Toronto FC: TFC 2024 Season \ Canada Soccer: MLS Refocus

[PanniniClaus]

The lost last night to the worst team in the east….congrats.

I watched it.. Kerr had a beauty to tie it off the bench on a rare great Laryea cross. They gave it away immediately as their back 3 were two time zones apart from each other.. The back 3 with this personnel is suicidal.. John seems to love back 3's with little speed and the one guy with some athletic ability is brain dead (Gomis)

 

[LeafsNet]

I watched it.. Kerr had a beauty to tie it off the bench on a rare great Laryea cross. They gave it away immediately as their back 3 were two time zones apart from each other.. The back 3 with this personnel is suicidal.. John seems to love back 3's with little speed and the one guy with some athletic ability is brain dead (Gomis)

Yeah not sure what he was thinking there….still think JH is a good manager.

I’m just glad Manning was booted out….here’s hoping for bigger changes next season and maybe more input from Herdman about what players he needs.

 

[Bjindaho]

Big win for Canada today. Took an offside goal and the ref refusing to call US fouls to keep it close.

By my count, Canada is at 1501.03 for points which would be 38th in the world. That would put them 1.31 behind Panama which is significant because Nations League seeds based on where they are when the draw happens.

 

[fancy lad]

Watched the whole game and Canada really stood out as the better team. Impressive how far they’ve come under marsch.

 

[Bjindaho]

Just a quick note, here is the exact text about Nations League:
12.10.1. The top four (4) teams in the ranking have been pre-seeded in theQuarterfinals matchups, using the Concacaf Rankings after the InternationalWindow of October 2024 as follows:

Canada dropped to 39 (when other games happened) but are directly behind Panama.

A win against Mexico and Canada would pass Panama. A draw and Canada would be 0.03 behind Panama.

The October window has Canada playing Panama (while Panama plays Canada and the US but no one this window). Winning all three games for Canada would allow them to play the lower of the two group winners (which are likely Honduras and Costa Rica).

Another quick Nations League note: The Semi-finals are ranked based on how teams did in the quarterfinal (with ranking being the last tiebreaker).

Edit: I've been reading that wrong. Canada is now 3rd in the Concacaf Rankings (Men's National Team) which is not based on the world rankings.

The Concacaf system is a lot harder to calculate, but right now, Canada is 1769 and the US is 1805. If Canada beats Mexico, I believe that they would go to 1792 (I believe that a neutral site game follows basic ELO principles), but calculating for any game where a team is home or away is more difficult because the calculation isn't public (though the implications of each game are made aware to the clubs). The US's game against New Zealand does count towards CONCACAF rankings and is a home game for them, so if NZ gets slotted in as a Honduras level opponent, the US would likely only need to win that game and draw Panama to stay above Canada.

Without being able to compensate for home/away and putting New Zealand in as a direct Honduras comparable (they are pretty close in world rankings), a win add 2 points to the US (before the home field adjustment), but a loss would drop them to 1772 and a draw would drop them to 1790 (both numbers would be lower because of home field and both would be below Canada if Canada were to beat Mexico).

 

[Bjindaho]

Hard fought draw against a Mexico squad who fouled every chance they got and played not to lose.

By my quick and dirty math, the draw should move Canada to 1502.31 in the world rankings (38th). The updating sites seem to have everything but this friendly.

The official rankings come out in a week and the window only allowed 2 matches to count as in-window (all matches outside of a window get an importance score of 5 where a an in-window friendly is worth 10 and every other tournament is worth more). The window also closed at the end of games last night.

 

[Fogelhund]

Ugly game against Mexico... of course the constant Mexico fouls didn't help the flow of the game, but then we certainly didn't control the ball particularly well either. Too many unforced errors. You can see the growth overall though.

 

[fancy lad]

It’s crazy how far we have come that a draw against Mexico doesn’t like an out and out success.

I thought Canada did well especially considering Mexico gameplan was heavy in the dark arts. We have matured a lot.

Can’t wait to see this team play a home game.

 

[PanniniClaus]

It’s crazy how far we have come that a draw against Mexico doesn’t like an out and out success.

I thought Canada did well especially considering Mexico gameplan was heavy in the dark arts. We have matured a lot.

Can’t wait to see this team play a home game.

North Guatemala weren't going to allow this to turn into a football match which is a bit of a show of the hand for when we meet Aguirre's men in a game that may be for a trophy. Frustrating to watch but a good test match.

 

[PanniniClaus]

Osorio and Kerr in the first half. 2-1 win over Austin.

 

[Bjindaho]

TFC has signed Charlie Sharp and Nathaniel Edwards (young American forward and young Canadian defender) to 3 year contracts. Sharp was a 3rd rounder.

Hopefully, we see less of Owusu and more of Kerr with the intention of trying to develop Sharp as well.

 

[ACC1224]

Is tonight’s game televised?

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Is tonight’s game televised?

Only if you’ve got OneSoccer. Or you use less than legitimate ways to watch.

 

[robertmac43]

Berna missing that penalty was embarrassing. The body language afterwards even worse.

Decent game so far overall though.

 

[robertmac43]

Come on Sean, big save to start off.

 

[robertmac43]

SJ with a great save and then Longstaff hits the cross bar.....Darn.

 

[trellaine201]

I was really starting to get into the MLS before they gave a contract to Apple. I bet they have lost a lot of folks including myself who were starting to enjoy the league. What a bunch of Fups. I don’t even see much PR on the league anymore etc. Brutal decision.

 

[Bjindaho]

TFC was officially eliminated with the loss to Inter Miami on the weekend.

Given the strength of the roster on paper, this should not have happened.

 

[robertmac43]

TFC was officially eliminated with the loss to Inter Miami on the weekend.

Given the strength of the roster on paper, this should not have happened.

So much money on the books and they can't even make the playoffs. Pathetic.

Worst part is they are stuck with this Insigne signing for years....

 

[Bjindaho]

So much money on the books and they can't even make the playoffs. Pathetic.

Worst part is they are stuck with this Insigne signing for years....

I don't think that is the worst part.

The worst part is that TFC kept making moves to bring in vet pieces throughout everything so that while they will gain the flexibility of another DP slot (or the ability to go for the other option), the rest of their roster will still be poorly constructed.

Whether Insigne is playing or not doesn't change the fact that they are paying quite a bit of money to Prince Owusu and playing him over Kerr (despite Kerr outplaying him) or that they are a bottom half defensive team as well as being 3rd worst in goals per game.

 

[robertmac43]

I don't think that is the worst part.

The worst part is that TFC kept making moves to bring in vet pieces throughout everything so that while they will gain the flexibility of another DP slot (or the ability to go for the other option), the rest of their roster will still be poorly constructed.

Whether Insigne is playing or not doesn't change the fact that they are paying quite a bit of money to Prince Owusu and playing him over Kerr (despite Kerr outplaying him) or that they are a bottom half defensive team as well as being 3rd worst in goals per game.

That's just the current club/management philosophy. With Insigne making 10+ million per year they will continue to look for the win now solutions and over pay for them.

So many solid young canadians have been passed over by this management team and I really don't see that changing anytime soon.