The two-week layoff in between Toronto FC games has forced the local scribes to go a little squirrelly. Stuck sharpening our collective knives for a fortnight, we burned candles while praying for something (anything!) to surface. As long as it even remotely resembled a story, we would deconstruct it.
On Tuesday it arrived, and by Wednesday it was gutted, skinned and hung upside down to dry.
The slain wildebeest was Reds midfielder Carl Robinson, who by now may-or-may-not resemble Quasimodo after being injured while fulfilling his duties as a professional soccer player. He didn't crash his Ferrari on the way to work or roll a jet ski while visiting his family back home in Wales. No, Robbo was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he ended up with a facial fracture.
Bad luck is the only one to blame. But the two long weeks of searching for something has skewed perception and a story with no legs has been re-generated as a ten-legged season killer.
'What a joke!'
'Farcical!'
'Baffling!'
A quick perusal of the fallout phrases listed online reveal much more than just the aforementioned terms of mis-endearment, nowhere to be found missing was the idea that maybe it was Robbo who took a second off and ended up with an elbow under his eye.
Instead, the innocuous Ivorian trialist has been blamed. Same goes for Reds director of soccer Mo Johnston. All the while, bad luck snuck away scot-free. Even as I type this, somewhere, far off, a professional player looking to land a professional job challenged a 50/50 ball in training. A minute before that extra 'oomph,' a goalkeeper got distracted and a 'Head's Up!' clearance rattled his molars while he watched stadium workers prepare.
I bet even somewhere, someone stood on a ball and took a tumble.
What happened to Robbo was unfortunate, and I bet even he'll tell you that (And when he is done, I bet Robinson will also let you know about the need to continually uncover and hopefully develop talent, regardless of what day the calendar may show).
So now, the next step is dealing with the news. In a game where full points are paramount, Robinson may not have found his name on Chris Cummins' lineup sheet. The younger, forward-thinking Sam Cronin is a lineup mainstay and the even-younger and one-time trialist Amadou Sanyang has shown enough to possibly usurp one of the team's longest-tenured on Saturday.
Sure, Robbo's misfortune and the not-necessary absence of Amado Guevara subtracts numbers from Saturday's substitutes, but in reality, with so much on the line over a mere 90 minutes, those yellow-bibbed benchers may not see the turf on Saturday, anyways.
After all, much like the local media, the players are two weeks rested and ready to attack.
Food for thought (4-3-3):
Barrett-De Rosario-White
Vitti-De Guzman-Cronin
Brennan-Gomez-Nana-Wynne
Frei
Bench: Edwards, Sanyang, Serioux, Garcia, Fellinga, Gerba
