As a kid, growing up in Kingston, I was an avid and competitive player. From 5 to 18, I played in summer leagues. I had at it for the schools I attended. And, eventually, I even played for the city I called home. Lots of my peers did as well.

Back then, however, it was nearly impossible to catch a professional match on TV in this country. The NASL went big and fizzled out. There were few knowledgeable coaches around to really teach us. It was only older siblings who seemed to really see what we did in a game that was totally overshadowed by hockey, baseball and football.

Oh, then there were the transplanted foreigners. They all seemed amused and appalled by our poor relationship with the world’s sport. Some even volunteered to help. Enough to give us some hope and direction.

It wasn’t until I spent a year in the UK with my family (mid-1970s, dynastic Liverpool years), that it sunk in just how big a deal it was everywhere else in the world. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of being in small towns in Europe and Latin America during the Euro and World Cup, and watching these worlds stop just to catch one game live.

Sadly early, I ditched soccer for other sports – among other things. Wide as my travels and as curious as I am about everything, I can’t quit it. I’ve just never lost the thrill I get anytime I can find football on the tube. Let alone the pleasure of watching live on a field in front of me. And that brings me to…

Today, I can’t believe how much footy I can watch here in a week. Sometimes it feels like it might be more than I was able to consume as a viewer through my entire soccer playing career. Premier League. La Liga. Seria A. Bundesliga. English Championship. The Brazilian and Colombian leagues. International matches. Champions’ Leagues. The FA Cup. And the MLS, of course, which so cleverly fills the slim gap between Old World soccer seasons.

Considering how meagre my childhood supply of live top calibre games, it all seems like an embarrassing bounty of riches. I couldn’t possibly watch it all. I can barely stay on top of what interests and inspires me. Not to mention what it would take to consume and digest it all.

This winter, it hit me. The Wall is gone, finally and totally gone. Whatever barrier it was that had held back the soccer wave flooding the world, it is no longer there. Finally we are awash in football. Year around. Canada no longer lives in the footballing world wilderness.

My kids, if they come to share my passion for the game, will never know that feeling of isolation and exclusion. That’s an exciting development, and it has come about much more quickly than I would have imagined possible. For people who have come of age during this era of football adoption, the profundity of this shift may not be that clear.

Shortly, we will all become immersed in the ‘woulda, shoulda and coulda’ of another TFC season. Of course, we’ll all become obsessed with the immediate and our own critical perspectives. It will be easy to forget how lucky we are now to have this sport established at a top-tier professional level here.

So, I feel a need to honour my gratitude. I think it is worth noting something totally and universally positive about Canada’s current football culture. It brings me great satisfaction and pleasure to see how much more this sport has been integrated in our home and native land.

This can only bode well for the future of football in this country at all levels.

There’s more Winter in our near future. I, for one, am quite happy about it. Seriously, though, it’s time to give credit where it’s due:

Aron, Bob and Paul, you’ve done very well this year. You arrived too late to salvage a winning season for TFC in 2011, but the work you are doing is appreciated. I’m looking forward to 2012 already. And 2013. But who’s counting.

Nearly Last, But Champions Still

Tuesday’s CCL victory in Dallas was widely touted as the biggest game in Toronto FC history. Thankfully, the Reds stepped onto the pitch and easily made it their best match of the season. It was a confident, well-executed performance that clearly took FC Dallas by surprise. If there is more of this in the Reds future, it can’t come soon enough. Well, March is a bit away… and even then we might have to watch you under the Dome… but you get my drift.

The biggest steal of 2011 has to be Joao Plata. He may be small in stature, but he is a big game player. I love the way he rises to the big occasions. Healthy at last, he made a two goal show of the CCL game in Texas. It is awesome to watch how he fixates on scoring and brings a force of will three times his size to getting the ball on goal. Frings and Koevermans have grounded the new TFC, but Plata is the spark that lights the fires.

Battle for the Basement

It is somewhat poetic that Toronto FC will be closing out another MLS season of misfortune against the other basement dweller in the East. The New England Revolution come to town this week riding out a season I’m sure they will gladly put behind them too. If it’s any consolation for Reds fans, we’ve been playing better through the final stretch. A win at BMO today would be a nice parting gift before the snow returns.

Prediction:

Toronto FC  3  -  1  NE Revs

Toronto FC played to a 1-1 draw in Philadelphia over the weekend. The result was met with resounding yawns among fans. None have been so wide and windy as those among the most ardent TFC supporters. All news, hype and chatter is squarely focused on today’s Champion’s League (CCL) match against FC Dallas.

I get it. It’s the only match that matters now.

It’s a pity all that CCL attention has overshadowed the remainder games of 2011. Win or lose tonight, I still think the MLS matches are more telling as indicators of how TFC have improved in 2011.

Aron Winter put out a young squad and rested many starters this past Saturday. He even subbed out the only Designated Player fielded, Torsten Frings, before the hour mark. And TFC still managed to come from behind and take a road point against the Eastern Conference’s leading team.

Since they joined TFC, success seemed to require Danny Koevermans and Torsten Frings on the pitch. The game in Philadelphia suggests otherwise. Even Nathan Sturgis, who has played little recently, looked reasonably competent filling in for Frings as the sweeper. I’m not saying Koevermans and Frings aren’t needed, only that the quality and ability of the whole team has advanced considerably since the mid-season shake-up.

For me, there was a lot to admire in Saturday’s outcome. It was a strong performance on the road against a team that has been playing well. It was second half equalizing goal that brought TFC back into the match. And they stayed the course to earn the draw. This from a team that’s has a habit of falling back and expiring, especially when trying to hold onto a result through the end of a match.

