Onward!

By Ben Knight

He’s got some rascal in him, this one.

Thursday’s BMO Field presser announcing details of the 2010 Voyageurs Cup tournament was the first chance I’ve had to study Toronto FC’s new coach eyeball-to-eyeball.

Preki – new to the whole thing, lurching back and forth between loosey-goosey and tentative – put on an intriguing show.

While his fellow coaches (Marc Dos Santos of the Montreal Impact, Teitur Thordarson of the Vancouver Whitecaps) sat obediently and somewhat nervously behind their respective microphones, Preki lounged/sprawled way back in his chair, making occasional whispered jokes, clearly enjoying himself.

Asked to speak of the Canadian competition’s importance, he shrugged off his total inexperience with the tournament, noting he has already seen that the V-Cup generates far more excitement in Canada than its American counterpart – the U.S. Open Cup – does Stateside.

He was prepared for that one.  The intriguing part, for me, was watching this sharp, calculating, Mercurial man when caught a little bit off-guard.

Comes a good question (Lee Godfrey, GOL-TV) about the relative importance of league and V-Cup matches.  Thordarson fields it, saying the Voyageurs Cup is very important to the Whitecaps, and that his team is looking forward to giving its all in what he expects will be some entertaining, high-quality matches.

Preki, deeply reclined, suddenly realizes everyone is looking at him.  He straightens, wondering aloud if he was supposed to answer the question too.  No one says “no.”  Now he’s improvising.  And, interestingly, he tells the truth.

The TFC coach rambles on for a good minute or more, stating beyond any doubt that MLS matches are far more important.  His main goal is to win in the league, therefore league games have to take priority.  Perhaps sensing the cup-happy room has suddenly gone a bit quiet, Preki adds a slightly awkward tag line that cup matches are great, too.

I’ve seen lots of coaches get caught off-guard in many different ways.  Some get flustered; some go all quiet.  Some crank up the used-car-salesman routine, deflecting the question to offer you power wiper blades on the way by.

Preki, there to bolster the cup, emphatically thudded on about the Canadian competition’s relative unimportance.

This opens an intriguing possibility.  There may be real profit for the TFC journo crowd in asking Preki vague questions.  It seems as though, when he’s not completely clear on what he’s been asked, he answers all the possibilities at once – straight from the heart, gut and truth.

Hmm.

Whatever strategic shortcomings former TFC bench bosses John Carver and Chris Cummings possessed, they were blessedly frank and straight-forward talkers.  Preki is clearly a man of many layers, and it won’t be nearly so easy now to deduce the spot-on from the spin.

The trick may be – and I’ll let you know how it goes – to concoct a sufficiently vague question.

This is going to be fun, folks.

Onward!

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By Ben Knight

Jim Brennan is a wonderful guy. 

Friendly, approachable, clever, smiles a lot, cares hugely about what he does.

But as Toronto FC commences training camp for the 2010 MLS campaign, it is clear that Jimmy B should step down as the captain of the Reds.

Yes, he was the first player the franchise signed.  Yes, his experience – England, Canada, three seasons of fulltime play for TFC – dwarfs most, if not all, of his teammates’.

Age is one factor.  Although he had some great moments in 2009, the 33-year-old has slowed a bit – which was painfully clear at times, particularly at the back.

Versatility should work in his favour.  Even though he’s mostly been deployed at fullback, he was the only man on the team last season who could semi-reliably get a decent cross in from the left side.

But as the youth on the roster continues to develop – Attakora and Gomez at the back, Cronin and maybe Sanyang in the mid – competition for playing time will increase.  Brennan’s on-field minutes are very likely to decline.

Then there’s the ceaseless turmoil that gripped Toronto FC throughout 2009.  It’s more than reasonable, methinks, to question the effectiveness of a captain who failed to put a clear stamp on either the controversial ousting of popular striker Danny Dichio, or that humiliating 0-5 loss to the PopCans on Massacre Night at the Meadowlands ©.

When TFC began, Brennan was go-to experienced veteran.  Three years later, both Julian de Guzman and Dwayne de Rosario have clearer claims to that crown.  One of them should take the mantle now.

On the sidelines, there is little doubt that new coach Preki will not settle for the clammy, clinging inconsistency that murdered this team’s post-season chances a year ago.  But the players need one of their own to commit to leadership by example – and make it actually stick.

