Toronto FC vs Orlando City SC: Will TFC Be Celebrating With A Trip To The Magic Kingdom?

Historic! Purple! Kaka! You know; get excited and stuff.

Historic! Purple! Kaka! You know; get excited and stuff.

Brand new week, new city and a new team to face. And I really mean new.  This weekend Toronto FC journey off to sunny Florida for their first game  (Sunday, 7pm, TSN2) against the latest expansion club, Orlando City SC in their stadium the Citrus Bowl – which honestly makes me think it’s New Year’s Day and colleges playing in one of the seemingly thousands of Bowl games – anyway I digress…

After a mostly disastrous (Seba notwithstanding) trip to frisky Frisco last weekend, TFC are mired in a four game losing skid.  Winning on the road has never been Toronto’s strong suit and with two more games before they come home to BMO Field there is still room for this to go horribly wrong.  Orlando is a team that is very much struggling to find its feet so far in MLS and have yet to find consistent form. However, they sit ahead of TFC – well other than Montreal who doesn’t – in the standings and have managed a few positive results in their games played thus far.  Toronto has an opportunity to take points from this game; Orlando has yet to win at home and are having a great deal of trouble finding the back of the net.  For a team with never-ending defensive woes this couldn’t be more perfect for TFC, except of course our Reds usually are the cure for what ails you – meaning that Orlando (led by Kaka) will find their scoring boots on Sunday evening.

So what is TFC to do?  Can they find some semblance of the form that they had in the second half of the win in Vancouver?  Or the first half of the Columbus game?  Or those seven minutes where Giovinco epitomized his nickname and lifted ten times his weight? Wait, that last one shouldn’t be something they aspire to – but it was almost fun to watch.  The truth is that this team has yet to approach anything resembling a consistent performance on any part of the pitch.  Yes injuries, acts of god and so on have been an issue; but there still lacks a sense of chemistry or understanding with this team – a team that has been together for most of preseason onwards. And with Bez off in Europe apparently looking for reinforcements this group may not have long to prove that they can play together.

The biggest issue is still the defense; they are still without Steven Caldwell (honestly starting to wonder if he will ever play another game for TFC), Mark Bloom and Clement Simonin.  Yes Warren Creavalle is returning but I think that we can all agree that any sentence using his name and right back should not be allowed.  But that again begs the question: who the hell plays on the right?  And if you say the Nick Hagglund…seriously, I like Hagglund and think he’s got talent and a future, but as a CB; period.  Put him back in the middle with Damien Perquis and then – Justin Morrow on the right and Ashtone Morgan on the left?  Is Marky Delgado still a thing?  Has anyone seen him?  What about Eriq Zavaleta?

I loathe the idea of more players playing out of their natural postions; it hasn’t gone well thus far and I would really like to see an end to that experiment.  However Zavaleta is another CB and Delgado is a midfielder; both are pretty much untested so lets just strike them from the list of possibles.  The only other RB kicking around is Wes Charpie – except he’s playing for TFC II and without messing around with the roster can’t be brought up to the first team.  So back to Morrow on the right?  I think that is the most likely scenario and that we will indeed see Morrow, Hagglund, Perquis and Morgan lined up in front of Joe Bendik.

That at least will give a bit of speed on the outside of the defense to balance out who knows on the wings – does Jackson get another chance?  Is Dan Lovitz still around?  Either way whoever is on the right will need to be very careful to not let Brek Shea get behind the defense – Shea has been converted to LB from a winger but his penchant and ability to join the attack has not changed and is a valuable weapon for Orlando. At least he’s given up the whole ‘distracting hair-style’ thing; maybe they do grow up.  Honestly I’m almost more worried about Shea than I am about Kaka; Shea had very little adapting to do in coming back to MLS and has looked dangerous while Kaka is fitting in fairly quickly I still think he will be less of an issue (and I apologise in advance for the many goals he will now score).

Who’s going to score the goals for TFC?  Will Seba again have to take it upon himself or will Jozy Altidore finally reappear?  Toronto will have Benoit Cheyrou back in the lineup and he has proved that he can both set up and score goals – his return is coming at an excellent time.  And then of course where will Michael Bradley play?  Will he be the attacking midfielder, controlling things up top?  Or will he be the sweeper/fifth defender?  I’m hoping for the former; it’s where he plays best and the team is better when he does.  Today’s game is winnable – no really, I mean that – they could win this, they’re more than capable. But it will take a lot more communication and a better chosen defense in order to make that happen.

