Chivas USA Preview

It's make or break time. Well, maybe not - one good weekend of results can make quite the difference in this league. Nonetheless, with a majority of our home season done, we have to take some points on the road, and taking three from Chivas USA tonight would be a fantastic way to start a three-match road trip.

We beat the Goats in April for the first time in our brief history. Amado Guevara scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win - one which surprised many supporters as we were struggling going in to the match and Chivas were atop the league table.

Things have changed a lot at the Home Depot Center since then. The Galaxy are now the frontrunners in Los Angeles, with Chivas USA struggling as of late. They have slipped from first in the league to fifth in the West.

On our end, if the season were to end right now, we'd be in the playoffs - just. We can make up ground on Chicago, who lost mid-week, and potentially create some more space ahead of DC United. The task won't be easy though. Nick Garcia and Marvell Wynne are both listed as questoinable, while Jim Brennan is suspended. This should make way for a debut for Haitian international Lesley Fellinga, while with Wynne and Garcia's returns, Chris Cummins will have to decide whether or not Nana Attakora or Emmanuel Gomez will retain their spots in the squad.

All of Nick Garcia, Carl Robinson, Adrian Serioux, and Chad Barrett will be suspended after their next yellow cards, so there is a bit of a cause for concern there. With the emergence of Gomez, Attakora, Sanyang, and White, our depth is looking a bit better now than I would have expected one month ago.

No game in MLS is easy, and this one certainly won't be. It's not out of our reach though, so I'm slightly optimistic of getting a result tonight - either three points, or one.

Dynamo get it right with their DP

On Thursday, the Houston Dynamo unveiled their first ever designated player, announcing they have signed 24 year-old Mexican striker Luis Angel Landin on loan from Cruz Azul. In signing Landin, the Dynamo had to release Ade Akinbiyi, who joined the team earlier this summer.

This is a good signing. Dominic Kinnear's strike-force now features Brian Ching, Kei Kamara, and Luis Angel Landin - not bad. Landin isn't your run-of-the-mill retiree DP, and I expect he will have a better effect on Houston than a 33+ year-old would. He's been capped four times by the Mexican National Team, and has a bright future ahead of him in his country's set up.

Well done to the Houston Dynamo.

Osorio resigns as the Red Bulls really are shite

It's been a long time coming, really. Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned from as the head coach of the New York Red Bulls. After leading the Red Bulls to the MLS Cup Final last season - after a mediocre regular season, mind you - Osorio has led New York to an embarrassing 2-16-4 so far this season.

The 2009 Red Bulls are on pace for record-setting season of MLS futility, something you wouldn't expect from a team with arguably the league's best striker in Juan Pablo Angel. Nonetheless, when I watch New York play I feel like I'm watching something worse than USL-2 - no offense Red Bulls fans. The NFL lines at Giants Stadium just make it that much worse. A New York supporter could look at the bright side though, they'll at least have the league's best stadium next year, right...

Toronto FC 2 - 0 DC United - Match Report

Goals from Dwayne De Rosario and O'Brian White gave us a 2-0 win over DC United yesterday at BMO Field. Here was our starting eleven: Stefan Frei, Nana Attakora, Emmanuel Gomez, Adrian Serioux, Jim Brennan, Amadou Sanyang, Carl Robinson, Sam Cronin, Pablo Vitti, O'Brian White, and Dwayne De Rosario.

I was a little surprised by that lineup - mainly with all of the youth involved in the team. All of Sanyang, Gomez, Attakora, and White were included.

I think it showed for the first bit of the match. I didn't think we played too well in the first half. Despite this, we lead 1-0 through a headed goal by Dwayne De Rosario. Even though we were poor, DC was even worse. They controlled the ball pretty well in the midfield I thought, but failed to create any real chances, and with players like Santino Quaranta, Fred, Luciano Emilio, and Christian Gomez spearheading your attack, you'd expect them to come up with at least something. They didn't though, and we were one-nil up at the end of the first half.

