TFC!!! TFC!!! TFC!!!

Well its official, Julio Cesar is Toronto FC bound, he officially signed to the team on loan from Queen’s Park Rangers (QPR) which is also where Ryan Nelson came from (TFC coach). Current keeper Joe Bendik sure got a shot to his ego for TFC acquiring Cesar but not many players, especially keepers, will get the one-on-one mentorship that Cesar will provide. Julio Cesar is on loan, he will leave eventually and Joe Bendik should make the best of having an EPL/Serie A experienced keeper at arms length.

Why the move for Cesar? He wasn’t getting the playing time at QPR, just like Dafoe, both of them wanted to play and keep themselves going ahead of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

It’s not normal for Toronto teams to dish out on players, with the exception of the Toronto Blue Jays last season. Many heated discussions have taken place among friends and family of the lack of seriousness MLSE has to succeed and get players since they make money regardless of making post seasons, but the question has always been …with all the money in the world, why don’t you spend it on players? Sure, the answers are salary caps and trades not going through but finally we have a TFC team to be excited about!

MLSE and TFC are showing us fans that they are serious, and thank the football gods for this! TFC have not made a post season appearance since their arrival to MLS in 2007.

Here’s what we added:

Julio Cesar: 77 international caps for Brazil and starting keeper, on loan from QPR and former Internazinale keeper from Serie A.

Jermain Defoe: 55 international caps for England, signed from Tottenham Hotspurs of the EPL.

Michael Bradley: 82 international caps for USA, signed from AS Roma of Serie A and former MLS player with EPL experience.

Gilberto Oliveira Souza Junior: Comes from Brazil’s Serie A, the last team he played for was Portuguesa where he scored 17 goals in 24 games. He chose to come to the MLS turning down offers from Germany and Mexico.

Make sure you buy your tickets in advance because TFC will be the hottest ticket to get.

Messi or Ronaldo?

Who’s the best player in the world? Or at least, who will be the best player at the world cup?

Of course the debate will always be Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo … But are these players truly the difference makers for their team? Neither has won a world cup and both have supporting players that make them great. Maybe a one on one match will solve this ..

Lionel Messi is no doubt a legend still playing, his presence on the field always makes the fellow players better and if Messi wins the World Cup this year he will surpass the likes of Maradona and Pele as one of the greatest.

When Messi is missing from play, soccer is missing highlight reels. He is the player you always want on the field and the one you want to feed the ball to, he gets kicked, hacked, chopped and box him in but rarely does that stop this man from putting that ball in the back of the net and making you look pathetic in the process .. Messi is a true showman.

Christiano Ronaldo is an all around prime player and does not show any sign of fading away, its no doubt a fact when Ronadlo is on the pitch you better watch out. He has the speed, talent and solid soccer IQ to get he job done. However, no World Cup title in this name (as of yet) and his team is in a very competitive group.

He has finished as the top scorer in the Champions League and La Liga and is always a game changer for Real Madrid; the confidence is higher with him on the field. He hardly ever gets injured, has patience with the ball and if and when he get past you .. good luck trying to catch him.

In the end its hard to tell who will be the better player this World Cup, it really depends on who advances further but if either of them goes all the way you can definitely give the stamp of approval to the winner.

124 days left

Construction Woes

Today marks 134 days until World Cup 2014.

But one questions, is 134 days enough time to have everything ready for the first game?

Brazil has developed many of the greatest players in soccer history, soccer is Brazil’s livelihood, and soccer runs in their veins but what happens when they host the World Cup? It becomes a joke.

Preparations leading up to the World Cup have been lacking, what Brazil needs is stadiums to host games, 12 for that matter which are still under construction.  The Brazilian government is being highly criticized due to the lengthily expensive process, in an interview with the Brazilian assistant coach he stated that "We missed an opportunity to show the world what we can do in this country," and "We missed an opportunity to provide more comfort to Brazilians and to show a different kind of Brazil."

The country had 7 years to build everything needed for the World Cup which might be completed just a few months before the competition is due to start. Most recently construction was halted when a crane crashed killing the workers this past November in Sao Paulo, which is a main stadium for the games. Also, Heavy rains, , labor strikes, a court-mandated halt to construction last year due to safety issues, and financial problems have hampered construction.

The two main venues being affected are Arena de Sao Paulo and Arena de Baixada in Curitiba which FIFA is threatening to take away hosting duties if they do not meet the February 18^th completion deadline.

In the end, completed or not, World Cup 2014 will take place in Brazil and the world will cheer. 

BMO Field Expanding?

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/01/19/mlses_leiweke_taxpayers_would_be_paid_back_for_bmo_field_expansion.html#

An expansion to the BMO field will take away the intimate experience you get watching a TFC game, sure in the eyes of MSLE making the 22,000 seat arena into a 30,000 – 40,000 means lots of $$$$ but it will also mean we will lose our natural turf (real grass) field which was put in when TFC played Real Madrid.

You cannot expect to have natural turf for our soccer team when the Argos will chew it up while playing football.

BMO is special because they moved away from the artificial turf, go ahead and expand but don’t take away the grass.