By Mike Crampton
Fourty minutes into the match against the New England Revolution on the weekend a Toronto FC supporter could be forgiven for feeling something rarely experienced in 2012: optimism. Coming off a dramatic home win over Vancouver the team was leading, from a better goal than regularly seen from any version of TFC, and, while the defence already looked stretched on a few occasions, had created two more great scoring opportunities. Blown breakaway aside Danny Koevermans was having a particularly energetic and effective game and there was a sense that if Toronto could win there, in a venue where they’d never won before under five other coaches, maybe things really were beginning to turn around.
Then disaster struck.
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If the New England game was the first game of the post-Julian De Guzman era then Wednesday night’s game versus the Colorado Rapids will be the first game of the Danny Koevermans-less era. In the space of about two days Toronto FC went from having three of the league’s best remunerated Designated Players available for selection down to just one. One of those players is gone because the club decided it was in their best interest; the other most certainly isn’t. The effect was obvious and dramatic.
While Toronto FC provided a battling, backs to the wall performance and managed to hold on to their lead thanks to some last ditch defending and spectacular goaltending they never looked like the team they had in the first 40 minutes. Whether you credit Toronto’s vastly improved league results under Paul Mariner simply to Koevermans’ return to form or credit his return to form to Mariner’s move to a more direct system is irrelevant. The indisputable fact is that Koevermans had been a vital part of what had been working for the Reds over the previous eight and a half games. He will be missed and his goals, movement, and general ability to create danger for opposing defences will have to be replaced for Toronto’s improvement to continue. How that can be done remains to be seen.
So it is in this context that TFC arrives at the game Wednesday night against the Colorado Rapids. Under other circumstances the outlook would surely be more positive. Past performance may not accurately predict future results but the 2010 MLS Cup Champions return to the field where they won their first league title, a mere two years ago, in absolutely terrible form. The Rapids have lost five their last six league games, three in a row leading into this match, and two of those losses – one home and one away – were to the same Vancouver team Toronto just beat. Colorado’s most recent loss came at home to an FC Dallas team that TFC managed a draw against on the road only two weeks ago. That run has seen new head coach Oscar Pareja’s side drop out of the Western Conference playoff positions and fall four points behind a resurgent LA Galaxy.
The interesting subtext to the game is the different philosophical direction the two clubs now appear to be heading. Pareja’s objective in Colorado has been to improve the aesthetic qualities of the Rapids’ play while maintaining the results of his predecessor. Gary Smith’s robust physical side that ran, grappled, and kicked their way to a title has been morphed into a more open, free flowing attack. While Smith lined his teams up in a consistent 4-4-2 with two strong defensive midfielders at the heart of the team Pareja has experimented with 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1, and even 4-3-3 and keeps preaching the virtues of possession over tough tackling and hard running.
In some ways it’s a more restrained approach, starting with a better team, to what Toronto attempted under Aron Winter. When Omar Cummings and Connor Casey are both available Pareja still tends to line the team up in a 4-4-2 and the spine of the team remains very similar to Smith’s through Jeff Larentowicz in midfield, Drew Moor and Marvell Wynne at the centre of the defense, and Matt Pickens in goal but the shadings are different. Pareja signings like Argentine Martin Rivero and Colombian Jaime Castrillon in midfield have brought a South American influence to the team in an attempt to achieve his vision. It seemed to be working early on but it will be interesting to see if Pareja sticks to his guns with the team in a rough patch and needing results or opts to allow the previous regime’s players to return to their more natural kick and run tendencies.