At my desk

At home! Yessir, Last night I was more than a few sheets to the wind when I stopped everything and thought to myself, "Holy shit do I have to work tomorrow?!?" Well after few frantic text messages and emails I was informed that I in fact have the whole week off. Success! Which means about five days of non-stop football nerdery. Nerdery? Well I said it, can't go back on it now.

I've laid out my various sources of entertainment from where I watch games online to what podcasts are IMO the best to listen to. The Guardian, Times, 606, EPL Talk and even the now free thirty minutes of World Football Daily are staples, but with this extra time on my hands I've had to scour around a bit and see what else is out there.

So I'm trying to open up to more VCasts, and as I download the one from Al Jazzera, I noticed that UEFA puts out a VCast and it's not half-bad! Obviously nothing groundbreaking but still pretty cool to see well produced interviews and shots of players and teams that are at the forefront of European Football.



And as I'm watching this I'm thinking to myself, do they use the same guy for every voice-over of a European athlete into English? Don't know about you but I definitely grew up (well I was about 10 or so) watching Trans-World Sport and I swear to god it's the same guy. And I definitely remember watching this wondering when the hell are they going to show some baseball or hockey highlights?!!?! Well once a year we saw the Super Bowl highlights but it was always a week late and by that point I'd seen it one hundred times. But at least there was always Rally-Car footage and I always wished my parents would buy a decaled-out Toyota Celica.



Getting back to the topic at hand, the UEFA Vcast is pretty sweet and the last one up there is on Genoa, which works because Serie A has definitely grown on me over the last few years. Berlusconi getting punched in the face literally and figuratively with AC Milan has definitely had something to do with it.

The day of the boxe

Clearly the craziest time of the year. On the roads, in the malls, and in the EPL. Maybe they could squeeze in a few more games? I mean only TWO games on Tuesday and Wednesday? Unacceptable. Surely there are a few clubs that have had a days rest that could suit up.

Good to see the Reds get it together for the holiday season. Strange coincidence that the poster below was made by none other than Wolverhampton. Not a bad game at all for the reds, although you can clearly see something is still off. You gotta take it when you can though. It will be interesting to see what 2010 will bring. I do not anticipate any signings, and if there are they would be on the cheap. Hard times for scousers that is for sure. But it is soon January and things always begin to take shape. This time last year Liverpool began the string of draws (Stoke) and losses (Middlesbrough in Feb) that cost them the title. Now is the time to get it straight because as we saw, by March it will be too late.

So here's hoping Yossi stays in the starting XI and Hicks can sell the Rangers!!

And to all a good night

Simpson in the inflatable blue boat?

I have to say, over the last year one of the CMNT players that I've really taken notice of is Josh Simpson. His attitude, determination, desire ... is everything we need in a player to go over and above to get us to qualify. I am really excited to see how his career continues to develop considering he has looked really good an Manisaspor.

Speaking of the team that I always have to spell check over and over. We run the Across the Pond, which may seem repetitive week in and out, but checking game stats every week of CMNT players in Europe has actually given me what I'd like to think is a pretty good handle of what's up with about 10-15 starters at their respective clubs and their current form.

Which is why I was somewhat surprised to see that Simpson hadn't played this past week. So with the magic Google search (the same one I used to find out about frozen pitches in England and did Simeon Jackson actually as a defender this weekend?) I was somewhat surprised to see that there are some transfer rumours attached to Simpson. Ok well not surprised but surprised that through the usual channels no one's picked this up yet.

1860 Munich? Linking up with Kenny Cooper? Or Fenerbahe!? Besiktas!? Galatasaray!? Could he be getting coached by Frank Rijkaard in 2010?!

Well it's nice to see that a somewhat ridiculous fantasy line-up actually wasn't that far off in Simpson making a move within Turkey.

Well here's Josh scoring on his potential future club, and Harry Kewell gets the opener to once again keep the blog 100% Reds!

Where do we go from here?

Wow. Out of Champions League. An "easy" draw in Europa League. Then the Reds lose to last place Portsmouth. A terrible run, some terrible signings over the years. Rafa is still in (for now).

And I can't help but throw in a contrast - Man City. Heaps of cash, incredible players, exciting games, they beat Sunderland, a club Liverpool didn't beat, and the sack Mark Hughes.

Embarrassing.

