Since I like numbers I'm going to start with one -- 1.5.
That's Toronto FC's points per game rate. Since MLS bizarrely has given the Reds three bye weeks already, it's the only number we can use to measure just how good or bad the Bloody Big Deal has been.
The perception is the latter. A three game losing streak and an absolute inability (unwillingness?) to hold the ball has made even the truest believer skeptical.
That perception is further backed up when you look at the MLS standings and see TFC in its familiar place below the big red line.
A 1.5 points per game rate places Toronto well above that red line. In fact it's tied for sixth in the entire league.
Huh.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Now, even the most basic of numbers can be misleading. Nine of TFC's 12 points came in their first four games. It's been bleaker since. However, it's here that we look at another number.
105:30.
That would be Jermain Defoe's goals per minute rate. He's roughly on pace for 30 goals (if he remains healthy which, of course, is the rub).
Although most of the early season narrative has been about the indisputable value of Michael Bradley, we should not lose sight of how important the man who puts the bloody in the big deal is.
When Defoe is healthy he scores. When he scores TFC wins. Goals are the thing. Always. It's why the strikers get the headlines and the prettiest WAGs.
When evaluating another game in which Toronto once again yielded (and I do believe it's by design) most of the ball the take away is really that simple. Defoe is healthy again and, as such, it's game on again.
TFC may not be pretty to watch, but they are (once again we stress WHEN HEALTHY) an above average team in MLS in 2014 because their top end talent is amongst the league's elite.
Thanks to some good old English arrogance regarding MLS, TFC gets to keep one half of that elite tandem during the World Cup.
Rule Britannia and may good health shine on Wayne Rooney.
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