Montreal Impact vs Toronto FC - 03162013

Venue: Olympic Stadium, Montreal, ON, Canada

When: Saturday March 16th, 2013 4:00 PM Eastern

TV Coverage: TSN
Competition: League Match (MLS)
Comments: Twitter Stream 
Game Day Travel: Red Patch Boys

Predictions: 

Although there will be some players that I can see starting this game to give other guys a break a lot of them are coming off injury and may be used as subs.  Also, we seem to be getting a settled back four and starting XI so there is a lot to be said for consistency.  This will be a very important game for us, for the longest time we have had Montreal's number in CL qualification and the local Canadian championship but now they are quite a gifted team with tons of talent as well as coming off an away win.  If we can get something out of this game it would be huge for us.  However, I'm going to say that this will be a draw.

Injuries:

(Last update: Mar. 14)

Toronto FC:

• Danny Koevermans (L ACL repair)
• D. Henry (R Hamstring strain)
• Luis Silva (R Hamstring strain) **Questionable**
• Julio Cesar (L Calf strain)
• T. Morgan (R ankle sprain)
• Matt Stinson (L Hamstring strain) **Questionable**
• Justin Braun (Concussion)

Montreal Impact:

• Nelson Rivas (L knee surgery)
• Sinisa Ubiparipovic (R calf strain)
  

 

Predicted Starting XI:

Sources:

Post:


Pre:

MLS Injury Report
Reds Face Impact at Big O 

Vancouver Whitecaps vs Toronto FC - 03022013 (Loss 1 - 0)

Goals: '59 VAN Gershon Koffie

Venue: BC Place in Vancouver, BC, Canada

When: Saturday March 2nd, 2013 6:30 PM Eastern / 3:30 PM Pacific

TV Coverage: TSN
Competition: League Match (MLS)
Comments: Twitter Stream 

It was a strange feeling for me because I had seen such promise in the first have and was full of hope for the new season but the second half after changes by Vancouver we never played as well and gave up that goal.  I'm going to take this as a glass half full.  Bekker really impressed me for his age and seemed to be involved in a lot of the play.  It's clear that we need more firepower up front, a goal would have turned the match around.

Post Match:

Toronto FC Starting XI:
Joe Bendik; Richard Eckersley, Danny Califf, Darren O’Dea, Ashtone Morgan; Reggie Lambe, Jeremy Hall, Terry Dunfield (Taylor Morgan 75’), Hogan Ephraim, Kyle Bekker; Robert Earnshaw (Emery Welshman 85’)

Substitutes not used: 
Quillan Roberts, Gale Agbossoumonde, Darel Russell, Jonathan Osorio, Andrew Wiedeman

Vancouver Whitecaps Starting XI:
Joe Cannon; Lee Young-Pyo, Andy O’Brien, Jay DeMerit (Brad Rusin 7’), Alain Rochat; Gershon Koffie, Jun Marques Davidson, Kekuta Manneh (Nigel Reo-Coker 45’), Daigo Kobayashi (Erik Hurtado 76’); Darren Mattocks, Kenny Miller

Substitutes not used: 
Brad Knighton, Jordan Harvey, Camilo, Corey Hertzog

Predictions: 

So Toronto FC kicks off the new season today.  I'm not very optimistic although I agree with dumping Mariner during off season but dumping so many players and signing 5 players the week prior to the first match makes me really nervous.  However, the experience of Earnshaw is definitely a positive and I will be very interested to see how Osorio gets on.  I have been following him for a few years since he is a Canadian U20 that has spent some time playing in South America with Club National de Uruguay.  The back line seems to have a bit more depth than what we have been used to but we need to either get Koevermans healthy soon or bring in a proven striker as I see goals being the issue for us this year.  It has been a roller coaster ride as a fan over the last year and I hope that there is at the very least some stability and positive results this year.

Players Picked Up This Week:

• Hogan Ephraim (24 - England - QPR, West Ham, Colchester United) 
• Robert Earnshaw (31 - Wales - Maccabi Tel Aviv, Cardiff City, West Brom, Norwich City, Derby County, Nottingham Forest 
• Ashton Bennett (24 - Canada/Jamaica - Drafted from Coastal Carolina) 
• Jonathan Osorio (20 - SC Toronto (CSL), Club National de Uruguay)
• Taylor Morgan (22 - Drafted from George Mason University)

 

Predicted Starting XI:

Sources:

Post:
Reds Fall Short 

Pre:

MLS Injury Report

Reds Aquire Hogan Ephraim

Reds Welcome Robert Earnshaw

Three Attacking Players Ink TFC Deals 

TSN Toronto FC 2013 Preview

Toronto FC vs Sporting Kansas City - 03022013 (Win 2 - 1)

Goals: '3 TOR Earnshaw, '21 TOR Earnshaw (P), '77 SKC Bieler

Venue: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada

When: Saturday March 9th, 2013 1:30 PM Eastern

TV Coverage: TSN
Competition: League Match (MLS)
Comments: Twitter Stream 

Post-Match:

This was an awesome game for me, Earnshaw appears to be the real deal.  I'll try not to get excited too soon as we just started the season and have a lot of work yet to go but man this was a great gift for a long suffering TFC supporter.  I can tell that the constant pressing by TFC early on can lead to early goals and is a great strategy but the second half in both games show that players are not yet fit or adjusted to the league.  If we can get that right we can have a consistent season.

