Knight: Tired, Flat, Careless
Knight: Tired, Flat, Careless
The left fullback and the goaltender.
Essentially, that's how Toronto FC started. Two Canadian internationals, left fullback Jim Brennan and goaltender Greg Sutton. Both have been desperately important to the MLS expansion franchise throughout its first two seasons.
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Excellent article and its pretty much what everyone is complaining about in this forum. Im think Mo johnston is good at scouting good talent, but the "turf monster" has to have some play in it as well.
I say this if we do not get real grass for our home field or training field next year no Dp great will be coming and I do not think a player that get pay 500k is a dp. A dp good is one who gets paid over 1millon and a great one would get paid 3.5 millon
Uh oh ... I guess Ben Knight is going to get banned from posting here.
He's being negative about Mo Johnston and John Carver.
Mods ... take care of this nonsensical thread and make sure its creator gets the death penalty.
Pretty much spot on. Although I have a higher opinion of Wynne and a lesser opinion of Sutton.
Mo played a waiting game through the off-season and training camp, and it cost us dearly.
Soccer is a team game. The better teams have rosters where the core have played together for years. We can't be that, as a second year team, but it's all the more reason not to throw training camp away.
Guevara, Robert, Ricketts were all brought in after the season had started. It looked to me like all we practiced were set pieces, and for a few games it worked, as we took points at LA and at home vs RSL, KC and NY via dead ball plays. But once teams adjusted and we weren't getting those goals....this is the part that Carver needs to wear. We have never, not once this year, shown any ability to make mid game adjustments that work.
I actually think our talent level is similar to that of everyone elses. Once they got here, and when they're available.
But we've never had any cohesiveness, and it's all the difference.
(Sidebar: the one other thing that really also screwed the team up was the need to keep playing Edu, even though (i) he wasn't giving full effort for fear of injury that would screw up his transfer, and (ii) it caused us to play only one striker for most of the first half of the season. I'm mad about it, but I don't know what I think about this as it relates to what I would have done differently. I do know I'm furious with MLSE/Anselmi for pouring cold water on the "grass" effort, which is where the Edu transfer fee should be spent.)
Last edited by ensco; 09-22-2008 at 06:52 AM.
Excellent Article.
Yeah, it kind of feels like supporting a farm team, why AHL teams have such trouble in Canada. The best players get called up to the 'big team,' for the playoffs.Originally Posted by ensco
I think there may be more good young talent on this team than the article gives credit for - the problem is with this salary cap, what's the point of developing good young talent that you won't be able to keep and then you can't even spend the money you make selling them on more players?
This league wants to be the NFL, they want the future to be in drafting NCAA players (which really would be the best way to market the league in the USA past the hard-core soccer fans to a broader base) and if that was really working then TFC really would be the best in the league. But even if that does work, it's years and years away.
What is his blog address?
There's a big difference, Ben calls it both ways. He doesn't just troll around & be consistently negative about everything.
BTW.......Good article Ben, you feel the same way as most supporters.
RPB Road Warrior. DC United 9/29/07, Columbus Chaos 3/25/08, DC Rumble 5/24/08, Montreal Madness 5/27/08, Chicago 7/12/08, Kansas City Opener 3/21/09, Columbus Smoke 3/28/09, Boston Bus Bounce 8/1/09, Montreal 1000 4/7/12 Montreal 3200 3/16/2013 Columbus Bus Breakdown 3/21/15, Montreal Playoffs 10/29/15, Montreal Opener 04/23/16, Montreal East Final 11/22/16, Chicago 08/19/17, NY Semi-Final 10/30/17, Columbus East Final 11/21/17, Montreal "Dichio Lives" 3/17/18
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Great read! I do however think that Velez has been very consistent and deserves more credit.
Consistently bad that is
Yes, but again, if Mo could have brought all his first choice guys in, instead of losing 7 of them because of the turf (seven as the number given by Gerry Dobson in his blog a little while ago -- that number includes O'Brien and Huckerby), then we might be seeing a completely different team right now.
WE NEED GRASS OR THE TEAM WILL ALWAYS SUCK.
It's as simple as that.
Wrong. It's as simple as Mo actually closing some deals once in a while. It's really a joke that some of you believe this grass excuse as the sole purpose why people don't sign here. Did you hear what Huckerby said the other day in an interview? "I chose San Jose because Yallop has a good track record". Does that tell you something? maybe he simply doesn't like Carver!!
Well there's always going to be some excuses. Closing the deal is never "simple." Some guys will like some coaches and not others, some guys will play on turf others won't. Some guys will be happy living in Toronto, others won't - or their wives and family won't - how many guys on this board would move to another city - closer to home - for the same salary they have here?
But that's exactly my point. There will always be reasons why people don't sign here, the same as any other city. There are other city's that play on turf and are above us in the league standings. At the end of the day, GM's should be judged based on the team they come up with each and every season. This is the best Mo could come up with, so we can't sit here and say If Mo had his dream players this team would be in first, because in reality, if Mo had his dream players we would take this team to the Fifa World Cup and beat a top EPL team while we're at it. We suck this year because of alot of reasons, just stick and tired of hearing that we suck because we don't have a grass.
Yes, we're all sick and tired of hearing the same reasons over and over, but some of them are true and need to be eliminated.
The team won't always be an expansion team - it won't always be an unknown quantity to players and agents. The Edu deal will go a long way towards convincing agents to let their young talent sign here.
As the team becomes more established it will also be able to attract more established managers and coaches.
Getting real grass will help.
All this will happen. We want it now. Some of it we can have now, some of it takes time.
Putting in grass is easy and should be done now. It just takes money and there's no salary cap on stadium expenditures, so that's what we're lobbying for now. We can complain all we want about managers and coaches and players but really, this is the best we can get right now - look at the guys that have turned us down and there have been plenty more that have just said no sooner so it didn't even become rumours. That will change in time, but let's not kid ourselves that it's "simple,: or can be done right away.
So, we'll continue to bitch about the team not winning until it does win and then we'll complain it's winning by playing boring football. It's what we do.
He is rigth, for the most part. I think we have more usefull players but 1/3 of the roster at least can go.
And it will. No one expected a complete roster this soon did they?
i think Paul Hendren commment on the blog is correct, if Sutton hadn't tossed out that lame ball, a tie with chivas would have up our confidence and we'd be sitting in different position possibly still fighting for a play-off spot... there's always next year and hopefully this year, many will not renew and I can buy more a few more ... bahahha
ps how true beach... complaining is what we do
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