How can anyone seriously support this team? I am one turn away from any club that is built on a open wallet with endless funds (Yankees, Rangers, Chelsea, Madrid), but over the last two years Man City takes the cake. From trying to sign Kaka for a disgusting fee - for ditching Dunne for LESCOTT for a disgusting fee, to going through Sven and now Hughes - what is there to look forward to? Mancini? What player IS Man City? Please.

I guess I should sympathize - because two teams who are really passing each other in opposite directions are at the mercy of their ownership who clearly have their heads up their asses.

Again, can't help but throw out the Blues are nothing more than a poor man's Real Madrid. And it's too bad because they don't have to be. Hughes, I am certain of it, could have gotten the results. But when you are buying the hot shit players and coaches, for 2-5X their worth, you don't have the balance to have truly long-term greatness. Chelsea, who I hate, are essentially the same team as the last year and you can see why they are doing well because there is legitimate chemistry and stability.

Such a messed up era in sports. I think back not even that long ago, within my lifetime anyway, where coaches/managers are brought in and you can look back over a long span of their career with a certain team (especially baseball - Sparky Anderson, Tony LaRussa, Tommy LaSorda etc ...) and see seasons with success and failure - but the teams stuck with them. You can even look at Shankly who wins the First Division in '63/'64 but finish seventh the next year. If this was today, he would be canned and we all know what happens after this.

I shake my head and as much as I flip flop on Benitez I have to say I'd rather be a Red (in their current state) than a Blue any day of the week.

Pizza Day

Well it's Friday at my new(ish) job. Which means PIZZA. I could eat it ever day, but then I would be fat. Don't want to be a fat guuuuyyyyy.

After the first month was down at my new place of employment, my blogging was almost at a record high. But alas, my obsessive ways once again ruin a good thing. The above photo is a slight exaggeration ... in fact it would be 100X cooler if I was spending my lunch hours playing NASL Soccer. After finishing dead last in a MarioKart Tournament I am now in serious training to at least finish in the top 10 next time.

Actually if I was playing Football Manager like I used to (I'm sure many can share this experience) of every morning before work, during my lunch break, as soon as I came home and all through the night (I did this for no joke at least a year solid ... maybe two), then it would be a more appropriate to make posts about video games.

But once again in the wake of missing the week's most exciting stories (Liverpool WINS, Hutchinson AND Klukowski through to the 32 in Europa League!) I am left with writing about ... what I do on my lunch break? Agh. Get it together Spark.

This is mostly a joke as weeknight have been used plotting 2010 and writing for RNO, but there was a good run going on here and I have to refocus.

Stay tuned!

Dalglish for Manager!

Of the Tampa Bay Rowdies?!


That's right. You better watch out. When you come down to play in Tampa Bay shit's gonna get Rowdy. Noogies, wedgies, knocking things over, lots of yelling, not givin' a care, the whole lot. No parents allowed.

Normally you'd be thinking of Kenny as a possible manager, and with the Reds in absolute shambles his name has been bandied about as a possible replacement for Rafa or at least buffer until someone else can be sought out.

But the OTHER Dalglish, the Son of Dalglish (nobody steal my movie title!) the one who played for the Houston Dynamo in MLS is now the manager of the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Hmmmm unless my blog roll's information is off point, is he aware the state of the "league". As in there might not be one?

These are all debates for another day because there is a more important question to ask:

Which logo is more brutal? Tampa Bay circa 1984


ORRRRRRRR Tampa Bay 2009?


Wow. I'd have to say 2009. At least the 1984 one doesn't look like it was done in Microsoft Word. Although their website would have you think differently - mix of traditional and contemporary ... yikes. On a sidenote, did anyone else ever notice there are some very terrible crests in the former USL?

These are the kind of things I'm thinking of this Tuesday night ...

It's a juggling act

Well with this amazing weather it makes it harder to come home at lunch to blog. I guess we can't complain considering it was warm up until about a week ago. I actually tried to ride my bike out in this mess this morning but pretty much got to the curb and said F#$& it! Within thirty seconds my pants were soaked as were my shoes. As a result, no Blondie's and I had to drink Druxy's coffee and walk to work wearing rain pants and jacket. Trust me I looked cool. In case you are wondering, that is me on the right juggling and beside me tearing it up on the vielle is my good friend Augustine Aldous that old scamp, and the lovely lady playing the harp is his girlfriend (who I hate!) Florence Margaret.

