Toronto FC hit the road to face San Jose Earthquakes and came away with their first away point this season. It wasn’t always pretty, but there were some notable strong passages of play. Some of our new acquisitions are starting to show real promise on the pitch as well. Points away from home are few and far between for most MLS teams and TFC have always been poor on the road, but for some reason we seem to do well when we play away to San Jose. A point gained at Buck Shaw is nothing to sniff at and gives us some positives before facing LA Galaxy midweek.

San Jose Earthquakes: Starters: Jon Busch, Jason Hernandez, Brandon McDonald, Ike Opara, Ramiro Corrales (85′), Bobby Convey, Sam Cronin, Simon Dawkins, Khari Stephenson (80′), Ryan Johnson, Chris Wondolowski

Bench: Andrew Weber, Anthony Ampaipitakwong, Bobby Burling, Joey Gjertsen (85′), Chris Leitch, Matt Luzunaris (80′), Brad Ring

Toronto FC: Starters: Stefan Frei, Ty Harden, Nana Attakora (46′), Adrian Cann, Danleigh Borman, Maicon Santos (65′), Jacob Peterson, Tony Tchani, Javier Martina, Alan Gordon, Alen Stevanovic (63′)

Bench: Kocic, Cordon, de Guzman (46′), Gargan, Plata (65′), Yourassowsky, Zavarise (63′)

San Jose got an early shot off within the first couple minutes, but after that it was mostly a midfield battle between the teams to try and gain control. The Earthquakes were doing better getting the ball forward whereas TFC’s buildup wasn’t doing much to penetrate the final third. Most of the play was pretty dull until the 16th minute when Dawkins received a cutback and found himself in some space to have a shot that just went wide of the post. Toronto’s first good shot came soon after when some good play between Gordon and Stevanovic led to a shot from Maicon, but it was too weak. San Jose quickly got themselves to our end of the pitch for Johnson to have a chance on goal. Most of the San Jose attacks were coming down our right flank where I literally didn’t realize Martina was playing until someone mentioned him on twitter.

If it wasn’t going to be Martina’s day, then Stevanovic was trying hard to grab some of the attention. He saw a lot of the ball in the first half and generally did well dribbling down the left flank. TFC’s goal in the first half came after Stevanovic got down the byline and with some help from Borman and Maicon, the ball found its way into the box where Gordon scored his second of the season. I love that we have a big, strong striker that crashes the box, throws himself at balls coming into the area, and gets at the end of headers. So many times we’ve seen a chance go begging because no one thought to position themselves in just the right spot in the opposition area and I like how Gordon brings that to the team.

Our goal didn’t stop San Jose from pressing in attack. While our play was coming mainly down the left, so was San Jose on their left. They were in acres of space at times and there were just too many huge gaping holes in our defense that they quickly tried to exploit. Bobby Convey in particular was able to dribble and get away from our players with ease. Any time they got a sniff at goal, they would take a shot, from 12 yards or 30 yards. Stefan Frei kept safe hands for the most part, but the Earthquakes were able to equalize when Dawkins, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, found himself unmarked in space after some quick passing play and hit a shot past Frei to make it 1-1 in the 38th minute. The worst part was there were at least 5 of our players back and yet no one was able to get a block or tackle in to stop Dawkins. San Jose finished the half on top and I breathed a sigh of relief at the halftime whistle. While we had some good spells in attacking play, we were way too open and needed some more discipline for the second half.

The second half saw Nana come off (second game in a row he’s been taken off at halftime) and de Guzman come on. Peterson seemed to shift over to a rightback position while Harden went in to partner Cann in the centre of defense. San Jose came out trying to continue their momentum from the first half. Wondolowski was looking threatening and gave us a massive scare when he hit a hard shot from close range, but Frei got down to save while Harden made a strong block when Wondolowski hit another shot off the rebound. Having de Guzman on the pitch helped since he was able to, you know, pass the ball to another player wearing red. It’s nice when a player can do that. Maicon may need to take some lessons in that. Julian does look like he’s carrying a bit of weight. I hope we aren’t rushing him back too early and I really hope he doesn’t re-injure himself.

