TFC Corner

With the world's soccer attention focused in South Africa I've been neglecting our Toronto FC. Granted MLS was on a world cup break for 3 weeks but TFC made their return to the pitch on Saturday against the Landon Donovan/Edson Buddle-less L.A Galaxy.

The last time we saw the Reds they were involved in a dower 0-0 draw with the Kansas City Wizards. This result brought TFC's unbeaten run to 8 games in which they have only conceded 4 goals. For a team that looked like they couldn't stop anyone from scoring at the beginning of the season, head coach Preki has moulded the team into one of the strongest defensive units in the league. However there was a slight concern that TFC could not wrap up what should have been 3 points against a woeful KC.

Saturday would prove to be a stiffer challenge as the Galaxy came to BMO Field with the best record in the league. What the 15,000 fans saw was another dower 0-0 draw which produced very few chances and sloppy play. Credit must be given to the Reds back four and keeper Stefan Frei who once again were strong when called upon. However there is now a concern that TFC is lacking a bit of a offensive spark upfront.

In training sessions Preki preaches the elements of two touch passes and quick movement of the ball in order to create openings in the defence. However this is not translating to the pitch on match days as at times the attacking play looks lost and punch less. Many including myself have been looking for Preki to play a formation closer to a 4-3-3 that would emphasise the attack. This in theory could be done with O'Brian While in the centre flanked by Chad Barrett and Dwayne De Rosario upfront.

This of course would fly in the face of Preki's desire to build a strong game plan from the back out, but he must realize that too many draws could be just as damaging to a playoff run as losses are.

Although the team is right up against the salary cap it might be time for TFC to look for a offensive DP player to help the team's attack and boost their playoff chances. Earlier this year I made a case for the signing of French star striker Thierry Henry. It seems now Henry is set to sign for conference rivals New York Red Bull, which would leave Toronto behind in the arms race so to speak. This obvious issue would be trying to convince a either aging or about to be aging football star to sign in Toronto. Some suggestions that with a large Portuguese population in Toronto, former Portugal international Nuno Gomes would be a fit with the club. I can only see a move for him as a positive, first it will help you on the field in regards to quality; but second and maybe most importantly he can help develop a young striker in O'Brian White who is still improving his link up play.

Now a move for Gomes is just wishful thinking on my behalf at this time, but TFC will have to address this issue at some point in the near future if it hopes to score more goals and qualify for the playoffs for the first time in club history.

Cheers,
Mike

Round of 16 thoughts so far

As I was out with family yesterday I only had the opportunity to see bits and pieces of the two games, because of this is I will not be offering an opinion on the two games. All I can really say about them is congrats to Uruguay and Ghana, two teams I did not have making it this far. If you had the opportunity to watch them let me know what you though of the games, especially the Ghana v USA match, I heard it ended up a classic.

As for day two of the round of 16 your intrepid footy analyst was back on the couch watching England v Germany and then the sexy match up of today, the rematch of the best match in the 2006 tournament Argentina v Mexico.

Germany 4 England 1: (Germany advance to quarter finals)
This was pretty much the worst case scenario for both teams coming into the round of 16 as neither really wanted this match up as early as this. Especially England who had hoped to finish first in their group and avoid this hard of a game. Now I must admit that I have a soft spot for England and was hoping for a victory from the the Three Lions, because of this I watched the game again taking my bias out of it. Once I did that it was clear that Germany were the better side on the day. Yes the Lampard goal that was ruled no goal was absolutely one of the worst calls I have ever seen in a World Cup, and yes it may have changed the complexion of the game a bit. However the match was not lost on that call really, it was actually lost in two key areas, tactics set up by manager Fabio Capello, and defensive play. I will go about trying to explain how this was.

First Capello's tactics in this game weren't horrible, but they were misguided against a strong squad like Germany. The squad lacked ideas and many times were very narrow in attack. England's best chances, and the goal scored were set up on wide play from James Milner. When the team was narrow it was easy for Germany to close down on Rooney and Defoe, which in turn made the link up play ineffective. Also when you cannot spread the field you leave yourself open for counter attacks which three of Germany's four goals were scored on. In this, all credit must go to Germany who countered brilliantly mainly through Mesut Özil who again is proving to be the young player of the tournament so far. When the German manager moved him a bit more to the right after half time, Özil was able to take advantage of the space left by the advancing England right back Glenn Johnson.

Speaking of the defensive backs, they did not have a great day, John Terry and Matthew Upson in particular. On the first goal by Klose, Terry uncharacteristically misplayed he flight of the ball which allowed Klose to walk in the back door. Upson ended up being out muscled by Klose for the goal. On the second goal it was a combination of excellent German movement and sloppy coverage by Terry and Johnson left Lukas Podolski wide open on the left wing to score.

I know this will not sit well with the England supporters, many will use the disallowed goal as a rallying point to say that England were robbed. I agree with them; England was robbed of THAT goal, but not of the match. Not enough credit is being given to Germany who yes rode of bit of luck but who overall were the better team on the day, and they outclassed England. To read another point of view on England's world cup proformance read BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty's assesment (Click on his name)

Argentina 3 Mexico 1: (Argentina advances to quarter finals)
This was to be the sexy match up of the day as both teams liked moving forward. The first 10 minutes provided just that, with Mexico holding the majority of the play at the time....then controversy hit again. Carlos Tevez scored on a flicked header off floated shot by Messi. The issue was that Tevez was quite clearly offside. After some confusion between the ref and the line judge the goal stood. Mexican players complained for a good two minutes and pretty much lost their head after that. Argentina took over the match at that point, plus it didn't he;p that the Mexican defence handed Argentina the second goal on a poor back pass by the defender.

Overall Argentina bossed the game and until the last 10 mins looked like they could really run up the score on Mexico. By the way if you get to watch a replay of the game, Tevez's second goal which made it 3-0 was a lazer, and Henandez's goal that made it 3-1 was a lesson on how to turn a defender. My one criticism of the game would be Argentina's lack of zest going forward at about the 75 minute mark. This seemed to coincide with the substitution of Carlos Tevez who provided alot of the spark and work rate upfront. Never the less Argentina manager Diego Maradona seems to have pulled off another managerial master class in planning and tactics....yes I said it.

Looking forward to the rest of the week! Let me know what you think will happen or on any of the games from this weekend.

Cheers,
Mike

Shout! for England Video

Thanks to Jemima for finding this England World Cup song for me. Features rapper Dizzee Rascal and James Corden.



Enjoy!
Mike

A True upset.... with a possibility of more

"I take full responsibility; "If the squad went out with fear in their legs and hearts it means the coach didn't prepare the match well tactically or psychologically."- Italy manager Marcello Lippi after being knocked out of World Cup 2010.

Today we saw the biggest team of this year's world cup bow out of the tournament as the reigning, defending world champions Italy were defeated 3-2 by Slovakia. The result left Italy with the dubious record of not having won a single game in a world cup for the first time in its history. Although the ending of the game was very exciting from a neutral point of view, it also exposed a lot of when went wrong for the Azzuri in the group stages. Coach Marcello Lippi picked a veteran team for this tournament excluding younger starts like Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Balotelli. Also Lippi was leaning on injured midfielder Andrea Pirlo to create the majority of the offensive chances for Italy. With Pirlo out for the first two games against Paraguay and New Zealand the Italian attack looked pedestrian at times, lacking in any real creativity. It also did help that creative players like Fabio Quagliarella and Antonio Di Natale only saw limited action in the tournament.

However what might be more shocking was the defensive display from the team. The Italian back four when put under serious strain buckled much easier than one would expect from the Azzuri. Although much of the focus for this defensive failure has been placed on aging captain and 2006 world player of the year Fabio Cannavaro, the entire squad as a whole seemed to lack the essential discipline required. An example would be a third Slovak goal in which the team as a whole fell asleep on the throw in allowing the Slovak player to run onto the ball untouched to flick it over a diving Federico Marchetti.

The combination of the two plus the poor team selection and tactics of Lippi has lead to this disaster for the Italians, and looking forward things may get a bit worse before getting better for the Azzuri. The majority of this squad will retire from international competition in the next four years, many will retire this summer leaving a void in talent on the national side. The above mentioned Mario Balotelli is a potential world star for Italy if he can get his head screwed in straight and actually chooses to play for Italy at the senior level (Balotelli was born in Ghana and may still play for them). Aside from Balotelli there is a sense that Italy is lacking in young talent to take over on the senior national team. This is not exactly true, however they will need time to become comfortable with the jump to world cup level football. Regardless Italy will have little time to feel sorry for itself as European Championship qualifying begins in August, we'll see if new manager Cesare Prandelli can bring in some new blood to help ease the already deep wound of World Cup 2010.

Joe Ross of thescore.com has a great breakdown of what happened and why, Ross is one of the better Canadian football bloggers out there right now. Click here to see his take on things.

On a side note I might have to be writing the same type of upset analysis for Spain tomorrow if they don't win against Chile. if this were to be the case Spain would become one of the biggest upset squads in World Cup history given its high odds of winning the entire tournament. 2010 South Africa is proving to be one of the most intriguing tournaments in years.

Cheers,
Mike

Brazilian Magic

It will come as little surprise to most readers that Brazilian footballers tend to be the most eye catching in terms of skills and dribbling. Sunday's display against Cote d'Ivoire was just the latest in the log storied chapter of mesmerising Brazilian football. The scary part about Sunday's preformance is that it was not even close to their best. Just in case you've never seen the power of the Brazil way I've embedded two video's below for your enjoyment.





Cheers,
Mike