Battle of the upstarts: Toronto FC v Seattle Sounders preview, MLS 2009 week three

Footage from Toronto FC’s first ever home game in MLS in 2007.

Anyone who saw footage of the MLS’ newest club, the Seattle Sounders, open their campaign against New York Red Bulls could not help but make comparisons with the last team prior to them to have joined the league, dearest Toronto FC.

The Candian club marked their entry in 2007 with sold out stadiums, in fact every home game in MLS has been a sell out, and hugely passionate fans. I mentioned a little while ago when penning my reason for aligning myself with Toronto, how I found it strange to be so loyal to a team with no history (other than bearing your town’s name) but strangely endearing at the same time. The fact they adapted numerous English chants and featured ex-Premiership players such as Rohan Ricketts was just a bonus.

Fast forward two seasons and it was a similar story in Seattle. Their opening game was a hugely anticipated affair with the headline grabbing signing of ex-Arsenal man Freddie Ljunberg catching people’s attention but it was a different Freddie, young Columbian striker Freddy Montero, who was cuasing ripples of excitement.

The state had recently lost it’s basketball franchise to Oklahoma and from listening to experts like the BBC’s Sean Wheelock, as well as reading interviews with club owner and comedian Drew Carey, this massively worked in the Sounders favour to immediately fill the sporting void created by the departed dunkers. Seattle always had a side in the USL (league below MLS) but this fan support was not a long-standing one but rather a group of people riding a wave of intrigue mixed with excitement and just a tinge of hope that the team would give them a sporting reason to be proud again.

Sure enough the beat last year’s MLS finalists New York in the opener with Montero taking the starring role. The Stadium was packed with people waving green scarves vociferously and in the background their multi-millionaire celebrity owner smiled from ear to ear. They had arrived. Toronto also upset the odds in the opening week by defeating Kansas City Wizards away from home 3-2.

Week two and the Seattle bandwagon continues with another home win, this time over Real Salt Lake, while Toronto faced another tricky away tie at Columbus Crew but came away with a point despite a poor penalty being awarded against them, but admittedly thanks to a fortunate own goal late on.

Week three and tonight the two side’s meet for the first time in MLS. The main sub-plot being it is the Sounders first away game and Toronto’s first home game (where they are traditionally a lot stronger) of the season. The main plot of course, is the battle in the stands. Not in a hooligan sense but the two newest clubs who also pride themselves on having some of the best support will no doubt be trying to outdo each other with every decibel and it’s possible the action on the pitch may be an afterthought for some. It will be interesting to see how many Seattle bring to BMO Field as an indication to their dedication of their fan base, considering Toronto took over 2,000 down to the US for the Columbus game.

Amazingly, a massive story to have merged in the past day or so is that superstar striker Montero may not actually play because of flu, the official reason, or on account of allegations of sexual assault and stalking, according to the papers.

If he doesn’t turn out then it will be a massive boost for the Toronto defence, arguably the weakest aspect of the side, with Steve Zakuani still not quite 100 per cent fit after hamstring trouble and Freddy Ljunberg having play barely half an hour (last week) in just over nine months.

For Toronto, it will be Dwayne De Rosario’s first game in front of his home town fans. There are doubts over Carl Robinson and Amado Guevara, who missed the Columbus game due to international duty and also played for their countries in midweek. One point to note, Robinson retired from international football after Wales’ loss to Germany so that won’t be a problem from now on. I suspect they will both be risked and start the game.

The other question is about who do you play in goal. Stefan Frei started the season and did well but Canada international Greg Sutton performed heroics after coming off the bench against Columbus. If Frei is even half then the decision will be made for manager John Carver but if not then it will be interesting to see who he goes with and the story in general will be a sub-text to the season.

MLS Week Three: Real Salt Lake v Columbus Crew

I wasn’t planning to write about this game but having just seen the MLS highlights package I felt a compulsion to do so.

The primary point being that the theme of the MLS so far this season is just how bad the defences are. I mentioned it repeatedly when watching a selection of the games from week two but if this game is anything to go by then it may be the rule rather than the exception.