In the second half, I thought we were much better. Amado Guevara came in for Carl Robinson and really transformed our midfield. His ability to control the ball in the middle of the pitch is unmatched on our team. The clinching goal - and the highlight of the match - came in the 66th minute off of a corner kick. After a scramble in the area, Nana Attakora fed O'Brian White who calmly finished to give us the 2-0 lead. It was White's first ever goal as a professional soccer player, and after recovering from a terrible ACL injury, you know that goal will mean a lot to him.

As the match went on after White's goal, DC was still unable to produce any real goal-threatening attacks and in the end, I thought we fully deserved the 2-0 win.

Player Ratings

Frei 7, Attakora 9, Serioux 6, Gomez 6, Brennan 6, Robinson 4 (Guevara 7), Cronin 7, Sanyang 6, Vitti 6, De Rosario 6, White 7

Man of the Match: For me, Nana Attakora was our best defender, and possibly our best player on the day. He contained Luciano Emilio - a DP forward - very comfortably. Stephen Hart, cap him now!

Becks sent off

Surely, MLS is now entering a new era.

David Beckham was shown a straight red last night by Ricardo Salazar at the Home Depot Center as the Los Angeles Galaxy lost 2-0 to Seattle Sounders FC. Becks flew in studs up on former Galaxy teammate Peter Vagenas and Salazar very quickly pulled out his red card.

Click here to see the replay. It's a questionable call, but I've seen those given before last night.

I'm back

For those of you who paid attention to my very inactive Twitter feed, I was on holidays all week. I'm back now, and here's a quick summary of what's happened in the past week at Toronto FC...

On August 12, we signed Haitian international left-back Lesley Fellinga, who had previously played in the Eredivisie at Heerenveen. Fellinga was included in Haiti's squad for the recent Gold Cup, but didn't really feature much for his country. Click here to check out an interview with Fellinga on Toronto FC TV.

The best news of the week came the next day, when we officially released inept defender Marco Velez. I'm not really sure what Mo ever saw in him, because he never really looked like becoming a competent defender in MLS. In 31 appearances for us, Velez was sent off twice - nice work.

Yesterday, we beat DC United 2-0, with DeRo scoring his ninth of the season in the first half while O'Brian White scored his first career MLS goal in the second half. I'll have more on this win later on today.

Match Night: Toronto FC @ Puerto Rico Islanders

Anyone down for another miracle?

Let's face it - we ran the Islanders off the pitch last Wednesday. We didn't score though, and they did, and in the end, that's what counts. After our 6-1 win over Montreal in June, I'm not ruling out anything. Nonetheless, this task seems a bit more daunting.

A 2-1 win will do it for us. Based on the away goals rule, any win aside from 1-0 will see us through to the group stage. Of course, I'd like to win by more, but that might be a big ask. Stay tuned throughout the night - I'll be updating as the night goes on.

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

Full time - 0-0. We're out. A bright side...less fixtures?

93' - White with a header wide! Something tells me that's it...

91' - Nick Garcia with a shot from 30 yards. WTF?!?!?!?

90' - Barrett with another cross over everyone. Three minutes of added time.

88' - Red Card to Jagdeosingsdgshfaq. I think I'm about as confused as he is...

87' -DeRo hits it over...again.

85' - OBW coming on. Brennon off. It'd be a nice first career goal, right OB?

80' - Ten more minutes. Just one guys. C'mon. Just one.

77' - DICHIO HITS THE POST. HOLY SHIT. JUST GO IN THE DAMN NET.

72' - True or False: Chad Barrett's crossing is as bad as his finishing...

69' - This pressure is looking eerily familiar. This bad refereeing is too.

65' - Gerba's appeals for a penalty are denied. Wrongfully denied, I might add.

64' - Wynne sends a left-footed drive just wide. We've been able to maintain possession better this half. If we don't score though, it will all mean nothing (yes, I know - how insightful).

61' - Vitti with the header tipped over by Gaudette. Getting closer.

48' - De Rosario gets us started with a couple of quick chances. He seems to have picked up the tempo. Can the rest of the team follow his lead?

