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.

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Just when I'm trolling around in search of something to care about, along comes Toronto FC COO and all around fan favourite Paul Beirne tweeting about how he intends to require TFC Academy entrants to commit to playing for Canada.
Even Duane Rollins points out the Academy couldn't force a player to play for the national outfit if it came down to that, so ultimately this is just more fan populism, and it seems they're loving it. Click to continue reading...

---- -----------------"Can I get back to you in five years?"
One thing has become crystal clear over the last few days of post-season naval gazing at BMO Field. It doesn't matter, who the head coach is, it doesn't matter how the star player feels, it doesn't matter what the supporters want - Mo Johnston (Yes, the Scottish Hall of Famer! Click to continue reading...

Ok, in an effort to pump up the Seattle Sounders just enough for them to beat FC Dallas this weekend which would effectively seal Toronto's place in the playoffs (provided Toronto wins too of course), here is a quick clip for the Seattle Sounders fans. Laurie at the Sounders Offside, I'm looking at you here:

Ok, it's not so much a sacrifice to the football deities, as it is clip of a football deity (in Seattle), but hey, it's appearing on a Toronto FC page, so that's the best I can do.

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It's been a fantastic season in the US in 2009. Major League Soccer has done itself proud, providing some superb entertainment and more than enough controversy. And now there's just one game to go and the competition for the final playoff spots is at fever pitch. Here's your roundup from Week 31.
Outside shot Real Salt Lake got off to a great start to the week, defeating New York Red Bulls on Wednesday. Click to continue reading...

The Seattle Sounders made the playoffs over the weekend, with the Sounders taking care of a tough Kansas City club with a strong second-half. Elsewhere, DC United knocked off league-leading Columbus to keep their playoff hopes alive going into the final week of the regular season. Salt Lake 0 - Toronto 1 A 48th-minute goal from Toronto's Jim Brennan ended Real Salt Lake's push for a six-point week. Click to continue reading...

The Major League Soccer season is down to its final matches and the playoff picture is extremely close. Several teams who needed to win on Saturday to remain in contention did so including Toronto FC and DC United. Here's a recap of the matches in Major League Soccer on Saturday, October 17, 2009 along with video highlights.

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Here are the Twitterverse Players League groups, A through G, after Friday night's draw. If you want to listen to the recorded audio of the draw, the podcast is available for download by clicking here.
GROUP A Charlie Davies Taylor Twellman Carl Robinson Brian Jordan
GROUP B Danny Dichio Dwayne DeRosario Danny Cruz Hunter Freeman
GROUP C JozyAltidore17 Alecko Eskandarian Michael Chabala Brad Knighton
GROUP D Sacha Kljestan Robbie Rogers Kei Kamara Bobby Rhine
GROUP E Brian Ching Bobby Boswell Lee Nguyen Vincenzo Bernardo
GROUP F Stuart Holden Rohan Ricketts Brian Namoff Chris Tierney
GROUP G Freddy Adu Giuseppe Rossi Edson Buddle Joe Cannon
GROUP H Maurice Edu Brad Guzan Jim Brennan Taylor Graham
Voting begins Monday, October 5th, with groups A through D. Click to continue reading...

That's about it then right? Enough now with the endless quest for the playoffs? Toronto had to leave Illinois with three points tonight but could only grab one from a match that saw TFC start with a frenetic energy and end with most players about to collapse. The 2-2 result was probably fair for both teams who both showed a lot more in the way of mistakes rather than skill. Click to continue reading...

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena hasn't exactly rung the changes despite last weekend's record-setting 6-3 home loss to Dallas.

Sean Franklin has recovered from injury and replaces A.J. DeLaGarza (knee bruise) at right back in his first start since May, Chris Birchall makes his second MLS start in midfield, while Landon Donovan moves up front to partner Edson Buddle, perhaps the lone bright spot for the Galaxy last week when he came on as a sub.

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I had the honor of being a guest on the outstanding Canadian based show, It's Called Football. You know the cast of characters involved in the program well if you follow MLS north of the border, so without further adieu here is the link.

Related posts:

1. Is Canada's Club Football Brighter than in the US?

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It's make or break time. Well, maybe not - one good weekend of results can make quite the difference in this league. Nonetheless, with a majority of our home season done, we have to take some points on the road, and taking three from Chivas USA tonight would be a fantastic way to start a three-match road trip. Click to continue reading...

Well, the MLS International transfer window has passed on the Lake Ontario breeze once again with only a Fellinga to show for it. While its never a good policy to buy someone just because they are foreign (see Welsh, Tebily, Robert, Ruiz etc.), Toronto is a multicultural place and the fans do like to see that global flair. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

Thomas Rongen said early in the match that since both teams were playing with a 3-5-2 formation, it was likely that the team with the most individual talent would win. If you add up all the talent on United's roster and all the talent on Toronto's roster, United might prevail. But unfortunately games aren't actually won and lost that way. Click to continue reading...

"Yes, we've got Fellinga – it is, Sexual Healing-a" Okay, that may be the worst chant of all time but big kudos to anyone who is heard singing it on Saturday. That's right fans of Haitian International football, 23 year old Lesly Fellinga has signed with Toronto FC with the club officially announcing the move today. Click to continue reading...

Puerto Rico Islanders have an unofficial nickname of "Sepultureros" or in English - "The Gravediggers". Over the two legs of the Champions League Preliminary they didn't need help - Toronto FC brought it's own shovel and did all the work necessary to bury themselves.
Where does one begin with tonight's second leg? Click to continue reading...

