Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Thoughts

Just a few thoughts on the days events:

Canada lost today to Estonia, yes you read that right, and although the game was played in near whiteout conditions, and the familiar green of the pitch was no longer visible, this is still a poor result for the Canucks. This now means that coming out of the Gold Cup, the Canadian Men's National Team (A team) has not won a game. In that time, we have faced South Afirca's B team, an island of 313,376 people, Iceland, Costa Rica and Estonia. If Canada wants to seriously think about 2010, than something has to change for the better. This has all occured under Dale Mitchell, who has had quite the win-loss record over the past while. Both team's had to play in the exact same conditions, and Estonia came out on top. Our midfield, as always, was our strong point, but as many people pointed out our defence looked suspect and our forwards, wait we had forwards? I'm hoping that today's poor play simply had to do with the poor weather, but with the poor showing in South Africa, which was honestly one of the worst games I have seen in a while, being followed up with yet another questionable result, one has to wonder. How well will Canada do when World Cup qualifying starts? Will Rob Friend be able to translate his scoring success at the club level to the national level? Because without Friend, the Canucks are going to be hard pressed to find scoring. If one of De Rosario, Julian De Guzman, or Iain Hume go down with an injury, we are in trouble. Let's hope Canada's next game, against superpower nation Panama, brings about a better result.

Montreal Impact
News surfaced today that Montreal is moving closer and closer to realizing their MLS dream. Under the original guidance of the Saputo family, who are serious about moving their beloved team into the best league in North America, Montreal's potential move had always been considered very likely. Today, news came out of Montreal that George Gillett is interested in forming a partnership with the Saputo's. This is only good news for Impact fans, as Gillett would give more life to this already strong bid. I am all for Montreal receiving a team, and I simply cannot wait for a Toronto-Montreal derby to form. When it comes to Don Garber and Co. choosing a location for further expansion, it is going to have to take some seriously red, white and blue coloured glasses to ignore seriously looking at Montreal.

Canada Cup Dates
• Toronto FC at Montreal Impact - May 27, 2008 (Stade Saputo)• Vancouver Whitecaps at Montreal Impact (Stade Saputo) - June 17, 2008• Montreal Impact at Vancouver Whitecaps (Swangard Stadium) - June 25, 2008• Vancouver Whitecaps at Toronto FC (BMO Field) - July 1, 2008• Toronto FC at Vancouver Whitecaps (Swangard Stadium) - July 9, 2008• Montreal Impact at Toronto FC (BMO Field) - July 22, 2008

It sucks that the away game in Montreal is on a Tuesday, I will not be able to attend, but hopefully Toronto will send strong support to Montreal. I'm just glad that this tournament is taking place, and really, people should just be happy with that. Watching on TV is fine, for once.

Amado Guavera to TFC heats up
According to Steve Goff, Toronto is still very interested in aquiring former MLS MVP Amado Guavera. This now means that SBI and Goff have linked TFC with Guavera, sounds pretty credible to me. My opinion on Guavera, would you honestly want him on our team going into the season or would you want us without Guavera at this point? I'm going to say with, his attitude problems are well documented, but John Carver won't take any BS from his players, and I'm sure he would keep the sometimes hot-headed star under control. This would be a great first step in strengthening our somewhat suspect midfield and attack.

Argos to BMO?
From today's Toronto Star
"The stadium is a big success right now and Toronto FC (the city's Major League Soccer franchise) is a big success. It looks like the stadium may have to expand to meet the needs of soccer and at that time we could consider (having the Argos as a tenant)," Miller said.

MLSE, you know how we feel as fans of Toronto FC about this, and although this looks to be nothing, the fact that this is still floating around shows that it is still a possibility. There will be a lot of unhappy ticket holders if a move like this were to go through, don't do it.

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