Today's News,Friday,Mar.16

[denime]

Mornin`


We will be updating and performing maintenance this weekend (http://redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=31156)(Sunday) (http://redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=31156) on the RPB Forum. Expect some downtime (http://redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=31156)



TFC TV (http://torontofc.neulion.com/tfc/console.jsp)





Toronto FC back at BMO for Champions League semis (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/soccer/toronto-fc-back-at-bmo-for-champions-league-semis/article2370369/)


Reds Return To Routine (http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2012/03/reds-return-routine)


Kocic: This Or That (http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2012/03/kocic-or)


Toronto FC's incredible turnaround (http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/15/toronto-fcs-incredible-turnaround)


Toronto FC returns to BMO Field for Champions League semifinal (http://www.thestar.com/sports/soccer/mls/torontofc/article/1146759--toronto-fc-back-at-bmo-for-champions-league-semifinal-against-santos-laguna)





TFC related blogs ! (http://[url]http//torontofc.neulion.com/tfc/console.jsp%5B/URL%5D%22url%5DVideo%20of%20the%20pitch%5B/url%5D%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%3Cbr%20/%3E%0A%5BSIZE=4%5D%5BB%5D%5BURL=%22http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=29582)





SUNSHINE (http://www.torontosun.com/sunshine-girl)


_

[pekduck]

morning d.

[Eastend]

CCL SEMI TICKET SALES START TODAY!! Look out for your email!

(for SSH anyway, sorry)

[prizby]

General public prices will start at $27

[scooter]

mornin d

[Technorgasm]

does TFC still do those 'open practice' events?

cuz like. . . gettgin thrown out of BMO on NON game days is fun. . . .

[tfcleeds]

Speaking of open practice events, the Limpact got 2,000 people to show up for theirs.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/15/hype-impact-home-opener-builds-open-house

They're the enemy, but I do want them to do well at the gate. Upwards of 50,000 expected for the opener, should be a great atmosphere there. Between our leg of the CCL q-finals and their home opener, great to see crowds for soccer matches like that in Canada.

[Stimpy]

Anyone else notice that Frei was not on any of the tickets? Yet the perceived back up was.....thoughts?

[Oldtimer]

^That's already been noted.

[Whoop]

Spanish newspaper AS is reporting that TFC, along with Kansas City and LA, are in the hunt for Spanish CB Michel Salgado, last of Blackburn.

[Gazza]

Spanish newspaper AS is reporting that TFC, along with Kansas City and LA, are in the hunt for Spanish CB Michel Salgado, last of Blackburn.

If not him, i really hope we can pick up a Salgado-type fullback that can allow Frings to get back into the midfield where he belongs.

[mdc 77]

Also posted here about this yesterday;
http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=31127&page=2

article herel
http://www.redpatchboys.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=31127&page=2

[Carts]

Salgado is getting up their in years - but then again so is Frings and he is head and shoulders our best player, and the best player on the pitch vs LA so its not really a worry...

[Globetrotter]

CCL SEMI TICKET SALES START TODAY!! Look out for your email!

(for SSH anyway, sorry)


Has anyone received the email on how to actually buy them yet? Im a SSH and waiting for the email. The email I got yesterday said I should expect one this morning with instructions. Morning finishes in 15 minutes.

[NewCity]

Has anyone received the email on how to actually buy them yet? Im a SSH and waiting for the email. The email I got yesterday said I should expect one this morning with instructions. Morning finishes in 15 minutes.


Anyone try calling the office? I called last night and was told that we get our tickets today for SSH's but wasn't a morning promise. Hoping they come soon.

[Yohan]

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2012/03/galaxy-herbalife-sponsorship-deal.html

LA extends shirt sponsorship deal with Herbalife. 10 yrs, 44 mil

[Petor]

Free upgrade to Frings! :scarf:

http://www.harveys.ca/mailers/images/mailer_double_bacon_2012_02.jpg (http://www.harveys.ca/mailers/images/mailer_double_bacon_2012_02.jpg)

[jabbronies]

Free upgrade to Frings! :scarf:

http://www.harveys.ca/mailers/images/mailer_double_bacon_2012_02.jpg (http://www.harveys.ca/mailers/images/mailer_double_bacon_2012_02.jpg)

We should print off 10 of these and cash in while we have the chance/.

[Gazza]

Salgado is getting up their in years - but then again so is Frings and he is head and shoulders our best player, and the best player on the pitch vs LA so its not really a worry...

We're a defence to striker type of team. Frings is our best player by far, but i'm sure he was brought in to man the midfield. We lack that general with play-making ability.

The dilemma being that he is a much better defender than anyone outside of Eckersley.

[Petor]

We should print off 10 of these and cash in while we have the chance/.

Hopefully they are only valid in Toronto! :D

[ManUtd4ever]

Free upgrade to Frings! :scarf:

http://www.harveys.ca/mailers/images/mailer_double_bacon_2012_02.jpg (http://www.harveys.ca/mailers/images/mailer_double_bacon_2012_02.jpg)

This ad just made me so hungry. Off to Harvey's! :D

[pekduck]

Great read

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/03/16/armchair-analyst-winter-tfc-resurrect-3-6-1



After the Santos Laguna vs. Sounders debacle on Wednesday night – the last 30 minutes of which seemed to play out like the last scene in se7en, except on repeat and without the happy ending – I steeled myself, girded my loins, poured a scotch and sat down to enjoy some good, old fashioned MLS-on-MLS action.

