Just a very quick congratulations goes out to Canadian striker Paul Peschisolido. His team, Derby, have been promoted to the English Premier division.
Paul’s been on a number of good teams that have always seemed to transfer him just before they make it up to the big show (Fulham, Sheff Utd – [who are being demoted])
Good show Paul. I hope Derby keep you up there next year.
The same day that over 20,000 fans and I took in Toronto FCs second game at BMO Field, just north of the city another team was playing its first game of the season.
Until this year, the Toronto Lynx were the highest level of professional soccer in the city.
Now they’ve moved the team down to the professional development level.
To be fair, i haven’t been to a Lynx game in a couple of years. We went quite often in the late 90s and early 2000s – but stopped after the team moved up to Centennial Stadium.
There were die hard lynx fans too, you know. A ton of the guys who make up the supporter’s section at BMO are former lynx fans. They’ve changed their shirts from yellow to red and white, but many of the songs are the same, albeit instead of lynx the chant is now “TFC”.
Anyhow, this isn’t an article to lament the loss of the Lynx. they had their problems with the field and such. It’s going to be an interesting study some day to look at why the Lynx weren’t successful and the TFC is.
I did feel bad, however, to see that the lynx only got 365 people out to their home opener. I can’t help but wonder what the people who poured so much money into the Lynx think of this turn of events – where pro-soccer has such momentum in the city this year, while year after year the lynx had trouble getting people to come out to games.
i’m not holding against the hard-core lynx fans who now make up the hard-core TFC fans – they backed the team. as did i at one point.
There’s been trades. There’s been games. And finally there’s been goals.
However, I haven’t been written much about TFC here recently as I’ve spent most of my soccer writing moments here at grassrootsnorth.ca.
In short, Danny Dichio has been a great addition to Toronto. I still think the team would be in a better place to play Jim Brennan in the midfield instead of Andy Welsh. And let the backfield live and die with the Canucks – insert either Braz or Reda in the middle, and Pozniak on the left-side – while keeping Wynne on the right and Boyens playing CB.
Secondly – Andrea Lombardo just looked great on Saturday. He set up the third Toronto goal. He’s just so strong on the ball.
It’s going to be a great game Wednesday night vs. Houston.
Okay, it’s about to be soccer week in Toronto.
In the span of 8 days there is going to be 3 Toronto FC games and 1 under-20 Canada friendly.
It’s time for Mo Johnston to put Jim Brennan in the midfield.
No more of this centre-back stuff. And it is centre, not center.
Give Reda another shot. I’m not buying the line that he’s not in match fitness.
He’s had his rough patches – but a goal is not the fault of defence alone. It takes a number of breakdowns to result in a goal. And when you think about some of the guys who were playing midfield in front of him in the first couple of games (Mulrooney, Nagamura) – well, i’m not sure i can blame him for anything now that it’s clear that both of those jokers didn’t even want to play for Toronto FC.
Reda did have a number of good header clears in the games he played.
Move Brennan into the midfield. Left-side where he can carry the ball, and cross it with authority into the box. Also have Brennan take the spot kicks. (Let’s not rehash how ineffective the team has been thus far on corners and free-kicks. I think having Brennan take these would be a vast improvement.)
Wait, doesn’t this mean that Andy Welsh gets relegated to the bench? Yes.
Welsh is overpaid for what he’s done for Toronto FC. The problem is, as an import no other team is going to want him. Toronto is stuck with him. He’ll have some good moments, but the rightful (or leftful) spot on this team on the left side should be Jim Brennan, not Welsh.
Give it a go, Mo.
Here, I’ve gone through the trouble of filling in your line-up card:
Esky – Dichio
Brennan – Edu – Robinson – O’Brien* *if ready
Goldthwaite – Reda – Boyens – Wynne
Sutton
Give it a go Mo. There’s really nothing to lose.
Paulo Nagamura is gone from Toronto FC.
Good.
In the four games he didn’t look very good. It was strange to see a Brazilian guy not be able to play soccer. It was as if you had a 7 foot 6 American guy who couldn’t play basketball. (Wait, there was one named Shawn Bradley)
It turned out, via the grapevine, that Nagamura didn’t want to be in Toronto.
In that case, double good.
Nagamura joins a list of guys who didn’t/don’t want to be in Toronto to play for the FC.
You know what? As a fan, I don’t want them here either.
There are guys you can see who give it their all out there – Alecko Eskandarian for example.
They want to play in Toronto. They’re going to help this franchise grow into the best one MLS has ever seen.
If you don’t want to play, get out.
I know it’s tough with the import rules to move every player may not want to play for your franchise, but the sooner they’re gone the better.
The guy we traded Nagamura for didn’t want to play for Toronto FC. It turns out he didnt’ want to play MLS. No worries. Take the draft pick – it will be much better than Paulo ever was.
(Let’s begin a season long experiment to see if the draft can be good for your team. Keep your eyes on Maurice Edu and we’ll talk how he turns out.)
THIS IS A REALLY OLD POST.
What has happened is i’ve been trying to write using a mac OS 9 computer – it hasn’t really been working out.
(Hence no updates for like a month.)
These are Blue Jay stats from the last twoonie tuesday game versus the Bosox in april.
The fact that boston is back playing the jays again (now it’s may) show’s you how long my OS 9 has been blocking me from using wordpress.
As a sidenote, i’ve switched the browser to iCab. It was recommended by the Mozilla people. Okay, here’s the old stats. (feel free to stop reading now)
Here are stats from last night’s Jays game.
The Jays beat the Bosox 2-1.
Player who ran the most during Boston’s batting practice: Daisuke Matusaka
Player who hit the hardest during BP: Willy Mo Pena
Player who showed the least range in the outfield during the game: Willy Mo Pena
Number of fans in total who got to see Daisuke, but probably came just because it was twoonie Tuesday: 17,456
Toronto FC just announced two friendlies they’re going to play this summer.
May 23 – Benfica
July 25 – Aston Villa
The season ticket package comes with a number of friendlies including this Friday’s Canada – Argentina under -20 tilt.
It’s going to be a great summer of soccer.
