It has been a week to forget within a season to forget for Toronto FC.
Not only did a home loss to San Jose last Saturday put the team’s playoff chances on life support, captain and leading scorer Dwayne De Rosario’s “I want more money” goal celebration brought unnecessary negative attention.
Then, Tuesday a draw with Real Salt Lake officially ended the club’s CONCACAF Champions League campaign.
Now, a 3-2 playoff-killing loss to Seattle Sounders. Afterward, interim head coach Nick Dasovic threw down the gauntlet to his players.
“If you don't want to be here and fight, then you can make your way out,” Dasovic said after the game. “No problem. We'll let you go and pursue other ventures. But if you want to be here, I only want guys who are going to fight for the football club."
The game actually started well for TFC, with Dwayne De Rosario opening the scoring in the 16th minute. It was his 13th of the season. But almost on cue, TFC gave up the lead right away and allowed two more goals on the way to losing 3-2 to the Seattle Sounders, the second straight game they’ve been on the losing end of that scoreline.
Toronto have conceded six goals in the last two games, not the kind of feat a team fighting for their playoff life can allow to happen.
Once a strong suit amid the club’s offensive woes, the defense has markedly deteriorated of late. Slack defending was to blame for all three Seattle goals, a combination of missed assignments and shoddy clearing.
"All of their goals were pretty soft,” goalkeeper Stefan Frei said after the game. “It's just very disappointing."
On Steve Zakuani’s 21st minute equalizer, TFC’s defense seemed more concerned with raising their arms to draw an offside call than preventing the incisive pass that set up the goal. To be fair, replays indicated that Zakuani may have indeed been offside. But the space provided to Osvaldo Alonso in the midfield was equally visible in the replay.
Poor marking on set plays—a recurring problem for the Reds—was the culprit on the second goal when Blaise Nkufo went unguarded on a free header from a set piece swung into the Toronto area.
“Terrible marking,” Frei said. “You don't have to ask a guy of that caliber to try to finish a wide-open header.”
Canadian international Adrian Cann was the goat on the third goal when his weak clearance from the front of the goal went straight to Sanna Nyassi, whose blast beat Frei.
Did the defense leave town with recently fired coach Preki? Dasovic’s approach centers on allowing the players to play their game. But ultimately, it comes down to whether the players are hungry or not.
“Well, the proof's in the pudding,” Dasovic said. “When you watch a football game from the outside, you see a guy lose it and not track back - that's a character deficiency. To be fair, they tried. We've had a tough schedule. I'm not going to throw the boys under the bus ... now's not the time. We're going to keep working.”
