After scouring twitter, I see that there are no confirmed injuries/absences, just vague "sources". Could be a raft of injuries or could just be an attempt to get Leon to field a weak team against us...I guess we'll find out in a few hours!
Edit: Now I see an article in the Sun with this quote: "Toronto FC coach Chris Armas admitted in a Zoom call on Tuesday that some of his players will not be available for Wednesday’s match." No news on which players, but knowing our luck, almost definitely Poz. However, I note it does not say "not available due to injury".
Last edited by Graeme; 04-07-2021 at 10:53 AM. Reason: New info!
These are the average bookie lines at this hour:
Club Leon - Toronto FC
1 = -204
X = +315
2 = +505
Not encouraging... at all.
Meaning that bookmakers are seeing TFC like a huge underdog.
Cruz Azul who is in first place in the Mexican league right now tied a club team from Haiti, who Hamilton’s Forge FC should have beaten and it would have been Forge playing Cruz Azul last night , anyways Cruz Azul tied the Haitian club team 0-0 in the first leg of their Champions League two game series . Therefore, if a Haitian team can get a result against a the top team in Mexico I think there is hope for TFC in this game .
We signed Luke Singh to a short term deal for tonight.
https://twitter.com/joshuakloke/stat...661089792?s=20
I don’t know what to do here.
We are a vagrant team that had a Covid outbreak wreck training camp, we are missing Poz and Oso, we are playing a Liga MX team at altitude...
Am I really supposed to spend six bucks to watch us lose 6-0?
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
My hopeful prediction is we park the bus and get a goal via penalty from some Laryea concafing. 3-1 Leon.
Yeah this match is only for the diehards if that. I ponied up the $9.99 for the month. But in reality how many in Toronto actually know this game is being played. As you said there is little value for the networks to show events like this. Heck if TSN has kept the game it would be up against the Leafs Habs tonight. Hopefully this is not a total blow out.
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
The CCL should be available on fox sports 1 for those that have the means to get it
It is listed as available at:
https://www.usagoals.net/portal.html
Bono front and centre in the new match preview posted on instagram. Guess he's the starter over Westberg
Yes, you are.
Last edited by FootBallAZ; 04-07-2021 at 01:55 PM. Reason: edited.
New coach, system and a boatload of injuries leading into the first game of the season has the bar set pretty low. Curious to see how seriously the game is taken and if the club still has ambitions for CCL or treating it like an intense pre-season. What's our best 11 here given the injuries and desire to press? Do we see the forward destroyer Bradley that's been hinted? Do the kids get much runway?
Bono?
Auro - Gonzalez - Mavinga - Morrow
Delgado - Fraser
Laryea - Bradley - Gallardo
Jozy
Maybe Nelson on the left with Gallardo on the right and Auro/Laryea at LB/RB? I guess we don't know if Deleon is in the dog house after his covid commentary. Does Endoh's work rate get him more of a look with this system? Priso/Fraser and Perruzza/Mulinho could be interesting battles for minutes.
Really just hoping this isn't like the Independiente disaster and we actually get some building blocks for the rest of the year coming out of this one.
Good thing is Leon knows as little as we do at this point!
Mullinho scores 4, TFC wins 4-3.
Based on who got individual/duo shots is in the pre-game video
Bono
Laryea-Zavaleta-Omar-Auro
Gallardo-Bradley-Fraser-Okello
Jozy-Mullins
Subs based on being in the background: Singh, DeLeon, Delgado, Dorsey
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/i/status/1379856504480788487
Last edited by rydermike; 04-07-2021 at 02:37 PM.
Has there been any indication of who had Covid-19? We know that some players and staff were affected. Yes they had to quarantine but who actually had Covid? If any players did it could be a long time before they're fit enough to run 90 minutes or even 30 minutes at altitude.
