What a weekend for Toronto FC.
As everyone with a vested interest in the team waited for a new player to step through the proverbial window, the exact opposite happened. Maurice Edu, a player 10 days removed from gracing the cover of soccer's most popular video game, was sold to Glasgow Rangers of the Scottish Premier League for a reported fee of $5 million.
In a twisted sort of way, the Edu move initiates TFC as a professional club; for the lesson that ink is thicker than allegiance is one that every new club will inevitably learn. Big clubs use the littler ones for sustenance. No hard feelings, eh?
In reality, the other shoe has been ready to drop on Edu since last summer, when Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill tipped the midfielder (along with Marvell Wynne) as a player with the talent to play in Europe's top leagues. It is surprising it took a full calendar year for the move to happen, but it did, and at the end of the day Toronto FC will always be a business first.
And as a business, Mo Johnston just added a few more million to the MLSE coffers (which I am sure he will bring up when his contract is up for renewal next season).
Amid the hullabaloo of the Edu news was a 50-odd word press release unveiling Johann Smith as the club's newest striker. Dare I say it, but Smith may just be Jeff Cunningham incarnate. At 5'11 in stature, the pint-sized forward has the pace to score a lot of goals in this league.
Staying with the topic of Cunningham, on Saturday the exiled striker registered his 100th career MLS goal in his first game as a member of FC Dallas. Plus, his swagger seems to have returned after a lengthy absence in Toronto.
"I sent out a letter to FIFA; I'm trying to get them to change their rule [to] where a player can wear three digits on their jersey," Cunningham said during an introductory Q&A session in Dallas. "They haven't responded yet, so for the moment I guess I'm going to have to wear another number (when I get to 100)."
The eventful weekend concluded with a 2-0 loss in New York to the 10-man Red Bulls. It would seem that the teams who struggled with form early in the season are finding it as the schedule gets shorter; much to the chagrin of TFC, who just seems to be spinning its wheels. After nine-and eight-point months to open the season, Carver and Co. have tallied just eight points in the three months which followed.
Just 10 games remain in the 2008 season, with exactly half of those coming on the road for TFC. Full points earned from the five home dates will put the team at 40 points, a number that got both Chicago and Kansas City into the second season last year.
But of course, that was last year.