To put this into context, Columbus are not a joke. They reached the league’s showpiece final last year and are generally quite well respected. Even in a more fair league like major league soccer, where it’s not a matter of who has the most money wins, there are still some sides better than other and ahead of this season Columbus were still expected to be a strong outfit.

However, how can a side of this level (and American soccer heads with a knowledge of the English game compare the level to the English Championship) have such a comedy goalkeeper. While I’ve probably seen William Hesmer play before, in a league where so many of the players  are unknown to me it is only the truly exceptional or the exceptionally bad who stand out on a first viewing. Unfortunately his name is now ingrained into my consciousness and not for the good reason.

For the first RSL goal, a somewhat powerfully-struck free kick spins straight towards him. The very top keepers may have caught this but any solid professional would parry it away from danger or turn it around the post for a corner. The one thing you don’t do it palm it straight out in front of your box, get up slowly but quick enough to see the ball go past you into the goal. 1-0.

Then after his side had worked to get an equaliser he miscues a long punt up field, under no pressure at all, straight into the feet of the massively advanced Findley who rounds him with ease and tucks into an open goal. 2-1. By this point Findlay is on the verge of a hat-trick without having had to do any real work.

The third goal was not outright his fault but he annoyed me nonetheless with his moaning as soon as the ball hit the net, because a defender at the near post failed to head away a corner and the Findlay headed in his third. His mannerism was almost like “Oh God, what chance do I have with this type of defending?” when in reality this goal would have been no more than an equaliser had you performed competently at all.

For what it’s worth, I actually just think this was a good goal. It was a perfectly whipped in corner by Clint Mathis which was too high for the near post defender but dipped perfectly into the path of Findlay who powerfully headed home. Questions can be asked about the marking but I ultimately think it was just good forward play.

Everyone is entitled to a bad game and I will try to keep an open mind on him when I see him play next. Ironically he did make two good saves, both from Yura Movsisyan (good name), who, after the second one was turned away, had a flabbergasted look on his with the sheer disbelief at this Jekyll and Hyde goalkeeper who gifted his teammate two thirds of a hat-trick but worked wonders to deny him when the game was already lost.

More MLS Week Two thoughts

I watched most of Toronto’s game last night and then this morning I awake to see highlights of the other games waiting for me. The novelty of this great value twenty dollar online season ticket has not yet worn off.

Columbus Crew 1, Toronto FC 1

Two away games, four points, unbeaten and (at the time of writing) top of the league. Not a bad start to the season for Toronto FC.

(North American readers will notice that I put the scores with the home team first, followed by the away in the European manner. I am too long in the tooth to adapt to your methods even when discussing the MLS.)

So last week I got my timing all wrong and missed a lot of th Toronto FC and unsusprisingly I did so again! But at least I know why now. That being inferior other continents and their choosing to move clocks forward three weeks earlier than the civilised world.

So a random tweet from Richard, or AMSL fame, alerte me the game was in progress and just some short credit card shuffling later, I was on MLSNet.com paying the $19.95 for an online season ticket and then, as if by magic, LIVE and LEGAL viewing of Toronto FC. Glorious…

Not that glorious is an adjective which could be used to preface many of the asects at this game but it was still very cool them watch live and in 800k.

Some match thoughts:

- I tuned in after we had gone 1-0 behind but havng seen the replays I think it’s obviously a harsh decision and very similar to one that was given in the game I covered in England during the afternoon. I can’t make too many comments on the first half but by all accounts Frei in goal was good until a back injury forced him to be replaced by Greg Sutton at half time.

- I must give a shout out to the good people over at the GoTFC site who had a live interactive blog of the game which I joined in and very much enjoyed. I’ll be there again in future when I can watch games live.

- From what I did see, Greg Sutton wa pretty consistent in the net and bailed us out on a couple of occasions. I’m not sure how the concept of having two front line keepers compete for a place is going to work out long term (or three if you include Edwards) and it will be interesting to see who is preferred against Seattle next weekend.