46' - Second half kickoff. The starting eleven + Dichio in the pre-half huddle.

Halftime - In Puerto Rico, two minutes of stoppage time means one minute! I think if I was in the stands and I walked past you and my shirt brushed yours, this referee would call a foul. Want some insight on the match? To say I'm impressed would be...an overstatement. We're playing very direct, but we are having hardly any possession. Hopefully this becomes one of those "better late than never" instances. See you in the second half.

42' - Almost a decent chance! But in the end it wasn't. That sucks.

40' - Gerba with a drive on goal. Gaudette saves.

36' - Offside on Puerto Rico!!!! Okay, maybe not a game-changing event (or is it?). Anyhow, we're getting pwned in possession. DeRo, Vitti, Guevara, and Gerba haven't really been able to take control yet.

29' - Marvell Wynne uses his pace on a fantastic run that results in a blocked shot from Pablo Vitti. Our best chance so far? Perhaps.

25' - Amado Guevara with a candidate for the "Most Amusing Tackle" award. Bring on the stretcher - can you sense the urgency?

22' - Coming up at half time..."Off the Pitch with Marco Velez." So long as he's not on the pitch. Ever.

20' - Jason de Vos is commenting on how the Islanders seem to have too much time to pick out a good pass or a good cross. I was thinking the exact same thing, I swear...

14' - Worrying moments for us. Puerto Rico hits the post. Not sure what urgency means to some of our players...

13' - For a second there, I thought Gerba's shot was going in.

10' - It's pretty loud in that half-empty stadium. Columbus fans should take note.

9' - Some moron in the stands keeps confusing me by blowing his whistle really loud. Not cool. Worse things have happened though. Our best chance so far has been a header by DeRo that went a few feet wide.

3' - And we're off! And still 0-0. I want goals!

Pre-match - Our starting eleven: Stefan Frei, Marvell Wynne, Nick Garcia, Adrian Serioux, Jim Brennan, Carl Robinson, Sam Cronin, Amado Guevara, Pablo Vitti, Dwayne De Rosario, Ali Gerba.

Pre-match - Kickoff in seven minutes. A healthy Amado Guevara should be a huge addition to the lineup tonight. His ability in the middle for us was sorely missed over the past two matches, and hopefully the link-up play between Guevara, DeRo, Vitti, and Gerba can create a lot of goals.

Curt Onalfo out at Kansas City

The Kansas City Wizards have sacked head coach Curt Onalfo. The firing comes just two days after the Wizards were torn apart by bottom-feeding FC Dallas, 6-0, on the back end of a four-goal performance by Jeff Cunningham.

Onalfo took charge in Kansas City in 2007 and lead the Wizards to a 27-29-22 record over the past two years.

Montreal to MLS in 2011? Maybe so...

According to Don Garber's recent interview with Forbes, Montreal could be joining our league as soon as 2011. Click here for MLS Rumor's report and video of it.

This league needs more soccer markets, and the Montreal Impact supporters have proved time and time again that their city is indeed a soccer market. The American MLS supporter might not want more Canadian teams in this league, but one thing is for sure, and that is that the stadiums up here won't be the one's with 11,000 people in the ground on matchday.

Toronto FC 1 - 1 New England Revolution

Gee...thanks Chad. Well, I guess I shouldn't be too bitter. A point away to New England is a good result for us in the end.

I can't really blame only Chad though, as both Nick Garcia and the referee can come in to question tonight. I generally dislike most referees in this league, but two stick out - Tim Weyland, and Terry Vaughan. Tonight, we had the latter, and he really put in quite an interesting performance tonight.

Chad Barrett, the person, might be a cool guy. Chad Barrett, the player, though? I hate him. Today he was outmuscled and outplayed time and time again by a rookie and his reaction to getting beaten was by fouling the player. He's arguably the league's worst finisher, and I'm starting to think his soccer IQ is worse than my grandmother's. Just when I think he's starting to come around (see our 3-1 win in San Jose...) he goes and shits the bed like this. Both of his cards were on unnecessary fouls and his sending off ultimately changed the way we played the second half.

