Posted by

Steve Bottjer ,

October 25, 2016 Twitter

@BottjerRNO

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Defense wins Championships.



It is probably the biggest cliché in professional sports because it is also a truism.



With Toronto sports fans still fresh off of watching their Blue Jays big boppers swing and miss again and again against an Indians team that pitched and fielded expertly in the American League Championship series, they could now be in for witnessing a similar letdown in which a leaky TFC team defense subverts the beautiful offensive play that usually results whenever Sebastian Giovinco steps on the field.



In many ways, Toronto’s regular season can be broken down into two parts. A first half of the campaign in which they performed exceptionally well defensively while playing a large percentage of their matches on the road and a second half of the season in which they looked shaky defensively and underperformed down the stretch when most people expected them to pile up the points with a nice, easy run of home fixtures.



Interestingly, if you look at TFC’s roster during the season, most will point to the time period in which the Reds had to play without Giovinco due to injury as the main culprit behind the eventuality in which the club stumbled to a 3rd place finish and missed out on a bye for the first round of the playoffs.



However, an argument can also be made that a major determining factor in the team’s less than stellar play down the stretch was a big gamble the TFC brass made with the squad’s roster when it parted ways with central defender Damien Perquis during the summer transfer window.



With the club brain trust confident that young players such as Eriq Zavaleta and Nick Hagglund were ready to play significant minutes in the starting eleven, the team took the calculated risk of jettisoning an expensive veteran central defender (Perquis) and using the resulting cap space to upgrade in the midfield and at the striker position via the acquisitions of Armando Cooper and Canadian International Tosaint Ricketts.



At the time, the move made obvious sense in that opposition teams were routinely double and triple marking Giovinco and fresh offensive options would likely make the team’s attack more varied and open space for the squad’s Italian superstar.



The play of both Ricketts and Cooper has offered plenty to reinforce the logic of the team’s roster moves. The former has scored some keys goals, has shown good chemistry and team attitude and has been an excellent two-way player who has shown a propensity to track back and defend when the Reds have had to protect a lead or close out a draw. The latter has shown genuine quality as a player and in several games down the stretch Cooper was TFC’s best player.



However, the tradeoff has also come with a clear cost. While Perquis struggled at times during his first season in the North American top flight last year, the Poland International looked very solid in the first half of his second MLS season while forming one of the league’s best central defense pairings with Drew Moor.



Since the departure of Perquis Toronto has often looked shaky defensively and that poor defensive form continued right to the last regular season game when a hapless Chicago Fire squad scored two goals away from home and almost snatched their second road victory of the season against a TFC squad with a vastly bigger payroll.



While many will tout the importance of the win over the Fire as key for Toronto’s momentum heading into their knockout round against the Philadelphia Union, the fact is that the Reds have plenty of reasons to feel less than confident defensively as they prepare for one of the biggest matches in the club’s history.



While it might not be surprising that Hagglund and Zavaleta have had shaky moments as young defenders, even veteran fullbacks Steven Beitashour and Justin Morrow have made costly defensive mistakes. Did the removal of Perquis from the back line upset the chemistry and balance of what had been a rock solid back four?



Ricketts and Cooper have absolutely done well and added value, but have their acquisitions come at too great a cost? Did Toronto sacrifice defensive stability for an offense that was always going to live or die by the heroics of the Atomic Ant?



That question could be answered on Wednesday in Toronto’s first ever home playoff match. If the defense holds up and Toronto can make it the next round, then the team will have genuinely improved upon what it achieved last season when it qualified for the postseason for the first time, but was sent packing after a knockout round loss to the Montreal Impact.



However, if they lose on Wednesday and endure another one and done postseason, it will likely be due in part to a calculated gamble with the roster that did not pay off.