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TFC loses seventh in a row on Steele heartbreaker in Salt Lake City

By
Randy Davis
– 04/29/2012

Jonny Steele

Toronto FC came into Rio Tinto Stadium looking for its first points of the season in league play, and left empty-handed. That’s not surprising as it entered the match 0-6-0, and its opponent was battling for the top spot in the Western Conference.

However, TFC showed a lot of moxie, pushing the home team to the brink before it managed a miraculous last-minute stoppage-time goal that delighted the home crowd, and left the visitors devastated as Real Salt Lake took a 3-2 decision.

“For 90 minutes we did what we had to do, but the game goes on longer than that,” said a dejected Julian de Guzman after the match. “I think it was a lack of a little bit of intelligence from our part.”
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Bad news for TFC, Impact: East is proving to be much better than advertised

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/23/2012

There are those who look at Toronto FC’s 0-6 start to the regular season and think “oh boy, I am glad we don’t play in the Western Conference, or the season would already be over.”

The thinking is that, with the West being so much stronger than the East — with the likes of Real Salt Lake, the Seattle Sounders, a Los Angeles Galaxy side that’s got to get better and surprising San Jose — that it would be easier for TFC or Montreal to recover from poor starts to the season and pip am Eastern playoff spot than it would be for a much-improved Vancouver side to hang with the Western juggernauts.

And, through the first two weeks of the season, that thinking would have been right on. In head-to-head matches between teams from the East and West, the Western Conference teams won 10 of the first 12. It was proof that all of MLS’ power lay west of Houston. It was an apples-to-apples comparison and the Western teams were kicking butt.

But since then, from Week Three onward, we’ve seen the Eastern teams start to surge back. And it’s not just Sporting Kansas City, who are off to a 7-1-0 start and most Montreal and Toronto fans would admit already can’t be caught.
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Impact can’t take advantage of RSL’s walking wounded

By
Randy Davis
– 04/05/2012

Paulo Jr.

The Montreal Impact came to visit Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, hoping to slay a dragon. It was somewhat of a David versus Goliath affair, and the probability of its first ever MLS win was unlikely. But, the visitors did a lot to frustrate their more experienced opponent and the effort nearly worked — yet, the home side came out with a 1-0 win.

Although Real Salt Lake controlled much of the first half, the Impact really clogged up RSL’s preferred centre portion of the midfield and tried to pounce into the passing lane to intercept passes, and in many cases they were successful.

“I think we kept trying to squeeze things into players that were already marked, and gave the ball away a lot,” explained Real Salt Lake Coach Jason Kreis after the match. “We probably could have been and should have been punished for that.”
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More ex-Whitecaps head to San Antonio: Wagner, Knight off to NASL

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/16/2012

Wes Knight

San Antonio is collecting the Vancouver Whitecaps’ diaspora.

On Friday, the NASL expansion side announced that it had signed ex-Whitecaps Blake Wagner and Wes Knight. Wagner and Knight will join two other former Whitecaps, Kevin Harmse and Greg Janicki — who were the first two signings the Scorpions ever made.

Scorpions head coach Tim Hankinson expects Wagner and Knight to bolster the team’s flanks, saying in a press release that “Wagner and Knight will provide attacking play to the wing back positions.”

Knight joined the Whitecaps in 2009 and played in almost 60 division-2 matches with Vancouver. He made the move with the Whitecaps to MLS, and played 21 minutes in the 2011 season-opening win over Toronto FC. Knight played a grand total of 805 MLS minutes for the Whitecaps before he was let go at the end of August.
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New refereeing set-up won’t affect Canadian quota for MLS matches

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/07/2012

Major League Soccer’s new refereeing structure will not limit opportunities for Canadian officials.

Nelson Rodriguez, MLS Executive Vice President of Competition, said in a conference call on Wednesday that the formation of the new Professional Referee Organization will not affect the officiating agreement MLS has in place with the Canadian Soccer Association.

The CSA confirmed the agreement stipulates that the percentage of MLS games officiated by Canadians is based on the number of games played in Canada. With Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto all in the league this season, with 17 homes dates each, 51 regular-season MLS games will be played on Canadian soil.

But, that doesn’t mean Canadians have to do matches in Canada and USSF referees only do games in America. For example, USSF ref Baldomero Toledo can do a game at BMO Field, while CSA official David Gantar can do a game in San Jose. The key is that Canadian officials have to be called to do a number of MLS games that reflects the amount of total MLS games played in Canada.

