Today’s News, Tuesday , May.19

[denime]

Mornin'

No TFC news for now.


2009 Power Rankings: Week 9 Rank (Last Wk) Team Record (W-L-T) Comment
1 (1) Chivas USA 7-1-2 The Goats throw away two points against D.C. United, but are still the league's top dogs.
2 (4) Chicago 3-0-6 Chris Rolfe belongs in the starting lineup. Period.
3 (5) DC United 3-1-6 United's never-say-die attitude has them in a tie for first place. Imagine where they'd be if they could defend.
4 (2) Seattle Sounders FC 4-2-3 From players 1-12, Seattle may be as talented as any other MLS club. But the Sounders' shaky depth is getting exposed during a little run of injuries.
5 (3) Houston 3-2-3 Even with a back line beat up by injury, the Orange has allowed just two goals since March.
6 (9) Kansas City 4-4-2 Josh Wolff turned back the clock, helping the Wizards hand RSL a rare home loss.
7 (7) Colorado 3-2-3 Conor Casey continues his climb back into Bob Bradley's good graces with his fifth goal of the campaign in a 1-1 draw at New England.
8 (6) Toronto FC 3-3-4 TFC would be leading the East if Chad Barrett could finish. Newcomer Pablo Vitti appears to have caught the curse, too.
9 (8) Real Salt Lake 3-5-1 Lots of ability but a lack of backbone for RSL. Can these guys grind out results?
10 (10) New England 2-2-4 With Shalrie Joseph back at forward, Steve Nicol's patchwork lineup manages another draw at home; the Revolution's only wins this year have come against San Jose and Dallas.
11 (11) Columbus 1-2-6 The Crew are missing last year's killer instinct.
12 (13) Los Angeles 1-1-7 Bruce Arena has the "D" stabilized, but the "O" is suffering something fierce; L.A. has been held to a goal or fewer in six of its last seven outings.
13 (12) New York Red Bulls 2-5-3 John Wolyniec comes back to haunt the Dynamo again.
14 (14) San Jose 1-5-2 Reports from the Bay Area say practices during an off week have been killer, as coach Frank Yallop puts his boot into some players.
15 (15) Dallas 1-6-2 FCD salvages a tie in a match it should have lost by halftime.



Revs head north of the border looking to end their winless skid against Toronto FC on Saturday after

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Winless since April 4 following a second consecutive draw this past weekend, the New England Revolution will train in Foxborough three times this week before visiting Eastern Conference rival Toronto FC at BMO Field on Saturday, May 23.

Read More


Who's Hot, Who's Not
NO QUITE ONE-THIRD OF THE way through the season, yet with a busy summer of international competitions and callups on the horizon, these are a few of the impressions taken of what has transpired so far in MLS:

Read More




SUNSHINE

[keem-o-sabi]

coed girl

[CoachGT]

Morning all. Anybody else getting irritated that some in the media keep pointing fingers at our home record and saying that leaves something to be desired? Take away our expansion year, when nobody expected much, and our home record is 8-4-9, just four losses out of 21 games.

[scooter]

mornin d

i was pissed after we lost on saturday but by today cooler heads have prevailed and of course we are not going to win every game and yes we are miles ahead of last year not just in results but the team looks better too.

i think we are going to have to learn to ignore the media to keep our sanity or at least take everything they say with a grain of salt
so bring on new england

[Stouffville_RPB]

coed girl

Lucy Pinder sighting!!!

[Lucky Strike]

Morning all. Anybody else getting irritated that some in the media keep pointing fingers at our home record and saying that leaves something to be desired? Take away our expansion year, when nobody expected much, and our home record is 8-4-9, just four losses out of 21 games.

Little bit yeah, but they have to find something to complain about, so it's not all that surprising.

[CoachGT]

Little bit yeah, but they have to find something to complain about, so it's not all that surprising.

When media on other sports does considerable analysis (number of wins on Tuesdays following an unsuccessful road trip when the coach has steak for his pre-game meal) it just shows how little effort goes into this, even from supposed soccer pundits in the US.

[boban]

Morning all. Anybody else getting irritated that some in the media keep pointing fingers at our home record and saying that leaves something to be desired? Take away our expansion year, when nobody expected much, and our home record is 8-4-9, just four losses out of 21 games.

Not really. The record just shows, despite packed houses, the 'this is our house' moniker, streamers, and whatever else, our home record really isn;t that great to be honest. Even when we do win its the slimmest of margins with hardly any offense (1-0 scorelines). Points by visiting teams is a very real possibility.

