LA Galaxy
Conference: West Position: 3rd
W-L-D: 2-1-2 (0 points, -1 goal differential)
Away Form: 1-1-1 (-2 goal differential)
Recent Form: DWLDW
Last Meeting: Toronto FC 0 – LA Galaxy 0 (June 26, 2010)

The big boys are coming to town. Toronto FC will play their first midweek game of the season against LA Galaxy at BMO Field. Try to spot all of the stars in the Galaxy. Look! There’s Beckham! And Donovan! Is that Angel! Oh look, the Rooney look-a-like that used to play for TFC! Currently, LA sit 3rd in the Western conference with 8 points from 5 games, while TFC are 4th in the East with 5 points from 4 games. This game will be the toughest challenge for the Reds yet. Will they be able to handle Los Galacticos?

LA Galaxy are another one of the original teams that have been in Major League Soccer since the opening season in 1996. They even made it all the way to the MLS Cup final in that first season. In their whole history, the Galaxy have won the Western Conference a total of seven times, more than any other team. They have three Supporters’ Shields under their belts and have won the MLS Cup twice while coming runners-up four times on top of that. Needless to say, they are winners, and they are certainly one of the top teams in the league still. Last season they were expected to make it all the way to the MLS Cup final after topping the Western Conference with the likes of English soccer star, David Beckham, and MLS All-Star, America’s own, Landon Donovan. It didn’t end up being their year as FC Dallas pulled off the upset in the Conference Final by beating LA 3-0 at the Home Depot Centre.

Last season, TFC had both Galaxy games early in the season, so it’s been a while since the two sides have met. LA’s last visit to BMO was all the way back in June of last year where the two sides played out a nil-nil draw. The stadium was pretty bare that day due to all of the chaos surrounding the G20 summit at the time. Beckham was nowhere to be seen, yet again, though he looks set to come to Canada on this year’s trip. Going into this season, there are high expectations for LA as ever. Beckham and Donovan are still with the club. Donovan has been struggling with fitness/tiredness, but it sounds like he will be fit and and ready for Wednesday’s game. Beckham looks like he will be playing as well and his presence is sure to cause us problems out wide and on set pieces, which are his specialty. He already has three assists this season. Even with those two players, the Galaxy still went and brought in another big name during the preseason: Juan Pablo Angel. He is one of the most consistent goalscorers in the league with 58 goals in 102 appearances for New York Red Bulls. If they can’t score on our leaky defense, I’ll be shocked.

In goal, LA have 2010 Goalkeeper of the Year, Donovan Ricketts, who is just the kind of crazy that I like to see in a keeper. They have solid defensive players as well in A.J. DeLaGarza and Omar Gonzalez. American fullback Todd Dunivant should also be starting on Wednesday. The Galaxy have played one more game than TFC but have conceded the same number of goals, though one was a controversial penalty against DC United over the weekend. I still think their defense will be tougher to crack than the ones we have played so far, but we have not been shy in attack and seem to have a few goals in us ourselves. With the TFC defense being so full of holes and LA having so many attacking options, we will really need to score at least a couple in this match if we are going to come away with anything.

LA Galaxy’s midfield and attack is a strong one with Landycakes and Becks, but there are other threats. Juninho was brought in on the offseason on loan from São Paulo and already has two goals to his name this season. Mike Magee scored his first goal last week against DC United off of a Beckham corner and is usually lively out on the left wing. Chris Birchall would normally get the start in midfield, but he picked up a straight red two weeks ago and I believe is still suspended for the TFC match. And how could I forget, the former TFC striker you either loved or hated, Chad Barrett. I’ll go on the record as being a pro-Chad girl myself while acknowledging he had his faults and was definitely being overpaid by TFC. He hasn’t scored yet for the Galaxy, but hey, when has that ever stopped an ex-player before? My guess is he will come back and score a hattrick because that’s how the universe likes to mess with Toronto FC.

Moving along, Toronto FC are currently on a three game unbeaten streak. Sure, there’s only one win in there, but it also means that Vancouver is still our only loss so far this season. We saw some glimpses of great play in our last game against San Jose, but our glaring defensive weaknesses were on show as well. Most of our players will be available so let’s see how wrong I can get the lineup this week:

Frei

Our attack seems to pretty much pick itself these days. I expect a front line of Martina, Gordon, and Stevanovic with Maicon in the hole. Gordon has scored in his last two outings and it would be nice to see him start a little streak. We did get Gordon when we traded Barrett to LA, so a goal against his former team would be quite fitting, don’t you think? Peterson has been doing well lately so we should see him with Tchani solidify the midfield. Frei is a no-brainer in goal, but choosing our backline is the trickiest part. We don’t seem to have settled on a back four, or at least one that’s played a really great game. Cann seems likeliest to be at centreback, but will it be Harden or Nana next to him? Nana’s been subbed off at halftime two games in a row now. That can’t be good news for him. Maybe he will start there again and eventually be subbed off, but I feel like Winter might just start with Harden. He’s put Harden at rightback a couple of times now, but I’m just go on a limb and predict that he will have Borman and Yourassowsky starting in the fullback positions. Actually, I was a bit surprised that Yourassowsky didn’t start the last game against the Earthquakes because I thought he generally looked good against Portland. Was this Winter’s way of sending him a message to keep his discipline in check, or did Winter just want to try something a bit different? I can’t say for certain, but I think we’ll see the comically-named leftback start on Wednesday.

As I mentioned before, this will be our toughest test so far this season, and that could be an understatement. LA Galaxy won the Supporters’ Shield last year, which means they finished top of the overall league table, not just their conference. They have big players and they want to go out and win every game. There aren’t many teams better than them in MLS (I’d say Real Salt Lake are the ones everyone should be terrified of), so we can’t make these silly individual errors or leave strikers in an acre of space in our third of the pitch. The Galaxy are exactly the type of team that can punish you for stuff like that. Toronto FC just played in San Jose on Saturday, will face the Galaxy on Wednesday, and then host DC United on this coming Saturday. It’s a jam-packed week and we have to step up our game if we are going to get any points against LA. Can TFC rise to the challenge against the stars of the Galaxy? Can our defense go 90 minutes without giving the fans collective heart failure? Will David Beckham finally get his butt to Toronto? Will Victoria be with him? And can she give me some style tips? All these questions will be answered soon enough so be sure to watch!

