Toronto FC Announce Friendly Against Roma

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears,

I come to bury TFC fans, not to praise them.

And with this opening statement, many TFC fans heard what they were expecting Payne to say about what he thinks about the fans of his team.

Except one problem.   He didn’t actually say that.  And instead, talked about how important these friendlies are to the development of his players.  “These kinds of matches are important to us. I’m a great believer in them… I think it’s a great way for us to measure ourselves against the best teams in the world.  It’s a great way to connect with members of our community… It’s a great experience for our players…For us, it will be a great test on the field and it will be a great show for our fans.”

The CEO of Roma, the charismatic Italo Zanzi, was also in attendance, and spoke about his desire to play in Toronto. “As a Serie A Club you get a lot of invitations, and a lot of inquiries to go and play around the world frankly, and when the invitation came to play Toronto FC…. immediately we said yes.”

The 2003 Pan-Am Bronze medalist also noted that this isn’t just going to be a vacation for his players. “We couldn’t be happier.  That being said, we’re not only happy, we’re also serious.  This is going to be a real match for us……We are going to be taking this match very seriously.”

Roma finished this season in 6^th position, and made it to the Italian Cup final, losing to cross town rival Lazio.  They are led by newly appointed manager Rudi Garcia, who will be looking to see what his roster is like.  So fans that attend this game can expect to see stars such as Daniele De Rossi, Francesco Totti, and Michael Bradley starting in this game.

So this should set up a perfect game for both Roma supporters, and TFC fans.  Right? Expect, a number of TFC fans are very unhappy with a mid season friendly.

Let me go back to Monday’s Twitter storm about mid season friendlies.  While taking a look through Twitter’s new “Network Activity”  options (and wondering why would I care who my followers are following and what tweets are they favouriting), I saw that Toronto FC’s Vice President, Business Operations Paul Beirne had followed Roma’s official Twitter account.  And with one tweet, it set off a reaction of fans, picking one side or another, as to the merits of hosting mid season friendlies. (I spoke to Mr. Beirne after the press conference, and when he realized who I was, immediately said “you scooped me!”. We had a good laugh over the power of social media, which also resulted in Mr. Zanzi and I talking about Twitter of all things!)

To be honest, while I can see the point of view of the complaints of these type’s of games, I don’t understand the outrage of the fans.  The arguments generally fall into these categories:

This is just an MLSE money grab

Maybe it is. Maybe, as Payne said, it helps build the TFC brand, brings different people down to BMO to watch a game, and give fans a different team to watch instead of other MLS competition.  Either way, the tickets are not forced upon anyone, and they are not part of a Season Seat package.  If a fan doesn’t want to go, nothing is forcing them to. Stay home, don’t watch it on TV, and find something else to do on a Wednesday evening.

The players might get injured

In any sport, this may happen.  And when Ronnie O’Brien famously got injured in the friendly versus Aston Villa in 2007, lots of TFC fans began trumpeting this even louder, and this is a prime example for their argument. There’s only one problem with this.  Players don’t only get injured in games.  They do actually get injured in practice as well.  I mean, poor Stefan Frei  injured his left ankle in training last year, and at the beginning of this year, suffered a minor injury in March, causing him to lose his starting position to Joe Bendik.  Andrew Wiedeman has been injured for much of this season, with his injuries being a result of training.  Terry Dunfield, while still a member of the club, hurt his knee at the beginning of April in training.  Danny Koevermans has “twinged his other knee” in training, before coming back for an appearance on June 1^st. Not to mention the freak accident of Richard Eckersley injuring his hamstring while celebrating a goal; hardly a game related play.

The bottom line is, injuries can happen at any time.  Playing in a game is likely less of a cause of injuries than the rigors of training.

TFC will play at home and be the visiting team.

Probably. Especially if Toronto FC fans “boycott” the game and don’t attend.  So if you think it’s a problem that there will be fans at the game cheering for the away team, and you don’t want your favourite team being shown up, well I have a simple solution. Go to the game, and cheer and chant like you do every Saturday.  At best, it fills the stadium with a balanced atmosphere, and at worst, you get a see some of the best players in the world.

Silverware not Friendlies

Everyone wants trophies.  You wont find a single TFC fan that treks down to BMO Field on Saturday’s, sitting in the rain, and doesn’t want this team to make the playoffs.  While the team currently sits in second last in the division,  9 points out of a playoff spot, and many fans already considering this a lost season, a quick two or three game win streak puts them right back in the mix for that spot.   So how does a mid season friendly interfere with that? I’m not sure.

The likelihood of Ryan Nelsen fielding TFC’s first team for an entire 90 minutes is unlikely.  In fact, I would be surprised if they even played 45 minutes, with the team probably being made up of reserves, Academy players, and a few starters thrown in to the mix.  Oh, and hopefully Stefan Frei.

Too many games in a week

This one, I always find interesting.  Yes, Toronto FC play on the August 4^th and 10^th, with the game against Roma coming in the middle.  But these are professional soccer players.  That play soccer for a living.  Oh, and they also train during the week.  So, instead of training that day, which mid week would likely include an inter squad scrimmage, they will be playing another team.  And many of the first team players won’t even play.

So my point is, I don’t really understand the “outrage” due to the friendly.  Sure, TFC fans have a lot to be frustrated about with their team.  The team has 2 wins, and every week seems to include a new way to break fans hearts with a last minute goal against.

But the outrage of this friendly?  Much ado about nothing.