THE STARTING 11: Things overheard at the Toronto v Liverpool friendly

Match highlights were hard to find

They came, they saw... they played their reserve team. The Merseyside circus has packed up its travelling roadshow as Liverpool FC move on to their next North American port of call... likely with a full squad. While Toronto fans may have felt a bit ripped off with the quality of players offered by those Reds, many did manage to have a good time at a fairly entertaining 1-1 draw. As the match and the SkyDome roof drew to a close, you couldn't help but overhear some interesting chatter amongst the Reds supporters (Canadian and English species) in blue seats...

11. "Rogers Center... Brendan Rodgers. Brendan Rodgers... Rogers Center."

10. "God Bless Amerikwa!"

9. "I think Luis Suarez just said something Canadianist"

8. "Our B-Squad is as good as their C-Squad!"

7. "I was so looking forward to not seeing Andy Carroll score"

6. "Adam Morgan ain't no Ashtone Morgan"

5. "I'm pretty sure Rafa Benitez just sold me a pretzel"

4. "No, I'm not Bruce Grobbelaar. Yes, you can stroke my moustache."

3. "It's just like being at Anfield... But after the match the tires are still on your car!"

2. "This is boring... let's go watch Eric Hassli and Craig Bellamy fight in the parking lot"

1. "You'll Never Walk Alone... You'll Always Pay Full Price"

Not Necessarily THE MATCHUP

"You'll Never Dome Alone"



We've already made our feelings clear (here) about Toronto FC and useless, often perilous, mid-season money-friendlies that see actual MLS fixtures re-scheduled to accommodate. So, in apathy rather than any type of misplaced protest, we will forego any kind of regular match preview or post-match report. Except of course a short piece on Sunday when the MRI scans on Ryan Johnson, Torsten Frings, Milos Kocic and Luis Silva reveal season-ending injuries.
　
If you are a local Liverpool supporter - go and enjoy your Reds. If you are a Toronto FC supporter who paid extra to spend some more time with your club - go and enjoy your Reds. If you could care less about the whole thing... here's a monkey in goal. Wearing red....


　
Paul Mariner softened the blow for any TFC fans that paid far too much money and expect to see a full squad face Liverpool by calling local supporters "smart". If Mariner is smart - and we seem to think he is - Toronto FC should line-up like-so...
　
GK - Quillan Roberts
D - Miguel Aceval
D - Ty Harden
D - Dicoy Williams
D - Aaron Maund
M - Matt Stinson
M - Oscar Cordon
M - Reggie Lambe
M - Eric Avila
F - Andrew Wiedeman
F - Keith Makubuya
　
To ease your pain at the thought of watching that team try to score against a Liverpool FC squad who will want to jog for 90 minutes here is a Panini sticker of LFC legend and sexy moustache engineer Bruce Grobbelaar... (not an actual sticker - don't try to peel screen)

　
All in all Reds supporters (of both varieties)... have a larf, pray for no injuries to TFC, don't make fun of Andy Carroll's pony-tail out loud and whatever you do - don't tell Luis Suarez that the ONLY Suarez in this town is Nick Soolsma's cat.
　
For those of you who wouldn't fathom spending a dime on this match but don't want to feel left out... here is footage from another Liverpool friendly with about as much importance...

Not in a friendly mood

Jogging Liverpudlians - free with $50 purchase!