Toronto FC v LA Galaxy will be broadcast on GOL TV Canada Live at 8:0pm ET

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San Jose Earthquakes
Conference: West Position: 5th
W-L-D: 1-1-1 (0 points, +1 goal differential)
Home Form: 0-1-1 (-1 goal differential)
Recent Form: DWL
Last Meeting: Toronto FC 2 – San Jose Earthquakes 3 (September 25, 2010)

Toronto FC are back on the road again. We’re flying to sunny California to meet up with San Jose Earthquakes, one of the clubs that has been in MLS since the league’s inception in 1996 (then known as “San Jose Clash”). Currently, TFC have taken 4 points from 3 games (not too shabby) and sit 6th in the Eastern Conference. Or, if you will, joint-third on points! San Jose have garnered the same number of points, but they have found more success on the road than at home so far.

San Jose has seen many changes over the years, from their roots in the NASL to the franchise move to Houston (the team in Houston ended up as an expansion team in 2006 and San Jose’s original team records did not carry over). San Jose were on hiatus during the 2006 and 2007 seasons because of the franchise move, but returned to MLS in 2008 under their former manager, legendary Canadian Frank Yallop. Since the opening MLS season, San Jose has won 2 MLS Cups, both under Frank Yallop, in 2001 and 2003. In 2005 they won the Supporter Shield in 2005 under coach Dominic Kinnear. Last season, despite just barely making the playoffs, they managed to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals (yes, Eastern. Don’t ask) where they lost to eventual MLS Cup winners Colorado Rapids.

This season has seen San Jose make an uneven start, but there are still hopes that the strong finish to the end of their 2010 campaign will carry over into this season. On the other hand, some have cautioned that they could end up back on the low end of the table like they were before their good run to the playoffs. They certainly are a team that could build on any momentum and with a recent away win at FC Dallas and a 2-2 tie last weekend against Seattle, San Jose will be eager to grab their first home win of the season against a Toronto team that is still trying to find its feet. The last time the Reds played at Buck Shaw Stadium, we came away with 3 points after winning 3-1. They greatly outnumbered us in shots, but Stefan Frei came up big, as usual, with several key saves. DeRo struck twice and grabbed his second goal when he was in clear on an empty net. Chad Barrett also scored for TFC while Ramiro Corrales claimed the lone San Jose goal of the night. Our record isn’t bad away to San Jose; in the three games we’ve played there we’ve won twice and drawn once. If we can keep our good fortunes there going, it would be great, but I think it will be a tougher task this year, particularly since our side has yet to achieve real consistency within their play, not to mention we just lost DeRo who was our best and most influential player.

The Earthquakes are still being headed up by coach Frank Yallop. He is well-known and respected within the Canadian soccer community and has 52 caps for the Canadian National Team. He also coached the Men’s National Team from 2004-2006 after leaving his first stint at San Jose. He was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2005. Dwayne De Rosario, our former captain who has now joined New York Red Bulls, played under Yallop for the national team and during the Earthquakes successful cup-winning seasons. Alan Gordon, Ty Harden, and Nathan Sturgis all played under Yallop when he coached LA Galaxy from 2006-2007. You can see, there is a lot of history there and several players that have crossed paths. Most recently, TFC did business with the Earthquakes when they traded Sam Cronin for allocation money in June 2010. I still can’t believe we made that trade. Cronin was well-liked by many people and thought to be a great pickup in the 2009 MLS Superdraft. The only reason he was let go is because he wasn’t a “Preki-type” player. He’s done well ever since he joined San Jose. I can see him being a great player in this league for years to come and it really annoys me that we just let him go for no good reason. He’ll be one to keep an eye on this weekend. I’m sure he’d love to score against us!

I can’t talk about the Earthquakes without mentioning Chris Wondolowski. He had always been one of those players that played second fiddle on his teams and struggled with injury at times. It was in 2010 when he really hit top form and enjoyed a fantastic season with the Earthquakes. He scored 18 goals during the 2010 season, including a hattrick at BMO, and won the MLS Golden Boot. His goals were a major reason why San Jose made it to the playoffs last season. He’s continued scoring this season by scoring twice against FC Dallas. His last 12 goals for the club, stretching back to last season, set a new record as being the only goals scored for San Jose. In other words, only Wondolowski was on target for San Jose as he scored their last 12 goals in MLS. That came to an end last weekend when Khari Stephenson and Simon Dawkins netted against Seattle to become the Earthquakes first scorers in months not named Wondolowski. Wondo is still going to be their biggest threat so our defense needs to stay tight on him and our midfield needs to cut off his supply.

In defense, the Earthquakes look to have a solid enough backline, but it was exposed against Seattle last weekend. San Jose captain and veteran defender Ramiro Corrales will likely start in the centre of defense. They seem to play three centrebacks so we could see Jason Hernandez or Brandon McDonald joining Corrales along with Ike Opara, the talented, young 22 year old defender. In the middle of the park will be Cronin with another big player in Bobby Convey. He has recently reminded people of his talents that had been subdued in recent years by enjoying a great season with San Jose in 2010 and racking up 10 assists in the league. He can be a real terror on the flank, which is bad news for us because we seem to really be exposed defensively out wide. If it’s Gargan who starts on Saturday, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Moving on to the Reds, there have been so many changes to the TFC roster, it’s been hard to keep up at times. DeRo is officially out and Tony Tchani, Danleigh Borman, and Dicoy Williams are in. With all of the new additions, it is difficult for me to guess the starting eleven, but here goes:

Frei

I believe Yourassowsky is back from suspension and will be available. He’s our best option at leftback and did a really good job with overlapping runs, so I think he’s still a starter. If Nana’s fit and healthy I think he will start next to Cann. They are still adjusting to the new style of play with the high line and playing from the back, but they are still the best options we have. The more they play together the better because they have a good understanding of each other from last season and can slowly improve with time. I’ve put Williams at rightback because Gargan seems like he’s been moved to the bench after some less than stellar performances in our opening games. Frei, of course, starts in goal.

