Having sat through seven difficult Septembers as a Toronto FC season ticket holder this one is starting to have a familiar ring to it … We’ve got players (allegedly) wanting away, we’ve fired another coach, we look clueless, toothless and disinterested on the pitch, and front office is still spoon feeding us BS in the hope we will believe it (22591 for the 13th straight MLS game … yeah right !!!)

It wasnt supposed to be this way !!! This year was going to be a ‘Bloody Big Deal’ for TFC and its fans. We were finally going to look good both on and off the pitch. We had an embarrassment of riches for our coach to pick from … so many DPs in fact that we had to give one away to Vancouver in return for ‘future considerations’, a returning prodigal son who still had some gas in the tank, and what appeared to be upgrades in almost all positions as well as a couple of decent draftees. On paper it all looked so good !

Yet entering September we already know that Tim Leiweke is going, we get rid of Ryan Nelsen, we get daily rumours regarding the return or departure of Jermain Defoe depending on who you listen to, and through it all the performance on the park is tanking at a spectacular rate despite new coach Vanney restoring a couple of players that perhaps should have, but never got a look in under Nelsen to the lineup in his first two games (Morgan and DeRo).

Wednesday’s game against Philly was painful to watch on TV. We seemed to try harder than in the last home game against New England, but ultimately we were still less than mediocre and the better team won on the day. In Saturday’s game against the same side we struggled to reach that same level of mediocrity but again, you could see certain players trying. Ultimately however, the team that played the better football won this game too. Its hard to swallow, especially when its that old carthorse Conor Casey grabbing the winner in both games !

We can make excuses all over the place … With 4 players out injured plus 3 or 4 more nursing injuries or coming back from them, it makes a lean squad look positively threadbare but the simple fact is that we put 3 shots on target from 16 attempts in the game with no goals to show for it compared to 7 of 12 on target for the Union with two headers going in … We are getting the chances but are not putting them away and its costing us wins and points. The playoffs are still within reach, but that goal will quickly become unattainable if we dont start scoring some and results continue like this.

Without further adieu lets hear Greg Vanney’s viewpoint of the game and a couple of excuses worthy of Ryan Nelsen:

Nick Hagglund talks to the press after the game.

Gallery for this game: HERE