While de Guzman didn’t pick up any bad knocks in the game, Stevanovic most certainly did, and he had to be subbed off for Zavarise. Plata also came on for our new captain Maicon (the armband was passed on to JdG as he went off). Plata is quite small, but he made some great runs down the left flank. His only issue at the moment seems to be decision-making in the final third. TFC’s next good chance came from Gordon who got himself in a good position to the keeper’s left, but his shot was too weak. Perhaps he could have taken that better to put us in the lead. The only other really good chance I can remember was when Martina, who had a more subdued game, hit a shot near post that ended up skimming over the bar. The last half hour of the match basically consisted of the Earthquakes trying to overwhelm us and pin us back under pressure. Cann came up really big during this last part of the game. He was everywhere making blocks and tackles. It was a great performance that kept our precious point intact at the end of the day. In past seasons we would have conceded in the dying minutes of a match, but we held firm and showed some steel to see it through.

Full Time Stats (via MLSsoccer.com): San Jose Earthquakes v Toronto FC
Goals 1-1
Shots 19-10
On target 5-3
Fouls 13-17
Offsides 3-2
Possession % 58-42

There were definitely some shaky moments for TFC, but we also saw some players finding their feet. Tchani is looking like a very good pick up from NYRB. Julian will provide stability in the midfield and hopefully will be fit enough to play 90 minutes sooner rather than later. Stevanovic looked threatening out wide, but there is some worry about him picking up an injury. Peterson looked good playing more defensively. I’ve already said it too much this season, but it’s baby steps for this team, and we’re seeing slight progressions every time along with the bumps in the road. We have a tough challenge with the Galaxy coming to BMO this week so there’s no time to rest. The games will be coming fast at us now and we will start to see really how this team is coming together in the coming weeks.

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First of all, my deepest apologies for the headline. I don’t usually do the pun thing, and now you see why.

TFC had its first home game of the season hosting Portland Timbers, the second expansion team of MLS in 2011. Toronto had a dire performance against Vancouver the week before. Things were not looking optimistic and we have never had a good record facing expansion teams at home. In fact, we had never won a game against an expansion team at BMO. The fans were hoping for anything good to come from the game, especially since it wasn’t going to come from the weather.

Toronto FC: Starters: Stefan Frei, Dan Gargan, Adrian Cann, Ty Harden, Mikael Yourassowsky, Maicon Santos (69′), Nathan Sturgis (46′), Jacob Peterson, Dwayne De Rosario, Alan Gordon, Javier Martina (87′)

Bench: Alen Stevanovic* (46′), Oscar Cordon, Gianluca Zavarise (69′), Doneil Henry, Keith Makubuya, Ashtone Morgan (87′), Milos Kocic

Portland Timbers: Starters: Adin Brown (46′), Steve Purdy, Eric Brunner, Kevin Goldthwaite, Rodney Wallace, Ryan Pore (66′), Peter Lowry, Jack Jewsbury, Jeremy Hall, Jorge Perlaza (73′), Kenny Cooper

Bench: Kalif Alhassan, Jake Gleeson (46′), Freddie Braun, David Horst, Sal Zizzo (66′), Brian Umony (73′), James Marcelin

The boys gathered together in their familiar team huddle on the pitch and then the whistle blew for Toronto’s first, very cold, home game of the season. The game started off similarly to the week before. We kept possession and were trying to attack straight from kickoff. Maicon even got a shot off in the first minute, albeit off-target. Martina provided width and pace out wide on the right while DeRo took up the left flank. Our backline looked more assured with Harden and Cann holding it down in the centre and Yourassowsky in at leftback. Thank god for that because Cann just looked terrible against the Whitecaps and look much more assured today in his usual role. Nana was not in the match squad due to injury.

Our attacking intent paid off when Martina scored in the 14th minute for his first ever TFC goal and first ever in Major League Soccer. It was a great team effort with Peterson finding Maicon in the middle of the pitch who played it forward to DeRo making the run up the middle. The defender was right on his tail, but DeRo did really well to hold him off and keep the ball and then lay it off to an onrushing Martina who slotted past the Timbers’ keeper. It was great to see such a quick and fluid play from the team. The goal gave us the perfect start to calm the nerves.

The opening 20 minutes of the match showed the kind of football that Winter is trying to get the team to play. The back four held a high line and caught Cooper offside a few times. DeRo looked dangerous every time he got on the ball and Yourassowsky was doing great with his overlapping runs allowing DeRo to cut in to maintain a threat. Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep up that positive play and the Timbers started to find their way back into the game. They began increasing the pressure and pressing higher up the pitch. We started to see a few stray passes, particularly in the middle where I though Sturgis and Peterson could have done much better in keeping possession. Then we began giving away corners and careless fouls. Gargan in particular was not having a great game. He gives away possession and too many errant passes at times. We all love him for his hard work and enthusiasm, but really he should be a backup to a better rightback for us.

