Pre-Game: TFC @ Chicago Fire (Sept 8th, 8:30 PM ET on Rogers Sportsnet)

[TFC USA]

Let's face it, a road win is damn near impossible for this team even if they play Johnny Assfuck University in Needledick, North Dakota.

So how will we play Wednesday? Will we get a draw or will we lose and get finished off pretty much for good? Chicago nearly beat LA today but they gained a point on us, a win for Chicago on Wednesday and that's gotta be it for us.

[UltraSuperMegaMo]

I'm a little on the fence about the playoff push. I know there needs to be major changes with the team and that's only going to happen if TFC misses the playoffs, but I can't cheer against them.

If they play the way they did tonight, get a few bounces, maybe this is a winnable game.

[Heart of Stone]

If we make the playoffs we'll probably be playing New York in the first round...

[Keystone FC]

A win in Chicago is a MUST! NDAI! A tie or a loss and the playoffs are pretty much 'wait til next year'.
I would really like for TFC to get into the playoffs this season seeing as how Toronto will be the hosts of the Cup. I'd rather TFC HOIST the Cup rather than HOST the Cup but what can you do.

[nascarguy]

yeah tfc has got win

[DichioTFC]

According to the Fire FO, 40 tickets have been purchased in the visiting supporter's section.

I don't blame anyone for being negative, but it's do or die time and I'm not skipping class to go to Shitcago with the mentality that TFC is going to lose.

1-0 TFC. Chippy match, goal by Mista.

[Keystone FC]

According to the Fire FO, 40 tickets have been purchased in the visiting supporter's section.

I don't blame anyone for being negative, but it's do or die time and I'm not skipping class to go to Shitcago with the mentality that TFC is going to lose.

1-0 TFC. Chippy match, goal by Mista.
If it were a weekend game then I would expect 400 would be going, but being a weekday game and all (and considering TFC's playoff situation) maybe another 10 may be joining.

[RPB_RED_NATION_RPB]

4 points out of a possible 30pts on the road this season.....

a loss and its a done deal......if its not that already....

BTW how much is the SS going up next year..???

[Redcoe15]

I think TFC will be very, very lucky to come out of Chicago with a draw. And that will be lights out for them as far as making the post season is concerned.

[Oldtimer]

This is a "must win."

Somehow I doubt that TFC will win, though.

Mo, Preki, and Nick Garcia must go!

[koryo]

The way this team has played over the last four-five weeks, don't expect another win this season - never mind tomorrow.

[ManUtd4ever]

TFC deserved a result in Dallas and didn't get it and the boys are way overdue for a road victory. Preki will have close to a full squad at his disposal tomorrow so I will go out on a limb and predict our 2nd road win of the season against Chicago to keep our faint playoff hopes alive...

:scarf:

[koryo]

TFC deserved a result in Dallas and didn't get it and the boys are way overdue for a road victory. Preki will have close to a full squad at his disposal tomorrow so I will go out on a limb and predict our 2nd road win of the season against Chicago to keep our faint playoff hopes alive...

:scarf:

I'm gonna hold you to that! :D

[Oldtimer]

From Paul B's twitter:


A weekend at bro's cottage served to deflect the reality of TFC's place on the table. Reality setting in. Tough game ahead. Winnable.

[pekduck]

^
Was he there on a scouting mission? :D

We better start full line up for the win.

[Oldtimer]

Taking each game one at a time is an old sports adage and clearly is true for the Fire. They have a must win home game this very week against Toronto. Three points have to be earned. This will be no easy feat with steady midfielder Marco Pappa not expected to play and defender Gonzalo Segares lost due to a red card in the Galaxy game. Freddie Ljungberg should be back to assume his midfield role and Nery Castillo appears finally to be ready to play a full game for the Fire after his late July signing. Sean Johnson continues to improve in goal and can certainly claim a confidence boost from his penalty kick stop on Landon Donovan. Having to win midweek and then travel to play the Union on the weekend is a tall order and the Fire have to fill it. It would be a shame if Brian McBride’s final season ended with his hometown team being on the sidelines come playoff time.http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com/trial-and-tribulations-of-being-a-chicago-fire-fan-dreaming-of-reaching-mls-playoffs/10167

Sounds like Preki should go for an all-out attack.

Knowing him, he'll play a 4-5-1. :(

[pekduck]

we need to go bold and do 4-3-3 or at least 4-1-3-2

[Number Nine]

TFC deserved a result in Dallas and didn't get it and the boys are way overdue for a road victory. Preki will have close to a full squad at his disposal tomorrow so I will go out on a limb and predict our 2nd road win of the season against Chicago to keep our faint playoff hopes alive...

