sucked for the last two games was I've had to watch them on my computer. What a pain in the ass. My roomie was watching Eastern Promises on Tuesday night and tonight, unless I am a complete moron (there will be NO COMMENTS allowed on that subject, thank you) I did not see it on sportsnet. So I was subjected to the absolute worst commentating on this Setanta feed I was getting. These guys had no clue who was on our team or what they played. I mean, apparently our keeper was none other than body building guru Paul Sutton.

If that wasn't enough, I had no idea that our starting striker was none other than former WBC Middleweight Champion, Julian Jackson. That is right, never mind that he is now 48 years old, the guy can score! How many footballers can say they beat Terry Norris AND Thomas Tate?!

And let's not forget about the El Salvador game that I watched on some latino feed. At least I wasn't subjected to fake players. But I was subjected to this amazing commercial.

Guys I know what you're thinking - I WISH THEY MADE THIS FOR MEN!!

BEHOLD!

In conclusion, TV on the internet is fabulous. Team Canada are a real motley crew, but get the job done. And in future Setanta commentator, this is Simeon Jackson:

THIS is Julian Jackson

Two and two

2009-07-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

So over the last ... month? there's been plenty of chatter on the potential whereabouts this guy will end up next year. Not trying to break any news but yesterday I was told about one potential destination that really piqued my interest.

Everyone knows of the usual suspects: Benfica, Tottenham, Osasuna, of course Toronto FC, but yesterday I read a small article that listed Espanyol as a possibly suitor. But of course! Not that there was any reason for it to dawn on me but there a few reasons why this could be the place we could see De Guzman next season.

Most of us might have kept an eye on La Liga this past year, if really for one reason and that was Barcelona. But there was also another interesting story happening south of Camp Nou on the '92 Olympic grounds, in Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc, where Espanyol were for most of the season in a tough relegation battle. Now normally this wouldn't be a HUGE story, teams with history drop into or stay the second division all the time (Leeds, Newcastle, Genoa, Torino, etc ...) but the reason why this was a bit of a bigger story was that Espanyol are moving into a brand new facility, Estadi Cornellà-El Prat on August 2. Up until the 32nd week of the season, they were all but certain for relegation. Imagine if in their first game, the stadium opening against LIVERPOOL, was in preparation for their 2009/10 season in division 2!!!

So anyway, that little scare is how my brain works at rationalizing that they know that given this is an important season for them, they need to make some moves and significantly improve their roster to ensure they remain not only in La Liga, but are legitimate contenders in their brand spanking new stadium. Well what better way to rebuild/solidify your team then with our very own Julian De Guzman, who was Deportivo's MVP for 07/08. But what about on De Guzman's end? Well some super sleuthing (aka FACEBOOK) recalls a status update along the lines of "I'm happy as long as I get to play Barcelona twice a year". Well what if you played against but also LIVED in Barcelona??? I think the waters are slightly warmer in the Mediterranean than the Atlantic. And the girls are smoking hot. I know the word on how much TFC has splashed out there, but I gotta say if I got 1/3 of that and got to play and live in Barca for a few years - play in La Liga which is clearly making a claim to being the best league in the world ... it's a no brainer.

Sounds like we'll hear what the word is in the next week or so, and how Canada fares in the Gold Cup could also play into how this story wraps up.

Payback

2009-07-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Yes that one felt good. Did the term 'revenge' come to mind for anyone else? All I could think of coming into this game was August 20, 2008. I actually had butterflies in my stomach for that match, something I had never really felt ... maybe ever for a Canadian football team? This was such an important game and to come out 1-1 ... I can't remember who had the quote but everyone seemed to know that those were three points that we 100% needed and one just wasn't going to cut it. It was like we had fallen out after the first game, even though there were five more to go. I ALSO remember how brutal the refereeing was and how I thought it was messed up they had a Guatamalan ref in this game (I'm actually not sure why that mattered but it did at the time!). I don't know the politics but it didn't seem on the level, and one of my clearest recollections is of blatant fouls against Canada that were waved on and the softest bumps gave Jamaica free kicks.

Moving on ...

July 3, 2009 we see FIFA referee Terry Vaughn as the arbiter of this game and to me, this made a huge difference in the kind of match we saw. This guy had no tolerance for diving or drawing soft fouls - which I think is strange the Jamacians pull that business because they are clearly the bigger, stronger more BUILT side. He actually let Canada play the kind of game Canada can play (did that make sense??), which is a mix between gritty and technical.

All that I'm going to comment on that game is I know every TFC fan had turned up a little extra decibel level in their yell when Ali Gerba scored. I'm thinking exactly how I was all, "Klukowski is good man ... whoa that's a bold cross ... whoa that is a PERFECT cross ... oh man he's going to be wide open! ... oh man that's Gerba! ... HOLY SHIT YES GERBA SCORES!!! FUCK MAN THIS GUY'S GOING TO BE PLAYING FOR TFC YES YES YES!!!" Hahaha Seriously that is what TFC has needed is a no-nonsense forward who is built like a truck and just has that heat-seeking instinct for the back of the net.

I'm loving that we got two great nuggets (sorry that's the only word I can think of) from that game - Canada starts off with three points, and TFC's new man scores the goal. I think as long as we see refs like Vaughn calling games like that Canada has a really good chance of making a statement in this tournament.

VAS-Y LES ROUGES!!

IT'S ALIVE! (for real)

2009-07-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

Wow. Deep breath. Nine months later. NINE. This really was like giving birth. Maybe you know what I am talking about here, maybe not, but clearly you will in a second. Everything you have or are reading here, is all part of a much larger picture that I am pretty stoked to say has finally 'kicked off' (heyoooo!).

It all began sometime at the end of last summer, early fall. I had bought out a friend of a friend of a friend's TFC season's tickets, and had already committed in my head to continuing on with it for the '09 season. As I've mentioned in the past, my background is in design, specifically print and layout. So when I thought ahead to this season I said to myself, "You should really dork out next year and become a total TFC-loser and eat, breathe, and live this team - what is the best way to do it?" ... FANZINE!!! But of course! I had done them in the past, and having the tools to whip it together pretty easily I knew I could pull this off, at least on the production end. When I excitedly told this to my one other work colleague (in web/media/marketing) who follows football he was into it. I felt pretty good and started figuring it out in my head. But like all ideas this one grew and grew. Fanzine? Cut and paste? Think big Spark, think BIG. Oh yes ... magazine! Never mind I'd only need at least $50K to kick it off, this was one sweet daydream I didn't want to end. A Canadian football magazine focusing on the teams, players and clubs that make up the game in our country. It could work. So again I tell the aforementioned colleague who looked at me and said the operative word(s): "Why would you do all that when you could do it online and accomplish the same goals for FREE" Now that term of course is being used loosely, but in comparison to a print job that might run $10K, yes, this is free.