The fact that the Montreal Impact is now on the league schedule has actually created more opportunities for Canadian refs in MLS this season.
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The 11′s super-duper MLS 2012 season preview

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/07/2012

The 11’s Steven Sandor, Mark Polishuk and Aman Dhanoa held a virtual round table, discussing how they foresaw the 2012 MLS season.

Will the Galaxy repeat? Will any of the three Canadian teams make the playoffs? Who will be the MVP?

We tallied up our votes, and came up with our list of how the teams will finish, who will win MLS Cup and who will be the league’s MVP. No need to play the season, now. We have it all figured out.
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Whitecaps, Impact get draws in preseason action

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/10/2012

Andrew Wenger: Got a cameo as a forward for the Impact

Both the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps were busy in preseason action Friday.

For the Whitecaps, striker Darren Mattocks — who the Montreal Impact passed on, choosing Andrew Wenger instead at No. 1 in the SuperDraft — scored early, as the Whitecaps and Real Salt Lake played to a 1-1 draw in a 125-minute match in Arizona.

Mattocks scored after early in the first half on a chance carved out by veteran Atiba Harris, who continues to be mentioned regularly when the preseason match reports come out. Harris, who missed most of last season due to knee injury after a heck of a start, is asking questions of coach Martin Rennie. Does he find a way to get wedged into the lineup along with the Big Three of Camilo, Eric Hassli and Sebastien Le Toux?

Fabian Espindola converted a penalty late in the first half to tie the game.
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Impact loses preseason match to Dynamo; striker Braun leaves game

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/08/2012

Justin Braun

The Montreal Impact has already lost one player to an injury suffered in a preseason match. Impact fans are hoping that the number doesn’t rise to two.

The lowlight of the Montreal Impact’s 2-0 preseason loss to the Houston Dynamo Wednesday wasn’t either of the goals surrendered or the fact the Impact fluffed its lines in front of the opposition goal.

The big worry is striker Justin Braun had to be helped off the field after being brought down by a tackle from Dynamo trialist Oscar Resio. Since the match was only covered through Twitter, it’s hard to judge how mean-spirited the challenge was.

Colombian defender Nelson Rivas, who was one of the Impact’s high-profile signings of the off-season, hasn’t played since coming up lame in the first half of the Jan. 26 friendly in Mexico against Club Atlas. He’s out with an injured thigh.
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CONCACAF gets it right with Champions League rethink

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/14/2012

To say the last couple of years have been rough for CONCACAF is an understatement. FIFA shot down the region’s push for another World Cup place. President Jack Warner was turfed for taking bribes. General secretary Chuck Blazer went out the door. The Gold Cup has been dogged by allegations of match-fixing.

But, finally, CONCACAF has got something right. The re-think of the CONCACAF Champions League, announced this week, was badly needed. The changes will take place in time for the 2012-2013 edition of the tourney.

If this is an indication of the directives we’ll see from CONCACAF under the stewardship of new general secretary Ted Howard, we can hope that the regional body is turning a corner. Because it showed that it understood that a tournament that’s largely held in empty stadiums with little or no TV audience can’t survive. Some drastic measures had to be taken.

“This new format will streamline the first phase of the competition,” Howard was quoted on CONCACAF’s website. “It will alleviate schedule congestion on both domestic and international calendars.”
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After Borman move, it’s now De Rosario for Iro and a draft pick

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/05/2011

Danleigh Borman

Both of the players Toronto FC originally acquired in exchange for later-to-become MVP Dwayne De Rosario are no longer Reds.

Danleigh Borman was selected by the New England Revolution in phase one of the MLS Re-Entry Draft process. Borman was the only player TFC made available for the draft.

TFC acquired Borman, Generation Adidas midfielder Tony Tchani and New York’s first-round SuperDraft pick for De Rosario in April. De Rosario would later get dealt to D.C. United, but would also go on to win the Golden Boot as the league’s top scorer and become the first Canadian to ever be named MLS MVP.

Tchani was traded to Columbus earlier this year, with Andy Iro and Leandre Griffit coming back in exchange. Griffit was already set free by TFC. Now Borman is gone for nothing in exchange. So, the assets left from the De Rosario trade are Iro and the first-round pick — which will be the 12th overall selection in the draft.
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