Is this a joke?

Before tonight, our worst loss in league play came in our ever second match at New England Revolution. We lost 4-0 that night, and at the time, we were easily the worst team in MLS. Tonight, in the most important regular season game we've ever played in, we lost 5-0, to the current worst team in MLS.

I'm not even mad. I'm laughing. So much for living for the "big games".

Matchday: Toronto FC v Real Salt Lake

Our home season ends today with a match against Real Salt Lake, who are notorious underachievers on the road (sounds familiar, right?). If all goes as planned, the referee will blow the full time whistle in the 75th minute...or not. Either way, if we don't win, we're done. It's as simple as that.

See you at the match.

2010 Home opener announced

For the second straight year, we will play host to an expansion side in our home opener. Our 2010 home opener will be on April 17 against Philadelphia Union, on a nice and new grass surface. I find the timing of the announcement a little odd, given the fact that we are nearing the end of a very, very tight playoff race.

Is the focus on next year already? I think in the back of some of the supporters' minds it is, but for the club, it certainly shouldn't be.

At least we're getting grass

Sorry for the lengthy absence - I am back. And seething with anger. This isn't exactly going to be a warm-fuzzy post about how I love TFC. It's a little negative, so brace yourself for it.

If football matches were only 75 minutes long, we'd be 3 points off of first in the league, and we'd have a playoff spot locked up. I guess the whole "Paul Winsper Fitness Guru" thing wore off pretty quickly, as aside from DeRo and Nana, this team is really dragging its ass for the last 10 minutes of every game.

I don't really want to be too hard on poor Windy though. The "experienced, no nonsense" defending of Nick Garcia has been absolutely atrocious - sometimes I find myself missing Marco Velez. After giving up an own goal and leaving McBride with a free header last weekend, Nicky ducked out of the way of Cornell Glen's equalizing goal on Saturday.

While Garcia is one player I'm often wondering why we even bothered with, another is Ali Gerba. Let's be fair to Ali, he hasn't seen enough action - but that's the problem. Wasn't signing a clinical finisher like him supposed to help our goalscoring void that Chad Barrett and Pablo Vitti have so hopelessly left open? We aren't really set up ideally for Gerba though - a big target forward. When Sam Cronin (a defensive midfielder) and Chad Barrett (an inept striker) are your best options on the wing, our service out wide leaves a lot to be desired.

So, if we can't go out wide, why not through the middle? After all, DeRo, Guevara, and De Guzman are among the league's elite in the middle of the park. While this may be true, I recall hearing Craig Forrest talking about how there isn't enough "creativity in the side" when we needed a winner in Chicago. We have DeRo and Guevara - how much creativity to we need?

I don't want to come across as knocking DeRo though, because there really aren't many bad things to say about his play this year. He's single-handedly carried this team on his back at times and is undoubtedly our team MVP.

In the end though, I look at Carl Robinson's season-ending injury and think "how fitting?" He is done for the season because he collided with a trialist. The week before the biggest match of the season. A trialist. So much for stability and cohesiveness within the team. The story of TFC 2009 is stupid and unecessary breakdowns, and something has to change.

At least we're getting grass...