Toronto FC 2012 Season Thread

[kaiteng]

http://content.sportslogos.net/logos/9/1249/full/lrfue5w2ag24fig1mwch.gif

THE YEAR 6th IS HERE!!

Entering its 6th season in MLS, the team looks more stable than ever with the core of former German international star Torsten Frings, big Dutch Danny Koevermans and Canadian star Julian De Guzman, alongside with young talents from returning Joao Plata and Richard Eckersley to TFC 2012 SuperDraft rookie Luis Silva. The only major addition to the team is Chilean defender Miguel Aceval.

Aron Winter and Co. seems to do a great job working on his team and it shows during the second half of 2011 season with wins and the qualification to the CONCACAF Champions League knockout round.

The formation will still be Dutch-style 4-3-3. The projected starting rosters look like this:

---------------------Frei----------------------

Morgan----Aceval----Harden/Cann----Eckersley

-----------Frings--------De Guzman-----------

---------------------Silva---------------------

-----Soolsma------Koevermans-------Plata-----

TFC will unofficial begin the season this Wednesday March 7th in CCL game against the almighty Los Angeles Galaxy at Rogers Centre. 45,000 seats have been sold out already so you can expect a great atmosphere in the Dome.

CAN'T WAIT!! :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:

[kaiteng]

http://distilleryimage5.instagram.com/c88b3ba6664911e1b9f1123138140926_7.jpg

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The turf is ready in the SkyDome. I still don't know how rowdy supporters are gonna be in that place since the policy is different from BMO Field. We could see some idiots lighting up flares tomorrow night.

[Skywalker]

looks sweet, maybe i'll see you there if you're going

[kaiteng]

http://i44.tinypic.com/147cox.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/t5gb3m.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/fav3g3.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/orr0he.jpg

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[Skywalker]

http://oi44.tinypic.com/289foeu.jpg

there's me

EXCITING GAME, gonna follow them all year

[kaiteng]

http://oi44.tinypic.com/289foeu.jpg

there's me

EXCITING GAME, gonna follow them all year
I didn't know the 200 level above the supporter's section is basically an extended one. I chose the side instead and it's kinda okay. At least Becks visited my corner once. :D

[Skywalker]

http://gigapixelfancam.com/fancams/soccer/torontofc/20120307/

tag yourself in that, cool stuff

[kaiteng]

TFC, after waiving Geovanny Caicedo days ago, signed former Puerto Rico Islanders defender Logan Emory to replace him. Without Adrian Cann, who is probably the best central defender available before the injury, Winter will have tough time shuffling his back line. Ty Harden is just a big dude who plays just okay defense. Frings can play as a sweeper but he is a lot more valuable higher up the field. I haven't seen enough of Aceval so I'm not gonna comment him yet.

[kaiteng]

TFC goes through to CCL semi-final, beating LA Galaxy at their home 2-1!

:banana: :banana: :party: :party: :party: :banana: :banana:

The next opponent is Santos Laguna of Mexico who beat Montreal Impact in CCL two years ago. This will not be any easier of TFC but let's keep the hope alive. Toronto sports fans deserve some good stories from somebody where Raptors is sucking and Leafs is gonna miss the Playoff yet again.

[T.O.RAPS]

Awesome game last night, Kocić was unreal. santos will def. be a test for tfc tho.

[Skywalker]

awesomeeeee

man I love this team now

Ryan Johnson on top form!

[kaiteng]

Frings will miss 4-6 weeks with strained hamstring injury. It sucks, of course, especially that Mexican team is waiting for them, but we will have a chance to see how Winter works up his roster depth, which will be very important during the middle of the season where Euro and Olympics will pull some players away for a while.

[Skywalker]

another good game in the CL tonight, seems like a different team in this competition

going to mexico 1-1

[kaiteng]

another good game in the CL tonight, seems like a different team in this competition

going to mexico 1-1
I was at the game tonight. TFC played much better than last two MLS games. Great defense against more skilled Santos Laguna but still couldn't finish.

And damn, Santos played like Mexican Barcelona, they used every single dirty soccer tricks in the bag! Flopping in every opportunities they got, tackling Ecks stud-first, and lastly a headbutt at the end of the game that led to a big scuffle!

American refs actually helped them though, waiving off Maund's push in the box and giving two reds at Santos players. Still, Koevermans also got booked and will be suspended next game in Mexico though.

At the end, anything better than a loss against Mexican teams can be considered a win at least to me. :applause:

[kaiteng]

Here is the alleged headbutt on Morgan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8D5TLflUm4

I didn't see the incident as it happened also because I was watching the ball as the time ran out. When I checked it both guys were down then the scuffle followed.

[kaiteng]

Holy, TFC vs Santos Laguna is 2-2 tie at the half time with TFC winning on aggregate. Crazy game so far!

COME ON YOU REDS!!! :rockon::rockon: :rockon:

[kaiteng]

6-2 Santos Laguna. :(

If a soccer game had 60 minutes to play they would have won by now. Santos killed TFC in just 30 minutes. 2 dumb fouls in the box led to 2 easy penalty goals for Santos and things went downhill from that point.

Still, :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: to TFC for going this far.

[BurningHammer]

5 losses in a row. :(

And they haven't played that bad in some of those games.

