Windsor failed to score on five chances with the man advantage.

In the end it was an all too familiar tale that played out on an all too familiar stage. When Toronto FC travelled to New Jersey to play the Red Bulls back in 2009, the prospects of making the playoffs for the first time weighed all too heavy on the shoulders of a team that was simply not good enough for such a burden. The 5-0 humiliation that day simply rubber stamped the inevitable. The team wasnt good. With or without a ticket to the playoffs. On another October night in the Garden State, almost five years on, a different looking TFC got a similar dose of medicine. Only this time it was supposed to be different. This team was supposed to be ready for the big time. Ready for the bright lights. Instead, they arrived back to their hotel in Hoboken, where the lights of Manhattan glisten in the distance, closed the curtain on the dream and fell asleep pondering a failed season. A bloody big disappointment. More finger pointing. Some will say what else could have MLSE have done, after all they threw $100 million at the team and they still failed? Its a lovely round number that adds exclamation marks to another season of ineptitude but it hardly paints the true picture of ineffectiveness. In less time than it takes for a mother to carry a child full term, Toronto FC had gone from Tim Leiwekes Why cant we be great? message to a season of failure once again. During those nine months there were many answers to Leiwekes question. Coaching, formations, tactics, injuries, defensive errors, flights to England, the World Cup. The list can go on and on. The main answer to his question, though, is the lack of combinations in the squad. This is professional sport, it is not like running a team on a football manager videogame simulator where you can buy a bunch of players, run their stats through a system and win games. Yes, money was thrown around but what use is it if you bring in players who dont mix? Leiweke and MLS had three golden tickets in their hands the moment Leiweke convinced the board to spend more money on the team. Yet, they gave two of them to strikers who never looked like compliments to each other. Along the way, of course, there were other factors, notably Jermain Defoes multiple injuries and frequent flyer miles, but when you sign TWO designated players to play up top, you would hope they would somehow have some kind of understanding of how to play off each other. That should, at least, have been the minimum requirement. Thirty-two games in, under two different coaching staffs, and the jury is officially in. The verdict delivered is a harsh one.... Toronto FC have played 2,880 MLS minutes this season. Gilberto and Defoe played together for 530 of them. Less than 19% of the season. The club has now scored 43 league goals this season. They only scored eight of them when the two big money strikers were on the field together. As if that wasnt a big enough problem, the signings themselves led to bigger problems. Having them both around forced the team into a system that didnt suit them and even when they did play together, it didnt make the team better. Strike one. They gave their third golden ticket to Michael Bradley, a player, like Defoe, this franchise could only have dreamed of having one year ago. Yet, with him and Defoe they failed again. Why? Another strike for combinations. Toronto FC GM Tim Bezbatchenko admitted to me earlier this season that the deal for Bradley came together very quickly and late into the offseason. The club has paid for it ever since. Not the signing of the player, but the timing of the signing. In order to get Bradley they had to move the perfect player to get the best out of him. Matias Laba has been immense for an excellent Vancouver side this season and would have been the ideal partner for the American international. Instead, the club spent the entire season looking to find ways of getting more out of Bradley and they never accomplished it. With Laba and Bradley in midfield and a healthy, fully committed Defoe up top it would have been hard to imagine this team not making the playoffs. Laba, however, is a Whitecaps player and is not returning. There will be those who believe throwing DP money after central midfielders is a waste but the modern game is so often won in transitions and having such a solid core can win a club a lot of matches. Bradley is a rare talent at this level who needs to be treasured. It is easy to say he is vastly overpaid but the truth is the club has never had anyone like him in terms of his distribution and football intelligence. Under Ryan Nelsen, he was often asked to play too high up the field, when he is far best suited facing the field where he can pass and attack from deep positions by breaking lines. Vanney recognized this but was already forced to marry, temporarily, a system that required two strikers, forcing Bradley into a midfield two. Inside that, Vanney, like Nelsen, never found the right balance for the American international because he simply didnt have the right players in the squad to get the best out of him. Strike two. Behind whichever midfield combination they played was a back four that never settled together all season. Toronto FC has had some of the worst defences in recent times in Major League Soccer and this current group is not one of them, but they certainly were culpable for much of this seasons disappointments. Full back is clearly a position