It’s halfway through our inaugural MLS campaign and things are for the most part positive. 5-7-4 isn’t exactly a record to be proud of but when you consider four straight gut-wrenching defeats to start the season and us being an expansion franchise, there are more things to cheer about than to bitch and moan about. The All-Star week gave us some more good news: we get to host the 2008 All-Star game at BMO Field. That’s the league’s way of saying thank you to TFC fans for showing the MLS what true football fan culture is all about. Speaking of fan culture, I came across this post which talks about the differences between Toronto FC fans and say fans of the Ottawa Senators. Good read.

After seeing Brennan, Dichio and Cunningham get recognition for their efforts via an All-Star nod, it occurred to me that the true All-Star of the team doesn’t really play on the pitch. We all need to give a collective round of applause to Mo Johnston (everybody stop reading, stand up and deliver that applause), he has been everything this franchise needed to get off on the right foot. He’s been proactive in looking to improve the team and fix what appears to be broken. The acquisition of Dichio and Cunningham were brilliant moves and were entirely unexpected. Eskandarian and Buddle looked to be staples on the TFC squad coming out of pre-season and when they didn’t produce early on, he was quick to replace them both instead of waiting for them to come around. Those two moves turned our season around.

Something needs to be said about our defense but before I say that I’ve used my crazy Microsoft Paint skills to visually represent our defensive progress. You know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words:

After that display of graphical artistry there isn’t much more that needs to be said but here goes anyways: We were brutal in the beginning and have steadily improved mainly because the players have finally figured out each others tendencies and learned to play with each other, something which is paramount in the back four. That 10-man display against Houston gave me more joy than seeing this picture.

We’re playing the Columbus Crew tomorrow which I can guarantee will be a W. We were unlucky not to win the last game against these chumps and this time there isn’t a way we won’t finish off at least two or three of the twenty chances we’ll get.

Thanks for reading, till tomorrow, goodbye. Make sure to chew on the feed, it’s yummy.