:scarf:

I like your optimism! I'm with you man, I hope they pull through for a win. The stats are against us, but this is MLS, and I think this team is better than some people make it out to be, minus the obvious individuals that everyone has been calling out, and deservedly so.

[DichioTFC]

I like your optimism! I'm with you man, I hope they pull through for a win. The stats are against us, but this is MLS, and I think this team is better than some people make it out to be, minus the obvious individuals that everyone has been calling out, and deservedly so.

Its true. These are the same guys that beat the Fire 4-1.

2-1 Toronto. The march to the playoffs begins tonight.

[Darlofletch]

http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com/trial-and-tribulations-of-being-a-chicago-fire-fan-dreaming-of-reaching-mls-playoffs/10167

Sounds like Preki should go for an all-out attack.

Knowing him, he'll play a 4-5-1. :(

That is what should happen


we need to go bold and do 4-3-3 or at least 4-1-3-2

something like that sounds good



If they play the way they did tonight, get a few bounces, maybe this is a winnable game.

But this is probably what will happen, we'll play to keep it tight and just hope that something good happens. Average luck will lead to another 1-0 loss, we get lucky we may get a draw or a win. we get bad luck it'll be like the NY 4-1.

That's all we've done for the last few games since santos and barrett got injured. White isn't good enough to be our main striker by himself

do or die time Preki, let's have a plan b please.

[DangerRed]

We currently have a 15.9 percent chance of making the playoffs. (source: http://www.sportsclubstats.com/USA/MLS.html)

So, "must win" and all that. We did spank them 4-1 at home, but we all know it's different roadside.

Ask me, I say we focus on the CCL, throw out Mo come season end and try again next year.

[Azerban]

hey this game is totally winnable 2-0 to the glorious tfc! - tfc supporters before every road game ever

[Brooker]

GOOOOARN TORONTO! 3-1 win!

[Bars92]

law of averages says they have to win the road sometime.

[Pachuco]

Knowing TFC they will go ahead and play an impressive game although they'll probably end up with a tie. Just to postpone the missery a little longer.

[Carts]

http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com/trial-and-tribulations-of-being-a-chicago-fire-fan-dreaming-of-reaching-mls-playoffs/10167

Sounds like Preki should go for an all-out attack.

Knowing him, he'll play a 4-5-1. :(

I think that IS Preki's offensive formation... LOL

Maybe he'll play a 6-3-1 or a 6-4-0... :noidea:

Carts... :D

[jloome]

GOOOOARN TORONTO! 3-1 win!

Good ol' Goarn. Master of the ninth circle of the apocryphal brotherhood. Zorn rules too!

[Darlofletch]

Is there any news on Santos yet? If he's not back then we've got to go with a more adventurous formation to give ourselves a chance of winning.

[twistedchinaman]

I sure hope as hell that we win...road record be damned; I DEMAND A WIN.

Predo: 3-1 Toronto, DeRo + Mista + OBW.

[maninb]

^ OBW actually scoring??? LOL!!! I guess he'll be tying up his shoe and it'll go in off his fat, lazy ass.....

[sampace]

OBW is playing his way off of the team in my opinion. He is Gerba 2 and he will end up signing with Montreal and playing with the Impact next season. Toronto will not make the playoffs, the turning point was Preki putting on a B team in a winable game on the road in Champions play. He needed to win that game to keep the momentum flowing, especially with a break coming up around the bend. He has tossed both chances for a play off away. No MLS no Champions!

[Technorgasm]

I hope we stuff them so everyone in here can eat their words.
this is MLS people, no body knows what teams are going to take the field. maybe the players names, but the performance can not be predicted. . . .

I dont think it out of possibility that we can get a result away vs the fire.
We twatted them proper for our best game of the season at BMO. THATS a FACT.

Im always looking at TFC in a positive light, red card, PK, keeper mistake, OG its all possible. Santos needs to come back. . . adn NOW. before its too late.

Keep the faith. its all we have ever had.

[Technorgasm]

I will add. that if we DONT get the result. . its all KORYO's fault.

[Phil]

At minimum we need a point if not the full result.

The run in looks like there may be some promise, havent really looked at the other teams though and may not want to.

[maninb]

Anybody know if Barrett is training yet?

[RPB_RED_NATION_RPB]

i only have one comment on tonight game...

