Inconsistent Toronto FC still searching for identity
“Teams get found out in July,” says Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko.
If that’s the case, then this month just concluding told us his club is a defensive shambles and a Seba Giovinco injury away from irrelevance.
That’s the half-empty glass, of course.
Five points from four July games — three of them away from home — is about as good as you can expect when you’re leaking goals at a suicidal, three-plus goals a game pace.
The bigger reality is that with August looming and MLS’s real season beckoning, this TFC hasn’t found itself yet. After a disjointed first half to their season, they’re still looking for backbone and an identity beyond the weekly Seba Show. Identity had a lot to with Bezbatchenko’s capture of seasoned Moroccan international/Ligue 1 centre back Ahmed Kantari to fill a hole left gaping by the retirement of Steven Caldwell. There is perhaps one more move to come during this transfer window, the GM says, but it too will be part of the bigger plan.
This is not the old TFC, knees poised on full jerk in anticipation of the next move.
“We know where this club is going. We have a vision, and we know where it’s going all the way down to our Under-10 team,” he said in an interview out at the team’s Downsview Park HQ.
“We didn’t all have the same vision last year.”
Part of this calls for gathering some momentum the rest of the way amid a schedule that’s full of home games — including an Aug. 29 date with the Impact and new signing Didier Drogba, and a homecoming for former TFC DP Gilberto in with his new Chicago Fire team on Sept. 26.
A look back at some of the statistical targets we set in this space off the top of the season shows Giovinco’s immense impact, but also some of the room for improvement elsewhere:
Giovinco. Thirteen goals in MLS play has already surpassed the 10goal mark set. Given continued good health, he’s easily on the way to the best season ever seen in a TFC shirt, and the club’s fans can thank MLS commissioner Don Garber’s grovelling, Giovinco-free all-star selections for perhaps lighting a fire that will help fuel him the rest of the season.
Possession. At only 46 per cent overall, they have fallen far short of our 55 per cent target — but the worse it gets, the better off they have been. Since March 14 in Columbus, TFC is unbeaten in seven games (five of them wins) in which they’ve had the ball less than 45 per cent of the time.
Jozy Altidore. The American DP has yet to find his best form, but he has scored seven goals. If he can find more shots than the less than two per game he’s getting (the target was four), he might well hit the 20-goal target.
Bradley and Cheyrou. In the shadow of Giovinco, the anticipated midfield engine room has come up short as providers with but seven assists between them, well off the target of 20 combined.
They have to pick that up some, and they also have to get better defensively.
Defence. Spotty to atrocious, and the initial target of 10 clean sheets looks a touch ambitious (they’ve had four). Given their league-leading goal scoring, it hasn’t mattered too much — but it will.
Meantime, TFC II can’t be expected to fill any of the big club’s holes. The developmental team on Tuesday plays Serie A Roma’s equivalent squad at their Ontario Soccer Centre home ground in Vaughan, and provides a case in point to the GM’s overall theme. The team has struggled in its USL debut, and there don’t appear to be any potential diamonds ready there. No matter.
“I think next year you’re going to see a group of guys starting to get minutes in the first team, between Chris Mannella, Skylar Thomas, Alex Bono, Q. Roberts — most of our guys are between 18 and 21,” said Bezbatchenko. “We need to make the playoffs and we have a group we think will do that. We’re not going to rush our prospects into it.”
There’s the mantra again: Stability, a certain amount of confidence — a little different, this version of TFC.