The Week That Was - September 24th

Here are the updated standings:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3qPRqJFXHoRcGhVdkV2R20zaUk/edit

Toronto FC

Before the game, last Friday September 20^th, Tim Leiweke and Toronto FC announced they had found their GM, another MLS Head Office suggestion and former Senior Director of Player Relations and Competition with MLS Tim Bezbatchenko.  With MLS he oversaw the budgets of many different MLS teams and has an intimate understanding of contracts and league rules.  He was brought in here to have control of the budgeting side of Toronto FC’s team and to assist in player selection; he will not be the be all and end all in player acquistion like the “typical” general manager in North American Professional Sports.  So Leiweke has finished putting together one team now the hard work begins trying to turn Toronto FC into a team.

What a team they currently are, and with Jonathan Osorio’s 2 game suspension announced the day before the Kansas City game I knew it was going to be a long day for TFC.  The game ended 2-1 in Sporting Kansas City’s favour not that unexpected but the way in which the game went down was not.  The Kansas City goals were both by C.J. Sapong who took advantage of lackluster defending by Doneil Henry on the first and Mark Bloom on the second.  Toronto also took advantage of a bad pass reception by Aurelien Collin who gave up the ball to Rey who passed to Russell and he slotted it in the bottom left hand corner.  But that was not it for Collin, already sitting on a yellow when defending Alvaro Rey who was making his way along the right side of the 18 yard box Collin deliberately elbows Rey in the face.  Collin looked to see where Rey was before throwing his elbow out, this could have been a red card and was definitely a yellow card but neither was shown.  Furthermore a penalty was not called even though it looked to be inside the box.  In addition to this, in the 91^st minute Toronto had a free kick at about half and sent everyone up, the kick was headed on further into the box and when Justin Braun went up to head the ball on frame Collin tackled him preventing him from getting to the ball and again no card was shown but even worse no foul was given and in turn no penalty.

Here we are with 4 games left and currently the same point total as last season of 23 supported by the higher number of draws this year because we have one less win compared to last year.   And it doesn’t look like that will change much we arguably have one last shot at tying the win total of last year.  That is the next game coming up against DC United but with Osorio and Caldwell out and then all of the injured players it looks bleak.  At least we will have a good draft pick, oh wait we traded it.

Movers of the Week

The biggest movers in the West were the Portland Timbers who through a win vs. Colorado and the highest max points of a non-playoff team dropping by 2 they moved 5 points closer to clinching a playoff spot.  While FC Dallas had the largest drop of 5 points with a loss vs. New York and the 5^th place points going up by 2.   In the East, New York, Kansas City, and Houston were the biggest winners all moving 6 points closer to clinching the playoffs through each of their respective wins versus Dallas, Toronto, and Chivas and the highest max points of a non-playoff team dropping by 3.  Whereas Chicago had the biggest drop through a loss and the 5^th place points rising by 1, they fell 4 points closer to elimination.

The under 10 club makes it return finally with one member San Jose Earthquakes who are 9 points away from being the next club eliminated from the playoffs.

Predictions

Last Week

Colorado Rapids @ Portland Timbers	POR Win	Correct POR Win 1-0
Vancouver Whitecaps @ Montreal Impact	MTL Win	Wrong VAN Win 3-0
Sporting Kansas City @ Toronto FC	SKC Win	Correct SKC Win 2-1
DC United @ New England Revolution	NE Win	Correct NE Win 2-1
Chicago Fire @ Columbus Crew	Draw	Wrong CLB Win 3-0
Chivas USA @ Houston Dynamo	HOU Win	Correct HOU Win 5-1
San Jose Earthquakes @ Real Salt Lake	RSL Win	Wrong SJ Win 2-1
Seattle Sounders @ LA Galaxy	LA Win	Wrong Draw 1-1
FC Dallas @ New York Red Bulls	NY Win	Correct NY Win 1-0

Last Week’s Prediction Record	5-4
All Time Record	42-42

This Week

Philadelphia Union @ Sporting Kansas City	SKC Win
DC United @ Toronto FC	TFC Win
Real Salt Lake @ Vancouver Whitecaps	Van Win
Houston Dynamo @ New England Revolution	Draw
Montreal Impact @ Chicago Fire	MTL Win
LA Galaxy @ Portland Timbers	POR Win
Columbus Crew @ FC Dallas	CLB Win
New York Red Bulls @ Seattle Sounders	SEA Win
San Jose Earthquakes @ Chivas USA	SJ Win