Rocket Robin's Soccer in Toronto Summary for 2023 (by Rocket Robin)
December 15, 2023
Rocket Robin Soccer in Toronto 2023 Season Review
It's time for me to summarize my thoughts on the soccer season for 2023.
I was able to attend 76 games this year for everything between the Canadian National teams when they came to play
in Toronto to League1 Ontario. I'll break my thoughts into each team/league that I followed.
Canadian National teams (four games)
Bookends of my year and playing between friendlies and competitions. My first game of the year was way back
on March 28th in a Men's game for CONCACAF Nations League group play in a game against Honduras. It was an important 4-1 win
to help Canada win it's group and get to the region's Final Four and eventually the final where they lost to the United States.
This was after the CSA had cancelled friendly games (Iran for political pressure and their replacement Panama in the Canadian
players dispute with the CSA) and Canada had beaten Curacao to have a chance of advancing. The last game was November 21st
in a CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal game against Jamaica where they lost at home 3-2 to lose on the away goal rule
and now will have to play in a one game consolation against Trinidad and Tobago in Texas with the winner earning roundabout
entry to the COPA America. All the lustre of qualifying for the World Cup has worn off and they are searching for a permanent
head coach. The two other games were the women's team playing in Toronto two months earlier and winning a series against Jamaica
to qualify for the Olympics and a Men's Gold Cup game against Guadeloupe where they were held to a tie.
All these games I was able to watch from the press box and be part of the post game press conferences except the Gold Cup game
where my botching the application resulted in me getting credentials but my e-mail address defaulted me from the required codes.
That one I watched from the stands as a fan.
York United FC of the Canadian Premier League (14 regular season games and 2 Canadian Championship games)
*actually three Canadian Championships games because I came to the stadium early and saw HFX Wanderers play Atletico Ottawa
before the York CCL game.
The league expanded the post season to five out of the eight teams and York grabbed the last spot which would have them
on a near impossible straight three game sudden death road game path to win the championship. Still their season ended upbeat
as they had to grab that spot on their final home game of the season scoring late against Atletico Ottawa.
York had injury problems with them even cancelling some pre season games and getting worse as the season progressed.
Playing without a full healthy bench caused even more work for the players who could play and that caused more injuries.
This year the luck of the draw for the Canadian Championship gave them two home games (last year they just had road games).
These last two years the rules have turned them into one game knockouts instead of home and aways. They started by beating
the new team Vancouver FC who stayed in town until the weekend and then beat York causing York to start their regular season
at 2 losses in 2 games. They were spared falling out of the playoffs right away by so many of the other CPL games tying
so often in the first weeks of the season. It also turned out they had the best road record of all the CPL teams. They had
a spell of not scoring in three straight home games in the summer which certainly didn't help attendance.
I was disappointed by their roster not taking advantage of the soccer hotbed of southern Ontario. One of their rivals HFX Wanderers
from Nova Scotia finished last in 2022 and brought in the head coach of the L1O league champs Vaughan Azzurri plus his assistant
plus four players from that team and after a slow start, finished a strong third place. Mid season replacement of homegrown
players with York seemed to rely on a resume of 'played for some low division team in Europe'.
Earlier this month, York United was acquired by new owners from Mexico, taking it back from the league who was running the team
this season. The family running the team has big plans for them and just the stability alone should aid the team. One of the
goals they've set is to recruit more local talent.
Their attendance was the worst in the league. They have a subway station right outside their grounds and it's so much easier
to get here then BMO Field but people downtown lament York is 'soooo far away'. There's still talk that they may move to their
own stadium on the grounds of the Woodbine horse race track and casino on the north west edge of the city...very near the soccer
player hotbed of Brampton. A stadium probably depends on whether something will be built as a training ground for teams coming
to this city for the Men's World Cup in 2026.
I'm a season ticket holder from Day 1 (five years now) but have never watched from the stands as I've always had press access.
Toronto FC II of MLS NEXT Pro (14 games)
This season the games were opened to the public for a reasonable $10 admission price which was actually a relief from 2022
when I had to rely on being nodded through by a friendly game day official for a team still recovering from pandemic rules.
Like York United FC, Toronto FC II play at York Lions Stadium mainly as it meets the MLS office standards for broadcasting
their games.
On the field the team finished sub .500 and didn't make the playoffs. That was a disappointment from the 2022 season when they
advanced to the Eastern Conference final. It doesn't bother me as they are a development team for their MLS club owners.