Luckily our defense was able to hold on until halftime. Not much was coming from Portland’s corners and we were much more direct and no-nonsense with our clearances. Sometimes this needs to be done, particularly in set piece situations, so I would much rather the players take the safer option of booting the ball away then dallying about on the ball near our penalty area and then give it away to the other team to get a shot off. Frei had been solid throughout the game, but the only time I saw him have some trouble was during the 20 minute spell before halftime when he flapped once or twice at a ball coming into the area. Otherwise, it was safe hands as always. Some of our defending was last-ditch, but Harden and Cann were pretty good at getting their big frames in the way to get blocks in as well. There are always going to be periods when the opposition puts us under pressure like that. The important thing is that we are able to withstand that pressure and counter when we get the chance. One good thing I noticed was that the closer we got to halftime, the more the Timbers got impatient and just started trying shots from far outside the box. Frankly, they could do that all day long and I wouldn’t mind. Frei is pretty good at catching long range shots and besides, most of those 35 yarders tend to go high and wide. As for us, our forward movement waned, but we managed to make it to halftime without conceding.

Before the whistle, Winter subbed in new guy Stevanovic, who had just flown in on Friday, for Sturgis who again had a bit of an anonymous game. The second half continued much in the same manner the first half ended. The Timbers were getting the better of possession and we tried our luck on the break. The Timbers, much like us in our previous game, weren’t able to get any good chances despite their possession. Their best chance at a goal would likely come through a corner or freekick. Kenny Cooper is bloody huge and a huge nuisance to our backline, so I was always nervous with him close to our goal.

Maicon had a great start to the second half when he found himself one-on-one with the keeper but did not capitalize on his chance well enough as the Timbers keeper, who came on as a second half sub, saved the shot easily. Maicon really should have done better with that chance and I think I would have broken something had we conceded straight after that chance. I have to say that Alan Gordon did really well for me on Saturday. He got the flick-on for Maicon that led to that chance and he was constantly in defenders faces and providing good support to our other attacking players. I’d like to see more from him in the next game, possibly as our target man because I think he did a lot of the little things well and came off as a good team player.

As I mentioned, we were playing much more on the counter and not playing as much in possession. One thing I noticed was that the ball was not moving particularly well on the pitch. Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like the surface was not slick enough for the sort of passing game that Winter would like the team to play. Perhaps it was this plus our players exercising a bit of practicality that led them to more of a direct and “long ball” style a lot of the time. If Frei didn’t see any good movement in front of him and a lot of Portland players, he would just encourage the team to push up and then send a ball up field for one of our big guys to knock down. Ok, so it wasn’t totaalvoetbal, but that will take time to sustain for 90 minutes. Our approach paid off in the 70th minute when Frei gathered the ball after a Timbers corner and picked out Martina about 60 yards out that Martina took down and smashed into the net with a tremendous piece of skill. One of the goals of the week for sure, and Martina’s second of the night. If he could keep doing that for the rest of the season, that’d be great, thanks!

All seemed to be going so well. There had to be something that went wrong. And you bet Yourassowsky something went wrong! Our hilariously named leftback was on a yellow and was being subbed off in the 84th minute after he had picked up a knock when the referee decided he was taking too long walking off the pitch and issued a second yellow to send him off. What can I say? It was one of the dumbest sendings off this side of Robin van Persie in the Champions League last month. I have to say though, Yourassowsky didn’t do himself any favours. The ref was on him the whole game and Yourassowsky was talking back a bit. My approach to every game is, don’t give the ref a reason to book you. It’s the they’re-all-against-us-so-don’t-get-on-the-ref’s-bad-side approach. I could feel the red card coming, I really could. Maybe it was the numbskull ref, or maybe it was the red card that Yourassowsky picked up in a preseason friendly of all places, but I felt that he was going to get sent off. Really, it was a sending off we could have avoided if our guy had just quickened his pace a tad. So, well done young man, you will now be suspended because you picked up a couple silly bookings. Work on your tackling on your time off so next time you don’t constantly foul to pick up that first booking.

