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.

The year that was -- 11 things that made me smile in 2008

In honour of Listmas (what, that’s not what it’s called. With all the top 10 lists out there I could have sworn…), my own, personal, self-indulgent top 11 (cause we take things that extra step here at OOLF) sports moments of 2008.

You know, dear readers, we do have a comments section! Perhaps you could add a list of your own. Come on, it’s fun!

11 - Laval’s dominance
Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate the favourite. Cheering for an upset is always just a little more fun. But, if you can’t appreciate just how good the Laval Rouge et Or football program is, I’m not sure you are a fan of sport. No, the Rouge et Or didn’t provide fans with much drama in ’08 – they were too good – but standing on the field watching the players hold up yet another Vanier Cup, you knew you were surrounded by excellence. And, that’s what sports is about.

10 - Champions League final
And, this is coming from a Manchester City fan. I can’t think of a worse match-up than the all British Man U/Chelsea. But, the game made up for it -- a tale of two halves with United coming out strong and Chelsea storming back in the second. Chelsea was unlucky not to win it outright on the pitch, but United proved just resourceful enough to claim it on the penalties (with a little help from the pitch and a slip by John Terry). Often the big games fail to live up to the hype, but this was not a case of that.

9 - Carol Huynh wins gold for Canada
It was a looooong time coming with every half-wit humour columnist in the land cracking out the atlas to find Third World countries that had more medals than us Canucks. One of the great things about Olympics is there is always a where-did-that-one-come from medal. This was it for 2008 and it kicked of a second half of the Games that was as good for Canada as any other Olympics. When the lights went out, we had actually exceeded pre-game expectations and it was Huynh that got things going.

8- Belleville forcing game 7 in the OHL Final
Ultimately my Bulls – my hometown, childhood team, Bulls – came one game too short twice. But it was a nice little ride for this junior hockey fan. By storming back from 0-3 in the OHL final, Belleville briefly put itself in the national spotlight and, as anyone that cheers for small town teams will tell you, that doesn’t happen every day and you soak it all up when it does.

7 – The Pats lose!
If Laval taught me how to appreciate a favouritre, the Super Bowl reminded me of how good it feels to watch arrogance fall. It was a good game, but all history will remember is that the Pats got what was coming to them. And my inner, immature child loved every minute of it.

6 - The Men’s 8s do what is expected
Canada’s biggest favourite of the Beijing Games simply went out, pushed the pressure aside, and got the job done. And, in doing so cast off the personal demons from losing in 2004. There is something about the men’s 8s that is compelling. Maybe it’s the speed, or the power or maybe the tradition. But at the start of any Olympics this is one of the top three or four events I’d really like Canada to win.

5 – The Voyageurs Cup
But, mostly the way soccer fans in this country took to it. It had been 16-years since Canada had crowned a pro soccer champion in a legitimate competition. And, it had been far longer than that before anyone cared about who won. That changed in 2008, when the Voyageur’s Cup – paid for and donated to the CSA by the fans of the game – was awarded in front of 20,000 mostly disappointed fans in Toronto. Speaking personally, the day of the final game was the most intense I’ve ever experienced as a sports fan and the feeling at the final whistle was as awful as I can imagine. But, time gives me perspective and I still look back on the day and shake my head at just how far the game has come in such a short time.

4 – DeRo comes home
On the pitch 2008 was mostly a forgettable year for TFC fans, but an early Christmas present – the acquiring of Dwayne DeRosario—restored hope in the masses. DeRo (with apologizes to Jimmy Brennan) is the first Canadian star to come home to play and that matters a great deal to the supporters. Suddenly we feel even more connected to our little soccer club.

3 - Simon Whitfield’s silver
The man was out of this race about 10 times. He never looked comfortable. He often looked old and worn out. But, Simon Whitfield has a killer instinct that is sadly missing in most Canuck athletes. His final kick came up just short of gold, but his silver was, without a doubt, the Canadian performance of the Games.

2 - Usain Bolt goes really, really fast
It took 20-years, but I finally saw something more impressive than what Ben Johnson did in 1988. Officially he stopped the clock at 9.69 seconds, but he had more speed in him. It was scary and awe inspiring. And that was before he went 19.30 in the 200m.

1 - Barnsley!
I was sick the day that Barnsley played Liverpool in the FA Cup, which is how I improbably found myself in front of the tube in the middle of the day watching a soccer game that seemingly was a blowout waiting to happen. It was already 1-0 ‘Pool when I turned it on. But then Luke Steele started to make save after save. And then Stephen Foster got an out-of-the-blue equalizer. Suddenly I was sitting up, on the edge of the couch willing this little Championship team on. If only they could hold on to the draw and force a re-match in Barnsley, I thought. That would be something to see. But then Brian Howard scored in injury time causing me to literally start jumping up and down, giggling at the absurdity of it. Liverpool was out; Barnsley was through….

To play Chelsea. Surely they couldn’t pull another upset, could they?

Really, just watch this. If it doesn’t put a smile on your face you are likely dead and most certainly not a sports fan:


The next time a Big Four fan tries to tell you that no one cares about the FA Cup anymore, kindly tell them to stuff it.

Canadians play soccer?

It's probably a subconscious thing that I've failed to touch on the CSA's fan vote for men's and women's player of the year. The 2008 season has to be viewed as an abysmal failure on all fronts after all. It hardly inspires.

No link, by the way, the CSA still hasn't figured out how to run an online poll. Out of Touch has the details (along with his breakdown) on how you can e-mail your vote to Richard Scott.

The short list contains the usual suspects -- DeRo, Julian de Guzman, Atiba Hutchinson, Tomasz Radzinski, Rob Friend and others. I'm not sure why they are bothering with a women's vote. It's Christine Sinclair (although if the new coach could ever tap into Kara Lang and get her to calm the flub down when she's on the ball you would have a player that could challenge Sinclair. Lang could be the women's DeRo).

When you consider the mess that was WCQ, you should probably look to club play to determine your winner. That would put it down to one of Friend or de Guzman. No one else had the type of year that deserves consideration.

My pick is Friend. de Guzman hasn't had the most fortunate start to this season and this is a calendar award.And, Friend has continued to score goals in the Bundesliga. So, he's my pick.

I'm just not that excited by it.

A final word on DeRo (for now)

It's still settling in. For the non-soccer folks out there allow me to draw an analogy.

This was Nash to the Raptors. Obviously the scale is a little smaller, but to soccer fans in this city it's a near perfect comparison.

I wrote yesterday about the emotion of the move -- and that's still where my head is on this -- but there is an on-the-pitch factor to look at too. I went down that road tonight over at The 24th Minute.

The potential for offense in the TFC line-up for next year is staggering. The lack of depth at forward and the lack of a centreback, period, are frightening. I'll leave it at that, here.

From a TFC perspective, most of the reaction to the trade has been positive (and by most I mean all). Although many are suggesting that there is a certain amount of logic behind the move by Houston.

To their credit, Houston fans have largely stayed classy. DeRo will not get vincecartered when he goes back to H-Town.

Toronto fans are pretty much losing their mind with joy.

And, so they should.

Now about bringing that point guard north from Phoenix...

DeRo on Reds and Red and White

I interrupt the Sean Avery watch to bring you a pretty nice little interview with Dwayne De Rosario on last night's Soccer Show

Listen on demand here. It runs a little more than 10 minutes.

DeRo talks (briefly and without commitment) about the possibility of playing for Toronto one day and about the disaster that was World Cup qualifying. He stops short of throwing Dale Mitchell (how in hell is he still the coach?) under the bus, but it isn't hard to read between the lines.