First, to MLS fans: Stop by this post and make your guesses, then come back here for the answers. (Click here for better resolution.) I expected this quiz to be hard, because we don#8217;t play the MLS game very much with the Weekend Quizzes. And it was hard. So I [...]div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds2.

The King's Club. The White Ballet. The Galacticos (but not the Landycakes version). Rumour has it that one of the world's most storied clubs is coming to town on August 7th. They are so special that MLSE has agreed to lay down real grass over the turf for the game in order to protect the precious knees of their numerous stars.

According to the CONCACAF website, we could be missing five players during the Gold Cup (assuming Ali Gerba signs). Stephen Hart has named his 30-man preliminary squad ahead of the tournament, and included are Dwayne De Rosario, Adrian Serioux, Nana Attakora, Kevin Harmse, and Ali Gerba. Here is the full 30-man squad.

Following up on Ben Knight's speculation that Adrian Serioux could be traded our way, it looks like Ives Galarcep has caught on to this one as well. Apparently the Hoops are keen on acquiring our no. 2 draft pick so they can select Omar Gonzalez from Maryland.
Ives is speculating that Dallas could offer us Serioux and their no.

Goals from Dwayne De Rosario and O'Brian White gave us a 2-0 win over DC United yesterday at BMO Field. Here was our starting eleven: Stefan Frei, Nana Attakora, Emmanuel Gomez, Adrian Serioux, Jim Brennan, Amadou Sanyang, Carl Robinson, Sam Cronin, Pablo Vitti, O'Brian White, and Dwayne De Rosario.

If everything goes as expected in the next two weeks, Toronto FC players will be packing their bags and heading home for 2009 while many of their rivals prepare for the playoffs. What happened this season? There was such promise back in spring but it quickly slid into mediocrity - all that was left was a look ahead to 2010.

Use your own discretion on this one. The Adrian Serioux rumour has resurfaced. Someone has a source who tells them that a Canadian centre half who is already playing in MLS will be with us within the next two weeks. It turns out the Canadian in question is indeed Adrian Serioux. Click here for the thread on the Red Patch Boys forum.

Alright - I've previewed every MLS club, except for ours. Time to start previewing our 2009 Toronto FC. Judging by the title of this post, I'm sure you've already guessed that my preview for our side will be done in multiple parts. That guess would be correct.
There is an old saying that goes like this: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Please someone break his arm before Sunday!

HAHA only kidding...kind of. But he is part and parcel of what is wrong with this team right now on defense. For someone to take a throw in....granted Adrian throws like most people kick....and get a header off of it to score..no excuse.

The Carolina Challenge Cup begins this weekend, and this year's edition is between us, DC United, Real Salt Lake, and the hosting Charleston Battery. The results of this tournament don't really mean much - last year the Earthquakes won it before finishing last in the league. This tournament gives us a great opportunity to see how we stand against two clubs that finished higher than us last year in the standings.

Don't get me wrong - I love blogging about TFC. But it is very hard to get out the laptop on the subway home after such an uninventive display by the Reds, and to start dissecting the defeat. So please bear with me as I ease my way into this post by talking about several necessary improvements to gameday at BMO Field that have nothing to do with Adrian Serioux getting outworked by a decrepit has-been Gunner.

Five ties -- two scoreless, one 3-3. Only two decisive games, including Seattle's first loss. Kasey Keller is still unscored-upon, but he departed early for the Sounders after handling the ball outside the box. Lots of red cards.
Home teams first
Toronto 1, Dallas 1: Dwayne De Rosario showed off his underrated heading skills on a long throw-in from Adrian Serioux to give Toronto the lead.

No DeRo. No wins in our last four. No confidence in me for this team to beat the MLS-leading Chivas USA, who are 4-0-1. We have a huge opportunity to make a point though. If we can beat the league's best team thus far, some of the fans can once again start believing in the potential of this team. It is no easy task, of course.