- Defensively however we were not so sound. I am big fan of ‘Marvellous’ Marvell Wynne and think he could be very effective in a top European league when he has a bit more experience, but the centre backs next to him are not the strongest. Brennan at left back is an experienced head but there are gaping holes in the middle and Serioux expecially seems a bit ogf a liability.

- The midfield was missing Carl Robinon and Guevara who are two big players so that was always going to have an effect. I didn’t see much of Ricketts before he was subbed but his replacement, Johann Smith, did not impress me. His first touch is pretty poor and he doesn’t seem as good as Ricketts when on form. De Rosario tried too many touches at time but you can tell technically he is still a step above most others on his side.

- I didn’t see us equalising and when it came it was lucky but I think overall a draw was probably a fair result. Columbus looked stronger defensively and we didn’t create too much but… actually I can’t really justify we deserved a draw other than saying Columbus were equally as impotent in attack as us. talking of forwards, I wonder why Dichio isn’t starting instead of Chad Barrett. Maybe next week.

I’ll post the video when it arrives on youtube. Comments welcome as always below.

Toronto FC begin with a win

I mentioned on Friday how excited I was for the new Major League Soccer season to kick off and it’s only heightened after last night’s festivities.

In the effort of full disclosure I should point out that I horrifically mis-judged the time difference and didn’t get the chance to watch the full match line on the internets as I had hoped for.

After walking into the house at 1.55am on Sunday morning, I thought I had five minutes to fire up the laptop and put the kettle on before kick off but to my horror I then saw 72 minutes had gone and TFC were 3-1 up. Obviously pleasing but disappointing to have missed the bulk of the action, but after unsuccessfully messing around with Bet365 and Betfair streams of the game it may have been an even more frustrating operation had I got in on time.

I plan to try and catch the whole game or at least more extended highlights at some point but until then, some observations from youtube:

- There was much made of the fact that Toronto are going to play with Guevera and De Rosario in a kind of ‘double pivot’ at the head of midfield. It’s a very bold tactic and one that will likely be exploited by the more acute teams in the league after few games. However that it worked so well last night is a credit to John Carver.

- All of Toronto’s goals were pretty well-worked. Brennan’s opener was particularly impressive and you have to say the goalkeeping was very poor for our third though.

- I do not think Kansas’ first goal crossed the line. Great shot but the replay was inconclusive and appeared to bounce on the white dust rather than behind it. Luckily it did not come back to haunt us.

- No doubt about their second goal to make it 3-2 though. Cracking strike. I’ve never seen Davy Arnaud play before but he seems to be one to keep an eye on. Wikipedia says he is in his 29th year though so I am hardly ahead of the pack on this observation.

- Judging from th live updates on the Red Patch Boys forum (your home for anything TFC related) De Rosario missed a late penalty, and Soccernet confirms this, but it was not shown on the highlights. Seems a pretty big thing to omit.

- Not really a game observation, but just to re-state how amazing the MLS Youtube channel is. They will have highlights of every game this season, hours after it is played, so people anywhere in the world can see every goal despite the lack of global TV coverage. I know legally it wouldn’t work in every country, but other sports could learn a lot from this great use of technology and approach to make fans’ lives easier.

- I wasn’t aware of these stats before but last night was the first time Toronto had won their opening game in three attempts and amazingly only the fifth away in their MLS history. The omens are good…

Suggested reading:

- The Kansas City press perspective
- Soccernet’s stats
- CBC’s (Canada) report

MLS 2009 kicks off

The new Major League Soccer season kicked off in America last night with the latest team (not franchise, team) Seattle Sounders earning a win over last year’s runners-up New York Red Bulls. (video above)

I’ve ebeen excited about the start of the new campaign since January’s draft and am contemplating watching Toronto FC’s kick off when I get in on Saturday night as it should be about a 2am start UK time on Sunday morning.