Prove me wrong!!!

[RedsYNWA]

^ OBW actually scoring??? LOL!!! I guess he'll be tying up his shoe and it'll go in off his fat, lazy ass.....

ROFL I almost chocked on my apple
Sad but true
ALL WE ARE SAYING....

[__wowza]

Anybody know if Barrett is training yet?

there's a video posted on the TFC website about preki mentioning that he's worried about their fitness. santos was good to go for the last game, he just never went on. barrett i'm not too sure about.

it might be worth a look. id tell you more but the video won't play at my work computer.

[bgnewf]

My server for my blog is down so I wanted to get my pre game thoughts out before game time, plus some thoughts on the discussion here about season tickets for 2011.



TFC v Chicago Pre Game + Season Ticket Angst

TFC v Fire

On one of the TFC fan message boards I posted earlier this week, with some disagreeing with my assessment, that the game this evening away against Chicago is nothing less than a must win. I stated in my post that I felt that for Toronto to have any hope for the playoffs it could not allow itself to not only lose ground to a club with games in hand but having yet another club to climb past for the playoffs would only make the situation they re in even worse.



40 points gets a club into the playoffs last season but with the additional team this year in Philadelphia and with the points teams ahead of us have accumulated already I think it'll be 42-43 points needed to get into the post season in 2010. So let’s say 42 gets you in. Toronto FC has 27 today. That's 15 points needed with eight games remaining. Three wins at home are of course a necessity (assuming we can beat Columbus, DC and San Jose). I don’t think we will beat the Columbus Crew, we never have, so perhaps a draw at home is all we can hope for there. That means that three wins on the road is what is required. And Chicago is one of the clubs TFC can really put the sword to with a win. A loss means TFC will be going into the weekend five points out of the last playoff spot and they will be looking up at Chicago who will still have a game in hand. A loss means of course that TFC drops into 11th place.


No matter how you cut it this game tonight is an absolute must win. And there are some reasons for optimism. Maicon Santos may factor into the mix this evening. He was rounding nicely into shape before his injury a few weeks ago and his ability to play well with Mista was leading to both players getting offensive chances.


Ty Harden has frankly been a revelation at the back since Nana Attakora was away with Team Canada and suspension for the past two games. His emergence gives Preki the chance to not only perhaps go with a more offensive tactical approach but also keep gaffe prone Nick Garcia off the pitch. Maybe we might see Attakora play fullback tonight along with Usanov.


The effort in Dallas which fell a little short was definitely something to build upon. With De Rosario, de Guzman and the aforementioned Attakora back in the mix the only significant loss this evening is midfielder Martin Saric suspended due to yellow card accumulation.


Now it all comes down to Preki. He needs to set up the club properly to give it a chance to win the game. Toronto has never won in Chicago. In three previous trips the Reds have drawn once and lost twice. Earlier this season at home Toronto demolished the Fire 4-1. We will see I guess later tonight if the playoffs are either a possibility or a pipe dream.

MLS Cup and TFC Season Tickets for 2011

I have been reading the following thread on the Red Patch Boys web site with great interest today, as I think it captures very well a lot of the angst among supporters of Toronto FC about their upcoming season ticket renewals for 2011 and the lack of information to date about tickets for the MLS Cup Final at BMO Field on November 21st. I urge you all to take a look at the thread here:



http://64.13.252.151/forums/showthread.php?t=24454

With just over ten weeks to go before the Cup Final is held here in Toronto, to date there has been no news whatsoever from the club about the ticketing information for the game. And the general fan consensus appears to be that with the annual 2011 season ticket renewal campaign upcoming soon there is likely to be some arrangement made whereby if fans renew their seats for 2011, they will have the option to purchase MLS Cup tickets first.


With the strong possibility that Toronto will for the fourth season in a row not be able to reward fans with playoff soccer there is a possibility that Toronto FC may see for the first time a big drop off in season ticket renewals. And there is definitely anecdotal information out there to back this up. In each season so far in their history there have been season ticket price hikes that average about 15% across the board. And it would not be surprising if that continues, even though it would be a serious error on the part of the club if they think that it should business as usual.



