Sticking up for Dunfield and Harden
Because I really hate the witch hunt mentality. We, the TFC supporters (and Torontonians in general), love to pick on one or two particular players.
I say we need to stop. Criticise when required, but give praise when due too.
Dunfield and Harden are pretty much depth squad players in an MLS team. For their skill sets and salary (they both cost about 65k, based upon last year's salary list), you get value for what they bring to the team.
Take Wed night's game for example. I've seen many criticize Dunfield still, when I thought he had a good game, just as good as JDG did. Yes, he made a few gaffs, esp the one he slipped, but Dunfield played his heart out, and I'd say without his efforts on the pitch, doing his DM destroyer thing, cutting out passes, being physical against Santos attackers, playing short simple but effect passes, TFC would have lost. (just as much as it was a team collective defensive effort)
Ty Harden is not the flashiest, or most talented of defenders, but ever since he put on the jersey in Toronto, he's been improving remarkably. Still not to the point he should be starting every game, but he brings hard nose physical element to the game. Did anyone else catch that great last second tackle that stopped a Santos breakaway in 2nd half? The one that if he mistimed it by half a sec, he would have cost a penalty? He does that a lot actually.
The fact that Harden survived Winter's purge when a lot of his former teammates (Peterson, Gargan, etc) shoot their mouths off, kept his head down and willing to learn says something about Harden.
I think Dunfield and Harden are two of the hardest working players on the team, and still do their job professionally, no matter how much stick a lot of people give them. I think a lot of people have unreasonable expectations when it comes to a lot of our players. Dunfield isn't Makelele, so don't judge him as one. Harden isn't Rio Ferdinand either. We need to temper down our expectations and rate these players based upon their role and value to the team.
This is MLS. Your team will have at least few guys like Dunfield and Harden that are expected to provide depth for low salary. For their salary and their role on the team, I think Dunfield and Harden are excellent members of the squad.