As for our attack, I’m interested to see what Winter puts out. He threw Tchani into the mix right away against Chivas USA so I can definitely see him starting on Saturday. I can’t see deGuzman starting the game, what with all the travel and him only just coming back from injury. I think most of us were surprised to see him on the bench, let alone play 45 minutes last week. If we see him, I’m guessing it will be in the second half. Stevanovic, Martina, and our new captain Maicon are all shoo-ins to start. Peterson has been holding his own and should find himself in the midfield again. Gordon grabbed his first goal last week and provides us with a big, strong physical presence that gives us a different option up top. It looks pretty close to our strongest eleven. We really need to take our chances when we get them. In other words, we might not get a lot of chances, so opportunities like the one Maicon royally screwed up last week cannot be missed. Our defense is still our weakest area, but our attacking players need to get back and help out when they can. With DeRo leaving, we no longer have that one guy to turn to when the chips are down. Any success we have on the pitch will truly be a team effort. The faster our guys can start clicking and improving their understanding of each other, the better our performances will get. I think this will be a tough game. San Jose will score, I’m pretty sure of that, though chances of us scoring on the road are better today than they have been in previous seasons. Our record on the road in MLS is quite poor, but what we have on our side is our record against San Jose in their stadium and the fact that they haven’t been great at home thus far. Hopefully, we can get a decent result from this match, or at the very least, see some improvement in our general play. Either would be satisfying for me.

Toronto FC @ San Jose Earthquakes will be broadcast on GolTV Canada Live at 10:30pm ET

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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

Chivas USA
Conference: West Position: 8th
W-L-D: 0-2-0 (0 points, -2 goal differential)
Away Form: N/A
Recent Form: LL
Last Meeting: Chivas USA 3 Toronto FC 0 (Oct. 9, 2010)

Finally, TFC face a team that has been in MLS for more than a week. On Saturday, we will be hosting Chivas USA who are in their seventh MLS season. If the name “Chivas” rings a bell it’s because it is the nickname of the Mexican club C.D. Guadalajara. Both Chivas clubs have the same owner and Chivas Guadalajara is considered the parent club to Chivas USA.

Chivas USA has enjoyed success in the past under current USA head coach Bob Bradley and a certain Predrag Radosavljevic, who you may recognize as “Preki”, TFC’s coach last season before he was sacked along with our former sith lord GM Mo Johnston. Bradley took Chivas to the playoffs in their second season after placing 3rd in the Western Conference. Preki took over for Chivas’ third season where he led the Rojiblancos to a 1st place finish in the Western Conference. They went on to the playoffs, but failed to advance past the conference semis.

Recently, things have not been as rosy for Chivas. They failed to make the playoffs last season and ended up finishing dead last in the Western Conference with 28 points and a -14 goal difference. Only DC United had a worse record in the 2010 season (22 points, -26 goal difference). The last time we played them at BMO was way back in August 2010 when Preki faced his old team for the first time since he left them with a squad in much need of repair. That day saw Chad Barrett score along with Nana Attakora who scored a goal after a classic Delap-style long throw from Dan Gargan that we actually used to good effect for once. Chivas managed to gain a penalty after Adrian Cann got called for a handball in the box. They scored with their chance, but the game ended 2-1 in our favour. Stefan Frei had a Man of the Match performance after making several great saves to keep our butts in the game (a recurring theme in 2010) and Maicon Santos got to face his old team after leaving for Toronto with Preki. He ended up going off injured early in the second half, which, incidentally, was another recurring theme in 2010.

Things were good then for our beloved Reds. We were on an unbeaten streak and Prekiball was working its tedious magic. As you know, the season ended up unraveling into chaos and we even ended up losing 3-0 to Chivas at the Home Depot Centre in October under interim manager Nick Dasovic. (Wow, how many prepositions did I manage to shove into that last sentence? English teachers beware!) This season we are trying to change our fortunes and so are Chivas. They just announced this past week that Robin Fraser has officially been handed the role of Head Coach. He will be Chivas’ sixth coach in seven years. Sounds like another team we know. If we weren’t already similar enough, we even did some transfer business with them when we traded Nick Labrocca for Alan Gordon before the start of the season.

“The Goats” unloaded a few big names in the offseason including American international Jonathan Bornstein and the aforementioned Gordon. Coach Fraser wants to bring things back-to-basics with Chivas and keep things simple while strengthening key areas such as defense. He’s brought in veterans like Heath Pearce and Jimmy Conrad to solidify the backline, however, Conrad is currently out injured which is a big blow for them. They will also be missing Paulo Nagamura in the midfield. It seems the Goats’ injury problems of last season seem to be haunting them again. They also have had their young, up-and-coming players away with the US U20 National Team. They may be getting back their most promising defender, Zarek Valentin, from the National squad, but they are still looking pretty thin at the back, which is good news for us.

Up front for Chivas will likely be Justin Braun who was their top scorer last season with 9 goals. He was struggling with injury in preseason, so he might not be in top form, but he is still their likeliest threat going forward. Other players to look out for will be Alejandro Moreno, who was with his national team Venezuela this past week and scored a goal against Jamaica, and Blair Gavin, who may or may not play after picking up an injury in Chivas’ last match. It should be noted that Chivas have lost both of their games so far this season, and both of those games were at home. If they have that kind of record after two games at home, I have to think they won’t be much better away from home. On top of all that, in their opening matches against Sporting Kansas and Colorado they conceded 4 goals and only scored 2, and both of those goals were scored by defenders in their season opener. On Tuesday, the rojiblancos lost away, 2-0 to Portland Timbers in a US Open Cup qualifier. Basically, 2011 hasn’t treated them much better than 2010 and this is a great opportunity for us to grab another three points at home against a weak team while we are still finding our feet.