Brennan remains valuable, but is now a diminishing resource.  Let him pass the armband on, and concentrate on staying healthy, and making plays.

Onward!

By Ben Knight

Sorry for the long absence, folks.  I’m very much in off-season mode, and my life has become quite interestingly busy (in two cities!) behind the scenes.  Onward! will become a regular part of my life again come spring, but there will still be intermittent (and, I hope, amusing) updates throughout the winter.

Last week, the not-quite-so-breakaway group of former USL-1 owners who are now trying to pass themselves off as the new NASL held an annual general meeting, and issued … a logo.

If you’re a fan of the old – the REAL – NASL, you probably recognize the typeface.  It is exactly (or no worse than 97 per cent of exactly) what the old league used. 

And this has me feeling concerned.

As an avid tabletop sports gamer, I’ve invented quite a few imaginary leagues in my time.  Generally, they’re a hodge-podge of ideas from all over the place.  I never felt that grabbing used logos was particularly honourable, but certainly it happened from time to time.

NASL-2 is feeling more and more like a league someone just dreamed up.  And it is, of course.  The someones in question just happen to own real soccer teams, and want to get the heck out of the league they were in.

And of course I understand there was a lot of last-minute edge work to deal with, significantly including hammering out a deal with the United States Soccer Federation so the second tier of men’s pro soccer in the United States and Canada could actually kick off come spring.

But, honestly, this is getting sloppy.  First, you grab the name of an old, legendary and still-loved league which you will never even remotely equal.  Then, just in case we didn’t get the point, you boost its logo.

It feels like that nerdy friend-of-a-friend who’s always nagging you to come see the toy train set in his basement.  I love trains – and I adored the NASL – but this is getting embarrassing.

It’s one thing for a league to be a hurriedly thought-out, largely improvised idea.  It’s another thing – entirely – to look like one.

If you want to be taken seriously, NASL-2 – and if you’re going to be home to the Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact, you’d darn well better be the real deal – please lose the shortcuts, and create your own identity.

Otherwise, guys like me are going to spend all the attention we give you writing about what you’re not, instead of what you are.

So … what are you?

Onward!

By Ben Knight

“Trader Mo” was quiet on draft day. 

Left with only a second- and fourth-round pick in the annual MLS auction of NCAA product, TFC GM Mo Johnston resisted the temptation to make headlines dealing up into the first round.  He settled for a long-term project and a longshot, and the Reds roster remained relatively unruffled.

Good.

I admit I’m one who finds Trader Mo a bit of a carnival sideshow.  I’d honestly be happier if the tents came down and the carts moved on. 

But there’s a very good reason why Toronto FC didn’t have a lot of selections in this dubiously legal exercise in restraint of trade: they cleaned up last year.

Sam Cronin, Stefan Frei, O’Brian White.  The first two instantly became solid, bankable MLS starters.  White, battling back from a career-threatening knee injury, showed significant promise in limited playing time.

As soon as all those deals went down, Johnston fired off his top 2010 pick down to Texas to FC Fairground-Fun-For-Frolicking-Families for Canadian international Adrian Serioux. 

TFC is now a team loaded with promising youth.  Gambians Emmanuel Gomez and Amadou Sanyang wandered in later, and Fuad Ibrahim is still a hot prospect – and will still be a teenager for another year and two thirds.

The Reds also have some front-line stars in Dwayne de Rosario and Julian de Guzman.

In other words, they don’t need any more kids.  Toronto’s gaping holes – striker, wing play, central defence – would be better filled by … players.  Just some good, effective better-than-average pros would pretty much nail it.   

The parallel truth is, there aren’t that many current TFC players who could ever be dealt straight-up for a draft pick.  Carl Robinson or Marvell Wynne – both rumoured to be on the move yesterday – just can’t match the future potential of top young college kids who won’t count against the salary cap for a while.

When Mo finally got his moment, with the 24^th pick overall, he grabbed 17-year-old central defender Zac Herold.  How is a desperately young kid going to fill a position that cries out for veteran leadership?  He isn’t.  The hook here is he’s got six years of “Generation Adidas” exemption from the salary cap.  He’s free, in other words.  If he can play in three years, great.  If not, he’s a really useful throw-in for a future hole-filling trade.