So I, but then with the ear of and eventually help of colleague, made the first baby steps to getting this off the ground. The most obvious first step: BLOG! Oh yes the infamous blog. I am a blogger. Which means self-appointed media/journalist/super important person because people can read what I say (AKA AUTHORITY) on the internet. Check out those early days. Man was I bored. I needed to kick it up a notch. Step 2: PODCAST! You've seen the words, now you can hear the voice! Shit by April 2009 I was becoming the total package. But occasional blogger/podcaster just wasn't cutting it. I needed a bigger title, one that commands attention and power and can be used to pick up women: Comandante!

Eehhhh or maybe Publisher.

Which brings us to July 1, 2009 where the much 'bigger' idea has launched but has again only started to take shape. Imagine the picture at the top, but instead of a full sized adult, it was just a child (monster child though) that is going to grow into a full sized adult monster. It's only day one (well starting day two since it's now past midnight) and up to now what feels like a super long journey, is only just beginning. What you see below has a very simple, clear and honest mandate - to give football exposure in Canada. The pieces are coming together and we are confident that we can achieve this. Kinda overwhelming but I wouldn't have it any other way.

We just came back from a meeting on day one and my head is spinning on the potential this has. Looking forward to tomorrow, watching Team Canada and keeping this up to date.

REDS!

Working full time

2009-06-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

I do not think I've done hours like this since I was in University. Thank god for Rick and CMS! Thank god for Steve and his golden pen!

77 hours to go.

On the trot

2009-06-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

Well there you have it, three wins in a row. Never mind two were at home against a team that had yet to score on the road and one against a USL-1 B team. Wins are wins and Toronto FC stays in contention for the top of the East with a convincing 2-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls. I will not pretend these two games against New York were beautiful football, but with help on the way in name of Ali Gerba and supposedly more to come, to be in this position is crucial for the Reds. It was, though, a beautiful night to take in a game and soak up some Canadian football.

First thing's first ... oh how I've missed wearing you. I'll never be mad at you again TFC jersey. Fits just like I remembered it two weeks ago.

Tonight I was sitting in the infamous section 105. Ooooooo the flashpoint for the BMO security crackdown. I had to be on my best behaviour or else I'd be pissing in a bottle in the 80th minute. Was that crude? Just sayin' because I wouldn't want to get chucked out on my way to the bathroom.

Whoa what is up with this?! Relax the boys wore pink for breast cancer awareness

UNLIKE THESE EURO FRUITCAKES!!!

Early on the lads weren't gunning it but this match-up of De Ro against Pacheco was in our favour all night long. De Ro was open there the entire game.

After 28 mins (or fourteen games) ... VITTI SCORES!! Nothing fancy like you'd expect from a long-haired Argentine but he's paid to score and he's finally done it!!

Looking pretty good at half time. Until we were subjected to this. These guys simply had to kick these boxes off the table. Someone in the Carlsberg marketing department is getting canned after this useless promotion that resulted in NOBODY hitting the target.

Even the punks couldn't do it! Actually I'm not sure how punk it is to dress like Avril Lavigne from the neck down plus sandals.

Second half gets rolling and right into it De Ro again with class!!! He is on fire, this was a sweet goal and perfect ball from Barrett. Hey as long as we have someone finishing, Chad can be a player here IMO.

Now up 2-0 things get chippy with Dane Richards taking out Serioux. Why is it always the little guys?? This was a good series where Nick Garcia was talking mad shit to him the whole way down the field, then (look at the pic, Brennan is PIIISSSSEDDD) Jimmy B storms in and De Ro as well. I was surprised Serioux didn't chop him down before the game was out.

De Ro is the heart of the team right now. Dichio falls in just behind him ... heart valve? Atrium? Either way our subs up front are only going to get better in the near future.

Lucky for Richards it ended and TFC must be feeling pretty good to get out with a clean sheet in front of the home crowd. Still have some loose ends to clean up but points are points and hopefully more players are on the way.

And here is the perfect shot to end a perfect night of the beautiful game.

Reds sign Ali G

2009-06-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

R.E.S.T.E.C.P!

Say Ello to none otha tha ma main man. Dat is right. You wanna know how to make TFC betta? Two words: Keep it real! Dat is right. Ali G indahouse ya know B-O-M field. BOOM! If you iz reading dis in Canada, you may remember him from da World Cup Qualifying against Mexico. If you iz in America ... you iz living in a shit hole.

What does the G stand for? Two tings... Judge... and Jury... Ali G comin' to B-O-M Field to rectalficate iz scorin' woes. Africa ain't just a country that gave us Bob Marley, now wees got Ali G. To all tha clubs in MLS and Richmond Street: You betta check yo'self before you wreck yo'self!

Booyakasha!

Re-evaluation

2009-06-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

Wow so I'm still (slowly) coming down from Thursday night's victory over Montreal. Still watching the highlights over and over, thinking about the phone calls/text messages made during the game of "OMG! ... HOLY SHIT! ... IS THIS FOR REAL!?" and yelling to my roommate "YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS, YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IS HAPPENING!!" I know all caps are annoying but I was in fact yelling and it is legitimate emphasis. The one thing in particular though that is sticking with me from that game was the performance of De Rosario, Guevara and Dichio, the leaders for pretty much the whole team pulling it together to put out an amazing night of football.

