SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES VS. TORONTO FCBuck Shaw Stadium - Saturday 10:30PM EST
TV: Rogers Sportsnet / Radio: The Fan590
Toronto enters the unofficial second half of the season with a trip to Northern California. If TFC can break its away form hoodoo it would have to be in the old 1970's stomping grounds of Georgie Best. That being said, the ghost of Best wouldn't be caught undead at the glorified high school field that is Buck Shaw Stadium. Lots of new stadium plans were promised when San Jose was "re-franchised" a couple of years ago but not a shovel has been seen. Why this town keeps getting football teams beats me. If TFC can't beat them though, the rest of the road trip only gets worse.
TORONTO FC: 6-4-6 22 pts - 4th in East (7th Overall)
The Reds are coming off one of their most miserable losses, a truly dire 3-0 loss to Real Salt Lake two weeks ago. Hopefully a fortnight's rest and the California sun will rejuvenate the lads and see them play more than 15 minutes of football. There was a concern that leading goal scorer and assist man Amado Guevara would be out due to political conflict but the midfielder managed to escape his native Honduras like a young Rambo III. Sam Cronin is away on Gold Cup duty and defender Nick Garcia may miss a chance to tackle ex-teammate Darren Huckerby with a slight groin pull. Dirty dog.
SAN JOSE EARTQUAKES: 3-4-8 13 pts - 8th in West (13th Overall)
The Tremors (not their real nickname but what a great movie!) are having a tough sophomore season and find themselves floundering near the bottom of MLS. There is quality in that there Silicon Valley though. Huckerby and former Reading man Bobby Convey are still top quality and one gets the feeling that this team isn't quite as bad as their record. They are also strong in goal since acquiring goalkeeper/ adult film star Joe Cannon...ladies! No football fan in Canada can ignore the fact that the Quakes manager is still Frank Yallop. The poor record in San Jose has whispers circling about his future but he was still the best Canadian National coach (despite being cut off at the knees by the CSA) and many Reds' supporters would love to hand the former Ipswich man the keys to TFC's garage. Now if Toronto can just defend against George Best's ghost. "Bustin' makes me feel good!"
Posts
Blimey old frankie Yallop, there's a blast from the past. What a star played for my local team Ipswich Town, play 385 games scoring 8 goals, an outstanding score sheet for a defender.
ReplyDeleteLets not forget that he spent most of his Ipswich career playing alongside fellow Canadian Craig "I'll pick it up from the back of the net" Forrest. I'll be surprised if Craig hasn't got some sort of lumbar spine injury as a result of all the bending down he did at Portman Road to retrieve the ball from the goal! I hear through my spys that he spends much of his time commentating on the TFC matches now, well at least he only has himself to blame if he messes up unlike in his Town days when it was everyone elses fault if the ball landed against the netting. The defenders, the midfield, the coach, the Russians anyone except you Craig, its a simple job stop the ball as the last line of defence.
Anyway enough about butter fingers Forrest, the ods are against the Reds, going on past meetings, so I for one will have my fingers crossed to see if they can change the tide.
Keith - Earl of Mendlesham