What now for Toronto?
At the end of a traumatic week for Toronto, as three straight defeats all but ended the team’s playoff hopes in dramatic fashion, the team’s locker room had that feel of defeated locker rooms the world over. Players staring into space, a few muted interviews taking place around the room ... But even by those standards this felt like more than the reaction to a one-off loss, as the reality of a season that began with much fanfare and optimism sputtered out with Toronto almost certainly missing the playoffs, as they have done every year of their MLS existence.
This year was supposed to be different. On October 29 2013, Tim Leiweke, the sporting director of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment had promised that his regime would be turning around all the company’s sports teams but that the fastest turnaround would be seen at Toronto FC. Speaking at a Toronto Empire Club luncheon Leiweke proclaimed:
“Mark it down, write it down, film it … We’re going to turn TFC around and we’re going to make the playoffs next year. We know where we’re headed, we know how to get there. We’ve been given the resources of this ownership group and we will get to the right place.”
Enter Brazilian striker Gilberto, and of course Michael Bradley and Jermain Defoe, during the off-season, and the pre-season mood in Toronto looked suspiciously like optimism. An opening day win in Seattle raised expectation to fever pitch and then … Toronto’s campaign seemed to get mired in the BMO Field mud. Bradley was influential at times, but his season was interrupted by a World Cup while Defoe scored goals, but struggled with injury and caused concern when he seemed to be flirting with an immediate return to the Premier League during the transfer window.
And while the three straight defeats to LA Galaxy, ten-man Houston Dynamo and New York Red Bulls this week, may have virtually extinguished for Toronto’s playoff hopes (they need to win their next two while Columbus lose their next two), in truth the season’s momentum had long since evaporated, along with the bullishness of Leiweke’s statements. Leiweke’s announced departure for 2015 was quickly followed by coach Ryan Nelsen being relieved of his duties, and while the playoffs remained a possibility, replacement Greg Vanney was not given a lot of time to shape the team in his image and saw Toronto’s playoff campaign derailed this week.
There may still be some bright spots. If it seems strange to be thinking in terms of optimism after the latest installment in competitive futility, Vanney was speaking after the game of the core of a playoff squad being in place, and he’s right. Looking down the Toronto roster, more moving parts for a good side seem to be in place than at any point in the last few seasons, and Vanney’s faith that no major overhaul is needed has enough evidence to support it — more wins and points than any previous Toronto side, even if there’s little chance of that resulting in a berth above the red line.
Certainly the higher line Vanney’s got the team playing is taking its time to bed in, and the defense has been leakier than it should be as a result. And the attack needs more dimensions than the admittedly potent threat of Michael Bradley’s chips over the top from midfield. But Vanney might feel that given a proper pre-season with this group and a few key additions, Toronto can make that elusive breakthrough next year. If they do it won’t be through dramatically sweeping all before them as Leiweke might have suggested, but through the less dramatic and affordable virtue of continuity. GP
Real Salt Lake are finally over the line, despite missing strikeforce
It’s taken longer than expected but Real Salt Lake are in their seventh successive MLS playoffs and the first under head coach Jeff Cassar.
In doing so the Utah team will be hoping that a decent but streaky seasons has taken one its upturns just in time for the playoffs. Prior to Saturday night’s 2-0 defeat of San Jose, RSL had won just twice in seven games, including a surprise loss to Chivas USA last week (maybe not that surprising — Chivas had already beaten RSL in June) that had left them waiting another week to confirm their playoff place.
RSL would have been wary of regarding any game as a gimme after last week’s result, but a home game against this year’s San Jose Earthquakes certainly represented a golden opportunity to earn at least the point they needed to qualify. The Earthquakes have appeared distracted by their ongoing new-build stadium project this year and current head coach Mark Watson has had to endure the indignity of an approach for Houston’s Dom Kinnear being made public. Further indignity was heaped on them on Saturday night as Chivas USA overhauled them in the Western Conference standings thanks to their second successive win, while the Earthquakes were going down 2-0 to goals by Ned Grabavoy and Sebastian Velasquez.
