A big game in Inverness this weekend, but its derby day in MLS too ... or what they are calling "rivalry week".

 

Portland head to Seattle for a MLS game that is also classified as a "Cascadia Cup" game.

(The Cascadia cup is awarded - by supporters groups of the competing clubs - to the team in the Pacific North West which has the best record against the others that season. Portland/Seattle and Vancouver are the 3 teams that compete for it.)

 

DC United will head up from Washington to play New York in their "Atlantic Cup" derby, New England will head across from Boston to play Philadelphia in the St Paddys Day battle between cities with a heavy Irish ancestry,, and Colorado make the trip to Salt Lake City for the Rocky Mountain derby ... not sure if there is some history behind the other two games on Saturday, but for some bizzaro reason, Columbus will play San Jose while Kansas entertain Chicago so not every game appears to be a derby.

 

on Sunday, its back to derbies as Dallas play Houston whilst LA Galaxy will play against Chivas who share the same stadium as them.

 

But the biggie (for me at least) is Montreal -V- Toronto on Saturday !!!! An early start for me and an estimated (sold out allocation of)  5300 travelling fans .... some are heading there tomorrow, others are already there, and many are making it a full weekend, taking in a UFC event as well as St Patrick's day which is apparently huge in Montreal !!! but in my case, its off to BMO field for 7am Saturday morning and the 6 hour bus journey to Montreal ... watch the game then back to Toronto ..... hopefully with a big smile

 

First home game was last weekend and TFC played in the Rogers Centre (SkyDome) against Kansas. Kansas won the Eastern Division last year, a full 40 points ahead of TFC, but courtesy of a couple of Robbie Earnshaw goals, some nice play from John Bostock and solid defending from Darren O'Dea and Danny Califf, the Reds - and new coach Ryan Nelsen - got all 3 points ..... 3 more this weekend against Montreal would be sweet .....

The Vancouver whitecaps are off to a very good start as well Scotty. They have won their last two home games and Kenny Miller scored a fine goal to win the last game against Columbus Crewe from Ohio.

 

What has struck me this term is the fact that the pace of the MLS has increased well over that of last term and finally the emphasis seems to be on going forward and not passing back or sideways at the back.

 

That game was quite frenetic and exciting so the MLS this season looks like it will continue to make significant progress all round.

The Crewe are a good, very hard-working team and they never gave up which bodes well for their future too.

 

Some very exciting players are being brought in from overseas too. In particular we now have some Japanese guys who art fit and skilled  so who knows what lies ahead?

Another 21,000 crowd  at home too who were very noisy all adds up to one thing-- atmosphere, success and future progress.

 

Aye.

And what feckin happened ?

And what feckin happened ?

Montreal 2-1 Toronto

And what feckin happened ?

Montreal 2-1 Toronto

 

Indeed dodgy ref, two dodgy penalties (one for each side), but a great day out nonetheless !!! It was a long one though ... left Toronto at 8AM got to Montreal at 3PM. left Montreal after game at about 6:30PM, got back to Toronto at about 1:20AM ...... they reckon there were about 4000 away fans which is an MLS record (breaking the record from 2008 when Toronto took 2500 to Columbus).

 

 

You can see my recap here if you want: http://tfcpics.com/montreal-v-tfc-youve-just-been-toledo-ed/

Or my pictures here: http://tfcpics.com/gallery/2013-2/201303-montreal-v-tfc/