U-Sector – The Original Toronto FC Supporters Group

You say you want a Revolution, well you know…

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Preki’s Revolution continues as TFC prepares for its next match at New England Saturday.

With the news that captain Jim Brennan has stepped down from his playing duties to step up into the role of Assistant General Manager, only Chad Barrett, Fuad Ibrahim, Nana Attakora and Gabe Gala remain from the 2008 squad.

While Jimmy B himself has alluded in recent interviews to his playing days being numbered, one has to wonder about the timing of such a move. Brennan was widely rumoured to be considering retirement after the 2009 season, but signed one for one more season after re-evaluating his time at Toronto FC and the “unfinished business” of never having led the Reds to the playoffs in their three seasons together.

Why, then, would Brennan put himself through the rigours of another pre-season – which he has annually stated is his least favourite time of year – simply to give it all up after one game in which he looked far more like the lively Jimmy B of 2008 than the run-down 2009 version that many said was holding the club back?

On the surface, he appears to have taken the team up on a plum front office gig, one in which he would be afforded more time with his family and less giving his body up to the latest of coach Preki’s endless drills.

Of course, there is likely far more going on than the eye can see, and there are murmurs that Brennan simply did not get along with Preki, especially the new coach’s taskmaster training methods. Given Preki’s propensity to hack at the roster as he sees fit – and he has made Mo seem positively pensive by comparison this year – is it any surprise that Brennan would simply accelerate a retirement plan that he came so close to enacting a few months ago?

As I wrote in this space earlier, I’m prepared to give Preki’s “method-to-his-madness” approach some time to prove itself, but all we can hope for is that the “madness” that has been happening these past few weeks becomes replaced by a successful “method” before more players decide to follow Brennan’s lead.

Seriously, if someone like Jim Brennan – captain for the first three seasons of TFC’s existence and a man who sacrificed his body for this club on numerous occasions – is willing to throw his hands up and walk away so easily, what’s to stop others from doing so?

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As for the match itself, TFC could have done worse than having to face the Revs.

True, New England is coming off a morale-boosting 2-0 victory away at DC United on April 3, but to this untrained eye the Revs looked no better in either that game or their loss to LA the week previous than Toronto has looked since pre-season began.

The Revolution may or may not have talisman captain Shalrie Joseph back in the lineup after the Grenadian suffered a pre-season injury that kept him out for both of New England’s regular season matches thus far. Obviously, Joseph’s presence – or lack thereof – will alter the game significantly.

Steve Nicol’s side have still not replaced Jeff Larentowicz in the midfield, after the red-headed veteran joined Colorado Rapids over the off-season. Career leading scorer Taylor Twellman is likely finished his playing days, as he has been dealing with post-concussion syndrome for well over a year now without signs of progress.

The man Nicol signed to replace Twellman’s goals up front, Lithunanian Edgarus Jankauskas, proved far more injury-riddled than effective, and he too is set to sit this one out with an ailment.

Starting keeper Matt Reis, he of a phallus-shaped head, is also on the shelf, following surgery in the offseason that will keep him out for months.

The rest of the New England squad may just be more anonymous than TFC’s. If ever the conditions were ripe for a stealing of points on the road, they are so right now.

Posted by Rudi Schuller