The hot and cold or completely bi-polar emotions and performances this team has provided has been hard to deal with so far this year. Games I was hoping for all out war (Seattle, Chicago, even Houston) we came out flat and listless. Games we should have buried our opponents (Dallas, LA and to an extent Montreal and Vancouver) we left them in the game and paid for it in the end. Thursday night though I really felt for the first time we saw Toronto FC play with guts, grit and desire. It was inspiring to watch and, given what has gone on with the club/organization over the last few weeks (and to another extent from the second home game), has definitely made me rethink what it is I, as a supporter need to do to support the likes of De Ro and Dichio who wear the TFC jersey for all the right reasons but not bend over (or give all my banking information) and blindly follow the suits who run this team. The banner here really says it loud and clear - we don't cheer for the red to keep MLSE in the black. This is about the warriors - the gladiators (not tennis players!!) *insert Ray Hudson voice here* and definitely not to please the accountants who report to the board.

So as I've thought about it I've realized that the picture/stance at the top is no longer necessary, not that I planned on it during the hottest months of the year! Even though I wore black at the last two home games, one was a CCR shirt so I looked pretty fucking cool if I do say so myself. For real though, I now realize that I can and will separate the game from the corporation. If the likes of De Ro, Serioux and Frei are going out on their shield, giving half time interviews in the biggest game and comeback of their season they deserve to be cheered on my feet as loud as I can (until I get thrown out, but that is another story). The best way for me, I feel, to keep MLSE in check and on notice is not giving them my wallet (head's up Beer Store!) and keeping forums and mediums like this honest. For example, I do not think Gerba and Garcia are the answer - throwing big DP money for a player because they are a name is BS. Let's see a plan for the future of this team and line-up, give me a clue where this team is going.

I have no allegiance to anyone other than the game of football. I can call it like I see and will continue to do so because I know if I was reading this I would rather take in an honest perspective (whether I agree with it or not) than read some shit from guy who is trying to please a certain demographic or stay in someone's good books.

So in summary, De Ro is the man, I will save the daggers to MLSE for here and here, and even though it's the worst thing you can do at BMO field outside of the south end, I will stand up and cheer for the TFC - East side!

Somebody pinch me

2009-06-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

NO! Punch me in the face!! Un-believable! Toronto FC needed four goals to win the Voyageurs Cup, and how many do they get? FIVE!!! TFC defeats all odds and the Montreal Impact 6-1, a result nobody would have predicted. Sure we had hope, but we also had facts. Like Toronto has been atrocious at finishing this season - except for two players. Amado Guevara and Dwayne De Rosario. What can you say about this guy? Talk about putting the team on your back. I have to admit, after that Montreal goal all I was thinking was, Ok well as long as we win I'll be happy. Then De Ro takes the game by the neck and gave us more than hope but made this win a reality. This was the first game I've seen in a while where Toronto show true grit and guts. De Ro, Guevara, Dichio, just to start the list, this team wanted it and you could see that right after our first goal.

Can not wait for next Wednesday's game, and our first match against the Puerto Rico Islanders!

Toronto FC - 2009 VOYAGEURS CUP CHAMPIONS!!
06/19 UPDATE: From this day forward, before each TFC game I will be drinking a 6-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon and making absurd, flippant predictions of how they will/should win. See below.

The Drive for FIVE

2009-06-16T17:48:00.001-07:00

Where's the ambition!? Four goals?? Pfft, so 2007. We're talking about THE DRIVE FOR FIVE IN 2009 YEEEOW!

Whoa, ok I wrote that last night and had had a few. Pabst Blue Ribbon, pure class all the way. I've now sobered up and come back to reality. Are four goals really possible? We've only done it once before and it was the original expansion line-up that pulled it off against FC Dallas - EXACTLY TWO YEARS TO THE DATE (ok off by one day, but the original game day for Montreal is June 17!!). Guys, we can do this! Also when I was walking home (wearing my TFC jersey none the less) a bird crapped on my head! I'm convinced. Luck is on our side. God knows our skill and finishing won't win it for us. I mean, our strikers can't finish (except Dichio and that tells you alot), our defence in my opinion is still a bit rough, and we'll be playing L'Impact in Montréal who will surely have no intention of lying down and letting us roll over them. It is going to be tough, and from what I've seen of this team in crucial games this season, we have not been able to hack it. But there is a first for everything; the first time this season we show guts and heart, and the first time ever we score five goals!!

Bare minimum we need four. Here's a little sample of what that looks like. There are several reasons why this video is amazing and things we need to do. First - WHITE SHORTS. Second - ROBBO'S CELEBRATION, what the hell was that?! Hey, if he can put one in and does his "catch a dream" celebration, we are one step closer. And as much as I love the Goooooooooool, shit it gets annoying eventually.

GO REDS!!!

We'll take it

2009-06-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well there it is. Toronto FC wins 2-1 over New York but most importantly ... THREE POINTS. Given the last two weeks that is all we can hope for and we got it. Sure it was hard fought (against one of the worst in the league) and NY scored their first road goal of the season, but let's balance out the good with the bad. Still can't finish chances, but we had lady luck on our side and that's a start. Was it Gary Player (wiki'd Samuel Golwyn?!) who said The more I practice the luckier I get - so as long as we keep practicing hard then I'll take these. We can win our next two, I am sure of it, then the hard ones are coming in the rough months so let's bag the points now. Ok, let's get to this ...

Looks like everyone are friends again! Hey, we love this team ... TEAM, not the suits. HATE SUITS.

Five minutes in - HANDBALL IN THE BOX!! Guevara steps up ...

OH NO

CRONIN!!

DEMON DEACON CELEBRATION!!!

Garcia makes his first appearance. For the time being this guy looks good to calm down our suspect back line. Still think we need a guy over six feet, but for now he will hold it down.

Well missed this one, but Dichio is all business finishing Vitti's missed chance! 2-0 TFC!

"Hey man, this TFC is good shit!"
"Yeah for sure! Too bad we're in the 20th row I can hardly see!"
"Yo you can borrow my binoculars, it's mint I can see De Ro close up"
"Dude, where the hell is Lombardo?"
"Dude, I have no idea - I hope we didn't wear our matching jerseys for nothing!!!"

Second half ... oh no, first road goal of the season. Ouch. Can we find the insurance goal???

ARGHGHGHGHG So close!

Turns out we didn't need it! Hooray TFC 2 NYRB 1

Get stoked Cummins and practice hard for Thursday we're expecting FOUR GOALS!

There's only two things I hate in this world.