Once again you blink and everything happens all at once. After last friday's World Cup draw it was all quiet until the email came through on Sunday (I think) saying Canada would be announcing their next head coach. Hmmm hmmm who could it be? Well there was never any doubt and the CSA all but admitted it wasn't like they were actually 'looking' for a new head coach. Per usual it just takes them about 6 months to make any kind of decision on anything. Ah the perks of associations.

Part of me is fine with Hart being named the head coach, however, there is a part that looks at it and thinks ... nothing has changed at all, we're just lucky that on the shortlist of ONE he happens to be a decent coach. I shudder to think who would have been picked had he not been up for it, or who will be his successor one day.

To round off an interesting week (well by hump day anyhow) the good ol' Reds lose at home to Fiorentina!! Now like many out there I have a soft spot in my heart for cities I've actually been to so I do think that it is a good story that they have gotten out of the group stages, and considering all the hoop-la with Italian football (which in the last year I've actually begun to really like) I think it is a good think overall. But Liverpool ... oh my ... through failure comes success? Jeez I hope so because this is getting too much to bear. I mean ... no offense to Blackburn supporters but they are not quite Europa League quality so I'm honestly not sure how Liverpool, in their current form, will handle the likes of Juventus, Wolfsburg, Rubin Kazan or Marseille.

A moment out of the day

Just riding around today. Thought I'd cross over from the West side (WHAT!?) to the East side and stop by some spots I might not get to see now that it is getting FREEZING outside. First stop was Mercury Coffee just before Carlaw for a much needed coffee at 1:30pm, then it was on to check out some badass posters at none other than Telegramme.


This place is dope and has an amazing selection of prints from Charly Harper to Tavis Coburn, Music to Nature to old Cuban movie posters. I've been in there a bunch of times and asked if they have access to any football posters. I could eBay it but would rather buy it locally and after trolling around I forgot how cool some of the old ones were.

These are so sweet. Uruguay 1930, Switzerland 1954, and Spain 1982 by Joan Miro:

The big draw!

Well what can you say? I felt like I was watching a cross between the Grammy's and Bumper Stumpers. Here's your beauuuuuuuutiful host ... Charlize!!! Not sure if you can say the actual event is exciting but the results and now anticipation to the opening kick off is. I was going to sit at work on lunch watching this on the FIFA site (you know just the results building the groups on a web page) and then realized I can snag it somewhere on TV. Presto! And this was the first thing I saw:


YIKES!!!!
And then this:


YEEEEOOOOOOWWWWWW!!
I wonder if anyone told her what a sausage-fest this was going to be.


I have no idea what the hell Beckham is thinking with this hair style. Seriously who actually maintains their faux-faux-hawk? Not punk.

Some big results and it's times like these where I sit back and wonder what the footballing landscape would be like if Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were still countries. But not for long because then I look at Brazil and think holy shit this team is insane and you still have the likes of Grafite and Nilmar (or Robinho) on the bench.


All in all I have to say I can't wait for June!!

50 years ago

SIGH

Too slow

Well geez you get tied up for two days and miss the window for a perfectly timed post!! Trying to not always be second place (ok fifth) I went down to BMO Sunday morning to scope out the turf getting all ripped up and shed a single tear. But alas it wasn't the idle machinery and concrete pitch I took note of, it was the missing beer garden and the first time I'd seen the north end completely cleared out. Well, I thought to myself, this really would be a perfect spot to fit a pretty decent permanent stand. The RM Game a good start - hell tear down those stupid VIP bunkers and we'd have a badass south and north end! As noted ... well, everywhere, looks like MLSE (or the Globe and Mail) have set up some futuristic mind reading device around BMO Field. Much like a force field, anyone who breaks it's plain their thoughts will be transmitted to MLSE IN THE FUTURE where they can make it look like they had been planning the whole thing for weeks.

No clue what that was all about.
Either way, here's hoping the north end is for supporters, but knowing those suits it'll probably seats that are $40 a pop and scalpers will now have even more real estate to keep empty.


And not to mention the bubble is where is always should have been.

Lights, camera ...

Heading into uncharted territory ...
Back from a 4+hr excursion as RNO begins it's foray into video! Wellll we'll see. We had been talking back and forth with David Monsalves, Rick has a camera, why not? Let's see how this goes.