Lots of experimentation in lineups as the big club can drop roster players into the team on a few hours notice easily as they
play in the same city. This 'the importance is development' sentiment was told to me by former Toronto FC GM Tim Bezbatchenko
which changed my mind one day at a game when they still played at their training center. He made the news just last week for
winning the MLS Cup with Columbus Crew (as president and GM) for his home state team.
This season I thought the only player who deserved to be moved up was starting goalie Luka Gavran and near the end of the season
he was signed to their MLS team. I say the MLS team's problems certainly weren't his fault as they couldn't score and finished
with their worst record ever. I was a season ticket holder for their first eleven years so saw some really bad ones (and later
their championship season).
The team always turn over a greater portion of their older roster so I expect to see a lot of their younger players who impressed
me as late subs in games and will get a lot more playing time in the season to come.
Young backup goalie Adisa De Rosario was eventually loaned out to York United which meant there could be matches with his older
brother Osaze De Rosario (their start striker) but injuries to Osaze and Adisa's back up role limited the occasions of having them
on the field together and their family including father Dwayne (MLS and Canadian national legend) watching from the stands.
League1 Ontario (40 men's games, 1 women's game)
This is the last year the league ran it's Premier League with 21 teams (it was 22 in 2022) before breaking up into a 12 team Premier
and second level (Championship) 10 team league. The teams came into the season carrying over 75% of their 2022 points. It was pretty
clear early that many clubs had no chance of making the final 12 team cut off.
Some teams made a run to ensure their top league status by assembling rosters by poaching players from other teams or bringing
in hired guns. Some others may have been mandated by their club bylaws or boards to only use players brought through their own system
or community. I can imagine some parent board with limited funds voting to hire one more coach for their U-8's than paying for some
pro players from outside to keep their men's team in the top division.
I was nicknaming the teams collecting all-stars 'Mike's Mercenaries' (an old SCTV skit with John Candy and a bunch of GI Joe dolls).
Teams like that I'd say were second year teams Simcoe County Rovers FC (hey it worked for them as they won the championship)
and Electric City FC and Scrosoppi FC (who are a third year team). All of them will be in the Top 12 next season. Long term,
I'm interested in the development of youth players in their cities of Barrie, Peterborough and the Milton area.
Some teams had to scramble to find a home ground before the season began. Scrosoppi FC is located in Milton but their facility
is at a local high school whose field and building was undergoing renovations. They relocated to the Ontario Soccer Centre
in Vaughan 40 km away. Late night games was the norm because the facility is rented out to community groups during the 'good hours'
and the distance cut into their fan base. Worse luck were two teams that planned on playing out of Bill Carruthers school in Markham
as some bureaucrat decided that they weren't going to allow the school to open its doors for the players to use the change rooms.
The league scrambled on one week's notice to have Unionville-Milliken also play at Ontario Soccer Centre (getting even worse times)
and Alliance United who could use their arrangement with the University of Toronto to play some home games at their downtown campus
but not their nearest (to Markham) facility of Centennial College as it was undergoing renovations of its own.
I was able to see forty Men's games during the season. I tried to see every team a minimum of twice but pulled up short as I only
caught Electric City once with them not catching a playoff spot on the last weekend. On the other hand, with convenient times when
no other GTA based teams were playing plus a long playoff run, I got to see Scrosoppi ten times. I also saw the Women's Final with
the same finalists as the year before but with the result reversed.
I was once again able to conduct an interview with a coach from every team this year and I am really grateful for the assistance
of the coaches and the league for enabling me to do that. Also a huge thanks to the players for helping me fill in details of some
of their goals that happened so fast. “Nice goal. Who was that guy who gave you that pass?” was a common post game question from
me as I wandered onto the field after the final whistle.
I felt burnt out after the season. I eventually put a self-imposed maximum limit of three games per week. I was able to write
a summary of every game within the week I saw them. A full summary that including lineups, pictures, and a play-by-play had to wait
for League1 Ontario from about the midway part of the season. As of the time of today's writing, I've whittled the expanded details
still to do down to four games.
Next year I will probably cut back the number of games I see but that will probably be noticed only at the L1O level as I expect
to only attend games involving the top 12 teams.
Best wishes to all for 2024!
Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
twitter @RocketRobin01
www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com
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