BMO Field finally turned into a fortress in 2009. (Getty Images)

2009 was expected to the be year that Toronto FC turned the corner and really made a splash in Major League Soccer. The moves were made to get local star Dwayne De Rosario at the start of the season and things looked promising early on but midway through the first full month of action manager John Carver stepped down and if you ask me the club never really rebounded from that change.

Chris Cummins took over as interim manager for the rest of the season and even with the moves that brought in guys like Ali Gerba and the club’s first designated player Julian De Guzman, Cummins never really took control of the locker room and the club. Guys like Danny Dichio never really got their full run under Cummins.

The club never got real consistent with their play under Cummins. One week they’d play so well many including myself figured they would be a lock for the post season. Then they’d do what they do best and suck up the place like they did on the final day of the season when they got spanked 5-0 by the lowly New York Red Bulls.

What Went Right In 2009?
To be honest few things really went right for this club this season. But pinpointing a few items would certainly start with their 6-1 beating of Montreal in the Canadian Cup to secure their bid in the play-in round of the CONCACAF Champions League this year. TFC needed a handfull of goals to advance and some how on a night that saw them on the road in Montreal, the Reds pulled out all the stops and stole a trophy away from a Vancouver club that was looking on from the stands. Another would certainly be the play of Dwayne De Rosario. The club wouldn’t have nearly been as good as they were had it not been for DeRo. Lastly their home play this season was finally something to brag about as they turned BMO Field into the fortress that we all knew it could be. Eight of their 10 wins on the year came from the friendly confines at Exhibition Place.

What Went Wrong In 2009?
Consistency was a killer and so was their defense. Mo Johnston made a bold move to get veteran defender Nick Garcia from San Jose and it was a move that never panned out for them. Even though they had a solid group of rookies like keeper Stefan Frei, the defense would constantly let him down. Offensively they never seemed to find a go-to scorer other than DeRo. Chad Barrett and Pablo Vitti constantly let folks down in front of the net.

What’s Next?
For this club finding a manager that will pull the right strings with this bunch will be key. With so much talent in the midfield they need to find a way to keep the pressure off their defense and find ways to score. Finding a classy finisher around the net will go a long way for this club and finding a true central defender will really help out. This club is so close but yet so far away.

Not a real shocker here since Toronto FC got spanked on the final day of the season when they needed a win to reach the post season. Toronto FC announced today that interim head coach Chris Cummins will not be returning for the upcoming 2010 MLS season. Effective immediately, the search begins for a new head coach.

“We have decided to move forward without Chris for next season,” said manager, director of soccer Mo Johnston. “We want to thank Chris for his contribution to the club over the last year and a half, and wish him all the best in the future. For us, the work now begins on finding a new coach, and getting him in here before pre-season starts February 1st.”

Again, it doesn’t come to much of a surprise to most folks. Toronto needs to find some stability though moving forward and Cummins just wasn’t the right guy for the job. I would imagine that fans will expect a big hire for this position as no one has been able to get things going in the right direction with this club after three years in the league. I would say that this season was a decent step in the right direction but getting to the playoffs was certainly a must for this bunch and it didn’t happen.

Its a pretty full night here at WVHooligan as far as the links and thoughts go. I have a couple stories that kind of make my head spin, a couple surrounding the US national team and a brief discussion on a rule that could really help some young players out with the NCAA.

First up is a post I saw earlier today that I felt needed to be held off until today. It centers on an issue that a lot of non-soccer folks have with our beloved game. Draws. No one likes them and a lot of MLS clubs have plenty of them to go around this season.

This author decided pointed out in a way that I still kind of agree with him on that there are too many teams getting playoff births in MLS. Its an issue that has been surrounding this league since year one for that matter. But at the same time as the league expands its should be a non-issue.

But the solution to “make MLS more exciting” isn’t a bad one. Simplify the playoffs into a four-team, three-game deal. But the more I think about that and the more I see how the league is doing with it’s current eight-team set up going into the final week of the season (with seven clubs in contention for three spots), I think the current set-up is fine. The drama that the league has created is good going into the final week of the season and it will only continue to get better from here on out as the league grows.

If it were the top four clubs going into the playoffs or even the best two from each conference we’d already know three of the four and it would sadly rule out three really good clubs from one conference from getting in.

It took a while for the league to get to the point that it is at but this playoff set up of eight clubs isn’t so bad after all. It does however need tweaking in it’s structure of number of games and what not but that is a discussion for another day. Continue Reading…

I don’t have too much going into tonight’s Evening Links and Thoughts. I mainly wanted to touch base with the current coaching hot seat situation in Major League Soccer. I don’t expect any coaching changes to take place until at least after the regular season finishes here. Something crazy would have to take place for any of these teams below to even think about making a switch with so few games left.

I’ve gone back and forth on a couple coaches, which is why they may appear on the fringe of this list. But for the most part the top guys on this list are there for a reason and have a lot of work to do to get out of the hot seat.

Two clubs will are searching for a coach as we speak right now. Both New York and Kansas City have interim coaches and are probably keeping a very close eye on what’s going on around the league right now.

With that said here is what should be the final WVH Coaching Hot Seat of the year. The order is really just a list, I think each are just as much under fire as the next here.

Chris Cummins (Toronto FC): The only thing that may save this guy is a trip to the playoffs. With a workable schedule it is possible but any stumbles on the way only put more fuel on this man’s fire. This club has the talent but under Cummins they really haven’t progressed any more than they did under John Carver.

Tom Soehn (DC United): Again playoffs will save this guy but I still kind of wonder if that will even be enough at times. It could be safe to say that he will need to guide his team to the conference finals to really be safe from a pink slip here. This club has so much talent yet lacks any consistency to get solid results game after game.

Frank Yallop (San Jose Earthquakes): Yallop nearly fell in the fringe category for me but at the end of the day I just don’t know if this is working out in San Jose. It could also have something to do with the partnership with John Doyle in picking out talent that isn’t working out there. I don’t see a change coming this winter unless this club really bottoms out to finish the season. Look for his butt to remain hot going into next year. Year three is going to decide a lot in San Jose.

Jason Kreis (Real Salt Lake): Another guy that needs a playoff run to save his job. I still wish he would have become FC Dallas’ coach instead of RSL’s a couple years ago but it is what it is down here in Dallas. But back to Kreis and his job. Playoffs will certainly be enough to keep him around for another year but anything less and I have to believe he will be out of the door by the end of the calendar year.

Continue Reading…