Last week we picked up a great result at home against Portland Timbers by scoring two great goals and keeping a clean sheet. We’re now up against a team that’s been around for a while in MLS, but has gotten off to a terrible start and is looking vulnerable. Most of our key players are fit and ready to go this week so our chances of winning are pretty good as long as we don’t do anything too stupid and Frei comes up with a couple of those match-winning saves that he manages to rustle up each game. As usual, here’s my best guess at a starting lineup for the Reds:

Frei

I’ll be honest, I’m doing a lot of guesswork here based on who has already started this season and who seems to be doing well so far. Frei is a no-brainer in net. I put Cann and Harden in the centre of defense simply because we are not completely sure if Nana will be fit enough to start. If he is, expect him to be in the starting eleven in place of Harden. Gargan is in purely for lack of options, though Winter may opt for new signing Dicoy Williams, but I am not sure if he has experience at rightback. Yourassowsky is suspended after picking up 2 yellows against Portland so TFC Academy product, Ashtone Morgan, gets his chance to start and show us what he’s got. DeRo and Peterson seem to have solidified their spots, but Sturgis has struggled to make an impact so I put him on the bench for Stevanovic. Up front I suspect we will see Maicon or Gordon up front with one of them playing on the wing and Martina playing in the other wide role. That’s a hell of a lot of attack on the pitch, so now that I think about it, I’m probably quite off in my predictions, but we’ll see. We definitely need to see some better ball retention in the middle of the park. Julian isn’t expected to be back until mid-April, so the players we field until then need to show some improvement. We can score goals with this team, but our defense is still shaky and prone to sitting to deep and not moving the ball out from the back quickly enough. We also tend to be exposed on quick counterattacks. These are all things that should make for an entertaining yet nerve-wracking afternoon!

I’m doing my best to juggle two blogs at once (I also write for Arsenal Offside), but I will be calling in reinforcements this weekend in the form of Saurabh from Hoffenheim Offside who will write up the review from the game.

Toronto FC v Chivas USA will be broadcast on TSN Live at 1:00pm ET

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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

Portland Timbers
Conference: West Position: 8th
W-L-D: 0-1-0 (0 points, -2 goal differential)
Away Form: 0-1-0 (-2 goal differential)
Recent Form: L
Last Meeting: N/A

It’s the 2011 home opener for Toronto FC and who do we face but another expansion team. After playing the Whitecaps in their first ever MLS game, we will be hosting Portland Timbers this weekend in their second ever game in MLS. We made some history in our last match since it featured Vancouver’s first ever MLS goal and the game ended up being Vancouver’s first ever MLS win. I don’t know about you, but I would like very much not to make any of Portland’s history books on Saturday.

So who are these Portland lads anyway? Last season they finished 3rd in the USL Conference of USSF Division 2. Their overall record in the league was 13-7-10 with a goal difference of +11. Not too bad considering the awful streak they had in May, going on an 8 game winless streak whilst competing on two fronts. They made it to the playoffs in post season, facing notable rivals Vancouver Whitecaps. Vancouver got the best of that tie and Portland did not end up progressing from the playoff quarterfinals.

Portland have been as busy as you would expect during the offseason. Last August, the Timbers appointed former Houston Dynamo Assistant Coach John Spencer as Head Coach and he is at the helm for Portland’s inaugural MLS season. He has emphasized youth, athleticism, and and mental toughness as fundamental to his team. He has been described as funny and encouraging as a coach and seems to be well liked by the team. This season will no doubt be a huge test to see if he has what it takes to be a top coach.

The Timbers have made a fair number of trades in the months before the start of the 2011 season. They brought in Jeremy Hall from New York Red Bulls as a third round pick in the SuperDraft. Jack Jewsbury was acquired from Sporting Kansas and should provide some experience in the midfield. Other notable midfield additions include second overall SuperDraft pick, Darlington Nagbe and Sal Zizzo, formerly of Chivas USA.

In goal, Portland has Troy Perkins who faced the huge task of keeping out goals for DC United last season. Needless to say, that didn’t go to well considering United’s leaky defense. Perkins and the United defense conceded 47 goals last season, so Perkins will be hoping for a fresh start with the Timbers and another chance at proving to doubters that he can provide safe hands. As for the Timbers’ defense, they have been solid, particularly in their last two seasons in USL. MLS, however, is a whole other kettle of fish. They’ve already let in 3 goals against 2010 MLS Cup Champions Colorado Rapids. Maybe they are stronger than that game suggests, but with TFC’s focus being attacking this season, we should really have a go at their backline and make sure we test them much more than we did the Whitecaps in our last match.

Portland have kept some of their old team from USL last season. It’s a positive thing that they have players that know each other and have experience playing together, but some of them have not played in MLS, which could be a detriment. As with most expansion teams, you don’t really know how things will turn out until you see them play a few games. They don’t look strong enough to be challenging for a playoff spot, but hey, you never really know in this league. Their biggest threat to us in our upcoming matchup will likely be former MLS All-Star Kenny Cooper. Cooper enjoyed his best years in MLS when he played for FC Dallas from 2006 to 2009. In 2008, he scored 18 goals for FC Dallas, but unfortunately his time with the club was littered with injuries and he left to go abroad in 2009. Now he’s back with Portland ready to make his comeback in MLS. He scored Portland’s first MLS goal ever in their last game against Colorado, which ended 3-1 in favour of the Rapids. That shows he still has something left in those boots. Whether he can replicate his form of days past is unknown, but he is big, strong, as well as good with the ball at his feet, so our defenders need to keep a close eye on him.

From dazzling kit unveilings to club logo controversy, this Portland team is certainly doing what it can to make its mark in Major League Soccer. They will be an interesting team to watch, and certainly people should tune in to see their games against their fierce rivals Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps. Those should be exciting and intense matches that will be great for the league. Right now, they have lost their only MLS game played 3-1, but it was away from home and against the MLS Cup Champions. They may be sitting in 8th place in the Western Conference, but they surely will not want to start the season with two losses in a row, so we need to be ready for a tough game at BMO.