Per usual (well in my experience across different mediums and subject matters) the best stuff comes out AFTER the red light goes off. But that's ok, it was cool to just hear stories, especially those pertaining to Canada and TFC.

It's sorta funny because I'm sure as with anything, as it grows more and more, ideas sprout in your head and especially where we are from in the time that we live, your time always has $$$ tied into it. It was awesome last night to put something out and feel good about sticking to the mandate of why we launched RNO, which was to give exposure to the teams and players in Canada who deserve it. That's it. If we play even the most minute fraction of helping that happen, if the profile of the players and sport here goes up just enough so some 10yr old thinks "I want to play football in or for Canada" - amazing.

I guess what the point is amoungst so much else out there, it's easy to get lost, but we don't seem to worry about it because we're not trying to BE something, we're trying to DO something.

We were standing on the balcony overlooking the indoor pitch and I thought to myself (and said it) - those kids down there should know who David Monsalves is. The guy is one of a small handful of Canadians who have lifted a European trophy. The dude doing laps on the balcony knew who he was (but said nothing to me wtf?) and that was pretty cool.

Come marching in ...

It's pretty rare to actually get excited about receiving mail. Even when something good arrives like an ebay purchase, it's more like "jeez, finally". But not yesterday! I was about to send an email of inquiry when I got home for lunch, opened the front door and saw this:


WOOT!
That is correct, delivered right to my front door. Now the story (yes, story. Get yourself a drink, snack and get comfy) as you may recall from the beginning of the month was that I just switched jobs, from way the hell up in North York to literally 2 minutes from my house in Liberty Village. The best part about this as will also notice on the right hand side, is I am able to blog almost every day! In fact, the conversation went something like this:

Spark: I'm giving my notice.
Old Boss: What?!
Spark: Yeah. This place is cutting into my blogging big time.
Old Boss: I had no idea.
Spark: It's true. I was hardly getting in one a week.
Old Boss: That is unacceptable.
Spark: I know!
Old Boss: People need to know what the Spark-dog thinks about football!
Spark: I'm glad we are on the same page.

And would you believe that in order to help foster my passion for blogging about all things football (in my mind anyway) my going away gift was a year's subscription to the writers I jock so hard - When Saturday Comes!!

And who was on the cover of my very first issue!? Gerrad and Torres! Yesterday was going to be great! Liverpool on the cover, a Champion's League match, it's all coming up roses. Except Fiorentina wins and gives the Reds the boot. So I am super bummed because Europa League is LAAAAMMMMEEEE. Oh well, at least I have WSC and their Liverpool feature to go home and read. So I pour myself a bourbon (you read that right, Christopher Hitchens here likes a stiff drink when he reads his footy mags) and get comfortable. 32 pages later and there's no Liverpool feature!? Is this some joke?? It is! Sonofabitch.

No Champions League. No feature stories. Is this all we have to look forward to?

Who will stay and who will go?

I did this exact title and record cover last year!!! Think of it as a yearly feature. Spark's Annual MLS Expansion Draft Protection List TFC Debate. Also known as SAMLSEDPLTFCD. Say it again. SAMLSEDPLTFCD. There you have it. The list came out and some eye-brow raising protected and unprotected players. The most notable for Toronto FC are Guevara and Robinson left unprotected, while some are seriously questioning why Barrett stays. There are legitimate arguments both ways as to why Barrett should remain in the line-up for 2010, same goes for Robinson who bare-minimum has a wealth of experience he can give to the likes of Sanyang, Cronin, even Gomez or De Guzman to an extent.

Guevara on the other hand seems to be a name bandied about as very likely to be making his exit. Whether or not it's directly related to Preki, well go ahead and speculate. I will say I was greatly disappointed with his play in 2010 and I'm pretty sure I pinned the success of the team on him finding his 2005 form and bagging somewhere around 10 goals. Well World Cup Qualifying hangovers don't help the domestic club cause. And with the actual World Cup this summer, I would think his head will be in South Africa for most of the season.

I think if TFC sort out the defence and find a true finishing striker, this will more than make up for him leaving. De Guz slides into his position, case closed. The only thing that still is in the back of my mind was the DC United game where in the first half both Sanyang and Robinson were horrible paired together. At half time, cue a substitution Robinson out, Guevara in, and now Sanyang is the second coming and TFC win 2-0.

