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The Twit: TFC Moves On and Other Musings

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | Author:
Improbable Champs

Improbable Champs

Just a lot going on right now (yay for summer!), so let’s recap with an edition of The Twit:

- Toronto FC are your 2009 Voyageurs Cup Champions! TFC rolled into Montreal on Thursday and destroyed the Impact reserves 6-1 (remember, they needed a four-goal win to better the Vancouver Whitecaps). It was a disgraceful act on the part of the Impact to field a bunch of reserves in a match that was uber-meaningful to both TFC and Vancouver. That’s a bush league move. Fans in Vancouver have every right to be livid, and Impact supporters took a page from the TFC Supporters Handbook by only showing up to the Impact’s next game at halftime, stating: “If the Impact are only going to show up for a 50% effort, we will do the same”. Fan power, baby.

- Mike Weir gave golf a little shot in the arm in Canada by being amongst the leaders following the second round. Then, he faded from view.

Sign this man before someone else does!

Sign this man before someone else does!

- So the Jays sweep the defending Champs, then are one loss away from being swept by the worst team in maybe ever (the Nationals are hovering near the 1967 Mets record at this point in the season), despite stellar pitching performances by Brian Tallet and Brett Cecil. Way to pick up your starters, Jays bats. One game out of the playoffs near the halfway point of the season, boys – let’s get some help (SIGN PEDRO!!)

- F1 has turned into one big clusterfuck. Eight teams (that’s 80% of the current F1 roster) are now saying they’re breaking away to form a new series with lower ticket prices, greater accessibility, transparency and more teams. Something tells me there’s a lot of posturing going on and in the end peace will be achieved (and it will be a victory for the teams). Surely cooler heads will prevail before they wreck the sport in the exact same manner as IRL and CART did in fighting their civil war for a decade before re-uniting.

- Italy got unceremoniously dumped from the Confederations Cup, losing to Brazil yesterday. The USA made it through to the semi-finals by the skin of their teeth, tied with the Azzurri on points but having scored one more goal in their three matches. Nothing’s guaranteed in soccer, but it’s looking more and more like a Spain v. Brazil final. The Confederations Cup is a second rate tourney that is a glorified dress rehearsal for the host country of next year’s World Cup, but the teams have fielded their best players which gives the results some credibility.

- Who’s the Blue Jays ace right now? Scott Richmond or Ricky Romero? Those are two rookies, by the way. Oh, and will Dustin McGowan ever pitch again? Sign Pedro.

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Soccer Pimp: Storm Clouds @ TFC

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | Author:
All is not well in TFC-Land

All is not well in TFC-Land

Toronto FC, the soccer team that operates in the highest possible echelon of the sport in this country, is on the brink of going down for the second straight year in the Voyageurs Cup (or as it is know to corporate types, the Canadian Nutrilite Championship).

TFC takes on the Montreal Impact tomorrow night needing four goals to vanquish the Vancouver Whitecaps for the right to represent Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League. I know, the last sentence might seem a little confusing to the layman, so let me explain.

The three major clubs in Canada, mentioned above, are in the midst of playing a round robin home and away tournament. Teams get three points for a win, one point for a draw and zilch for losing. Each team plays a total of four matches. Currently, Montreal are out of it on account of losing all three of its matches. Vancouver has played its four matches, coming away with three wins and one loss for nine points. Should Toronto FC win tomorrow’s match against the Impact, they would finish the tournament tied on points with Vancouver. In this scenario, goal difference for the sum of the tournament is invoked to break the tie, and Vancouver currently has a three goal advantage over TFC. That’s why Toronto needs a win by four goals tomorrow night.

If being bested continuously by supposedly lesser opponents isn’t embarrassing enough, TFC has had to endure the most striking display of fan power in this country since the Richard Riot of 1955. A few minutes into a match against the Los Angeles Galaxy, a large group of fans called the “North End Elite” walked out en masse and another group, the “Red Patch Boys”, refused to wear club merchandise in protest against MLSE policies.

Strangely enough, this protest came after TFC management agreed to sit down with leaders of the three supporters groups to allow them to air their grievances. According to Duane Rollins at Soccer By Ives, the meeting wasn’t pretty. No matter how the meeting actually went, it was an amazing display of how concerned MLSE was about assuaging its fans’ concerns. Imagine if the CSA actually heeded the Voyageurs’ complaints? Also makes you wonder what kind of results Leafs fans could get if they were organized in any way. A re-writing of the blueprint for the 21st century sports fan in Canada might be under way in Toronto.