2009-06-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch. That's right - THE DUTCH! These guys have some of the best footballers in history - Johan Cruyuff, Johnny Rep, Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Marc Overmars and Edwin Van Der Sar - to only name a few ... and can't win the big prize (aka World Cup). How is this possible?! They've also had some of the greatest club teams and coaches in history, why has it yet to translate onto the biggest stage? Is it arrogance, insecurity or maybe even self destruction? Well, I won't spoil it for you, but David Winner does a pretty good job of explaining this in his all-encompassing history Dutch football in Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer.

I've laid it out in a couple previous reviews that I did not grow up with football. I can look back and wish I had, but alas, I am left with youtube clips and ideally good books to fill my gaps (errr canyons) in history. I really only know what might be called a basic history of Dutch football, that being their rivalry with Germany, World Cup losses, a Euro win, Ajax of the 70s, 90s and the likes of PSV and Feyenoord. But I never knew WHAT made Dutch football what it is/was. This is what Winner sets out to explain, and does an impressive job in doing so.

Brilliant Orange isn't just a straight up history of the game in Holland but seeks the reasons why, specifically, tactics like Total Football formed and players like Johan Cryuff or Van Basten blossomed. Winner's research is able to find it through history, geography, art and culture. In terms of history and geography, it is probably not a surprise that the idea of space is what drove the development of Dutch football in the late '60s and into the 70s. With so little territory, the dutch are obsessed with the notion of space and how to maximize it, or better, use it most efficiently. This general idea, which Winner explores much deeper, was most famously used on the pitch by manager Rinus Michels for the famous Ajax squad from 1965-1971. This team scored an absurd amount of goals over this period and in 1971 capped off the development of Total Football by winning their first of three European Cups against Panathinikos.

Early on much of the focus is on Ajax, and rightfully so, as most of Holland's greatest players ever came from this era and club. It transitions smoothly away from this and what might seem like dry subject matters of art, architecture and politics. Winner begins to focus primarily on the history of other clubs but mostly the story of the National team and their inability to win the World Cup despite having easily some of the best players, coaches and systems in the world. Hell, they have the right to what some say is the greatest move in football history:

To say Brilliant Orange is the complete history of Dutch football would be an understatement. It goes so much deeper than just naming names and recounting glorious matches. It truly does explain the "neurotic genius" of Dutch soccer and makes you wonder if they could ever get it together and win it all on the biggest stage. I've been lucky enough to read almost all of my football book in stages, where the likes of How Soccer Explains the World, or Soccer Against the Enemy have general chapters devoted to different footballing nations, it is good to get into something that takes you much further than the 1988 European Cup or 1970 World Cup.

After much thought a good summary could be this

orrrrr this, which for myself, and I'm sure others, is why I really wish I had an extra 15-20 years on my life to have seen this time in footballing history to appreciate (although I do) this exert that sums up that Ajax team of the 70s:

Barry Hulshoff later realised he was part of something extra-ordinary. After his playing career was over, he worked as a coach in Greece. On one occasion he found himself in a tiny, remote mountain village. 'An old man was standing in front of me. He took my hands and held them and he cried. It went on for four or five minutes. I was very embarrassed, I just didn't know what was going on. Later my translator explained it. He said there was no television in the village, so this old man used to walk for two hours to reach another village to watch Ajax games on television ... the man has loved Ajax and now, in front of him, he saw one of the players he used to watch. He couldn't understand it and he became very emotional.

Knee Jerk?

2009-06-10T11:02:00.001-07:00

Keeper Sutton out. San Jose Defender Nick Garcia in. Striker Ali Gerba ... ? *please hold*

Well there are a few ways this news can be spun but I'm going to do my best to keep it positive. Really the one thing that grinds me is that we had to wait until we were in the shit to make some moves. Maybe I'm just a pro-active kind of guy, but the timing on this feels a bit like 11th hour/damage control. Draw your own conclusions, or non-conclusions from everything last week and the weekend but I can't think of one trade/acquisition TFC has made that we haven't heard about ahead of time, which to me says first thing Monday morning this was in the works. The reason(s) why I'll leave to you, but I think the picture above sums it up. The fact remains, we didn't address crucial issues with this club until the last second. We're in year three of our supposed "five year plan" and we've just made essentially the same move we did in year one (a move for an experienced central defender). I really don't think there is any plan in place and we're stumbling around in the dark just plugging holes when they arise.

*DEEP BREATH*

Ok got that off my chest. Now onto a positive. The one thing that I am happy about is bringing in an experienced defender (whoa just had a flashback to '07), not a converted midfielder. Nick Garcia was on the MLS Cup winning KC Wizards of 2000, played in the back with Jimmy Conrad for several years and Captained San Jose. That in itself should be a good sign. The only bad sign is I get the feeling this wasn't part of proper scouting or an actual long-term master plan but was a kind of "Hey Mo, we need a guy quickfast - you got any ideas?" "Yeah I played with this guy at KC, I'll make a call right now!"

I won't comment on Ali Gerba until it's official but I have mixed feelings and have heard mixed reviews. Given the number of teams he's played for and up and down numbers, I'd put him as a 'hopeful' striker, rather than consistent, proven one - which is what we need. BUT if he comes, hell, all he has to do is convert 1/4 of his chances and that's better than Chad Barrett!!

It's tough luck about Sutton because he's Canadian and likable but with Stefan Frei being the better keeper and Brian Edwards proving last year he is very capable, all that's left is the math - aka $150K salary for a back-up. Frei is with us a few years, Edwards keeps developing as a back-up (wait, a plan?) and when/if Frei goes to Europe as some speculate could happen, BINGO we've got our very own (ok maybe poor man's) Steve Young or Frank Reich waiting in the wings!

Garcia is supposed to be here for Saturday's game against NYRB who have yet to SCORE AN AWAY GOAL. TFC Magic 8 Ball predicts a 1-0 win for TFC!

Why so quiet?

2009-06-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Well that was something. Toronto FC loses 2-1 to the LA Galaxy, a team that has only won ONE game this season and was missing Landon Donovan who accounts for six of their thirteen goals. Embarrassing doesn't even begin to describe it. Questions abound as to what is going to happen and the change we need to right this ship. Trying to stay optimistic but I'm not really down with being one of those fans who cheers for the sake of cheering, or goes to BMO to get wasted - I'm there for the game and seeing the team perform and right now the scowl is getting deeper. Yesterday should have been a slam-dunk and we were given an opponent on a silver platter and we couldn't bury them. That is worrying. It went down like this ...

