Photo: Nicolae Stoian

With the dust still settling following Toronto FC’s first victory of the season over the Union, one thing is now abundantly clear. The Union, not Toronto, may be the worst team in Major League Soccer.

In a first half where third-string goalkeeper Chris Konopka had to come up big and did in his first start for the Union and Ryan “Couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat” Johnson got everything wrong, Toronto could have easily put two or three goals past the hapless Union. Now with 11 games in the books of this 2012 season, the starting XI that took the pitch at BMO Field on Saturday afternoon looked no closer to grasping the coaching staff’s game plan and gelling into a competitor than did the team that got spanked in Portland on opening day.

Go Go Gadget, STOP IT

The Union coaching staff’s gimmicks, gambits, gadgets, ploys and ruses are dragging players out of their comfort zones, and on Saturday it played right into the hands off their opponents. As a counterattacking team who looks to spring the speedy Joao Plata and Reggie Lambe on either wing with long balls from Torsten Frings and Julian de Guzman, the Union needed to cover two places to slow them down: The center of the midfield and their defensive flanks. By dropping Brian Carroll in between the center backs and pushing the fullbacks high in attack, the Union effectively did neither, allowing Toronto free reign of the midfield. Carroll was too deep to provide his typical defensive pressure while the fullbacks were always scrambling back to cover Plata and Lamb.

Freddy, watch Michael, you could learn something

While Freddy Adu was putting in another disappointing performance for the Union, Michael Farfan was working hard to be the midfielder the Union actually need. Adu’s routine is becoming repetitive: He demands the ball high up the pitch and treats every touch as if he will use it to score a goal. With Gabriel Farfan putting in the extra effort to overlap, Adu rarely so much as looks at him, preferring to cut into the pitch to try and create magic out of thin air with his every possession. It is played out and obvious, as evidenced by the shots and crosses that are blocked back in his face in each match. The defense is clear on their scouting of Adu: He’s going for goal, always. If you stand between him and the goal, half the job is already done.

Contrast that with the workmanlike effort of Michael Farfan. Happy to drop deep into defense to help his fullback, while being available to receive the ball from the centerbacks to start the build-up, Farfan was just as likely to be spotted in his own half as we was in Toronto’s. When he did attack he picked his moments, with his blast off the crossbar and well-saved shot in the 75th minute standing as the Union’s best two scoring chances of the contest.

Goal-scoring chances come from the midfield. Work must be done in the middle third of the park to create a consistent pipeline of quality service forward to the strikers. Michael Farfan has proved that he is willing to put in the hard work in that middle third to help his team control a match. Adu has not.

Don’t blame Danny

With Lionard Pajoy occupying the role of the lone striker, the Union struggled. Pajoy’s lack of strength with his back to goal kept him from adequately holding up the ball, with defenders regaining possession before the Union could bring numbers forward in support.

Eventually, the Union coaching staff turned to Danny Mwanga to partner Pajoy with the hope that they could share the load up front. One problem. Pajoy, brought to Philadelphia to be a big, physical presence has left all the heavy lifting to his young partner. With Mwanga up front doing battle with a new pair of defenders each week, the big Colombian has gone missing. Rather than stretch the defense with smart lines of running off of Mwanga or dart into the gaping space between the defense and midfield created by the Union no.10, Pajoy has shrunk from the challenge. He continues to sit wide on the left, making the occasional foray forward, but rarely attacking the goal or supporting his strike partner.

Mwanga’s effort and physicality has been greatly improved in recent matches, but with no one attacking the space he is working hard to create, the beating he is taking on a now weekly basis is for naught.

Player Ratings

Chris Konopka – 6

Deserved better than a loss in his Union debut, as he came up big for the Union, recording 6 saves, with some of the point-blank variety. Showed some nerves in the early going and struggled with his communication with his centerbacks on more than one occasion. But outside of one corner that he misjudged badly, Konopka was strong in the air and aggressive off his line. And when it came to shot stopping, the big man got down quickly to push away both Reggie Lambe’s early effort and Doneil Henry’s second half header, showing off

Raymon Gaddis – 3.5

Something was wrong with Gaddis from the opening whistle, and the rookie never looked comfortable marking up Joao Plata. Considering how well he performed against New York’s Dane Richards, Union fans would have expected a similarly tough defensive showing from Gaddis. But after picking up a yellow card for cutting down the Toronto winger, Gaddis was taken off in the 37th minute and headed straight down the tunnel. Union fans will hope that whatever was ailing Gaddis can be resolved quickly, considering how well he has performed in the Union’s critically understaffed defensive line.

Sheanon Williams – 6.5

With Carlos Valdes off wandering around the midfield, Williams strengthened his credentials as a center back while covering for his partner. He threw his entire frame into aerial challenges and won foot races all night in support of the Union cause. He showed veteran wiles to body the speedy Plata off the play when it seemed the winger had him for pace. If moving to center back was not enough of an adjustment, the coaching staff’s decision to try and drop Carroll in among the back line has further muddied the waters. At times, Williams looked in two minds as to whether to trust his fullback’s instinct and attack the play or hang back covering the center of the pitch.

