State of Mind: Tired; oh so tired
Location: The Magic Shop from Buffy
Weather: Hot, hot, heat - truly end of days
Coming soon to BMO Field's Events Calendar: "Talisman Night"! That's right, bring your favourite good luck charm to BMO to help ward off the evil spirits, ghosts of strikers past and those unappeased spirits from Poltergeist, The Shining and The Amnityville Horror (well they're all obviously living under the pitch at BMO) in the biggest talisman throwdown Toronto has ever seen! If you do not have a favourite lucky charm one will be provided for you! Choose from one of the following exciting Lucky Talismans:
1. Four Leaf Clover: Do you really need an explanation for this one?
2. Cat's Eye (no not Suarez's sicko!): It protects one from unforeseen losses in business or profession, and ensures financial stability by guarding the owner's wealth...Hmm, maybe this one will stay in Tom's office.
3. Mini Buddha statues: A Buddha charm or statue is thought of as being lucky, especially if you rub the Buddha's belly...or Terry Dunfield's, or Colin Samuel's, or Ali Gerba's...
4. Scarabs (Ooh, who doesn't want a scarab?): As a symbol of the rising sun and protector from evil, the Scarab is also a symbol of rebirth, regeneration and transformation...we should probably give one to anyone that suits up for TFC.
If this doesn't work we'll have to turn to some sort of animal sacrifice (fly Bitchy, fly!) in order to appease the rather pissed off footy gods. Hands up if you wouldn't love to have just one nondescript, mediocre, no major injury, non-rebuilding, defensive crisis free year with TFC. Just one. Is that really too much to ask? Seriously, I don't care if they make the playoffs; I'll settle for boring yet stable - I won't even bitch about it - just some nice, bland football for a few months...hey, I can dream.
Coming to town to take on our beleaguered Reds tomorrow night are the floundering Colorado Rapids - they of the one win, four losses in their last five and three straight losses heading into tomorrow's match - but any team regardless of form has to be salivating just a little at the thought of facing a Danny Koevermans-less TFC; even with those back to back wins. Any coach just has to look at the weak bench (made weaker by departing and injured players and lack of foresight in team building and player signing) and the even weaker attack (notice I'm not even mentioning the defense?) and think hey, we can take 'em. Because do not doubt the impact Danny has up front even when he's not scoring goals. An in form Koef changes the focus of the defense and allows others to find time and space to score (not you RJ, but thanks for trying...sigh).
It's obviously too soon for help to be arriving - in fact don't expect any before the Houston match on the 28th - so the main question is who will feature up top with RJ? Based on recent game performances I'd expect to see Luis Silva partner with Johnson with the option of Andrew (Andy the eye candy) Weiderman on the bench. Frings will have to be at the top of his game and will likely be joined by Dunfield, Reggie Lambe and (assuming Silva starts up top) Avi getting his first start in a couple of games. I think that with the mobility of Silva and Avi our Reds stand a chance to break down the not rock solid Rapids defense while Frings & Dunfield should be able to counter Conor Casey and Omar Cummings going forward.
Buoyed by the "Do It For Danny" spirit, facing a team that is falling to pieces in true TFC fashion and fueled by back to back wins and the home crowd (well it's sort of crowded, after the first half anyway), this is actually the best possible scenario that TFC could face considering the circumstances. Did I mention that the Rapids have never won at BMO? Seriously, this game is tailor made for some kind of positive result. A win or a draw and then 10 days (we're still not talking about that game on Saturday) off to rest, practice and (hopefully) get to know some new teammates.
All in all this team needs to find a way to come together and become the sum of more than just their parts. Too much reliance on one (or two - remember what happened when Frings was out) players has had disastrous results. This is the moment when playing for pride and the badge and the fans has to truly be on display - they need to put on one of their best efforts if they hope to go into this break (remember they're going back to a match every 3-4 days after the break) with something to build upon. This is a very winnable match for our boys and I hope that they will not react in somewhat patented TFC fashion (self destruct on the easy ones) and put in a great performance. I'll be there as usual; anxious, hopeful and ready to scream my head off when they win. See you there?
