There is little doubt that TFC’s 2012 season was a disaster. Flippantly, the answer to “what went wrong” might as well be “everything.”
However, we need to break it down further than that. It’s useless to just say everything sucked. If we want to understand how things can be better then we need to look deeper than that.
There are no simple answers. If there were it would be easy to fix it. Below the jump, five of the six biggest factors in TFC’s terrible season of 2012. We will highlight the No 1 reason why TFC failed in part three of our season review: What Went Really Wrong.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Miguel Aceval and Geovanny Caicedo
In the pre-season there was hope. It seems absurd now, but there was. And, most of that hope was centred around that fact that TFC fans had been led to believe that the long-standing centreback issue had finally been resolved.
The reason for that optimism? Miguel Aceval and Geovanny Caicedo.
They seemed perfect. Both South Americans – the long suggested promised land for successful and cap-friendly MLS players – and both with international caps.
If you assumed that these two were legitimate then it was not unreasonable to suggest that TFC was ready to finally break through. They did finish 2011 strong, after all.
Caicedo didn’t even make it past the pre-season. Aceval was released in mid-season.
And we wait a little longer to solve the centreback issue.
Injuries
Some will want to paint this as an “excuse.” That’s a tad bit unfair.
The better way to describe it is as a “reason.”
TFC was without all three of its designated players for long stretches of the season. That’s, well, insane. It also goes a very long way to explain the terrible winless streak to end the year.
Is it the only reason why TFC was as bad as it was? No, clearly not. But, it was a reason and to ignore it is to be disingenuous.
Aron Winter
The Dutchman was not up for the job. He tried to put a square peg (MLS players) into a round hole (possession based Total Football rah, rah, rah). More damning he refused to budge from his philosophy even when it was clear that it wasn’t working.
Painfully clear that it wasn't working.
No, painfully clear.
0-9 clear, even.
Winter’s inflexibility was incredibly damaging and TFC is still paying for it.
Paul Mariner
Not that Mariner fixed it.
Mariner came in with a certain mindset and appeared to be equally inflexible -- just in a different way. He ran Julian de Guzman out of town (who was overpaid, but still above average for MLS) and seemed to favour simple, bread and butter guys over skill players (where, for instance, was Eric Avila?)
His style was effective when Danny Koevermans was there to score goals, but once Danny 2.0 went down with injury he seemed lost.
This space has been clear in its position that Mariner needs to be given a full off-season before he can truly be judged, but it is totally fair to place some blame for the current TFC mess at his feet.
He’s on the clock. He needs to fix it. Quickly.
PANIC!
TFC has been incredibly inconsistent throughout its six years. With one exception.
When the clock hits 85 minutes it’s TFC Crap The Bed Time!!11!!1one!!
It’s bizarre. Predictable. And frustrating.
It’s unclear what the problem is – Confidence? Fitness? Satanic curse?
Who knows?
Regardless, the Reds continue to leak goal in the last few minutes of games. From the early days it’s been a massive problem and until it gets fixed the Reds will never advance past their current disaster state.