Land of the Leaf

Toronto FC midfielder Amada Guevara was named the MLS Player of the Week this afternoon.  Guevara tallied two markers in Saturday’s 3-1 TFC victory over New England.

Toronto FC currently sit tied for second in the Eastern standings with D.C. United.  They travel to Houston for a Saturday match versus the Dynamo.

Damn Yankees
Tuesday’s baseball game was awesome, last night not so much.  Andy Pettitte didn’t have his best stuff, but that didn’t matter.  The Blue Jay bats couldn’t get shit going against him.  That heavy-set left hander with all the money takes the mound today and we’re countering with Brian Tallet.  Here’s hoping that the pern-stache can top the Hamburglar.

I don’t like to make rash decisions based on one performance, but I’m kinda over Scott Richmond right now.  Regardless, great story on Richmond from Ian at The Blue Jay Hunter.

Rethinking the NBA Finals, Got A Love Buzz for Jay Triano
Took in what I could of the Nuggets-Mavs series and all I can say is that the Nuggies have a legitimate shot at making the finals.  The hell with a Kobe vs. Lebron NBA Finals match-up, Carmelo vs. Lebron has got a lot more intrigue.  Follow the Nuggets’ quest over at Dunking Nuggets with my man Bryan Douglass.  I’ll take any excuse I can get to post a throw-back Raptors picture:

Speaking of the Raptors, Raptors Republic has an overview of the players that have worked out for the team thus far.  None of the names immediately jump of the screen, but we still don’t know what our draft position will be so no reason to get worked up yet.

Yours truly talked about the Jay Triano signing with Mr. Douglass of Fanball.com and the “Statsman” Paul Bruno on last night’s Statsman Show.  I’ll post a link when the file is available, but I can tell you that we’re all happy with the move.  (Link is up.  You can download it here:  Statsman Podcast Archive.  We go Triano around the 1:40 mark.)

Toronto FC and the Lone Goal Complacency
Chad Barrett scored the lone TFC goal last night, and that’s all they needed to defeat the Montreal Impact 1-0.  Toronto FC is getting too comfortable with the 1-0 victories.

Obligatory East Coast Chest Pump
If you read my own Hockeyhead blog (and you fucking better), then you’d know that I’m a big Sidney Crosby supporter.  I’m sorry, Ovechkin is a great player too but he’s sorta greasy.  Simeon VarLAMov has got a wonky glove-hand and the Penguins exposed it.  My boy Eyebleaf is coming around on Sid the Kid, and pretty soon you will too.

Big thanks to Sadler from our sister blog Right Off Russell for his insight on DC.  We’re friends today, bitter enemies tomorrow!  His comments are italicized.

Previous Match:
Toronto FC is coming off of a 1-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps that kicked off the Nutrilite Voyageurs Cup.  They’ll face some stiffer competition on Saturday afternoon as they face DC United at RFK Stadium.  Last Saturday’s 1-1 draw with the Columbus Crew ran Toronto’s unbeaten streak to three games, and interim head coach Chris Cummins will look for his squad to come-up big against the Eastern Conference’s first place club.  TFC currently sits in second in the East, just a single marker behind DC.

DC United is coming off a tough midweek matchup at KC where they tied the Wizards 1-1. In that game, coach Tom Soehn gained a 1-0 lead with some of his stars sitting out the 1st half. First year player, Rodney Wallace was able to grab his second goal of the season.  KC was able to notch the tie thanks to a strike by Josh Wolfe early in the 2nd half. DC once again played strong defense as they were able to limit the Wizards to only 3 shots on goal.

Key Players:
Stefan Frei - Frei has shown excellent poise in goal early this season.  The goal he allowed versus Columbus was the first goal allowed by TFC in 240 minutes.

Chad Barrett - After failing to score in the first four matches of the season, Barrett has now scored in two of the team’s last four matches.

Dwayne De Rosario - De Rosario missed two full games with a hamstring injury, but coach Cummins quickly reinserted him in the lineup and it paid off.  De Rosario set up a beauty score when Kevin Harmse headed home his cross.

Christian Gomez: This midfield is the true leader on the field. Though not as talented as DP Marcelo Gallardo, Gomez has found a way to gel the team in a way that Gallardo could not last season.

Luis Crayton: Crayton is an a aggressive goal keeper who has been able to help keep DC in games despite a young defense.

Luciano Emilio: One of the top 5 goal scorers in the league. Look for him to strike anytime, anywhere.

Outlook:
It’s essentially a battle for first, and the DC crowd will be fired up.  I’m looking for a solid back and forth match, with TFC squeaking out an important road victory.  2-1 TFC.

This should be a very passionate game. The fans will be holding a rally earlier in the day to help convince one of the local governments to assist in building a soccer only facility for the team. It will be loud and rocking! From the field, look for the players to be a little tired from the midweek match on the road. I am going to go out on a limb and say that they home field crowd puts DC over the edge in a 3-2 win.

Not really sure what’s going on here, but John Carver, who earlier this week disappeared from the sidelines, has resigned as head coach of Toronto FC.  TSN.ca called it “personal reasons”, I’m just a little bit shocked by all this.  I’m sure there’s pretty logical (or medical) explanation for all of this, and the club will be offering more details following tomorrow’s game versus the Kansas City Wizards at BMO Field.

Assistant coaches Chris Cummins and Nick Dasovic will handle the coaching duties for the interim.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here, my knowledge of soccer is on par with my knowledge of cricket.  I know that I’m a wanker if I don’t call it ‘football’, but I wouldn’t want to confuse any Argo or Bills’ fans.  Until I took in my first ever live Toronto FC game last season I had little to no interest in following the MLS.  The rabid fan-base changed my perception of ‘football’ in North America, oh, and the game itself is rather entertaining as well.  You can count on Land Of The Leaf to keep you up to date with Toronto FC news all season long thanks to a solid blogging community.

A couple footy links:

Ben Rycroft essentially tells Eugene Melnyk to take a hike with his plans to bring MLS to Ottawa.  This is again, a city that has failed miserably to support a CFL team not once, but twice.

I’ll never make it big blogging about Toronto FC because my name is not Ben.  Ben Van Weelden has you covered with this preview of Saturday’s home opener at BMO Field.