 

Toronto FC Starting XI:

 

Joe Bendik; Richard Eckersley, Danny Califf, Darren O’Dea ©, Ashtone Morgan; John Bostock (Darel Russell 85’), Jeremy Hall, Terry Dunfield (Jonathan Osorio 82’), Reggie Lambe; Hogan Ephraim (Kyle Bekker 87’), Robert Earnshaw

 

Substitutes not used: Stefan Frei, Gale Agbossoumonde, Andrew Wiedeman, Emery Welshman

 

Sporting Kansas City Starting XI:

 

Jimmy Nielsen ©; Seth Sinovic, Aurelien Collin, Matt Besler, Chance Myers; Paulo Nagamura, Oriol Rosell, Benny Feilhaber (Soony Saad 82’), Bobby Convey (C.J. Sapong 46’), Graham Zusi; Claudio Bieler

 

Substitutes not used: Eric Kronberg, Ike Opara, Lawrence Olum, Peterson Joseph, Josh Gardner

 

Predictions:

It was interesting to see TFC pickup young John Bostock on loan from Tottenham.  However, I was hoping for a more experienced striker to help with our problem up front.  This week i'm thinking there would be fewer changes as last weeks earlier performance was not bad and we needed to be sharper and more consistent this week.  I do think Nelson will add Julio Cesar in front of the back four against his old team and slot Bostock in at wide left.  This is going to be a tough game as KC just came off a 3-1 win over Philadelphia, i'm going to say this will be a draw.

Players Picked Up This Week:

• John Bostock (21 - England - Loan From Tottenham, Swindon Town, Crystal Palace, Brentford, Hull, Sheffield) 

 

Predicted Starting XI:

Sources:

Post:
Reds Beat SKC at Rogers Centre


Pre:

Reds Open At Home To SKC

Pre-Season: Toronto FC vs Columbus Crew

Venue: ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World, Anaheim, California, United States

When: Saturday February 9th, 2012 1:00 PM Eastern

TV Coverage: Online Stream Only
Competition: 2013 Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic

Can it be true?  A season where I actually have something to look forward to?  Let's hope so, lots of new players in and I got my Christmas wish with Mariner replaced with a new coach.  Today TFC plays Columbus in the Disney classic.  For this match I will not attempt to pick a formation as most players will be getting minutes.  I'm hoping to see a lot of the new players show what they are capable of.

Toronto FC Starting XI: 

Frei; Eckersley, Agbossoumonde, O'Dea, Morgan; Lambe, Osorio, Hall, Welshman; Silva, Braun

Toronto FC vs Columbus Crew (Today)

Venue: BMO Field, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

When: Saturday March 31st, 2012 2:00 PM Eastern

Goals:

Attendance: 

TV Coverage:

Competition: Major League Soccer Regular Season

Live Blog: Tentative For Today's Game

I see Aceval as questionable with hamstring tightness on the injury list but am thinking Winter does not have many solid options back there so he'll likely start. I also think Avila will start as he has not been able to play Champion's League and could add fire to the attack.  I'm also thinking that Johnson will sit out as he has played a lot of minutes and Winter is thinking of the 2nd leg against Santos coming up.  Plata should also see some minutes.  I'll go with a 2-1 win to break our losing streak in the league.  Although against a team like Columbus and TFC missing Frings getting any points at all is going to be a huge mountain to climb but you never know.

Pre-Game Predictions:


Injuries:

COLORADO RAPIDS -- OUT: MF Jamie Smith (R ACL tear); DF Anthony Wallace (L Achilles tear); MF Pablo Mastroeni (headaches); DOUBTFUL: FW Conor Casey (L Achilles tear)

TORONTO FC -- OUT: FW Nicholas Lindsay (L knee surgery recovery); DF Dicoy Williams (R knee surgery recovery); DF Jeremy Hall (sports hernia surgery recovery); MF Torsten Frings (R hamstring strain); GK Stefan Frei (L lower leg); QUESTIONABLE: DF Adrian Cann (R knee surgery recovery); DF Miguel Aceval (R hamstring tightness)

Sources:
MLS Site (Injury Report)

Toronto FC vs Santos Laguna 03282012 (Draw 1 - 1)

Venue: BMO Field, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

When: Wednesday March 28th, 2012 8:00 PM Eastern

Goals: '30 SAN H. Gomez, '37 TOR Aceval

Red Cards: '77 SAN O. Mares, '90+6 SAN C. Quintero

Attendance:

TV Coverage: Rogers SportsNet

Competition: CONCACAF Champion's League Semi Finals (Leg 1)

Live Blog: http://torontofc.globalfootballtoday.com/

Interesting to see Soolsma in for Plata. Winter must be hoping he'll be an impact off the bench. Lambe is also on for Silva. I can't wait to see how they will line up.