To finish things off please watch the unintentionally hilarious video from the weird wrestling style press conference they did yesterday.  It’s just so MLS:

Author: Kristin Knowles

Raised on basketball and baseball, Kristin soon saw the error of her ways when enrolled in a local football league as a child. Geography dictated she choose TFC as her team and ten years later she's still yet to flee the city. Cynically optimistic, she now channels her inner hooligan by singing random pop songs and making poor puns in the stands. May contain adult content. Find me on the internet machine @kzknowles

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48 Comments

    • No real surprises. Maybe seeing Findley out there again but even that isn’t too shocking.

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    • It’s really not the worst bench in the league although you’d like to have a veteran defender/mid to come in and calm things later in the game

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      • I actually don’t mind that bench – just surprised to see them actually included. And yes, I’d pay large sums for a veteran defending presence on that bench.

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  1. Ashtone makes his 99th appearance for the club tonight. Expect a career ending injury and/or a trade afterwards to prevent any TFC player from reaching 100 appearances.

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  2. Oh please let this be a properly competitive match. Please. I’m sick of watching them be horrible. I’d accept a well-played loss. Really. But I’m so tired of watching them be mostly bad.

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  3. Well that was fun – deliberate and well struck by Jackson? All from a great ball in from Seba.

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  4. So umm, Hagglund then. I reassess my earlier opinion. Everyone pray for Simonin to be healthy next week!

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  5. And now a very professional delay of game from Jackson. He and Dunfield must be pen-pals.

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    • Something wrong with his shoelaces? Really? Or shoes? Where’s Mal when we need him. Oh right, in Tampa with Thomas Rongen.

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  6. I am really starting to wonder if Hagglund wouldn’t benefit from time with TFC2 – he needs playing time but I don’t know that first team minutes are going to help. He’s not at this level yet.

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  7. Some decent play at both ends of the pitch by Toronto so far. Still too easy to see how unfamiliar they are with one another; there’s improvement but things that teammates with a comfort level can do are still missing their mark.

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  8. Fuck off footy gods. Haven’t we sacrificed enough to you? Seriously, we’re not asking for much are we?

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  9. OK, some good play here from TFC. Another free kick (although a bit further out) and Seba unleashes a rocket of a kick -that smashed into the fence to the side of the net. But still, good try.

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  10. Yeah that was probably a hand ball. I’m not going to argue.

    But then again that should have been a card on Avi.

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  11. That was definitely a yellow for Shea. Sure he goes down with the contact but you can’t not call that.

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  12. Shocking no one Collin fouls another player by pushing Jackson into the boards out of touch.

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  13. Well alright Jozy!! Great bit of composure off of another quick free kick to put TFC up 1-0

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    • Wait, did I just say TFC did something very well? And from a defensive standpoint? Where am I?

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  14. And Cyle Larin gets awfully close to scoring. The CMNT fan in me almost wants him to score, but then I come to my senses.

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  15. That was a nasty foul (yes it was a few minutes ago). Ceren lucky to only have a yellow shown I think. It’s getting a bit scrappy.

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  16. Starting to feel like all Orlando right now. Bradley falling back into his petulant mode.

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  17. Professional foul by Oso – liked to see Cheyrou coming over to try to settle things down.

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  18. Frustration showing on both sides. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the teams finishes with only 10 men.

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  19. Still a lot of Orlando with the ball – TFC aren’t able to create much right now. And now a free kick for the purples.

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  20. Gorgeous stuff from our Reds there. Stunning ball by Cheyrou to Jozy, who perfectly and smartly controls the ball to score his second. Just fantastic.

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  21. That Seba sub makes all kinds of sense. Protect the lead, give him a bit of rest. Good game by him but not spectacular.

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  22. I didn’t actually expect them to win. Very impressive by them from both ends tonight. Cheyrou was great, Perquis kept the backline together, Bendik with some solid work and of course two very confident and smart goals by Altidore.

    Clean sheet, 3 points, 2 goals, no one hurt or suspended. Well done boys.

    May we mention the change in tactics? Is it possible that Vanney can learn?

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  23. That game gave me a little more hope in the team, and in Vanney. Yes, it was against Orlando, but they really did clean up a lot of the things we were talking about.

    Closest thing to an actual back 4 we’ve had in quite some time, in terms of their performance.

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    • PSo! Good to have you here!

      I will enjoy this game but then hold off on assuming things have changed until next week’s game in Philly and then of course the VCup match and then the home opener. I want to see consistency from these guys.

      I am happy that it was a pretty solid complete game performance. Their best game in a very long time.

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