The clouds threatening rain all afternoon in addition to the cool temperature and a team that seemed to play without any tactical ability or identity made Saturday afternoons TFC versus New England Revolution match a frustrating outing.
From my view in the south stand, the afternoon got off to a good start, albeit a lucky one. Jackson, taking a wicked shot from 25 yards out and catching the boot of a New England defender, deflected the ball into the goal beating Bobby Shuttleworth in the 6th minute to give TFC an early 1-0 lead. But from there, it all just seemed to unravel, and sadly, a fair amount of the blame will land at the feet of Doneil Henry and in my opinion Kyle Bekker.
Young Doneil flubbed a clearance attempt allowing the Revs to counter attack. Patrick Mullins found space and took a fantastic strike, beating Julio Cesar and giving New England an equalizer. Late in the game, a silly hand ball was called against Henry in the box, gifting a 2-1 lead to the Revs through a Lee Nguyen penalty. Many will criticize him for his youth and inexperience as the cause of both New England goals, but I’ll credit those mistakes to just a bad day, a day where not much seemed to go right for anyone on Toronto FC.
Overall the team played sloppy, wasting ball after ball straight up in the air in the middle of the park, expecting striker Jermain Defoe to out jump Andrew Farrell. In conjunction with that failed tactic, Defoe played almost the entire match with his back to the New England net. I’m no expert, but that is not a recipe for success either. I just didn’t see it from TFC on Saturday afternoon, regardless of them bossing the possession (60%-40%) for the first time in what feels like years.
It’s starting to become a theme of this early season, watching Gilberto be completely unlucky on just about every one of his touches. I don’t know what to make of him right now. He seems to be getting into the right positions and finding space for himself, but he consistently lacks that final scoring touch, and it’s starting to get irritating.
While standing in the supporters section, I overheard someone call Gilberto “the Brazilian Chad Barrett”. I couldn’t hold back my laughter at that, because of how true of a statement it is becoming!
The final issue I want to make mention of is the midfield selection to start the game. Osorio-Bekker-Bradley-Jackson was the starting 4 coach Ryan Nelsen chose.
Besides Jackson, who seemed pretty lively throughout the game, the rest of the midfield seemed disjointed and lacked the confidence to really go at their opponents. Jackson’s giveaways have been brutal and completely predictable, and I strongly believe that Issey deserved to start this game.
A starting midfield of Issey-Osorio-Bradley-Rey would’ve been a better choice to start in my opinion.
However, I believe a lot of the problems we saw on Saturday are due to Kyle Bekker’s presence in the centre of midfield.
It would appear that his confidence has diminished consistently ever since he played such an excellent game against Columbus. Bekker’s lack of experience and confidence seemed to take a toll on Michael Bradley, who seemed to be teaching young Kyle on the job, taking away from his own natural ball winning ability.
Anytime you’re the anchor of a midfield and you feel that your partner is a weak link, it takes your mind off your job and causes you to overthink and second guess your own willingness to push up and leave the midfield exposed. That just cannot happen anymore. If confidence and playing time are what Kyle needs, then it might be time for Nelsen to consider sending him on a loan stint to Wilmington.
In addition to that, Osorio seemed invisible on the wing. His position is central midfielder and that’s where he best shows his talent and where his chemistry with Bradley has been top notch since day one in Seattle.
It was a bad day at the office for TFC and could have much further reaching implications if they can’t right the ship in their next couple of matches. With the amount of talent this team has, these are the games they should be getting the bulk of their points from. The scariest part of this loss is that it exposed some pretty bad character flaws found within the team as a whole, as well as in individuals themselves. This team desperately needs to find who they are and know what they’re capable of. It may sound harsh, but it’s true. This team has an identity crisis on its hands.
The Red’s kick off the Amway Canadian Championship Wednesday evening against the Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Field at 7:30pm Eastern. It will prove to be a big test for both teams, since the Whitecaps have never won the Voyageurs Cup and TFC are in the midst of a 3-game losing skid. Either way, it will be must see TV for the Canadian soccer fans out there.
Come on you Reds!
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