[Lucky Strike]

When media on other sports does considerable analysis (number of wins on Tuesdays following an unsuccessful road trip when the coach has steak for his pre-game meal) it just shows how little effort goes into this, even from supposed soccer pundits in the US.

Lol, ever see those pro-line commercials when commentators are analyzing the fact that the zamboni is cleaning the ice in a counter-clockwise pattern rather than clockwise?

[The Kingpin]

mornin d

i was pissed after we lost on saturday but by today cooler heads have prevailed and of course we are not going to win every game and yes we are miles ahead of last year not just in results but the team looks better too.

i think we are going to have to learn to ignore the media to keep our sanity or at least take everything they say with a grain of salt
so bring on new england

Don't you find it exceptionally ironic that many here were begging for media coverage, even going as far as admonishing other sports who get coverage, only to now devalue what they were begging for. There is no such thing as bad coverage, your team is getting exposure. The news outlets are the gateway to the non-obsessed who will pay to keep the team alive. With this perspective I hope that this group will see the light and realise that the coverage is great - and maybe stop censoring certain papers and writers. Just my thoughts for today...

[Oldtimer]

From Paul B's Twitter:

To do list: budgets, budgets, get freakin' friendly match announced, wake up, more budgets.

[MG42]

mornin d

i was pissed after we lost on saturday but by today cooler heads have prevailed and of course we are not going to win every game and yes we are miles ahead of last year not just in results but the team looks better too.

i think we are going to have to learn to ignore the media to keep our sanity or at least take everything they say with a grain of salt
so bring on new england

not according to the numbers...

2008 after 10 games - 5 Wins, 3 Losses, 2 Draws 17 points

14 goals for, 6 goals against.

2009 after 10 games - 3 Wins, 3 Losses, 4 Draws 13 points

13 goals for, 15 goals against


so we are not improved, in any important category whatsoever :0

[billyfly]

According to http://www.clubsportsstats.com with the Chicago defeat, TFC are now out of the MLS top 8 with a 51.3% chance of making the playoffs. We dropped 11.1% with the loss.

[Suds]

Don't you find it exceptionally ironic that many here were begging for media coverage, even going as far as admonishing other sports who get coverage, only to now devalue what they were begging for. There is no such thing as bad coverage, your team is getting exposure. The news outlets are the gateway to the non-obsessed who will pay to keep the team alive. With this perspective I hope that this group will see the light and realise that the coverage is great - and maybe stop censoring certain papers and writers. Just my thoughts for today...

Agree with your first point ... yes, we should be happy TFC is being covered and they are focusing on the team, stats, players, etc., and not the crap we had to endure at the start of the season. We're not going to agree with every article about the team and that is the point; we are not supposed to.

However, I'm still pissed at some journalists so I'm OK with those few not being posted here which results in them getting more web hits. Yeah it may be petty, but they have not earned back my respect yet.

[Yohan]

You mean our 'Fortress' of artificial stuff is not working? Dammit!

[mighty_torontofc_2008]

not according to the numbers...

2008 after 10 games - 5 Wins, 3 Losses, 2 Draws 17 points

14 goals for, 6 goals against.

2009 after 10 games - 3 Wins, 3 Losses, 4 Draws 13 points

13 goals for, 15 goals against


so we are not improved, in any important category whatsoever :0

but dont forget we went throught that bad patch last season..with the current team i dont think we we do that and jump ahead of last years pace.

[Super]

TFC would be leading the east if MLSE got us a DP striker.

[rocker]

not according to the numbers...

2008 after 10 games - 5 Wins, 3 Losses, 2 Draws 17 points

14 goals for, 6 goals against.

2009 after 10 games - 3 Wins, 3 Losses, 4 Draws 13 points

13 goals for, 15 goals against


so we are not improved, in any important category whatsoever :0

look at the next ten games last season... 2 wins, 6 losses, 2 ties.

the problem both in 2007 and 2008 was not the first 10-15 games of the season so much as the mid-to-late parts of the season.

I also take issue with others who project point totals. I mean, there's no sense taking our points per game rate and extrapolating it to 30 games and saying "oh look, we'd have 39 points".
Cuz before the chicago game, we were on pace 43 points. If we win against the Revs, we are on pace for 44 points.

the key for TFC is consistency. No long goalless streaks or losing streaks, and they'll make the playoffs.
If there's anything I've learned from MLS it's that 1 win can take you high, and one loss can drop you low. No sense following the standings too closely from week to week, as positions shift quickly and easily in MLS.

