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McCarthy's Musings: A Gamble Worth Taking
Toronto FC interim coach Chris Cummins faced some criticism for leaving Danny Dichio out of his starting lineup in Saturday's loss in Houston to keep him fresh for Tuesday night's Canadian Championship game in Vancouver. Even though TFC didn't get the job done in British Columbia, Cummins made the right call, according to Goal.com's Kyle McCarthy.
Jun 3, 2009 3:19:59 AM
By Kyle McCarthy
Toronto FC head coach Chris Cummins faced a surprising amount of criticism over the weekend for leaving Danny Dichio out of the starting lineup for Saturday's 3-0 loss in Houston.
In a vacuum, the criticism – which came mostly from American sources – made all the sense in the world. Dichio was a viable contender for man of the match in the Reds' 3-1 win over New England the previous weekend after playing a direct part in two of the three goals. Leaving Dichio on the bench for a difficult away fixture would likely harm the occasionally misfiring TFC attack and hamper TFC's scant chances of taking a point off the red-hot (unbeaten in six heading into the game) Dynamo. Without him (and with Carl Robinson taken off halfway through the second half), the game was all but over when Houston scored three times in the first 25 minutes. Dichio didn't even come on as a substitute.
Examining the decision in context leads to a different conclusion. Toronto faced an important Canadian Championship game in Vancouver on Tuesday. A draw or better in that game would all but hand the hotly-contested title to TFC. Cummins already had to draft his teamsheet in Vancouver without Amado Guevara (Honduras) and Marvell Wynne (United States) because the pair would be away on international duty. Dichio's fitness only compounded the selection headaches. In this stage of his career and with a long season ahead, Dichio probably can't and shouldn't start two matches in four days. Dichio's health left Cummins with the choice of whether to start him in Houston or Vancouver, not both.
Given the surrounding circumstances, Cummins had to rest Dichio in Houston ahead of the match in Vancouver. While MLS Cup remains the ultimate goal, TFC places significant emphasis on winning the Canadian Championship. For the past two years, TFC has fielded its first choice lineup in the competition, hoping to emerge victorious in the three-way battle for Canadian supremacy (and a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League) with the Whitecaps and Montreal Impact. It didn't work last year, but the Reds hoped this year's squad might get the job done.
“We had a couple of years there where we were getting things together and now we've got a very good side,” Toronto FC captain Jim Brennan told the Toronto Star. “Now's the time to start winning things.”
Unless the Reds make a run to MLS Cup, they likely won't be winning anything this year either after a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Swangard Stadium on Tuesday night. Vancouver overcame the suspension of influential midfielder Martin Nash with two goals by Ansu Toure in what was, by the accounts I read, a rather spirited affair. Considering the recent travel schedule, the lack of squad and the decent quality in Vancouver's side, the loss isn't a surprise. TFC is all but eliminated from lifting the trophy after the setback; the Reds need to make up four goals in goal difference (Vancouver +4, TFC 0) in its one remaining game in Montreal on June 18.
Even though the gambit didn't work and his side likely will have to deal with the embarrassment of not winning the Canadian Championship for the second year running, Cummins made the right call. Silverware is hard to win and Cummins had maximize his side's chances of taking it home, particularly considering the competition's meaning to TFC and Canadian soccer supporters. Cummins did the only thing he could do in the situation: prioritize an important national cup competition over a mid-season league game in which his side wasn't likely to get points.
Around the League
- In other news north of the border, injured TFC forward O'Brian White traveled with the Reds to Vancouver. White wasn't available to play, but the club wanted him to fly to British Columbia with the squad to get additional reps with the first team. White is on his way back from an ACL tear in his left knee.
- Colorado forward Conor Casey was named MLS Player of the Month for May by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR). I had Casey second on my ballot behind Houston's Brad Davis, but I have no qualms with the result. The dominating Casey is a worthy winner.
- Paul Oberjuerge – a talented and experienced SoCal scribe with ample pedigree in the game and significant knowledge of Landon Donovan after covering him as a youth star – interviewed former Galaxy head coach Steve Sampson recently and posted some of the choicer tidbits on his blog. Not surprisingly, Donovan's future came up in the conversation. Sampson's best point: MLS should let Donovan go after next year's World Cup to maximize his earning potential in Europe. It's a good, well-taken point. But after the protracted transfer wranglings this winter with Bayern Munich and the tangentially related saga involving David Beckham, what are the chances MLS/AEG sets a reasonable fee (read: significantly under $10 million) for Donovan and allow him go to Europe? If I was Donovan, I wouldn't expect any favors to get out of a contract that runs until 2011 with the option years.
