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.

Seattle needs another big game out of Fredy Montero this weekend. (Getty Images)

There’s not too many more weekends left in the 2009 regular season. Week 27 is a full one as we gear towards the playoffs in a few weeks. With so many clubs still in contention the action this weekend should promise to be very good.

More than likely after this weekend we will have a new group of wild-card clubs as right now three of the four clubs currently in the wild card spots are tied, and just one point behind the top wild card club Seattle. Plus the three or so clubs just right outside the playoff zone are just a couple points back as it is. So a shake up should go down just as it has over the last several weeks.

Plenty of good matchups this weekend, especially that Chicago-Columbus game which should shed some light on if the Crew will hold off the Fire for first in the east and in the Supporter’s Shield race.

As always feel free to post your score predictions below. Continue Reading…

Luis Angel Landin is one of the new faces in MLS. (Getty Images)

I guess you could really say its just been a rather slow week in terms of news. Sure rosters were finalized on Tuesday night for the rest of the year and the league announced their big break next summer but other than that it’s been rather calm in Major League Soccer this week. I do have a couple thoughts and links tonight around the game.

First up I did want to recap the notable moves that have taken place this summer in the league now that the rosters are frozen into place for the next couple months. This is also a good time to take part in the little poll to your right on this page about the best summer move in MLS. Go ahead and vote now if you haven’t already!

Anyways, let’s recap shall we? (note I did not include every move from this season, for that go to the In-Season Player Movement page)

The DP’s
Luis Angel Landin – Houston Dynamo’s first Designated Player
Julian de Guzman – Toronto FC’s first Designated Player

The Allocated
Heath Pearce (D – FC Dallas) U.S. national team player
Danny Szetela (M – D.C. United) Former U.S. Under-20 returned from Italy

The Traded
Colorado and FC Dallas — Drew Moor to Colorado for Ugo Ihemelu for a 2nd draft pick and allocation
Houston Dynamo and Kansas City Wizards — Kei Kamara to KC for Abe Thompson and allocation money
Chivas USA and FC Dallas — Marcelo Saragosa to Chivas USA for Atiba Harris.
Chivas USA and LA Galaxy — Alecko Eskandarian to LA for conditional pick in draft
Real Salt Lake and San Jose Earthquakes — Pablo Campos to RSL for 2nd pick in draft

Notable Signings and Loans
Ali Gerba (F – Toronto FC) Canadian national team player
Jesus Padilla (F – Chivas USA) on loan from CD Guadalajara.
Maicon Santos (F – Chivas USA) Has played professionally in Brazil and other places
Chris Birchall (M – Los Angeles Galaxy) Trinidad national team player
Leonardo Gonzalez (D – Seattle Sounders FC) previously played in Costa Rica
Ramon Sanchez (M – San Jose Earthquakes) El Salvadorian national team player
Walter Garcia (D – New York Red Bulls) Argentine defender
Julien Baudet (D – Colorado Rapids) Frenchman captained Crewe Alexandra in England
Marvin Chavez (M – FC Dallas) Honduran national team player
Daniel Hernandez (D – FC Dallas) MLS veteran returns after second stint in Mexico’s top division
David Myrie (D – Chicago Fire) Costa Rican defender

New Kids on the Block (Academy Players Signed)
Giorgi Chirgadze (NY)
Bill Hamid (D.C. United)
Bryan Leyva (FC Dallas)

Notable Departures:

Kenny Cooper leaves FC Dallas for 1890 Munich in Germany
Bakery Soumare leaves Chicago Fire for Boulogne in France

Now on to some linkage: Continue Reading…

Over the last week and a half I missed out on quite a bit of stuff so I felt tonight would be a good way to recap some things and give you all my opinion on each. We’ve had plenty of new players get signed this past week, including one Designated Player…which in Major League Soccer is always a big deal.

So where do I begin?

Pearce Lands In Dallas

Okay this one is kind of big since it is more local for me here in Dallas. I mentioned a while back that I thought Dallas should make a play for Heath Pearce though I honestly expected it to never happen. Dallas sat atop the Allocation order and looked to just never use the position to their advantage.