Add to all this the fact that TFC changed coaches in mid-stream this season, that the FieldTurf v. natural grass debate is still raging and that TFC is in trouble of missing the playoffs for the third time in three years of existence.

Four goals tomorrow night would go a long way to ease the suffering (Live on Rogers Sportsnet, 8pm).

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The Twit: Weekend Prep Edition

Friday, May 08th, 2009 | Author:
Bettmans attack dog

Bettman's attack dog

Quick hits leading into the weekend:

- No real developments concerning the Bettman/Balsillie story, save for a few anonymous quotes from NHL governors which are nothing more than posturing, and Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes calling the NHL a cartel. Yup, sounds about right. NHL executive Bill Daly shot back today calling the deal between Moyes and Balsillie “a sham“. Let the smear campaign begin anew!

- The Manny suspension still hasn’t fully sunk in.

- A-Rod comes back to the Yankees tonight. One weasel exits left, another enters stage right.

- Jamie Campbell: I do like him, but he needs to stop manufacturing go-to canned lines like “You can kiss this one goodbye!!”. Just react naturally, bud. You don’t want to turn into the White Sox home announcers: “Yyyyyyyessss!”

- A few other Campbell mis-steps during the first Jays/Angels game: at one point he pimped the text message service offered by the Jays, where you get score updates sent to your cell phone. Without missing a beat he goes right into “no need for text updates, though, seeing as I’ll just tell you the score: 7-0 Jays”. Jamie, the Jays marketing department (your colleagues) won’t be all that happy about you dismissing the service they have you trying to sell.  Also, he thanked the Eastern viewers in the Maritimes and P.E.I. for staying up to watch this West coast game, only to add “no need to stay up now, though, as the Jays are up 7-0 and have the game well in hand”. This was in the second inning. Never mind the fact that lots of baseball fans enjoy the game no matter the score, if they’ve stayed up and somehow boost your ratings, don’t encourage them to call it a night!

Bill Hohn: Just make the damn call

Bill Hohn: Just make the damn call

- Bill Hohn is my least favourite umpire in baseball. He was behind the plate of that same Jays/Angels game, and if you were watching you may have noticed that it takes him at least a second after the ball has entered the catcher’s mitt to make a strike call. You shouldn’t need to think about it, Blue. Every time I’d be sitting there thinking “Wow, that looked like a – never mind”. Very aggravating.

- Since I piled on an announcer I actually like, here’s one for an announcer I’m at best tepid about. After Pens left winger Pascal Dupuis picked up a penalty late in the third period after six straight calls the other way, Greg Millen reacted thusly: “Six straight to Washington, you KNEW – it COULD happen – and…yes that was interference”. Mr. Millen, please have the courage of your convictions. What you were trying to say is this: “After six straight calls against the Caps, you knew that the referees were looking for any excuse to give Pittshburgh a penalty. That’s the way referees call the game in this league.” Instead, you chickened out of actually saying it. That betrays a fear of league authorities that too many on-air personalities harbour.

- For the record, I’ve never bought into the theory that referees, especially in hockey, try to spread penalty calls evenly between teams. If they do, they are doing a disservice to the game. Call ‘em as you see ‘em. I believe that theory has been spread by the former coaches and players (who occupy way too many analyst positions in sports broadcasting) who have always felt victimized by referees. It’s also a go-to excuse for feeble-minded fans to attribute blame to officials for their team’s shortcomings, and also to justify bad calls going their way as in:  “Yup, we had that coming to us after you’ve fucked with us all game. Mr. Referee”.

Toronto defeated Vancouver 1-0 on Wedneday

Toronto defeated Vancouver 1-0 on Wednesday

- Toronto FC beat the Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field in the first game of the Voyageurs Cup last Wednesday. The winner of the three team home-and-home tournament will represent Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League starting this fall. You’ve probably all heard of Montreal’s surprise run to the quarterfinal of the competition last year. The next game in the Voyageurs Cup schedule (also known by its corporate name of Nutrilite Canadian Championship) goes next Wednesday night at BMO Field. A fierce rivalry was born last year between the two teams facing off, Toronto FC and Montreal Impact. As far as I can tell the game will not be televised on any of the major networks. Sad, but understandable: it would be up against a potential game 7 of Caps/Pens and the Blue Jays v. Yankees.