Pure game-playing, in other words – which is most of what this silly draft exercise consists of, anyway.

Overall, I’m giving Trader Mo a solid B for his drafting yesterday.  It was a time to do nothing, he knew it, and got a couple of spare parts that might actually help him solve one of his many larger problems.

Now we need a new CBA, so everyone knows how much money there actually is to spend.  Then Johnston’s got to get to work filling holes for real.

And while we’re in the neighbourhood, am I the only one who’s getting concerned that Nick Garcia is still on the Toronto roster?  The veteran defender showed neither speed nor height last season, and opposing teams were deliberately – and successfully – running stunts on him down the stretch.

Garcia, of course, was Johnston’s teammate for many years in Kansas City, but new coach Preki builds on his back four, so that’s got to be the end of that, right?

Except Garcia, of course, was Preki’s teammate for many years in Kansas City as well. 

I understand the real dealing hasn’t started yet, but there are few Toronto players with more miniscule trade value.  Why is he still here?

Onward!

By Ben Knight

Way, way back in early 1966, I was a seven-year-old Canadian kid living at a university compound in Ibadan, Nigeria.  I was attending Grade One, was deeply homesick, but quite entranced and influenced by the sights, sounds, colours and cultures of West Africa.

Rainy-season storms that went from clear blue sky to deluge in under five minutes.  Vibrant cloth markets, bathed in a thousand colours in the hot intensity of an overhead noonday sun.  The Milky Way and Southern Cross fairly blazing in the utter darkness of the midnight sky.  The endless dust and lush jungle greenery of a place unimaginably different from my quiet little side street near Bloor and Spadina in downtown Toronto.

And then the civil war broke out.  The whole Biafra thing.

There was never any shooting where we lived, although the Lagos airport got shot up on a day we would have been there had we waited for my younger brother to get over the mumps before we fled.

But there were lines of armed soldiers on the hillsides.  There were burned-out and shot-up buildings in the city.  People I had come to know sometimes disappeared.  Other people told me they’d been shot.  A tank came to our school one afternoon, and soldiers told us not to come to school the following day.

And I did once have a rifle pointed at me at a checkpoint.

None of these things compares, in any way, with the recent attack on Togo’s national soccer team in Angola.  People died.  People saw friends and colleagues die. 

I’ve only ever been on the edge of a war.  But the casualness and suddenness of what little I saw left me with dark, obsessive thoughts that still haunt me – in one way or another – forty-four years later.

I don’t know how the Togolese could possibly have been expected to play soccer in the African Nations Cup under those conditions.  Certainly no one expected the Sri Lankans to play cricket after their team bus was ambushed by gunfire in Lahore, Pakistan, a year ago.

The president of Togo sent a plane to get them out of there.  The team called a three-day mourning period – and even that seems pretty optimistic as a realistic return to competitive form. 

But international soccer tournaments have tight timelines, and Togo were supposed to play Ghana on Monday in the opening match of Group B.  The game did not go ahead, and Togo have been disqualified.

I don’t really have an argument for what is right and wrong here.  People dying in bus ambushes is so far from the experience of just about everybody I know.  What I do want to say, though, is that a little terror – when you actually taste it – goes a long, long way. 

For all the factual arguments about what should or shouldn’t happen here, for all the inevitable logistics of both tournaments and armed rebellion, only the team know how they really feel this morning.  … And all they’re getting is whatever emotions – so far – have been able to filter through the shock.

What happened to me in Africa was hugely minor compared to most people who have ever lived in the shadow of an armed conflict.  I saw only aftermath.  But even then, I could taste the terrifying uncertainty in the everyday air of the lively, sprawling, vibrant city that was my home throughout my first year of grade school.

No one – even those who were with me, and are with me to this day – knows how it felt to be me back then.

Only the Togolese should decide whether they can – or should – play in this tournament now.

Onward!

By Ben Knight

As expected, compromise ruled the day.

The two disputing factions in the feud over who runs second-division men’s pro soccer in this part of the planet has been resolved – for the coming season, at least – under intense pressure from the United States Soccer Federation.

The two sides – old, existing USL-1 and new, rebellious NASL-2 – will each form a conference in a new 12-team league that will kick off this spring. 

