Maybe it *is* the socialist fluoride up in the Canadian water system that does this to their writers up there - I don't know. Richard Whittall, the chap from the Pitch Invasion cartel who linked up a few readers to the salary cap debate (respect, etc.) apparently lives in Toronto and has his own blog. In his words, he "was the Runner-up in the 2008 Guardian Big Blogger Competition, and was nominated for Best Premier League blog by EPL Talk, so he's kind of a big deal."
Yeah, I'd ixnay the EPL Talk thing.
Anyway, I haven't read through all of Mr. Big Deal's archives, but yesterday he posted a strange piece speculating if TFC was a real club due to their awful road record:
It's the road that's the problem.
Oh, they don't always play terribly on the road necessarily. It's just they can't win. Or draw even. A punishing mid-summer North American travel tour gets blamed. The lack of away fans in MLS (although Toronto always manages to produce a few at every game) is a concern. Some point to poor finishing from an admittedly mediocre collection of strikers. The team tries everything, but the problem persists.
For three years.
Well, I'd just like to point out that they don't set the world on fire at home, either. This year TFC ranks a middling tied for 6th in points won at home, but just 9th in home goal differential and is tied for 10th on goals scored. Put another way, visiting teams are taking points at BMO at three times the rate they are at Crew Stadium. And the higher ranking in points won is explained by having one of the worst teams in MLS history on the docket twice this summer, and 5 other teams having played fewer games at home thus far.
As for the road, if you look at the standings, Toronto's bad but still tied for 8th in losses and points on the road, and tied for 9th in goal differential. Which is actually better than where they stand in the playoff hunt today.
So, honestly? TFC just isn't that good home or away.
But Whittall really takes the stupid-drive into hyperspace with his exploration into the psyche of MLS players:
Most MLS clubs play to half empty stadiums filled with indifferent soccer moms. Some teams that don't even have that win MLS Cups. It might be annoying as hell to the Toronto or Seattle fan that the Columbus Crew are champions with their pitiful attendance records, but playing to an indifferent fan base in a quarter-full ground will do wonders in helping players learn to rely on themselves for confidence on the pitch. It forces you to turn away from the hype of home advantage and the hope, as Danny Dichio so often said, that the crowd will "suck the ball in the net."
Starting with the attendance/game day experience smack - dude, you've been reading too much Duane. Have you heard of the Nordecke? Are you aware that the Crew will probably out-draw Chicago this year?
As for the TFC players learning to rely on themselves, what? They really expect the crowd that doesn't care about soccer to win them games? And indifferent fans will free them of dependance on the sloth-like collective?
If that's really the case, TFC should just withdraw its application for the playoffs right now. And we can all put a little blue dot next to the club like they do in Trophy Manager.
Even allowing partial credit for realizing that everyone up there is blinded by the attendance hype machine, in Whittall's post we have a dumb question followed by an incorrect premise, followed by a fantasyland conclusion supported by wildly innaccurate message board smack. Even if his disclaimer at the beginning is true:
A warning to the pedant; this is about as unscientific as football analysis gets.
Soccer analysis also doesn't get much stupider.
Fake Sigi out.
23 comments:
I'm not going to attempt to defend this particular piece by Whittall (I don't think it was a good piece, for more or less the same reasons you point out), but in fairness to him I think he's most likely being ironic when he refers to himself as "a big deal". And he's generally a pretty entertaining read.
Hi Sigi,
Once you take the time (or "if" you take the time, to be honest there are a lot of blogs out there so there are probably better things you could take out of your day than reading my back catalog), you'll probably realize fairly immediately that someone who attempts to envision Sol Campbell's inner emotional life through the music of The Band isn't exactly trying to be the Jonathan Wilson of the MLS.
I just write what I think at seven in the morning over a cup of joe before work, and more often than not it's as wrong as hell. I could be stupid, although I doubt it, but wrong on occasion, certainly, as you post proves.
Anyway, you write and flame very beautifully, and I'm honoured you chose to trash me of all the trash out there,
RW
Richard,
Thanks for stopping by. What I'd really like to do is forward your response to Duane Rollins as a lesson in how to deal with people who call you on on the internet, but I suspect it would be a waste of electrons.
