Of MLS’ 19 teams five have yet to add a player from outside the league for 2013.
Three of those teams – Seattle, San Jose and Houston -- are established clubs looking to keep a successful side together for another run at a title.
The fourth side is Chivas USA.
Chivas has become a punch line this off-season as it continues the great Gringo sell-off of 2013. MLS’ version of the 1995 Clippers wants to be all Mexican, all the time and is doing all that it can to make that happen. Well, all but signing actual Mexicans yet. You can anticipate that will happen soon enough though.
And then there is Toronto FC. Coming off its worst season in history the Reds have yet to make a move to bring in a player. The season starts in nine days.
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Like an abused spouse that wants to believe that this time everything will be different, many TFC fans are choosing to view this as a good thing.
“It’s evidence that they aren’t going to make rash decisions,” is something that is said a lot by those that want to believe that TFC finally has a plan in place to build the club into a winner.
Those voices go on to point to promises that are made that signings are coming “in the next couple weeks” as evidence that it’s an overreaction to criticize the club for not having made any moves yet.
They go on to suggest that a plan has been articulated and the club is starting the process of implementing it by tearing down the team. That plan? To get younger and more Latin.
It’s a pretty generic plan.
When I first attacked the club for not having made a move a couple weeks ago I was told that I was overreacting. When I repeated the criticism last week the reaction to my criticism was hostile. I expect more of the same today.
However, what people fail to understand is that my panic about the lack of moves is based on a few undeniable truisms.
Namely:
1) As wonderful as it is (and perhaps necessary) to have a long-term view with the club, the simple fact is they actually have to play the 2013 season. They need warm bodies to fill out the roster. That means that…
2) They are going to have to make “panic signings” to fill those spots out (or use academy players who aren't ready/play players out of position). They have no one of note on trial and the only signings they can bring in now are out of contract. Jacob Hustedt, the former San Jose reserve player currently on trial, could be this year’s Maksim Usanov.
3) They are in danger of becoming the next Toronto Rock (without the success). At the end of 2012 TFC was fast becoming irrelevant. If they start 2013 like they started 2012 they will finish the job. Like TFC, the Rock were the talk of the town once. Now, after they drove fans away with a move to the ACC and high ticket prices, they are a niche game again that only matter to a very small group of loyalists and drunks. Do we really want TFC to become that?
4) As constructed this team is terrible. It’s worse than last year. Work has started on the 2013 MLS preview here at CSN. I’ll give you a preview: As it currently stands, Vancouver is drafting first or second overall in the 2014 Superdraft.
5) It doesn’t have to be this way. There are dozens of examples of MLS teams that turned things around in one off-season. It’s unclear why it has to take TFC multiple years.
To those that think this is still an overreaction allow me to ask you this: When will it be OK to start to criticize the current direction of the team?