Vanney is looking to evolve and his work with Justin Morrow since he took over shows real positive signs as he tries to bring a high pressing style and the need for at least one full back to advance forward to not make the attack narrow when the left midfielder, usually Jonathan Osorio, cuts in to help centrally. Defending is a collective responsibility across the entire team but it was clear this season that far too many errors were made by centre-backs. Out of the 64 starting apperances by the two this season, 40 of them were combined between Nick Hagglund and Doneil Henry, two players who played the majority of the season having turned just 21-years-old. Hagglund, now 22, has shown a lot of promise but no one at the start of the season would have thought starting him in 23 league games was the right thing to do. Henry had a season to forget with a number of high-profile individual errors and the team never found the right balance at the heart of the defence. Under Nelsen the team went behind often and recovered often. It was a formula that was not sustainable. In their 32nd match of the season on Saturday they went behind for the 26th time. They had recovered 14pts from losing positions by recovering 12 times from losing deficits, but there are only so many times you can do that. Playing from behind is a dangerous game and, the Portland match aside, they havent looked capable of winning a game they trailed in for two months. Captain Steven Caldwell is arguably the best centre-back the team has ever had. His leadership and tenacity was exactly what this team needed for many years but when Vanney recognized the team needed to play higher up the field with more tempo and an intelligent pressing game, it didnt do Caldwell and his partners any favours. They arent the most technically gifted, possession based defenders who can step up with the team. Instead, to compensate for the lack of pace, they dropped deep and into their comfort zone. Strike three. Maturing and learning how to win is what this team needs as a group. Theres no need for this team to be blown up, said Vanney after Saturdays match. It may be easier said than done. He clearly has some very useful parts to work with but some will be moved on and for the good of the team they should be. 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Larry Andersen Jersey . Its a blessing and a burden for nine sons of former NHL players who are all expected to be taken in the first four rounds of the draft this weekend. Tim McCarver Jersey .com) - The Calgary Flames are spoilers once again.ERIE, Pa. - Eries top line of Dane Fox, Connor Brown and Connor McDavid combined for six goals and 14 points as the Otters crushed the visiting Windsor Spitfires 9-0 on Sunday in Ontario Hockey League play. Fox scored three goals and now has a league-best 51 goals on the season. Brown had two goals and four assists, which gives him 88 points in 43 contests, and McDavid tacked on a goal and four assists. Spencer Abraham and Andre Burakovsky also scored for the Otters (34-7-2), who are 5-0-1 in their last six outings, while Adam Pelech had four assists. Erie goaltender Oscar Dansk made 26 saves for the shutout. Dalen Kuchmey started in net for the Spitfires (25-16-2), but was pulled after giving up four goals on 12 shots through just over 35 minutes of action. Kuchmey was replaced by Alex Fotinos, who block just 13-of-18 shots he faced in relief. The Otters went 4 for 6 on the power play while Windsor failed to score on five chances with the man advantage. --- STORM 5 RANGERS 0 GUELPH, Ont. -- Brock McGinn scored twice and Justin Nichols made 29 saves as the Storm shutout the Rangers for their third straight victory. Matt Finn, Robby Fabbri and Scott Kosmachuk also scored for Guelph (32-8-3), and Jason Dickinson had three assists. Jordan DeKort made 42 saves for Kitchener (15-25-2). Guelph was 2 for 5 on the power play while the Rangers failed to score on their only chance with the man advantage. --- GREYHOUNDS 5 KNIIGHTS 4 (SO) SAULT STE.dddddddddddd MARIE, Ont. -- Jared McCann scored in regulation and again in a shootout to lift the Greyhounds over London. Bryan Moore had a goal and an assist, while Blake Speers and Patrick Watling scored the other Sault Ste. Marie (29-10-5) goals. Darnell Nurse chipped in with two assists. Max Domi scored twice for the Knights (28-9-5), who have dropped three games in a row, and Bo Horvat and Mitchell Marner rounded out the London offence. Greyhounds goalie Matt Murray made 28 saves while Anthony Stolarz turned aside 30 shots in the losing effort. --- BATTALION 3 FRONTENACS 2 NORTH BAY, Ont. -- Brett McKenzie had a pair of goals as the Battalion held on to defeat Kingston. Matt MacLeod also scored for North Bay (21-17-5), which had a 3-0 lead early in the second period. Roland McKeown and Spencer Watson brought the Frontenacs (24-14-4) within a goal. Jake Smith made 27 saves for the Battalion as Lucas Peressini turned away 27-of-30 shots for Kingston. --- GENERALS 2 WOLVES 1 (SO) SUDBURY, Ont. -- Bradley Latour scored once in regulation and then added the shootout winner as Oshawa slipped past the Wolves. Latour opened the scoring at 4:39 of the third period for the Generals (27-12-4). Dominik Kahun responded for Sudbury (24-10-7) at 13:40 to force overtime. Oshawas Daniel Altshuller made 34 saves for the win as Franky Palazesse turned away 28-of-29 shots for the Wolves. 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