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The Twit: Weekend Plans Edition

Friday, April 03rd, 2009 | Author:

Quick thoughts on what I plan to watch this weekend:

F1 – Malaysian GP:

I’ll be PVR-ing qualifying and the race, and will probably watch both on Sunday morning. Williams was fastest again in practice today. Should be interesting to see if Brawn GP can keep the momentum going forward. Will Ferrari and McLaren get any points this weekend?

ALMS – Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg:

The luster dulls a bit after Sebring this year, as Audi and Peugeot retreat to Europe to prepare for the 24 Hours of LeMans. Usually Audi have been regulars in this series, but they’ve blamed the economy to explain their absence this year. P1 will be Acura’s playground, P2 will be a fight between an Acura and the Mazdas and GT1 is Corvette-only. Come to think of it, the only compelling class in ALMS this year is GT2. I hope that’s how the sporscast treats it (ABC, 1:30 pm Eastern). I’ll be watching to see what BMW did to improve on their dismal first race and if Panoz can continue running with the big boys.

MLS – Toronto FC v. Seattle Sounders:

Toronto FC’s home opener should be a treat to watch. They went undefeated in their first two road games and the crowd will be as wild as ever at BMO Field. Haven’t had a chance to catch either of their first two games, so this will be my first look at Canada’s 2009 entry in MLS. I’ll be checking for weaknesses that the Impact can exploit in the Voyageurs Cup! Interesting side note is that the Sounders’ best striker, Fredy Montero, is staying behind to recover from what the team is calling “the flu”. According to this report, that is quite the nasty flu.

MLB: Atlanta v. Philadelphia

Baseball is back, baby! Sunday night I’ll be watching the World Series Champions take on the up and coming Atlanta Braves. It’s been a long winter and the WBC disappointed, so my baseball taste buds need satiating! I normally would never watch the Braves play the Phillies in a regular season game, but it’s opening night. John Miller will have the call, and we’ll be treated to Citizens Bank Park in glorious high-definition. A Philadelphia night in early April can’t be too warm, I imagine, but it can’t be worse than game 6, err game 5, err game 5 and a half (?) of the World Series!

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Soccer Pimp: Hooray! (I think?)

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 | Author:

And so the next frontier in Canadian soccer history has been breached: Vancouver will join MLS in 2011. They will join Toronto FC as the other Canadian entry in what is (in theory) an American soccer league (although with Montréal and Ottawa in the on deck circle, how far can we really be from a true North American league?).

Part of me is thrilled that Canada gets another top level professional soccer club to cheer on, but I can’t help but feel that this was Montréal’s time to get a franchise. The Impact have already built a soccer-specific stadium and fill it regularly for a team in a lower division than MLS. They recently filled Olympic Stadium with over 55,000 fans for a CONCACAF Champions League match (and would have done it again had the Impact not choked spectacularly down in Mexico!). They have strong ownership in the Saputo brand and are deeply involved in the community. Plus let’s get real: Canadian or not, Vancouver is 5,000 kilometers away, making it cheaper for me to see a match in Columbus, or New York, or Boston.

It will potentially mean more MLS soccer on television and increased media coverage, and that’s always a good thing. It will heighten the rivalry with Toronto FC, and make the Voyageurs Cup more competitive (now the Impact will have to defeat two MLS teams to represent Canada in the Champions League, not just one). It will pave the way to more Canadian teams joining the league. These are the positives. But I can’t shake this feeling that Montreal got jobbed.

Montreal seemed well on it’s way to be the next MLS team just a short year ago. It made the shortlist of potential expansion cities and all logic pointed to the awarding of a franchise in La Belle Province. So what happened?

The sequence of events is troubling. At first, all the right things on both sides were being said. “Great city, no brainer, foregone conclusion”, etc, etc. Then at a press conference, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that Montreal had withdrawn its expansion bid. This caught everyone by surprise, including Impact owner Joey Saputo, who denied anything of the sort! A few days went by and the right things were being said again: “Next round of expansion, tickets prices were an issue,”etc. The pricing thing made sense, since the Impact have prided themselves on low ticket prices that make the Impact an ideal family outing, and MLS have minimum ticket prices that could be difficult for Impact fans to stomach. That’s fine. But was this the real reason, or was the veil being dropped over our eyes?

