When the final whistle blew the Columbus Crew had wrapped up a 1-0 road win over Toronto FC, and the fans were heading towards the exits. In the middle of the field a single figure in red remained long after the rest of his teammates headed down the tunnel to the changing room.
Luis Silva stayed behind for nearly five minutes, spending much of the time with his hands on the back of his head. It was clear that Toronto’s rookie midfielder was frustrated following his club’s third straight loss to start the campaign. After such a promising pre-season followed by two impressive results against the Los Angeles Galaxy, Silva and his teammates were full of confidence heading in to the regular season.
That confidence now seems to be wavering and is instead replaced by a clear sense of frustration.
In the first two games of MLS Toronto was outplayed by the Seattle Sounders and the San Jose Earthquakes. On Saturday, though, things were much better and TFC was arguably the stronger side as they enjoyed more possession, more shots, and more scoring chances. What was frustrating was the fact that those chances came to nothing and instead of collecting three points they again came away with nothing.
Danny Koevermans was not pleased after the match remarking, “Of course it is frustrating because we did not deserve to lose. Against Seattle you can say; okay, we deserved to lose but today we didn’t deserve it.”
For Koevermans the frustration comes from more than just the poor start in the league. It also stems from the fact that after scoring at an impressive rate last season he has struggled to find the goal this year despite the chances being there.
For the Dutch forward scoring is simple: “Just one ball comes in and it’s in. It’s as simple as that. Today in my two and a half chances, two at the goalkeeper, he saves it, and next week it goes in. When it goes in you don’t have to think about it again waiting for your next chance. It means that the goal is close, it will come.”
It is a young season with the team still having 31 MLS games left to go but despite the success thus far in the CONCACAF Champions League there is a growing sense of urgency around this team. The fans have seen this lack of scoring and have heard it all before when it comes to being told that the goals will come with time or sharpness, so you cannot fault them for feeling slightly anxious over the fact that TFC has a single goal in their first three MLS games.
This roster looks like it was built to score goals but after a strong pre-season and good starts to the year by Ryan Johnson and Silva, everyone has cooled off. Koevermans does not have a single goal, including in official pre-season games, and Joao Plata is struggling to adjust to the additional attention he is receiving after such a successful first year in MLS.
Aron Winter feels that the lack of goals is just a matter of sharpness.
“It’s coming. I’m not worried about it” said the coach adding, “We’re still playing well. We dominated the game, creating opportunities, and that’s, for me, a very good thing.”
Both Winter and Koevermans do agree that the chances will come and that eventually they will start going in but the question remains of how this team is going to pick up points in the meantime?
There are a lot of matches left to be played but Toronto had a manageable start to their season which is balanced out by a very tough finishing stretch so digging themselves into a deeper hole could prove costly.
Milos Kocic was a bit more concerned about the dropped points early on saying, “The three points that we lost today is going to reflect later on in the league. Going to Mexico and then going to Montreal is not going to help. I hope we recover well after this and get a good rest for the Wednesday game and then respond in Montreal.”
These next two games could very well be telling in how this TFC season is going to go. A pair of defeats would have them in a deeper hole and will have fans again bracing for yet another year without a trip to the playoffs.
If the team is going to find that elusive sharpness back now would be a very good time to do so before it is too late.
David Rowaan is a Toronto-based writer and key contributor to Waking the Red, a blog about Toronto FC and Canadian soccer. Follow Waking the Red on Twitter.