The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Minnesota United 1-1 Toronto FC
Upon retrospect, it was a good game. Chock that late goal we shipped to tired legs? I saw enough to feel a tingle of positivity towards the next match.
THE GOOD
It wasn’t the expected road capitulation. It was almost that unicorn of unicorns, an actual human soccer road win… Our newest No. 6 – Aimé Mabika – IS. A. BALLER… I got to watch in my Pajamas with friends, great weekend away in Hamilton, which also meant PRESTO! No TTC!… It may have taken the better part of two years to figure out, but did we happen upon a way to get both Ferraris on the track together without crashing into the wall or grinding gearboxes to dust?
THE BAD
Matt Hedges is made of glass… Sigur Rosted looks a little bit rusty… Still no proper No. 9 and if we are indeed moving Berna to a proper 10 role, the need for a real No. 9 triples… Mark-Anthony Kaye does many things well, but can be such a deficiency in some places. It’s insane that Bob Bradley hand picked MAK for roles it appears he simply cannot fill (and doesn’t paint either in the best light), plus, he’s turning into our Granit Xhaka. Eventually MAK is going to be a red card magnet and we already have Richie on the team.
THE UGLY
How much longer is Richie Laryea on the team?… Where the heck are all our injured players? What’s the timeline? What the heck, man?… I know it’s a road point but should we really be toasting it with the good champagne?… This season has properly slipped away (we have the exact same points total as this point last year, in a much tougher and more condensed schedule. It don’t look good.)
If we have no money for new signings, when do we cut and run from bad deals and missing players? Is there not a summer window coming up? No sunk cost fallacy nonsense. We’re great at this. CLEAN HOUSE.
For the most part this is one of your better articles, what I can add to the ugly is the subbing how did we not use all 5. Everyone could see this game slipping, but bob. Have to use your final two subs not just for the fresh legs but also to give the other players a breath while the sub is being made…as for hedges I’m not sure he’s made of glass I just think he’s been playing 90 after 90 after 90 and he’s a 30 something bad things are gonna happen. (Similar to his son and perhaps Osorio), bob doesn’t know how to sub properly especially his older players. The rest of your ugly statement somewhat sums up the clueless on the sporting director side and Bill. Bill can’t find a fit on transfermarket and bob doesn’t have a clue either or a plan or an update on our injured players. This is so amateur.
Imagine playing for the Brampton United Senior Team and suddenly 3 world-class players are in your lineup. That’s TFC today …
Clean House is spot on, JPN. Starting at the top. Manning + Bradley must go.
Remember last year we had these results and we chalked it up to growing pains with Bradley and his complete remake of the team? Pozuelo had lost a step, he didn’t fit into Bob’s system, and his play was suffering from personal issues. Salcedo was trying to settle in. And thank goodness we got rid of that malcontent Soteldo!
Once Insigne and Bernardeschi (and DP#3!) get here we would be unstoppable!
Fast forward a year. We have Insigne and Bernardeschi in the lineup. Bob re-remade the rest of the team once more. We lucked out in getting Laryea on a loan-back. The team has had 1.5 years to adapt to Bradley-ball.
And we remain in hot competition for the Wooden Spoon.
Can anyone explain how Bob is keeping his job?
Virtually every move by Bob has been a failure or backfired somehow. (except Mabika – hey, even broken clocks are right twice a day, but there’s still time for Bob to mess it up somehow or trade him for another ‘son’)
Our consistently best player is Laryea, who we transferred away as soon as Bob got here.
As a game-time manager Bob continues to prove Fede 100% correct. No Ideas. No Plan. No Tactics.
He FINALLY tried one change last night and it led to the best attacking movement we’ve seen in months. How can someone be so stubborn tactically in the face of all this? Who can explain his bizarre substitution patterns? Especially when he seems to have no qualms in going through players like takeout containers. With them, it’s like he’s on a never-ending treasure hunt with the roster; as soon as he acquires one it doesn’t look so shiny any longer and the gleam of another catches his eye. So he keeps trading down until now his roster is mostly a pile of rubble (aka TFC2).
