Signing Ricketts puts Vanney in an interesting position now. He has been training with us for 2 months so he should be ready to play this match, if not the whole 90 minutes. But Altidore should also get some playing time, and Hamilton has proven himself capable.
Giovinco starts, obviously. If we play with 2 strikers, I guess you'd have to start Hamilton. I don't think a Giovinco-Ricketts partnership would work at all. So that means Altidore would come in for Hamilton at some point in the 2nd half, but then Ricketts doesn't really fit anywhere. I really don't want to be playing Ricketts at RM or LM, that's the same mistake we made with Oduro all over again.
Wouldn't surprise me to a see a 4-3-3 for this then, or maybe we switch to it if Ricketts is coming off the bench. Giovinco at LW, Ricketts at RW, Hamilton/Altidore at ST.
--------Gio-------Hamilton------
---Oso----Endo-----Ricketts----
--------------Cheyrou------------
Morrow--Moor---Williams---Biet---
---------------Bono---------------
Bench: Q, Alti, Hag, Chapman, Delgado, babouli
OR
----Gio----Hamilton-----Babouli--
-----Oso-----Endo-----Ricketts---
------------Cheyrou------------
---Morrow-----Moor------Biet---
--------------Roberts-------------
Last edited by GhostKiller; 07-20-2016 at 04:02 PM.
A set up with both Seba and Osorio on the same side is a disaster defensively. DCU likes to cross the ball - heck its their only real offensive tactic.
I'd like to see the 4-3-3 reemerge with Ricketts signed. Roberts; Beita, Zavs, Moor, Morrow; Cheyrou, Delgado, Chapman; Giovinco, Hamilton, Ricketts
Maybe put Endoh in for Ricketts / Osorio for Chapman
I don't think we can just throw Ricketts into the lineup even with the practice time. He hasn't earned that; I get no sense he was signed to start right away, and it sends a poor message to the other players to hand him a starting slot.
This is a big 3 points that we need to put away. Our all time record against DC is 8W-12L-4D 28GF 41GA, the last five games are 2W-2L-1D 4GF 6GA. We have to find a way to bury our chances. They haven't been able to score much either so if we can keep a tight back line 1 goal should do the trick.
Unless you've been spending time watching TFC practice I don't think I could disagree with you more.
Game time is always earned in practice. Period. If he's the best man consistently in practice then he gets the start. And it sends the right message to everyone that it should. What you do on the practice field should 100% translate to playing time. Imagine the message it would send if guys didn't take practice seriously but still got playing time.
Yes we're talking about practice man. Practice.
^^^^
Game time is not determined by practice alone, its gets your foot in the door but its your performance in a game situation that keeps you there.
More to the point, it doesn't really matter how well Ricketts does in practice, because the people already ahead of him have to do worse, first. If they're practicing well, and we have no reason to assume they aren't, they can't just take someone's starting spot away, unless they're already on the bubble.
Of course if we switch to 433 all bets are off, as we don't really have the healthy bodies NOT to play him in that situation. We have no one else up top with speed other than Giovinco or Babouli, and the latter hasn't scored a goal or gotten more than a shot or two off.
Hmm...Jimmy Brennan nite might be overtaken by Pokemon Go shenanigans.
The Return of the Altidore
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/torontofc/status/756169778239311872
Last edited by OgtheDim; 07-21-2016 at 12:07 PM.
There it is... eventually 4-3-3?
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/JohnMolinaro/status/756170126106370048
it sure sounds like he is on pins and needles when it comes to Jozy.
Got a group going in 205. Should be able to drown out the 7-8 DC fans.
I'm not going to pretend I know every teams starting 11 because I follow EPL way more avidly than MLS (and I recommend those who don't start to as it's way more entertaining) but surely Osorio isn't the worst starter in the entire league, I'd imagine the bottom feeder teams are filled with Oso's. Was as much a critique of TFC as MLS, until they raise the salary cap this league will continue to be a joke in the eyes of Europe and many if not most of North Americans as well. It's just the sad reality.
I still love watching TFC games, but for all the Garber talk of making this one of the best leagues in the world he sounds ridiculous were not even close to Liga MX and the quality will only keep stagnating once they bring in more teams to the league.