Meanwhile, things are just peachy in the TFC camp. Wait, did I say peachy? I meant miserable. We lost 4-2 in Vancouver and the fans are frustrated and restless. And who can blame them? How many clubs feel like they are in their expansion year 5 seasons in a row? It looks like BMO won’t be packed on Saturday like days of old, which should wake up some of the big guys in the head office. I think, as long as the support that shows up backs the team in full voice it will be ok. Winter mentioned how he is looking forward to having a twelfth man and I think it would be great if BMO gave him and the new team a hearty welcome.

Even though we enjoyed most of the possession in our previous game, we failed to do much with it. Our defense looked shaky, which is an understatement, but we still managed to score two goals away from home. It’s obvious though that we’re still smarting from our opening game loss. Here’s what Adrian Cann had to say about it:

“Everyone was off. We weren’t on the same wavelength; communication-wise, the organization, everything was off. Marking, closing down the space, closing down the man, passing off the man, sequence. All-in-all it was off. It was our first game but at the same time, you have to learn from your mistakes. I think moving forward, we know what we did wrong. We went through everything. I think the players know what they did wrong. I think moving forward you need to improve on the mistakes and build from that.”

I’m not sure if we can play much worse than we did against the Whitecaps. Dear god, I hope we can’t play much worse. In any case, I expect to see an improvement from the team on Saturday and a rethink of our backline. There doesn’t seem to be any new injuries and de Guzman is still out for a little while. Alan Gordon has finally sorted out his passport issues and joined up with the team in Toronto. Here’s my best guess at a starting lineup.

Frei

Ok, so it’s pretty much what I guessed last week’s lineup would be. I only had two picks wrong with Yourassowsky and Zavarise. Frankly, Cann was terrible as a leftback so I am hoping that we see him back together with Nana in the centre of our defense. Harden had a mare, so we won’t be missing him too much if he doesn’t start. I know Yourassowsky is a bit raw still (get your mind out the gutter!) but he has to be the best option we have so far at leftback. The Gargan didn’t have a particularly good game in our last outing, but we don’t have a lot of depth at fullback, so I expect he will be starting. The rest of the team picks itself a bit. Soolsma started previously, but was taken off at halftime due to quite the vestigial performance. He may start again, but I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say Zavarise might get the nod ahead of him. DeRo and Frei keep their spots as always. Maicon scored a great goal for us last week and I think does well for us up front plus Gordon only just joined up with the team, so I think we will see Maicon lead the line again.

We really need a win, and what better time to do it than at BMO against an expansion team? If we lose, or even draw, I suspect the mood around TFC will be more down than ever. I believe we have a good management team now that needs a bit of time, but we need to see some shining lights of progress this weekend to give us all a bit more hope.

Come on you Reds!

Toronto FC v Portland Timbers will be broadcast on TSN Live at 2:00pm ET

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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

Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Conference: West Position: (Last Season NASL) 2nd in Conference; Playoff Semifinals

W-L-D: (Last Season NASL) 10-5-15 (45 points, +10 goal differential)

Home Form: (Last Season NASL) 5-2-8

Last Meeting: Toronto FC 0 – Vancouver Whitecaps 0 Nutrilite Canadian Championship (June 2, 2010)

First game of the season, and it’s a big one. Toronto FC hits the road for First Kick to face off with an expansion team who just happens to be our neighbour. Not next-door neighbour. More like the neighbour down the block and around the corner. You don’t really like each other, but it’s ok because you only really bump into each other at the supermarket. Though, come Christmastime, the hell they’ll have the best Christmas lights in town! That’s our thing! We’re the Christmas light kings!

What was I saying? Ah yes, Vancouver! Our very first game will be against Vancouver Whitecaps in their very first MLS game ever. They are coming off of a good 2010 season in the NASL Conference where they finished 2nd and made it to the semifinals of the Playoffs. During the offseason (and even way before) they have been diligently preparing for their arrival into MLS for the 2011 season. They’ve got in place a great Academy system, have been marketing like crazy with video game tie-ins and sexy models, and even signed up a couple of DPs. They’ve been waiting for this and they are as ready as they can be.

Teitur Thordarson is the head coach of the Whitecaps. He does not have the fabled “MLS experience” that so many people go on about, but I don’t think that will be as big of an issue as some think. He has been head coach for three seasons now and not only has he finished strongly each season, but he even led the ‘Caps to a USL-1 title. Even though he has not coached in MLS, he has plenty of people around him who have been involved in MLS. It’s not like the Whitecaps were playing in Siberia either. They played in a North American league where they have faced MLS opposition and Thordarson has most definitely been following MLS during the regular season. The bottom line is that he is well-liked in Vancouver and has the respect of the staff and players. He earned his chance to lead Vancouver into MLS and has the experience and knowledge to do the job.

Of course there are a lot of new faces in their squad as you would expect from an expansion team. Their very first signing was American defender Jay DeMerit. DeMerit was signed from Championship side, Watford, and has been given the Captain’s armband. He will be an important part of their team and give them defensive solidity, which can go a long way in this league. He has been struggling with fitness so it is not certain that he will start on Saturday, but I suspect they will try their best to get him ready and have him in the lineup.

The ‘Caps also made a Designated Player signing in 29 year old French striker, Eric Hassli. He was signed from FC Zurich where he scored 35 goals in 108 games. He may not be a “big star” signing like David Beckham, but if he gets a decent goal return this season, which he looks capable of doing, then it will be well worth the money. Our defenders need to be wary of him as he will be their biggest threat up front. Vancouver have not been prolific during preseason, so if Hassli can be contained it will diminish their goalscoring chances greatly.

Vancouver look solid at the back with Joe Cannon between the sticks and a defense with the aforementioned DeMerit, Greg Janicki, Michael Boxall, and Alain Rochait. Even with TFC playing a more attacking formation this season, it still hasn’t really clicked yet, so to face a solid defense in our first game is going to be tricky. In the midfield, the ‘Caps have Canadian international Terry Dunfield as their playmaker. He joined the ‘Caps after a disappointing time in England’s League Two and it has proven to be a good move for him. He is enjoying his football and has worked his way back into the Canadian Men’s National Team where I saw him play and thought he did really well. He is an important player for Vancouver so we’ll need to keep an eye on him.

