Toronto FC isn't quite at the midpoint of their regular season MLS schedule, but given the amount of news generated around the club in the last few weeks, TFC upper management decided to hold their informal "midseason report card" meeting with the media on Thursday at BMO Field.
In the eyes of manager and director of soccer Mo Johnston, the team's goal-scoring problem earns the Reds an inconclusive grade.
"I'd give the team a C," Johnston said. "The squad is good enough, but we've not finished and closed in enough games given the amount of chances [we've had]. We played the two Canadian teams [Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps FC] here and should've scored five or six goals. Instead we went 1-0 and 1-0. That's not good enough. We need to start getting it done."
Those two one-goal wins in the opening two matches of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship are symbolic of TFC's entire season. Toronto won the games, but after a loss to Vancouver on June 2, the Reds will need to overcome a major goal-differential hurdle by winning by at least four goals in Montreal on June 18 in order to capture the national championship.
The same lack of finishing has given TFC a 4-5-4 record in league play, and though the Reds are tied for the fourth-most goals scored in MLS, they have a minus-4 goal differential. If the MLS Cup Playoffs started today, that minus-4 mark would be the deciding factor in keeping Toronto out of the postseason picture for the third consecutive year.
The Vancouver loss was the second in a three-game losing streak that the Reds currently find themselves on leading into this Saturday's match against the New York Red Bulls. The frustrating nature of these defeats (just one goal from 22 shots on net) has left some fans wondering if TFC is headed for another summer swoon. The team has compiled a 5-14-7 record in the months of June, July and August over the past two months.
"The last three games have been a major hiccup," Johnston said. "We see that the fans are angry with the last few games, and I feel the exact same way. ... Our strikers need to start scoring. That's why we're trying to bring in Ali [Gerba]. I feel we're playing a lot better, dominating some of the games, and we should have a lot more points than what we have. I think we're underachieving."
As Johnston noted, Tuesday's trade with San Jose for defender Nick Garcia and the discovery rights to Canadian forward Ali Gerba a step towards bringing some fresh blood to the TFC lineup. Gerba has scored 11 goals in 23 caps for Canada, and scored 10 goals in 24 games for English third-tier side Milton Keynes Dons last season.
Johnston said that he worked hard to acquire Gerba before the Canadian went to Milton Keynes last summer, but couldn't work out a deal. Gerba could attend Saturday's match with New York and Johnston hoped that a deal could be struck with the forward by as soon as Monday or Tuesday.
Johnston also mentioned some positives for TFC, such as the strong performance of first-year players Sam Cronin and Stefan Frei. The two rookies, respectively taken second and 13th overall in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft, have become fixtures in the Toronto lineup and are both major contenders for the MLS Rookie Of The Year award.
"Stefan has come in and done a helluva job. He's been great in the locker room, he's very vocal for a young kid," Johnston said. "You look at Sammy, he does a lot of stuff that the fans don't see. He's great on the ball. If you look at his Prozone stats, he's higher than anyone in the Premier League. He's right up there with the best of them."
Saturday's game was originally supposed to take place on Aug. 9, but was moved up on the schedule in order to accommodate TFC's Aug. 7 friendly with Real Madrid. The Reds will face the legendary Spanish side in what Tom Anselmi, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Maple Leaf Sports And Entertainment, believes will be a seminal moment for the sport in the city of Toronto.
"This isn't a friendly, this is an event," Anselmi said. "It's great for soccer, it's great for our fans, the opportunity for our players to play the best in the world ... they're all thrilled.
"Real Madrid doesn't go just anywhere. They're going to play in front of 80,000 fans in Washington [against D.C. United on Aug. 9], so seeing Real Madrid in a 20,000-seat building is like seeing the Rolling Stones at the El Mocambo. This is going to be a really, really cool event."
Real Madrid is currently the talk of the football world due to their multimillion dollar acquisitions of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka within the last week, and Toronto fans will be assured of seeing these two and the other Real stars. The contract for the match stipulates that, health permitting, Real Madrid must field their regulars for a minimum of 45 minutes.
Paul Beirne, TFC's director of business operations, compared Real Madrid's arrival to the big-name friendlies played by the Toronto Blizzard of the old North American Soccer League in the 1970's and '80's.
"If you talk to 35-year-old soccer fans in Toronto who were kids when the Blizzard were here, they will tell you about when Juventus played the Blizzard," Beirne said. "They'll also remember when the Blizzard plays the Cosmos. This is the kind of thing that will resonate in the hearts and minds of a lot of people."
