Vocal Minority

Tag: SXI

  • THE STARTING 11: Unused Elements of the Cancelled TFC Championship Parade

    We were so close. Inches away really. What a letdown! Yeah the fancy trophy would have been nice and all – but I mean the parade! Thousands, if not millions, billions even, lining the streets of Toronto to fete MLS Cup Winners Toronto FC. But no, teams that take shots on goal aren’t so lucky…

  • THE STARTING 11: Other TFC Superstitions

    In a week of good vibes in TFC Land we don’t want to dwell on the somewhat negative effect the MLS Cup ticket situation had on many fans. It sucked for some and the league should know better. A funny aside of the episode however was TFC staff’s explanation that they didn’t want to discuss…

  • THE STARTING XI: Advantages To Playing In Montreal’s Olympic Stadium

    For good, bad or (really) ugly, the first leg of what is arguably Canada’s most important club fixture (for this week) is set for Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. The Impact decided to move indoors onto the turfy goodness and le cha-ching of 60,000 paying customers despite the general crumbliness of “The Big Owe”.  However, while it…

  • THE STARTING 11: Oddities of playing at Yankee Stadium in November

    George Steinbrenner’s shivering ghost! “The House Next to the One Ruth Built Used To Be” was meant for dingers not fancy-pants Europeans faffing about in early winter! But alas, so it was that local foot and ball outfit Toronto FC and a few hundred hosers spent yesterday evening in the Bronx at the makeshift soccer-baseball…

  • THE STARTING 11: Other TFC Decision Day Decisions

    Did you decide? What did you decide?! Were you decisively decisive? Well it’s too late for regrets, MLS Decision Day – possibly their best work in the hyperbole field – has come and gone. While the religious holiday mostly pertains to playoff implications, there have been some other less prominent TFC decisions made over the…

  • THE STARTING 11: Best Parts of Living With The Argos

    CAW! No it’s not Bitchy Blanks time but that’s the sound of yours truly eating a little crow over the doom and gloom feelings I held about sharing BMO Field with The Argos. Like many out there, I fully expected the “soccer experience” to be akin to that of Gillette Stadium North this season. However,…

  • THE STARTING 11: Thoughts Greg Vanney May Have While High

    This is a work of fiction. I realize that you come to The Starting XI every week for hard-hitting factual journalism, but this is a speculative piece. By no means are we implying Greg Vanney has ever been under the influence of any narcotics. He doesn’t even seem the type to take an extra large…

  • THE STARTING 11: Reasons Why There Is No Starting 11

    The Starting 11. It’s a feature that I have been writing faithfully and on a (mostly) weekly basis since 2009 – first on a little site called The Yorkies and now here. All in all, that’s about 3,850 quips about TFC that have drawn people to these sites in the dozen. Yup, people from Toronto…

  • THE STARTING 11: TFC Olympic Events

    Now that TFC are good and stuff we can shift our attention to the really big story in sports right now – the Summer Olympics in Rio. Despite the doom and gloom of toxic water and pestilence, the games have gotten off to a good start albeit with the same old sports we see every…

  • THE STARTING 11: Ways Sigi Schmid described Saturday’s Match

    For those of you that listen to the Vocal Minority Podcast regularly, you’ll know that Sounders manager/lunch meat aficionado Sigi Schmid is a “friend to the show”. The big German-born boss often features and chews the fat on the past week’s MLS action. He talks a bit too. After visiting Toronto this weekend and seeing…