Great talent, but for me the cons outweigh the pros and at 34 it's about time to cut the cord.

The East Wins!!

Yessir! Real Salt Lake - Eastern Division Champs take the Cup. I gotta say I'm feeling a lot of pride as a supporter of a club in the East right now. EAST RULES!

I can't help but think of a bunch of issues that need to be addressed with MLS that, to me, are pretty whack. Yes I said "whack" - as in wiggity whack.

Number one is listed above. I can understand why many things in this league were/are set up the way they are in the beginning, but at some point it needs to change. Eight teams in the playoffs to me makes no sense. And if there is going to be eight teams, then cross over makes no sense. One table makes sense so you don't have something so obviously stupid as a team on the West coast as your Eastern champs.

So last night I had to watch the game at home as it was my RNO responsibility to write up the post game. Issue number two - Rogers Cable sucks! That's right I lost my connection after about thirty minutes. WTF!? Ok I'll whinge some more in a minute but here is Spark's office play by play of the evening:

#1 - Real Salt Lake fans come out in force. Will this championship increase season tickets sales and overall attendance? See: Columbus.


#2 - SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH


#3 - WORST! CAN IT! NOW!!!


#4 - YOUR 2009 MLS CUP CHAMPS!!!


Well my last point to lament about is I'm hoping Garber took note of the red flag NYRB was waving last year. Eighth seed into finals, shit imagine if they had won!? I'm going to start trumpeting that parity is bullshit and something needs to give in order to ensure we see the best match-ups possible. If I'm an MLS club I'm not going to sweat trying to finish first. "Hey guys just chill, just finish sixth or seventh, hell even eighth! Don't expend all your energy, we just need to be able to turn it on for four games and we are set!" Is there really incentive to finish top of the league? Other than a trophy are there good bonuses handed out?

Sure it was a good game, but will RSL repeat? Part of being champs is walking around with a target on your backs because you are the best. If any team was set up to do it, it was Columbus who actually had a great season.

Anyway, whinging over! RSL wins! Will Johnson pukes his way to Canadian content on the 2009 trophy!!

Super Sunday

Well considering many football fans in N. America will have their eyes on the MLS Cup tonight, hopefully some witnessed this destruction. WTF!? I thought Tottenham would 'sort themselves out' and end up where they normally do. When was this supposed to happen? When the weather gets cold? Holy shit.

Jermaine Defoe!? Making his claim to get some action with the England WC squad and five goals in a game can't hurt. I'm more shock though at Wigan who aren't the best but have had some good games this season and, I thought anyway, no THAT brutal. Well this one will go down in history and I'm sure over the next week everyone will be checking their almanacs feeding us facts about the highest scoring games ever. I think though this is the largest win margin in EPL history? Download all your favourite EPL pods this week as I"m sure you will find out!

MLS CUP IN ...

A Hard Man

As much as I try to always find the wrong in everything MLSE does, it looks like today they may have got it right (although I probably said the same thing about Burke and Colangelo!). Despite Squizz's pretty funny, but actually dead on comments about his track record, here's hoping this is the right environment and make-up for him to take the team to the next level (not MLSE next level, winning attitude next level).

The only thing missing from his resume is clear post-season success, but he had it as a player and three years at Chivas probably isn't enough to take Bradley's team and make it into his own. But now that I think of it, they have been on the decline since!

Regardless (ha!) I am happy for the supposed hardline approach we should soon be getting because nothing annoys me more than players giving up or walking around with their hands on their hips acting all pissy.

Tactics?! Defending!? Oh my! I can not wait. These are parts of the package that we can look forward to. Could we have gotten a bigger name? Probably, but one step at a time. Next year I will be happy with a winning record (playoffs) and organized football.

So here's signing off keeping it 100% TFC related:

South Africa bound!

Well not on a Senior Team, but a pretty sweet gig none the less. Stefan Frei is off to the land the Sundowns, Capes and Great White Sharks!! He's added another accolade to his list of accomplishments for 2009. Along with an MLS nomination for Rookie of the Year, he was TFC's Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and is now traveling with the Generation Adidas Team to South Africa for a couple of exhibition games and seeing the sights.

Frei came with (and still has) a lot of hype given his play this season. I think the only other keeper to play this much as a rookie was Brad Guzan who is now at Aston Villa. I didn't follow Guzan's rookie year so I don't know where he was at this stage of development but it is clear that Frei has talent yet still has a ways to go before he legitimately earns the "europe bound" tag.

