Sporting Madness

It was a big day for Toronto FC, as general manager Mo Johnston released veteran goalkeeper Greg Sutton and traded a third-round draft pick to the San Jose Earthquakes for defender Nick Garcia and the rights to Canadian international striker Ali Gerba . I have some analysis on the move and a few links over at Out of Left Field .

This [ Sean Gordon , The Globe and Mail ] perfectly illustrates the state of Canadian soccer: a 2-1 loss to Honduras in CONCACAF qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. With the earlier draw with Jamaica and now this loss, Canada has its back up against the wall: there are only four games left, and two of them are against the powerful Mexicans, who are almost assured to grab one of the top two spots in the group and advance to the next round. The worst thing is that it's so tough to explain. Really, on paper, Canada should have won this game. From the summary, it also sounds like they deserved the win, but couldn't convert a few chances and got caught on some bad breaks. The soccer haters in this country will argue that there's no way we can compete with countries where the game is the number-one sport, so we should just give up now. They'll see that half the crowd of 12,338 were supposedly in Honduran blue, and they'll conclude that no one in Canada even cares enough t...

Earlier today, I made the pilgrimage down to the soccer shrine known as BMO Field to watch Toronto FC’s home opener against Real Salt Lake. It was a pretty awesome experience as always, and is highly recommended to anyone who hasn’t yet been. TFC claimed the win 1-0, and Larry Millson has a good story on what happened over at globesports.com. Here’s the breakdown of my own observations in true Clint Eastwood style. The Good: - Laurent Robert: Former French international Robert made several stunning runs down the left flank and delivered quality crosses in consistently. He also fired a first-half free kick directly through the Salt Lake wall for the only goal of the contest and was rightfully named the man of the match. - Amado Guevara: The 2004 MLS MVP proved he’s still got what it takes to play in this league, - Danny Dichio: The former Preston North End striker and firmly entrenched TFC legend contributed a strong performance as always, scrapping for every ball that came near him an...