My answer tends to be that Toronto FC should keep Winter around – at least until the end of the next season. From someone who watches the games, it is quite easy to see that the overall talent on the squad has improved, as has the style of play. A new manager will mean more changes that may not necessarily bring TFC results. I think that this is a case of the club being more unlucky than bad. Clearly the issue is with the defense, something that is not necessarily related to Aron Winter (or which can at least be fixed by bringing in better personnel).

Joao Plata, Reggie Lambe, Ryan Johnson, Eckersley, Morgan, Silva and Avila have all been good additions to the squad under Winter’s tenure. All of these players would start in other MLS rosters, or at least make a good account of themselves and get regular minutes.

While that does lead to the quite strong conclusion: “If the players are good then it must be the manager” – I think nothing will be gained by getting a new manager simply because the DEFENSIVE players are not fine. 18 goals in 8 games is probably not Winter’s fault or a fault of his tactics.

Not only have I been annoyed at the terrible performances by the Toronto FC defense, my blog spam prevention is apparently as shoddy as the TFC back four. I have no idea how I have gotten about 400 comments through the CAPTCHA in the comments. I have temporarily disabled the comments until I can sort this situation out. F’n spammers

Aron Winter mentioned this in one of his press conference: there is no need for TFC or the fans to panic yet. Sporting Kansas City have shown that the first 10 games of the season, in which they only won once, doesn’t predict the outcome of the rest of the season. Toronto have played well and attractively with good attacking soccer – it is simply a problem of massive defensive errors. While there is no reason to be confident those errors will be dealt with there is no reason to panic yet either.

You can add another homegrown signing to the Toronto FC team from the TFC Academy – this time more out of necessity than out of any desire to develop talent. After Stefan Frei broke his leg, the team needed to fly in a backup goalkeeper. Now, instead of going outside of the club to find a backup, they have promoted from within. This shouldn’t affect TFC much except for in Canadian Championship play, as Milos Kocic has shown that he is more than capable of handling the starting keeper duties.

Much was made about the desire of the Chivas USA organization to copy the model of their “parent club” Chivas of Guadalajara in only playing Mexican players. In fact, this rule led to the Guadalajara based side releasing Omar Salgado, who had to leave the club after deciding to play internationally for the United States. Eventually he was drafted first overall by the Vancouver Whitecaps last year. Chivas has gone on to produce fantastic players such as Javier Hernandez of Manchester United, Carlos Vela of Arsenal and Carlos Salcido of Fulham.

While not all Torontonians either play for Toronto FC or for the Canadian national soccer team, there are quite a few good ones out there both in Major League Soccer and especially in Europe. Let’s take a quick look at the list of GTA talent.

FW: Dwayne De Rosario (DC United, born in Scarborough, Ontario), Simeon Jackson (Norwich City, born in Mississauga, Ontario), Junior Hoilett (Blackburn Rovers, born in Brampton, Ontario)

MF: Julian de Guzman (TFC, Toronto), Jonathan de Guzman (same as his brother, plays for Villareal in La Liga), Will Johnson (Real Salt Lake), Matt Stinson (Homegrown signing), Atiba Hutchinson (PSV, Brampton),

DF: Mike Klukowski (Manisaspor, Oshawa), David Edgar (Burnley, not in GTA but in close by Kitchener), Adrian Cann (Thornhill), Dejan Jakovic (MNT, DC United, Etobicoke), Marcel de John (Newmarket, FC Augsburg), Ashtone Morgan, Doneil Henry, Nana Attakora,

Now let’s put this into a classic 4-4-2 formation and you easily have a great MLS XI

LB – Klukowski
CB1 – Dejan Jakovic
CB2 – Adrian Cann
RB – David Edgar

LM – Will Johnson
RM – Atiba Hutchinson

CM – Julian de Guzman, Jonathan de Guzman
FW – Dwayne De Rosario, Junior Hoilett

Alternatively a 4-3-3 formation with 3 strikers preferred by Aron Winter

The back four would be the same, Julian would be the holding midfielder, Johnson and Jonathan de Guzman and a front three of De Ro playing the #10 position, flanked by Junior Hoilett and Simeon Jackson.