Bafflingly, Toronto FC could spark their second "perfect storm" of supporter discontent in three years. Few need to be reminded of the ill feelings churned at BMO Field for 2009's Real Madrid friendly where TFC supporters, in the midst of yet another terrible season, were asked to pay through the nose to watch Cristiano Ronaldo do step-overs for 45 minutes. It took a long time to heal the anger of many who felt used by MLSE over that match and for many it was the final straw in supporting the local side.
　
Fast forward three years and the ownership may be stumbling daftly into the same folly. With results on the pitch reaching new lows, timing couldn't have been worse to announce the latest expensive side-show to hit Toronto – Liverpool FC. For many it smacks as yet another attempted distraction, almost telling TFC’s long suffering faithful "yes, the season is a disaster but just ignore that and come see this famous Premier League team! Oh... and pay for it please". While MLSE is feigning innocence at their "invitation" to play at Rogers Centre, most season ticket holders have been around long enough to know this song and dance.
　
For some, the money issue isn't even the biggest sin in the scenario. The ownership's happy acceptance of changing an existing MLS fixture to make room for this meaningless match is worse. For a club whose goal is apparently (just) making the playoffs, pushing the original fixture against Chicago to the crowded latter portion of the season is a slap in the face to the importance of the league to TFC's fans. Add to the equation that these mid-season friendlies (despite being worthy of shipping in real grass) have the tendency to leave tired MLS'ers injury-prone and it adds up to the feeling, rightly or wrongly, that the owners have returned to the quick "cash-grab" game.
　
Of course, there is a way that MLSE could smooth over these ill feelings. In a stadium with a football capacity near the 47,000 mark, the club could supply the 16,000 or so loyal season-ticket holders with a free ticket to the match and still leave more than 30,000 tickets left for general sale. Of course, MLSE will say they aren't the organizers of this friendly - but we are pretty sure their corporate credit card could handle treating those who line their pockets every other week of the year. This will of course not happen and some TFC fans, who voiced anger after Real Madrid in person, will instead this time show their displeasure with apathy and future absence.
　
There is no blame towards local Liverpool fans (including those who support TFC also) who want to shell out to support their Merseyside heroes - it is a rare treat. If the London club I was born into supporting was coming to town, I would do the same. However, I would not expect the person who sits next to me at BMO Field, and hates said club, have to pay to watch his TFC play them. Like in most other MLS cities, a free seat should be the minimum thanks a season ticket holder gets. More so in a city where that season ticket holder has yet to witness a playoff match.
　
The optics aren't good on this one so far. There will always be a handful of people who say that playing "a bigger" club is great experience. But many, including some players, are exasperated at the return of these midseason circuses. Toronto is a proven football market with fans that have gotten over watching European clubs work out their summer rust and instead only crave success for their local side. This match will not aid that cause and could even hinder it. As a popular Twitter hashtag trend exclaimed yesterday, Toronto FC should be seeking #TrophiesNotFriendlies.

"Ooh look over there!" Liverpool friendly marks return of shiny distractions in Toronto

Suarez: Non-feline, sometime-racist version

"We're haven't won a match in 2012... grumble, grumble"
"OMG it's Steven Gerrard for 20 minutes!"
　
"This rebuilding process is going nowhere fast"
"Yahoo we get to sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' poorly!"
　
"TFC has no depth at forward or on defence!"
"Is that Suarez?"
"My kitty cat?"
"No Soolsma - the sometimes racist Uruguayan!"
　
That's right, much like the early days of Toronto FC's existence, the sad state of the club is being promotionally ignored with a big, shiny, mid-season, absolutely meaningless friendly. Where the likes of Aston Villa, Benfica and Real Madrid once stepped, along comes those other Reds - Liverpool FC, in a match soon to be made official.
　
Unlike the previous friendlies, this one will be held in SkyDome on July 21st in a fixture that the club will carefully state is being organized by the good people at Rogers - and not them. Somehow TFC are innocent victims in this profit-making scheme which may help answer angry questions lobbed their way about their acceptance of changing a pre-existing fixture in order to open this slot. The fact that the MLS fixture is rescheduled to a date during an International break later in the year where many Reds (the Toronto kind) will be absent is none of your business. Did we mention Liverpool?
　
These mid-season friendlies - that always mange to injure someone for the season - are simply bush-league in a market like Toronto. Sure it was fine in the early days in order to build the club's popularity, but weren't we supposed to be way past that? Instead, it harkens back to the bad old days of Mo Johnston where we were expected to ignore the utter garbage of our weekly MLS existence because we'd have the honour of paying through the nose to watch Cristiano Ronaldo do keepy-uppies for 45 minutes.
　
In a season that has started off in as calamitous a fashion as possible - these shiny distractions may make a few ex-pat Merseysiders forget that TFC can't win a game but it does nothing to help the club. Watching Danny Koevermans tear his hamstring against a Liverpool reserve squad defender isn't going to make any new MLS fans out of Liverpool die-hards in attendance nor will it help develop a TFC team who may be looking at six years without playoffs. There is only one reward that Reds fans who brave BMO Field all year deserve, and it's not listening to other Reds fans pretend that SkyDome is Anfield.