Toronto FC 2 - 3 Columbus Crew - An Epic Failure

What an epic fail.

If Paul Winsper is such an "amazing" conditioning coach, why is it that we're always the ones with tired legs at the end conceding late goals. How many times have we scored an injury-time equalizer or winner?

We had this game in our hands, and after late defending like that, we deserve what we got - absolutely nothing.

Okay, maybe it's a little harsh to be talking about Paul Winsper like that. Jim Brennan said in his post-match interview that we are a fit team, and I don't think he'd lie about that. Maybe we could blame that useless mid-week friendly which undoubtedly contributed to some tired legs out there. If that friendly had never happened, we would have had Nana Attakora to put on the pitch instead of the inept Marco Velez.

Velez couldn't stay goal-side on a sack of potatoes. Somehow they would find a way to get in behind him. He couldn't keep up with either of Steven Lenhart and Jason Garey, and those two are bench players at best, despite their recent good form. Velez has been at fault for numerous goals this season, and he's lost us about as many points as Chad Barrett's poor finishing has.

I'm not going to dwell on this loss though. This season is far from over now, and we have the chance to steer the ship back into the right direction on Wednesday in our Champions League match against Puerto Rico Islanders.

This past week...

It's been five days since I posted, and a few nice new things have happened in the land of Toronto FC and Major League Soccer. For example, both Ali Gerba and O'Brien White made their debuts during Wednesday's friendly against River Plate. Also, you might want to mark July 24 on your calendar as the day "Major League Soccer fined David Beckham." Yes, Don Garber has done the unbelievable - fining the league's "crown jewel" for his skirmish with LA fans last weekend.

No De Guz Decision

Our friend over at the Score, Kristian Jack, was informed on Monday Julian De Guzman could have made his decision on whether or not to sign for us this past Tuesday. Well, no decision has come - yet. Obviously he will either be saying "yes" or "no" to Mo Johnston and Toronto FC, but I couldn't tell you when. I'm going to go ahead and assume that it will be very soon, as he'll be keen on finding a new club in Europe before the season starts in August if he turns us down.

Not the warmest reception for Goldenballs

After he was sent off against Argentina in the quarterfinals of the 1998 World Cup, David Beckham was the scapegoat for just about every England fan. People hung dummies with Beckham jerseys on to show their supposed hatred. He moved on, and was still able to succeed at the highest level. Last Sunday, the Los Angeles Galaxy played a friendly match against Beckham wantees AC Milan. Apparently a little bit of booing from the LA Riot Squad was enough to put Becks off. He went over to their end of the stadium and egged them on, with one fan jumping from the stands, accepting his challenge. You can see video of it here.

Never has their been a match as captivating...

As this past week's friendly against Argentine giants River Plate. An epic 0-0 draw, with the resulting penalty shootout being won by River Plate to host the prestigious Carlsberg Cup. It was a tough loss to take as a TFC supporter - I can barely cope knowing that we will go another year without the Carlsberg Cup...

Okay, maybe that was all a lie. I didn't even go to this match. I caught the last fifteen minutes on Toronto FC TV though, and it was nice to see O'Brien White and Ali Gerba wearing TFC red. From what I've heard, it was a pretty drab match, and penalty shootout revealed to us something we already know...we suck at penalties. Speaking of which, Ali Gerba's was a thing of beauty. I think I know who will be taking our next penalty.

Columbus not so red this time around

Over at the 24th Minute, Duane Rollins has posted a letter from our Supporters Groups to the General Manager of the Columbus Crew, Marc McCullers. It was written after all of the mayhem that occured after our 1-1 draw at Crew Stadium on March 28. Give it a read. It looks like this whole "Trillium Cup" thing isn't going as planned for the Crew FO...

De Guzman decision tomorrow?

According to Kristian Jack, it will be.

Things not so grande for Sandro

Get it? See what I did there? I did a play on words, using Sandro Grande's name. The influencial midfielder was released today by the Montreal Impact for his role in an altercation with player-coach Mauro Biello. Grande was already suspended by the club for breaking another team rule earlier in the season, and according to Joey Saputo, choking a teammate is unacceptable (no shit).

I have to say, I'm a little surprised that the Impact went so far as to release Grande. He was the engine in their midfield during their CONCACAF Champions League run, and arguably the team's best player. Maybe he belongs in Vancouver though, where he can fight with Wesley Charles and Charles Gbeke all he wants.

Canada's out of the Gold Cup

It was one of the worst penalty calls I've ever seen, but it condemned Canada to a 1-0 loss to Honduras in Philadelphia in the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup. I suppose we could look at the bright side though...Ali Gerba will be here for Columbus, and, who knows - Julian De Guzman might be as well, right?

Sometimes you wish games were only 45 minutes long...

Yesterday's 1-1 draw with Houston wasn't very satisfying at all. It was one of those ties that feels like a loss - and when you add in that Chicago, DC, and Columbus all won their matches yesterday, the feeling doesn't get any better.