Of all people...Kevin freakin' Harmse. After scoring just 2 minutes in, I was hoping we'd put a few more goals in, but it wasn't to be. Nonetheless, a win is a win and three points are three points. This year's Nutrilite Canadian Championship is a must-win in my eyes, so I'm content with a clean sheet at home to open things up.

Not so fast my friend. Here's my take on what SBI says...

With the draft fast-approaching, trade speculation is starting to gain more and more momentum. According to Soccer by Ives' latest article, Trader Mo is ready to deal with over half of the teams in the league are interested in acquiring our no. 2 and no. 4 picks.
The other day, Buzz Carrick said that he doesn't think Adrian Serioux will be coming to Toronto, but it's looking more and more likely that the Hoops will try to work out a deal in order to be able to select defender Omar Gonzalez.

I went to bed early last night, so I missed the confirmation on this one. Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree is reporting that we have, in fact, acquired Adrian Serioux. More to come later.

A long time ago (August 2008) we at MLSR said the following:
Sidenote: Wouldn't it be funny if Toronto FC repatriated Adrian Serioux?
The controversial Canadian defender has been given his marching orders to head back home to the loving voices of the BMO Field faithful.

Man, things are getting serioux. I am seriouxly very excited about yesterday's trade. When I first saw the rumour, I wasn't sure if it was serioux, but it turns out, Mo was very serioux about bringing Serioux to TFC. Seriouxly though, all of this "Serioux" wordplay is getting a little annoying and overused.

Sweet. That was the team we expected to see game in and game out this season. We fully deserved those three points, and beating a team that came into the match undefeated really boosts my confidence towards the side. It's the first time we've ever beaten the Goats - and in my view, they just didn't look up to the task.

Take a friend to a game.
They probably won't like it. The standard of play will be poor, they'll complain about the plastic pitch, the eight dollar cans of beer. They'll wonder how Danny Dichio could possibly be considered a hero when he basically exists to knock down long balls and lay them off for other players in a fifty-fifty gambit that looks more like a sort of mournful liturgy.

Half time Houston 3 TFC 0
On one hand Houston has demonstrated a scoring touch and a killer instinct on free kicks that TFC only dreams about.
On the other hand Adrian Serioux is being robbed by the ref at both ends of the field. The defensive calls have been of the phantom variety and then he had a goal disallowed in the dying seconds of the half.

Previous Updates
#1 4/12 68 players remaining#2
5/25
37 players remaining
#3
6/25
23 players remaining
OTFATT is short for "On the field, all the time." In these updates throughout the season, I'll be keeping track of which MLS players have played every minute of every game (regular season only).

This realization has taken a few weeks longer this season, but it's still just as painful. After watching TFC shit the bed this past weekend in Colorado, my faith in our ability to bounce back and hit a good run of form is effectively dead. I'm not too urked by a 1-0 loss away to the Rapids - they've been a good team this year.

Toronto will certainly protect their stars but who won't be protected? (Getty Images)

The 15h and final club in our expansion draft speculation lists is Toronto FC. Yesterday they announced Preki as their new head coach and his first big task will be helping General Manager Mo Johnston with figuring out who to protect and who to leave exposed in the expansion draft.

Tomorrow MLS will hold the 2009 Expansion Draft so the new Philadelphia Union can select their team for next season. That means they get to select 10 players from the MLS's 15 teams. Each team gets to protect 11 players and the rest are fair game for the Union to select. Each team can only lose one player in the draft.

--------------"I know, I can't believe I'm protected either Amado!"
You would like to think that tomorrow's MLS Expansion Draft is on the up and up but you can't help but wonder what negotiations and side deals were cut with new boys Philadelphia Union beforehand. TFC and the other existing clubs had to reveal their protected players yesterday and the names on the BMO Field list threw up some curiosities indeed.

Toronto FC supporters may be facing a long winter full of worries about player signings, the new manager and filthy stinking Argonauts but it sure doesn't stop the TFC marketing machine. The annual "Pub Crawls" have been recently under way featuring drunken Reds' supporters fawning over slightly frightened TFC players.

