Matchday 2: DC United at TFC, Sat March 22 4:30PM EST-HOME OPENER

[Pookie]

Not sure if you already mentioned this, but that 37% number definitely got massively skewed by the final 20 or so minutes, where all we were doing was absorbing DC's pressure, then kicking the ball back upfield so they could try again - over and over.

- Scott

I thought that too but then checked out the stats from the game. MLS now breaks down the possession in 5' increments.

http://golazo.mlssoccer.com/matchcen...c-united/stats

TFC only held the possession advantage from 5'-10' and from 45'-50'. Every other segment was in DC's favour.

Same with the Seattle game. Only 2 segments.

But of course 6 points so I don't want to belabour it. To me, it is something to watch for. That signifies a lot of ball chasing and potential to give up many more opportunities than they create.

[Ron Manager]

At one point in the game there was a ball from Julio Cesar flicked on by Michael Bradley to Jermaine Defoe. I just smiled and shook my head.

Who ever thought that sentence was going to be possible for TFC?

[Shway]

Doneil Henry, what an improvement defensively, amazing. Offensively, I don't really know if that's what Nelsen wants from him. Sometimes I see others on the team passing the ball around, maintaining possession, until it gets to Henry who boots it long with no TFC player near where it's going.

Doneil was a rock in the back, he made Eddie Johnson non-existent. However I agree with you Auzzy, he was horrible with his passing decisions out the back. Our defence being able to play out the back to find the General Or JoSo will better the distribution our strikers get.

Defoe and Gilberto will be a serious problem this year. Gilberto is a clear threat on his own, which frees up Defoe to be Defoe to poach and finish!!!

Exciting times ahead my friends....exciting times ahead

[Shway]

random thoughts on today:

- JACKSON WAS FUCKING USELESS ALL GAME.

that's all for now, i think i'm still brain drunk.

I don't know if it was the weather or the condition but he was lacking the attacking mentality to run at defenders that I have seen from him over the past few years.

He has two more games for me, by then INF should be signed and he's a lively winger ala Rey (even though he holds onto the ball way too much)

[OgtheDim]

http://www.torontofc.ca/video/2014/0...-march-22-2014


Cesar was REALLY happy to hear the support during warm up. "Respect his position" was the phrase used.

[starter]

Defending from our back 4 + DMs were near perfect, DCU virtually had no chances. I like what we did with the ball in the final 3rd as well, being unlucky on a few occasions.
But the link up from D was clearly not working. Our D is really uncomfortable with the ball, leading to hoofball, and lost possession.
I do not buy Nelsons " we decided to give up possession today" piece, as I have not seen his game yet when he "decided" not to.
Playing at home against one of the weaker teams you would like to try to dominate, for your fans, at least.
I would like them to work more on possession, it is easy on the eye, and positively correlated with success.

[MightyDM]

Now how about us. How was the crowd. Like the players we had a solid game. But we can get better. Red Patch boys are the backbone of the atmosphere at the field. I would ask that we bring back some of the old cheers. We need some simple cheers to get the whole stadium working together. May I suggest "This is our House". East side or west side stand up. Need some new cheers to support Defoe and Gilberto.

This would be great for those of us in the 200 level. There was some passion there yesterday, some chants, almost like 2007-09. Joining into some clear simple ones from the RPB's would help involve more supporters.

[flatpicker]

Regarding the pitch surface:
I think it could have been maintained better despite the harsh winter. In fact, if they had put a bubble over it and let people play on it during the off-season, it would likely be in much better shape than it is now. I really hope the grounds folks can improve it quickly because this is not the sort of surface we want our million dollar players running around on.

Regarding Gilberto:
For his first competitive match with Toronto, he looked great. With some more playing time under his belt, and time to gel with Defoe and Bradley and co., we could be seeing a lot of goals scored by this team. We might even be the highest scoring team in the league by the end of the year.

[maninb]

We were BRILLIANT going forward but against a better side we would have been punished....Osorio was a liability defensively...he seemed AFRAID of putting in a tackle...and the giveaways by almost EVERYBODY, including Bradley were terrible.....Hopefully Orr will be an upgrade of Bloom at RB....For me the Man of the Match would be Morrow, Caldwell or Henry...all played solid games...