It’s sad that the team we love is owned and essentially operated by a clueless board who are experts in gouging their fan base nothing else, run by a hapless executive who is on a streak of multiple bad hires. And is scared to fire his buddy because it might be end of him too. This feels worse than a club being relegated, which in our case would be the best thing (of course hypothetical)to happen to this club because it would actually give the board something to worry about. Because even as some season ticket holders (I’m so thankful I gave up mine as soon as heard the name bob bradley) stay home or put their tickets on resale, Larry can still pull a Charlie sheen and I say I already got your money. So Larry could careless.
I just don’t see anything changing with TFC until there is a change at MLSE.
The board is simply not engaged with the team or the fan base.
We need a leader like Tim Leiweke.
Here is a link to an interview he recently had. Listen from the 11:50 mark where he talks about TFC and I think it explains the difference in the mentality of the management we had when we were successful vs what we have today.
https://www.tsn.ca/radio/toronto-1050/tim-leiweke-on-shanahan-and-masai-still-running-the-show-his-view-of-mlse-from-afar-the-kraken-s-run-through-the-playoffs-1.1968452
Until we have a CEO at MLSE that has a winning mentality where he holds his reports accountable we won’t see any change sadly. At the 19 min mark he talks about the Defoe mistake. Great interview to listen. Love what Lieweke says about Giovinco!
I still can’t wrap my head around how sacking the GM, Sporting Director, and Gaffer in one fell swoop, regardless of the who, could ever be considered “the” move.
I get the frustration. I do not have the answer. Just my 2c.
Because has been an utter disaster and manning wont fire him so together they have to go and should of been gone already (and would of been gone in most places in the world already) and just the thought of them having another transfer window is beyond mind boggling, which leads to my next point we will be way worse off if we allow these two to stay . Now I understand MLSE doesn’t even know where to look for the replacements, but there are others out there that are better. And yes it is the answer.
*bob has been
Fire Bradloser. Things can’t getter better until a real manager is hired.
Mabika certainly made a couple of great clearances. Good for him. He’s been a good addition to the team.
I have to object to your implication that Laryea is a yellow ( let alone a red) card magnet. My impression is Laryea knows exactly where the line is and occasionally chooses to cross it for tactical reasons or to get his team going. I don’t worry about him at all playing with one yellow. He knows how to not pick up the second.
Fair. Point taken.
Your blog is so valuable to understand TFC for a new follower like me… however, I cannot believe ‘Granit Xhaka’ is famous here too, for all the same reasons.😁
Having caught up with most highlights of our games on tv this season, excited to hit match day at BMO Field.. please advice any suggestions and traditions that I must follow.. Cmon The Reds!!
Not sure where to put this comment. Just wanted to say I’m grateful for all the hard work the WTR team did to move this web site to its new home. The transition was well managed and the new site continues to provide great content. I can only imagine this is a labour of love for the WTR staff because there must be a ton of work that goes into getting articles out in a timely fashion before and after games.
I really appreciate being able to continue to comment and interact with other TFC fans and read the articles from the WTR staff.
Not sure if it’s related to the web site move but there seems to be a lot of new people commenting on the site, which is great. Love to read new perspectives.
While the season hasn’t been great this site continues to be, so thank you.
Who’s chopping onions in here?
Cheers!
I like to second, secondstar’s statement. This is very meaningful especially for us hard-core fans regardless of who had what opinion. While I may disagree with Mr Nesker, singh and Newell alot you guys are all great guys and have brought alot of hard sometimes unappreciated work to this site. I have not even mentioned the many many others who write articles on here especially Mr. Fung that put many topics not covered by main stream media up here for debate. Keep up the good work. I promise to buy you guys a pint if I recognize u at a match but I can’t promise not to critique the leadership of the club while I do it.