Once again we are left to rue missed opportunities. Chad Barrett had a couple of opportunities, while one volley by Danny Dichio sticks out in my mind. That's not really what bugs me the most though. The second half performance was terrible. It almost looked like we were just sitting back and asking them to score, and in the end, it bit us in the ass.

We had virtually a full team on the day - except for Sam Cronin and Ali Gerba - meanwhile Houston were missing three of their key players in Brian Ching, Brad Davis, and Stuart Holden. You'd hope we could take advantage of this. That wasn't the case.

The first half was pretty good. Aside from Adrian Serioux's injury, many Toronto FC supporters had very little to complain about at the interval. Danny Dichio's first contribution (literally...) was a dummy leading to DeRo's opening goal. He's not offically credited with an assist, but he might as well be. That was one damn good experienced move by the big man, and De Rosario must have loved putting on in against his old side. I noticed he didn't really celebrate though, and this was obviously out of respect to the Houston Dynamo organization.

I don't really have much to say about the second half. It sucked. Houston's equalizer came off of a simple lack in concentration by our defense, and that has unfortunately become way too much of a recurring thing for us.

We needed those three points, and with a majority of the remainder of our season on the road, we have to start taking points. Hopefully Ali Gerba's presence can help us out a bit.

The circus is back in town

It's true - Becks is back, and he's back in world of controversy (MLS style controversy, anyways...) as Grant Wahl's book, "The Beckham Experiment", is set to hit shelves this week after excerpts from it on SI.com turned heads all around the league.

According to Nick Green's soccer blog in LA, Goldenballs and Landycakes have kissed and made up, after Donovan questioned the England midfielder's committment to the Galaxy. In turn, Becks claimed that Donovan was very unprofessional over the whole thing. Either way, everything is apparently fine between the two, and Galaxy supporters can at least breathe a sigh of relief over that.

Los Angeles have won three league matches in a row, include wins over Western Conference leaders Houston and Chivas USA. They seem to be rounding in to form, and I can't imagine a solid attacking partnership between Beckham and Donovan will hurt them too much.

There are obviously question marks over Beckham's future in MLS, after it has become pretty public knowledge that he wants to move to Milan when the season ends here and apparently has an opt-out clause in his contract that would allow him to leave. For now though, can't we just enjoy the circus again?

Beckham makes his Galaxy return on Thursday night at Giants Stadium as the Los Angeles Galaxy visit the hapless New York Red Bulls.

DeRo's an All-Star, but he won't be playing

It's true. The MLS All-Star First XI (not necessarily the starting eleven...) was unveiled on Monday, and our very own Dwayne De Rosario was included in the team. He won't have the opportunity to play though, as our CONCACAF Champions League match against the Puerto Rico Islanders is the same day. Cuauhtemoc Blanco replaces DeRo in the First XI.

Not that I think Dwayne is too broken up over it, but being named to the league's best eleven is quite the honour and it's not every day you get to face teams like Everton.

The official First XI is: Kasey Keller (SEA), Wilman Conde (CHI), Chad Marshall (CLB), Geoff Cameron (HOU), Shalrie Joseph (NER), Stuart Holden (HOU), Cuahtemoc Blanco (CHI), Guillermo Barros Schelotto (CLB), Freddie Ljungberg (SEA), Landon Donovan (LAG), Conor Casey (COL).

Dominic Kinnear of the Houston Dynamo will coach the side.

Was it the Chad?

Yes, it was the Chad. For the first time in his young career, Chad Barrett has been named MLS Player of the Week after his two-goal performance in San Jose on the weekend. Given the criticism that I've given Chad this season, I have to tip my hat to him on this. It was definitely his best performance of the season, and I think he was deserving of both goals (even though the second was more or less a gift).

With the recent signing of Ali Gerba, it's no question that Pablo Vitti and Chad Barrett's starting positions with us are in jeopardy, and both players helped their causes on Saturday, with Vitti adding a goal on top of Chad's two.

Three points in Cali

It was an ugly win, but it was a win nonetheless. Three more points to our total locking us up in a tie with Chicago Fire for first in the East for the time-being. Let's just say I'll take it.

After the busiest start to a season in our club's brief history, the guys were coming into this one well rested having not played any matches in two weeks, and if you ask me, it showed. It was sort of a rejuvenating win - it seemed like the unofficial opening match of the second half of our season, and to take three points on the road is a good start, regardless of the opponent.

All in all, it was probably Chad Barrett's best outing of the season. His first goal was brilliantly taken and his second, well, sometimes the bounces do go our way. Seeing Pablo Vitti score again was very nice as well. He had one of his better matches of the year, causing the San Jose defenders problems for the better part of the 90 minutes. Another man you can't count out is DeRo, who got two assists, including a fantastic looping ball that set up Barrett's first.

I've heard it said that when you're playing on the road in MLS a good start is key. You have to stay organized defensively and not concede early on. We did this last night, and got an early lead to boot. About a half hour after our first goal, some typical TFC defending helped give Darren Huckerby an equalizer, but we were more than up to the task in the second half, and I thought we eventually ran the Quakes off of the pitch. Were it not for Joe Cannon, the score could have easily been 4-1 or 5-1, and it's not very often you can say things like that about Toronto FC on the road.

