By Michael Crampton
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to work out.
Not back in 2007 when TFC’s launch energized an entire league.
Not in January 2011 when Aron Winter, Bob de Klerk, and Paul Mariner were introduced.
Certainly not a mere month and a half ago when Toronto FC defeated the LA Galaxy to become the first Canadian team to reach the semifinal of the CONCACAF Champions League.
Yet here we are. Winless, pointless, and heading into one of the most difficult away venues in Major League Soccer. So, it’d be easy to call TFC’s match against Real Salt Lake “hopeless.” Fortunately, Toronto plays in the topsy-turvy world of MLS and, as the saying goes, football is a funny old game. The Royals have been one of the most consistent teams in the league ever since their MLS Cup championship in 2009, but this is still a league of small margins and no team, in any context, is unbeatable.
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In many ways it’s probably too easy to read too much into the result tonight in either direction. Any loss, short of a complete failure of the players to compete for Aron Winter, won’t tell us anything new we don’t already know about TFC or RSL. Conversely, an unlikely win or (what would normally be) a creditable draw doesn’t necessarily signal a change of direction. Toronto FC will get some results this season. Those results will come against both good teams and bad. Mostly they’ll happen at home, even it doesn’t feel that way right now, but sometimes they’ll happen away.
Individual results are just that -- one offs decided as much by things like the “luck” and “sharpness” that Winter likes to reference.
Notwithstanding the Dutchman’s confident utterances, until the Reds can put together a string of consistently good performances that all result in points, it’s not worth making any definitive proclamations about the chances of TFC resurrecting their season. The odds of a playoff berth are long already and it will likely take a run of form worthy of a top club in the league, maintained over the entire remainder of the season, to seriously contend for even the final few Eastern Conference playoff spots. Picking up points in places like Salt Lake City will be required but not, in and of itself, enough to make a difference.
From the Lakers perspective this will be a match they approach in two minds. As recently as two weeks ago RSL were being cast as inevitable contenders in the race for the Supporters’ Shield, but after a winless three game road stretch, including a midweek match at Dallas just three nights ago, Real now find themselves looking up at San Jose in the Western Conference standings. Surely a return to Rio Tinto Stadium to face the league’s bottom club will be viewed as a great opportunity to pick up three points and start moving in the right direction once again.
On the other hand, Real Salt Lake are a mature enough side to be wary of Toronto FC. It’s a sporting cliché, but clearly the Reds are a wounded animal right now. Desperation is setting in and even the idealist camp of Toronto’s management has publically acknowledged the importance of short term results in steadying the ship. Jason Kreis’ RSL have been one of the standard bearers championing the possibility of stylish soccer in MLS and there’d definitely be an irony to them dropping points to an Aron Winter TFC side finally prepared to act pragmatically.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the aura of invincibility Salt Lake once enjoyed at altitude in Utah has been proven less than convincing over the past 12 months. Already this season RSL unexpectedly dropped three points at home to a Chivas USA side who ground out a win on the back of great goalkeeping and a healthy dose of luck. If Toronto FC is prepared to be pragmatic, fight, and show the same level of fearlessness they exhibited in Champions League away matches this season there’s no reason to believe they can’t take something from the game.
That might not be enough to qualify as something that restores hope for the season but at least it gives fans a reason to watch the game.