Canada’s two sides, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps, have been drawn in the “NASL Conference,” along with Carolina, Miami and expansion sides St. Louis and Baltimore.  The “USL Conference” includes Portland, Rochester, Puerto Rico, Minnesota, Austin and new boys Tampa Bay.

Scheduling details have not been announced.  But if we assume that the two sides still don’t really like each other, and each “conference” feels like it could be its own league a year from now because the other guys are jackasses yadda yadda so there, I think I see a way all this could be hugely good for the Canadian franchises.

Pure speculation, but let’s weight the schedule in favour in conference play.  That could easily produce a 32-game regular season, where everyone plays their conference mates four times each, and the other guys twice.

All of a sudden, the ‘Caps and Impact get eight games against expansion teams in their own division.  They also get four each against Miami, which has rarely played above bad expansion level for any sustained period of time.  Carolina can be a fine squad, but there’s absolutely no difficulty securing high playoff spots here.

Tough, established sides like Portland, Rochester and Puerto Rico?  Twice each.  C’est tout.

Again, no one’s said this is how it will happen, but the sked length is about right, and it rather honestly reflects this “two-league” thing we’ve all been tap-dancing around since Nu-Rock Holdings bought the USL, and teams started jumping out of every door and window they could find.

No, there will not ultimately be two leagues.  But I’m sure both factions are still planning ways to be “the one” in 2011 – when Vancouver and Portland move up to MLS, leaving bad teams, second-year teams, Rochester, Montreal and Carolina. 

(Yeah, that’s tough on Minnesota.  Bring it, boys!)  

Most importantly up here, Montreal and Vancouver have a league to play in, and the Voyageurs Cup will go on unhindered.  The future of the entire rest of the operation is still far from certain.  But there should be a good share of sloppy wins for both Canadian sides come spring.

Onward!

By Ben Knight

Been a while since I wrote anything about “It’s Called Football,” the podcast soccer show I do every week with Ben Rycroft and Duane Rollins.

A lot has happened.

After a fine year of steady growth, we have moved on from ThatChannel.com, seeking a bit more independence and control over where this thing is going to go.

For now, it’s audio-only, but that is going to change in the none-too-distant future.  The show tapes three times a week now.  I sit in on Mondays, with Daniel Squizzato from Some Canadian Guys Writing About Soccer filling the third chair on Wednesdays and Fridays.

The whole shooting match is available for download on iTunes – and a new feature launched this week lets you download the interviews only, if you want to hear the latest from Bob Lenarduzzi, Jason DeVos and a whole array of relevant, compelling guests without waiting through all our diverse and brilliant banter.

You can also tap into a vast archive of old shows by going to the top of Onward! and clicking the “It’s Called Football” tab.

From my side of the table, I have watched with pride and delight as Duane and Ben R. have grown into two of the best breaking-news soccer guys in the country.  And Squizz’s dry wit and deadpan emotional agony are beginning to produce some subtle, clever and deeply funny work.

As a musician, this show feels like being in a really good band.  I wish any of the bands I’ve been in over the years had ever had this kind of team spirit and compatibility. 

I don’t mention this an awful lot, because Onward! was designed to be about words – which is why I haven’t filled it with endless links to yet another interesting episode. 

If you haven’t discovered the show yet, please dive in. 

And please feel free to join the conversation.  We’re all journalists now.  The thing I love most about being part of this show is how often it becomes the jumping-off point for some really good conversations – in the TFC fan bars, or right across the continent.

Much more to come!

Onward!

By Ben Knight

Eight things we long-suffering followers of the beautiful game in the Great White North need to see in 2010:

1 – Major corporate sponsorship for the Canadian men’s soccer team.  CSA general secretary Peter Montopoli knows you can’t finance World Cup runs on a fraction of the registration fees ponied up by amateur soccer players.  He and the whole world outside of Metcalf Street agree on this.  With the economy brightening and a World Cup year dawning, it’s time to bag the elephant.  I want to see Montopoli, head coach Stephen Hart and a delighted corporate president, grinning in front of a giant mock-up cheque, by St. Patrick’s Day at the latest.

