Do or die time for Toronto
After flying to England in late August, to recover from injury and find himself mired in forced transfer talk, Jermain Defoe is coming “home” to Toronto – though he won’t be suiting up to play against Chivas USA this weekend. That’s according to Toronto FC head coach Greg Vanney.
“I think the idea is to get here and to start training,” Vanney said. “Hopefully get a good week under his belt and get some solid full sessions in and then I hope … physically and mentally he’ll be ready to go.”
Beleaguered Toronto supporters will also be “mentally ready to go”, however, should Vanney and company fail to pick up a win against a thoroughly demoralized, hiatus-bound Chivas at BMO Field on Sunday. It’s September and once again TFC’s playoff hopes are slipping away.
Even so, the stage is set in the Canadian club’s favour. Playoff rivals the Columbus Crew are facing a red-hot New England Revolution team and there is a decent chance table-neighbours Houston and Philadelphia could draw. If everything goes right, Toronto’s dimming playoff hopes could be relit.
But this is TFC, of course. Vanney has two losses and a draw to start his MLS tenure, and it’s not certain Defoe’s return will bolster much of anything, save the image of a club whose most talented players would rather be anywhere else. Key starters Steven Caldwell and Jonathan Osorio are still edging back to fitness, but there is one player who believes Toronto’s season isn’t over yet:
We’re not in a hole, the situation is not nearly as doom and gloom as so many people try to make it out to be. I think you saw on Saturday night [against the Chicago Fire] that, whatever happens these last seven games, we’re going down swinging.
Exhausted fans will pray Michael Bradley is on the money.
Can New York take advantage of tired Seattle?
Boy, is it a good time to be a Seattle Sounder.
After a much-needed bye week, Seattle edged Western title rivals Real Salt Lake 3-2 last weekend. It was an incredible match in which Andy Rose scored an unlikely winner against a 10-man RSL in the last minute of stoppage time. The win not only opened up an eight-point gap over RSL, it also clinched Seattle’s playoff berth and maintained their status as Supporters Shield favourites.
Fans might have forgiven the Sounders if they had let up a little against Philadelphia in the US Open Cup final on Tuesday, but in the end they found a way past the Union in extra time in a 3-1 win, with Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins scoring when it counted. It was Seattle’s fourth USOC win in six years.
With a trophy and a guaranteed spot in the 2014 playoffs, there will be a natural inclination for Sigi Schmid’s side to let up a bit against the New York Red Bulls this weekend at Red Bull Arena, even with images of the Supporters Shield dancing in their heads. New York will need every edge they can get in their Eastern Conference playoff race, and coach Mike Petke is hoping he can silence doubters over his decision to start a weakened 11 (the “Baby Bulls”) in a 1-0 loss to the Montreal Impact in the Concacaf Champions League in midweek. Petke has tinkered a lot this season – three points in spite of a shaky defense against the league’s best team would do a lot to bolster his approach.
Galaxy play the rebels in FC Dallas clash
After years of as the flagship MLS club, the LA Galaxy are embracing their outsider status. Their iconic player is a 32-year-old soon-to-be-retiree, Landon Donovan, who has spent the latter half of the year determined to show the often fickle world of American soccer what it will be missing in future years, and why Jürgen Klinsmann was wrong to omit him from the US World Cup squad. Their manager is Bruce Arena, who found himself in the middle of a high-profile (and expensive) war of words with MLS commissioner Don Garber after he intimated the league office kiboshed a deal with Sacha Kljestan (prompting groans throughout the league). And the club itself is in a tough battle for top spot in the West, three points behind Seattle and set to play Oscar Pareja’s FC Dallas this weekend.
The Galaxy need to figure out a way to improve on their last two results, draws against Montreal and San Jose. Though it may be a stretch to say those dropped four points have put them out of the running for the Supporters Shield, they will have to be at their best to ward off Dallas, a team buoyed by a 2-1 victory against the Whitecaps courtesy of a Blas Perez brace, and the return of injured playmaker Mauro Diaz to join in-form players like Tesho Akindele and top scorer Fabian Castillo.
LA will welcome back AJ DeLaGarza after the death of his newborn son. Keeper Jaime Penedo is also back with the team following a solid performance in goal for Panama in the Copa CentroAmericana. LA now have an incredible chance against FC Dallas to put their last two games behind them and to ruin Seattle’s treble dream with a late-season challenge for top of the West.
Cascadian rivals vie for last Western playoff spot
The Vancouver Whitecaps have a lot to prove against the Portland Timbers at Providence Park, but then they have had a lot to prove for a while now. Since their last meeting, on 30 August, the Timbers winning 3-0 at Vancouver, the Whitecaps have posted a draw, a win and a loss. They have failed to show the kind of consistency which would have put them in playoff safety, in part because of the on-again, off-again performances of players like Darren Mattocks, Erik Hurtado and Kekuta Manneh.
Meanwhile last year’s Western leaders the Timbers have scored as often as they have conceded, with 3-3 and 2-2 draws against teams they arguably should have beaten in San Jose and Colorado, though they will be pleased with a thrilling 4-2 win against CD Olimpia in the CCL.
The margins are very thin, for both sides. Vancouver are just over the red line on 37 points, the Timbers just below on 36. They will likely go down to the wire as the final two teams vying for the last remaining playoff spot in the West.
Vancouver have been awful away from home, and it’s hard to think Carl Robinson has some sly trick up his sleeve against Portland, beyond praying the Timbers’ defence will continue to leak goals as it has all season. Something has to give for both sides, but Vancouver will arguably need this result ahead of a brutal league schedule which seems them play Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas and the Seattle Sounders. If not now, then when?
Revs have golden chance to catch resting SKC
Sporting Kansas City have the weekend off after their CCL match against Saprissa on Thursday, and it seems to have come at an opportune time. They beat Chivas USA 4-0 and are only two points (and one game) behind DC United in first place in the East thanks to Ben Olsen’s team loss to the Red Bulls. Under normal circumstances, a break would be a welcome reprieve.
Chances are that SKC coach Peter Vermes will be monitoring one MLS match more than others. The New England Revolution visit Crew Stadium this week. Jay Heaps’ team are riding a five-game win streak and a win against Columbus would tie them on points and games played with SKC. And while talk in recent weeks has mostly surrounded the incredible form of Lee Nguyen, who scored goal No13 against Montreal in a 2-1 win last week, attention is now shifting to the Revs as a unit.
Kelyn Rowe is hitting form at the right time, and Heaps has some options to fill out the line-up in light of injuries to key starters Jermaine Jones and Stephen McCarthy, including bench-warming Revs legend Shalrie Joseph. Meanwhile the Crew may debut sole summer signing Emanuel Pogatetz in defense to keep the Revs at bay.
The Revs can’t afford to let anything slip now, even with key personnel missing. With Nguyen in the MVP picture and the Revs making what is more and more looking like a real case for a push for top of the East, things could get interesting in the home stretch.