It’s difficult to tell, but remember that George Gillett (pictured, right), owner of the Montreal Canadiens and Liverpool FC, has made it known he’d love an MLS franchise. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Don Garber is much less comfortable with a French-Italo-Canadian-cheese and Jos Louis maker than with a WASP Texas businessman with much deeper pockets that would immediately link his MLS club to the storied Liverpool FC.

If I’m right, and this is what truly happened, it would be quite unfair to the Saputo family. They have nurtured the soccer culture in Montreal from its embryonic stage to the solid franchise it is today. To have the rug swept from under them by a swaggering cowboy would be sad indeed.

But hey, today is day of celebration for Vancouver and its Whitecaps. Canadian soccer is a winner today. Let’s keep this momentum going and hope Vancouver can be as wild about their soccer team as Toronto ended up being.

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Soccer Pimp: Loser’s Lament

Friday, March 06th, 2009 | Author:

The first smile to cross my face this morning happened when I thought of myself sitting at Skydome tomorrow, watching the World Baseball Classic. The second smile appeared when the shuffle on my iPod offered me Hawksley Workman‘s Piano Blink. The rest of the commute was spent with a frown as I replayed the second half of the Impact-Santos Laguna match from last night in my head.

As I wrote yesterday, all the Impact had to do to progress to the semi-final round of the CONCACAF Champions League was not lose by 3 or more. This turned out to be a bridge too far for John Limniadis’ valiant squad.

The Mexican champions got off to a quick start, netting a goal within 15 minutes. I lost a bit of hope at this point as it seemed that Santos were far superior to the Impact, a much different team than the one we saw at Olympic Stadium. My St. Thomas moment was fleeting, however, as the Impact quickly put together two goals and carried that lead into the half. As that second goal went in, I lifted my arms in victory but also in shock. It would not be the last shocking moment of the evening.

For those not familiar with the aggregate system in soccer, this basically meant that because of Montréal’s 2-0 win back home last week, Santos had to score 4 goals in the second half to win the quarterfinal. Here’s what I wrote on my Facebook page: “Ottawa Sports Guy is watching in disbelief as it seems the Impact are on their way!”. What happened next will go down as one of the worst collapses in sports that I’ve ever witnessed.

When you’re essentially up by four goals in soccer, it is perfectly natural to assume a defensive posture and let the action come to you, breaking up any attempt to score. Eleven men committed to this last night. Eleven others committed themselves to the opposite endeavour. Unfortunately, when a northern team travels to Central America in what becomes a battle of endurance, the weathered latin team’s legs usually win out. It was no different on this night.

Wave after wave of attack beat down on the Impact’s 18 yard box as Santos laid siege to the Montreal goal. For a while, the Impact were resolute in destroying whatever creativity was flung upon them. Right place, Right time, that kinda thing. Then the goals came. By the 90th minute, the score was 3-2 Santos and it looked like an Impact victory as we waited for the fourth official to signal the amount of stoppage time. The electronic board was raised above his head and flashed “4″. Where he found four minutes, I’ll never know. More on this later.

By this time, there were 11 white Impact jerseys jammed into the tight space of the 18-yard box. Their legs were visibly tired, and it seemed as though they hoped to build some sort of impenetrable wall to keep the ball out for four long, arduous minutes. The first goal went in, and the Santos players rushed back across the halfway line to get the game started again. It was too much for the tired Impact defenders. The last goal went in as the crowd went absolutely bonkers. If I wasn’t cheering for the Impact I would have allowed myself a smile. Instead I sat in my La-z-boy in complete shock, my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach. How in the world had this turned into a Bill Simmons “gut-punch” game?

At a certain point in the second half, the referee lost the plot. A Santos player merited a red card on two incidents in the same sequence, for lifting his spikes at an incoming challenge and then raising his hands to the face of the defender when he called him on his intent to injure. All he got was a yellow, yet the rulebook is black and white about striking an opposing player’s face with your hand. Then referee failed to call a penalty on the Santos keeper after he brought down the Impact striker in the box. Should have been a penalty shot, and Santos went straight back down the field and scored. And then there was the four minutes of stoppage time. Another dubious CONCACAF officiating decision that favours a Central Amercian team. Shameful, that. Now you know why I titled this thread “Loser’s Lament”.

All in all, we’ll all have to take a deep breath and forget this unforgettable evening, instead remembering the year the Impact went on their improbable run to the quarterfinal of this prestigious competition and made Canada proud.

The first 2009 Voyageurs Cup match in Montreal takes place May 20th against Vancouver Whitecaps. Road trip, Waffle-Man?

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