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denime
06-13-2008, 06:10 AM
Road rage a worrying TFC trend


The problem with progress is pressure. The better you become, the higher the expectation of what can be achieved.
Raising the bar is all well and good but it must be done at sustainable intervals - the objectives and goals must be set at realistic levels.
Toronto FC’s (http://stats.cbc.ca/mls/teamstats.asp?team=22) rapid rise from Major League Soccer whipping boys to competitive, coherent opponents has been close to meteoric, the creativity and fluency so absent in 2007 has been abundant in 2008. Home field advantage has been exploited to great effect; BMO Field has become the fortress Mo Johnston craved last season.
Away from home the story is very different.
Road games remain problematic and results are beginning to form a familiar pattern. Coach John Carver was rightly concerned at the lacklustre performance in Houston (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2008/06/08/tfc-dynamo-recap.html)and offered no excuses for a bad day at the office. He admitted his team was “dreadful” and will, no doubt, be pulling out all the stops to find a solution.
True, Carver was without arguably his most creative player - Amado Guevara was away on international duty, as was last season's rookie of the year Maurice Edu, but the coach knows these absences are now par for the course which is why he’s placed such emphasis on having roster depth for every position.

Read more (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/reed/2008/06/road_rage_a_worrying_tfc_trend.html)