Anyway, I honor the place where your sleep deprived hallucinations and my infantile cries for attention become one.
Sigi,
No ixnay on the EPL Talk-thingamajig!
Cheers,
The Gaffer
I'm sorry FakeSigi that I have less patience with frat-boy stupidity (posted under the cloak of anonymity - makes you brave, eh?) than Richard does.
TFC struggled at home off the top of the season dropping five of six points. Since then, and especially since June, they have been much better. Currently they have won four of five, with a 1-1 draw to Houston thrown in the mix. So you can spin the numbers a bunch of different ways (not that you, or the dingbat Freeper from Uniontown, have ever shown an ability to display any type of nuanced thinking).
Is TFC as good as Columbus? Christ, no. But, the only people that ever try to make that comparison tend to be from Ohio, so I'm not sure why it matters.
Fake Sigi out??? I hope you’re being ironic.
Again with the frat-boy smack?
As I pointed out, two of TFC's 5 wins since June were against New York, who have won one point out of a possible 33 and scored just two goals on the road. Even with those games and good results against teams from the west, when taken as a whole the TFC body of work at home is still in the bottom half of the league. There's no spin here. And if you want to include all competitions, there was also the embarrassing home loss to Puerto Rico.
The comparison with Columbus is relevant because they are the best home team in the league, and we can use them to gauge the relative strength of TFC at home. And to be fair, that's precisely the team Richard picked to compare TFC's home experience to.
The bottom line is Toronto's home form isn't what Richard made it out to be. Is it better than their away form? Unsurprisingly, yes. But relative to the rest of the league, it's not that good.
Except, statistically speaking, TFC's home record is exactly average as compared with the rest of the league (I'll grant you that they struggle to score at times), but the bottom line -- Ws and Ls -- ranks them 7th of 15 teams at 1.84 PPG (which, if I want to be real pedantic, is actually the top half of the league).
Cbus 2.33
Chivas 2.27
Houston 2.15
Colorado 2.0
RSL 2.0
DCU 2.0
TFC 1.84
NE 1.75
Seattle 1.71
KC 1.58
Dallas 1.50
San Jose 1.46
LA 1.46
Chicago 1.30
New York ? (the league site still has NY’s home record incorrectly noted and I don’t have time to go through game by game)
As previously stated, their current form is better (yes, there are two NYRB games in there, but you still have to win those games. Something a Crew fan should probably realize).
AND WE HAVE A WINNER!
I had to ask someone what a "Freeper" is and of course it's something political.
From a Canadian.
I'm not sure what he perceives my political views to be, or why they are remotely relevant to a discussion of soccer or how, if they were relevant and he did know what they were that he, as a Canadian, would be remotely qualified to comment on them.
Other than that, Duane really hit the nail on the head.
Then again, so little of what Duane says makes any sense at all, so I guess I'm not surprised.
I am totally changing my TM manager name to Fake Sigi Schmid just for making that blue dot joke.
Piss off Bill.
Yes, a Freeper is, technically, a political term, but its use here has more to do with a pigheaded inability to listen to anything anyone that opposes his point of view has to say.
In short - don't give a crap if you vote GOP. I do wish you'd open your closed little mind sometimes. But, I've given up trying to have any type of reasonable dialogue with you.
And what does my nationality have to do with anything?
Well, now we're seriously into high level discourse:
Piss off.
See what a Canadian education can do for you when you apply yourself? That sort of literary legerdemain is indeed what you're famous for.
Well, that and making no sense.
"Freeper is a political term for people one side of American politics doesn't agree with. But caling you that isn't at all political, even though of course no one has ever used it in any oher context. And by the way, I'm Canadian and have a lot of nerve commenting on American ploitics, but don't call me a Canadian"
Yeah, good stream of logic there, Mango, Really first rate.
You want me to go through the Crew BS forums and pull out some of your finest work Bill. Sorry if “piss off” offends you. Or “Jackass,” for that matter.
Don't play the victim. It doesn't suit you.
And again with the subtle anti-Canadian stuff. Top notch.