We'll miss you Danny, but the show indeed must go on.
COME ON YOU REDS!!!
Lot of Links: Tons of other reading to do - The Yorkies, Waking The Red (Duncan, James, James (again) & John), Red Nation Online and Typical TFC.
1. Four Leaf Clover: Do you really need an explanation for this one?
2. Cat's Eye (no not Suarez's sicko!): It protects one from unforeseen losses in business or profession, and ensures financial stability by guarding the owner's wealth...Hmm, maybe this one will stay in Tom's office.
3. Mini Buddha statues: A Buddha charm or statue is thought of as being lucky, especially if you rub the Buddha's belly...or Terry Dunfield's, or Colin Samuel's, or Ali Gerba's...
4. Scarabs (Ooh, who doesn't want a scarab?): As a symbol of the rising sun and protector from evil, the Scarab is also a symbol of rebirth, regeneration and transformation...we should probably give one to anyone that suits up for TFC.
If this doesn't work we'll have to turn to some sort of animal sacrifice (fly Bitchy, fly!) in order to appease the rather pissed off footy gods. Hands up if you wouldn't love to have just one nondescript, mediocre, no major injury, non-rebuilding, defensive crisis free year with TFC. Just one. Is that really too much to ask? Seriously, I don't care if they make the playoffs; I'll settle for boring yet stable - I won't even bitch about it - just some nice, bland football for a few months...hey, I can dream.
Coming to town to take on our beleaguered Reds tomorrow night are the floundering Colorado Rapids - they of the one win, four losses in their last five and three straight losses heading into tomorrow's match - but any team regardless of form has to be salivating just a little at the thought of facing a Danny Koevermans-less TFC; even with those back to back wins. Any coach just has to look at the weak bench (made weaker by departing and injured players and lack of foresight in team building and player signing) and the even weaker attack (notice I'm not even mentioning the defense?) and think hey, we can take 'em. Because do not doubt the impact Danny has up front even when he's not scoring goals. An in form Koef changes the focus of the defense and allows others to find time and space to score (not you RJ, but thanks for trying...sigh).
It's obviously too soon for help to be arriving - in fact don't expect any before the Houston match on the 28th - so the main question is who will feature up top with RJ? Based on recent game performances I'd expect to see Luis Silva partner with Johnson with the option of Andrew (Andy the eye candy) Weiderman on the bench. Frings will have to be at the top of his game and will likely be joined by Dunfield, Reggie Lambe and (assuming Silva starts up top) Avi getting his first start in a couple of games. I think that with the mobility of Silva and Avi our Reds stand a chance to break down the not rock solid Rapids defense while Frings & Dunfield should be able to counter Conor Casey and Omar Cummings going forward.
Buoyed by the "Do It For Danny" spirit, facing a team that is falling to pieces in true TFC fashion and fueled by back to back wins and the home crowd (well it's sort of crowded, after the first half anyway), this is actually the best possible scenario that TFC could face considering the circumstances. Did I mention that the Rapids have never won at BMO? Seriously, this game is tailor made for some kind of positive result. A win or a draw and then 10 days (we're still not talking about that game on Saturday) off to rest, practice and (hopefully) get to know some new teammates.
All in all this team needs to find a way to come together and become the sum of more than just their parts. Too much reliance on one (or two - remember what happened when Frings was out) players has had disastrous results. This is the moment when playing for pride and the badge and the fans has to truly be on display - they need to put on one of their best efforts if they hope to go into this break (remember they're going back to a match every 3-4 days after the break) with something to build upon. This is a very winnable match for our boys and I hope that they will not react in somewhat patented TFC fashion (self destruct on the easy ones) and put in a great performance. I'll be there as usual; anxious, hopeful and ready to scream my head off when they win. See you there?
COME ON YOU REDS!!!
Lot of Links: Tons of other reading to do - The Yorkies, Waking The Red (Duncan, James, James (again) & John), Red Nation Online and Typical TFC.
Du Maurier pack on your head!!!
ReplyDeleteHaha. I'm not sure that works for football but oh the memories! :)
Delete