By Ben Knight

 

The answer, of course, is “It can’t.”

The question?  “How can a good team lose and all-or-nothing soccer game 5-0 to the worst team in the league?”

To me, that’s all the proof needed that Toronto FC, despite all the signings, all the promising rookies and all the hype and hoopla, simply is not a good team.

But by “team,” I don’t just mean the players on the field.

But let’s start there.  The two things all these lads have in common is they were taken to soccer school by New York Product Placement on a night where a win – combined with everything else that happened – would have seen them safely into seventh place overall, and a first-round home-and-home playoff pairing with the Chicago Fire.

The other commonality is they were all signed by TFC GM Mo Johnston.

From one angle, Toronto FC grabbed some very favourable headlines throughout 2009, signing gifted Canadian internationals Dwayne DeRosario and Julian DeGuzman, while fielding a delicious assortment of young talent: Stephan Frei, Sam Cronin, O’Brian White, Nana Attakora, Emmanuel Gomez, Amadou Sanyang – and don’t forget Fuad Ibrahim, blessed with future value and still only a teenager.

But however much of that promise took the field in a rain-gargled Giants Stadium on Saturday, the squad has gaping, fatal holes.

No wingers, no effective strikers and a back four that was painfully exposed just two minutes in, and repeatedly violated throughout a horrible, damning, corrosive, appalling, season-destroying night.

When Johnston triumphantly signed DeGuzman, the best player on Canada’s national team became the sixth holding midfielder on Toronto FC’s small roster.  DeGuzman went straight to the top of a depth chart that already included Cronin, Carl Robinson, Amado Guevara, Sanyang and Adrian Serioux.  Serioux plays centre back for Toronto, of course, but he was born and coached to play in the middle.

The only effective wing play throughout ’09 has come from Cronin and fullback/captain Jim Brennan.  Pushing Brennan and fellow fullback Marvell Wynne forward boosts TFC’s options and attack, but leaves greater weakness behind them.

The best thing about the leaky defence is it gave Attakora and Gomez chance after chance to prove they are developing into better-than-useful MLS defenders.  The bad news is both made youthful mistakes, and Serioux and veteran Nick Garcia couldn’t keep the barn door closed.

Garcia.  Let’s examine this.  After more than a decade as a frontline stopper in this league, the man knows his business.  But he’s also lost a step, and has no height.  He is, however, an old friend and long-time former teammate of Mo Johnston. 

One of the hardest things about covering Johnston is pinning down his exact mistakes.  The man is a master of juggling MLS’s bizarre salary and roster rules.  He has certainly managed to pack a lot of contracts into a very restrictive spreadsheet.

Garcia was a known commodity, available cheap.  The fact that the team that was ditching him – San Jose – was having a woeful season undoubtedly made it easier and cheaper to bring him aboard.  The man’s experience certainly offered some benefits, but striker after opposing striker soon discovered they could outrun and outleap Garcia at will.  With nothing but youth tending goal, this … didn’t help.

Strikers, anybody?  In the end, it came down to Chad Barrett (5 goals), Ali Gerba (1 goal) and unproven-but-full-of-potential O’Brian White (2 goals).  Barrett is one of the most frustrating players I have ever covered – in any sport. 

The man cannot finish.  Perhaps he did something unbelievably awful to a goalie in a past life, and is paying penance in this one.  His work rate is flawless.  He may well be the hardest-working player on the entire squad.  He spends far too much time mucking around on the wings.  He can, in fairness, win the ball.  He cannot, at any reliable professional level, cross it.

White’s a kid coming off reconstructive knee surgery.  He showed wonderful flashes, but remains an unknown, unproven commodity.

Then, there’s Gerba.  Again, at the time, the mid-season signing made some sense.  The towering, powerful target man has a thunderbolt shot, was a free agent, and had a fine and productive CONCACAF Gold Cup.  He also scored – in Columbus – on his TFC debut.

He had also just been cut from the English third division, he wasn’t in good shape – and he hasn’t scored again.

All of this was compounded by the Danny Dichio story.  Dichio, a fan hero for his heart, effort and ability to both finish and set up teammates for fine scoring attempts, was roughly forced out as the season entered its home stretch.  There was conflict in the dressing room over how much more playing time Barrett was getting, and it forced the moment to a crisis.

Dichio was made to step sideways into a coaching role.  The good news?  That had been his intention all along.  The bad?  None of Barrett, Gerba or White could bend defences and spring teammates the way Dichio still could.  Dichio’s simple presence on the field still made TFC more dangerous.  This was not replaced down the stretch.  The entire affair?  Sloppy.

Carl Robinson, anyone?  The Welsh international midfielder isn’t a great passer, but he wins the ball well, helps bail out the back four and is an unquestioned leader on the team.  His season ended early when he suffered broken bones in his face in a head-to-head collision with a young trialist from the Ivory Coast.

Why, oh why, oh why, were TFC players asked to practice with strangers with only three games left in a desperate playoff chase?  They hadn’t even properly meshed with the newly arrived DeGuzman.  Why not keep things simple?  This – especially – was sloppy.

And now – coaching:

After the game, Toronto interim coach Chris Cummins was asked about his future with the team.  He spoke of his young family, living an ocean away in England, and of promises that had not been kept.

This has been an open secret through most of the year, but good luck getting it on the record.

But since Cummins has opened the door, the promises apparently included commitments that his wife would be able to work in Canada, and his children could go to school.  This didn’t happen, and the family went home.

Mo’s fault?  Government didn’t go along?  Still hard to know.  Did it help?  No.  Was it sloppy?  Hell, yes.

I don’t believe Cummins ever let the disappointment and distraction affect his work.  Like Barrett, the effort he puts into his craft is impressive.  But also, like Barrett, the job did not get done.

Far too many times, Toronto FC were exposed as a naïve, badly prepared soccer team.  The horrendous loss in New York was merely the most glaring – and fatal – example.  Cummins was over his head all season.  There is no sound soccer reason why he should return.

There are more details to the Cummins story.  And the Robinson story.  And yes, by God, the Dichio story.  But getting folks at BMO Field to go on the record is a continuing uphill struggle.  Reporters always know things they can’t print. 

All I can honestly tell you is there are a lot of grinding, non-soccer pressures on these players.  And while none of the backroom drama offers any excuses at all for the horrible way they lost in New York, it certainly didn’t help.  Add in the fact they have a leaky defence, toothless strikers, almost nothing on the wings and six holding midfielders …

Well, it’s sloppy. 

I think it’s time the captain of this ship answered a few questions – if not from us, then certainly from his bosses at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

Onward!