The announcement concerning the Real Madrid exhibition has not been met with unanimous praise, however. Several TFC supporters' groups were upset that the New York match was being moved, which affected the schedules of several fans who might have been planning a trip to see the Aug. 9 game.
Also, some season-ticket holders weren't pleased that the Real Madrid contest wasn't the international friendly promised in their ticket packages. That game, in fact, will be played against Argentinean giants River Plate on July 22, and tickets to the Real Madrid game are being sold separately.
Anselmi said that tickets for the Real Madrid friendly would be available to season-ticket holders on Monday, with tickets going on sale to the general public on June 22. He also apologized for the club not having these details settled before word of the exhibition became public, though Anselmi noted that the high cost involved with bringing a club like Real to Toronto would've necessitated a similar situation even with prior notice.
"We screwed up in how this got out. It leaked in Spain or in D.C. ... and it got out before we had a chance to announce it properly, and shame on us because that's not the way to do things," Anselmi said. "If we had had them booked a year ago, we probably wouldn't have put it into the season ticket package. For every season ticket holder that is saying it should've been in the package, we would've had 50 saying 'you've driven the price of my package up, let me have the option.' "
As for the rescheduling, Anselmi said the June 13 date of the Red Bulls match was only booked after making sure the added game wouldn't create any fixture congestion or similar problems for TFC.
"When we found out Real Madrid could be a reality, the first thing we did was to go to the team and ask if they wanted to move this date," Anselmi said. "It wasn't as if we said they had to move this date or could they live with it ... we wouldn't have done this if it hadn't been advantageous to the regular season schedule. That's the priority."
Some fans (and TFC players) were also upset over the temporary grass field that will be laid at BMO Field for Real Madrid. Midfielder Dwayne De Rosario recently commented to the media that he and some of his teammates felt disrespected that the big-name visitors were being given preferential treatment over the Reds, who have been angling for a natural surface for years.
Anselmi sympathized with these concerns, but said that given the city-owned BMO Field's full event schedule, keeping the grass pitch after the Real Madrid game wouldn't be feasible.
"Real Madrid is only coming if they're going to play on grass," Anselmi said. "We want to put grass in BMO Field. We're committed to it happening, we're prepared to write a check but it's not as simple as snapping your fingers and making it happen. Grass at BMO Field and grass for Real Madrid are two completely different things."
He did note, however, that the team is working with the city to have grass at BMO Field by no later than 2011, and to create another field (possibly a renovated Lamport Stadium) that would serve as the year-round facility that the city desires.
"We're in front of city council at their next meeting in the fall," Anselmi said. "We're working with the city to get the province onside, we've got to solve the issue of where the community use goes and move that somewhere -- another check we'll have to write.
"Our players want [grass], our fans want it, everybody wants it. It's better for all of these guys and for attracting players. We're committed to it happening but it's not going to happen overnight."
A partial solution to the surface issue may be coming for the Reds within a few weeks. Johnston said that a deal is being finalized with the Pine Glen Soccer Centre in Oakville for TFC to practice twice a week on one of the facility's grass fields, just as soon as their preferred pitch is cut and prepared to the team's specifications.
The turf, the Real Madrid friendly and the team's losing streak were the impetus behind a protest held by major supporters' groups following last Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy. Interim head coach Chris Cummins, team captain Jim Brennan and Beirne met with the heads of these groups the day prior to discuss the fans' issues, and Beirne said that he appreciated this direct contact with the TFC fanbase.
"Our fans are so passionate. I'm proud of the relationship that this club and myself personally have been able to form with those guys," Beirne said. "When things are good, they're euphoric. When we go on a three-game losing streak, it's the end of the world. That's the way this business works and we wouldn't want it any other way. That's a sign of a club that's maturing. Expectations are so much higher than they were before ... the bar is a lot higher. They just wanted to express that and hold us to it."
Anselmi said that the club is devoted to answering the fans' concerns, and are just as hungry as the supporters are to see on-field success come to BMO Field.
"If our fans are upset, then our obligation is to deal with that," Anselmi said. "The fans are doing exactly what they're entitled to do by now, which is to start demanding excellence on the field. We're into Year Three, and we're hearing 'OK, soccer is fun, we get it now' ... and now they're starting to do what fans are entitled to do, which is expect the best.
"Our job is to make this team and to live up to their expectations. If you don't deliver that, people are doing to think that you don't want to or you can't, one of the two. We do want to and we believe we can."
