TFC: Twenty-nine plus a winning eleven equals footy fever

Our own Duane Rollins, despite being out of country, manage to get a Dwayne De Rosario post up at The 24th minute, in anticipation of tomorrow's big Toronto FC press conference:

"There hasn't been a modern athlete vibrant and exciting enough to capture the city's heart. Vince Carter, for a while, but we all know how that turned out.

"DeRo will be that athlete. His coming to Toronto is the final piece in the near perfect storm that has allowed TFC to explode into the city’s consciousness. The sport has always had a place in new Toronto, but it has struggled to focus its attention. Not anymore. And, now the star, the local star, comes home to complete the picture."

Twenty-nine could be a watershed year in the battle to be Toronto proper's summer team, which is actually a pointless battle (a mature sports city doesn't play off the sports faction against one another). The Blue Jays don't have a lot of buzz, although another season with 80-some wins is probably likely. The CFL's Argonauts, similarly, are rebuilding.

It's acknowledged there are footy fans who would never watch baseball and there are ball fans who are pretty resistant, resentful even, of MLS' inroads into the Toronto sports market.

In between, there are casual fans who might be more inclined to see what the fuss is about with TFC. A Canadian starring for the team really puts the game in front of people after two seasons where the players were largely faceless to a soccer dilettante (guilty as charged), outside of Canadian national players such as Jim Brennan.