A slight but not complete sidenote - I'm curious to see what is in store for Brian Edwards. He must be chomping at the bit knowing he's fully capable of competing and winning games at this level and is roughly at the same stage of his career. For our sake I hope he stays on because IF Frei jumps ship, we could have a keeper who has paid his dues and is ready to take hold (and not let go) of the #1 position.

Late Pass Pt. II

I have no idea if this has been circulated everywhere but I got this link and laughed my ass of... eerr ... I mean LOLMAO!!!


You can see the back and forth which may or may not be real here.
Just to give you a hand with this, the President of France is 5'5. It also would have been 10X more amazing had Ireland won.

This also reminds me about a priceless crank call some comedy troupe in Ireland did pretending to be Steve Staunton wanting the Chelsea manager position. I couldn't find the audio file which is way back somewhere in an episode of World Soccer Daily.

Hats off to the Irish and their sense of humour!

Do MLSE read FourFourTwo?

This is a bit of a late pass, but I don't think I saw anyone talking about this elsewhere and thought it was a pretty interesting article and was relevant to the good 'ol Reds (which one I'm referring to, take your pick!!). In the October issue there is a good article on How To Rebuild A Club and lists some important points on what it takes to do it right. Bear in mind that this mostly relates to the UK so the point about a Stadium doesn't totally apply here in North America, but some of them are pretty dead on and you can see that at least TFC are missing the mark on some key areas to building a successful team. Either way, you can decide if these are being applied here or abroad, but in summary here are the key points to the article:

1. Build the Business Plan - Fill the boardroom with experts, hire dynamic staff, think big-time.

2. Hire the Right Gaffer - Take time choosing a candidate, do your background research, stay patient during the lumpy bits.

3. Grow Your Own - Cast a wide net for young players, encourage good behaviour, blod them early.

4. Freshen Up Your First Team - Try before you buy, go for quality over quantity, be conservative with contract.

5. Stadia - Only move if you must, choose quality materials, tread carefully in the world of rock.

6. Keep Fans Onside - Keep active in the community, get the fans involved, get the fans excited.



Overall a good read and lots to think about. A really interesting point with regards to a well run team and a poorly run one ... when Leeds was competing in the Champions League, the Doncaster Rovers were in the Conference. Not even ten years later, they are in the Championship and Leeds are in League One. That is how quickly things can go from good to bad (Newcastle?! Liverpool!!!) or if you keep the glass half full, from bad to good.

Drumroll please

And the award goes to ...


M-V-P! M-V-P!
As if there ever was a doubt. What was the expression Tim used in our last podcast? One of the few this season without blood on their hands? Yes something like that. I can count four players who fit that tag: De Ro, Frei, Cronin and Attakora. The rest are middle of the pack to major disappointments.

But back to De Ro, as there were some talk about certain supporters groups perhaps not naming their MVP this year, which I hope is not the case. Towards the end of the season with all the banter about problems in the dressing room, selfishness, play on the pitch, etc ... but seriously get rid of all that - what is an MVP? Or what defines one? Most obviously is the player that made the difference, and without them your team is noticeably worse off. Any player on this team this year could have been replaced (within our line-up). Except De Ro. If he's gone, 11 goals are gone. The left side attacking is gone. Any balls moving forward is gone. A trophy is gone. It's as simple as that. I understand what some say about his particular style on or off the field, but I'm looking at the results and he delivered where many could not.

If there was an award for major disappointment of the season, without a doubt it goes to Marvell Wynne. At the end of last year, he looked like his ticket was booked to Europe. I thought it was a miracle he stayed on, or didn't get any noticeable interest, even with his known defending skills (or lack thereof) he was making things happen. This year ... just not happening on the right side, his crosses were brutal and some good chances (I'm thinking Colorado off of the cross from De Ro) was just terrible. I don't know what happened between '08 and '09, but here's to hoping next year he gets it together or we're able to find someone to take over that spot who puts a priority on defending/positioning.

It's obvious!

All this talk about players defecting, no patriotism, disorganization, missed scouting etc ...

None of it matters. We do it for the Maple Leaf and all we need is someone like Smithy to sit down the likes of De Guz, Bagovic, Lensky and give them "a right talkin' to!!"

