Jeff Cunningham tied the all-time record for career goals with his late winner against Vancouver tonight. It was the 133 of his career, tying him with Jamie Moreno.
Coincidentally, the goal also made Cunningham the all-time leading scorer for the Columbus Crew. Although Cunningham has played the longest and his best soccer for the Crew, he’s also made stops in Colorado, Salt Lake, Dallas and, of course, Toronto.
In contrast, Moreno spent all but 11 MLS games as a member of DC United. As such, Moreno seems to be far more appreciated and respected than Cunningham, who can be an enigma.
Despite that, messages of congratulations for Cunningham were sent out seconds after he scored the goal tonight. Fans in the cities that Cunningham played were particularly happy to see him rewarded for a long and productive career. Cunningham will likely be appreciated more in retirement than he is now.
There was one notable group that remained silent while others reached out, however. Although his reputation is growing across the league, his name remains a swear word in Toronto. It seems unlikely that many of TFC’s faithful will be signing the page of congratulations.
Is that petty? Of course it is, but it’s also understandable. Cunningham was terrible in Toronto. Only six of the 133 came for TFC.
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There might be something deeper to TFC’s fans refusal to forgive Cunningham than simple lack of production though. In some ways Cunningham represents a particular type of player that has always rubbed the people of T.O. the wrong way.
Cunningham very much appeared to be the “reluctant American.” The reluctant American of Toronto sports is exactly what the name sounds like – an American player that seems to not want to play in Canada. Considering that four of Toronto’s five major sports teams play in leagues that are primarily based in the US, the reluctant American is a common villain.
It’s likely that some players get unfairly labelled a reluctant American – Canadians can be a little defensive when it comes to people that don’t express delight and awe at Our Home and Native Land. However, the phenomenon is real. There are American players that don’t want to be here in all four leagues, including MLS. And the issue is not only about hurt feelings.
Keeping the focus on MLS, any successful team requires a solid, if unheralded, group of “worker bee” players that fill needed roles economically. By necessity, those players are domestics. There aren’t enough Canadians able and willing to play in MLS to meet the Canadian team’s needs here. So, they need Americans to move north and play.
So, if you consider that there are a percentage of worker bee Americans that simply do not want to play in Canada (often for legitimate and understandable reasons – their spouses can’t work, for instance) that reduces the available player pool to the Canadian teams and puts them at a disadvantage. How much of a disadvantage is debatable, but if you agree that there are reluctant Americans out there, then simple math dictates it.
Although most fans won’t think of it in such terms, they do instinctively understand that it’s a problem that only affects their teams. It’s unfair, they believe, and they take it out on the player himself because it’s also a little bit personal – what’s wrong with our country, why do you think you’re better than us, etc.
Bringing it back to Cunningham, it was clear from the get-go that he was not all that happy with being in Toronto. He did not go out of his way to make the clichéd and pandering “i love it here” statements that are needed. He never embraced the fans and he seemed to have a pout on his face 24/7.
In other words he was the textbook reluctant American. Any patience the fans might have had with his lack of production went out the window. He never had a chance.
In Cunningham’s case he didn’t help himself either. It was pretty clear that he was mailing it in towards the end of his time in Toronto and not playing with full intensity is a sin that fans of all nationalities have little time for. By the time he was run out of town you would have been hard pressed to find a less liked player.
Those bad feelings remain today where Cunningham is not the soon to be all-time leading MLS scorer, but rather the wanker that missed a two-foot sitter and gave Montreal the Voyageurs Cup in 2008.