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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 sends little-used Fucito to the Portland Timbers

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/20/2012

Mike Fucito

Within the space of less than a year, striker Mike Fucito has gone from one Cascadia rival to the other — via the Montreal Impact.

On Friday, the Impact traded the striker — who had just 26 minutes of playing time for the club so far this season — to the Portland Timbers. It’s another one of those nebulous, open-ended deals that we see so much of in MLS. Based on Fucito’s performance in 2012, the Impact will either get the Timbers’ highest second-round Superdraft pick in 2013, or an international roster slot for the 2013 season. Of course, what those performance parameters would be was not announced.

Fucito was acquired by the Impact in February, along with Lamar Neagle, from the Seattle Sounders. The Impact sent the rights to Eddie Johnson — the American striker who decided to make a return to MLS — to Seattle.
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WPS striker Lenczyk signs with the Ottawa Fury

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/19/2012

Meghan Lenczyk

The Ottawa Fury has brought a refugee from the WPS to bolster its ranks.

The club announced that American forward Meghan Lenczyk will join reigning W-League MVP Mallory Outerbridge in the attack. Lenczyk was the 14th overall selection in 2011 WPS draft, and played in 14 games for the Atlanta Beat, scoring twice.

The cash-strapped WPS, shedding franchises and embroiled in legal battles with renegade club magicJack, suspended operations for the 2012 season, leaving many of the world’s top women’s soccer players without a place to play. With the 2012 Olympics coming up, many have chosen to focus on their national teams for the moment.

But, for Lenczyk, who wouldn’t be on the radar of the powerful U.S. national team, coming to Ottawa is an awfully good fit. She will be available for selection — barring injury — when Ottawa hosts the W-League championships July 27-29.
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TFC will try to keep things tight against Santos Laguna

By
Aman Dhanoa
– 03/27/2012

Ryan Johnson

Toronto FC was an underdog against the MLS champion Los Angeles Galaxy heading into the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final, but with captain Torsten Frings organizing the team from the middle, the Reds advanced in shocking fashion.

Now up against Santos Laguna, a team that is tied for top spot in the Mexican first division, to say the Reds are underdogs is a big understatement. The Mexican club easily dispatched Seattle Sounders 7-3 on aggregate in another quarter-final including a 6-1 win in Torreon after losing 2-1 at Seattle.

“Very good team I think,” said Assistant Coach Bob de Klerk who ran Tuesday’s practice. “If you watch our game against Pumas in Mexico (last year), we had a difficult time over there, very difficult match. And they’re in the league in Mexico and higher than Pumas. That says enough.”
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Frings to miss TFC home opener, CONCACAF Champions League dates

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/20/2012

Torsten Frings

Toronto FC will be without its anchor for not only Saturday’s home opener, but for its CONCACAF Champions League semifinal against Mexican powerhouse Santos Laguna.

The club confirmed Tuesday that Designated Player Torsten Frings will miss the next four to six weeks with a right hamstring strain. Frings had to leave Saturday’s MLS season opener in Seattle just after the 20-minute mark after he extended himself to make a sliding, saving challenge.

Of course, saving Toronto’s defensive bacon is part of Frings’ job description. Throughout the preseason and through the CCL quarter-final upset of the Los Angeles, Frings has been slotted into a sweeper role, acting as cover for Ty Harden and Miguel Aceval in the centre of the Reds’ back line. Frings is also TFC’s best option to move the ball out of the back. With Frings in against Seattle, the Reds were out of step against a very quick Seattle attack; with Frings out of the lineup, the Reds simply looked lost.
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Estrada’s dominant performance against TFC earns him Player of the Week nod

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/19/2012

David Estrada

Toronto FC helped contribute a chapter to MLS history on the weekend, though it’s unlikely something coach Aron Winter and his staff will brag about.

Seattle Sounder David Estrada became just the third player in MLS history to score at least three goals in his team’s season opener. He did it Saturday against a porous Toronto FC defence in a 3-1 win — and, the effort earned him an easy win as the MLS Player of the Week after the ballots from the members of the North American Soccer Reporters were counted.

Estrada scored on a goalmouth scramble, on a breakaway and on a perfect feed from teammate Alvaro Fernandez. But all three goals could be credited to Toronto FC’s high defensive line, which was regularly torn apart by Estrada’s runs, and some very poor marking in the penalty area. And, the loss of sweeper Torsten Frings early in the first half didn’t help, either.

Only Jason Kreis (Dallas, 1999) and Brian Ching (Houston 2006) have scored three or more goals each in their first games of an MLS season.
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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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Impact acquires Fucito and Neagle from Seattle in pick-and-trade deal

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/18/2012

Lamar Neagle

On the afternoon that the Montreal Impact picked up former MLS star Eddie Johnson for the sole purpose of trading him away to the Seattle Sounders, the club finished its California camp with two final preseason matches in Los Angeles.

The Impact, at the top of the allocation order, snapped up Johnson, who scored 41 times for FC Dallas and the Kansas City Wizards — including the first-ever MLS goal scored at BMO Field, back in 2007 — before bouncing around Europe and never really catching on. But right after the pick was made, the club made a big deal with the Sounders, receiving two attacking players, Mike Fucito and Lamar Neagle, in exchange for EJ. Both Neagle and Fucito are in their mid 20s and could have started regularly on some other clubs, but were stuck on a rather deep Seattle squad.

Johnson had originally announced his intention to come back to MLS in August of 2011, but then withdrew himself from the process before any team could sign him.

Fucito scored six goals in all competitions last year; Neagle scored five in MLS and then added another playoff marker in the Western Conference semifinal loss to Real Salt Lake. Three of Neagle’s goals came in an August win over Columbus.

Bascially, the Impact sacrificed its spot at the top of the allocation ladder — it now moves to spot No. 19 — in exchange for two forwards with lots of upside.
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Camilo scores 35 seconds after kickoff, but Sounders draw Whitecaps

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/07/2012

Camilo

Still celebrating his renegotiated contract with the Whitecaps, Camilo scored Vancouver’s first goal of the preseason just 35 seconds into the new campaign.

Alas, the Whitecaps couldn’t score again for the next 120 minutes, and settled for a draw in an extended game with the Seattle Sounders in Arizona.

Camilo scored almost immediately after the opening kickoff, set up by Atiba Harris. Harris has been almost a forgotten factor with the Whitecaps, even though he’s re-signed for the 2012 season. He enjoyed a great start to the 2011 season, with two goals and three assists through his first five starts but was sidelined by knee trouble. Now, with Camilo, Designated Player Eric Hassli and Sebastien Le Toux as part of the attack, Harris is rarely mentioned.
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