Toronto FC’s Moments of Clarity against San Jose
Well if MLSE executives were watching their Toronto FC franchise at BMO field Saturday afternoon they would have plenty to reflect on.
In losing 3-2 to the San Jose Earthquakes Toronto FC realistically confirmed they will not be making the post season in this their fourth season.
With fan unrest reaching the boiling point MLSE would be wise to look far afield in consulting on what they should do next as they try to address the dismal outlook for the clubs future.
Ironically this latest defeat came at the hands of San Jose’s head coach Frank Yallop a Canadian alumnus as a player and a coach.
In making this year’s MLS playoffs Yallop will give the Toronto club a master class on how to build a professional soccer club competently. A combination of soccer intellect, the right amount of soccer experience, off field hard work, man management, and patience.
In assessing his Canadian counterpart Nick Dasovic recently, Yallop was diplomatic with his thoughts but made the point of referring to his youthfulness as a head coach. And oh how the thoughts resonated through this particular game.
The inclusion of Raivis Hscanovics instead of Nana Attakora was the wrong decision. Irrespective of Nana not being around for the past nine days this is not the minor soccer club system. This is the results business and having your best players playing is surely the way to go.
Nine days absence from the TFC environment could have been beneficial to Nana knowing how much he has played. Unfortunately, Hscanovics once again proved he is not at this level and so the decision to start him was a bad one.
Meanwhile while the defensive discipline and collective balance was missing from TFC’s performance, Dasovic appeared more interested in the fact the game could have been 6-6 as opposed to being overly concerned with the defensive mishaps which ultimately cost TFC the result.
In the end, San Jose were the better team and for the first time TFC looked chaotic in the way they defended.
Opening up when attacking to some appears attractive but if you do not have enough quality in the final third then it is suicide if you expect to get results. It is where Frank Yallop over the past three years has been patient. After getting his team’s defensive stability in place during his first two seasons, San Jose now display more balanced attacking ability.
The approach highlights the careless mistake in moving out Preki at absolutely the wrong time.
Meanwhile in Chris Wondolowski Frank has pulled off a terrific bit of business in acquiring his talents which can only be accomplished through thorough do diligence which has been sadly missing from Toronto FC from day one.
Wondolowski aside from showing real quality in the final third also displayed wonderful athleticism which includes terrific pace. And all for $48,000.
Meanwhile the main talking point of the game was TFC captain Dwayne DeRosario’s decision to imitate the writing of a cheque to the crowd illustrating his unhappiness at making $443,750 per season.
It will unfortunately go down in memory as an arrogant, selfish, and completely egotistical gesture which his teammates and fans have the right to feel bitterly disappointed about.
The mere fact he affirmed the intent of the gesture to the media truly boggles the mind.
So as a recap. TFC are 2-0 down in the most important game of the season.
DeRosario scores a terrific goal and then the first thing he thinks about is not that his hometown team is back in the game at a such a crucial time but NO, his first thought is how angry he is at not being paid enough money. And all this when some of his teammates are making a pittance in comparison. His selfishness has clearly reached a new level.
A week ago he scored two wonderful goals against the Houston Dynamo to pull the TFC team and his own reputation out of a mess after displaying overt disloyalty to his previous coach Preki. Rather than the goals humble him in some way, they unfortunately empowered his ego to what we can only hope is its nadir.
DeRosario is paid a good wage. Who knows maybe he could argue that he is deserving of more. But a big raise at the designated player level? Definitely not. In either event it should be done at the business level and not in public at such a crucial moment.
Dwayne DeRosario is an excellent player at the MLS level. There is no argument there. But at the same time he has proven to be a poor leader. Whether undermining former coaches Dale Mitchell (Canadian national team) or Preki he has shown that his football career is more about him than anybody or anything else. His actions and comments confirm the point.
Now Nick Dasovic who was Dales assistant with the national program will be tested on the values he has for the team.