If the first game is anything to by then it should be a good season, albeit a very Amdricanised one. The openeing encounter itself was lalmost Hollywood-inspired with the new boys upsetting the odds and winning their first game 3-0 in front of a sold out stadium, full of jubilant flag-waving fans. And, for good measure, an owner who also happens to be a major tv personality in Drew Carey.

There are obvious comparisons with Toronto FC, the most recent MLS expansion team before them, who also have sold out every home game in their history despite than thrilling results in their opening two seasons.

The star in the opening game was Freddy Montero who applied two superb finishes which would be impressive at any standard of football but the defending for the third goal is questionable to say the least.

So we’re back and off to a flyer. I think I am largely alone, maybe not in the blogosphere but certainly in the real world, in my affection for Major League Soccer, but I am excited for the new season and can’t wait to actually get out there and see a game live later in the year. But more of that nearer the time…

Suggested reading:

- Players to watch in 2009
- Carey full of ideas as MLS owner
- Canadian Press on the opening game

My first Superdraft

Anyone who has followed this blog since the start will have follow my conversion from MLS-o-phobe to having a Toronto FC tattoo enscribed on my forehead, or somewhere in between.

No. 1 draft pick – Steve Zakuani is headed to Seattle Sounders

Last year I began to follow them about midway through the season and therefore I missed out on the hoopla of the pre-season draft. If I’m honest, at the time I wasn’t even aware when or where it was taking place.

However today that all changes. Today (in fact, now) the MLS Superdraft 2009 is happening and I am watching it live thanks to the wonders of illegal streams.

It’s worth remembering, as excellently pointed out by Yahoo Sports, that this is the poor relation in terms of American sports drafts. Unlike their version of football or basketball, the power and money lies in Europe and so the best play gravitate towards there. Their best young talents at the moment such as Adu, Altidore and Bradley are already over here and the same article points out a great college player is on his way to Denmark (!). So it’s not as if their league is where home players strive to perform.

However in a way I suppose is akin to the Charity Shield over here it is seen as the curtain opener for the new season.

I’m not going to commentate on the whole thing because I’ve been watching for 20 minutes already and they’ve made about five selctions. Five rounds of 13 players I know nothing about is not something I can persevere with even in the name of this blog. Plus I’ve also just noticed that copy and pasters extraordinaire Goal.com are actully producing some fresh content and doing a liveblog of the event. So go there if you want the full ins and outs or the official MLS site listing.

Some things stand out to me even after less than an hour of viewing. In England you get people snubbing moves to places like Hull and Sunderland because they don’t want to live in the area and be 3-5hrs away from their family. Yet here, you have teenagers or people barely 20 years old being told where they will go, and could be anywhere in the US, but they are delighted simply to have the chance to play professionally. I’m not eulogising the attitude or ven making a direct comparison between the countires but it is a refreshing sight nonetheless. If I was from Toronto or New York and told that Real Salt Lake had drafted me and I had to move to Utah, I would not jump up and grab the scarf, but I guess it’s the whole college sports mentality.

Watching the coverage also makes me realise how much better American sport is covered on tv in general (bar the amount of adverts) and the level of analysis, even for a niche sport such as soccer, just seems so much better thought out than the equivalents over here.

Another thing, it’s so refreshing to watch coverage of what is basically football transfers and not see the best players automatically snapped up by the best clubs. I know it’s the entire point of the draft system but it’s worth highlighting anyway.

The thing is, most of these guys drafted today will barely make any first team appearances it seems but you can tell by looking at previous drafts that this is not a worthless process. Occasionally you’ll get number one draft picks live up to the hype before too long, such as Maurice Edu, and someone who get picked without much fanfare but turn out to be much better than expected such as Clint Dempsey.

At this point, the first round is nearly up. Toronto have drafted a lad called Sam Cronin who is a defensive midfielder and apparently ready to step into the first team already which is a bonus. O’Neill White was our second choice, fourth overall and is Canadian so that will probably help fill some sort of nationality quota.

