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TORONTO — John Carver has experienced life with the soccer elite, working in England's Premier League.
He has worked with the not-so-elite of soccer, trying to keep together a team at financially troubled Luton Town in England's League One as players were being sold from under him.
But Carver has never had to experience some of the things he has encountered in his first year in Major League Soccer as head coach of Toronto FC.
He has never had to deal with what he did Saturday in a 3-1 loss to Chivas USA before crowd of 19,863 at BMO Field, sending out a team that was so undermanned because of international call-ups it had to use three borrowed players.
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But for all the things he has seen, including the strange officiating that was again evident Saturday and favours neither team, Carver said that he wants to stay on with TFC to finish the task he started.
The supporters want him back, if the huge sign "In Carver We Trust" hoisted during the game is any indication.
He said he saw it and appreciated it.
"I've come here to do a job," Carver said, "and sometimes it takes longer than you think. I wanted instant success but I wasn't aware of the obstacles that were going to be put in front of me when I got here. And trust me, there's been some obstacles. But I'm learning and I'm starting to understand how people do things."
And even if making the playoffs this year looks to be improbable now, he wants to persevere in the job.
"I'm not going to walk away from this situation," he said. "It just makes me stronger and more determined. I guarantee those people who put that banner up that I will give them the product that they deserve whether it's this season where we get to the playoffs or whether it's the following season. If I don't give them the product that they deserve then I don't deserve to be here."
Toronto FC went into Saturday's game missing nine players who had been called up to national teams for World Cup qualifiers. But citing scheduling problems, MLS does not shut down for such international fixtures as many leagues do. Nor would the league allow TFC to postpone Saturday's game.
Still, TFC took the lead Saturday when Tyler Rosenlund completed a nice buildup with a goal in the 30th minute as Rohan Ricketts put the ball in front of the goal for him after taking a through ball from Chad Barrett. Toronto could have had a bigger lead if they had taken its chances, a familiar story. And TFC was denied what seemed an obvious penalty when Barrett was brought down in the penalty area but referee Kevin Stott told the forward he went down too easily.
Soon after Chivas USA, which lost two players to international call-ups, equalized on a 41st-minute goal by Daniel Paladini.
Each team was down to 10 men for the second half for an incident when Alecko Eskandarian and Marco Velez were shown red cards. Eskandarian elbowed Velez who retaliated. Velez, the one regular defender left with TFC after the call-ups, was made captain for the game and Carver was not pleased by his retaliation.
Jonathan Bornstein scored in the 58th minute and Ante Razov scored a goal near the end of the game to go with his two assists.
One of the players on loan, defender Diaz Kambere of the United Soccer Leagues' Vancouver Whitecaps was named the culprit by Carver on the first two goals. The other players brought in for the game have had MLS experience, defenders Ricky Titus who now is with Real Toronto and Tim Regan who is TFC's chief scout and Carver thought they did well.
To add the to surreal atmosphere of the game, in 73rd minute, Chivas goalkeeper Zach Thornton, a big fellow, was taken from the field on a stretcher rafter Danny Dichio fell over him in what seemed a harmless incident.
The crowd wasn't buying the injury judging by the chant of "You're a pussy". On the journey around the pitch, the goalkeeper's weight became too much for the stretcher bearers who dropped him near the bench area.
Thornton, who was replaced Dan Kennedy, was able to hobble to the bench with assistance.