Monday's are my worst day for posting, and it sucks, because there is always a lot of post weekend news to go over.
On Saturday, Toronto FC beat Florida Atlantic University 3-0, without many first team regulars. Danny Dichio scored twice and Sam Cronin scored the other. Click here for a match report.

According to 3rd Degree sources the hypothetical deal that was making the rounds today has now gone down and Adrian Serioux has been traded to Toronto FC. While it's unknown at this time what FCD got in return, our sources say Serioux is on a plane to Ft. Lauderdale tonight to join TFC in Sunrise, Florida.

I believe I have come up with the perfect headline to match the picture at the top of this blog (which I stole from Krazy Kanadian over at torfc.com). 10 points to me. In case you don't recognize the three players, they are TFC's Marco Velez, along with FC Dallas' Jeff Cunningham (unfortunately he used to play for TFC), and Adrian Serioux, who in this picture did not know that he would be anchoring Toronto's defense in the teams' next meeting.

My Twitter handle: dunord
Go ahead and befriend me. Then you'll get regular updates from dN.
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MLS Week 5 Matches & Scores:
-Fri Apr 17
DC 1-1 New England - DC goal by Ben Olsen. NE goal by Shalrie Joseph.

Fan voting for the 2009 MLS All-Star First XI is now underway. Click HERE for the official ballot. The online fan balloting program, which concludes on July 6, will comprise 25 percent of the total vote for the All-Star First XI, with coaches and general managers, players, and media each holding 25 percent of the vote.

According to CanadaSoccer.com, we're only going to be missing two players during the Gold Cup. None of Dwayne De Rosario, Adrian Serioux, or Nana Attakora are included in Stephen Hart's side, but Kevin Harmse and Ali Gerba are.
Looks like it was club over country for DeRo and Serioux.
Click here to see the final team.

The roster is out, officially, and by the time you have read this the mainstream press will probably have plenty of quotes from Dwayne DeRosario as to why he won't don the red and white kit for the Gold Cup. Heck, they may even have a quote or two from Adrian Serioux as why he also skipped the call.

Yesterday's 1-1 draw with Houston wasn't very satisfying at all. It was one of those ties that feels like a loss - and when you add in that Chicago, DC, and Columbus all won their matches yesterday, the feeling doesn't get any better.
Once again we are left to rue missed opportunities. Chad Barrett had a couple of opportunities, while one volley by Danny Dichio sticks out in my mind.

Chivas USA 2 Toronto 0

A scrappy little shutout win that at times wasn't necessarily pretty, but did the trick going into next weekend's SuperClasico against the Galaxy (Chivas USA also travels to Real Salt Lake Wednesday).

Sacha Kljestan had his first two goals of the season and it should have been more for Chivas USA - substitute Paulo Nagamura should have scored with only the goalkeeper to beat about four minutes from time.

Here's Adrian Serioux, with Toronto down a goal and already playing with ten men, making his bid for the "Worst Assault in MLS 2009" award:
Is this an expression of the growing frustration north of the Ice Curtain as thier inability to score goals - they've now posted three straight goose eggs - becomes more and more galling or simply an example of just how stupid the guy is?

TORONTO FC VS. COLORADO RAPIDS
BMO Field - Saturday, 4:30PM EST
TV: CBC -- Radio: The Fan 590
Hey Colorado - do you like the circus? Well, let's hope so because without putting up the BMO Winter Bubble, the big top is definitely in full effect. The only thing not happening around TFC this week is talk of how poor they have played lately!

Last night's game in Chicago was yet another episode in frustration for Toronto FC. TFC need every point they can get to cling to their slim chance of making the playoffs, and unfortunately they gave up two of them last night.

The frustrating part is that Chicago was definitely beatable, but Toronto still managed to squander the lead twice in the game and may now be too far out of the playoff race to catch up.