Filling out the rest of Vancouver’s midfield and attack are the likes of Nizar Khalfan, Atiba Harris, Russell Teibert, and Omar Salgado who was the number one pick in this year’s SuperDraft. Many of their first team players have limited MLS experience, but have had some success in lower divisions. They also have brought through a few youngsters from their well-run Academy. Overall, they look decent on paper, but as I mentioned earlier, they have been struggling to get goals. Looking at TFC’s defense in preseason, I’d say they would at least get some good chances because we are not looking particularly strong at the back. When we were playing Prekiball it was defense first and some hoofs up the pitch. Not that we didn’t leak goals anyway, but we were stronger at the back than in attack. The situation is reversed now with Aron Winter stressing our attacking play and phasing out the long balls from the back. We still have Stefan Frei in goal who is a huge asset and should be able to keep us in the game if we come under pressure.

So that covers the Whitecaps more or less. Switching over to TFC, we have some new signings that have been recently announced. No new or surprising names, but confirmation on those we’ve seen featured over the last couple of months. Demitrius Omphroy has officially been signed and Mikael Yourassowsky is more or less a done deal. TFC have also promoted four Academy players to the first team: Defender Ashtone Morgan, midfielders Oscar Cordon, Matt Stinson, and forward Keith Makubuya. Cordon seems to be the most exciting prospect. I have heard many good things from different people and Winter seems keen to include him. He probably won’t play tomorrow, but I’m sure he’ll get his chance at some point in the season.

On the injury front, we’ve got a pretty healthy squad at the moment. Notable absences include deGuzman, who will hopefully return in a couple of weeks, and Lindsay who is out for the season. Maicon picked up something during the last preseason match, but it looks like he will be fit for the game Saturday. Omphroy might be a question mark as well. Other than that, we’re good to go. Here’s my best guess at our starting XI:

Frei

This is probably pretty close to what our strongest XI is. Julian will be a big miss in the midfield with his ability to retain possession. Still, it’s not bad. We’ve seen in our preseason matches that this team is not quite there yet, and it probably won’t be for a while longer. It takes time for a team to come together and have enough of an understanding to make this kind of formation and style work. One positive is that we have some actual wingers this season. Hopefully someone will remember to make runs into the penalty area when a good cross comes in. DeRo will be, as always, our biggest scoring attacking threat. I don’t think he will be used as an out-and-out striker, but if we are still struggling in the second half, Winter might switch it up and put him further up the pitch. We also have our new signing Alan Gordon to come off the bench if we need a bigger presence and a more direct option for our target man. I really don’t know how well we are going to play, but I’ll err on the side of caution and not expect too much. All I ask is that they give everything they have and put in the effort.

I am so excited about tomorrow’s game. It will be the first time in history that two Canadian teams will face off in Major League Soccer. Vancouver may only be playing their first MLS game, but we cannot underestimate them. First of all, we’ve never really done well over at their place. Looking at our results from the Nutrilite Canadian Championship over the past three seasons, we’ve drawn there twice and lost once. Not a great record considering we were considered the “big boys from MLS”. I really do not want to lose, but the stats are against us. Even when you don’t consider our head-to-head with the ‘Caps, our record on the road in MLS is dire. The fans will be out in full force cheering for Vancouver, which will give them a huge home field advantage that will surely lift the team. They will obviously also be revved up to start their first season with a win. If we can go there and nick a draw, I will be most satisfied. Our rivalry with them hasn’t been as big as the ones they have with Portland or even Montreal, but they would love to beat us, and we’d love to beat them too. It’s the “Great Canadian Bagel” Derbyas the Yorkies call it: there’s footy on the outside (BC and Ontario) and a whole lotta nothing in the middle. I can’t wait!

Toronto FC @ Vancouver Whitecaps will be broadcast on TSN Live at 6:30pm ET

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TFC Starting XI: Stefan Frei, Ty Harden (Dan Gargan 46′), Nana Attakora (Ashtone Morgan 46’), Dicoy Williams, Mikael Yourassowsky, Nick LaBrocca (Matt Gold 58′), Oscar Cordon (Andrew Ornoch 63′), Nathan Sturgis, Jacob Peterson, Javier Martina, Keith Makubuya (Nick Soolsma 70′)

I didn’t get to watch this game, and apparently I didn’t miss much. It was cold, wet, rainy, and the football was terrible. Not only that, but we ended up losing to Charleston Battery who aren’t even an MLS side. They scored twice: one goal before halftime and one off of a rebound in the 57th minute. Our only goal came from a penalty. Petersen crossed a ball into the penalty area and one of the Charleston players handballed to concede the penalty. Sturgis stepped up to give us the 1-0 lead, which of course, didn’t last too long. All in all, it didn’t sound good and those familiar sinking feelings at the pit of my stomach began to emerge again as they tend to do in preseasons. My co-blogger over at Arsenal Offside is a lawyer and actually is from Charleston. He said that his alma mater has taken a few scalps in preseason games before so I shouldn’t feel too bad, plus it still is only preseason. It’s the league that counts. So we could lose every game up until First Kick and it wouldn’t mean diddly-squat. That made me feel a bit better.

Last night TFC faced DC United for their last game in the Carolina Challenge Cup:

TFC Starting XI: Stefan Frei, Dan Gargan, Nana Attakora, Ty Harden, Mikael Yourassowsky (Ejected 37′), Nathan Sturgis, Oscar Cordon (Adrian Cann 46′), Dwayne De Rosario (Javier Martina 87′), Gianluca Zavarise (Keith Makubuya 90+’), Jacob Peterson (Matt Stinson 80′), Maicon Santos (Matt Gold 67′)

You’ll notice that Winter has been doing less experimenting now and our starting eleven is slowly beginning to emerge. On the other side of the pitch, there were some familiar faces lining up for DC United, namely Dejan Jakovic and Pat Onstad. That’s right. Pat Onstad. The ever-present Canadian goalkeeper who will live forever. I didn’t like that the two of them played so well against us. Guys, we’re all Canadian here, why don’t you take it a little easy? What’s up with the whole ‘trying to win for the team you play for’ stuff? I’m very disappointed in you both tsk tsk.