[T-boy]

I know Bradley and Defoe are going to get all the headlines and praise, but there were several performances yesterday that really stood out as 'unsung heroes'. Henry is becoming a man before our eyes. But I especially enjoyed Morrow and Bloom. Morrow could be one of the best signings we have made, and really made Morgan look like a reserve in comparison. Morrow knows when to commit, knows when to hold back, is very steady with his marking, and an excellent full back. He was equally excellent last week too, he's going to be a massive signing for us.

[brad]

Love Defoe's attitude in interviews. They ask him about the pitch and conditions, he blows it off saying it's the same for both teams. Great to see/hear from a player that is coming from such a high level. His attitude is spot on, and exactly what is needed from a top player coming into this league.

[T-boy]

A comment about Jackson - I don't remember him having a good game, but when you watch back the Game in 6, he actually created every one of those first half chances (either the final pass, or a run, or the thru-ball), so I don't thik he was as bad as we are all making out!

[trane]

Gilberto seems to be the real deal. Henry has rely stepped up. the entire team is playing really solid, organized football. People are talking about Henry, defenders cannot always pass the ball neatly sometime, hoofing it down the field is the right thing to do. The only thing that I had a consistent concern about was the left side, the entire back like played well, but the LB was often playing to in leaving that side open to runs.

[trane]

A comment about Jackson - I don't remember him having a good game, but when you watch back the Game in 6, he actually created every one of those first half chances (either the final pass, or a run, or the thru-ball), so I don't thik he was as bad as we are all making out!

Jackson is very active and creates alot, he could be better defensively. But still overall he is a good fit.

[T-boy]

Gilberto seems to be the real deal. Henry has rely stepped up. the entire team is playing really solid, organized football. People are talking about Henry, defenders cannot always pass the ball neatly sometime, hoofing it down the field is the right thing to do. The only thing that I had a consistent concern about was the left side, the entire back like played well, but the LB was often playing to in leaving that side open to runs.

I think the organisation is just due to an actual full preseason with Nelson actually coaching. We haven't had a proper full preseason in a while, and it makes a difference. Last season we didn't really have a preseason at all and signed a load of last minute players to make up the roster.

[MartinUtd]

This is up there with Conway tackling Lenhart as my favourite TFC screenshot

[Gilberto9]

3) A packed 112...quite frankly, there were very few other places that I would rather have been on Earth than in 112 yesterday.

Let the good times roll!

The entire south end was over capacity, lol. It was great, by far the best TFC matchday I've ever experienced.

[ag futbol]

We were BRILLIANT going forward but against a better side we would have been punished....Osorio was a liability defensively...he seemed AFRAID of putting in a tackle...and the giveaways by almost EVERYBODY, including Bradley were terrible.....Hopefully Orr will be an upgrade of Bloom at RB....For me the Man of the Match would be Morrow, Caldwell or Henry...all played solid games...

Sometimes good defending isn't immediately launching into a tackle. Slowing down an attacker and allowing the team to regain its shape is often more effective.

As exhibit 1, I would point to macro pappa last week on TFC's first goal. If he had simply marked Osorio rather than rushed in on the challenge he would have neutralized the threat. Instead he jumped in and got burned.

[Shakes McQueen]

Sometimes good defending isn't immediately launching into a tackle. Slowing down an attacker and allowing the team to regain its shape is often more effective.

Yep. Defensive gap that eventually led to the Dempsey goal last week, was caused by an ill timed tackle attempt by Henry (I believe).

- Scott

[burlington Red]

team did ok in poor conditions. Henry looked good again, Jackson was poor, that's 2 in a row he has been poor in, I'm all for giving people a chance but he'd need to start getting his act together quickly.Neither Gilberto or Defoe are fully 100% match fit yet, but you could see right away they will definetly gel with each other. Backline looked solid again, but those long balls in the air to Defoe, Gilberto and even Dero when he came on are a waste. All in all good showing, I think DC had one decent shot on goal. Pitch looked poor, don't we have underground heating

[Shakes McQueen]

I really don't think Jackson is, or was, as bad as some of you are making him out to be. He made a few bad decisions, and had a couple of awful crosses, but he wasn't the only one.

