Gerry Dobson

Red Bull Arena.

I just finished my first experience at Red Bull Arena and in one word: wow. Memo to Tom Anselmi and the others running MLSE, do yourselves a favour and check this place out. If you're looking for ways to buff up BMO Field just look at what they've done here.

This venue is absolutely marvelous and first-rate all the way. I'm sorry to say that all these new state of the art soccer specific facilities are quickly making BMO Field look old, tired and let's face it - sub-standard.

But how they can't sell this place out for a critical Eastern Conference battle with Thierry Henry making his home league debut is beyond me.

The crowd was announced at just over 19,000, but it looked like less than that to me.

And now to the game. Oh boy. Pretty simple isn't it? If you don't score you don't get anywhere and once again TFC blew a golden opportunity. Greg Sutton was making only his second start this year after playing the friendly against the Spurs a couple of weeks back. It wasn't pretty. So Toronto's response to his shaky Spurs performance should have been to blast shots at him to probe for weak spots and test his confidence. They never even got close.

Speaking of close, the press set up at Red Bull Arena is the best. Our seats were just up behind the Toronto bench no more than 20 feet away. It meant for a close up view of head coach Preki's near meltdown in response to his perceived lack of calls in his club's favour. He may have a point. But again, no goals, no result. And now the injuries are starting to take their toll. It was Chad Barrett in this case.

Fortunately for the Reds they have the weekend off to ponder their lot before re-grouping to face Cruz Azul in the Champions League on Tuesday.

And as we inch closer to the home stretch once again, it looks inevitable. Toronto FC will be fighting tooth and nail down to the wire with several other teams for that final playoff berth.

Do you see it happening any other way?