- Real Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerwey denied reports yesterday that he was shopping selected players around the league in search of a means to shake up his team. He also didn't rule out doing so if things continued to head south. From this view, it looks like RSL most needs a option or two to create competition for places at outside midfield and a reliable striker to pair with Robbie Findley. That being said, one has to wonder whether fullback might be the first position to see some alterations.
- RSL's U-18 side – representing MLS in a Spanish tournament after winning the SUM Cup at the U-17 level last year – drew 1-1 with Partizan Belgrade on Monday. The match was the first of three games RSL will play in the group stages of the Comunidad de Madrid Tournament. It won't get easier with Espanyol (Wednesday) and River Plate (Friday) on tap to close out the group stages.
- In a welcome dose of good news, doctors have located a partial match of umbilical cord blood for Marcia Williams and will perform a transplant on or around June 12 in hopes of warding off her rare form of leukemia. Williams – wife of RSL midfielder Andy – will then have to spend another 60-90 days recovering in a Seattle hospital. While the donor comes from Spain, credit for a truly monumental effort should also go out to the scores of volunteers and donors across the American soccer community for rallying around the Williams family. For more on Marcia's disorder, check out this article I wrote back in January.
- U.S. U-18 national team midfielder Scott Caldwell started a week of training with New England on Tuesday. Caldwell, a Braintree, Mass. native, is a member of the Revolution's academy system and will start his college career with Akron in the fall.
- Brazilian defender Lucas dos santos Oliveira, 19, is training with FC Dallas and appeared in Tuesday night's friendly win over West Texas United Sockers (PDL).
- New York duo Danleigh Borman and Andrew Boyens (and managing director Erik Stover) had the chance to meet Prince Harry in New York City on Friday night. “We talked a lot about rugby, a little about polo, and about New York City and how he was enjoying himself,” Boyens told Red Bulls Reader. “I think he told us to stop beating his country’s rugby team. But he had a couple of good things to say about soccer in this country, and it was good to hear his perspective on things.”
Kyle McCarthy writes the Monday MLS Breakdown and frequently writes opinion pieces during the week for Goal.com. He also covers the New England Revolution for the Boston Herald and MLSnet.com. Contact him with your questions or comments at kyle.mccarthy@goal.com and follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
Toronto FC head coach Chris Cummins faced a surprising amount of criticism over the weekend for leaving Danny Dichio out of the starting lineup for Saturday's 3-0 loss in Houston.
In a vacuum, the criticism – which came mostly from American sources – made all the sense in the world. Dichio was a viable contender for man of the match in the Reds' 3-1 win over New England the previous weekend after playing a direct part in two of the three goals. Leaving Dichio on the bench for a difficult away fixture would likely harm the occasionally misfiring TFC attack and hamper TFC's scant chances of taking a point off the red-hot (unbeaten in six heading into the game) Dynamo. Without him (and with Carl Robinson taken off halfway through the second half), the game was all but over when Houston scored three times in the first 25 minutes. Dichio didn't even come on as a substitute.
Examining the decision in context leads to a different conclusion. Toronto faced an important Canadian Championship game in Vancouver on Tuesday. A draw or better in that game would all but hand the hotly-contested title to TFC. Cummins already had to draft his teamsheet in Vancouver without Amado Guevara (Honduras) and Marvell Wynne (United States) because the pair would be away on international duty. Dichio's fitness only compounded the selection headaches. In this stage of his career and with a long season ahead, Dichio probably can't and shouldn't start two matches in four days. Dichio's health left Cummins with the choice of whether to start him in Houston or Vancouver, not both.
Given the surrounding circumstances, Cummins had to rest Dichio in Houston ahead of the match in Vancouver. While MLS Cup remains the ultimate goal, TFC places significant emphasis on winning the Canadian Championship. For the past two years, TFC has fielded its first choice lineup in the competition, hoping to emerge victorious in the three-way battle for Canadian supremacy (and a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League) with the Whitecaps and Montreal Impact. It didn't work last year, but the Reds hoped this year's squad might get the job done.
“We had a couple of years there where we were getting things together and now we've got a very good side,” Toronto FC captain Jim Brennan told the Toronto Star. “Now's the time to start winning things.”
