The soap opera that is Toronto FC continued unfolding yesterday when former TFC Head Coach John Carver commenting on the controversy swirling around his former boss Mo Johnston.

You can read the piece here:  http://www.soccerbyives.net and judge it for yourselves.

What I will definitely say about this is that I do not think John Carver changed the minds of anybody one single bit. The “Mo Must Go”‘ers out there will say that Carver and Mo share the same agent and that this show of support was some sort of quid pro quo between them and First Wave. They will criticize Carver for throwing his former assistant coach under the bus by claiming that his remarks of the day previous were off base.  Basically they will use the interview to reinforce their own positions.

Supporters will take what Carver says at face value and use the interview to reaffirm their faith in Mo and in his performance. They will essentially be doing the same as the naysayers will.

There can only be two ways this off field distraction can possibly be addressed that allow the club to move forward. One, Mo quits or gets canned my MLSE sooner rather than later. Removing Mo removes the distraction he has obviously become.  Or second, Mo comes out and sits down with members of the media and tries to address every lingering question out there once and for all. And the list of questions is long.

Unless there is some sort of other shoe to drop out there I guess that neither will happen and we come back to the fact that the MLS Playoffs and TFC’s appearance in them will be how MLSE will decide if he stays with the club past the end of this season.

Enough of the Ginger Glaswegian…. On to more important things!

I am more excited when Montréal comes to town than virtually any other club we see here. Perhaps it is due to the fact that they are Canadian rivals that tap into the historic rivalries that exist between the two cities. The crowd sounds louder at these games. The chanting is a little more “off colour”. And the emotions seem a little more genuine.

I for one have a hard time getting a hate on for Kansas City or Dallas when they come to town. Montréal??? No problemo getting the blood boiling for a match against the Impact.

There will be some griping from some when Preki releases his roster for the game this evening. Understandably there has to be some sort of squad rotation taking place. Seven games in the next month means that there has to be some turnover. I would be comfortable giving Frei a rest along with perhaps Saric and Usmanov. I think the spine of the club that played relatively well against Seattle on the weekend needs to play this evening intact if the intention is to get the result the team needs and take the Cup tournament seriously.

2-nil at home would be a wonderful result for Toronto with Barrett hopefully getting on the scoreboard as he did when he scored the Cup Winner last season in Saputo Stadium.

I wanted to post here as well a few photos from the tfcpics library that I took in Montréal in 2008 and at some games against the Impact here in Toronto. I hope they convey the flavour of what this game means to me.