TFC were down to 10 men during the last 10 minutes and my twitter timeline was telling me to expect a goal to be conceded by our crappy defense. Well, we didn’t concede, so take that twitter! It wasn’t a stand out performance, but a decent one where we saw flashes of the Winter philosophy. Portland didn’t test us all that much, but we managed to handle what they did throw at us. A good three points and TFC are 7th in the Eastern Conference, or, if you will, joint-third in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, I like that second one better, I think I’ll go with that.

Full Time Stats (via MLSsoccer.com): Toronto FC v Portland Timbers
Goals 2-0
Shots 11-16
On target 5-4
Fouls 18-8
Offsides 1-5
Possession % 45-55

So what, if anything, can we take away from Saturday night’s win? Well, we won. This is after people thought we would be absolutely hopeless and might not even get anything from today’s game on the basis of what they saw against Vancouver. TFC employed a more direct style of play. Whether or not that was intentional, I don’t know, but maybe we needed a bit of that. Our team won’t change overnight, so we can’t try to force things. Saying that, there were some very positive signs in the opening 20 minutes that shows how Winter is beginning to change this team. Our problems lie in our inexperience. The team needs to stick with Winter’s methods in training and constantly try to improve their skill and understanding of the players around them. Often during the match, players seemed to be caught in two minds in whether they should pass the ball or take on a defender or when exactly to release the ball. Again, I think this comes with time and practice and also being surrounded by good players. We’ve brought in Stevanovic, who didn’t look great, but the guy just got here and he certainly seems to have a lot to offer. DeRo is looking as good as he ever did and we still have de Guzman to return to the fold. We’ve gotten through our first tests, but we have only faced expansion teams so far. There are plenty more obstacles awaiting. The kind of little individual mistakes we’ve been making, the sloppy giveaways, and conceding freekicks in dangerous areas are all things that need to be addressed. A good team can really punish us when we leave ourselves exposed and we were lucky to be let off against Portland’s relatively impotent attack. Progression and evolution are slow, but we already see how things are different in little ways, and I also believe that the players are much happier under this management. Now they just need to keep working hard and keep believing.

*Alen Stevanovic along with Joao Plata were officially signed by TFC last week. Stevanovic is co-owned by Internazionale Milan and Torino FC and will spend the season on loan with TFC.

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Don’t forget to follow Toronto FC Offside on Twitter for the latest news, links, and updates: www.twitter.com/TFCOffside

Really, it’s the hope that kills ya. The glimmer of hope in today’s match appeared in the 16th minute. Seattle had the majority of the possession and were threatening Toronto’s goal from the opening minutes when Nyassi shot just wide of our net. Then, before you knew it, the tables had turned when DeRosario recieved a great ball from Maicon, hustled forward, and chipped the keeper to make it 1-0 to Toronto. ‘Could we possibly come out of this game with something?’ I thought. The Sounders came back quickly with a rebuttal when they scored just minutes later with the equalizer. Alonso put through a perfect ball in between our defense to Zakuani who took the ball around Frei and slotted it in the open net. Before Toronto could even gather themselves from the sting of that goal, Seattle hit again in the the 26th minute through a set piece to make it 2-1 to the Sounders.

It was pretty much over from there. From the outset, Toronto never really got going. The defense that had been so solid during the season was nowhere to be found. Gargan was getting absolutely smoked by Nyassi’s pace on the wing. Cann and Attakora both looked unfocused and allowed too many errors in and around the box. Cann in particular had a real shocker. He left Zakuani unmarked for a free header for the second Seattle goal and poorly cleared a ball straight to Nyassi who scored from the edge of the box in the second half.

Barrett was able to get us a consolation goal late in the game when Lindsay, who had come on as a sub, crossed the ball in for Barrett who headed it in the back of the net while the Sounders defense was caught sleeping. It ended 3-2 for Seattle.

The game as a whole was pretty entertaining as if you are a Seattle fan. The stadium was sold out and the fans were out in full voice. Apparently, this is what it looks like when you sell all your tickets and the people who bought said tickets show up to the match. The Sounders played an impressive passing game and moved the ball well. They looked very assured and controlled most of the match. Their players used their pace well and Alonso was a standout performer in the midfield. Looks like they got over Freddie pretty quickly. They look good to cause a bit of an upset in the playoffs.

