Time for TFC to get the GM and head coach positions sorted out

There have been a flurry of moves in recent days which suggest that Earl Cochrane may be shaping up to be more than just an interim GM. The first round draft pick (arguably the only pick that really matters in the Superdraft) was traded to the Whitecaps for Nathan Sturgis. Reports out of Dayton, Ohio suggest that TFC are actively trying to sign Bas Ent, a Dutch midfielder who appeared as a trialist last summer in the Carlsberg Cup game against Bolton, while Nane Joseph has been traded to the Colorado Rapids for a third round pick in 2012. There are also rumours on the Red Patch Boys messageboard that Dwayne DeRosario may soon be traded as his seemingly never ending pay dispute with both MLS and MLSE continues to rumble on. At least some of those moves are larger in scale than would normally be expected for a short-term and soon to be replaced interim appointment so a cynic might get the impression that Jurgen Klinsmann's role was firstly to generate season ticket sales and secondly to validate the new regime of Cochrane and Dasovic by using his high profile within the game to enhance their credibility amongst the fan base.

Nick Dasovic interviewed by OSATv


On paper at least Nick Dasovic has the credentials to be TFC's head coach. His record within the game certainly would not look out of place relative to that of Gary Smith and Schellas Hyndman, who just led their teams to the league's championship game. What I would question is why TFC would still want him after the ten game stint at the end of the season. Did he really not realize that the so called "Prekiball" tactics were necessary given the players that were available at that point? The team was still very much a work in progress given the dent in the salary cap caused by the acrimonious departures of Robinson and Gerba and the fiasco in the handling of DP signings during the summer transfer window (i.e. Mista's arrival and the lack of a plan B after Izaguirre's non-arrival when the team was crying out for better quality at left back and a viable option on the overlap out wide). Opening things up and playing a more attacking style with Dan Gargan and Nick Garcia at fullback was asking for trouble and then experimenting again with Hscanovics and Usanov pointed to his learning curve not bearing much of a resemblance to the north face of the Eiger.

Where TFC really need to get real, if a traditional North American GM role is still regarded as the normal way to operate by Tom Anselmi and other MLSE corporate types with a hockey sort of background is with Earl Cochrane. He may be a really good guy, I have only met him once briefly at a fan group meeting in late 2006 so have to take other people's word on that angle but his resume simply does not match what you would normally expect for a GM of a major league sports franchise. After playing for Carleton University, he is alleged to have played professionally in Asia but details appear to be sketchy as to what was actually involved in that regard. His previous experience within the game in North America at DC United and the CSA was primarily in a PR and logistical sort of capacity which would tend to point to him being better suited to fill the vacancy created by Michelle Lissel's departure rather than that of Mo Johnston.

I'd greatly prefer to see somebody else appointed but if Earl Cochrane is going to hang around in a GM role because MLSE suits find it much easier to relate to him than a more traditional soccer personality from the wrong side of the tracks of a European city like Glasgow, Newcastle or Belgrade, hopefully Jurgen Klinsmann will at least be trundled out at a press conference at some point to recommend that the role of the head coach be greatly enhanced in future with front office staff like Cochrane and Brennan carrying out the coach's instructions where trades and drafts are concerned. The next head coach would be closer to a British style "manager" than has been the case in the past three seasons in other words.

Eusebio wins Soccerbowl 1976 with MetrosCroatia


At that point some of the season ticket money that was secured by the Klinsmann consultancy role could be put to good use to entice the best possible candidate to fill that role. I've already explained in an earlier blog entry why I think that is Colin Clarke of the Puerto Rico Islanders. I suspect that somebody higher profile like Roberto Donadoni might emerge, however, given the way a large portion of the fanbase appears to be mesmerized by big name reputations and the importance of that in giving TFC the big time soccer aura that drives season ticket sales. Although a famous coach from Europe could prove risky and would probably lead to another season or two of failure, on the bright side it is perhaps worth bearing in mind what Metros-Croatia achieved 35 years ago next summer by signing Eusebio. Sometimes the big name from Europe actually delivers the goods even when in washed up hasbeen mode relative to the peak of his career. Hopefully Jurgen Klinsmann still has the level of contacts within the game required to point Tom Anselmi in the right direction.

