Nothing like a day or two (stuck) at the lake to give one perspective on TFC. Staring blankly at Lake Huron makes you appreciate the artistry of the Reds midfield, the fortitude of Ty Harden and the clinical-ness of, um, well.
Ok, the lake hasn’t gone that far to my head – and no I haven’t been drinking for two days straight. The Reds are what they are, but things do seem a little better this week following a rare win. And, a win against a pretty good team too. Yes, they were outplayed (so what) and yes it’s unlikely that they could repeat it against SLC again (again, so what), but, well...so, what.
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Here’s the thing: In a year like this, with a team like this you take what you can get. On Saturday we got a damn win. Rejoice and hope that they can build on it.
They can start this Thursday in Panama. The last time down there (against another club, but just go with it for a minute) the only realistic hope for the 2010 season went out the window in a bit of Preki petulance – with a complete old MLS distain for all things CCL, the sourpuss dressed kids and paid for it. Hopefully, Aron Winter won’t make the same mistake.
Balancing the CCL with MLS is difficult with the limited rosters that MLS teams have. It’s especially difficult for MLS teams that are, um, Toronto. It’s easy for the hardcore geeks to argue for the Reds to throw it all away in the regular season. That’s because they aren’t the ones that have to deal with the angry non-geeks that aren’t sure why the regular season game they paid good money for are less important than that tournament with the team names that can’t pronounce.
Still, as SST’s detailed last week, the math really isn’t in TFC’s favour. Seven points. That’s all they can drop to have a chance at reaching the 40 points that currently projects to be the final playoff spot.
So, Champions League it is then. The art is how to focus on it while not appearing to throw in the towel on the playoff long shot.
How Winter handles that balance will go a long way to determining how this seson is remembered by fans – geeks and non-geeks alike.