------------------------ Does this offend you? Should I stop? Wow, the DeRosario goal parade is marching along as the midfield hitman has bagged all of the reds goals thus far in the season's infancy. Mo still has a job. It's a typical "sunny Glasgow afternoon" in Toronto (meaning drizzling piss). And TFC's "flashes of brilliance" have mostly involved a penalty spot - EXACTLY WHAT IS OUTLINED IN YEAR 4 OF A 5 YEAR PLAN, RIGHT MO!?!
Pre-kickoff - my rendition of the American national anthem has offended someone to the point of confrontation. My apologies to the man, his American wife (who came up here for a better life, I suspect) and the arduous three years of "offence". I only wish you could have said something in a more timely manner, as in three years ago. I really wanted to ask you to suck it up, right to free speech and all that type of stuff and perhaps channel that rage to something valuable. But hey, take your small victory and revel in it because you made the world a better place for you. Nevermind that I have many American friends, I have family in America. Your opinion matters most. So I will sing the American national anthem in the key befitting of a tenor, like myself, next game. I still win.
I bring this anecdote to your attention because it really did a number on my fire for the game.
Predictions : 2-0 to Seattle. Call us haters if you will (and many of you will), but do you really believe Toronto is capable of a cohesive victory against anyone right now? If you answer "yes" to this question, please click here for a report more to your liking. If you answer "no", please enjoy our comfy blog.
Also, it's raining and making my notebook wet. I'm not going to guess at the starting 11 from here, but it looks close to the starting 11 from the beginning of the second half against Philly.
Early quote of the match:
I've read your website, it's like TMZ for football.
- Gentleman infront of us
10' - Labrocca interrupts a clearance, and ends up laying a ball into the path of The Chad who does the right thing by backing off for White to fire a shot, causing Keller to make a palm diving save. The Chad is getting better folks, I swear...
15' - YELLOW - Saric for, um, stuff...
17' - YELLOW - This time I caught Usanov for a late tackle and a booking
20' - The Chad "falls" and the ref "ignores" his pleas for an outside-of-the-box free kick. It wasn't a foul Chad, get up.
22' - Labrocca has a go from 20 yds out and just zips wide right of the post. Nice to know someone else is willing to take a chance.
33 - Labrocca free kick redirects for a corner by a leaping hand... no card? Really? Hmmm...
Quote of the match:
Yes, asskissing does work people.
HALF-TIME MOOD: 2 parts melancholy, 1 part confusion
49' - Sturgis (umm... that's what I wrote) gets a bit of a break down the right side and fires a shot right at Frei. Very weak effort.
51' - YELLOW - Cann goes into the book for his own late tackle. I'm 50/50 on this one so I'll say he deserved it.
56' - Seattle pressure to the right of Frei results in human pinball and after about the 8th ricochet, Labrocca clears the ball.
58' - GOAL - DeRosario ends up on the end of a Seattle screw up on the edge of the box and punishes the mistake rightly so. Without his smooth funky robot celebratory dance, I was informed the goal was in dedication of the memory of his late Uncle. Very nice sir.
60' - The Chad can't settle a ball, which segues nicely into a Sounders counter attack. Evans on a break from 40 yrds out and Frei comes sliding out and prevents a real chance. Outstanding save.
62' - SUB - The Chad is off, Gargan is on. Not sure of the logic of this one. Chad wasn't particularly poor. Maybe he was hurt. Maybe Gargan learned which way the offence was pointing (hint: magnetic north)
74' - SUB - Labrocca is off, Cronin is on. I'm glad to see Cronin get some time. There's no way anyone could put forth an arguement that Labrocca or Gargan is a better wide midfielder than Cronin, but I'm not Preki...
75' - Ljungberg runs right into the path of Attakora and falls down like a house of cards for a free kick. I guess he's getting in those dives now. Nothing becomes of it.
76' - GOAL - Oh. Good. God! This is something straight out of the good footy! DeRo crosses a low ball just inside the 18 yd box to find White and one touch BURIES it opposite right. Top shelf, top class, Keller didn't have a chance. Brilliant.
79' - SUB - DeRo is off, your favourite apple and mine, Gabe Gala is in. Big round of applause deservedly so.
83' - Ljundberg gets a give and go with Zakuani, with the ensuing scramble leads the ball to Montero's feet and Frei all over him to make another outstanding save. Again.
4 MINUTES OF EXTRA TIME
FULL TIME : Toronto 2, Seattle 0
Man of the Match : DeRosario was great, but Frei bailed us out on opportunities that usually end up in goals against. Frei kept TFC in it, Frei is our MotM.
Goat of the Game : Nobody was particularly clueless. Our defence each took a turn being a screw up. Between the four of them, there were 3 good players and one goat. So 1/4 of each defender = "goat"
Ref Rating : 4 out of 5. Did a great job keeping things in order. The linesman was out in force doing the 10-yard free kick enforcement thing and every blown call and a freebie recovery call later. Great balance, let them play. Very content.
The brains behind most of TheYorkies.ca postings said it best : everything is coming together, we just need a spine... a centreback or two and a forward. Our centre of the field is the weakest part and it's true. Are TFC turning a corner? It's hard to say, but when they looked good, they looked really good. And when they looked sloppy, it wasn't cusp-of-an-anyeurism kind of stupid sloppy. This was a much better TFC than the previous 4 games thus far.