Well the weather was nice!

This is the South End on a big night.

This was it yesterday - no joke, one flag, hardly any chants. No message - get the message?

People are clearly over this. That first one was "Mo has to Go" but was up for 2 seconds. Wouldn't want to get thrown out on your ear.

Annnnd within five minutes LA is up 1-0. The perfect start!

What a first half. Well with TFC only able to score 1 goal looks like we're heading for a tie. At least I could get a date if I need one.

Oh look, a manufactured TFC fan. They might have to do this more often now to replace all the ones they've kicked out.

What the?! Dichio! Well we've scored our one goal let's hope LA doesn't find another ...

Oh shit. Buddle.

This was an amazing play *insert fecicious tone*. LA has a player down, then this other tool falls down and is sitting there, but it's his boot that is all messed up, but he's lying there like he's in agony!! THEN the LA keeper gets the ball, so he'll kick it out of bounds, right? NO! He plays the ball to his player to start an attack!!! The ball gets intercepted by us, so we should just say EF YOU and keep the play going, but nooooo we get the ball and kick it out of bounds. This was the only time this game I was yelling.

And no joke on the next play Vitti goes for a header and hardly touches this guy.

This was the cherry on top. We're in extra time (five minutes) the ball goes back to Frei who can't figure out how to handle it, he's backing up, looking up, backing up, TRIPS AND FALLS and the ball rolls out of bounds for a LA corner. And of course they take about two minutes to do it and at this point all you can do is laugh.

Why so glum chum?

At least some people care. Don't want to get into a huge commentary about MLSE but there is a sinking feeling that TFC is being run on the same template they run their other teams, which is marketing based, not results based. Pretty sad ...

Support the Troops

2009-06-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

Well my bloodshot eyes are finally coming down to an almost normal white. It's about time for a vacation from blogs/forums as the firestorm after Tuesday was a full time job keeping on top of everything in the aftermath. But there are some (for me anyways) hard facts or final conclusions that I'm seeing up to this point of the season.

Whatever happens before, during or after Saturday's game with the various supporters groups I back them 100%. I am willing to admit that one of the main reasons I am a season ticket holder and I love coming to BMO field is the atmosphere - which they've created (and some other areas as well which I'll get to) since day one. If they were not there, TFC/BMO would be just another boring Toronto franchise/outing that I'd probably go to a couple times a year or whenever I got free tickets. Why else would I dedicate so much to what is clearly a sub-par product? I can get my fix of football, the highest quality, in various mediums (for free!) ... I guess my point of this is how integral the supporters are to the success of the game day experience and this team in it's short existence. So when I compare to other clubs, bigger, better ones, at least I can say when I support Toronto FC there is a sense this is a legit football club - and it's because of the fans.

So what I'm leading into is a bit of surprise at the surprise, or reaction to the reaction from supporters by other supporters and some media (wow are you following that?) after Tuesday's loss to Vancouver. Many out there are saying, "wow chill out it was just one loss", or "This is about a loss and the Real Madrid friendly - get over it" and "are you real supporters? supporters stick through tough times!" etc., etc ... Which I think is such a load of horseshit.

Like I said above, there are some hard truths that are going on with TFC/MLSE this year. I've seen and heard enough this season to come to the conclusion that they don't know what they are doing in terms of running a football club properly, especially when it comes to dealing with their fans/supporters. I think the most important thing to remember in all this is we get charged premium prices for a non-premium product. I think that in itself gives supporters the right to demand respect and results, or at least maximum effort given to show value and appreciation. Has this been done? I say no. As I stated, this goes beyond one loss and a friendly. I truly do not think MLSE values it's die-hard supporters. I think they sit on their waiting list numbers to justify price increases and throwing out fans and charging for a friendly, betting on the fact we won't do anything and if we did it wouldn't matter because there's someone waiting in line to take our place AKA wallet.

If anything goes down tomorrow I say good. To me THAT is what it means to be a supporter. To keep blindly following your club (see the Maple Leafs) is the easy thing to do. Doing nothing is always the easy thing to do. It's not about complaining or being whiners, it's about expectations not being met on many different levels and making the point things need to change because we put hard earned money into this. There are alot of people who think this is all just complaining, you know, we should "just be happy we have a team, we're only a third year club, we need to be patient for results, it's only mid-season etc ..." basically accepting this state and our results, and I think Vince Lombardi wants you to know:

Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser.

There should be no excuses. COME ON REDS.

MOTHER OF PEARL: Man Alive, The Sequel

2009-06-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

Well I guess that trophy cabinet is on hold for now, and if things don't change, indefinitely. THAT was something else. In the drivers' seat (sorta, we'll get to that) and pretty much the worst possible outcome happens. Toronto FC loses 2-0 to Vancouver, in Vancouver, in a game that was supposed to be the big moment for our first trophy. That dead horse is going to look like mush but what the hell, when is this team going to start finishing? Or I guess the proper question is - when are we going to trade for or sign someone who can finish? If TFC had put away their chances in the home games of this tourney we wouldn't be freaking out right now (even with the loss) because we'd have six goals in the bank. It's funny how some games just expose what you've been thinking but don't want to admit or hope you're wrong. There's just players all over that pitch who are consistently inconsistent, or not producing. Top to bottom that was a rough game to watch, unless of course you are a Vancouver fan who played to win - hats off.

June 15 is the date the trade window opens again and we get to hear about European players taking in a game but passing on TFC because of the turf. Can't wait to hear about the top secret trialist or whoever on earth we could get for Chad Barrett. Not sure what else to say, I'm just shaking my head over and over!

Saturday should be interesting, home game against LA, a team who can't win but only draw. TFC, can't score when it matters, now in the thick of the summer and traditionally the worst time of the season for us (does two years qualify 'tradition'?). I think I might be sitting with arms folded for 90 minutes. Well I'm going to sign off for now until I can come up with something witty to make fun of how shit we are right now. Saturday should be interesting. Actually maybe this will be the first game of the year I'll get shit-faced - before the game obviously, I'm not giving ML$E any more of my money if this is what I get back!!