One of the posters on the Red Patch Boys (well done Mikey!) took it upon himself to take a look at where the prices for the most expensive TFC season tickets compare to some of the top teams in the English Premier League to try and provide some context as to where TFC prices its product. Here is what he came up with:

Manchester United: $1,494.37
Newcastle: $1,564.99
Chelsea: $1,942.20
Tottenham: $2,720.68
Arsenal: $2,929.35
Toronto: $3,439.00

Are you as surprised as I am to see these figures? And these sums are all in Canadian dollars! So for a club that has yet to get into the post season in their history their top ticket is $1,500 more than what my Gunners charge their fans in north London to see Premiership soccer. These numbers shocked me when I saw them and they again back up the anecdotal evidence out there that at the higher price points Toronto may indeed have some problems for the first time in their history filling their building in 2011.


Many fans are saying they will be only renewing if there is a change of leadership at the club that sees Mo Johnston fired. Others are saying they will only renew if they can obtain cheaper seats next year. Fans are reporting that scalpers are having a harder and harder time getting rid of their seats on game days. Some of the more committed fans, who spend large sums on merchandise, road trips, and displays/tifos within the ground feel that another increase would be something simply put that could not be justified and if price increases take place some of them may simply walk away. Driving away even a few of your most committed ardent fans who add so much to the game day experience in the stadium would be a huge error.


The bottom line for me is this. With a few glaring exceptions, Toronto FC has made few significant mistakes that have seen them totally read their fan base wrong in their short history. Another significant price increase considering the continuing problems on the field would be arguably the biggest mistake they have ever made.

[Darlofletch]

Here's the line up I'd like to see.
-----------Frei---------------
Gargan, Cann, Attakora, Harden (can Harden play LB? if not then Garcia)
-----------Nane-------------
De Ro-----Mista----De Guzman
------White-----Ibrahim

and here (http://www.cruelgeography.com/2010/09/please-please-please-let-me-get-what-i.html) is the long explanation of why we need to do something, anything different than we have been doing.

[bgnewf]

Here's the line up I'd like to see.
-----------Frei---------------
Gargan, Cann, Attakora, Harden (can Harden play LB? if not then Garcia)
-----------Nane-------------
De Ro-----Mista----De Guzman
------White-----Ibrahim

and here (http://www.cruelgeography.com/2010/09/please-please-please-let-me-get-what-i.html) is the long explanation of why we need to do something, anything different than we have been doing.

You have a great blog!

Sorry I have not mentioned that earlier to you. I will get a cross link up on my site as son as I can.

[Beach_Red]

Many fans are saying they will be only renewing if there is a change of leadership at the club...




From the very beginning all I've wanted to see is a "President of Soccer." A well-respected guy with a long career running teams. Even if they'd brought in someone who was retired and doing it as a part-time job as mostly a figurehead. Remember when the Blue Jays brought in Sam Pollock? Seemed like an odd choice, a hockey guy for a baseball team but no one was expecting him to scout talent or work on strategy, they were expecting him to use his many decades of running a winning organization to set the right professional tone from the top down.

That's what TFC has needed from the beginning and they still do.

[Juanito]

We have to play offensive-minded! We just have to. We can't afford to drop any more points!

[Darlofletch]

You have a great blog!

Sorry I have not mentioned that earlier to you. I will get a cross link up on my site as son as I can.

Thanks man, i appreciate it. I enjoy yours too :cheers:

I'm not very techy and still figuring out a lot of things, and with initial introductory posts and then basically 4 games in 5 days to talk about, I haven't had a lot of time for fiddling about, so it's stil very basic, but i'm having fun with it. (translation: get your fill now before I figure out the bells and whistles and inevitably go too far and turn it into Homer Simpson's dancing jesus webpage)

[bgnewf]

MLS official Ramon Hernandez is apparently in charge this evening. We have had him for three games previously, never in Toronto. In those three games we have one win (against Red Bull in 2008) and two defeats, away to DC in 2007 and earlier this season in Philly. In that game you may remember he called a 94th minute penalty against us that cost us a draw.

[Torontotonto]

It's a must win tonight anything short of 3 points out of this match there most likely be no playoffs again this year for TFC.

[Brooker]

from Chicago board


Apparently there are going to be a ton of empty seats tonight.

They are closing the upper deck.

[TFC Cityboy]

It's a must win tonight anything short of 3 points out of this match there most likely be no playoffs again this year for TFC.

Agree 100% but I have no faith in our ability to do the biz.
This is a critical week for TFC...we need 6 from 6 - anything less and poke us, we're done.

[ag futbol]

We caught a big break ... no Marco Pappa

[Oldtimer]

online stream:

http://atdhe.net/23718/watch-chicago-fire-vs-toronto-fc

[Oldtimer]

match thread: http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?p=1124414#post1124414