2 – Quick resolution to the USL-1/NASL-2 dispute.  The USSF has given both sides a week to find a compromise.  The blogosphere is ripping this as indecisive inaction.  I think it’s a thoughtful, measured move – which should have happened two months ago, but it’s too late to cuss about that now.  Scotch-tape-and-string together a one-year compromise, and make the split permanent next fall.

3 – MLS expansion to Montreal.  A done deal, according to my pal and colleague Ben Rycroft, and I have no tangible reason to doubt him.  But an official announcement would be lovely.

4 – At least ten international matches for the Canadian men.  The CSA is whispering/shouting/mumbling about playing every designated day on the FIFA international calendar.  We all know that won’t happen, so let’s just hit most of them.  And get a major draw – Italy, Portugal, England – on the gleaming new grass at BMO Field.  And make sure the private boxes are filled with corporate CEOs with money to spend on something happening and cool.

5 – A second Designated Player in MLS.  The current single DP remains a huge cap hit, and the three teams that have won championships in the DP era (Houston ’07, Columbus ’08, Seagull City ’09) didn’t have one.  A second DP – with either a split cap hit or (ideally!) no cap hit at all – could quickly ease the choking over-parity in Our Little League, without causing too much unaffordable inflation in the overall player pool.  And it could be vital in keeping Dwayne DeRosario happy at Toronto FC, now that Julian DeGuzman is making bigger trips to the bank.

6 – The Vancouver Whitecaps continuing to do everything right.  I’m starting to feel that even if the ‘Caps don’t have a league to play in, they’ll still keep building just fine for next year’s MLS debut.  Play some friendlies with the Portland Timbers.  Invite Seattle and Toronto in for matches.  Invent some cornball yet compelling reason to play the Montreal Impact every month or so.  Host some minor international sides!  Montreal took on Haiti (0-0 draw) and Syria (2-1 win!) at Stade Saputo last July.  Vancouver can do that – and more.   

7 – A Voyageurs Cup tournament, even if there’s no league for Montreal and Vancouver.  Okay, maybe it’s unofficial.  Maybe the winner (other than Toronto) doesn’t get to play in the CONCACAF Champions League.  It’s still important to play the games, because this competition matters.  Especially after the strange way last year’s tourney ended, with the Whitecaps sitting rain-drenched in the seats while the Impact B-team lost 6-1 to TFC. 

8 – Toronto FC in the playoffs.  Yeah, they missed by one point, and the team they beat in the second-last game squeaked in ahead of them, and won the whole bun-feed.  We all know it wasn’t that simple.  It took naïve coaching, bad discipline, fifteen late goals-against and a midfield-heavy roster void in strikers, wingers and centre backs to not get that point.  That and a 0-5 loss in the rain in Joisey, which proved the need for a new captain more than any of the many other things you could actually point to.  May new coach Preki be the ass-kicking bastard this town so urgently needs.

That’s my wish list.  What’s on yours?

Onward!

By Ben Knight

2009 draws rapidly to a close, and the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps are missing something really basic and essential as they make their plans for 2010.

A league to play in.

It has already long-since been noted that the vast majority of USL-1 sides refuse to recognize NuRock Holdings as the league’s new owner, and are attempting to split off and start NASL2 on their own. 

NuRock’s attempts at “diplomacy” have so far consisted of expelling franchises, cancelling player contracts en masse and filing lawsuits against teams like Tampa Bay, Rochester and Baltimore who caught the stink from the kitchen and are now trying to tip-toe out the back door.

All the while, the United States Soccer Federation – whose approval is needed for any league to operate – are doing everything they can to hold off making a decision, clearly hoping a solution is found that doesn’t involve their having to rule against one side or the other.

Meanwhile, Canada’s only two division-two pro sides – Vancouver MLS-bound in a year, Montreal most likely a year after – don’t actually know for certain if they will be playing soccer at all this summer.

It’s gone on long enough.

Dear USSF: There comes a point when a ruler loses the confidence of the mob, far past the point when staying in power is possible.  NuRock Holdings passed this point before it ever assumed the throne.  The ownership decision was so controversial, most USL-1 teams took it on the arches before the new guys ever assumed the throne. 

Since then, it’s been a one-way run to the exits.  I don’t know what kind of soccer league Portland, Austin (if they still exist) and Puerto Rico can run on their own, but I can’t imagine any way it’s going to be worth the airfare.