[MG42]

but dont forget we went throught that bad patch last season..with the current team i dont think we we do that and jump ahead of last years pace.

please read original post, we are talking about comparing last year to this year to this point in time. scooter sated;

and yes we are miles ahead of last year not just in results but the team looks better too.

We are not "miles ahead" of last year, in fact we are behind in everything as the numbers show.

Don't be so sure we won't hit another bad patch.

We only have 9 home games left, and 11 road games.

Currently we are

-scoring less than last year

-winning less than last year

-giving up more goals than last year

Those are facts.

[werewolf]

If you include the Canadian Championship, that adds another 2 wins to this year, and a loss and win to last year, through the first 2 games.

[bgnewf]

TFC would be leading the east if MLSE got us a DP striker.

Agree fully...
Are we no better than SPL washouts/injury cases? I for one think we are.

Getting rid of Ricketts and Johann Smith, who are contributing next to nothing, and for that matter trading Edwards would give us enough to sign a real DP striker without any question marks or injury woes for the rest of the season. The June transfer window is coming up and I for one feel we f***ing deserve better than cast offs and hand me downs considering we have the roster space and the bank account to make it happen!

We all need to remember that Mo has assembled a roster using a f***ing ton of allocation dollars that eventually will start to expire. We also have a roster with a number of veterans (Sutton, Robinson, Brennan and Dichio are all 30+). That all means that we have to essentially disassemble this team substantially in the near future.

We are good enough to be top of the table this season if we have a striker who can consistently score at a higher strike rate than what we have now. This season might come down to be our best chance to actually make some significant playoff noise with this core. No DP striker could cost us the playoffs!

[Roogsy]

That whole allocation room expiry worries me. Why aren't we using it???

[billyfly]

B/c we want former world footballer of the year Luis Figo who retired from European footy (Inter) this week but has stated he'd like to play overseas. (start the rumours now!)

[bee dubya]

Morning all. Anybody else getting irritated that some in the media keep pointing fingers at our home record and saying that leaves something to be desired? Take away our expansion year, when nobody expected much, and our home record is 8-4-9, just four losses out of 21 games.

I still think we draw far too many matches at home. I like that we're losing less but we still need to WIN more often when we're playing at home. Our schedule is really unbalanced this year in terms of home/away fixtures so we really need to be winning all these matches we're playing now because who knows what we'll do on the road.

[CoachGT]

I'll take home wins and road draws any day!

[Cashcleaner]

Lucy Pinder sighting!!!

YES!!!

She is sexiness redefined.

[scooter]

not according to the numbers...

2008 after 10 games - 5 Wins, 3 Losses, 2 Draws 17 points

14 goals for, 6 goals against.

2009 after 10 games - 3 Wins, 3 Losses, 4 Draws 13 points

13 goals for, 15 goals against


so we are not improved, in any important category whatsoever :0

fair enough i really didnt mean based on stats only

i just feel and dont forget support is about emotions and feelings that we have a better team

i feel better about our prospects this year and i think the team is starting to play a bit better together as time goes on cause they are getting to know each other better and better every week

just little bits of brilliance if you watch the little nuiances -- ie -- vitti nutmegs a guy and passes to guiverra who nutmegs the same guy -- is it major no but if it shows they are having fun out there i just feel when they finally gel we are going to rock

living in a dream world -- maybe -- but i love my reds

last saturdays match was a step backwards and thats why i was to disappointed at the result but like i said we cant expect to win every game so onward

bring on those revs surely the dam will break and we will score 5

[Lucky Strike]

Wynne and Attakora back in training on Thursday: http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/news/te....jsp&team=t280

Though we know this, there is now an official recap of the U-18s first match of the 2009 CSL season. The U-16s and the reserve league starts in early June if last year's schedule is any indication: http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/news/te....jsp&team=t280

[TFCREDNWHITE]

please read original post, we are talking about comparing last year to this year to this point in time. scooter sated;



We are not "miles ahead" of last year, in fact we are behind in everything as the numbers show.

Don't be so sure we won't hit another bad patch.

We only have 9 home games left, and 11 road games.

Currently we are

-scoring less than last year

-winning less than last year

-giving up more goals than last year

Those are facts.

Bump. +1.... Sooooo True!!