Another Heartbreaker…

By: Mark | October 12th, 2009

Toronto FC broke out the pink jerseys to support breast cancer research this weekend against San Jose Earthquakes. This one ended in a 1-1 draw, and was mainly a good outing for TFC except for their usual nemesis – the last 15 minutes. To be fair, this time it was only the last 2 minutes that were the problem (San Jose scored the equalizer in the 92nd minute).

This was a real heartbreaker and a big dent to their playoff hopes, but I think there were some positives to the game. Let’s recap:

4 regulars were out of the game for this one including Marvell Wynne, Carl Robinson and Stefan Frei due to injuries, and Amado Guevara who was away with the Honduran national team for a World Cup qualifier. But for the most part, the team looked pretty good and mainly controlled the play over San Jose, especially in the 2nd half when they had an early goal and some other good scoring chances.

I was impressed by a few players in this one: Lesly Fellinga got a start at left midfield, and I thought he looked comfortable and may be a good addition now that Robinson is out for the season. O’Brien White also got the start at striker. He didn’t score, but was in the play a lot and looked good. I think the best striker combo that TFC has right now would be White and Ali Gerba. Let’s end the Chad Barrett experiment please!!! Gerba can be the big target man in the middle, waiting for crosses into the box, and White can run around and make things happen. Barrett can do that as well, but unfortunately he will always miss the target when he gets a chance. I think White knows where to shoot at least.

I also think that Julian de Guzman is starting the shake off his off-season rust. There were a couple bits of fancy footwork near the end of the match (also by Pablo Vitti I noticed), and I think he is getting a feel for the MLS style of soccer. It’s unfortunate if his hard work comes a few games too late.

So what is going on with this team then? They have good talent and never appear to be dominated by any other team, they can fill in the gaps in the roster when starting players are injured without too much problem, and they have great fan support, especially at home where every game is a sellout and there are several rowdy supporter clubs pumping up the crowd.

The only solution I can think of is that the coach needs to convince the players that the match is 105 minutes long instead of 90. That way they can avoid the final 15 minutes where they always give up the tying or winning goal, because by that time the other team will already have hit the showers! TFC can even stay out there by themselves and play a bit longer, as long as when the 90th minute rolls around they think that they have another 15 minutes to defend.

OK that sounds a bit crazy, but you can’t deny that Toronto have serious problems hanging on at the end of the game, so its time for Chris Cummins to break out some crazy ideas to fix this team. Remarkably, we can still cling to the playoff dream for another week, since New England lost on Saturday and TFC are only 2 points out of the 8th playoff spot with 2 games left. I think we’ll be biting our nails until the last game to find out what happens. Until then, anyone else have some thoughts on how to hold onto the lead until the whistle blows?