Also, we would like to gush for our love, yet again, for the North End Elite. We saw not 1 anti-Mo banner, but 2 and an anti-MLSE one. Seriously. I love them. They CARE folks. They want better of TFC. They want better treatment of us supporters. Some more respect and transparancy of the front office. Seriously, I would hug them all. Best. Tifos. Ever.
Next game is NutCan time! Montreal is visiting. Hopefully we'll see a TFC that is overpowering and comprehensive... but Wednesday is a lifetime away.
10' - Labrocca interrupts a clearance, and ends up laying a ball into the path of The Chad who does the right thing by backing off for White to fire a shot, causing Keller to make a palm diving save. The Chad is getting better folks, I swear...
15' - YELLOW - Saric for, um, stuff...
17' - YELLOW - This time I caught Usanov for a late tackle and a booking
20' - The Chad "falls" and the ref "ignores" his pleas for an outside-of-the-box free kick. It wasn't a foul Chad, get up.
22' - Labrocca has a go from 20 yds out and just zips wide right of the post. Nice to know someone else is willing to take a chance.
33 - Labrocca free kick redirects for a corner by a leaping hand... no card? Really? Hmmm...
Quote of the match:
It's like the Daily Show of blogs
- Gentleman to our left
Yes, asskissing does work people.
HALF-TIME MOOD: 2 parts melancholy, 1 part confusion
49' - Sturgis (umm... that's what I wrote) gets a bit of a break down the right side and fires a shot right at Frei. Very weak effort.
51' - YELLOW - Cann goes into the book for his own late tackle. I'm 50/50 on this one so I'll say he deserved it.
56' - Seattle pressure to the right of Frei results in human pinball and after about the 8th ricochet, Labrocca clears the ball.
58' - GOAL - DeRosario ends up on the end of a Seattle screw up on the edge of the box and punishes the mistake rightly so. Without his smooth funky robot celebratory dance, I was informed the goal was in dedication of the memory of his late Uncle. Very nice sir.
60' - The Chad can't settle a ball, which segues nicely into a Sounders counter attack. Evans on a break from 40 yrds out and Frei comes sliding out and prevents a real chance. Outstanding save.
62' - SUB - The Chad is off, Gargan is on. Not sure of the logic of this one. Chad wasn't particularly poor. Maybe he was hurt. Maybe Gargan learned which way the offence was pointing (hint: magnetic north)
74' - SUB - Labrocca is off, Cronin is on. I'm glad to see Cronin get some time. There's no way anyone could put forth an arguement that Labrocca or Gargan is a better wide midfielder than Cronin, but I'm not Preki...
75' - Ljungberg runs right into the path of Attakora and falls down like a house of cards for a free kick. I guess he's getting in those dives now. Nothing becomes of it.
76' - GOAL - Oh. Good. God! This is something straight out of the good footy! DeRo crosses a low ball just inside the 18 yd box to find White and one touch BURIES it opposite right. Top shelf, top class, Keller didn't have a chance. Brilliant.
79' - SUB - DeRo is off, your favourite apple and mine, Gabe Gala is in. Big round of applause deservedly so.
83' - Ljundberg gets a give and go with Zakuani, with the ensuing scramble leads the ball to Montero's feet and Frei all over him to make another outstanding save. Again.
4 MINUTES OF EXTRA TIME
FULL TIME : Toronto 2, Seattle 0
Man of the Match : DeRosario was great, but Frei bailed us out on opportunities that usually end up in goals against. Frei kept TFC in it, Frei is our MotM.
Goat of the Game : Nobody was particularly clueless. Our defence each took a turn being a screw up. Between the four of them, there were 3 good players and one goat. So 1/4 of each defender = "goat"
Ref Rating : 4 out of 5. Did a great job keeping things in order. The linesman was out in force doing the 10-yard free kick enforcement thing and every blown call and a freebie recovery call later. Great balance, let them play. Very content.
The brains behind most of TheYorkies.ca postings said it best : everything is coming together, we just need a spine... a centreback or two and a forward. Our centre of the field is the weakest part and it's true. Are TFC turning a corner? It's hard to say, but when they looked good, they looked really good. And when they looked sloppy, it wasn't cusp-of-an-anyeurism kind of stupid sloppy. This was a much better TFC than the previous 4 games thus far.
Also, we would like to gush for our love, yet again, for the North End Elite. We saw not 1 anti-Mo banner, but 2 and an anti-MLSE one. Seriously. I love them. They CARE folks. They want better of TFC. They want better treatment of us supporters. Some more respect and transparancy of the front office. Seriously, I would hug them all. Best. Tifos. Ever.
Next game is NutCan time! Montreal is visiting. Hopefully we'll see a TFC that is overpowering and comprehensive... but Wednesday is a lifetime away.
Posts
I have no clue where you sit and might be wary of your post-game hugging fever, but may I call your blog the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson of blogs?
ReplyDelete@stillkicking
ReplyDeleteSure thing sir. I'll take that over being the Oprah of blogs anytime.