now that MLS season is upon us, I think I will start a thread about the team I go to watch because I cant be at the TCS !!!

We will skip over week 1, where TFC lost badly to Vancouver ... and move to last weekend where it was a nice 2-0 victory over Portland. Its gonna take time for the parts to gel, but here is an excellent goal I had the privilege to see in the flesh .....

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Rumours continue to abound that Vancouver are doing everything they can to try and sign Owen Hargreaves ! Many Canadian fans call him Owen Whoregreaves given his choice not to represent Canada and if they pull this move off, it will alienate a lot of their fans who the front office are already doing a good job of annoying with their pettiness !!!!

On the other side of the country, Toronto FC have been REALLY busy !!!

With the MLS transfer window now open our 2 new 'designated players' have now officially signed. Torsten Frings (ex Werder Bremen) and Danny Koevermans (ex PSV) are now TFC players and join our existing designated player Julian DeGuzman to mean TFC now have the maximum of 3 DPs on the squad. The 2 new guys will debut next week against Dallas.

TFC could also have a further 4 new players in the lineup (and possibly more) as coach Aron Winter has traded 4 players out of Toronto and brought 4 in .....

Nana Attakora (D), Jacob Petersen (M) and Alan Gordon (F) all head to San Jose in return for Ryan Johnson (M/F), an International Roster spot (available to use for signing 'non-domestic' players) and allocation money (money used to pay wages above the salary cap).

Terry Dunfield heads to Toronto from Vancouver with allocation money going the other way (probably the money we received from San Jose - and maybe used in any Hargreaves deal to join Vancouver?)

Tony Tchani (M) who TFC received as part of the trade of Dwayne DeRosario to New York heads to Columbus with Andy Iro (D) and Leandre Griffit (M) coming to Toronto.

The arrivals are good ones and certainly make TFC a lot stronger and I can live with the departures with the possible exception of Tchani. He is a young central midfielder and built like a brick **** house. A bit raw but he is going to be a big player in MLS when he develops. Might have made a mistake with that one but I guess the TFC defence needs help now so we gave up a future prospect to get it.

According to the grapevine, the trades wont end there and might even see some surprising moves .... like our original designated player Julian DeGuzman heading out of TO !!!

And I thought the transfer window here was complicated!!!!!!!!!!!

Shoot!

Scotty, you seem to have alot of spare time on your hands these days to be so interested in these two poorly-performing Canadian teams.

I regret to advise that Vancouver's results have fallen off the map and so has my relative interest. To be truthful I did see them a week or so ago on the telly and they were unlucky to lose by one goal. If they do not turn things around soon the only thing that this season will be remembered for will be the great crowds that have been showing up through the turnstyles.

But the news of Terry Dunfield's departure has stunned me. An Englander and ---apparently--completely committed to Vancouver with a great stirring opening game, he seemed to be the man of the moment and had a bright future with Fanny Couver.

Oh well, he will probably do well in Toronto.

De Rosario sure did not last long in your city, though, did he?

Vancouver 's problem? The spirit with which they opened the season seems to have evaporated .This is reflected in their lack of dash going forward and a very irritating propensity of the defence to either pass it across from one back to

And I don't think that the transfer in of one

outstanding player is enough by any means.

To be frank, Scotty, I am getting the distinct impression that there is far too much empkhasis on the business side of the MLS and not enough emphasis on the spiritual side. This team lacks the heart to succeed in the short term. Hope I am wrong.

And I thought the transfer window here was complicated!!!!!!!!!!!

nahh, its reasonably simple here !

1. MLS (the league) owns the contracts of all players.

2. Clubs dont buy players from each other, they trade them

3. To even up the deals, clubs can offer other incentives on top of deals like draft picks, allocation dollars, international roster slots, or 'future considerations'

okey dokey .....

tickets printed, work clothes discarded in favour of TFC top and a pair of casual shorts (it's 36? here today, 46? with humidity, ie. really hot and sunny), ready to jump on the highway to drive downtown and meet up with friends for a pre-game beer ..... It's TFC -V- Dallas tonight and the debut (hopefully) of Torsten Frings and Danny Koevermans and some combination of the other 5 new signings made over the last two weeks !!!

IF TFC win (and based on this season's performance thats a huge IF), it will be their 50th win in all competitions since 2007 .... (also have 50 draws and 68 losses so still a bit of catching up to do) .... With a total of 7 new signings it almost feels like the opening game of the season (again).

Vancouver Whitecaps played Manchester City in the city two nights ago.

It cost the club over $200,000 to LAY TURF ON TOP OF THE PLASTIC PITCH. There was torrential rain in the morning and afternoon and loads of chaps were out with squeegees pushing the water off the pitch as best they could. They did lay a tarp beneath the top turf but that only added to the moisture. However, the sun came out , there was about 25,000 folks came to the game and the atmosphere was great. Vancouver scored a bit of a flukey goal first and for long spells hadtcomplete possession of the ball. After half time, however, Man C started to get serious and a well-worked goal brought them even . Shaun Wright Phillips was the man of the match and won the game for them with electrifying runs and an absolute cracker of a goal from at least 33.2 yards that Jolly, our goalie, simply could not get to.

Everybody had a ball but the visitors looked not quite fully fit and obviously saw this game as a warm up and nothing else.They are off to play L A Galaxy I think next.They had many first team players out at Empire Field and Vancouver also seems to have a lot of good players in reserve so maybe next year they will be much better.

The weather here is the absolute opposite of what Toronto is experiencing --continuous cold and rainy every blinking day. Me bones are really aching with all this water which never seems to stop. Last week the mighty Fraser river was getting to alarming heights but has now subsided and we hopee the danger of flooding has passed. The depths of this river appear to vary quite a bit but in the areas where it is recorded its about twenty feet .

A year ago at least, the salmon run was the biggest for years being over 20 million fish.The year before it was more like 4 million.The fish go out from their birthplace upstream into the Pacific ocean and come back to spawn at tehir original birthplace about every 4-5 years. The Adams river which I understand is a tributary of the Fraser way up in the North of B.C. has the largest salmon run in the world.

At Steveston fishing village very close by there once was a salmon cannery which was the largest in the British Empire and probably in the world but the gradual decline in fish eventually took it's toll and now it is just a museum.