Go back to your echo chamber. I'm sure you can find some halfwits to virtually fellate you. Meanwhile the rest of us know just how little respect you garner in MLS circles.
Brent: I highly encourage you to do so, as that smells of so much win. I personally hope there will be many Fake Sigi Schmids patrolling the virtual sidelines.
Duane: Not sure where Bill played the victim there, as opposed to pointing out your cognitive dissonance.
You are correct about TFC being 7th in pphg - had they a real opponent instead of that extra New York game, and tied or lost, they'd be nestled in between KC and Seattle. I'll concede mediocre, but not good, and I think my original point still stands. It will be interesting to see what they do with their last two games, both of which should be winnable.
Not playing the victim at all, Duane. Unlike you and your band of paranoid friends.
I didn't say that "piss off" offends me, now did I?
No, what I said was that it's an example of the level of your conversation skills.
And if by now you haven't grasped the point of the "jackass" thing - and you sure ought to because I've explained it enough, as has about 100 other people - then I just can't help you. You're the only person on Earth who doesn't get that "professional journalists" don't invite people onto a radio show, as a favor, and then insult them. It's not done. Ever. By anyone.
But willfull ignorance is a specialty of yours, so this fits right in.
And frankly, I think it's YOU who doesn't grasp "how little respect" you "garner in MLS circles".
Of course, that would require me to, unlike you, run around talking about you. And, frankly, I never have. That would require me to give a crap about you. And frankly, you don't matter that much. To anyone.
Bill...
"Of course, that would require me to, unlike you, run around talking about you. And, frankly, I never have. That would require me to give a crap about you. And frankly, you don't matter that much. To anyone."
THEN STOP POSTING ABOUT ME.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You're a piece of work, you know that?
You were having an exchange with fakesigi regarding the Whittall piece. I had nothing whatever to do with it.
And then, in the fifth "comment" above (you can go look - I'll wait) it was YOU who brought me into it. (Unless you know someone else in Uniontown, Ohio)
I wasn't involved at all, Duane, and it would have stayed that way. Not my thing.
It takes a special kind of stupidity to call someone names (you used two in one sentence) in a discussion that has nothing whatever to do with him AND THEN COMPLAIN WHEN HE RESPONDS.
Can you see that, Duane? Can you follow along?
YOU chose to bring me into this, and then demand that I stop posting about you.
Surely not even you can fail to see how ridiculous that is.
I'm not talking about here you halfwit. I can think of one time that I referenced you on The 24th Minute (I posted a photo of grandpa Simpson and made “Bill Archer” the cutline). Yet, lately bashing the It's Called Football crew seems to be your sole purpose on BigSoccer. But, you keep inferring whatever it is that you want Bill. You’re special.
Oh and for someone who routinely bans people that disagree with him from responding on his blog...
This:
"It takes a special kind of stupidity to call someone names (you used two in one sentence) in a discussion that has nothing whatever to do with him AND THEN COMPLAIN WHEN HE RESPONDS."
Might be the funniest thing you've ever written.
You see the inconsistencies there FakeSigi? Or do only those of north of the 49 suffer from logical deficiencies?
Duane, I don't know much about Bill's moderation policy, although I will admit to having seen your name in his comments once or twice. Has he banned you in the past?
There's plenty of stupid in America, and if you spend any time at all looking around my blog, I suspect you'll find where I point it out.
There are two rules on my blog:
Don't be crude or obscene and don't drag politics into it.
If you do, you're gone.
I suggest you go look at some of my comments threads. They're chock-a-block full of people who disagree with me. And some of them are absolutely right.
It's not personal, Duane. Strictly business. I know you'd like to flatter yourself into claiming otherwise, but I can't help you with that.
I know there are several Torontonians running around who posted stuff like "Your Mother was great last night" and got banned and now say they it was because they "disagreed" because, well, because saying "I was a jerk" takes some self-examination.
And the blogger on blogger b!tch-fight continues. Truely pathetic guys!
You are correct. Bad form.
I apologize.
But Fake Sigi is still the man.
One man's pathetic is another man's substitute for cable television.
No need to apologize.
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