The shoe finally drops at TFC



Mo Johnston and Preki were fired on Tuesday



When it was announced that TFC executive vice president and chief operating officer Tom Anselmi had called a news conference for Tuesday afternoon people knew someone was out of a job. After the team's worst performance of the season against DC United at BMO field in do or die game, Anselmi clearly had seen enough. On Tuesday director of soccer operations Mo Johnston and head coach Preki were fired and assistant coach and former Canadian international Nick Dasovic was installed at interim head coach.

At the press conference Anselmi stated that “At the end of the day, it’s a results-oriented business, and the results just weren’t there. “It hasn’t worked, it just hasn’t worked and so we’re moving on,”

For supporters of the club neither move was all that surprising specially considering the fading hopes of making the team playoffs. However what might have caught some people of guard was the timing, with 6 games left in the regular season many (including myself) thought that the club would make this move in the off season. Johnston had always stated that if the team failed to make the playoffs this year he was gone, but with the team still in the hunt for the 8th and final playoff spot some have seen it as a reactionary move. The very vocal south end supporters made it clear on Saturday that they were fed up with the mediocre play for the squad chanting “We not going to take it” a verse from the 80's Twisted Sister song. It was first time that the discontent among the fans was so boisterous in the 4 years of the club's existence, it seemed ownership shared their view.

The rumours of Johnston and Preki's demise first started up after the Chicago loss on Wednesday, after it had been leaked that Preki and assistant coach Dasovic had a verbal dust up over tactics a few week earlier. The other coaches were called into a meeting with the brass in which they questioned Preki's knowledge around tactical game planning, and expressed that fact that Preki was difficult to work with. The rumour mill went into overdrive on Saturday when Dasovic was nowhere to be found, subsequently we learned that he had flown to his home in Vancouver.

Although Johnston had been with the club since inception in 2007, his record is one of disappointment and failure right from the beginning. Whether it be poor coaching decisions and roster selection in the first season to ill advised signings like Pablo Vitti, Laurent Blanc, Carlos Ruiz, Ronnie O'Brian, Raivis Hscanovics etc.... Johnston has failed to bring quality to the side while also over paying for players. The club is up against the salary cap and is very thin in terms of squad selection. It will be very difficult for his successor to shed the payroll of some of these contacts.

As for Preki, he becomes another TFC coaching causality as the carousel of head coaches continues. Dasovic becomes the 5th head coach of the club in 4 seasons.

I stated in my last TFC post that I thought Preki should remain head coach as he had improved the club defensively and brought about a better work rate, I also believed just for stability sake he would be retained. However work rate and defensive football does not equal goals. It has been the Achilles heel for this club since 2007 and they are currently on a 4 match goal less streak. There also comes the question of his attitude and at time bombastic nature around the players. Saturday is was made clear that Preki had lost the players. It has been long known that DP Julian De Guzman had questioned the lack of tactical knowledge and planning of Preki, and recently other members of the squad has begun to question their treatment by the head coach. When this happens then its clear that the manger has to go.

Make no mistake in most cases players get coaches fired, and TFC's squad is not innocent of this. However it was also clear that Preki had little grasp on how to plan an offensive attack.

So as in my last post I pose the question, where does TFC go from here?

Tom Anslemi believes the season is not completely lost yet, “Short-term we’ve got six games left in the regular season of MLS. The players play up to their potential, we believe we can still make the playoffs.

“Longer term we came to the conclusion that we needed new leadership for this club on the pitch, so the search for a new manager begins today.”

At this point Toronto FC fans would just settle for stability and some winning soccer.

Cheers,
Mike

Two Berbatov Videos

Just added two videos highlighting the skills of Dimitar Berbatov, the first video is from a few years ago against West Ham, when he torches the defender on the goal line. The second is the recent demolishing on the same West Ham side in which Berbatov scores a fantastic goal. Forgive the second video with the K'naan waivin' flag song, but it was the only highlight reel I could find.

