Will the real TFC please stand up?
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Maicon Santos will miss the match. (Scotty/TFCpics.com)
If you find yourself in Frisco, Texas this weekend, don’t be surprised if you’re asked to suit up for TFC.
Toronto heads to The Land of Bouncy Castles with a skeleton squad, a result of injuries to key attacking personnel and international call-ups to the three best Canadian players on the roster.
No worries though, it’s not as is FC Dallas is arguably the hottest team in MLS at the moment or anything.
David Ferreira and company roll into the weekend on a 12-game unbeaten streak in the league, having last tasted defeat way back in mid-May. In fact, the Dallas-es(?) have only lost twice all season, less than any other team in the league. So to say that getting anything out of a visit to Pizza Hut Park is next to impossible may actually be, amazingly, an understatement.
TFC with Dwayne de Rosario, Julian de Guzman, Nana Attakora, and the injured Chad Barrett and Maicon Santos would be hard-pressed to gain any points in Frisco, what with The Reds’ amazing road record and all. Without them… well it’s as close to a throwaway game as Toronto will experience all season.
Of course, the 2010 version of TFC doesn’t exactly follow any sort of rational convention. In games that should have been gimmes — Philadelphia away, Kansas City both times, New England away — Toronto has crapped the proverbial bed, playing down to their opposition’s level almost compassionately, as if to say, “we know you suck, so how about we make you look good on this occasion?”
How gracious.
On the flip side, in games where they should have had no business being competitive in — Cruz Azul, the Motagua away game, RSL away — they’ve either kept it close or actually earned a result.
It is this strange phenomenon that leads me to believe that TFC will make this one exciting, even though everything suggests that this should be a blowout.
Posted by Rudi Schuller
Tags: David Ferreira, FC Dallas
Category: MLS, Toronto FC