Not only could this lineup stay alive in any top league in the world, a lot of these players have experience at fairly high levels in Europe. Julian de Guzman played for many years for Deportivo, including being voted most valuable player in the 2007-2008 season. His brother Jonathan is a key player for Villareal, who despite struggling this year in La Liga, has UEFA Champions League experience. Dwayne De Rosario is a top 5 player all time in MLS and the reigning MVP of the league and arguably on the level of a player like Landon Donovan. Junior Hoilett is probably Blackburn Rovers’ best player and is being looked at by all the top clubs in the English Premier League. Simeon Jackson is more of a fringe player for Norwich but has scored whenever he’s got minutes. The rest of the players are nothing to sneeze at either.

This is why, whenever you listen to an interview with Paul Mariner and he discusses the TFC Academy, you can tell the excitement the organization has with the latest investment into a new facility close to BMO Field. In the past generation, a full line up of players has past through the Greater Toronto Area despite not having optimal training and fell out of the clutches of a potential academy. With a state-of-the-art training facility, with Aron Winter installing an Ajax-style vision on the club and Thomas Rongen (formerly of Ajax FC as well) running the academy, great things lie ahead for Toronto FC.

The message going into the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals against Santos Laguna is to be prepared for anything on the pitch and off the pitch. While the club knows this is the biggest game in the history of the organization, everyone appeared quite loose. Here is Winter appearing before the media in Toronto before setting off for Mexico:

One thing we have noticed this year is that Toronto FC finally play with a style and with a purpose going forward. That was true for the first 80 minutes, as Winter’s squad dominated possession and played a majority of the game in Columbus’ defensive third.

A quick look at the stats reveals the following: more shots (14-10), more corner kicks (8-4), more open play crosses (31-12), and more possession (55.6% in Toronto’s favor), yet a 1-0 loss, with Toronto only having scored one goal in their first three Major League Soccer games.

What went wrong? The same things that went wrong in Seattle, against SJ, against LA in both legs of the CCL quarterfinals,  and against Santos on the conceded away goal to Hercules Gomez.

While Winter may be able to stress to his team the importance of positional play and wing play and implant a flowing, attacking style on his players – as a coach he is unable to teach players not to make individual errors. The goal conceded to Bernardo Anor in the 56th minute was a simple error made by newly acquired defensive player Logan Emory, failing to clear the ball on a quick counter.

Ty Harden was also guilty of committing a foul that gave up a penalty, which was ultimately saved by Kocic.

Understandably, the club is going through a very busy schedule having to juggle both Champions League matches and league play, but Winter will need to get his players to buckle down and get results, otherwise face the pressure of being outside the playoff race and looking in from quite a distance.

With a mixed but inspired result against Mexican league leaders Santos Laguna in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League, Aron Winter and Paul Mariner will have managed to learn a few things about the club that, if they didn’t know yet – they definitely know now.

Despite the cynicism of fans, Toronto FC have actually played decently enough against both Seattle and San Jose – losing primarily because of bad defensive mistakes. This was also the case with the goal the club conceded against Santos to Hercules Gomez – a simple spacing error and lapse by the back line that led to the opening for the lob pass forward from Darwin Quintero.

You also have gotten a much different tone from Aron Winter in each of the past games this season as opposed to last season. Last season Winter would focus on how badly the team played even when the club got results and even when they won the Canadian Championship over Vancouver. This season he spends most of his press conferences talking about how he felt the team was “unlucky” or “played well but made defensive errors”. Maybe it is because it is now his team after a year of changes or – more accurately – we have seen a real change in the style of the team. Well, actually, they actually have a style of play now as opposed to the mess that went on with Preki in charge.

We have learned that TFC, under the management of Aron Winter and with the attacking players he wants on the pitch, are going to be a smooth flowing, creative, attacking side. Reggie Lambe, Joao Plata, Ashtone Morgan, Nick Soolsma, Ryan Johnson and Richard Eckersley clearly demonstrate the attacking mindset of the club. TFC are going to be quick and creative on the wings. They also have great depth in those positions.