Enjoy,
Mike

Changes needed at BMO Field Part 1

For anyone who watched TFC's lacklustre loss to DC United on Saturday afternoon you could tell that something was off, broken if you will. Put aside the fact that the Reds lost to the worst team in the league, or that they dropped more important playoff points; The most disappointing thing about Saturday and even back to Wednesday night against Chicago is that you realized this team is just not good enough. The quality on the pitch is just not there and when you look at the players available for selection there really isn't any match winners on the squad, and I would even throw Dwayne De Rosario in that mix.

I should point out that I'm not questioning the team's work rate as I do believe that they play hard for Preki and they put forth a good effort, however a team with an excellent work rate and no quality goes nowhere. For myself the low was on Wednesday night, for a lack of a better term the squad was god awful in the final third of the field. Should TFC have been awarded 2 penalties in the first half? probably yes, but it does not excuse the fact that at no point in the game did they really look at a threat to score. The work rate during the game was there, but there seemed to be a disconnect between the players. It's not the first time there has been a breakdown in team chemistry, at the beginning of the season the squad had a hard time gelling. However it's now September and we have less than a month left in the season and squad look as lost as they did in April, something needs to change...

So where does the responsibility lay? The easiest place to start is the coach, Preki was brought in to make the playoffs plain and simple. At the end of last season after the club's most humiliating loss to the Henry, Marquezless bottom of the league feeding New York Red Bull 5-0 the club embarked on a mission the find a MLS experienced disciplined manager. The statement made was clear 2010 was expected to be a playoff year. At Preki's hiring news conference, he warned that the club would take time to develop under him, but that the goal was the playoffs.

So is he the man that should bare the brunt of the blame? No of course not.

The club has improved by leaps and bounds in the defensive department since his appointment. Consider last year that the team leaked goals all over the place especially in the last 15 minutes of games, this season they have only allowed 5 goals in the final 15. He has also improved the fitness and work rate of the club as mentioned above. TFC in the past have been criticized for not always fighting as hard as they should during tough matches. For the most part this season TFC have been the harder working team on the pitch which in turn helped the team on the 11 match unbeaten streak earlier this summer. Preki has also been able to work in some of the young players to the first team in cup matches. This will go a long way in improving the squad for the future.

With all that said Preki has been unable to help improve the team's biggest issue which is goal scoring. It's hard to lay this on at his feet but as the manager he needs to put out his best attacking players and place them in positions to create chances and score. At times he has failed to do this and it leaves the club in the position they're in now, struggling to finds important goals in important games.

With that said I believe Preki should stay as head coach. I believe that he will lead TFC to the playoffs but he needs better pieces to work with in order to accomplish this, which leads us to the guilty party.

General Manager Mo Johnston has been with the club since it's inception in 2007 and since then he has been responsible for bringing in players for the squad. Johnston has also from the beginning brought in low quality players to fill roster space, and then paying they way too much. TFC are currently brushing up near the salary cap, which wouldn't such a big deal but considering the lack of quality compared to their salaries and it has become a bit of an albatross for the club.

Mo Johnston has been in charge of TFC since 2007

The blame has to rest on his shoulders, he built this team, he offered and approved the contracts (Though MLSE brass also shares some blame as well). During the same Preki hiring press conference, Johnston stated that if the team did not make the playoffs he would resign from the club. As it stands right now TFC still have a shot of making it, but their destiny is now out of their hands as they must rely on other teams dropping points to have a chance. Realistically it is hard to see them taking the final playoff spot so as far as I'm concerned trader Mo is gone, provided he's a man of his word.

In the 4 years of TFC 's existence, he has not improved either the quality of the squad or it's results. Now much of that goes to the players, but it's the GM that signs them in the first place. He's brought in poor players, out shape players, bad apples and bench warmers.

I can't knock every signing though, De Rosario, Amado Guevara and drafting Stephan Frei were positive signings, but even signing Julian De Guzman as the first club designated player has not been the best of deals. De Guzman has has flashes of brilliant play mixed in with some serious inconsistency. Mista's signing as the second DP is still a work in progress, but with signs that he's already butted heads with Preki in the locker room do not look good.

