Every Friday, Sportsnet.ca will chat with Sportsnet soccer commentator Paul Dolan—a former Canadian national team goalkeeper—about the big stories and issues in Major League Soccer.
How big of loss is it for Toronto FC that Jozy Altidore will be out for the next six to eight weeks with a hamstring injury?
It’s a huge blow, not only for the qualities they lose with Altidore out of the lineup, but their attacking options are somewhat thin to begin with. This was always going to be an issue with the prospect of Altidore and most likely Sebastian Giovinco both gone in the summer for their respective continental tournaments, so perhaps this just speeds up the timeline to address acquiring new bodies to help the attack. Despite not scoring this season, Altidore certainly was affecting play with positive contributions around goal, whether it was directly with hold up play and lay-offs for other players who were scoring, or indirectly by drawing penalties and occupying defenders to open up spaces for teammates.
He posed a threat in virtually every game he played this season which meant not all of the attention was on Giovinco, and he also gave TFC an outlet, particularly in the games away from home when they may have been under more pressure, as he was able to fight for long balls forward and bring the rest of the team into play. Critics will point to his lack of goals, but he showed last year that the goals will come as his conversion rate was among the best in the league once the chances were created for him (13 goals on only 18 shots on target).
Toronto FC on Sportsnet: Watch 11 Toronto FC matches from the 2016 Major League Soccer season live on Sportsnet. Consult the broadcast schedule
What did you think of Erik Hurtado’s performance in Vancouver’s win in Toronto last week? It was his first start of the season. Did he do enough to earn some more playing time?
I think it did, especially with Masato Kudo sidelined indefinitely with a broken jaw and Octavio Rivero struggling a little bit to find good goal-scoring form. Hurtado was well down the pecking order when he was sent on loan to Norway last year, but he has come back with more maturity and a good attitude to do what he needs to do to get into the lineup.
Last weekend, it was his strength to hold off Drew Moor and then lay in a perfect pass to Kekutah Manneh that really got the Whitecaps going against TFC, and he created several other good chances both for himself and others in that game and in the games where he has appeared as a substitute (including a large part of the buildup to the fantastic Blas Perez winner against Chicago last week).
He has incredible quickness combined with that strength and he’s learning to keep things much more simple than he did in his first couple of seasons. He’s been another good example of Carl Robinson working with players and giving them chances as they progress from the college game to the pro ranks.
It’s four draws in a row and a five-game winless run for Montreal. What’s going on lately with the Impact?
I hate to use the cliché of fine margins but it comes down to not taking one or two chances in each game to turn some of those ties into wins and four points becomes six or nine. In saying that, they actually did very well to come back to gain points in the games at NYCFC and in Columbus (where they were down by three goals in the second half). The dropped points at home to Colorado where they twice had a lead and last weekend to Philadelphia where they should have taken all three points after they stormed out of the gate in the first half.
Didier Drogba scored early and it looked like they would pummel the Union, but after Philadelphia got one back the opportunities looked to dry up, especially after Drogba was forced to leave the game. The Impact had done such a good job in his absence at the start of the year and will need to do that again when Drogba misses matches, but they’ll need to be more clinical when they get those chances than they have in the last five games. At the same time Montreal has now gone six games without a clean sheet which will need to change if they expect to get three points against one of the highest scoring teams in the east in Orlando on Saturday.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been linked with a move to MLS. What would he bring to the league at this point in his career?
He would be one of the best and most high-profile signings in league history—just ask him! He’s the perfect type of player to play in MLS in my opinion as he carries a huge recognition factor and is still deadly in front of goal. He actually carries a lot of the same traits as a Drogba, but is much more dynamic with his athleticism and is one of the most exciting players in the world. If older players such as Drogba and David Silva can still contribute I would see no reason why Ibrahimovic wouldn’t be a dominant player in the league with the bonus of drawing attention to MLS and the subsequent crowds to see him. I think he’ll probably end up at Manchester United or somewhere else in Europe though as his salary and fee would be astronomical.
Sportsnet’s Soccer Central podcast (featuring Thomas Dobby, Brendan Dunlop, John Molinaro and James Sharman) takes an in-depth look at the beautiful game and offers timely and thoughtful analysis on the sport’s biggest issues.