MAN ALIVE

2009-05-31T13:11:00.001-07:00

Well that was something. Thank god for that six pack, it's amazing how well beer heals the heart. 3-0 to Houston and I guess the only good thing was that I could really start pounding them back after 24 minutes without any worry of my judgment of the game getting any worse. It's crazy how TFC have the capacity to look so dialed in one week and completely useless the next. I had this one a draw (on paper it looked as though) but still factored in the fact Houston is consistently one of the top teams every year. Unlike the Chicago game, where I felt they came for the draw and were able to cash in on their opportunities, Houston was there to destroy us and they did.

The one thing I think this game proved is that our defence definitely got exposed big time. We might be able to hang tough against New England who is missing their top strikers, or Columbus as well, but when we match up against teams with big, strong forwards who challenge our (let's be real - midfielders converted to defenders) back line they can't handle it. I think their are two puzzle pieces left (this is no shock to many I am sure), a big defender and a legitimate goal poacher. Everything else is in place - young talent in the back, the midfield looks good and we have young forwards to develop, they just aren't there yet.

Like I said, really the best thing about last night was these luscious green bottles with their oh so tasty elixir. Mmmmm I had good nachos too. Actually the other good thing was my main mang Vitti who has to get a start in this week the guy works hard out there and his dribbling is badass. I can admit it, I'm a total fanboy I want this guy to work out at TFC. Ok just kidding I just love the headband. Other than him, gotta say there was almost nothing to take out of that game except maybe they were able to stop the bleeding at half-time. Right now we sit right in the middle of the league if you ask me, we definitely aren't shit anymore, but haven't done what needs to get done to be in the top 4-6. Anyway ... I still have a Tuborg left! I think I'll down that now, and look forward to Tuesday - Vancouver is going down!

The future?

2009-05-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

Ok well Simeon Jackson is in Leauge Two right now, but will be playing in League One due to playoff promotion next season for Gillingham and it will be interesting to see what his goal tally will be with a bit tougher competition. He was key down the stretch for this team and ended the season almost with a goal every game ratio - 21 in total this year. This is good news for Team Canada as well as we could use a potent striker to pair up with Rob Friend up front. From what's been out there in terms of pre-Gold Cup line-ups there's quite a few young players named to the friendlies - like Tosiant Ricketts, Jamie Peters and Andrew Ornoch. As much as we have lost out on a great group working their way to the World Cup, we now can see the young talent develop which we probably wouldn't have if we were still qualifying. Well I guess we get to wait and see if the CSA screws up the potential for 2014. In the meantime, here is the clip of Simeon Jackson playing in the game that got Gillingham up to the League One. He's number 10 and get's alot of airtime! And nothing says football like Green Day!!!

NOTE: I really have to start downloading these youtube clips when I copy them in. My apologies, hang tight for the next one.

What a lad!

2009-05-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

Woooo! Guevara! I'm feeling it - I said it before the season starts, this season hinges on whether or not this guy can recapture '05 or is he fading. Well he is ON right now. Toronto FC handles New England 3-1 and looked pretty sharp in the process. We went down 1-0 and it didn't even phase anyone, because Amado fired back within a minute to level the score. It was a great day all around (see above) weather, scoreline, girls, a few lame things which we will get toooo now!

Here is where it all begins

This was the key match up today - Serioux v. Joseph. This was fun to watch all afternoon.

Aaaaand Joseph gets the better of us on a soft header that beats Frei but ...

Seriously one minute later WOOO

This guy was grabbed for some "lame fan for the TFC eye" or whatever. He was wearing an Italia basketball jersey which is lame regardless of being at BMO field.

Second half kicks off and not sure who is lamer - the New England fans or ...

Yes that is the wave. Congratulations MLSE and Guest Services, you have officially turned sections 104/5/6 into the Rogers Centre. Instead of fun people singing and cheering we have drunk jabronis (yeah, I said jabroni!) trying to get the wave started W ... T ... F?

Well at least De Ro took control

Then Amado for the brace!!

Frei keeps us in the game

TFC is IN second place for sure as of now, first if ChiTown loses!!!

MOM! Looking forward to the next couple of games - Houston next saturday, then off to VanCity! Man they are going down! Also, the word of the day seemed to be LAME. I am not one to judge, it just seemed an appropriate adjective!

It's a f$#@ing obsession

2009-05-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

Moooore than ever! Name that early 90s hardcore band. 10 scene points up for grabs. So sometimes you just get that feeling inside of you, an epiphany almost, where you find something new to drive you. I've been feeling it lately. As I've said several times over the last year, I've been rotating between reading one book on football and one on whatever else I'm feeling like. So over the last year I've read around ten books mostly giving me a much needed history lesson on the game. Soccer in Sun and Shadow is up there as one of the best, and Brilliant Orange is what I'm almost finished now. As I've been gathering all this history now I'm getting a serious motivation to gather up some sort of memorabilia from the old days.

Well right now I am kicking myself because what you see above is a pretty sweet vintage Barca jersey I picked up last year in Rome. I'm not sure if this store was super cheesy but either way it was cool to go to a store where all they sold was old kits from the 40s-80s and had most teams you'd hope to find. Club kits and international ones. I almost bought a Soviet Union one but I'm not communist enough.

So until I can get my hands on that again, now I'm feeling print memorabilia. With another trip back to Europe in the works, I'm hoping to look for some cool stuff but in the meantime I have my eye on these guys. Specifically that Spain '82 is amazing. I'm all grown up now so it's time to take down my beer posters and get some real nice pieces of art. FOOTY ART!

Serenity now (part II)

2009-05-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Well I'm glad I'm in the pattern of writing this the day after the game. After yesterday's humiliating 2-0 defeat to the Chicago Fire, I needed a day to chill out and let the venom subside. But the truth is there a many things that are still boiling inside from this brutal performance from yesterday. Not sure if it was five games in two weeks or just getting a bit lazy after a good run, but pretty much front to back it was a horrible effort from TFC. Yeah there were a few bright spots but man, sorry, the non-finishing is getting a bit tired. Ok many points to go over so i'll just get to it!

So I guess the one good thing that happened was despite these skies, it never opened up and poured at all even though it was calling for it.