Credit where it’s due: Ryan Johnson’s goal was a sweet one. It was the result of a well-developed countering play, flowing through Nick Soolsma out on the wing. Johnson’s nice back-heel shot aside, it was a group effort and a sign of the ‘gelling’ everyone likes to discuss.

More compelling for me, Milos Kocic had a really good game. His confidence is way up, thanks to the playing time Winter lately has offered him. He isn’t as solid as Stefan Frei. But that said, Kocic has raised his game a notch. Always a good shot blocker, now he doesn’t seem nearly as nervous with the ball in his feet or hands.

It wasn’t a win, and it was a head-slapping series of errors that gave up the goal to Philly. Still, TFC were not fielding their best eleven. The Union did not look like they were capable of scoring six against us, as they did earlier in the season. Philly might even be grateful they got the draw, because they really didn’t look like the better team.

All this bodes well for the future.

CONCACAF’d Up

And, as for tonight, I’m not putting money on this prediction but I think Toronto can take it. Dallas are solid, but this match might mean more to TFC. I’m hoping that passion translates into performance.

The conspiracy crowd and quality of refereeing hounds will mull over the Mexican officials as a variable tonight. Overall, this ref seems to have a balanced performance to date in the CCL matches this season. Biases to consider – Mexican fans may want TFC to win because they feel they are an easier team to knock out later. The other way to look at it is that FC Dallas carries more sympathy along with more Latin American players. My hunch is that officiating will be as good as it gets in this competition, and the ref will let the sides decide it with as little interference as possible.

FC Dallas  1  -  2  Toronto FC

The budget busting three Designated Players they acquired have fizzled. The decision to trade league-leading goal scorer, Dwayne De Rosario, seems misguided. And, worse, the glory and might the Red Bulls put on the pitch each week have evaporated. They’ve won two of their past three to hold onto the final MLS playoff spot, but New York’s season since June might best be called a ‘free-fall’.

I’m not a huge fan of schadenfreude. But I’m not above taking some now and again. Watching the Red Bulls come undone has to be counted that way. The grudge started when the basement dwelling New York annihilated TFC from the playoffs in 2009 with a humiliating 5-0 destruction in the final match of the season.

Tonight, Toronto FC have a chance to avenge. NY won’t be a push-over, but the Reds could repay the past favour with a solid performance at BMO.

Stefan Frei is the only one left on the roster who was in New York for that shameful night. So, it’s not likely the team today will be feeling acutely vengeful toward the Red Bulls. The 5 – 0 defeat they suffered at Red Bull Arena earlier this season could raise the stakes. But that also was with a TFC roster before it included Torsten Frings and Danny Koevermans.

I guess Toronto FC supporters are the only real storehouse for all that malice and bad blood. The real question tonight is whether the fans at BMO care enough to rev up the home side.

It was a small crowd on Tuesday for the Pumas contest. Yet, it might have been the most energetic night for the south end supporters in many moons. Will the stands be filled with so much energy tonight?

For many fans now, everything is hanging on a Champion’s League victory in Dallas October 18th. For them, the MLS is a write-off. And in their minds, the only right thing to do is rest and rebuild for that night. Tonight, these armchair managers will be questioning Aron Winter’s roster, substitutions and tactics from that perspective.

To do so ignores what Aron Winter has shown us to date. His view is the long one. His interest currently has been in getting his first team playing well together. Getting to know one another, improving their game and winning some matches are important – whatever the competition. Winter is seeking to raise his team’s confidence.

While Champion’s League would extend the 2011 campaign, the main goal seems to be team building and not pursuing the hardware. Sorry armchair managers. Sorry bling hounds.

Nevertheless, it could still work out. Winter’s goals and supporters’ desire for success may come together.

Winter’s strategy bodes well for tonight. It will take a strong first unit to beat NY. Thierry Henry will make his first appearance in Toronto (unless he invokes the ‘Beckham Clause’ and refuses to play here). Putting the past two games’ disappointments behind them will be a must.

It has been quite hard to predict which Toronto FC will show up match to match. Will it be the side that choked down a 3-0 defeat last week to Chivas? Or will it be the team that beat Salt Lake, Colorado and Columbus?

I’m betting on the latter.

Prediction:

Toronto FC  3  -  1  New York Red Bulls

The straight deal

Things TFC had started to look promising on the pitch. Hope was swelling, but probably because I had stopped thinking about outcomes. As long as Toronto FC continued to improve their game, I’ve been game.

So it was with a heavy heart that I left BMO on Tuesday night. The draw with the Mexican side seemed to rob the Reds of a future in the Champion’s League contest.

It was a fair match against Pumas. And unfortunate the Reds gave up a second half goal. Frings’ absence probably was the difference. Give or take a couple of saves by their own goal posts.

And to be fair, Pumas did rest their stars.

I thought, finally, that last glimmer of meaningful contest had gone dark for 2011.

Never say never

Then, the unexpected happened. Tauro FC whipped FC Dallas into submission. That’s the Tauro team the Reds have beaten every time we’ve played. And the Dallas team that have soundly bettered the late-season TFC several in a row.

Interesting times.

All that stands between Toronto FC and another stage of the Champion’s contest is one more game. In Dallas. For all the marbles. TFC win and Dallas is out. The Reds would move out of the group stage.

Priceless. As if I wasn’t already going to be watching that game.

I would love to be there in Dallas for that road victory. And to wager the odds on a victory. But even without either opportunity, I’m excited about the match now. Who doesn’t love the drama?

All it takes is one goal. That is all Dallas needed to beat TFC the past two contests. And, for that matter, they also took a third the same way against the early season Reds.

How sweet that goal. Is it so much to ask for?

I won’t be making that road trip to Texas. And I probably won’t put cash down on the outcome. But I can’t help hoping for a miracle, or as they’ll call it in Frisco: “un milagro.”

Para todos los marmoles.