With the San Jose Earthquakes providing the opposition, Toronto FC will be looking to put a tough week behind them and claim their first three points of the season in Saturday’s home opener.
The Reds are coming off a 3-1 defeat to the Seattle Sounders last weekend but the bigger blow was the loss of Torsten Frings. The club’s captain is expected to be out for four to six weeks with a hamstring injury, leaving Aron Winter with the challenge of filling the void left by the absence of his most important player.
The loss of Frings will likely mean that Toronto will make some tactical changes against San Jose as there is no one in the squad who is a natural choice to fill in at the German’s normal sweeper role. In the past Winter has used others but none of them can read the game or marshal the back line as well as Frings.
During the pre-season, Terry Dunfield played between the centre backs and despite doing a decent job on the defensive side of things he really struggled with taking the ball out of the back and transitioning from defence into attack. The other option that Winter tried in the past was going with three central defenders on the field with one playing in more of a sweeper role. In that case he went with Ty Harden in behind Andy Iro and Doneil Henry and it worked fairly well but again it really cost Toronto when it came time to get things going the other way.
On Saturday, both of those options will be there for Winter. He could drop Dunfield deep and play him behind Harden and Miguel Aceval or he could move Harden back and hand rookie Aaron Maund his first MLS start.
For the most part, San Jose likes to rely on their pair of talented forwards in Chris Wondolowski and Steven Lenhart. Wondolowski is sure to be their major threat as he is one of the league’s top goal scorers having netted 15 or more goals both seasons. If Toronto can find a way to deal with that pair up top then there should be no reason to have five men in the back.
Toronto should be able to get the job done with a four-man back line but to ensure things stay tight Winter will likely deploy both Dunfield and Julian de Guzman in very deep midfield positions. Having the two of them sitting right above the defenders will give Ashtone Morgan and Richard Eckersley the freedom they need to get forward down the wings and give the attack much needed width. Having Dunfield and de Guzman playing deep will also allow them to start the attack going forward and it will be up to them to link up with the front four and win the battle against San Jose’s midfield.
If Toronto is going to find a way to keep Wondolowski quiet and still control the midfield they will need a big performance from Aceval and de Guzman. Frings was the leader and commander of the back line but now Aceval is going to have to overcome any language barriers and find a way to do that job. For de Guzman the challenge is quite simple — he now has to command the midfield and get back to the form he displayed towards the end of last season. If he can do that all of a sudden the loss of Frings will hurt a lot less.
Former TFC forward Alan Gordon rejoined San Jose this week and is continuing to recover from off-season surgery that saw his 2011 campaign come to an early end after he was traded as part of the deal that saw Ryan Johnson come to the Reds. ‘Quakes coach Frank Yallop has not ruled Gordon out yet but chances are he will not feature.
With or without Gordon being involved, this is the kind of game that Toronto FC is going to have to find a way to win. The Earthquakes are not one of the powerhouses in the West and Toronto is at home so this time around there is no excuse to not go out and get a result.
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.