A possible pathway to a U-23 focused Canadian league

I've always been slightly wary of nationalism when it leads to people making decisions based on irrational emotions rather than pragmatic considerations but those emotions of tribal belonging are very much part of the human condition and participation in modern society inherently involves being part of a wider society of people governed by a set of shared laws and social values so the nation is a concept that most definitely exists and plays a huge role within our lives. It's understandable then that some people have a problem with the fact that Canada currently doesn't have a national level soccer league of its own even if it's somewhat odd that the people who tend to make the most noise about this issue online never seem to spend any of their time on hockey forums arguing that the Canadian franchises should leave the NHL to form a separate exclusively Canadian hockey league.

It's Called Football interview with Victor Montagliani


Judging from comments made on an It's Called Football podcast a few weeks ago, the concept that Victor Montagliani of the CSA seems to be pursuing at the moment where a national league is concerned is a D2 level league based primarily on a U-23 development format. This recently led to the current moratorium on sanctioning new NASL and PDL teams and some very skeptical comments in response from people involved with the Vancouver Whitecaps and Victoria Highlanders. Given the NASL usually operates in media markets comparable to those in MLS, the NASL component of the moratorium seemed to me to be bizarre to the point of being irrational and very much a case of trying to lock the stable door long after the horse has already bolted. There are seven cities that would be credible entries at both the D1 and D2 levels i.e. Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal with Winnipeg and Quebec City being too small for MLS but close to the NASL's 750,000 market requirement. With arguably the four strongest available markets amongst those nine already operating in USSF sanctioned leagues there really isn't a niche available now in the sports landscape for a D2 level Canadian league.

From a pragmatic sort of standpoint it seems strange then that Montagliani didn't simply focus on the PDL part of the equation particularly given his stated interest in U-23 player development, which lies at the core of the PDL business plan. Indoor soccer provides a model for how a Canadian league could be formed in that context. The Canadian Major Indoor Soccer League plays an interlocking regular season schedule with the US-based Premier Arena Soccer League, while retaining separate Canadian branding. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that Canadian PDL franchises could do something similar? There are already teams based in Victoria, Vancouver, Abbotsford, Thunder Bay, London, Toronto and Ottawa with a Winnipeg team rumoured to be starting next season (assuming the moratorium didn't get in the way) and talk of a number of would be teams in Quebec failing to gain sanctioning from their provincial association. That would clearly form a solid nucleus for having a coast to coast U-23 development league with a Canadian brand, while retaining the economic benefits that flow from having regular season games with American teams based just across the border.

Thunder Bay Chill in 2010 PDL final


A key advantage of PDL is that the use of younger student athletes enables a level of travel, in a similar manner to junior hockey, that would be very difficult to sustain in an open age semi-pro context. One potential objection to a rebranding and refocusing of Canadian participation in PDL might be that the league is viewed by many as "amateur" but that would be based on a misconception. Changes in NCAA eligibility rules have made it possible for NCAA athletes to play against professional players as long as they do not play alongside them during the course of their scholarship. A number of PDL teams, who do not make use of NCAA players, including the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency program now operate on an openly professional basis based on a program referred to as PDL-Pro. The greater flexibility of CIS rules on eligibility in this regard (even MLS players are able to play for CIS teams if they are on development roster deals) would help greatly as would the flexibility of PDL's rules on using overage players. Up to 8 are currently allowed on a 26 man roster with three having to be under 18 years of age.

TFC Academy visit to Thunder Bay


A CPDL may not be what some people really want with regards to a national league but bearing in mind that the horse has already very much bolted on that it would represent a rational and pragmatic approach to achieving a viable and sustainable economic model for getting pro soccer into smaller cities from coast to coast including many like Thunder Bay that can not be easily catered to by the GTA-centric CSL. Most importantly perhaps it mimics junior hockey by providing a mechanism for moving promising young players out of the three main metropolitan areas where spectator interest in lower level soccer is likely to be limited at best due to the presence of an MLS team into cities like London and Victoria where a PDL soccer game is a significant news story in the sports section of the main daily newspaper and on the sports roundup of the local TV channel. This makes it easier to generate the ticket and sponsorship revenues required to fund the operation of strong U-23 pro development teams and as the youtube clip immediately above describes could help to spread the influence of the youth academy programs of the soon to be three MLS franchises out into smaller towns and cities from coast to coast.