[Skywalker]

well they lost my interest

can't be bothered watching a crap MLS team with hockey playoffs, jays season starting and european football in the final stages of their season

[kaiteng]

well they lost my interest

can't be bothered watching a crap MLS team with hockey playoffs, jays season starting and european football in the final stages of their season
Well, enjoy the best month of sports! :cheers:

Frings will be back this Saturday against Chicago Fire. Hopefully, things will turn up in positive light soon.

[Skywalker]

when he's back I'll watch again

also news today they will host liverpool at rogers centre in july, exciting stuff, gonna do my best to get some tickets but they will sell out QUICK

[kaiteng]

0-6 :( :( :(

They tried, still lost. TFC is summer Leafs? :facepalm

[BurningHammer]

0-7, losing to RSL today 2-3. Now matching the MLS all-time record for the worst start ever. :( :( :(

To be fair, playing at Salt Lake City is never easy, altitude and such. TFC didn't expect to have a good result on this. They actually played well enough to be at 2-2 until they conceded the final goal 30 seconds before the whistle!! :banghead: :facepalm :(

[kaiteng]

TFC makes MLS history today...... by losing first 8 straight MLS games.

:facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm

:facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm

[kaiteng]

Whitecaps' Eric Hassli scored one of the best goal in Canadian Championship history to earn a tie against TFC, 1-1 at BC Place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_NISUPx4BY

:eek:

[kaiteng]

http://i.imgur.com/Bwrx7.jpg

TFC sucks at league games, but somehow managed to win the Voyageurs Cup again for the 4th time!!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[kaiteng]

TFC finally got their first win of the MLS season, beating Philadelphia Union at home, 1-0, and it is Danny Koevermans, the guy who labelled his own team as "the worst team in the world" days ago, who scored the winning goal.

Well, whatever it takes to win, I'll take it. :cheers: :rockon:

[kaiteng]

Okay, TFC has to play against Santos Laguna again, but this time in the group stage where the format is changed into 8 group of three teams and only top teams are qualified. Since TFC is a second seed, being drawn into a Mexican team instead of fellow MLS teams is a death sentence.

They could just concentrate on MLS game anyway..... :ohwell:

[kaiteng]

A report coming out that TFC will part way with Aron Winter and Paul Mariner will replace him. There will be a formal announcement today.

:facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm :facepalm if this is true. 7 coaches in 6 years of its existence......

edit: Okay, Winter is officially fired and is replaced by Paul Mariner.

[kaiteng]

3 TFC players; Miguel Aceval, Luis Silva and Nick Soolsma were arrested at a pub in Houston for public intoxication early Monday morning. They, reportedly Silva and Aceval, were so drunk they had a fight outside the pub and refused to comply with Houston local police. Silva also tried to run away. :oldlol:

https://p.twimg.com/AvsPjzbCAAADnVn.jpg

[kaiteng]

TFC 3-2 Whitecaps! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXJd8L3tFDs) 2 goals in last 5 minutes! Dunfield headed in the winning goal in the very last minute. WHAT A GAME!!

[kaiteng]

Some personnel moves for TFC. Joao Plata is now on a loan deal to his former Ecuadoran team for the rest of the season, while Nick Soolsma is also released by mutual consent.

Plata won't have his place in Paul Mariner's system for now so a loan deal is understandable. Soolsma is Aron Winter's boy. That and other off the field problems are enough to let him go. Mariner will have some cap space to find somebody, probably at either defender or forward position, to fill the roster for the second half of the season.

[kaiteng]

It looks like TFC finally finds somebody desperate enough to take Julian De Guzman's huge DP contract, and it is FC Dallas. Reports said that JDG already flew to Dallas for a trade. There is no other details on what Hoops will give back but it's likely to not be much, probably some allocation money, draft picks, and maybe some players.

But the thing for TFC is that, with recent roster moves with Joao Plata and Nick Soolsma, they are aiming to sign another player. It is said from the reports that it may be Canadian national team defender Kevin McKenna, or even bigger name like Alexandro Del Piero?

Injury-ridden Hoops will sure get a quality midfielder in return that does a lot of things other than scoring though.

[kaiteng]

Damn, Danny Koevermans is out of the season, torn ACL. :(

[kaiteng]

This season is so terribad TFC will drop its season ticket prices as much as 40% in.

Well, the combination of poor plays, injuries, coaching changes etc. And now they have an even worse season that the first one. The only saving grace match left right now will be the Mission Impossible match against Santos Laguna in Mexico in which they have to beat them by at least 2 goals to go through to the next round of CONCACAF Champions League.

[kaiteng]

So, despite all the craps that have happened within TFC this season, Torsten Frings confirmed that he will return for the next season after he had a season-ending injury and went back to Germany for treatments 2 months ago.

Him and Danny Koevermans are still the core of Paul Mariner's TFC and that team worked okay for a short while til Koevermans tore his ACL. Now, with Eric Hassli, who is basically the same type of striker as Koevermans and with equally big DP contract, interested to stay with TFC, things will be pretty complicate trying to rebuild the team, AGAIN, this off-season.

[kaiteng]

TFC parted ways with 6 players today including Adrian Cann, Ty Harden, and Nicolas Lindsey.

Cann was the best defender TFC had years ago before a long-term injury setback this season. Harden played a lot of minutes in place of Cann last year. Lindsey was a very bright prospect until he suffered a terrible injury while snowmobiling.

TFC will save 300k in cap space after this move.