For all of the new faces that have joined the Toronto FC roster in the past two months, the common bond that joins almost all of them is a lack of Major League Soccer experience. Of the new arrivals, only Amado Guevara and Kevin Harmse had played in MLS before this season, which creates a greater challenge for both TFC's players and coaching staff to acclimate the players to the league's unique qualities.
This is when a player like Tyrone Marshall is at his most valuable. Now in his 11th MLS season, Marshall has just about seen it all --- two MLS All-Star selections, more than 18,000 minutes played, and being part of both a contracted club (the Miami Fusion) and a championship organization (2002 MLS Cup winners Los Angeles Galaxy).
This veteran leadership is especially useful in central defense, where Marshall has been partnered with first-year MLS defender Marco Velez through TFC's first four matches. With first-round MLS SuperDraft picks Julius James and Pat Phelan waiting in the wings and Ivorian defender Olivier Tebily in contract talks with the Reds, Marshall has found himself becoming an on-field mentor in terms of teaching his new teammates what MLS is all about.
"It's one of those things where you learn quickly on the job or you're on the bench," Marshall said. "Obviously the younger lads are coming in and a couple of injuries have set them back, but at the same time, Marco is an experienced defender. He's played in the [USL First Division] and he's played against quality players. There is that transition where the game is a bit faster, the guys are a bit stronger and you're playing at the higher level day in and day out, but overall it's a learning process and whoever learns the process the quickest is the one that will succeed."
This process has not been without its difficulties. Marshall and Velez were singled out by many pundits as the weak links on the backline after TFC was outscored 6-1 in its first two games, a 2-0 loss to Columbus and a 4-1 rout at the hands of D.C. United. The game in Washington could've been an even bigger rout had goalkeeper Greg Sutton not stopped seven of the 11 shots on goal.
Marshall said the D.C. game was something of a "wake-up call" for both himself and the rest of the team.
"During any season you'll have a game like that," Marshall said. "In a way it's good we got it under our belt early. It was a learning point for us. Guys were still learning about each other and ... playing a real MLS game and seeing what the environment is about and knowing you're facing their starting XI."
In spite of their struggles, Marshall and Velez were again in the lineup the next week against the LA Galaxy and played better in TFC's first win of the season. Then, in Toronto's match with Real Salt Lake last Saturday, the back four turned in their strongest outing of the year by holding RSL to eight shots and keeping a clean sheet in a 1-0 TFC victory.
Marshall said that in the wake of the D.C. match, the entire defense corps took it upon themselves to elevate their play.
"We dissected the tape and ... the next game in L.A. I thought we did defended well," Marshall said. "Then in the second half of the Salt Lake game we were strong defensively and kind of put our bodies on the line. That's what it's going to take for us to be successful -- to learn that you have to get down and dirty, so to speak, to win some of these games."
Velez agreed that the Real game was a major turning point for the much-maligned backline.
"That's a good sign since it means we're improving," Velez said. "[After the D.C. game] we could only go up, we couldn't go down. As a team we worked on being compact, getting to know each other, where to be at certain points. That was our main focus so there were no little gaps like there were in D.C."
After five years with the USL's Seattle Sounders and Puerto Rico Islanders, Velez said that the transition to MLS has been made easier thanks to some of Marshall's tips.
"He lets me know about different players and what their tendencies are," Velez said. "He tells me to play simple and not get too caught up in things. There are lots of little things [he points out] during the game or whatever. He's helped me a lot. Obviously he's been in the league for 10 years so he knows everything and it's good to have someone like him next to you."
Toronto head coach John Carver, himself a newcomer to Major League Soccer, hailed the veteran leadership of not just Marshall, but his other backfield mates in promoting Carver's clubwide emphasis on defending.
"[Marshall] is a plenty experienced player and crucial to the whole organization," Carver said. "As is Jimmy Brennan. Marvell Wynne is not a young pup either.
"It isn't just about the back four defending, it's the whole team. We got together, we got organized, we were difficult to break down. ... It was so pleasing because we spent a lot of time working on it."
Toronto FC is taking the shutout win against RSL and a two-game win streak overall into Saturday's match with Kansas City, another club that puts defense first. The Wizards have recorded three clean sheets in five matches and stand top of the overall MLS table with 10 points. Though Saturday's match could be the kind where one goal will be the difference, Marshall feels no more pressure than he usually does to keep the other side off of the scoreboard.
"For me as a defender, my approach is always to keep a clean sheet," Marshall said. "That's not going to happen all the time but my focus is always on keeping the ball out of the back of the net. At the end of the day, if you keep the ball out of the net, you've done your job. It doesn't matter how you do it. If you take care of your job, the guys up front can do their jobs and everybody feeds off each other.
"If it ends up 0-0, no problem, we've got a clean sheet and got a point, and we'll move on from there. But right now we're scoring goals, we've got some great offensive guys on the team and so all we need to do on defense is to keep [the Wizards] from getting chances."
Mark Polishuk is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