The Fire fans owned us. It is true. Sorry everyone in the south end and the north west. Truth is unless the ENTIRE south end is in unison, it doesn't dominate the stadium, same thing with the NEE. But these guys did not shut up the whole game and it was all we could hear in the east side. And to throw on top of it once again these 'guest services' douchebags were throwing out TFC supporters left and right - for standing. Not for being wasted or belligerent but for trying to get 104/105 to match up the the away supporters. AND the Chicago fans were pointing out standing fans to kick out and security was listening to them!! What a joke.

Well that first half was so boring this was pretty much the most action we saw before the second half.

Chicago scores the first goal and this was the second by Brian McBride. Man look at the posture from Frei. That really says everything about what this game was all about.

We had our chance but once again ... finishing anyone?? Pretty sure I have the order wrong here but you get the point.

Chicago wins. BARF.

Really there were only two things to come away from this game - #1

#2

Hopefully we shape/rest up this week and take it to New England who is not the team they've been in the past.

Les Tete-Carées gagne bein sur!!

2009-05-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Come on now, let's not kid ourselves. TFC dominated this game front to back to pull out a 1-0 victory, a scoreline that is very flattering to Montreal. They had chances but few and far between, with hardly any possession and have nothing to complain about because it could have easily been 5-0. If they had come away with points it would have been by pure luck and not by design or any kind comparable gameplay. One great thing about this game for sure was it didn't rain! Man, what gives, it was calling for it all day and we got hardly a drop. Ok so this is how an exciting night went with TFC now having SIX, count 'em, SIX big points to lead the pool.

First things first, Rick and I had some podcast levels to sort out. Peeps be complainin' about the volume but this shit is DIY so give me a break.

Here is the beautiful walk up to BMO field and discovery of the Montreal "Ultras" (oooooooooh).

Everyone's looking good in the warm up.

Ok let's get this started Canada.

OH MY

Lots of action early on and with Wynne getting injured, Barrett comes on and ...

GOOOOOOOOOL. For real best goal so far this season. Chad Barret we'll get to you later though.

Ok so take a good hard look at this guy. This seriously gets boring but his blunders of possibly 2, but 1 definite penalty might have been the worst call I've seen this year. We're in 106 so it was right in front of us, so maybe most people didn't see exactly how brutal his 'non'-penalty was but trust me, it was something else!

Second half gets chippy with lots more chances, red cards and MISSED BREAK-AWAYS.

So my take on Barrett is this - I don't really care so much the guy can't finish when he's all alone. But for real I don't think he should be the target man. That should go to Vitti, who on his few chances at that position, has shown (unfortunately offside) that he can place the ball exactly where it needs to go. Barrett would look really good where Vitti is now, a bit behind because the guy can score mid-range and has an amazing work ethic to win battles and create chances.

Well after all that *deep breath* we came out with the 1-0 victory, which was well deserved.

Vitti the MOM, which could have been him or De Ro who has been a beast three games in a row. But Vitti's dribbling and ability to get back to help out was what does it for me. He hasn't scored, mostly because he really needs a good chance to be the target man, but his skills and football I.Q. are far above most of the players on that pitch.

Good game, great form, bring on Chitown.

De Man

2009-05-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how I feel about this chicken dance. But I DO know how I feel about De Ro's last two games ... AMAZING! Man it seems like after the first game of the season I was wondering where this guy was, where his panache (yes!) had gone but BLAMO! it came back for the Vancouver game. I have to admit though, Vancouver did not look that great (because of the ref?!) but Dwayne had a great game with that perfect cross and the sickest run right at the end, which had he finished would have been the goal of the week. So I have to admit I was not sure if he looked that great because of the opposition and if he could duplicate it against a much tougher foe, such as DC United.

BUT FEAR NOT! Saturday night he pretty much duplicated the length of that run but this time finished against DC for what could turn out to be the goal of the week. YES! There is something good to see in this season despite many draws and 1-0 victories. My first good moment was the road tie against Columbus, where until the game I'm not sure if we had even scored at Columbus Crew Stadium. Saturday we tied DC at RFK, a stadium where we had gotten WHOOPED pretty much every time we played there. The tide is turning! We can bitch and moan about ties and our strikers not scoring heaps of goals, but let's be honest, this team is the best we've had yet and we are starting to quietly make a statement in this league that when we win or tie (on the road ha) it isn't a fluke but because we are legitimately becoming a strong side.

So here is to Dwayne De Rosario who looks to be finding his form and hopefully we are gelling ... oh yes, we're gellin'. But here is NOT to chicken dances. There is only one chicken dance and that belongs to the one and only below. ENJOY!

It was a rainy day ...

2009-05-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, this really has turned into a photo blog. Well what can I say? There are seven, COUNT 'EM, seven games this month, so I have five definite home photo blogs! Hooray! Last night was the first game of the 2009 Nutrilite Canada Cup (or whatever it's called), where the winner of this round-robin tournament goes on to compete in the CONCACAF Champions League. We needn't look any further than the Montreal Impact playing in February to know these games are worth winning. Let's review an exciting night!

It started off with a mad rush home. Despite wanting to be at the stadium early to watch the warm-ups, it wasn't in the cards and I left Tim in the lurch with a lager in hand two games in a row. There was a surprising amount of empty seats at kick-off, but I guess it's Wednesday night, not a league game, the kids can't be out late AND it was calling for rain - all things equaling AN AMAZING NIGHT FOR FOOTBALL!

WTF 3 mins in De Ro to Harmse - HEADS IT IN!! DEJA VU 2008!!!

Oh boy here comes the rain. Falling on my head like a memory.

There was not tons of action but some good moments. We need more consistent play from our "superstars". Amado I'm lookin at you amigo!

This guy is close to the best thing in our section. Tyler next to me is pretty amazing who loves to get up and yell "COME ON EVERYBODY, IT'S A CORNER, STAND UP! STAND UP!!" but this guy's secret move (up, down, A+B) is his referee song, which is not the super lame "I'm blind! I'm deaf! I wanna be a ref!" but the far more grandiose:
Who's your father?
Who's your father?
Who's your father, referee?
Haven't got one
Never had one
You're a bastard, referee.

Ah pure class.

So we held off the Whitecaps right to the end. I also wish now I had taken a picture of the crazy west indian woman in front of me who was losing her mind all game for Vancouver and jumping up and down until she went totally nuts and the guy beside us had his beer knocked out of his hands and it spilled all over her!! PURE CLASS!!! She didn't say a word after that and I was sad.