- Scott

[snowcrash]

If you think Bradley's cut looks bad, you should see the other guy.

[pdubs]

Jackson was involved in a lot of the scoring chances we had. Was linking up well with Gilberto. His cross he skied was do to the horrible ground, just like Defoe's wayward shot at the end. Like to see better dribbling from Jackson. The elbow was just bad should be suspended. Overall tho I like what Jackson is bringing us. Different look from Rey.

[RealG-TFC]

Jackson was involved in a lot of the scoring chances we had. Was linking up well with Gilberto. His cross he skied was do to the horrible ground, just like Defoe's wayward shot at the end. Like to see better dribbling from Jackson. The elbow was just bad should be suspended. Overall tho I like what Jackson is bringing us. Different look from Rey.

Agreed. He brings an edge to this team that I think gets overlooked.

[ManUtd4ever]

Jackson has put up some fairly impressive numbers in this league, and he's still relatively young. I think his impact in the offensive third of the pitch will be realized as he gets more comfortable with this team. However, it's his attention to detail on the defensive end that has impressed me thus far. He finds ways to contribute even if it's not on the scoreboard.

The flagrant elbow was ill advised and careless, and he'll likely be reprimanded for it, but that unfortunately comes with the territory with him. If he can stay disciplined though, he can be an integral part of our club moving forward.

[Auzzy]

Regarding the pitch surface:
I think it could have been maintained better despite the harsh winter. In fact, if they had put a bubble over it and let people play on it during the off-season, it would likely be in much better shape than it is now. I really hope the grounds folks can improve it quickly because this is not the sort of surface we want our million dollar players running around on.

I don't think you can put a bubble over natural grass, even during the winter. If you're trying to keep the grass active & growing over the winter, you would need a huge amount of artificial light, heat, air circulation, etc., and I doubt you could have people playing on it. It's very hard to grow a large area of hardy grass indoors. Stadiums with full or partial roofs have trouble with that.

I think it makes more sense to let the grass go dormant over the winter which it naturally does. In a year like this, they would perhaps need to warm it up earlier to get it defrosted & start growing again, and probably they need a bunch of grow lights to help it grow & dry up earlier. (Those are used in many stadiums especially if there is bad weather, or shading from partial roofs.)

I hate to say it, but hybrid turf would probably help a great deal. Perhaps it's a necessity if we will regularly be playing games in March & November. Consider also if they switch to grass in Rogers Centre, it would probably no longer work for footy either. (The stands won't be movable/configurable for that field size anymore.) So Rogers Centre, as much as many of us hate it, would no longer be a fallback for early-season MLS games, on CCL, as was the case in the past few years. I just wish we could get hybrid turf w/o the Argos...

[Shakes McQueen]

Jackson has put up some fairly impressive numbers in this league, and he's still relatively young. I think his impact in the offensive third of the pitch will be realized as he gets more comfortable with this team. However, it's his attention to detail on the defensive that has impressed me thus far. He finds ways to contribute even if it's not on the scoreboard.

The flagrant elbow was ill advised and careless, and he'll likely be reprimanded for it, but that unfortunately comes with the territory with him. If he can stay disciplined though, he can be an integral part of our club moving forward.

Jackson is apparently good for 1-2 red cards every season, according to fans of his previous team.

- Scott

[Milanista]

I was impressed by pretty much the entire team, each player is simply very good. But Gilberto stood out for me bc i didn't know what to expect…He was quick, he tracked back, won balls, made some nice passes…he should be a very good MLS player for us

[jloome]

This is up there with Conway tackling Lenhart as my favourite TFC screenshot

For the second straight week, Football365.com (Sky sports' owned) has a Defoe story. Site doesn't normally cover MLS.

[Gilberto9]

Offensively, Jackson reminds me of lesser version of John Bostock. Lots of dribbling and holding onto the ball too long. I'm sure it will improve soon with the team developing chemistry. He's pretty decent in defending situations. Looks as if he's more of a wing back than a winger.