DC United ended up taking the lead early with a great strike from Charlie Davies. It was really end-to-end stuff in the first 20 or so minutes. DeRo was looking good and constantly harrying defenders. In the 19th minute he got the equalizer for us when DC gave up a penalty after Maicon was taken down in the box. DeRo stepped up to coolly put the ball in the back of the net. Amazingly, we scored again to put ourselves ahead 2-1 when Frei thumped the ball up to Maicon who took it down well and smashed it past Onstad. I wonder what Winter thinks of the fact that we went all old-school long ball for that goal? We may have betrayed his style to grab the goal, but overall the team performance looked a lot more promising than in other recent games. Of course, as soon as things look a little bit positive for TFC, something has to go wrong. Yourassowsky, who has featured quite heavily in preseason and is expected to sign with the club soon, picked up two yellow cards in the space of about a minute to get sent off. It really was a stupid thing to do, especially the fact that the two yellows came so close together in the match. We really need to avoid stuff like that when the season starts. Last season, Preki had us going gung-ho into tackles and really getting into opponents faces. That’s all well and good up to a point, but our problem was picking up way too many yellows and red cards and having many of our players missing on suspension during key matches. MLS rosters tend not to be too deep, so it’s important that we keep some discipline when we step out onto the pitch.

With one of our guys off the pitch, you bet Your Assowsky we were down to 10 men from the 37th minute onward. For the most part we coped pretty well considering we had to change our whole shape. Unfortunately, DC were able to make the score 2-2 with 61st minute strike from Joseph Ngwenya. So we nicked a draw after being down to 10 men against DC United. Not too bad. There were definite signs of improvement and you get the sense the team just needs to keep playing together to get some consistency. Some good news: Adrian Cann made a 2nd half appearance at leftback. After the match he made a classy apology to all of the fans with Winter standing next to him.

It’s never easy to swallow your pride and admit you were wrong like that so I have to give credit to Adrian and hope that he and Winter can start patching things up and moving on. So that was the good news. Bad news is that Maicon went off injured in the 2nd half. I like Maicon, but the guy seems to have a bit of trouble keeping fit. I don’t know his entire history with injuries, but he did miss a lot of games last season due to injury. Luckily, we brought in Alan Gordon who has experience leading the line, and DeRo can also slot in as a striker if it’s really necessary. It would be nice to see another striker signed though because you get the feeling that we are still lacking in that department.

We made it through the preseason without wanting to slit our wrists and we have actual players signed up that can actually play when the league starts on Saturday, so there’s some positives right there. TFC played 9 games in the preseason and came out with a 2-5-2 record. Not great, but not catastrophic. We managed to score some goals too; 9 in total. A big problem is our defense, which conceded a total of 13 goals. We started a bit rough in our style of play but we are slowly getting better. Don’t expect huge things right away though. It is going to be incredibly difficult for us, especially at the beginning of the season. It’s basically another rebuilding year, but this time we have good management and a concrete plan. Winter and de Klerk have a vision of how they want us to play and they know what they are looking for. They are nurturing our young players and are keen on bringing through players from the academy who can play in the same style as the first team. Mariner is on board and can supply our Dutch duo with all of his knowledge and experience of MLS to make the transition easier. We’ll be taking baby steps and it will be a bumpy ride, but honestly, don’t you like this new setup more than the old one? Everything just feels a lot less chaotic and a lot more positive. You can see it in the players who seem enthusiastic about their football. We, as fans, need to be patient and give the team some time. At least we will be able to see some attacking play instead of some of the dire defensive displays we have seen previously. Just keep all of this in mind when we are a couple months in and we are still struggling to stay in playoff contention. I think we can make the playoffs, but it will probably be only just.

MLS 2011 season begins on Tuesday with Seattle Sounders hosting LA Galaxy at 9:30pm ET. TFC’s season begins on Saturday, March 19, 2011 when the Reds go marching into Vancouver for the season opener. I will have a full preview of the big “TransCanada Derby” later in the week, so keep your eyes peeled. Taking a look at our first few games, here’s what our first few weeks will look like in the league:

Mar 19 @ Vancouver Whitecaps
Mar 26 v Portland Timbers
Apr 2 v Chivas USA
Apr 9 @ San Jose Earthquakes
Apr 13 v Los Angeles Galaxy
Apr 16 v DC United

Some tricky fixtures in there. First thing you notice is that we open the season away to an expansion team and then playing another expansion team for our home opener. You don’t really know what to expect with teams new to the league. On the one hand, they could come out revved up and on fire, starting the season strong with enthusiastic play and trying to show everyone that they will make their mark on the league. On the other hand, they could struggle at the higher level and we could get some easy points early in the season. We’ll see soon what it ends up being.

Out of our first 6 games listed, 4 of them are at BMO Field. We really have to take advantage of this since TFC has historically been poor on the road and it is very difficult to get away results in MLS in general. If we have bad home form, just forget about the playoffs. Hosting the Galaxy will by far be the toughest out of those first 6 games, but we could really get some good results from the others. Besides Vancouver, our only other away game in that list is San Jose, who did quite well in the second half of the 2010 season and were close to making the MLS Cup final. On the whole, it is a very decent opening group of fixtures. It would be great if we took the opportunity to start our season strong in case of a summer lapse that tends to hit us, particularly with the Gold Cup coming in June.

The players that have featured in the last couple games I talked about in this post are likely to start on Saturday. Julian is making good progress coming back from injury, but he will not be available for another couple of weeks. Hopefully he will be back sooner rather than later because I think he will end up being quite important to our side. Expect Yourassowsky to be signed and in the starting lineup as well and we should also see many familiar faces such as our Captain, Attakora, and our magnificent rock in goal, Stefan Frei.

That was a bit of a glimpse of what to expect in the coming weeks. In other news, it seems that The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is looking to sell its 66% of shares in MLSE. Rumours a few months ago were that Rogers being interested, but nothing is known for sure. For more information on this, check out this article from Canadian Soccer News.