Both Pablo Vitti and Chad Barrett's starting roles are under threat with O'Brian White's near-recovery and the addition of Canadian international Ali Gerba, and I think we're already seeing that the players who want to play have to perform. Both players' total goal output for the season was doubled last night.

As much as I regard Frank Yallop highly as a manager, that San Jose Earthquakes team he's put together looks simply awful. They look out of sync and they were playing with virtually no heart yesterday. They've missed Darren Huckerby for the majority of this season which is a huge loss for them, but with guys like Aaron Pitchkolan and Galaxy-reject Brandon McDonald playing significant central roles, I don't get the impression that the overall talent of this Earthquakes team is very high.

The Quakes are in last in the West, and it showed, but they had been getting some results as of late, so to beat them on the road is a pretty satisfying feeling. I was sort of expecting a win last night, but I wasn't holding my breath. We're 7-6-4 now, and have a date with the league-leading Houston Dynamo at BMO Field next Saturday. We have to get something out of that one.

All we are saying is give Hart the job

Last night, Canada wrapped up its group stage matches at the Gold Cup in Miami, Florida. A 2-2 draw against Costa Rica gave the Canucks top spot in Group A, after two previous victories over Jamaica and El Salvador.

Stephen Hart rested a number of our key players last night, including Julian De Guzman, Ali Gerba, Dejan Jakovic, Paul Stalteri, and Atiba Hutchinson. Right now, we're ranked 92 in the world by FIFA, and a de-facto 'B' team of ours just tied the Costa Ricans, who are ranked at number 30. This team has the potential to be in the top 5 of CONCACAF, and Stephen Hart seems to be able to bring out the best in our national team.

The talent available to the Canadian national team is at an all time high, and now we need to start to move forward for the future. After the 2007 Gold Cup, it seemed like we were starting to get somewhere, but Dale Mitchell's tenure as our coach brought us all back down to the pits of CONCACAF.

We're making noise now at the Gold Cup, and let's move forward for good when the tournament's done. C'mon, give Hart the Job

It can't really happen...can it?

According to the Score's Kristian Jack, the Julian de Guzman to TFC deal is 90% done. JDG has apparently been offered a 3 and a half year deal worth $10 million.

In some respects, he's the ideal candidate to fill our designated player spot. He's Canadian, he's still in his prime, and he's from Toronto. We don't need a big-name star to sell seats - we need a big name star to help us win some more. It has been largely argued that if we are to sign a DP, he should be a striker. Part of me thinks that Mo Johnston is hoping Ali Gerba can help fill this void, and with an already stellar midfield that includes Guevara and De Rosario, he could be thinking that adding De Guzman would bring us over the top.

Aside from Toronto fans, the majority of the MLS faithful will know very little about this guy, simply because he plays for the Canadian national team, and played for Deportivo in Spain. Not exactly the footballing plateau of your average North American supporter. I'd argue that he'd instantly become the league's best midfielder though, and despite my bias, I don't think I'd be too far off. If he does sign, I think a lot of people will see this over time.

Part of the deal could see Carl Robinson leaving BMO Field. Rumours have surfaced that the Welshman is being shopped around in order to make room for De Guz. With Cronin's early success, Robbo would be expendable if JDG signs (De Guzman is hands down 10 times better than him). I wouldn't like to see Robinson go though, and I really can't see him on any other MLS side. Perhaps a move back across the pond would be in the cards?

If I recall correctly, De Guzman said on It's Called Football yesterday that he hoped to have his club future all figured out by the end of this week. It certain will be an interesting few days...

De Guz for DP?

This may be old news to some, but I hadn't touched on it yet, so I would just like to confirm that Mo Johnston and Toronto FC have indeed offered Julian De Guzman a big-money contract to be our designated player.

It's no secret that this is a hell of a longshot, but if JDG does sign, he'd instantly become arguably the top midfielder in MLS. One can dream, right?

Gerba scores for Canada in Gold Cup win

In what I hope will become a regular occurrence for us, Ali Gerba scored a wonderful half-volley last night to give us Canucks a 1-0 win over the Reggae Boys of Jamaica. Former Toronto goalkeeper Greg Sutton played well in goal for Canada, making several key saves to keep us in it. To be fair to Jamaica, they deserved something from the match. Football is about taking your chances though, and while Jamaica didn't do it, Canada was able to. Highlights from the match are below.

It was Ali Gerba's 13th goal for Canada in just his 25th appearance, as he continues to improve on his already stellar goalscoring record for our national side.

The second match of the night put hexagonal opponents Costa Rica against El Salvador, with El Salvador shocking Los Ticos 2-1 on the night. Matchday two puts Honduras against Haiti tonight, as well as USA against Greneda. Both matches will be live on Gol TV - and I have to give props to MLSE for getting these games for us.