It’s well known that Toronto FC has never been a particularly good football team. Six seasons of playoffless soccer and now a seventh threatening to go down the tubes before the beginning of summer make that readily apparent.
While the team’s nearly perpetual road woes are similarly well known, not having won a home game in the league at BMO Field since July 18th, 2012 has thrown another point into stark relief: the team has never been very good at home either. In fact, the only TFC side to win half of their home games in a season was the 2009 team. It’s not a coincidence that they were also the only ones to come within touching distance of the playoffs.
Fans remember that differently, probably because the losses used to be a little less common, but the point is an important one. Whether it was the plastic pitch, the lively atmosphere, or the uncomfortable probability that the old Toronto teams of Mo Johnston were better than anything the club has assembled since, it used to be possible to head down to BMO Field with a sense of optimism. Too often, however, the Reds would end up coming away with less than full points.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
If you want to make the playoffs in Major League Soccer winning most of your home games is the surest way to do it. In nearly every case, for a team good enough to be serious about the task, a home draw is two points dropped rather than one point gained. Expansion of the league and liberalization of roster constraints has lead to some degree of stratification in MLS it is still very much a league of teams with similar resources where any team can beat any other, particularly at home.
While five consecutive home losses to begin the 2012 season were certainly the death knell to any lingering notion of “Fortress BMO” Saturday’s opponent, the Philadelphia Union, also played their role in destroying what little mystique home field advantage had in Toronto.
Even good MLS teams lose home games, sometimes embarrassingly. The Union’s 6 – 2 win in Toronto, almost exactly two years ago, is still the Reds’ worst home loss, in terms of margin and goals conceded, of all time. Bitterness and cynicism had already long been part of the TFC experience but the shambolic nature of that defeat was a new low; for the first time, the sort of humiliation regularly experienced in road games was brought home to Toronto.
The second year Philadelphia team that handed out that defeat went on to clinch a playoff spot by finishing third in the Eastern Conference in 2011. Interestingly they achieved that even though they only managed to win 7 of 17 home games. On the other hand, they only ever lost once at PPL Park in the league that season.
The 2013 edition of the Union have already been the only team in the league unlucky enough to drop points at home to Toronto. They’re also coming off a loss in Montreal in a 5 – 3 goalfest that has established the record for their club’s own worst defensive performance. The big-red-playoff-line-in-the-sky is disappearing over the horizon in Toronto but for the Union to stay on the right side of it they’ll be looking to take maximum points home from their visit.
News in Toronto all week has been centered on another delay in Danny Koevermans' long awaited return and Richard Eskersley’s reaggravation of his hamstring injury. For once, it’s not all bad news on the injury front though as winger Bobby Convey has been removed from the official MLS injury report and should be available for selection on the left side of midfield.
If the Reds’ sputtering offense can find a way to get going against a Philadelphia defense that has already allowed a nearly league worst 23 goals so far this season it’s not unrealistic to imagine them finally picking up three points at BMO Field again. Management won’t give up on the concept of competing for a playoff spot and for that to be anything more than a mathematical possibility TFC is going to need to win three or four home games in a row. It seems crazy to talk about in the context of a team with one win from their last 26 but starting a run like that sooner rather than later is the sort of thing that could still salvage some meaning from the season and at least start giving fans a reason to be excited when they head out to a home game.
Even in Toronto, that shouldn't be too much to ask.