Unless the Reds make a run to MLS Cup, they likely won't be winning anything this year either after a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Swangard Stadium on Tuesday night. Vancouver overcame the suspension of influential midfielder Martin Nash with two goals by Ansu Toure in what was, by the accounts I read, a rather spirited affair. Considering the recent travel schedule, the lack of squad and the decent quality in Vancouver's side, the loss isn't a surprise. TFC is all but eliminated from lifting the trophy after the setback; the Reds need to make up four goals in goal difference (Vancouver +4, TFC 0) in its one remaining game in Montreal on June 18.
Even though the gambit didn't work and his side likely will have to deal with the embarrassment of not winning the Canadian Championship for the second year running, Cummins made the right call. Silverware is hard to win and Cummins had maximize his side's chances of taking it home, particularly considering the competition's meaning to TFC and Canadian soccer supporters. Cummins did the only thing he could do in the situation: prioritize an important national cup competition over a mid-season league game in which his side wasn't likely to get points.
Around the League
- In other news north of the border, injured TFC forward O'Brian White traveled with the Reds to Vancouver. White wasn't available to play, but the club wanted him to fly to British Columbia with the squad to get additional reps with the first team. White is on his way back from an ACL tear in his left knee.
- Colorado forward Conor Casey was named MLS Player of the Month for May by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR). I had Casey second on my ballot behind Houston's Brad Davis, but I have no qualms with the result. The dominating Casey is a worthy winner.
- Paul Oberjuerge – a talented and experienced SoCal scribe with ample pedigree in the game and significant knowledge of Landon Donovan after covering him as a youth star – interviewed former Galaxy head coach Steve Sampson recently and posted some of the choicer tidbits on his blog. Not surprisingly, Donovan's future came up in the conversation. Sampson's best point: MLS should let Donovan go after next year's World Cup to maximize his earning potential in Europe. It's a good, well-taken point. But after the protracted transfer wranglings this winter with Bayern Munich and the tangentially related saga involving David Beckham, what are the chances MLS/AEG sets a reasonable fee (read: significantly under $10 million) for Donovan and allow him go to Europe? If I was Donovan, I wouldn't expect any favors to get out of a contract that runs until 2011 with the option years.
- Real Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerwey denied reports yesterday that he was shopping selected players around the league in search of a means to shake up his team. He also didn't rule out doing so if things continued to head south. From this view, it looks like RSL most needs a option or two to create competition for places at outside midfield and a reliable striker to pair with Robbie Findley. That being said, one has to wonder whether fullback might be the first position to see some alterations.
- RSL's U-18 side – representing MLS in a Spanish tournament after winning the SUM Cup at the U-17 level last year – drew 1-1 with Partizan Belgrade on Monday. The match was the first of three games RSL will play in the group stages of the Comunidad de Madrid Tournament. It won't get easier with Espanyol (Wednesday) and River Plate (Friday) on tap to close out the group stages.
- In a welcome dose of good news, doctors have located a partial match of umbilical cord blood for Marcia Williams and will perform a transplant on or around June 12 in hopes of warding off her rare form of leukemia. Williams – wife of RSL midfielder Andy – will then have to spend another 60-90 days recovering in a Seattle hospital. While the donor comes from Spain, credit for a truly monumental effort should also go out to the scores of volunteers and donors across the American soccer community for rallying around the Williams family. For more on Marcia's disorder, check out this article I wrote back in January.
- U.S. U-18 national team midfielder Scott Caldwell started a week of training with New England on Tuesday. Caldwell, a Braintree, Mass. native, is a member of the Revolution's academy system and will start his college career with Akron in the fall.
- Brazilian defender Lucas dos santos Oliveira, 19, is training with FC Dallas and appeared in Tuesday night's friendly win over West Texas United Sockers (PDL).
- New York duo Danleigh Borman and Andrew Boyens (and managing director Erik Stover) had the chance to meet Prince Harry in New York City on Friday night. “We talked a lot about rugby, a little about polo, and about New York City and how he was enjoying himself,” Boyens told Red Bulls Reader. “I think he told us to stop beating his country’s rugby team. But he had a couple of good things to say about soccer in this country, and it was good to hear his perspective on things.”
Kyle McCarthy writes the Monday MLS Breakdown and frequently writes opinion pieces during the week for Goal.com. He also covers the New England Revolution for the Boston Herald and MLSnet.com. Contact him with your questions or comments at kyle.mccarthy@goal.com and follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
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