NCC Update – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By: Lee | May 14th, 2009

If you tuned into Toronto FC’s website, you would have seen Toronto completely dominate the Montreal Impact. The 1-0 scoreline greatly understated how Toronto outplayed their opponents with free-flowing football. Montreal were even more thoroughly beaten than we were.

So what to make of all this. There have only been two games, where do we stand?

The Good

Even though Toronto dominated in wins against Montreal and Vancouver, they still only scored one goal in each game. This is a team that still hasn’t won by more than a single goal this season: there is always hope when playing against them. Also, Montreal hasn’t been the same team since that disastrous loss to Santos Laguna, and hopefully their poor form will continue when we face them.

The Bad

Did not live up to their name yesterday This is now TFC’s tournament to lose. If they win again, the competition is pretty much over. Even if they only get a draw, seven points may be enough to go through (it was enough for the Impact last year). If Toronto keep playing the way they have been under there new coach (which has been very attractive football by the way), it looks like they will be Canada’s team in the Champions League.

Also, it can’t be assumed that the Impact’s bad form will continue. They’ve already taken action to improve the results on the field. If Dos Santos and get this team out of their post-CCL slump, they could be a formidable opponent once again.

The Ugly
Vancouver pretty much has to win out to have any chance of representing Canada at the continental level. At the very minimum, Vancouver has to win big in two games; beating Montreal by at least two goals next Wednesday would be a good start.

Our chances to win the Voyageurs Cup don’t look good right now, but to quote Yogi Berra: “It’s not over till it’s over” Still, even if we don’t make it this year, I won’t be too disappointed. We’re building a team for the future, that will be winning this thing year-after-year.

Be Champions!