Now Dallas signs Pearce who failed to get a contract in Turkey or in Europe in general. Now it may be interesting to see where Pearce ends up in Schellas Hyndman’s roster but he will upgrade a defense that has been awful this season.

I love the defense that is being put together in Dallas though. Pearce along with recent signing of Daniel Hernandez and summer signing Jair Benitez. After failing to get a quality defense with guys like Steve Purdy (ugh) and Daniel Torres (yikes!), Hyndman may finally have a defense that is worth hyping up.

de Guzman (Finally) Signs As DP

First he turned down an offer from Toronto but now he comes back to it. Mo Johnston finally gets his man as Julian de Guzman signs with Toronto FC. He’s been one of the best Canadian players for years but is he really worth the move? He hasn’t played much at all this summer, except for Canada in the Gold Cup which puts loads of questions on his fitness level.

Signing a better defender would have made more sense for a defense that can’t stop anyone half the time. Still the signing is a big one since he is a DP. The DP signings are seemingly headed into a direction that I don’t believe MLS expected them to ever go to when the rule was first created. Its a direction that I am actually fine with. Clubs are signing quality players not for attendance bumps (which as we all know was why the rule was created deep down) but for guys that actually can and will help their team out. de Guzman fits that mold just as Luis Angel Landin does in Houston. It may not happen right away this season but next year we should see both as All-Stars.

Huckerby Out For Year With Hip Surgery

I know a thing or two about a bad hip. I dislocated my right hip playing the lovely game back in my playing days. Hip injuries are a bitch just like any other injuries. Darren Huckerby of the San Jose Earthquakes knows a thing or two about them now as he will undergo season ending surgery on his hip.

Huckerby never really saw any quality action this season for the Quakes which is one of the many reasons why the 2.0 version of the Quakes have spent all season at the bottom of the western standings.

After showing so much promise last year for the Quakes, one has to wonder if this injury will end Huckerby’s time with San Jose and MLS.

Continue Reading…

One thing I like to do before I go on any trip is make sure my place is decently clean for my return. Well in the case of this past week for my wedding/honeymoon I was all prepared on that level except for when it came to getting back in the swing of things for soccer stuff. I came back into town this past weekend and saw a slew of random scores in Major League Soccer. Some were more predictable than others but some were just crazy.

Yes, the main score I am talking about is that wild 6-3 game at the Home Depot Center between FC Dallas and the LA Galaxy. I think I predicted something like 3-1 for LA on Saturday morning. Yeah apparently I was way off and that doesn’t even begin to tell that story.

While I was gone I missed out on a few things. Where I was on my honeymoon the only access to the internet was through my iPhone and even the service there in Maui wasn’t good enough to want to read up on things. So when I came back I had hundreds of messages and notes about different deals that had gone down. From Heath Pearce to Dallas (no shocker there in my opinion), to Julian de Guzman to Toronto (kind of shocking but in  a way not really).

Then I saw some fun deals like Jon Conway getting sent by New York to Chivas for a draft pick in the 2011 draft. I think I chuckled at that one for some reason. Same with the signing of Daniel Hernandez by FC Dallas. I guess Schellas Hyndman really wants FC Dallas to just be a bunch of his old SMU kids. They never won a national title there so I wouldn’t expect anything great out of them in MLS.

So now after a week and a half of being out of things the league’s playoff race looks a little different than when I left. The way I look at the standings here, the first tiebreaker goes to the club that has played the fewest matches. Next is head-to-head and then goal differential. Number of games played is presented before the clubs’ record. Continue Reading…

I know I have been saying for a while that Toronto FC needs a big-time striker but if this report is true they could be lining up to get Canadian international Julian De Guzman. I usually don’t watch extra time but after seeing a few folks mention this week’s episode I thought I would actually check it out for once. Turns out Shep Messing said that De Guzman could be coming back home and play with the Reds.

Hear it for yourself.

Thing is does Toronto really need another defensive midfielder? Sounds like they could be lined up to make a trade or two if that deal is true.