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Jeremy Loome ,

February 23, 2014 Email

Jeremy Loome



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After eight years of watching coaches with no pedigree and players who shouldn’t be in Major League Soccer, TFC fans could be forgiven if last night’s 1-1 draw with Orlando City had them thinking we’re about to see another season of same old, same old. Somehow, in the offseason, it seems Nelsen has convinced Tim Lieweke and Tim Bezbatchenko that TFC is only a few key players away from competing. So they went out and got probably the two best players in the league in Michael Bradley and Jermaine Defoe. But yesterday’s disgraceful performance showed Toronto continues to suffer a startling lack of tactical acumen, almost zero off-the-ball movement and a complete predictability in its approach that sees other teams overload their midfields and cut off flank play effectively. Is Nelsen one of the coaching fraternity who seems to think that letting professionals “just play their game” is a way to success? He can’t possibly think it’s a coincidence that TFC has been out-possessed and out-passed in just about every game he’s been in charge … can he? There’s no switch of field, no movement into space; he can’t even get a guy like Kyle Bekker, whose professional career is on much thinner ice than perhaps he realizes, to run back into defensive position rather than jogging and being behind the play. If a guy who was drafted in the top 10 doesn’t realize you need to run hard, all the time, after two years, what the hell are these players actually being taught? Then there are the tell-tale small signs of a coach over his head: playing guys who’ve been in one position their whole career in completely new roles and expecting to learn something. Gale Agboussomonde at right back? Ryan Richter as centre half? Is this a career rehab centre or a football team? Arsene Wenger famously converted Thierry Henry from a winger to a striker; but we’re talking about one of the best players in the world for the last two decades, not a career Div.2 guy like Richter, who left Dennis Chin so open on a header in the second half, I’m surprised he didn’t score twice. Meanwhile, the rest of the league is undergoing a tactical revolution, with coaches like Caleb Porter, Jay Heaps and Peter Vermes teaching their squads that it’s not just a matter of playing your spot: teams need cohesive positional movement, so that men who are pressured on the ball always have an outlet; they need formations and tactics designed to spread an opposing defense and break them down. They need guy switching positions to cover behind the play when someone else steps up. They need to play on the diagonal, not just straight up and down the channels. They need… Coaching. There’s no other way to put it; after three preseason games, Toronto was so badly outplayed by Orlando City that it could have been 4-1, had Chin finished his chances. If Dom Dwyer were still playing for Orlando, even his 50/50 finishing would’ve guaranteed a win. Every year, Toronto brings in a new roster and then at the end of the year, after missing the playoffs yet again, it unceremoniously blames the players and dumps them. They then go on to have decent careers at coaches who realize you need to work much harder in this league than ten years ago, when Nelsen was playing in MLS. You can’t simply dump the ball down the wings and pray for an overlap, or play long balls over the top to try and avoid losing the midfield battle. TFC had no guile, no threat. Against Columbus, Dwayne DeRosario spent so much time tracking back to get involved in the play, it was hard to believe he wasn’t playing midfield, such was the distance between those players and the forward line. Nelsen talks about formations not being that important and that players will behave tactically in all manner of ways during a game … but then he puts out a 4-4-2 against Columbus that is so flat, all they had to do was have the odd extra player cut inside and our shape was rendered useless. This team needs a head coach with a proven track record. This time, for once, let’s not wait until the end of the season to do it. If TFC isn’t in a playoff spot by the All-Star Game, it’ll be time for Tim Lieweke and the capologist to open the wallet again, and hire someone who knows what he’s doing. And if we get there despite being out-played and out-possessed in game after game again, it’ll be because we have a high-caliber roster, not because of what the coaches are doing. This team doesn’t just need to win, it needs to do it convincingly. Is anyone out there right now convinced on any level that Ryan Nelsen can get that job done? Veteran print journalist Jeremy Loome is the co-publisher of Gigcity.ca and author of the “Quinn” mysteries under the penname LH Thomson.