If those goalscorers sound unfamiliar that’s no surprise, injuries and international call ups had robbed RSL of the players of Joao Plata, Javier Morales, and Alvaro Saborio — players who between them had score almost three-quarters of RSL’s goal tally this year. Grabavoy’s drive through traffic for his second goal of the season was a relief for more reasons than just the playoff scenario.
The work isn’t done yet though. From being one time Supporters Shield contenders, RSL still have work to do to avoid a playoff game against Vancouver or Portland, who in trading blows for the final playoff spot have rounded into form. They’re a team whose style of possession soccer and historically shrewd recruitment of archetypes, as much as individual talents, has given them a formidable consistency as the years have gone on — certainly remarkable within a parity-structured MLS system that tends to mitigate against such consistency. Last year was supposed to see the team undone by the changes forced by a successful core of players taking the team near the salary cap. Instead they reached two cup finals and were within a saved penalty of winning MLS Cup. This year the departure of Jason Kreis was supposed to see the team come undone — instead we’ve seen remarkable continuity from a team and a head coach who’ve widely trusted to the institutional memory of what works.
There have been wobbles though — the loss of much of the team’s spine to World Cup duty robbed them of their unbeaten start, while most recently the team’s results have been slipping again. But with the playoffs secured and dangerous players to return, RSL can once again contemplate the possibility of another deep post-season run. GP
Vancouver keep playoff race alive as focus turns to seedings
By the time Dallas and LA Galaxy had finished squaring off on Sunday night we were already moving past playoff contenders and into the jockeying for position in the race for playoff seeding.
In the East, with DC United’s first win in Houston earlier on Sunday (a rain-delayed 3-1 victory), the Dynamo were eliminated from playoff contention and New York had their playoff spot confirmed. Columbus had eliminated Philadelphia and all but confirmed their own spot on Saturday afternoon, while Lee Nguyen’s heroics against Montreal had seen New England qualify to join DC and Sporting KC.
The results left Toronto hanging by a thread, and the once wide open Eastern Conference field suddenly narrowed to a separated pack who, other than DC, look principally concerned with avoiding a wild card game. Essentially New York and Columbus will contest a wild card game to avoid the wild card next weekend, with the Red Bulls and Sporting playing another one the week after. Somewhere in the midst of those final games, New England may be asked to extinguish the last flicker of hope for Toronto on the final day of the season.
Speaking of hope, on Friday night, Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson actually gave his team’s fans a note permitting them to support the Seattle Sounders in Friday night’s clash with Vancouver, who have been trading the 5th playoff spot back and forth with the Timbers in recent weeks.
It didn’t do any good — Vancouver, once the also-rans of the Cascadia Cup, beat Seattle 1-0 thanks to a Kekuta Manneh goal to take this year’s Cascadia Cup and the initiative going into the final two games. With Portland taking on last year’s problem team for them, Real Salt Lake, on Friday night, Vancouver could yet go into Saturday’s trip to Western basement club San Jose knowing that a win would see them into the playoffs.
The margin for error remains small though. Dallas completing a come-from-behind win over LA on Sunday night means that there’s only one playoff spot left, to be decided between the Whitecaps and Timbers. Above them LA and Seattle go into their end-of-season doubleheader to determine the Supporters Shield winners and number one playoff seeds, both having lost this weekend, while RSL and Dallas, both having slipped somewhat in the early fall, are looking to see off the other to clinch third place and avoid a wild card game. GP
Lee Nguyen continues to make case for place in Klinsmann’s squad
So did he mean it? Did it take a deflection on its way over Evan Bush? Whatever the true intent or actual trajectory, a somewhat ugly game between the Montreal Impact and the New England Revolution was lit up by Lee Nguyen’s moment of unorthodox beauty.