MLS expansion as the key to player development for the CMNT

Amid all the excitement over the MLS expansion draft, one story that has perhaps received less attention than it should have is the news that the Montreal Impact are starting a youth academy comparable to the one that is already in place in Toronto and the residency program of the Vancouver Whitecaps. Until recently Montreal has been the weak link at the D1 and D2 level where player development is concerned with their focus being in a CSL team in Trois Rivieres essentially being used as a "taxi squad". With their imminent move to MLS in 2012 they are now setting their sights a lot higher than that, which should not be in any way surprising given some of the changes that have been taking place in MLS in recent years.

Traditionally in mainstream North American sports there is an entry draft, which usually revolves around NCAA graduates, or in the context of hockey and baseball context 18 year old high school kids, to try to ensure competitive parity. Major league franchises, therefore, usually have no direct involvement in developing elite youth players. In the early MLS initially copied this model where American players are concerned with a complicated discovery and allocation signing system being used in the context of players from overseas. In the last few years there has been a move towards having a more European approach with each MLS team having its own youth academy program, so MLS teams can select players at around 14 years of age and can be moved directly onto the senior roster without having to go through the entry draft. Under the new CBA between MLS and the Players' Union that was negotiated prior to the start of the 2010 season, two roster spots specifically for "homegrown" players were added above and above each team's existing roster of twenty four players. Next season that is expected to change to four homegrown roster spots out of thirty with no limit being placed on the number of homegrown players that MLS teams can add from their youth systems each season. Rosters are being increased because a reserve team competition is being introduced to address what was seen as a missing step in the development ladder between the youth level and the MLS first team.

OSA TV interview with Paul Beirne concerning TFC Academy


In the latter half of the 2010 season Doneil Henry and Nicholas Lindsay became the first players to graduate from TFC Academy in this manner. With that backdrop, recent events in pro level Canadian soccer have been a bit bizarre to say the least. Given the emphasis now being placed in MLS on developing home grown players it would be difficult for fair minded observers to question the commitment level of TFC, the Whitecaps and Impact to developing top Canadian pro level prospects into pro level players, who may one day also represent their country at the national team level. TFC are not spending over $1 million a season on its youth academy program just for the fun of it after all. But that is exactly what has been happening. It came as a bit of a shock back in August when Mo Johnston suddenly let slip on a Gol TV program that MLS were planning to eliminate the Canadian domestic content regulations and move to having only North American and International player categories where Canadian MLS teams are concerned. Clearly the thinking was that this would do away with unnecessary red tape but in some quarters it was immediately portrayed as a dark plot to eliminate Canadian players from MLS rosters.

Vancouver Whitecaps Residency program


In September Victor Montagliani of the CSA publicly criticized the rumoured roster regulation changes and has been pushing ever since for a new Canadian D2 league to be formed with the bizarre rationale being that it would provide a greater focus more on the development of Canadian players than MLS does. The full implications of the 75 mile home territory radius of the MLS youth academies appearing to be lost on Montagliani. Moving beyond the rhetoric, it is worth bearing in mind that the move into elite youth soccer by the pro level clubs has involved treading on a lot of very influential toes where the existing CSA and provincial association controlled elite player development structure is concerned. Given that potential turf war, MLS executives were naive at best, if they didn't realize they were handing an ideal opportunity for unscrupulous people with empire building agendas to launch into a misleading propaganda campaign when they moved to eliminate the domestic content quota.

Given some of the uproar that has also broken out over having the MLS Cup game as part of TFC's season ticket package (can you imagine NFL fans complaining about getting access to the Superbowl that way?) it would not be surprising if Canada's soccer community is starting to be viewed as a bunch of whiny ingrates by some people at MLS HQ. I suspect there's still a solid "silent majority" out there, however, who see through all the self-serving posturing by CSA execs and realize that participation in USSF sanctioned leagues has provided massive benefits to Canadian soccer at the pro level. Assuming lessons have now been learned, I suspect we will see MLS do a better job of handling the optics of their roster regulation rules in future. If as many claim, US employment law makes it very difficult to have Canadians count as domestic content in the United States, it simply doesn't look good to have a complete lack of symmetry in the treatment of American and Canadian players north and south of the border with Americans counting as domestic players in Canada but Canadians being treated as imports in the United States. A domestic content quota of some description is very much required in a Canadian context for PR reasons even if it is unlikely to make a practical difference given the strong commitment that is being made to player development.

It's worth noting that Bob Lenarduzzi stated on a It's Called Football podcast this week that discussions on the domestic content regulations between TFC, the Whitecaps, MLS and the CSA are ongoing and that the minimum number of Canadians is likely to "wind up being somewhere between zero and six".