I’m going to quit here because there is a long way to go and according to the commentators the drafted people may well be traded before the day is out so they’ll be wearing a new scarf and stating how much they’ve always wanted to play for (insert team here) within hours. Also my stream has disappeared. But it was fun while it lasted and the MLS season is sort of officially underway which makes me actually slightly excited which is odd considering when it kicks off properly I will rely on youtube highlights to keep up. In short, go TFC.

We need a Rohan Ricketts song

My recent conversion to Toronto FC actually garnered some attention to this small corner of the internet and shockingly inspired some people to post comments which was a delightful and unexpected consequence.

After a defeat at Houston (last year’s MLS champions) that was widely blasted as “pathetic” and saw many fans call for the heads of several players – good to see that there are some familiarities between them and Spurs – they entertained Colorado Rapids this past weekend.

The result… a commanding 3-1 victory with Rohan Ricketts scoring his first two goals for the club. The second of which is rather spectacular.

I was messing around with youtube and actually created a rather spectacular embeddable player but there seems to be a disagreement of sorts between that site and wordpress. If I had a blogger account then it would work fine which was heartbreaking to learn. So instead I’ll just create a link to a page with all the relevant videos on. It looks nowhere near as flash but it’ll do for now.

TORONTO FC vs. COLORADO RAPIDS – 15th JUNE 2008

MLS Thoughts – 5th-7th June 2008

After my recent conversion to Toronto FC, I’ve decided to make a slight effort to keep in touch with the happenings of MLS. I thought this was going to be a nightmare but it seems their league is far more forward-thinking than most other sports when it comes to fan interaction. There is no scrambling around the internet looking for goals in time before the league stamps their feet and removes them. Just by subscribing to the official MLS youtube channel, all the goals will be put in convenient highlights form for anyone to watch legally just hours after they happen. Good work America.

06/06/08 FC Dallas 1 – 2 New England Revolution

For those equally naive, New England were in fact the home team. I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either. As I’m very new to the league, please feel free to comment and point out where I’ve made mistakes. The overriding feeling after watching this was just how poor the defending on show. Cristman was allowed a free header for the first goal and Dallas’ keeper completely telegraphed which was he was going for the penalty. Dallas’ consolation goal was amateur hour with Alvarez on his own in a laughable amount of space at the back post. Surprised to hear that New England are on top of the league after seeing this.

06/07/2008 San Jose Earthquakes 2 – 0 Columbus Crew

I’ve no idea how Columbus lost this, they appeared to have all the play but somehow lost 2-0 at home. This was pretty nasty in places with two sendings off and numerous yellows. Robbie Rogers, in particular, took a kicking from the San Jose. The referee seemed appeared biased, but for the away team. Maybe he is as confused by the wording of the fixtures as I am.

06/07/2008 DC United 2 – 1 Chicago Fire

Another three sendings off. Maybe the league is just generally dirty and I wasn’t aware. DC United have a guy, who I think from the sounds of it, is called Fred up front and he could not finish the proverbial dinner. He missed numerous chances. Marcelo Gallardo who I imagine is one of the best players in the league was one of those sent off, yet DC still went on to win with nine men. Impressive resilience but the keeper was at fault for the injury-time winner.

06/07/08 Colorado Rapids 2 – 3 LA Galaxy

Two more sendings off! Also three very nice finishes in this game as well, which also featured the return of Beckham who in turn put in the cross for the opening goal. This would have been 3-3 if not for an amazing save from the LA keeper when tipping a long shot onto the post.

06/05/08 Chivas USA 0 – 1 New York Red Bull

Juan Pablo Angel headed a late winner to nab the points. In both NY games I’ve seen in recent times he’s appeared the best player as you may expect for someone who’s played at such a high level around the world. His movement and link-up play seems a step ahead what a lot of defenders are used to dealing with. The Chivas keeper Brad Guzan who is attracting a lot of attention made one or two good saves. NY on paper at least appear to have one of the strongest squads in the division, even with the upcoming sale of Altidore.

There doesn’t appear to be highlights for Salt Lake vs. Kansas, possibly because it ended goalless.