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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

This Sunday night marks the cumulation of the 2010 MLS season with what we hope will be a cracking final in Toronto: FC Dallas vs. Colorado Rapids. OK, so that doesn’t sound like the most glamorous matchup possible, but I’m hoping for a good game nonetheless.

When the playoffs started, I said to myself, “If the final is New York against LA, I’ll buy tickets”. You know, thinking I could maximize my Designated Player viewing all in one sitting with the likes of Beckham, Henry, et al. And then of course San Jose knocked out NY in the first round of the playoffs, while LA dispatched Seattle. “No matter”, I thought, “Now hopefully we get to see San Jose play LA in the final, meaning we can watch Sam Cronin play his first MLS Cup final in Toronto. That would be cool.”

OK, so that didn’t happen either. Colorado didn’t like that suggestion and promptly removed San Jose from the playoffs. “OK then, we could still watch Beckham and Donovan bring some star power to Toronto.” Nada. No Dice. Dallas demolished the dreams of FC Hollywood West and beat LA 3-0.

So now it’s down to this: FC Dallas taking on Colorado Rapids. Despite losing all the teams I was hoping would make it to the final so I could justify getting tickets, it turns out I’m going to the game anyway. Yes, it’s because I got sucked in to the ticket-selling schemes of MLSE, which forced you to buy into the cup final if you got season tickets for next year. And since this has been my first opportunity to get season tickets, I went for it – knowing the cup final may not be the most exciting. But suddenly, I’ve started looking forward to the game and I can’t wait for it to happen!

First, its a Cup Final. I’ve never been to final game for any sport before and based on Toronto’s sports teams, I don’t expect another opportunity to come around for a long time. But the thought of watching the cup get awarded and the winning team’s players achieving what will likely be one of the biggest moments of their careers is pretty damned exciting. The closest I’ve seen to that was a CFL playoff game in the early 1990s when the Argos wiped out Winnipeg for the Eastern final. Rocket Ismail (ya, it was that long ago) and the boys went on to win the Grey Cup that year. The atmosphere in the SkyDome for that playoff match was amazing, and I hope the fans at BMO Field get to experience something similar when Colorado or Dallas win the cup.

Second, we do have a little bit of a TFC connection here, with fan favourite Marvell Wynne playing for Colorado, and less-than-fan favourite Jeff Cunningham on Dallas. I’d have to say my vote goes for Marvell, who’s already been appealing to TFC fans to wear burgandy on Sunday night to support his team. I don’t think I’ll go that far, but he was one the players I was not happy to see go at the beginning of the year, and it’s great to see him doing well on the west coast.

And third – well, what else are you going to do at 8:30 on a Sunday night??? Sleep, you say? Hogwash! Get ready to go to work the next day? Foolishness! Do your homework for school? Ok, I would advise you to do that if you must (but you could have the game on TV in the background). Other than that, I can’t think of a better thing to do, so why not go check it out or catch it on TV (on TSN2 in Canada).

Here’s a link for a preview of the final: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/nigelreed/2010/11/rapids-may-have-to-jump-through-hoops-in-toronto.html, and also click the image below for a list of reasons the MLS loves Toronto:

Enjoy the game and good luck to both teams!

Hey folks, just dropping you a quick note to let you know I’ll be away for 2 weeks starting tomorrow night. As you saw from the last post, frequent commentator and expert on all things Toronto FC and Arsenal, Sairax is filling in for me while I’m away. Thanks again Sairax! Looking forward to reading your account of tonight’s CCL match against Real Salt Lake – this could be the last meaningful game for TFC this season if they don’t win it, so I hope they pull out all the stops tonight!

For a quick preview of my Germany trip, including the live Bundesliga game I’m going to see, check out my other blog at the Hamburg Offside.

Have a great couple of weeks, and I hope TFC still have something to play for when I get back!

It’s now September. Toronto FC are 2 points out of a playoff spot, 9 games remaining. I think this is when we can start saying it’s “crunch time”.

The team is about to embark on a 8 game journey through September. Sat, Wed, Sat, Wed, Sat, Tues, Sat, Tues. And then one more Saturday (technically the next month-October 2). Really that’s 9 games without a full week of recovery in between. 3 of these games are for the Concacaf Champions League, 6 are MLS. After the October 2 MLS game, they have 3 MLS game left to secure their first playoff berth in club history.

Sounds like a daunting task to me. With 9 league games remaining, there are certainly a lot of points available to catch up in the playoff race, but I’m still worried about those champions league games getting in the way. Even if Preki fields mainly backup players, there’s still the wear and tear of traveling, and the mental fatigue of getting prepared for these games that could weigh on the guys. Even if you write off that tournament, I’m sure it bothers the team to lose, not to mention the media scrutiny after every game. I think that Crunch Time is going to require focus more than anything else. The team is capable of competing in the MLS, but it will take all their strength to get through this stretch with positive results.

Step 1 is tonight in Dallas, who are 3rd in the west. Not an easy task, but if TFC are going to prove they have the mettle to succeed, they need to grab some points tonight and start improving on their away record. A positive showing in Dallas could give them a boost for Wednesday when they travel to Chicago where a win should not be completely out of the question. Only thing is, Dwayne DeRosario, Julien de Guzman, and Nana Attakora will all be staying in Canada to play a couple international friendlies. There’s a chance they will make it back for the Chicago game, but tonight at least will be a real test for Preki and the boys.

Check out the Canada vs. Peru friendly at 5:30 pm today, and then watch TFC play FC Dallas at 8:30 pm. Both games are on Rogers Sportsnet.

If you can handle more soccer this weekend after watching 4 games per day this week and 2 more on Saturday, remember that Toronto FC will be kicking off the middle third of their season on Saturday night at 7:30 (televised on Rogers Sportsnet). The LA Galaxy will be coming to town (despite the G20 summit), and since the US national team recently advanced to the next round of the World Cup, that means the Galaxy will be without its star players Donovan and Buddle. TFC on the other hand have noboby at the World Cup, so its all good! After such a long break, its hard to predict how this game will go, but hopefully TFC will have the edge against the visitors and will continue their unbeaten home record.

Check out the game, and good luck to TFC!