Last edited by AFCB+TFC; 07-21-2016 at 01:19 PM. Reason: formatting
Disagreed. The quality of players in the league keep going up despite recent bunch of expansion teams. Imported int talents and youth academies now cranking out domestic players seems to keep the quality of leagues going up. If you see USL and NASL rosters, you'd see a lot of ex MLSers on those rosters, players who would have been playing in MLS 2-3 yrs ago.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
It is good to see academies cranking out MLS quality players and I agree the quality of the league has increased since I started watching in the Defoe season, but the growth would be significantly better without us bring out in Miami, Minnesota and LAFC into the league in the near future. I realize that the salary cap is here to stay for the time being but I think they need to take a loan and up it significantly to attract better players that aren't DP's. If soccer really is the fastest growing sport in America this shouldn't be a problem.
I posted a thread in my Bournemouth forum that people should check out MLS in the off-season after the Euros if they need a soccer fix and got laughed at. The truth is I doubt any MLS team would get promoted from League 1 in England due to poor depth and poor technical skills. To me the although I love it, the league is overrated. I mean for Christ's sake Toronto FC and AFC Bournemouth have the same 3.5 star rating in Fifa 16 and we all know we'd lose about 8-1 over two legs to them. I might be sounding overly harsh on the league but it's because I want it to be a respectable league in the next 5 years and on the current projection that is not going to happen.
Last edited by AFCB+TFC; 07-21-2016 at 01:30 PM. Reason: Paragraphs
Well don't get me started on supporters of a team that spent the vast majority of its existence in Div 3-4 talking down to MLS.
[tangent]
Hype over local vibe.
This is our house, our team, our passion.
Game thread for a hot and hazy experience on a Saturday night with a full house. Clapping, singing, drinking, shouting, yelling, moaning....supporting the local team.
Is it the best football?
No.
But its all ours.
Roll on Saturday night...
[/tangent]
Last edited by OgtheDim; 07-21-2016 at 01:39 PM.
If Seba did a little more work off the ball and we brought in Edwards, we'd be a really good 4-3-3 team for a number of reasons...
1. We'd be able to field a midfield three of Cheyrou, Johnson and Bradley. We'd probably get the best out of Oso and Chapman as well as shuttling creative players.
2. Other than maybe Seba, we'd have everyone playing in the preferred positions.
3. Our front 3 would be a good mix of direct pacy wingers (Edwards, Ricketts), creative wide players (Babouli, Endoh and Seba) and no. 9s (Altidore and Hamilton).
4. We'd have a much better defensive block as a 4-5-1 instead of diamond that can be easily stretched if the shuttlers aren't Johnson or Delgado.
Given that Seba has had problems scoring in the FW position, maybe it's best to push him out wide to get him more space and tell him to increase his workload defensively.
Last edited by PopePouri; 07-21-2016 at 01:47 PM.
I don't know if you ever watched MLS from 2008-2010 era (the beginning of MLS 2.0 era) in comparison, MLS made leaps and bounds in quality of the league, certainly unprecedented among other leagues in the world, maybe except China. And even in China, it has a strict foreigner limit, but clubs (driven by the Chinese govt) is spending tons of money into infrastructure and youths, same thing MLS is doing now.
MLS is available in UK and Europe on TV. Slowly but surely, there is a minority that does watch MLS and with more TV exposure, it's going to gain more audience. Those that just watch EPL and ignore other leagues, well, so much you can do to convince their minds.
I'm ok with the methodical and steady rise of quality of MLS, without the crazy financial risks.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Well I pointed out the hypocrisy of a team who's spent the vast majority of its years in L1 and L2 talking down to MLS. However, it's not like MLS is any better than L1 where they've seen the majority of their years. I watched AFCB play Portsmouth in a cup game last season and Portsmouth moved the ball better than any MLS team I've ever seen. This is a club vying for promotion from L2 at the time and ultimately failed at that. Yes I know it's our league and it will forever be close to my heart for that, perhaps I'd be less frustrated if I lived in Toronto and could attend the games, I'm sure I wouldn't mind the quality of play as much then. I just find it frustrating seeing Champions League talent like Giovinco have to lay the ball off to guys like Oso, Endoh and Delgado who could very possibly be playing in the f'ing Conference if they were English. Anyways rant over.