Yeah, yeah, Toronto FC lost 2-0, on the same day Montreal and Vancouver both won against the best teams in MLS so far. Whatever. 0-8, worst start to an MLS season ever, whatever. Where it gets really depressing is the post game interviews. I won't post them all here, but if you haven't already, click the link and go see the most beaten and defeated set of interviews ever. Well, until we lose to Montreal on Wednesday that is, to officially finish the season off just slightly more than 2 months after it kicked off in such grand fashion at the dome.
That's Ryan Johnson, whose new favourite adjective seems to be unbearable. He expressed his disappointment that TFC played so defensively at home rather than going out to play positively and try to win. He of course didn't wait until post game to make his frustration known, he was very openly arguing and gesturing at the coaching staff in the first half, clearly annoyed at the lack of attacking intent and the lack of support he received.
He had a valid point, as with Torsten Frings in defence again, TFC were clearly playing to keep it tight defensively first of all rather than focus on attack. Unlike the game in Montreal, where TFC got very lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw, they did it very well in the first half, as DC never seriously threatened in probably the most competent 45 minutes TFC have shown so far this MLS season.
There wasn't a massive amount of help for Johnson up front though, with most attacking play in that half coming down the left where Ashtone Morgan, and Eric Avila combined well to take advantage of young winger Andy Najar filing the Right Back spot. That brings us to the next of the alarming post game quotes, from Eric Avila. I don't have a video to link, but he's quoted in the star as saying. "It really does feel like a nightmare, it's really hard. After the game you just want to go and cry and hide."
Bloody hell.
Next up is Julian de Guzman, who's clearly very experienced at this interview thing, and much better at giving the standard cliche answers, though his body language, just staring off into space as he goes through the motions, wasn't convincing. He couldn't keep it going for the whole interview though as he admitted everyone's lack of confidence, saying "It's like we're walking on eggshells and when we crack, everything falls apart."
That very much descibes what happened early in the second half as all the problems that have been haunting TFC all season came back with a vengeance in one neat little two minute package. First off, individual mistakes, as Milos Kocic misplayed a clearance, and the resulting shot was deflected and looped just over the bar. Next up was set pieces as from the corner, DC nearly scored as Reggie Lambe cleared off the line with what certainly looked like a handball. Shortly after that escape, we saw TFC's lack of speed hurt them as Chris Pontius was given way too much space as Miguel Aceval was slow to close him down, and he shot into the far corner from outside the box to make it 1-0. After that, TFC never really looked like getting back into it, with DC scoring from another set piece/poor offside trap attempt and the only positive to take was, hey at least De Ro didn't score.
Maybe the worst thing to come from this game was Torsten Frings leaving with a shoulder injury after colliding with Doneil Henry. Frings post game had to re-assure everyone his tossing away of the captain's armband as he left the pitch was just due to the frustraion of being injured, and the need to get to the treatment room. That may be true, maybe it's more than that, but surely he can't have imagined this is how he'd see out his career, babysitting the defence on a team spiralling out of control towards it's worst ever record. Hopefully the injury is not serious, the last thing TFC need is for him to be out again, just as Danny Koevermans is set to return.
So it's all very depressing, they're going to need a master motivator to turn those frowns upside down and get them ready for what is potentially a season ending game. So how's Aron Winter feeling? Well his interview was similar to de Guzman's, all the right words and cliches, still with talk of playoffs and insisting the players still believe and he feels no pressure for his job, but with no real defiance to or confidence to those answers, as if he didn't believe it. It seemed as if the press pack was all over him with repeated questions about his future and refusing to settle for the usual non-answers.
Is the end nigh for winter? This game saw the crowd booing, with a few chants of let's go bluejays. If the Reds do lose to Montreal on Wednesday to kill off any hope or meaning for this season, with a 10 day gap until the next game which would be a very useful time for a new coach to get settled in, Winter may well be hearing chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning'.