CBC-Sports

Toronto FC's playoff failure is an embarrassment

October 25, 2009 06:44 PM | Posted by   Jason de Vos  

Toronto FC’s 5-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night, and the inevitable playoff failure that accompanied that result, was nothing short of an embarrassment.

Everyone who has followed this team since its inception three years ago will now weigh in with an opinion about where it all went wrong and who is to blame.

Was it the fault of the players, Chris Cummins or Mo Johnston? Was it a combination of all three? Was it a lack of technical ability on behalf of the players, or were the tactics that were employed the reason for their capitulation in the most important game in the history of the franchise?

The lack of a quality central defender has been mentioned time and time again, as has the lack of a genuine goal threat up front. Throw in the fact that the team has not got a single player who consistently provides them with any width, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

We could discuss these issues until we’re blue in the face, so I’ll sum up all of Toronto FC’s problems in just three words.

Lack of character.

Tactics are meaningless if the players who walk over that white line won’t fight for each other. If those players aren’t willing to work for each other, to cover each other’s mistakes – to die for each other – then it doesn’t matter what system you play or who plays where. You will be doomed to fail.

Collection of individuals

When I look at Toronto FC, I see a collection of individuals, not a team. There is a me-first mentality in the TFC dressing room, rather than a team-first attitude. That sort of atmosphere is cancerous, and it will be the downfall of the organization year after year if it is not wiped out right away.

Some will say that Chris Cummins should bear the burden of this mentality, and to some extent, that argument has merit. A manager certainly has an important role to play in determining the mentality of a club.

But a very successful manager once told me that the four walls of the dressing room determine the strength of a team. By that, he meant that the only people who can set the tone in a dressing room are the players.

The players are the ones who determine what the standards are. They determine what the code of conduct is, what the level of professionalism is, what the levels of expectation are and what the consequences are if those expectations are not met.

It has nothing to do with liking or disliking your teammates. You are never going to be best mates with 20 or more guys just because you wear the same jersey on a Saturday, and you will always have teammates with whom you don’t see eye to eye.

It is about being a professional, and knowing that when you step foot on the pitch, you are going to war. It is about respecting your teammates and the common goal you are there to achieve. You are expected to cover for your teammates’ mistakes, and you expect them to cover for yours.

If someone digs you out for making a mistake, you accept it and vow that you won’t let it happen again. You don’t take the harsh words spoken in the heat of a game or a training session as a personal attack, and you certainly don’t let those words carry over after the final whistle.

Taking pride in your work

It is about setting the highest standards and taking pride in your work as a professional. If your standards are mediocre, you will be mediocre. As a professional, you need to view every day as an opportunity to improve, both as an individual and as a team.

Some of the players abide by this code, and Saturday’s defeat was a painful one for them. Guys like De Rosario, Brennan and Cronin (to name a few) have their faults – they would be playing at the highest level in Europe if they didn’t – but you know you will get nothing less than their absolute best every time they step on the field.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for some of their teammates. Some of those players do not abide by the same code of professionalism, and you never know what you will get from them from one week to the next.

The only ones who can change that are the players themselves, the leaders on this team. Guys like De Rosario, Brennan and Robinson. They need to sit everyone down in that dressing room, lock the doors and lay down the law.

If some of those players don’t want to abide by that code of professionalism, then they need to be shown the door, regardless of who they are. Because if that dressing room doesn’t get sorted out very soon, come the end of next season TFC will fail to make the playoffs for the fourth time running.

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