Even despite this, we still could have won, if it were not for Nick Garcia's inept defending on the Revolution's goal. I think one of life's great mysteries from now on will be about why he didn't try to get something on that looping header that Jankauskas got on the end of. After seeing Garcia over the last few matches, I think it's pretty clear that signing him was more of a desperation move than anything from Mo Johnston. That said, it's better then Velez...I guess there's always a bright side.

Aside from that though, it was an awesome match. In fact, we should have won, had it not been for the Mr. Chad "trade me for Cunningham" Barrett. The first half was end-to-end stuff, and DeRo's goal was absolute class. He has 8 goals and 3 assists for us now, which is more than he had all of last season in both categories.

I'll have more on the match later. I just had to go on a quick rant.

MLS All-Star Game Highlights

For those of you (like me) who missed the All-Star game this past Wednesday, here are the highlights. Everton beat the All-Stars in penalties after the two teams drew 1-1 over 90 minutes of play. Tim Howard saved Freddie Ljungberg's penalty to give the Toffees the win.

Pozniak returns...to Vancouver

Just days after talks with us had broken down, defender Chris Pozniak signed with cross-country rivals Vancouver Whitecaps.

After Kevin Harmse was traded to Chivas, Pozniak was spotted training with us and many, myself included, hoped he would be set for a return to TFC. It wasn't to be however, as apparently we were having "salary cap" issues. I find this interesting, seeing as Johann Smith, Rohan Ricketts, and Greg Sutton have all been waived in the last six weeks.

Lesly Fellinga of Heerenveen to TFC

Bye bye Velez?

Steve Goff, from the Soccer Insider, is reporting that we are closing in on a deal for Haitian international left-back Lesly Fellinga. The 23 year-old has been capped 4 times by Haiti, and for me, would be a welcome addition to a very weak Toronto FC defense.

If we do sign Fellinga, we will have back up for Jim Brennan at left-back, and that gives us the potential to put Jimmy B at centre half, where he played quite well for us in year one (but that year sucked, so it's really hard to say...). Either way, I'm not going to complain about adding another defender, unless he turns out to be Velez 2.0.

Well that sucked

To say I was frustrated after Wednesday's 1-0 loss to Puerto Rico Islanders in the CONCACAF Champions League would be an understatement. We dominated them, and were by far the better team. In the end though, that doesn't really matter. We still lost, and we have it all to do next week in Puerto Rico.

When we acquired DeRo in December, some supporters questioned whether or not Amado Guevara was still a necessary piece to our puzzle. Some said he was surplus. I think Wednesday's match all but confirms that he is an essential part of this team in the middle of the park for us. The Islanders packed the middle for the majority of the match, and we had no one who could undo that. All of our attacks in the second half came down the wing, and it evidently didn't go as planned.

I want to point out that Islanders' goalkeeper Bill Gaudette is an embarrassment. I've seen Central American goalkeepers who are tougher than him. As much as I don't condone beer-throwing, I was pretty happy when he was hit with one towards the end of the game.

I don't think there is any question as to who our best striker is. It's Ali Gerba - he can hold the ball up as good as anyone and he works his ass off to boot. He's kind of like a younger Dichio with some speed. I think we all expected him to be good, so I'm glad that he hasn't let us down thus far. He had a goal disallowed, and even though it didn't stand, I think it's fair to say that he rounded their goalkeeper and finished much better than any other striker on this team could have.

Another bright spot for me was the play of Emmanuel Gomez. After the game in Columbus, Chris Cummins mentioned that strikers were being left open by "the same defenders". He obviously meant Marco Velez. Gomez, who had three minutes of professional experience before Wednesday night, got the nod ahead of the former Islander, who couldn't stay goal-side on a sack of potatoes. In my mind, Marco Velez has to go. He has proven time and time again that he can't compete at this level.

We're in New England tonight, and like every match against an Eastern Conference rival, this is basically a must-win. After our last two debacles, I really hope that we can show some character and come back with an away win at Gillette Stadium, a place we have never won at.