This one has been floating around the old internetting machine for a few weeks but it has started to gather some steam overseas. Sources claim (why can't sauces ever claim instead?) that Toronto FC is about to sign 23 year old left-back Lesley Fellinga from Dutch Eredivisie outfit SC Heerenveen on a free (of course) transfer. Click to continue reading...

Bye bye Velez?
Steve Goff, from the Soccer Insider, is reporting that we are closing in on a deal for Haitian international left-back Lesly Fellinga. The 23 year-old has been capped 4 times by Haiti, and for me, would be a welcome addition to a very weak Toronto FC defense.
If we do sign Fellinga, we will have back up for Jim Brennan at left-back, and that gives us the potential to put Jimmy B at centre half, where he played quite well for us in year one (but that year sucked, so it's really hard to say. Click to continue reading...

The New York Red Bulls come to town tonight. They have lost their last four, and winless on the road this season, and have yet to score a goal away from Giants Stadium. Surely we can't mess this up, right?
I'd expect that newly-acquired defender Nick Garcia will slide right into the starting eleven, especially with Marvell Wynne away on international duty and Jim Brennan being a game-time decision because of an ankle injury. Click to continue reading...

It's official: this past week has been the worst in our club's short history. In fact, any progress we appeared to have made this off-season might as well have not happened. This Toronto FC team is proving that it does not have what it takes to become a contender in this parity-stricken league. 2009 was supposed to be "the year. Click to continue reading...

Colorado Rapids striker Conor Casey is leading Major League Soccer's race for the Golden Boot, but Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman is making a run at the league's Golden Ankle award.

He is tied for the league lead with five yellow cards in 11 matches.

So as the Rapids prepare to travel to Utah to face RSL on Saturday, The Tuesday List looks at yellow cards and fouls.

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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.

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Perhaps I am the Eeyore of TFC fans, but I did not rush down to today's game with my head and heart bursting with optimism. Last Saturday's loss to the Chicago Fire had stung and some of the bitterness clearly had lingered for the week since. I have been salivating for too long at that "2 International players to be signed" rumour and I felt that the loss to the Fire had only underlined the striker/central defender need. Click to continue reading...

Danny Dichio comes to Toronto FC via Preston North End, thirty-two years old with creaky legs and no pace, and becomes the club's first and most consistent scorer (when not felled by injury).
Rohan Ricketts comes to Toronto FC via Barnsley, twenty-four with fresh legs and incosistent pace, and, save for one glorious brace against the Colorado Rapids at BMO Field in June 2008, hasn't made much of an impact. Click to continue reading...

One of our most loyal readers has uncovered the following story. While Columbus was where Stern John got his start and was where he was most recently linked with a return, Toronto FC is now being mentioned as his North American destination:

John has had offers to return to cross the Atlantic from one player who was a genuine Ashton Gate favourite.

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Following his team's 1-0 win over Montreal in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship Toronto FC team captain Jim Brennan wanted more. Speaking to reporters after the game Brennan said: "With the amount of chances that we had, we'd like to convert a few more. But at the end of the day we got out three points and that's what we wanted.

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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. Click to continue reading...

Refs can't get away from those red cards can they? I don't know if it's their fault though, with the two players on the receiving end Jamison Olave and Fredy Montero deserving to be sent off. It's discouraging to see on such a consistent basis, though refs are standing up for themselves. Most calls have been warranted.

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Found this info poking around Jim Brennan#8217;s spanky new website this morning. Now, maybe I missed the official announcements, but I thought the problem Jim had with the team was Dale Mitchell and that once he was gone we would see Jimmy return to the fold. But there can be no doubt with the language [. Click to continue reading...

div style="text-align: justify;"Yes, we won. It's great to get a road win to open the season - and to score three is quite impressive as well. We did concede two, but really, those two goals were fantastic individual efforts from 20 yards - not poor defending. Full match report will be up tomorrow.br //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1. Click to continue reading...

Earlier today, Dale Mitchell responded to Jim Brennan and, well, it looks like we've got us a good ol' fashioned tit for tat going on in Canadian soccer. When asked if he would ever call Brennan again, Mitchell responded with an emphatic "no". Mitchell said Brennan had turned down the call-ups in the last 18 months [. Click to continue reading...

Looks like there is fire underneath the Jim Brennan smoke I posted about a few days ago. The Toronto FC defender has publicly spoken out against both Dale Mitchell and the CSA. He hasn't retired from the MNT, but emphatically states that he won't be suiting up as long as Dale Mitchell is at the [...] Click to continue reading...

Toronto fan kicked it all of this year when a 2,357 made the journey to Crew Stadium on MLS First Kick
A Toronto area newspaper took a look today on the incidents we first brought you here on MLSR in this video.
The following is an excerpt from an article in the Toronto Sun entitled "Kicking Out At Hooliganism"

Inside the stadium they were throwing beers, while outside they were throwing fists.

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To highlight the sheer volume of players missing from action this weekend due to international call-ups, here's a complete list of absences by game:
Chivas USA @ Toronto FC - 1 p.m. ET
TFC - Greg Sutton (Canada)
TFC - Jim Brennan (Canada)
TFC - Marvell Wynne (USA)
TFC - Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala)
TFC - Amado Guevara (Honduras)
TFC - Tyrone Marshall (Jamaica)
TFC - Julius James (Trinidad & Tobago)
TFC - Jarrod Smith (New Zealand)
TFC - Carl Robinson (Wales)
CHV - Sacha Kljestan (USA)
CHV - Shavar Thomas (Jamaica)
New England @ Columbus Crew - 7:30 p. Click to continue reading...