Toronto FC: They don’t pay for healthcare and nor do I

I’ve gone through a very strange transformation in the last few days.  Suddenly, out of nowhere I’ve become somewhat of a fan of Toronto FC.

Now I’ve never shown any inclinations to the MLS before.  I’ve always been quite anti-America as far as soccer… football is concerned.  The reason being that I’ve always feared the potential ramifications of North America suddenly waking up the game.

While I like basketball and imagine I would enjoy playing baseball – I don’t follow US sports to any major extent.  I like the San Antonio Spurs in basketball but that was mainly due to the name being associated with my English football team.  That and I liked Tim Duncan and, in more the recent times, the awesome  Manu Ginobili.  American Football on the other hand was simply a write-off.

But yet I’ve nailed my colours to the Toronto FC mast and I know where the blame lies.

The MLS had struggled to penetrate the UK in any way until recently.  If you ask most people in the country about the league then the characteristic that most would pick out the unfathomable concept to people in this country that the games are decided by penalties as the public won’t tolerate draws.  Even though this is no longer the case it seems to be the only fact we know about the game stateside.

It’s not as if we are just ignorant on this side of the pond.  We have one of the best leagues in the world and that receives almost blanket coverage on the sports pages.  In Europe there are strong leagues like Serie A, La Liga and the Bundesliga and yet they are barely mentioned.  If we don’t have time for leagues
that are packed with quality internationals then there are few people dedicated enough to watch MLS highlights at 4am on a channel not everyone can receive.

However one signing made everyone sit up and take notice.  The purchase of a certain impossibly-handsome Londoner in his early-thirties had fans and media buzzing with excitement.  Could he put the game on the map where others have tried and failed.

Well, I’ll hold my hands up and plead guilty.  I have fallen hook, line and sinker for the media hype.  The transfer of Danny Dichio to Toronto FC has had the required impact and I have been hooked in.  He was recently interviewed on the BBC’s late-night world football phone in and made me aware of his move and that Toronto FC even existed.  I found the story about their special chant for him that is always sung on the 24th minute, on account of that being when he scored the team’s first-ever goal, to be humourous but must admit I didn’t think much more of it.

Fast forward to last week and the hype surrounding Jozy Altidore in the build to the England vs. USA friendly intrigued me and on asking an American who he plays for, was told Toronto.  They turned out to be wrong but a Wikipedia search of the team revealed some more familiar names in their squad list.  Ex-Tottenham and Arsenal youth player Rohan Ricketts wears the number ten shirt and the-ever controversial Laurent Robert was also listed and I recognised Jim Brennan (captain) and Carl Robinson (vice-captain) from the English lower leagues.  Ex-Celtic and Birmingham centre back Olivier Tebily is also enjoying the benefits on sunny Canada.

One such benefit being that they, of course, don’t pay for health care.  Why would anyone?  I don’t get it.

I was now more than curious and co-incidentally found an article about the team on one of my favourite football sites on the very same day.  Typically for Pitch Invasion, it was extremely well-written and as I was so unaware of everything MLS-related, all the points brought up by the author were new and interesting.

I like to have a team to support in any country where I pay attention to what’s going on and the piece pointed out that the team had their inaugural season in 2007.  Not only are they my commonwealth cousins but they were almost as new to the league as I am.  Now I don’t particularly believe in fate but surely the Gods were aligning on this one.  All these factors coming together at once AND they have Dichio-o-o-o-o-o leading the line?  I was surely being pushed towards Toronto FC.

I probed further into youtube and found numerous clips all of which charmed me further.  The accessibility of the league itself is a major positive and the goals from every game are all readily available online.  So, as I have no excuse not to, I’ve decided to follow the fortunes of Toronto FC over the rest of the season.  Who knows if this will be temporary infatuation or a long-term love but for the time being at least I am charmed by the side that have taken Danny Dichio to their hearts so.

Not every import to American does as well as him though.  A less-glamouous Londoner plying his trade out there is not having nearly as much fun.