Toronto on the other hand looked mentally exhausted and devoid of any real ideas. We didn’t threaten their goal often and our forwards looked frustrated up front. I think after the first Seattle goal we decided to switch to Prekiball mode, only without the good defending. We were fouling players left and right and were probably lucky not to have more players booked in the first half. It’s going to be hard to play for pride when half your team doesn’t look like it wants to be on the pitch. Mista took that a bit literally, I think, because he was out of the game with a ‘foot contusion’ whatever that is. It’s ok, it’s not like we’re paying him DP money or anything.

If San Jose beat Columbus in a few hours then mathematically Toronto’s chances of making the playoffs will be done. At least that will take any lingering pressure off, but I don’t expect the scoreline to get any prettier in the last 3 matches of the season. That’s just how it is with this team at this moment in time so we’re all just going to have to ride it out as best we can. Next up is a week from now on October 9 when Toronto travels to Chivas USA. A week off should do the guys some good. Go Reds!

Mo went. And so did Preki. You don’t need me to tell you that obviously, but what do you think of the decision by MLSE to fire them both at the same time? I certainly thought it was pretty quick, but after that loss to DC United everyone, including myself, were calling for big changes. The “Mo must Go” chanters finally got their way.

And frankly they deserve it. These are the hardcore supporters who have followed this team through thick and thin (mostly thin). So if they are ready to bail out on the team because of the performances and the perceived inadequacies of the manager, then so be it (and as I said in the comments on my last post, I’m sure the potential loss of season ticket holder money had a factor in the decision too).

Last night we were treated to the first TFC match under the command of interim coach Nick Dasovic. TFC was away to face Real Salt Lake in a CCL group stage game. They lost 4-1. The game started really nice for Toronto, when they took an early lead from a Maicon Santos goal in the 8th minute, but from there it was all downhill. RSL is a good team, and they showed why last night. Sure, it helped that they got the benefit of the second goal not being called offside, and then later a sending off of Mista on a silly foul only 5 minutes after he came on (about 25 minutes left in the match), and finally a penalty kick goal after a poor challenge by Nick Garcia. But they probably didn’t need any of those things to win the match anyway.

Despite the lopsided loss, it was refreshing to see the 4-3-3 lineup selected by Dasovic. We actually got to see a few low crosses coming in from the sides of the penalty area, because TFC actually tried to use the wings last night. These for the most part resulted in legitimate scoring chances – something we are not used to seeing from TFC lately. Hopefully there will be less long balls from midfield over the top to the non-existent target man. Those don’t work unless you have Ruud van Nistelrooy or Thierry Henry up there. I wonder if they are working for the New York Red Bulls lately.

Anyway, obviously with the loss of coach Preki, TFC lost most of their defensive solidarity. I’m sure we won’t see poor defensive performances every night though – these guys have been criticized for not being able to attack and score, so they went for an offensive style last night, grabbed the early goal which was great, and then were exploited by the other team. I still enjoyed the match more than the last few TFC games I’ve seen!

So let’s sit back and see how they evolve under the new (interim) regime. Do you think the team did the right thing in firing Mo and Preki? Was it too early (or too late)? Do we have any chance of salvaging either competition this year? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments section!

TFC put in a good fight on Saturday night, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

I thought they played one of the most energetic games I’ve ever seen from TFC – constantly running and chasing down the ball, tackling and winning balls all over the place, always looking for a quick pass to get into the attack – it was thrilling soccer! I was impressed by de Guzman, who looked much more commanding in midfield than we’re used to, Mista, Gargan, Saric, DeRo (as always), Ty Harden, everyone looked very intense. Preki must have really lit a fire under their asses. It did get a little chaotic at times, and TFC were probably lucky that Real Salt Lake couldn’t convert any of their chances either, so the 0-0 result was probably fair. It looked like either Toronto would finally score after all their hard work, or RSL would bang one in on a counter-attack, leaving TFC stunned. I’d prefer to take the single point than have the morale sink a bit more if they had lost the game.

Let me just end this post by saying that I PVR’ed the game and watched it when I was very tired on Saturday night, so my perception of space and time may have been out of whack. So if you saw a slow, sluggish TFC team that just couldn’t get it together to break the 0-0 deadlock, well that’s entirely possible too. But I think they put in a lot of hard work and can take some positives out of the game. They will need that with back to back road games coming up. If they can keep up the intensity on the road, they will eventually get some goals and hopefully pick up a win or two.