We have also learned that Toronto need a back up for Danny Koevermans – although we have known that for a while.

A true backup goalkeeper is needed – but I’m sure management is already aware of that but their hands are tied due to cap restrictions.

Mariner and Winter will want to keep Julian de Guzman: The former MVP of Deportivo La Coruna in the Spanish first division has shown, that under the new system, he is a very valuable player. Especially with Frings’ age, we should bring de Guzman back after the end of this season. If we can get de Guzman back at a non-DP contract (by at least a combination of reduced salary and allocation) it would be massive for the club.

Defense: This is really the key area for the club. I have the feeling that, should Winter be able to get the club to play defensively as well as they play offensively, Toronto FC will be a top team not only in MLS, but in CONCACAF as well.

The Academy: With the success, at least in terms of implementing a style of play already evident in the first team, one can only hope that this is replicated with the academy players.

The future of Toronto FC will depend in large part on a good group of prospects: Matt Stinson, Doneil Henry, Keith Makubuya, Oscar Cordon and the other prospects that have not yet been signed to homegrown contracts from the U-19 players.

11 days before Toronto FC are to face off against the team that beat Seattle in the CONCACAF Champions League, they lose to Seattle 3-1 and lose captain Torsten Frings to a hamstring injury. Here is the breakdown of the game:

The 3-1 scoreline seemed pretty just, although at times the game was played quite evenly, with TFC getting a number of chances, including the on-fire Ryan Johnson hitting the post in what could have been an equalizing goal before the end of the first half. Seattle’s first goal came off a bad clearance in the box (similar to the second goal let up at Rogers Center against LA) after Seattle winger Alvaro Fernandez beat his man to cross the ball into the box nicely. The other two goals were fairly avoidable if TFC had played the off-side trap better.

The crucial moments in the match did not go well for Winter’s team, as they hit the post and lost Torsten Frings to injury both in the first half. Seattle also went up 2-0 – only to have Ryan Johnson respond with a fantastic goal – only to have Seattle respond a minute later with David Estrada getting his third goal of the night.

Keeping this game in perspective, the match was played on the road in Seattle, who are a top team in MLS. Toronto attacked well, but had poor defending. The team will need to work on the offside trap going up against Santos.

In a interview, Monterrey coach Victor Manuel Vucetich, discussed the CONCACAF Champions League and gave his thoughts on why he believes the tournament has become bigger.

Read the article in Spanish here

Here is a rough outline of what Vucetich was quoted as saying: the CCL has grown because MLS teams have become considerable better not only physically but tactically as well, as well as growth from Mexican teams and that the Mexican league should take notice of Major League Soccer. He talked about MLS as having grown “in an extraordinary way”.

This is interesting, because Vucetich seemed like a manager who looked down on Major League Soccer, based on how he approached his game against Real Salt Lake (subbing out players early after taking a quick lead at home) and his comments after his loss to Seattle in the group stages of the same edition of this tournament (giving no credit to Seattle and merely saying the result was due entirely to poor finishing). But, when you think about it, in two consecutive editions of the tournament he has faced a tough RSL side and lost at home to a tough Seattle side, making him realize he’s likely to not have an easy game against MLS clubs.

Galindo, the coach of Santos after the first leg was saying “Seattle can compete with any club in Mexico” – so I don’t think Seattle losing 6-1 changes the perception too much. It is more of a temporary setback and glorious moment for those who like to dump on Major League Soccer.

In fact, for Seattle to have gotten results against two of the top Mexican teams, with LA and Dallas also getting results (including TFC against both Cruz Azul last year and drawing against Pumas this year at home) – is a sign that MLS teams CAN compete with FMF teams and get results. It is clearly not Div I against DIV II – just that the top MLS teams aren’t on the level of the top Mexican teams.

So while Garber has stated in interviews that he believes an MLS team needs to win the tournament to really mark that the league has arrived, headway has already been made amongst the perception of the Mexican media, coaches and fans. Throughout the 2011-2012 edition of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament, their has been more discussion than ever about the improvement of MLS teams and the need for Mexican teams to assert themselves more and put an emphasis on the tournament.