At the end of the season, the TFC brass will have to take a good hard look at where this team is going and why it has failed to make a serious impact in the league. Every position in the organization has to be evaluated and I hate to say it...people will lose their jobs. The person that should be at the top of that list is Mo Johnston, the club needs fresh ideas on player recruitment and development and Mo just cannot provide that. I've met Mo on a few occasions in press scrums and he is a very nice man approachable man, which is why it will be difficult to see him leave as he truly has TFC's best interests at heart. However even Mo will agree that he may just be fresh out of ideas.

Cheers,
Mike

Canada drops friendly aganist Peru 2-0

Even with kick off moments away, BMO Field stood half empty as the Canadian Mens national team took on Peru in friendly competition, although it should be noted that Toronto sports fan are notoriously late when showing up for matches. Both small sets of supporters though were in good voice as the game kicked off.

For Canada this was in earnest the start of their Mission: 2014 Campaign. In December the Canadian Soccer Association announced a series a upcoming friendlies against higher levelled opponents in order to better prepare the team of Gold Cup and World Cup qualifying. After the disappointing turn of events during World Cup 2010 qualifying, the CSA determined that one of the factors that led to the poor form was a lack of match sharpness due to a lack of matches played together.

From the start of the game Canada controlled most of the possession and were the team driving forward, however Peru were dangerous with quick counter attacks and created more direct chances on goal. Juan Manuel Vargas was presented with the first good opportunity of the match when he thrashed his first time volley over the goal following a Jefferson Farfan cross into the box. Farfan continued to create problems as his pace and strength created another chance on goal though his shot was weak and saved easily by Lars Hirschfeld.

Canada looked lively on the ball with good exchange play, especially between Julian De Guzman and striker Rod Friend. This link up play almost resulted in a goal chance for Friend who attempted a deft flick over the shoulder of the Peruvian defender, however he was unable to find a way through. Over the past few weeks head coach Stephen Hart has been preaching a new passing philosophy in regards to the team's play. This new approach was on full display in the first half as the team kept the majority of position. However an old problem reappeared and that was an inability to find the killer ball in the final third of the field. Even with 2009 Canadian player of the year Simeon Jackson providing a goal threat on the right side, the squad never really looked like scoring. As the half ended and the rain began to come down you began to wonder where the goals were going to come from.

In short the goals were going to come from Peru who in the second half started to show their class over the hosts. Peru's quality of passing improved and the midfield's influence on the game grew, by the 60th minute the game was firmly in their control. As Canada's goal chances became slimmer it looked inevitable that Peru would find the break through. In the 68th minute Jose Carlos Fernandez headed Peru into the lead after Canada could not clear the back lines during a period of sustained pressure. Over half of announced crowd of 10,619 went wild as Peruvian supporters out numbered Canadian fans.

The pressure mounted on the hosts as the Peru controlled possession, and 4 minutes later Jean Tragodara doubled the South American's lead with a low well placed shot past a diving Hirschfeld.

As the game wound down, both sets of players looked short of full fitness as the game slowed to an almost unwatchable pace.

Stephan Hart in his post game press conference praised the visitors for their second half performance, “I liked how they played, how they adjusted in the second half”, he said. “ It's a quality team we played against. We learned some lessons today”.

In his assessment of his squad Hart was happy with the first 45 minutes, pointing out the improvement in Simeon Jackson's game. “ His time in England (Norwich City) has helped him a great deal, he'll only get better the more he plays”. However he acknowledged that “In the second half, we became careless with the ball and seemed to die physically; the Peruvians sped up their play.

Canada will have little time to rebound from the loss as they take on World Cup qualifiers Honduras on Tuesday in Montreal. Hart will also have to produce a result without some of his top players as he has sent Dwayne De Rosario, Julian De Guzman and Nana Attakora back to Toronto FC, and first choice left back Marcel De Jong to his German club due to injury.

