Cure for Depression: Toronto FC 0-2 Seattle!

By: Laurie | April 4th, 2009

Wow. Are we really this good? Even without Montero? I keep waiting for somebody to pinch me and wake me up.

With the exception of our standard 20-25 minutes in the middle where we have to pretend we’re letting them back in the game, Toronto was pretty much shut down. DeRosario was not a threat. Guevara was not a threat. And their backline and goalkeeper and especially their midfield weren’t up to the challenge.

Post-match random thoughts:

Osvaldo Alonso is my favorite player on the pitch. He’s paid $65,000 a year. By the end of the season, that’s going to come down to about a penny a touch.
You know what blows me away most about this team? The workrate. As I said earlier in a GS forum comment: Everybody plays up, everybody plays back, nobody ever stops when they might be needed, and it’s rare that anybody on the ball is ever left hanging with less than two options. Two defenders can miss a clearance or a tackle, and there will be a third player there to clean up. Same thing offensively, that second goal being case in point.
That, even more than Keller — who don’t get me wrong, is fantastic — is the biggest secret to the team’s success.
Please, please tell me that the commentator who said Seattle might be shopping around for a second DP is wrong! Adrian and Co: If you have an extra $325,000 in the salary cap, give it to the players who are currently earning it! Don’t search for the player who might make the team one tiny increment better! (Take it from a former Galaxy fan here.)

The exception to the above comment: If it’s for a player currently on the team. If, say, Fredy Montero is cleared? I’d be good with him being bought from Cali for that second DP slot.
I believe that Freddie Ljungberg has discovered the fountain of youth. (I knew all this rain would eventually be good for something.)
Also very sweet to see Steve Zakuani get his first goal, and at that critical right-before-the-half point, too. Changed the entire second half of the game.
Now it’s time for Le Toux and Nyassi to get theirs.
Oh, also? I love Sanna Nyassi. Such speed and exuberance. I wish there was a way to get he and Zakuani on the pitch at the same time.
I also thought Nate Jaqua had his strongest game so far. Very active both on and off the ball. And his falling on Kevin Harmse while holding Harmse in a chokehold was pure gold. And didn’t he do it without drawing a foul, let alone a card? (Harmse is a dirty, dirty player. And this is coming from someone who actually kind of likes him. Against other teams.)
Glad to see that Fredy Montero wasn’t our “magic feather” — the player we convinced ourselves we couldn’t do without. I’d much prefer to have him on our side, but we will survive, regardless of what happens.
And finally, to all the Eurosnobs who insist that MLS can’t play beautiful ball? Bite our rave green behinds.
(But I mean that in the classiest possible way.)