I am really thinking we will see at least some of the kids tonight. We all know what happened against Independiente, Griffin Dorsey played, Jacob played and even Duante Campbell was on the bench. I still don't understand when one of these short term deals in required and when it is not. Random TFC II players like Brian James, Malik Johnson, Kyle Bjourthen have popped up in the 18 for Canadian Championship and CCL games. For some you can not even find a transaction for them. This group of kids the Reds have now is night and day compared to what has been with the club in the past. Would be great to see Jordan get a run out, he does have the instinct.
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
From what was stated last night, KJ is in the pre/halftime/post game slots for discussions - what he did with TSN.
Excited to see a game tonight. No expectations of a result - the tie could be done by the end of this game, to be honest.
If we do get pummeled tonight, Twitter will be sooooo excited since it will likely be TFC II against Leon next week.
A lot of TFC twitter still wonders why we don't resign Giovinco sooooo.........
I think this is 2 games of "play your kids" along with some vets to get a handle on the playing style and if happen to get to the last 30 minutes still in with a shout, fine.
Outside of the diehards , how many people in the city even know the Reds are playing tonight and its not like they are randomly going to stumble upon it flipping the channels with it being on One Soccer. Has TFC even sent out an email say where the game is being shown tonight to STH etc?
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
I feel like casual interest in TFC is gone. Look at the Twitter comments lately, it is basically just Leon fans bantering.
Wheeler is a print guy who has diversified for practical reasons. He started freelancing with the Sun chain when I was still there. He just loves soccer and wants to cover it, so I don't blame him. But he's not a natural broadcaster.
Print guys who survive in soccer do it by being realllly good at it, like Neil, Steve Goff, a handful of others. Most are also good at long-form feature writing, and soccer is often relegated to that sort of space rather than heading the breaking news slots, so it fits.
He's good for the game here. He's a lot better than he was when he started out, so he's working on his skillset. Most of the time these days in journalism that's about what you're going to get.
Good news about Kristian Jack, though. Hardworking, likeable dude apparently, with great sources. I don't think I've ever talked to him but my memory ain't what it was. I did a few of the radio shows when I was still column-n-nizing, so it's possible.
I don't think Jeff Bradley was ever a breaking news guy. He was a feature writer at SI and other mags, that I recall. So he's probably never run a daily news cycle, doesn't understand the difference in assingning daily and generally covering a beat, as you might at a weekly or monthly. It's much, much more work to generate buzz than people realize. You need multiple staff working narrative (story) angles every day, new ones every day. You need to have drive to make the content talked about and relevant.
It's a crazy job when it's done right. I was the Sun's city editor in Edmonton before they laid off all the staff and went from "sensationalized" to "right-wing propaganda". When I took over the city desk, we had 18 daily reporters and three bureaus, and on an average day I would assign and juggle about a hundred different or new angles to have the reporters produce about 30 stories. Of those, about one-third were just "breaking" news, important daily events. But to get ahead, it was the two-thirds we had to think up daily that made the difference. We did very well before the cuts, circulation rising steadily, even beating the Journal some weekends, with half the staff and story space.
And that's basically how PR works in a nutshell: generate buzz, generate exposure, give them new 'value added' content.
So believe me, if they wanted to be a big game in town in terms of buzz, it is possible. But it takes someone with a rare insanity to pull it off, and there's a high burnout factor. You can run a top PR/story generating team for five years but much more than that and efficacy plummets somewhat.
I have a bad feeling from the last couple of Armas/Bradley interviews. The one today on mlssoccer.com, Armas expresses himself so poorly you could easily interpret what he and Michael are saying as the team has not totally bought into what he's selling.
He has a nervous energy to him, and Vanney was basically Joe Kool. I'm a little worried that regardless of his ideas, he seems excitable without the 'commanding' part, like he's worried what people think of him. I dunno, I might be reading it wrong, but that usually doesn't bode well. I got the same sense from John Carver, who has never made it back to management. He as been an assistant coach -- apparently very good at on field technique but not striking the right locker room tone -- his entire career. Also a former player.
Some former players have that commanding edge, that "you may not like me, but you'll respect me and what I'm teaching you side." Even Vanney had it, albeit in a more subdued, polite sort of way.