The “good” part was subjective; LA fans would probably choose a different adjective. Hell, Toronto fans probably would as well – “good” isn’t a strong enough word for what was truly a touchstone performance.

But the “old fashioned” part cannot be disputed. Because two hours after the Sounders were sent packing, Aron Winter & Co. did to the Galaxy what Steve Sampson was trying to do to Germany, Iran and Yugoslavia 14 years ago. Somehow we’d all fallen into a time warp – except in this obviously altered reality, the 3-6-1 worked.

Check out the OPTA Chalkboard (http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-03-14-la-v-tor/chalkboard)

Go back to 1998 and recall, if you will, the mad plan of the then head coach of the US national team. Sampson had come up with something, it was thought, truly revolutionary. It was a formation that could allow him to field Claudio Reyna along with two pure defensive midfielders behind him, and do so without sacrificing attacking verve. It was something that would take advantage of the US speed on the flanks – be it Cobi Jones, Earnie (then Ernie) Stewart or Frankie Hejduk. It was something, he presumably hoped, that no one would truly be prepared for.
Sure, it left Eric Wynalda alone against a German backline that had just won the European Championship two years previous (Waldo famously explained, "I had three of the best defenders in the world on my back," when asked why he touched the ball but once in the first half). And it left Thomas Dooley to sweep against a team that, if nothing else, knew how to punish a side with a slow, aging sweeper.
And, in the end, it just didn’t work. It looked nice on diagrams, and it certainly invoked “the right of the weak” – Sampson’s team would destroy the game if they couldn’t play it.

But all it took was a Jens Jeremies kidney-shot to Reyna and some classic German know-how to end the 3-6-1 before it even began. In the decade-and-a-half since, the formation has become a bit of a punch line in American soccer circles.

Fast forward to Wednesday. There were the Reds, for all intents and purposes, playing a 5-2-3 in the first half, with Torsten Frings (Jeremies’ heir in defensive midfield for Germany, coincidentally enough) sweeping between two classic center backs (Ty Harden and Miguel Aceval) and two “fullbacks” (Ashtone Morgan and Richard Eckersley) staying wide and deep.

That left Julian de Guzman and Ryan Johnson somewhat hopelessly outgunned in midfield, ceding plenty of time and space to the Galaxy to put in through ball after through ball. That LA didn’t convert can be chalked up to Frings, Milos Kocic and one fortunate offside call.
In the second half, though, Winter got smart. He subbed off Joao Plata, an attacker, for Terry Dunfield, an all-action, box-to-box midfielder who’s only too happy to do the work of two men.

Winter also pulled Nick Soolsma back deeper into the right-center channel, and pushed Johnson out into the left-center channel. Lastly, he had Eckersley and Morgan push higher and wider, until they were actually playing farther up the pitch than de Guzman (and his sub, Luis Silva) and, for large stretches, Dunfield.
Blammo, that’s a six man midfield. Now it was LA who were outgunned.

The Galaxy suddenly didn’t have as much time and space to send in those through balls, and eventually David Beckham drifted over to the right touchline where proceeded to whip in 13 crosses, only two of which OPTA rated as “good.”

For Winter, that was achievement No. 1.

Achievement No. 2 relates to the play of Danny Koevermans, who was left all alone up top.

But unlike Wynalda in ’98, the big Dutchman wasn’t facing three of the world’s best defenders, and he seemed to have a clearer idea of how a No. 9 should operate in the system. Koevermans ended up doing the smartest thing he could: Plant himself directly between A.J. DeLaGarza and Tommy Meyer, and stay a half-step offside for the entire time he was on the pitch.

This forced DeLaGarza and Meyer to play deeper than they wanted, and to try to time their traps toward a center forward who was only going to put himself into play half the time at best. In the process that opened up lanes for midfield runners – often called “The third runner” – to get onto crosses whenever TFC launched a counterattack.

You’ll recall that this is exactly how Soolsma scored the series-winning goal. For Winter, that was achievement unlocked. Minutes later, he subbed defender Aaron Maund on for Koevermans, retreating into purely a rearguard action.

It still took a good deal of luck and some pretty poor finishing from LA for Toronto to advance, though as we all know, that’s often the case in knockout rounds. And it’s worth noting that Santos Laguna – TFC’s next opponent – aren’t particularly short of finishers these days, so Winter had best have another tactical trick up his sleeve for the semis.

For one night, though, the 3-6-1 looked and played exactly how it was supposed to 14 years ago. That doesn’t do much to soothe the wounds of Yanks who are still stung by the 32nd-place finish in 1998, but I sincerely doubt Torontonians care much about that. They’ll be too busy celebrating the coach and the team that turned a punch line into a victory.

[Yohan]

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/46018/mls-enjoys-canadian-boost.html

A feel good article about TFC and MLS

[Red I]

Pretty cool kudos from Alexei Lalas ...


@AlexiLalas
The SuperClub is dead. Long live the SuperClub. #TFC