First Half:

Santos looked to be feeling Toronto out and giving us lots of space. We had some great pressure early on and seemed to be very organized.

'11: It didn't take long for a close call. A bad clearance by Aceval very nearly resulted in a goal but Kocic saved our bacon.

'17: By this point 2 Mexican players had gone down feigning injuries with the BMO faithful booing aggressively. I wonder if they were used to getting those kinds of calls in Mexico.

'18: Kocic almost had the ball chipped over his head but made the extra stretch to slap it away.

'28: A very credible display so far, a little shaky at the back but overall not bad, we even came close to scoring on a couple occasions.

'29: Eventually Santos beat the offside trap and Hercules Gomez rolled one past Gomez putting Santos up 1-0.

'34: Koevermans almost scored one of the goals of the tournament when he spun on his defender in the box, was one on one with the keeper but at the last moment was prevented from heading it into the net.

'36: A bit of drama when Koevermans was carded for taking a free kick early, he was breathing fire. It actually worked out in our favor as Aceval scored through the wall on his attempt. Seeing the goal and explosion of confetti I could not believe it.

The goal was exactly what we needed as TFC seemed to play with more urgency and belief. The bad thing is the fact that Koevermans will miss the next leg.

Second Half:

Winter replaced Aceval with Maund 3 minutes into the second half which was strange. I'm guessing he must have had a knock.

Toronto FC Starting XI:

Kocic; Eckersley, Harden, Aceval ('49 A. Maund), Morgan; Lambe, de Guzman, Dunfield; Soolsma ('72 J. Plata), Koevermans, Johnson

Substitutes: Rowe; Cann, Maund, Silva, Burgos, Plata

Santos Laguna Starting XI:

 O. Sánchez (GK), A. Galindo, S. Hoyos, J. Estrada ('46 C. Ibáñez), O. Mares, R. Salinas, Marc Crosas, H. Gómez ('69 C. Ramírez), C. Ochoa ('61 O. Peralta), C. Quintero, C. Suárez

Sources:
CONCACAF Site

Pre-Game Predictions:

This will be a Jeckyll and Hyde of a game with all that's happened lately.  Knocking last years MLS champions out of the competition then losing two straight league games with injuries to Frings and Frei to boot.  By all rights this looks to be like a blood letting is coming similar to the one Santos laid on Seattle.  However, TFC has always pulled something out of the bag in this competition and by all accounts has over achieved in CONCACAF compared to MLS.  I hope this is another one of those nights.  I'm going to go half way and say a 2-2 draw which would not benefit us but would not be a spanking either.

I've heard rumours that TFC will try to be more defensive minded for this game considering Santos's quality.  However, I think we should go balls to the wall and take the game to them.  Soaking up pressure for long periods of the game has never served us in the past and will not work against Santos.
 

Toronto FC vs San Jose Earthquakes 03242012 (Loss 0 - 3)

Venue: BMO Field, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

When: Saturday March 24th, 2012 1:00 PM Eastern

Goals: '9 SJ Wondolowski, '56 SJ Salinas, '67 SJ Wondolowski

Attendance: 

TV Coverage:

Competition: Major League Soccer Regular Season

Live Blog: Tentative For Today's Game

I was traveling on this particular weekend and was not able to watch the game.  In some ways I'm glad I didn't see the 3-0 loss to San Jose.  A team which I consider to be of less quality than some of the other MLS teams.  Things seem to be going from bad to worse as Frings was injured in the Seattle game, Frei injuring himself during training and the available squad not being able to cut it on their own.  I certainly hope there is a ray of light in the Santos game.

Toronto FC:

Milos Kocic; Richard Eckersley, Ty Harden (Aaron Maund 64'), Miguel Aceval, Ashtone Morgan; Julian de Guzman, Terry Dunfield (Danny Koevermans 46'), Luis Silva; Reggie Lambe, Ryan Johnson, Joao Plata (Nick Soolsma 85')

Substitutes not used: Brian Rowe; Logan Emory, Eric Avila, Efrain Burgos Jr.

San Jose Earthquakes:

Jon Busch; Steven Beitashour, Victor Bernardez, Justin Morrow, Ramiro Corrales; Sam Cronin, Shea Salinas (Simon Dawkins 85'), Tressor Moreno (Rafael Baca 57'), Marvin Chavez (Khari Stephenson 72'); Steven Lenhart, Chris Wondolowski

Substitutes not used: David Bingham; Brad Ring, Jason Hernandez, Sercan Guvenisik.


Pre-Game Predictions:

 

With Frings out with a hamstring tear i'm guessing Winter will deploy De Guzman at point back just in front of the defenders.  Silva and Dunfield to me with fill in the rest of the triangle in midfield with the usual suspects as full backs.  I'm sure Winter will keep playing Koevermans and Johnson but wasn't %100 sure about Plata.  He tends to rest him for some games as he expends lots of energy and is not effective against some opponents.  This game however i think he will be effective and will enjoy playing in front of the fans.  I'll say 3-2 win for us, let's go reds!!