Cheers,
Mike

An evening at the Camp Nou

Me in front of the Camp Nou

On August 25th 2010, yours truly went to cover a game at one of the most hallowed football grounds on the planet. I was at the Camp Nou in Barcelona to witness for myself what football was like in the capital of Catalunya. Before I go into the details of that wonderful evening, I have to explain how and why this night came to be.

Currently I'm writing for 90:00 Soccer Magazine based in California, over the past few months I've been sharing posts from this blog in their site. I've also written some exclusive content for their site and we have had a good relationship over the past few months. So when it came time for my vacation I knew I had the once and a life time opportunity to see the grandeur of the Camp Nou. So I got a bit greedy and asked the executive editors at 90:00 to see if they could get me a media pass for the game. As someone who is still relatively unknown in this business I never thought I'd be approved for the pass.

Well I'm glad to say I was very wrong!

The day of the match was one of the most hectic I've experienced in sometime. First, the day before the match I decided with some friends I had met in the hostel I was in that I would be going to La Tomatina in the town of Buñol, which is about 40 minutes outside of Valencia. Please note Valencia is about a 5 hour bus ride from Barcelona.

If you don't know what Tomatina is...well the simplest way to explain it is that Tomatina is a massive tomato fight through the center of Buñol. If you want more details click this link. Anyway to get there in time for the 11 am fight time, we had to leave Barcelona by 4 in the morning, so in short I didn't sleep Wednesday morning.

Tomatoey goodness!

I'll also keep the details of my Tomatina experience short, I had an amazing time, and I got covered in stinking tomato from head to toe. I got hosed off by a nice old Spanish women, but I still had the issue of getting back to Barca in time to catch kickoff. We left Buñol at 1:30 ish, which would not leave me much time to get in town and get to the stadium via metro. Also complicating things it was insanely hot in Spain, over 30 degrees, with humidity it felt well over 40 so I was sweating buckets.

By the time I got back to Barcelona I had about 45 minutes before kick off, but I was on the other side of town and I had to rely on the very hot metro. This left me sweaty, stinking and desperate to get to the club office in time to pick up my pass. When I got off the metro I had 15 minutes before kickoff, and began to run...didn't help the stinking or the sweating by the by. When I finally got to the FC Barcelona office to pick up my pass I had 10 minutes before kickoff, and I looked like I had just finished running a marathon.

But nothing was sweeter than opening that envelope and seeing that pass, it let me know I had arrived!


Once I got into the press box I had a beautiful view of the pitch, and I was just in time to see the players come out of the tunnel and the crowd of over 98,000 sing the club song. That moment was unbelievable, I was using a voice recorder to do match notes and listening to it now, the noise almost drowned me out. You could also feel the supporters love for the club and the game on almost every move or good play by both sides. It probably helped that the game was a friendly against AC Milan, and it was Ronaldinho's return to the Camp Nou since he left the club in 2008.

However you felt that this was an important game, that watching Barcelona was more than just watching a football match. As one person told me in the press box, watching the blaugrana at home not matter the size or meaning of the game was "Not just a casual outing for the family, but a way for people to converse about their love of the club and their love of Catalunya".

This historical aspect of the club is not lost in the stadium. If you take the tour you'll see many links to the Catalan struggle during the Franco era in Spain. Many older Barcelona fans talk about the fact that the stadium was the only place in Barcelona that the Catalan language could be openly spoken. The club's motto "Més que un club", meaning 'More than a club' was more than fit when speaking to these supporters.

As the game continued the stylish passing and play of Barcelona was winning the fans over, and the place at louder as the pace of the game picked up, especially after Pepo Inzaghi tied the game at 1-1 with a stunning volley goal. The chants of Barca! Barca! Barca! were near deafening.

Overall my experience at the Camp Nou was unbelievable, if you even are in Barcelona and have a chance to go to the stadium of either a tour or a game....especially a game THEN DO IT!!!!!!!

Cheers,
Mike