Big Orange

Well yes, I spent a good portion of yesterday indoors. Shame on me. But I wanted to keep on top of the MLS playoffs, as much of a pain it is not having full cable and having to watch it online.

At least there are good storylines; the LA derby, Columbus out (Will Johnson still in!) and pretty much following Houston who are really the only team IMO that can lay the claim to any kind of 'dynasty' in MLS right now. Well, maybe I'll be eating my words after this weekend but their line-up is just so solid front to back and it's obvious that they are a well organized and disciplined team that being from Toronto you can't help but envy what is in place there. Ching, Davis, Holden, Clark, Hainault, Onstad are all amazing to watch.

Man I just checked the playoffs schedule - Friday at 11pm?! LA v Houston WTF. Ok fine I guess I'll be staying in Friday night!

RNO Week in Review

Sometimes it's just hard to keep on top of things. This week was insane front to back, top to bottom. I'm home now, Friday night, just looking to chill in and take a minute. RNO is full steam ahead and it's a tough balance between keeping on top of what is up there and gearing up for 2010. Alot going on on that front in terms of development, but maintaining what is currently in place is tough as well.

Some big steps taken since this all began ... man, four months ago. Seems like we've been doing this forever but in that amount of time we've managed to leap canyons, and we are still far from the summit.

The interviews we've managed to get a hold of have been bananas, and this week was no different. Usually it's one a week or two weeks - this week we took care of three. The most notable was none other than Jacob Lensky who seriously must not have been two seconds away from hitting send to us when the CMFS emailed him to play for their U21 team. Well everyone now knows how this played out.

Then thanks to a long chain of people we've been lucky enough to meet, Stephen Hart will be up, no doubt ready to talk about the infamous email. And in the midst of those interviews, Carl Robinson lays it all out in what Steve B said was a pretty good call.

Throw in there the usual aftermath from last weekend and CBC's story on Tom Ansemli's "winning" comments about TFC. UGH it was a rough start to November. Geez man, no wonder this team hasn't got it together, this rust is coming from the very top. "We didn't expect to make the playoffs for the first three years." Oh great! Thanks for telling everyone now. Here we are spending thousands of dollars a year, under the impression winning *might* be up there on the priority list. I don't know about you, but I always love cheering and spending all my money on teams that are expected to lose.

I could keep ranting about those comments but I'm really at a loss for what else to say on this front. When he was on TFC TV after the NYRB loss I was pretty disappointed that all he was was disappointed. Man I was so pissed after that game! And he's just like MEH. Straight into PR/Damage Control mode. For once I would love to see some sort of actual passion from these guys and say this team played like shit. $3 million bucks made ZERO difference.

At least Sam Cronin had the stones to say what is what. Cronin jersey for '10.

Wednesdays aren't so bad

Boss: Hey did you see the Danny Dichio jersey at the front?
Spark: Yeah!
Boss: He came in, great guy.
Spark: I bet!
Boss: You like football?
Spark: Football?
Boss: "Soccer"?
Spark: Oh yeah!
Boss: Yeah, I like Liverpool.
Spark: So do I!
Boss: Saw a game at Anfield last year.
Spark: !!!
Boss: Also saw a game in Japan.
Spark: !!!

Spark: Hey Champions League is on now.
Boss: Put that on! Justin TV that!
Spark: OK!!
Boss: Dirk Kyut is a hard worker. I like him.
Spark: Me too.

Something notable

That's right - East Side Stand Up (not the chant!!). This is kinda cool considering we don't really track this stuff and the whole idea of the podcast is just DIY. I wish it got up there while the season was going on since we've done the last post-game trauma report for the 2009 season.

Next season I would anticipate us recording after every game, home and away, since we started doing it anyways down the stretch. It's pretty simple to get it all together and online and not once have I ever wished I was doing anything else on a Saturday night.

Tim and Stephe are awesome co-hosts and I feel offer pretty sound assessments of the going ons in the game in question. You can be an encyclopedia of football knowledge, or the proverbial fly on the wall for TFC, but you get three guys together who love the sport and the team and just talk about the game at hand, and none of that matters. Stephe's played at a pretty high level, Tim grew up following the game in London, and I used to be obsessed with Champ Manager - what a triumvirate!

Although I must admit I disagree with Stephe's views on Marvell Wynne.