Okay, so reverse angle replays show that the midfielder’s shot did indeed spin off the shin of Montreal’s Calum Mallace - with the player himself admitting as much after the game - but Nguyen’s equalizing goal on Saturday night will make the MLS highlight reel for 2014, clinching the Revs’ playoff place in the process.
Presented with possession on the edge of the box, not many players would even contemplate a scooped finish over a goalkeeper barely five yards from his line. And yet Nguyen pulled it off. It was the kind of individualism that has come to define the 28-year-old as a bustling hub of creativity and invention for a compelling New England side.
One wonders whether a certain German coach in need of a creative, attacking midfielder in an age without Landon Donovan was watching events at PPL Park. And if he did indeed Jurgen Klinsmann did catch Nguyen’s stunning chipped finish, does he regret the omission of the Revolution man from his 22-man roster this week?
Should Nguyen have received a call for the games against Ecuador and Honduras, especially consider the pedigree of those – like Alfredo Morales and Miguel Ibarra - who were instead selected by Klinsmann? At 28 he might not be the vanguard of a new American generation, but he surely warranted a chance to prove himself at international level.
Nguyen has been undoubtedly one of the best players in MLS this season, leading New England on their charge to the playoffs. Even in the Jermaine Jones-era at Gillette Stadium, Nguyen has shone brightest for the Revs. And that is perhaps the starkest statement of where the Vietnam citizen is as a player right now. As good as Jones is, Nguyen has been better.
Of course, Nguyen already has USA caps to his name but hasn’t made an appearance for the national team since 2007, when the States sent a team to the Copa America. Since then the midfielder has played for four different teams on three different continents, but in New England has found a harness for his shimmering skill and audacious nature.
The question Klinsmann must be asking himself is whether he could do the same thing with the US National Team. The no-man’s land between World Cup cycles affords for a certain degree of experimentation, and when Nguyen experiments it tends to pay off, as demonstrated in Montreal. GR
Crew needs a big recovery to save their big week
Having spent the week looking to the future, the Columbus Crew came close to neglecting the present. With less than 15 minutes to play and a two-goal deficit to overturn on the road, just days after the unveiling of a new look and signing of Kei Kamara for 2015, the Crew had seemingly put a fairly immediate expiry date on their 2014.
But an astonishing three goals in five minutes all but assured Gregg Berhlater’s side of a postseason place, simultaneously bringing an end to Philly’s campaign. “Obviously it wasn’t according to plan,” an out of breath Berhalter said after the game “But it was amazing. The resilience of the guys to come back and the desire to get something out of that game was amazing.”
The result capped what was a momentous week for the Crew (or #NewCrew as was coined on social media channels). The return of Kamara to Ohio, along with a new franchise identity, will rejuvenate the Columbus Crew – one of MLS’s founding pillars - as a club next season. But the Crew’s rejuvenation as a team at present shouldn’t be overlooked, not least by the Crew themselves.
The comeback win over the Philadelphia Union puts Columbus on the mathematical brink of their first playoff participation since 2011, setting up something of a formality fixture in New York next weekend. A point would be enough to make it official, and such is the goal difference between Columbus and Toronto FC it might not even come to that. It seems foolish to look ahead to 2015 when 2014 could still hold so much for the Crew.
In contrast to the Union, whose season fizzled out after a scorching summer surge, Berhalter’s side have won three of their last four league games, a streak that has been propelled by the form of Federico Higuain and Tony Tchani, with Justin Meraw and Ethan Finlay also playing a significant part. After such a dismal middle section of the season Columbus has finally found some sort of groove by virtue of a newfound attacking prowess. Not that many are talking about that.
There is plenty to distract the Crew right now. The big picture – which portrays renewed ambition and fresh player investment for a club that has stagnated in recent years - is an attractive one to look at, but the current team will also draw their fair share of attention should they make a habit out of staging season-saving comebacks. GR
