Goal.com-TFC is Surging !!!

The Monday MLS Breakdown: TFC is Surging

Goal.com USA's Kyle McCarthy gives credit to John Carver and Mo Johnston for re-stocking Toronto FC with talented players, especially in the midfield, which is allowing them to climb up the Eastern Conference standings.


By Kyle McCarthy
Like most battles in Major League Soccer, the quest to build a winning team in Toronto started in the midfield.
While the defense stuttered and stammered and the forwards stopped and started, the midfield proved the bane of Mo Johnston’s existence last year.
Johnston preferred the tried and true 4-4-2 formation last season. Unfortunately for the Scot, he only had two MLS-caliber midfielders. Carl Robinson (Wales) and Maurice Edu (United States) aren’t slouches in the center of the field, but with no outlets on the flanks, the duo faced too much pressure inside an engine room most teams in MLS prefer to clutter with three in the middle.
Try as he might, Johnston couldn’t find a pair of wingers to open up the field and give Robinson and Edu the space to operate. Overrun in midfield, the opposition cut off service to the misfiring strikers and punished the rickety defense time and again.


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Interesting to read the Crew Hooligans article linked on the page. It seems that MLS wants to go in a different direction than Mr. Kelly suggested in his article last week. MLS seems to be encouraging streamers, and the indication in the article is that self policing by fans is acceptable, along with a little added help ion the scoreboards.

This guy rags on our back-line and Sutton. Fact is, there getting the job done, 2nd in the league in terms of goals against is not mediocre at best. Our back-line has been very solid this season.

From the article:
"Man for man, the Toronto back line appears mediocre at best and futile at worst. Tyrone Marshall peaked years ago, Marco Velez spent last year playing with Puerto Rico in USL1, Marvell Wynne doesn’t defend particularly well and Jim Brennan spent most of his career in England playing midfield."


Ouch... That's a little harsh in my opinion...

He backs up why he thinks that, but I think (personally) it's too harsh for a group that has gotten the job done (minus DC United games in DC)...

Carts...

Ok, the following line has me not listening to anything now...
"Depth questions linger, but may prove unfounded after Saturday night’s 2-0 win over New York without six starters."

Didn't realize that was the NY Shite-Bulls through the rain on Saturday, or that it was at night... :D

Carts...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McCartney

Ok, the following line has me not listening to anything now...
"Depth questions linger, but may prove unfounded after Saturday night’s 2-0 win over New York without six starters."

Didn't realize that was the NY Shite-Bulls through the rain on Saturday, or that it was at night... :D

Carts...

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i saw that two then i asked my self ...who is this guy? just give hime a big who are ya and move on

ahah FAIL!

The days of copy editors are long gone. We all make typos and minor mistakes when we write and post so quickly.

Besides, New York, LA, we don't care, they're all shite and we'll beat them all.

He has a point about our defense. Read it carefully, he's not saying we have a bad defense, he's saying we have a mediocre defense if you compare the individuals. This is mostly true. We have been so strong not because of standout performances from a few individuals (I would argue Wynne at times, but most of his standout runs are merely making up for being caught out of position), but because Carver has worked on our shape and team defending so much. What changed from getting cut open at will by a mediocre DC side our second game to getting a clean sheet in 4 of our next 5? Not the people (we all hated Velez, don't lie) but the way Carver taught them to work together.

Oh, and I do take issue with his Sutton comments, but he ranks us as second on the ranking, so I'm not going to complain too much.

He does put TFC in spot 2 though...LOL! For that, I will forgive not knowing LA from NY!

It was at least interesting to read about the game and not read about Galaxy playing without Becks and Landy

I can't stand it when a writer can't get basic facts right. Aside from the problems with the article already brought up in this thread, there's also the fact that the says Carver 'prefers' the 4-5-1 and set out finding guys to fit into that.

Well no, we're using the 4-5-1 because of our personnel.

Oh well, who cares.

the author also seems to forget about Ronnie O'Brien, when helathy was our best midfielder, and more 'MLS Caliber' than RObinson and Edu were last year...

WHO ARE YA?!