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.

“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.

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.
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Cummins To Stay or Go?

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Should he or shouldn’t he? For Toronto manager that is the question going into the final week of the year. An interesting quote posted by Duane Rollins here from Cummins who said he’d stay on as manager if they asked him and he’d leave if they asked him. At the end of the day though I totally agree with Rollins on the point where Toronto needs stability in their coaching moving forward. They can’t continue the trend of a new coach each year. We’ve seen what that does to a club, just look at New York…they’ve never had stability in coaching.

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Bradley’s Problem With A Crowded Midfield

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The bulk of this for those who can’t read this link goes like this. Now that the US has Jermaine Jones along with the rising talents of Stuart Holden, Robbie Rogers and Jose Francisco Torres, the US has a fairly crowded midfield situation going into next year. Let’s not forget that we should see Maurice Edu come back from an injury and let’s not forget that we could see the likes of DeMarcus Beasley or Sacha Kljestan reemerge again.

Is it a bad thing for the US to be stocked in the midfield? Nope, its a good thing really. Now if we can only get loaded up on defense I think we’d be pretty set.

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Pittsburgh is the new Wembly?

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A very, very interesting thought on which city would be best suited to be the play that could be dubbed as the US Wembly. Some have debated that stadiums like the Home Depot Center, Soldier Field, RFK Stadium or even Giants Stadium are the US version of Wembly Stadium. But this article blows them out of the water suggestion Pittsburgh would be best suited to be America’s town for soccer. Yes there is no MLS team in even the nearest of futures for the Steel City but the authors here were looking for the town that was big enough and didn’t have nearly the Latino following that DC and others have. It sure is an interesting thought. Ever thought of the US playing Mexico from Heinz Field in February instead of at Crew Stadium? It could work is all I am saying though I don’t know if its the best fit for an American Wembly.

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A Lesson In US Kit History

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I did one of these a while back but not nearly as good as this one with getting grades on all the former kits. All I can say is why don’t we have a red kit these days? Our former red kits have been some of our best.

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NCAA Looking To Change Play With Pros Rule?

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In the middle of my college players search I found this link about how the NCAA is looking at possibly changing a big rule that could really help players in MLS academies not lose their amateur status. Let’s hope the NCAA gets this right so more guys in MLS academies can still play in college and not affect their status with their clubs.

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.

The Fringe Category:

Schellas Hyndman (FC Dallas): There’s no way Hyndman will get canned in Dallas even though the team is pretty much a train wreck. Hyndman is building his club the way he wants it though and its just going to be a thing that Dallas fans have to wait out and see if it works. I’m on the fence to believe that it will work out for him in Dallas. Honestly you can’t keep signing former SMU players for this club, it just won’t work out well that way.

Denis Hamlett (Chicago Fire): With expectations so high this season surrounding this club, Hamlett really needs a deep run, if not actually making it to MLS Cup 2009 in Seattle to save his butt. I really believe that after this season the Fire are going to lose a lot of key guys and if they don’t finish well it could be Hamlett that sees a pink slip because of it. He’s on the fringe now due to where his club is at here this season but with how things have gone on in the locker room this year you have to wonder if he is the right fit for this club.

Preki (Chivas USA): Okay this one really isn’t about a pink slip. For some odd reason I have a feeling that no matter how Chivas finishes this season Preki will move on from Chivas USA to go to Kansas City. Just a gut feeling. He won’t get fired but he will some how resign as Chivas’s coach after the season. Call me crazy but I see that going down with him.