The honourable thing would be for NuRock to concede, and get on with the business of running USL-2 and the PDL, which is becoming a better-than-useful player development tool.  If any actual binding contracts have been broken, and any real compensation is due, I’m sure the courts can hammer all that out.

USL-1 is dead.  NASL2 is the de-facto second tier of men’s professional soccer in any parts of North America not flying red white and green flags.

The new league needs an official sanction from the USSF, so its players, teams and referees don’t face the footballing excommunication FIFA would gleefully impose on any rebel “outlaw” league.

This effort could get a huge boost if Portland, Austin (if they still exist) and Puerto Rico were nice enough to cross the floor and make NASL2 unanimous.  Ducking lawsuits and staying loyal are admirable enough traits, but it seems impossible now that a USL-1 owned by NuRock will ever kick off.  It’s getting on for January and play has got to start in the spring.

Someone has to explain all this to NuRock, in ways they can understand.  If even your expansion teams are jumping ship, and you’re having to sue just to hold onto teams that have never played a single game at that level – well, good luck selling season tickets for preliminary hearings and settlement negotiations.

As 2009 ends, let this dispute end as well.

Who in all this blessed world knows if NASL2 actually has the smarts and infrastructure to pull this off?  But as long as we know the NuRock deal exists on paper only, and will never, ever grace a soccer pitch – well, isn’t it time to get something done?

Onward!

By Ben Knight

Only three of Toronto FC’s thirty MLS matches for 2010 have officially been scheduled, and already there’s controversy with two of them.

First, MLS decided to send the Reds down to Columbus – again – for the March 27 season opener.  This, despite the fact that TFC supporters’ groups are still refusing to organize fan trips to the Ohio capital in the wake of last year’s late-March fun-fest.

(Yeah, yeah, jerks on both sides.  Just a real shortage of fans up here who want to pay money to pose for round two.  That will change – once TFC/Columbus becomes a real on-field soccer rivalry.)

No problem with the second match.  New England, away, on April 10.  That’s where the supporter money is going.  Expect many busloads of red in Foxboro that night.

Which brings us to the home opener.  The first match on the new grass.  New coach, new hopes – big names.  What a way to spend a Saturday afternoon …

Huh?  Wuzzat?  Thursday night?

I suppose it’s an honour.  A national ESPN2 television audience gets to see the new Philadelphia Union take a run in the calamitous red cauldron that is BMO Field.  Canadian team on American TV!  Get ‘em used to the idea that Seattle isn’t the only place they can get great atmosphere.

Lost in all this?  Well, let’s run a list:

- Home openers are to be savoured, not whammed into whatever time is left over after work lets out. 

- No way is the grass going to look anywhere near as lovely under the lights.

- BMO Field – given its height, isolation and immediate access and openness to Lake Ontario gales – is probably the coldest place in the entire city of Toronto (25 miles wide by 11 miles high) and surrounding area (that again, and then some).  And it’s COLD ’round here in April!

At least the 8 PM kickoff will give everyone time to get there – with sufficient pub time ‘fore and aft – but it won’t be the joyous, luxurious, all-day soccer wallow it would have been two days later. 

Oh, and…!

- Work crews installing the new grass pitch now have two fewer days to close the deal.  And yes, it has been known to snow in Toronto as late as April 28.

I know I’m being a bit whiny, but here’s the deal I’d like to make with the league to cover – oh, let’s say the next five years of season-opening fixtures.

If you send TFC to Columbus, put the home opener on a weekend afternoon – with a nice, civilized, England-style 3 PM kickoff. 

If you send TFC to New England or New York or Philly or Chicago for the road opener, tell ESPN2 the Reds will take on all comers in a parking lot in Iqaluit, and they can set the kickoff for any blessed time they choose.

(I worked up there for a winter once.  Biggest obstacle to bus trips?  No road.  Ah, but we’ve got imagination, don’t we?)

Did I just go all that way for another poke at the Columbus cops? 

No. 

Point is: while I don’t doubt MLS’s good intentions in all of this, getting popped on both the road and home openers seems a bit unnecessary.  Of course, we’ll be good citizens and carry on whooping, cheering, singing and stomping – but please cut us one break or the other a year from now.

Cool?

Onward!

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