The inaugural Nutrilite Canadian Championship was a disaster for Toronto FC.
On Wednesday that elephant in the locker room can be evicted when Toronto and Vancouver raise the curtain on the second-annual all-Canadian Cup.
But will Jumbo go without incident?
It has been tacitly agreed upon that the team must win the all-Canadian tournament in 2009. The schedule has been adjusted accordingly and when asked, every player is quick to reiterate. Nobody wants another year of standing in the shadow.
But unless I missed it, the tacit agreement has been kept fairly quiet by Cummins, who may be looking ahead to the first-place clash with D.C. United on Saturday. Cummins is undoubtedly on board with winning back bragging rights, but his job is evaluated (and likely weighed) on league success.
The game against the Whitecaps - who have lost just once in five games to begin its new season - also presents the new coach (I am dropping the interim) with his first selection challenge.
And in facing another three-games-in-seven-days challenge; Cummins will need to be diplomatic.
At the crux of the selection process will be Dwayne De Rosario. On the heels of missing two games with a hamstring injury, De Rosario was a second-half substitution in the draw with Columbus on Saturday. He was also the most dangerous man on the pitch in the second 45, just missing a one-time rocket and challenging the mettle of MLS officials when he was fouled in the box late in the game.
But Cummins also admitted in his post-game conference that his starting 11 is not in based on recognizance or MLS Cups, meaning every player earns his stay.
Now a Canadian Championship game minus our nation's best-known name makes little sense, but so does testing the elasticity of an already tender tendon on just 45 minutes played when a much bigger fish to fry waits on Saturday.
On the flip side, the Reds proved capable of winning without the dynamic ex-Dynamo. On the flip-flip side, the sketchy decision to run De Ro out on a wonky leg may in some small part prompted the notorious new formation (4-3-3) and the portentous decision of a former coach to observe it from above.
It'll be interesting to see what lineup (and formation for that matter) takes the field on Wednesday considering England's best managers have come under fire already this season for devaluing some of the game's oldest competitions with youth-infused 11s.
Personally, I see the merit in such an approach.
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