TFC 1 - Vancouver 0. Nice nice, hopefully this year isn't like last season where we win the first game by a header and stink out the joint for the next three games. Montreal next week is going to be bananas and I can NOT wait! Montreal is going down.

Trillium Cup thriller!

2009-05-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

Ok ... maybe not. What a weird day. It rains. It's sunny. It rains. It's sunny. Columbus leads, then we tie it up. We look good, we look terrible. So many mixed emotions *sigh sigh*. 1-1 again, so I guess this "cup" is still up for grabs - my question is, if we tie 1-1 at Columbus do we win on away goals?? With a pile of games coming up this would have been a great one to win because the next month is TOUGH. Vancouver, DC, Montreal, Chicago, New England! Man, we can't take any of these for granted and we HAVE to figure out how to score more than one goal!!

This is how today looked from the my lens:

First off - this boner who lives across the street from me, his car alarm at this point had been going off for THREE HOURS. Add the fact it went off a 1am three times this week for up to 45 minutes, man. Well as you can see we took care of him - "Hey jerkface, move your car away from the fire hydrant! That's not safe."

Grrrr hate Columbus.

Ok let's make it happen!

De Ro makes his appearance

This guy is hands down TFC's most valuable player so far this season. SOLID.

MAN. TERRIBLE DEFENCE.

Barrett!!!!

1-1. Brother. We could of had that one. Disappointing.

Well at least you're still in last place, no wins! *tear*

Voyageurs cup this week! Super stoked to see Vancouver and Montreal, those games are going to be bananas!

PS NEW PODCAST UPPP.

The 'interim' MAN

2009-04-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

So there he is ... I think. I'm really trying to not rip off photos from the weeb so through the small library I've been working on, well I never thought to make a folder for "Chris Cummins - future head coach". Well I said it before, the truth is, we are no worse off. I like Carver but don't think he was a tactical genius and it's not like we are saying goodbye to Scotty Bowman, or I guess more appropriately - well let's keep in sorta relevant - Sigi Schmidt! Because if we lost a coach like that, we'd be winless!

So if the last few games was a 'group effort' like Carver has been saying in his adieu interviews, then I think we'll be fine with 3 of the 4 still making the decisions. Someone's gotta start somewhere, and who knows? This could be Cummins big break and he could turn out to be something, if not we hire a new head coach at the end of the season. Not really into all the hoopla about the reasons behind Carver leaving. As far as I'm concerned if MLS is his reason, well the league is super lame in alot of ways and I can't blame him. Don Garber reminds me of Gary Bettman in too many ways - and if you are on the same page as I am, none of those things are good. I'm curious to see over the next 3 years how we're going to bring in 60+ QUALITY players with a $2.3 million salary cap. Anyway that's a rant for another day!

The most important thing is like I said above - hey at least we didn't lose Sigi Schmidt! ACTUALLY maybe this will have a reverse effect - Carver took us to pretty much the bottom last year, Schmidt took Columbus to the Cup - they both leave their respective clubs, Columbus is winless, so Toronto clearly is going to get to the top Jerry! THE TOP!!! So here is something worth watching because fortunately for us Gino Padula should be in the line-up but this time I'm positive we can actually put it in the net.
PS just skip to 1:20 and let the memories come back (aka waving away smoke and singing and then realizing everyone is going nuts then see we scored!!!)

It's a streak!

2009-04-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Chris Cummins era? Hmmm hmmm? Well what can we say so far - two wins, new formation, passes ON THE GROUND?? Not to get too ahead of myself, but let's all be blunt, the only thing we might miss of John Carver is the passion he had towards the supporters. Yesterday's game wasn't quite as tight as the Chivas USA game, but it was pretty close. I'm not too worried about only netting one goal, because they will start coming surely. The one thing I'm curious to see is what will happen when De Rosario comes back. Probably the formation will remain, but Barrett or Vitti will have to get back in line. So one of those two better start making it happen because one of them will end up being a sub. Ok let's get into another exciting visual RECAP of the game starting with the match-up:

Kansas City - for real - I hate this team! The teams you want to lose: #1 Columbus, Kansas is not that far off at #2.

Huddle up get it done

MAY 8 EVERYBODY - MAY 8

The future

Ok I hate KC but their keeper is the worst. Hey Guy shouldn't you be at a diner, drive-in or dive?? OH THAT'S MONEY!

OHHHH DANNY DICHIO!

Lock it down

Victory! Vitti played amazing and actually deserved the MOM.

Well Cummins has seemed to make some good decisions in his short history of leading this team - which is better than Robert Warzycha who hasn't won yet with Columbus! TRILLIUM CUP! This will be our first trophy, we'll seal it next Saturday!

SIDENOTE: We couldn't record a podcast last night as we were pretty much three men down. I hardly made it out of the game, Tim's whole house was sick and Stephe hosts a radio show Sunday nights which makes it too tight to get from here to the studio in time. We might do it during the week, if not it'll be back on regular schedule saturday.

So long Johnny boy!

2009-04-25T14:54:00.002-07:00

Well there you have it. Is this really that much of a shock? The timing perhaps, but I think anyone who follows TFC could put the pieces together and know that John Carver would bounce outta here the first chance he gets. I don't think it's wild to speculate he'll end up in Alan Shearer's staff, if not in the next few weeks, then when the EPL season is over and Newcastle retools for the fall. I liked John Carver but when it's boiled down his real main attribute is his passion, which is great, but I think TFC needs someone with more panache. Ok just kidding I just wanted to type out panache. It just seems his tactics and player selection came into question more often than not, but his devotion and passion always outweighed it. I think what I'm saying is we will not be worse off, whoever is hired as the next head coach.

Will we ever hear the REAL dirt on Carver's time here at TFC? Doubtful. I'm sure when he came here the way the league was organized, internationals, referees must have completely blown his mind. So again, would it be that surprising, or would you blame him, if he ends up back in England? He's eluded to it many times but seemed like he always held back just enough - unlike Ruud Gullit, who true to Dutch nature, did not give a shit and said whatever was on his mind about the Galaxy and MLS.

Well John, it's been a slice, but TFC is gonna move on! KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON.