Is Pozniak set to make his Toronto FC return?

Harmse out, Pozniak in...it's music to my ears. Reports out of Scotland are suggesting that Chris Pozniak is set to return rejoin Toronto FC for a second stint with us.

He played a pretty significant role in our first season as the ultimate utility man, playing just about everywhere in the defense and the midfield. He was left unprotected when the expansion draft came around though, and Frank Yallop brought him to San Jose before dealing him to Chivas USA. He was later waived from the Goats, and ended up at Dundee in Scotland.

Viva la Vitti!

It's about time Pablo Vitti scored - and good for him to finally break his duck. Here's hoping the floodgates open for him.



Man, is New York ever terrible. From MLS Cup Finalist to MLS Laughing Stock. Juan Pablo Angel must not be the happiest camper right now. We fully deserved the three points, and probably could have won by more than two goals. I can't complain about the two nil win though - we've won three in a row now in all competitions ahead of a tough match against Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium.

We won twice in a row at home to the league's worst team. If anything, it's a morale boost. Let's see if we can get some consistency and do it against the league's better teams.

We got money for Harmse

Yes...Kevin Harmse.

In one of the most one-sided trades in the history of world sport, Toronto FC sent Kevin Harmse to Chivas USA yesterday in exchange for some allocation money. I've heard that his wife/girlfriend was American and wanted to go back - looks like Harmsey might be a little whipped.

Come on you Pinks!

In support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, we'll be decked out in pink tomorrow when we take on the Red Bulls. These kits will also be worn on October 10 when we host the San Jose Earthquakes.

Ali Gerba is officially a Red

It was all a matter of time, but Ali Gerba is officially a member of Toronto FC. The Canadian striker had been training with the side for a week or so now before it became official, but he is ineligible to play until the MLS summer transfer window opens on June 15. He will be playing with Canada at the Gold Cup until then, which will keep him in match fitness.

On a side note, in Chris Cummins pre-New York interview, he mentions that there are a number of guys coming in who they expect to have here in a few days. I've heard rumblings that some pre-season trialists, like Michael McGlinchey, will be on their way back over.

Here is an interview with Ali, and as you can see, he has a way with words...

Canada Soccer releases Gold Cup squad

According to CanadaSoccer.com, we're only going to be missing two players during the Gold Cup. None of Dwayne De Rosario, Adrian Serioux, or Nana Attakora are included in Stephen Hart's side, but Kevin Harmse and Ali Gerba are.

Looks like it was club over country for DeRo and Serioux.

Click here to see the final team.

It's soccer day in Canada!

The Montreal Impact host the Vancouver Whitecaps in just a few minutes on CBC. Given what happened on Thursday, this one will be very interesting. The Caps are upset at Montreal's "lack of professionalism" in the last game of the Voyageurs Cup, while the Impact will want to prove that they aren't a laughing stock.

Following that game is Spain v. South Africa from the Confederations Cup.

Canada's Gold Cup preliminary squad released

According to the CONCACAF website, we could be missing five players during the Gold Cup (assuming Ali Gerba signs). Stephen Hart has named his 30-man preliminary squad ahead of the tournament, and included are Dwayne De Rosario, Adrian Serioux, Nana Attakora, Kevin Harmse, and Ali Gerba. Here is the full 30-man squad...

Goalkeepers: Asmir Begovic, Kenny Stamatopolous, Lars Hirschfeld, Greg Sutton

Defenders: Adrian Serioux, Adrian Cann, Richard Hastings, Kevin McKenna, Chris Pozniak, Andre Hainault, Mike Klukowski, Ante Jazic, Paul Stalteri, Dejan Jakovic

Midfielders: Julian De Guzman, Dwayne De Rosario, Atiba Hutchinson, Jaime Peters, Kevin Harmse, Josh Simpson, Patrice Bernier, Nik Ledgerwood, Daniel Imhof, Marcel De Jong, Issey Nakajima-Farran

Forwards: Ali Gerba, Will Johnson, Olivier Occean, Simeon Jackson.

Considering Dale Mitchell isn't coaching the team, we might actually be able to do something at the Gold Cup, unlike last year in World Cup Qualifying. You'll probably remember we played pretty well at the 2007 Gold Cup under Hart's direction.

On a side note - anyone know where Rob Friend is?

We rule. Toronto FC 6 Montreal Impact 1

Let's face it, we didn't beat the Impact's best team 6-1 on Thursday. That doesn't matter though - we needed to win by four, and we pulled off the improbable. Before the match, I would have honestly bet someone $1,000 that we wouldn't do it. I was certain it would be one of those "oh well, we created enough to win by four..." nights. That wasn't the case.

If you want to know the man behind the win, look no further than tournament MVP Dwayne De Rosario. He put in his best performance of the season, and you knew that he wasn't leaving the Stade Saputo without that trophy. If you listened to his halftime interview, you got the feeling that he was going to carry this team to the championship, and that's exactly what he did. His hat-trick lead the team on as he was all over the pitch all night.

Both Impact fans and Whitecaps fans are a little pissed off about the lineup that Marco Dos Santos fielded - it included two players from their CSL reserve team, the Trois-Rivieres Attak. The match may have meant nothing to the Impact in the long run, but isn't a game against a Canadian rival supposed to be about pride - regardless of what the match means? The Impact may have won last year's Voyageurs Cup, but now we can say we destroyed them 6-1. They finished this year's tournament 0-4-0 with 1 GF and 10 GA. Nice work.

Montreal helped us out a lot by fielding a B team, or...a Z team. It was pretty bad. Despite this, we found ourselves 1-0 down twenty minutes in after a Tony Donatelli penalty kick. Coming back after that setback shows character, something that many have questioned in this team.

The two best players on either team - DeRo and Guevara - scored 5 goals between them, and the infamous clincher, our fifth, came from a very unlikely source - Chad Barrett. I've been pretty damn hard on Barrett over the past few weeks. He misses sitters like it's going out of style. I have to give him full credit on this one though, it was a difficult header and he put it right where it needed to go - in the back of the net.

One man who cannot go without mention is Stefan Frei. He made two extremely key saves in the second half to keep the Impact's tally at just one. As we pushed forward, only Nick Garcia and Adrian Serioux were back for us, and on a couple of Montreal counterattacks, Frei saved our asses.

Part of the irony in the win is that Vancouver outscored us head to head 2-1. Last year, we outscored Montreal 2-1 though, and that didn't help us any. That excuse won't work. The rules were in place before the tournament even began, and there was no complaining from either opposing party when Toronto needed to win by four to win the trophy. We did what we had to do - it's as simple as that.

So, onto the CONCACAF Champions League, where our preliminary qualifier puts us against another USL side, the Puerto Rico Islanders, who were semi-finalists in last year's competition. If we can win that series, we'll be in a group with the Columbus Crew. Anyone else in for some Champions League tasering?

Winning our first piece of silverware is huge. It's exciting. It feels just about as sweet as you'd expect. Our season isn't done though - we're still 5-5-4 in the league, and we have to power on to make sure we're in the playoffs come October. Let's do it.

DeRo IS God

Toronto FC 6 - 1 Montreal Impact. DeRo with three, Guevara with two, and Barrett with one. I cannot believe what just happened. I'd written them off - everyone had. Now I'm eating my words, and I've never been happier to do it.

No time to comment now. Enjoy the celebrations!

Ricketts released

It's official.

Rumours surfaced today that Rohan Ricketts had been released, and the club just confirmed it. I think it's pretty clear that Ali Gerba's signing is imminent. In fact, word on the street is that the paperwork is at the MLS head office. Stay tuned...

Johann Smith waived

Toronto FC announced today that Johann Smith has been waived. This is probably to help make room for Ali Gerba.

We signed Smith last August on the day the transfer window closed, and Laurent Robert was released to get him. In fact, if I recall correctly, we sent New England an international spot to move up in the allocation order in order to acquire Smith. This is obviously a signing that hasn't worked out. Despite all of his speed and potential, he never really seemed to settle in or be able to make an impact for us.

He's a really cool guy though, so I wish him the best of luck.

It was ugly, but it worked

When I saw Chad Barrett wasn't in our starting eleven on Saturday, I knew we were going to score more than once. And we did, we scored two. Ali Gerba must have been watching from his private box thinking to himself "finally - a team that really, really needs me...".

It was a really ugly win, but three points is three points no matter which way you look at it. The loss dropped the Red Bulls to an embarrassing 2-10-3. I think it's safe to say they won't get a second shot at the MLS Cup this season. They didn't play terribly, and to be fair, I thought they put us under a lot of pressure in the second half. They still lack that final ball though - and with Jorge Rojas playing on the left wing, you'd expect at least some decent service to Juan Pablo Angel. There wasn't any though. The Colombian didn't even have a shot on goal, which I have to credit our defense for. On the other hand, the goal we conceded was really ugly, and really preventable.

We started off in a 3-5-2, with DeRo, Guevara, and Robbo all playing centrally. Dichio partnered Vitti up front, while Harmse and Cronin occupied the wings. Attakora, Serioux, and Garcia formed our back three. This was pretty shortlived though, as Cummins switched to a 4-4-2 before the first half was over. We never really seemed to get going in either formation, but capitalized on two of our opportunities and it was luckily good enough for the win.

The penalty kick curse still lives on for us, but at least Sam Cronin was able to put the rebound in and score his first career MLS goal - something that was very deserved considering how well he's adapted to the league this year. The second goal should have been where Pablo Vitti broke his duck, but he couldn't get around Cepero. It would have been a pretty embarassing miss if Dichio hadn't have been there to put it in.

With Ali Gerba set to come in, I wonder if Vitti could be sent back to Argentina. Despite all of his talent (which he has loads of), he hasn't found the net, and that's what he's been brought here to do. He was subbed off around the 65th minute, which is when you'd think Dichio would be subbed off. I hope I'm wrong, because I always get the feeling that once Vitti scores the floodgates will open, but you just never know.

The final match of the Voyageurs Cup is on Thursday, and as hopeful as I am, I can't see us pulling it out. Here's hoping though right?

Oh the Red Bulls are...

The New York Red Bulls come to town tonight. They have lost their last four, and winless on the road this season, and have yet to score a goal away from Giants Stadium. Surely we can't mess this up, right?

I'd expect that newly-acquired defender Nick Garcia will slide right into the starting eleven, especially with Marvell Wynne away on international duty and Jim Brennan being a game-time decision because of an ankle injury. Something tells me Jimmy will be playing - who knows though, I could be wrong. Filling Marvell Wynne's right back spot could be Marco Velez. He can play right back, just trust me on this (or maybe don't...).

Amado Guevara is back from international duty, so hopefully he's not too tired to play. I'm sure he'll be included in the team though - he's never sat out because of fatigue in similar situations in the past. Chad Barrett is nursing an ankle injury, so if he isn't able to go, Rohan Ricketts could get a rare start. Here is how I think we'll line up tonight... we probably won't miss as many sitters.

Update: How could I forget DeRo? See what happens when I post before 9:00 in the morning? Ricketts won't be starting unless Cronin is played at right back. DeRo will obviously be on the pitch today.

---------------------Frei-------------------
Velez--------Serioux---Garcia-----Brennan
-------------------Robinson-----------------
-------Cronin-----------------Guevara------
Vitti-----------------------------De Rosario
---------------------Dichio-------------------

The trade this past week has put a glimmer of hope in the eyes of most TFC fans, but if we can't get a result against this struggling Red Bulls side, the pressure will be back on Mo Johnston and the backroom staff at the club.

The main man in New York is obviously striker Juan Pablo Angel. The Colombian has scored 37 goals in 61 appearances since signing with New York in 2007. This year though, he only has four. He hasn't been getting the appropriate service since Dave Van Den Bergh was traded to FC Dallas.

One of the things I'm most surprised about with the New York Red Bulls is their persistance in keeping head coach Juan Carlos Osorio. We're at the midway point of this 2009 season, and he still doesn't have a best eleven. If some of you guys think Mo Johnston has made some bad signings, take a look at the Juan Carlos Osorio shit list: Juan Pietrevallo, Gabriel Cichero, Khano Smith, Dominic Oduro, and possibly even Carlos Johnson. His big signing last season, Jorge Rojas, hasn't exactly shone either. Last year they made the MLS Cup final, but none of his midseason signings played major roles in that run. This year, he's lead them thus far to last place in the East with a record of 2-9-3.

New York's pretty bad this year. C'mon, we can't screw this up, right?

Make way for Ali Gerba

So, we haven't signed him yet.

According to Mo Johnston though, Gerba could be signed by this Monday or Tuesday. He'll likely be at tomorrow's match against the hapless Red Bulls, and contract talks will go on from there. One area of concern could be the money aspect. Though Mo isn't too worried about the money issue, the main reason that he never signed with the Earthquakes was because of the salary he was looking for. The question must be raised about how much Gerba is worth, because he certainly hasn't ever been a prolific scorer at club level. Eleven clubs in the past nine years doesn't exactly help an argument against that point.

With his last club though, MK Dons, his scoring record was pretty good. This past season, he scored 10 goals in 24 appearances with the League One club. His scoring record with our national team almost echoes this - Gerba has scored 11 in 23 appearances with our Nats, most of which have come within the last few years. I guess he's been doing okay as of late, which is pretty encouraging for us.

Acquiring a new striker is a must in my eyes - I have absolutely no faith in Chad Barrett, and despite all his skill, Pablo Vitti doesn't look like a 15-goal man in this league (or a 5-goal man for that matter). Someone may have to be let go in order to get Ali, but it has to get done. Here's hoping it's sooner rather than later.

Fiiiinally some good news

Here is a press release.

The club announced today that we've acquired defender Nick Garcia from San Jose, along with the rights to Canadian striker Ali Gerba.

In Nick Garcia, we've acquired a veteran defender who at 30, is still in his prime as a centre half. He captained the Earthquakes 2.0 last season, as was widely considered as their defensive leader. Not a bad pick up for us. Given the fact that Marvell Wynne will be missing around a month at the Confederations Cup and then the Gold Cup, it was obviously pretty clear that Marco Velez wouldn't be the best option in the centre of our defense, especially with Nana Attakora likely to cover Wynne's spot at right back.

As for Ali Gerba, this is one guy that TFC fans have wanted for a while. He's not a Toronto FC player yet mind you - we just have his rights. Mo mentioned that he's looking forward to sitting down with Gerba and hashing out all the details to his contract very soon though, so I think that it's pretty inevitable that the Canadian wants to come home. He has a very impressive scoring record for Canada with 11 goals in 23 appearances. He spent this past winter playing in League One with Milton Keynes Dons.

Amidst all of this, goalkeeper Greg Sutton has been released. He was taking up around $150K and that is way too much for a backup goalkeeper in this league. It does leave us a little inexperienced in goal, however, as the goalkeeping job is now in the hands of Stefan Frei and Brian Edwards. I'm not too worried though. Frei's hands seem to be pretty capable.

After my rant after Saturday's loss at home to the Galaxy (see below), I'm pretty glad that some things have finally changed. I think this is pretty encouraging too - it shows that Mo's not going to sit back and wait for Marco Velez to start showing up, or to wait for Chad Barrett to start hitting the net. It's all great news, so let's see if it all pays off.

Where's the freaking voice of reason here?

It's official: this past week has been the worst in our club's short history. In fact, any progress we appeared to have made this off-season might as well have not happened. This Toronto FC team is proving that it does not have what it takes to become a contender in this parity-stricken league. 2009 was supposed to be "the year." It very well may be "the year" - the year that we clean house.

Is it time to finally start freaking out about this team, one that looks destined to wind up near the bottom of Eastern Conference yet again? Let's face it, at 4-5-4 and over half of our home season done, we aren't sitting pretty. I said before the match today that if we weren't 7-4-4 in three week's time, I'd have a problem with this team. Well, that's not going to happen, and I have a problem with this team. Here's the funny thing though...if we can string together a few good results, we could be back up to the top of the East. Does anyone see that happening now, though? I sure don't.

On March 14, I appeared on It's Called Football and stressed the importance of home points this year. So far this season, we've taken 11 out of 24 possible home points. Just 11. I won't even complain about being 1-2-2 on the road thus far, but being 3-3-2 at home? That is simply not good enough in this league.

You have to feel that this all has to fall on Mo Johnston's shoulders. Ahead of our first game in Kansas City, there were still question marks over our defending and our attack. Thirteen games later, and those questions are still bouncing around. Has anyone else noticed that we haven't been adequately prepared for a season since we were formed? In our first year, we had a back-three of Andy Boyens, Jim Brennan, and Marco Reda - none of whom had played an MLS match - in our first two matches, with wantaways like Richard Mulrooney and Paolo Nagamura as key components in our midfield. Last season it was the same story: Tyler Hemming started at right midfield in our first match in Columbus with Todd Dunivant on the opposite wing. It looks like this season is the same old story. An opening day win doesn't exactly count as a bright start, and we've only been over .500 by one game this season.

Additions like Adrian Serioux, Dwayne De Rosario, and draft picks Stefan Frei and Sam Cronin have all been hits. Here's the problem though: We still don't have a commanding centre half and we still don't have a lethal striker. We've needed both of these since 2006.

For the record, I don't think that Pablo Vitti's lack of scoring is one of our issues. You can see his talent whenever he has the ball. I believe our main issue is that just about every one of our good attacking moves ends with Chad Barrett, who has a worse soccer IQ than Tie Domi, and couldn't score a penalty on an empty net. His poor distribution and finishing is simply shocking at times, and when you couple this with Marco Velez's 2008-esque defending, we're in a pretty good position to fail.

The irony of this apparently terrible situation is that this team isn't out of it. The season's just about halfway done, and we're certainly in the playoff mix right now. With multi-game road trips and the Gold Cup looming this summer, the question remains as to whether or not will we be in that playoff mix come September? On this date last year, we were 6-4-2, and we faded over the summer to finish last in the East. Is there a supporter out there who sees any different destiny for this team?

Where's the freaking voice of reason here? Isn't it time for something to change?

Matchday: Toronto FC v. Los Angeles Galaxy

It certainly has been a whirlwind week for Toronto FC supporters - and definitely not in a good way. First, we put in our worst performance of the season in Houston, losing 3-0 to the Dynamo. Three days later, we basically threw the Voyageurs Cup away (okay, we can still win it, but...) in Vancouver losing yet again to a USL opponent, and now we have confirmed that Toronto will be playing Real Madrid, however the tickets will not be included in our season ticket package. Great.

Today, amidst protests, we will try to turn our attention to a potential three big points against the LA Galaxy. Anything less than a win today will be seen as unacceptable by many TFC fans, myself included. The Galaxy may be unbeaten in nine, but they've won just one of these nine matches, and are missing the heart and soul of their team in Landon Donovan.

I'm unable to attend today's match because of a recent knee surgery, so I'll be providing a matchday commentary here as I watch the match on television.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FULL TIME - LA 2 - 1 TFC. Poor finishing is yet again to blame for today's loss, and when you throw in Marco Velez' pathetic defending, you have a pretty bad looking club. Here's the thing though: We knew ahead of this season that our finishing wasn't too great and that our defense was bad. Where are you now Mo Johnston?

90+3 - Harmse has a shot from 30 yards. It sucked. Why on earth is he shooting from there when we NEED a goal?

90+2 - Gomez gives away a cheap corner from a pretty bad header back to Frei. Not the best time to make those rookie mistakes. Another three minutes of stoppage time left.

88' - The good news is that Gomez has a monster throw in. The bad news? We need two goals, not a good throw in.

86' - Subs update: Johann Smith has come in for Pablo Vitti (about 5 minutes ago) and Emmanuel Gomez has come in for Chad Barrett. Gomez making his MLS debut here.

84' - LA is just passing it around now. We've had 16 shots today and scored on only one of them. Something has to be done about this very, very soon.

80' - I just got a twitter update on my phone about our international friendly (yes, the real one). "We're losing, so here's something to get happy about...River Plate..." This is ridiculous.

77' - GOAL Los Angeles. Edson Buddle gets behind Marco Velez and slides it in past Stefan Frei. I hope Mo Johnston is on his phone right now looking for a new centre half...

73' - Tony Sanneh is down hurt again. He was just on a stretcher, but now is up again. Dig a hole and bury him? Looks like he's coming out. Leo Griffin is on in his place.

70' - A bit of pressure from the Galaxy now. Omar Gonzalez is almost gifted a goal by an errant header from Adrian Serioux, but he shoots wide. We need to go forward and win this.

67' - Stefan Frei saves Chad Barrett and Marco Velez' asses, saving a free header at the far post from Alan Gordon.

66' - Rohan Ricketts has been good since he's come on, sending in several good crosses, including the one that lead to the goal.

63' - GOAL Toronto. A beautiful cross from Rohan Ricketts is headed off the post by Marco Velez. Donovan Ricketts is there to save Robbo's follow up but he can't get in front of Dichio's header. It was ugly, but it all counts the same. LA subs out Mike Magee for Stefani Miglioranzi.

61' - Chad Barrett runs around AJ DeLaGarza to the byline and sends a ball across the 18 that Ricketts can't put away. Corner to Toronto.

60' - Very offensive set up right now. Harmse, Serioux, and Velez are forming a back three with Robinson sitting in front of them. Everyone else is up attacking.

58' - Big opportunity for Rohan Ricketts here. He's been wanting more playing time and after having a little to no effect on Tuesday, it will be interesting to see what he can do in his half hour today.

56' - Brennan is hurt. Ricketts is on in his place. I'm going to guess that Sam Cronin slides back to left back and Ricketts plays on the wing where Cronin was.

53' - Harmse with a good cross in but Barrett has his volley blocked by a defender. That was probably goalbound.

51' - After a scramble in the box LA clears. DeRo with two chances to send it across goal but no one on Toronto could get on the end of it. De Rosario looks like the only TFC player who wants to score today.

46' - And we're underway in the second half. Early free kick to Toronto.

HALF TIME - LA 1 - 0 TFC. It was a typical Toronto first half at home. A poor goal conceded, a lot of possession, and a few sitters missed. When is Mo Johnston going to address our need for big-name striker? Here's hoping for something special in the second half.

44' - Yellow card to Kevin Harmse. Who knew you couldn't push someone from behind? Apparently Harmse didn't...

42' - Pablo Vitti with a shot from 30 yards just over the net. Lots of power, but still not testing the keeper.

38' - A second straight corner for Toronto. We really need to capitalize on one of these.

37' - I don't think Chad Barrett has completed a pass in this first half.

34' - Pablo Vitti with is saved from close range. He definitely should have done better to equalize, but that miss wasn't near as bad as Barrett's. Toronto still with a majority of possession.

31' - Corner to LA. Robinson cleared it brilliantly. As we turned to take it up the field, Tony Sanneh receives a yellow card for a tackle on Vitti.

28' - It's all us now. LA hasn't really done a lot since about the 10th minute. If we had any other striker on earth besides Barrett it would be 1-1 right now. Toronto with possession in LA's half.

26' - Chad Barrett has a breakaway saved by Ricketts. He is arguably the worst finisher we've ever had...including Adam Braz.

24' - Another header by Dichio, this time from a corner kick. There wasn't enough power on it and Ricketts saved it very comfortably. Eddie Lewis is down hurt.

22' - Header over the bar by Dichio off of a cross from DeRo.

21' - Close chance for us. DeRo sends it in for Vitti who heads it towards Dichio but Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts gets their first.

19' - Corner to Toronto. LA manages to clear for a Toronto throw.

17' - Shot by Dema Kovalenko sent over the net from about 15 yards.

14' - Adrian Serioux just decked Eddie Lewis. Kinda surprised there was no card on that one.

13' - LA has picked it up a bit since their goal. There is a lot more bite to this Galaxy team than I expected. Full credit to Bruce Arena for that.

10' - Free kick by De Rosario saved comfortably along the turf by Donovan Ricketts.

9' - Yellow card to Omar Gonzalez for a foul on Danny Dichio. Free kick to Toronto from about 20-25 yards.

7' - Wow. Danny Dichio just got on the end of a long ball.

6' - GOAL Los Angeles. Alan Gordon with a free header at the far post. Terrible defending by Marco Velez - nothing unusual there.

4' - Toronto carrying the play so far. No clear opportunities yet. Not much shape to any LA attacks yet.

1' - Galaxy kickoff. Everything looks nice and sunny. Seems like everyone missed the memo to boycott wearing official team apparel today...

Game On!

Pre-Match

4:07 PM - Finally we have some lineups. Here is our starting eleven: Stefan Frei, Jim Brennan, Marco Velez, Adrian Serioux, Kevin Harmse, Carl Robinson, Sam Cronin, Pablo Vitti, Dwayne De Rosario, Chad Barrett, Danny Dichio. Here is the Galaxy's starting eleven: Donovan Ricketts, Todd Dunivant, Omar Gonzalez, AJ DeLaGarza, Tony Sanneh, Eddie Lewis, Josh Tudela, Dema Kovalenko, Alan Gordon, Chris Klein, Mike Magee.

3:33 PM - Pregame show is live on CBC. They're talking about how Pablo Vitti needs to score soon. If you had to pick between him and Barrett, who would you keep? Easy answer...

1:42 PM - There is of course a full slate of World Cup Qualifiers today. England were 4-0 winners in Kazakhstan, while Japan became to first nation to qualify for next summer's World Cup with a 1-0 win over Uzbekistan. The Netherlands can join them if they beat Iceland later today. In CONCACAF, USA takes on Honduras tonight in a match that will put two TFC boys against each other - Marvell Wynne for the States and Amado Guevara for the Hondurans.

12:49 PM - The Houston Dynamo did us a favour last night by beating Chicago Fire 1-0. Stuart Holden scored his third of the season for Houston, with Canadian Andrew Hainault being credited with an assist on the goal. A night before, DC United beat the Red Bulls 2-0 at RFK Stadium. New York has fallen to 2-8-3 on the season, and have yet to score a goal on the road. We face them twice in a row at BMO Field (June 13 and 24). Looking ahead at today's match and then the next two against New York Red Bulls - all at home - I will have a serious problem with this team if we are not 7-4-4 in three week's time.

Jamie Smith to Toronto FC

According to this article, Jamie Smith is set to sign for us. The former Aberdeen and Celtic midfielder has apparently impressed on a four-day trial and is being offered a contract. Smith has been capped by Scotland before, so there is obviously some talent there, but he's coming off of an injury-plagued season in the SPL.

If he can stay fit, I will be very happy that he's signed for us. A winger isn't exactly at the top of our priority list right now, but I think adding a quality one is a must. Rohan Ricketts and Johann Smith just aren't cutting it.

Again, God bless DeRo

“Real Madrid is coming here and we put grass in? What does that mean for myself as a player for TFC? We don’t get that respect?” De Rosario continues to rant. “We work hard everyday here (BMO) and we try hard day in and day out, we deserve grass. I don’t think because a team comes in, we have to suit their needs to get grass. I think we should keep it.”

Full article here.

Oh, the Real Madrid friendly is official now, and no, it's not part of the season ticket package. Admit it though...you're going...

Will Barrett's poor finishing cost us the Voyageurs Cup?

Football is a team sport. As David Beckham and Landon Donovan so clearly illustrated with the Galaxy last season, a couple of superstars don't win championships in this sport.

Prior to last night, we were in the drivers seat of the Voyageurs Cup. All we needed was a point to win it. Just one. Now, after failing miserably, we need to beat the Montreal Impact by four goals on June 18 at the Stade Saputo. The last time we scored four? June 17, 2007, at home to FC Dallas. On that day, goals came from Maurica Edu, Danny Dichio, Carl Robinson, and Jeff Cunningham. Nearly two years on, the biggest win we've had is 3-1 (over Colorado last season, and New England this season). Great.

Basically, if we win 4-0 on the 18th, I'm going to walk outside my house expecting to see a pig fly by. Here's hoping though, right?...right.

Looking back on pretty much this entire season though, we'd be a couple more points to the good if Chad Barrett could put the ball in the net. Search him on youtube - you get a video of misses, not goals. Both of our 1-0 home wins earlier in the V-Cup could have been by more, and I think that Barrett's poor finishing is to blame for this. He had two semi-breakaways against the Whitecaps, and we all remember his embarrassing display going in one-on-one with Impact goalkeeper Matt Jordan. Let's say those three go in: after last night, we're 2-1-0, with 5 goals for, and 2 against.

I'll even mention an instance last night. From about 8 yards, Barrett had a free header that he put straight into the hands of Jay Nolly. The score would have been 1-1 if that had gone in, and it would have been a completely different game from then on.

I need to point out that at this point in time last season, Jeff Cunningham had scored three goals in regular season play, and he definitely did not start 12 games, and he definitely did not have 29 shots. Barrett has two in league play, and every single person in the GTA knows he should have more. Barrett is getting paid to score goals, and until he starts putting in these balls served up to him on a silver platter, he should wear the horns for our shortcomings. I don't care that he works his ass off. He has to put it in the net.

[Insert appropriate title here]

This is embarrassing. When your centre forward can't convert a free header from 6 yards in a potential championship winning game, something is wrong.

Just one measley point

One point. That's all we need tonight to secure the 2009 Voyageurs Cup, and to bring home our club's first ever trophy. This day could end up being the most significant in our club's history at the end of the day.

Will we be able to rise to the standard and make it happen? Last year we failed, and it sucked. Let's not focus on that though. This match needs to be hyped up. I've seen headlines and stories about the potential friendly with Real Madrid, and no one seems to give a rat's ass about our nation's club football tournament. Yes, it's small, but it's a start.

We're in Vancouver with less than a full squad. Amado Guevara and Marvell Wynne are missing tonight's match through international duty, and O'Brian White will still be missing through injury. Nonetheless, he has made the trip, so he must be nearing fitness as he's getting used to traveling with the team. You have to guess that Chris Cummins will field a 4-3-3, with Dichio being the anchor in the middle of our attack. Here is how I think we will line up tonight...

--------------------Frei--------------------
Attakora----Velez-----Serioux----Brennan
------------------Robinson-----------------
--------Cronin-----------------Vitti--------
Barrett--------------------------De Rosario
-------------------Dichio-------------------

I'm not thinking of anything but a win for Toronto. We only need a point, but we won't play for that. We'll go out there to win the match, and if that happens in the end, we'll fully deserve the tournament. Both of our 1-0 wins could have been by more if not for some poor finishing. Let's put it to bed tonight.