Carlos Valdes – 5

Now that the captain’s armband is his, officially, Valdes does not look like he wants it. Rather than proving himself as a rock in defense, organizing and supporting his young defense, Valdes looked shaky. Wandering too far up the pitch, breaking his positioning alongside Williams and generally looking a little out of sorts. With the Union conceding the center of the midfield to Toronto, it was always going to be tough on the defense, but Valdes took the wrong option when stepping up to help and was exposed more times than Union fans are used to seeing out of the usually reliable defender. He is the captain, and he needs to start playing like it. If he does not, the Union are sunk.

Gabriel Farfan – 6

Back after his three-game suspension and an extra week missed due to injury, Farfan put in a confident display at left back. His rough and aggressive style kept Reggie Lambe very quiet outside of his one early shot and Farfan pushed forward well in support of the midfield. No discredit to the work Ray Gaddis did at left back in his absence, but having a player with a quality left foot back at left back improved the Union up the flank significantly. Farfan’s comfort level led him to not only defend confidently, but also to being one of the most involved Union players on the night, picking up much of the midfield slack for Freddy Adu.

Brian Carroll – 5

As mentioned above, the coaching staff’s decision to tinker with Carroll’s positioning negatively affected both his and the team’s ability to cope with Toronto in the midfield. It’s hard to fault the player for following orders, and once the Union got themselves on the ball, Carroll had one of his better matches, moving the ball comfortably and efficiently through the midfield. For Carroll to return to top form, he needs to be allowed to go where he pleases, stepping higher to get in the midfield passing lanes and patrolling the center of the pitch to pick up scraps.

Michael Farfan – 6

Active and involved throughout, Farfan helped out Gaddis/Lahoud in defense and worked hard to find the ball. He is clearly most comfortable racing up and down the right touchline. He nearly pushed the Union ahead twice with his long range effort off the bar and his powerful shot, which Kocic did well to claim. If the Union could find a player to match his work rate, positioning and savvy on the opposite wing, they might be able to return a side that can dominate possession and take over a match.

Kai Herdling – 3.5

Utterly invisible throughout, the German failed to leave his mark despite starting in his preferred central, attacking midfield role. When he did manage to get on the ball, Herdling displayed a smart touch, moving the ball well and keeping possession, but those plays came in such small quantities that the Union coaching staff will be very disappointed out of his effort. Attempted only 18 passess in 65 minutes, completing 13 of them. That’s one completed pass every 5 minutes, which is far from acceptable for a central midfielder.

Freddy Adu – 3.5

Unlike Herdling, Adu had plenty of the ball. The problem, however, was what he chose to do with it. Stationed so high up the pitch that he took himself mostly out of the midfield play, Adu looked to turn every touch into gold. Selfishly looking to create either his own shot or the final ball on too many occasions, he was easily marked out of the game and was a dead end for possession. If the Union want to continue with Adu in this fashion, they must declare him a striker and bring in a proper left midfielder to offer defensive cover and possession in all of the space Adu leaves behind. Adu’s play continues to unbalance the Union midfield, puts too much pressure on Gabe Farfan and keeps the Union from finding consistency in the passing game.

Danny Mwanga – 6

As mentioned above, it was not supposed to be this way for Mwanga. In fact, it should have been the opposite with Pajoy holding up play while Mwanga ran off of him. Yet with the Colombian’s contact-shy approach to the game, the Union’s first ever draft pick has had to pick up the physical slack. And he is succeeding. Mwanga took on both Adrian Cann and Doneil Henry for 83 minutes on Saturday afternoon, putting his body on the line and challenging everything in the box, including a charge down of a Milos Kocic clearance.

That kind of pressure is essential for a team looking to find its offensive feet, with Mwanga pushing the defense deeper into their own defensive third and stretching them wide with his runs to the corner. But he cannot do it all. All of that hard work and smart running created the perfect pocket of space for a second striker or attacking midfielder to thrive, but neither Pajoy nor Herdling were anywhere to be seen. It will not be until someone, anyone steps into the space and proves dangerous that Mwanga will be able to break free and find the cracks in defense necessary to run at players and score goals. For now both center backs can focus all of their attention on him.

Lionard Pajoy – 2

Stayed away from the danger area all afternoon, preferring the quiet anonymity of the less crowded left wing to the hustle and bustle of the center of the park. With Mwanga taking a pounding at the hands of the Toronto defense, Pajoy looked disinterested in joining the action. Union fans would have been infuriated to watch Mwanga, Adu and Michael Farfan power forward into the box while Pajoy strolled behind the play. Even on defense, Pajoy chose to dally in midfield too frequently, forcing Kai Herdling to race ahead of him to pressure the fullbacks.

Substitutes

Michael Lahoud – 3.5

Swing and a miss. That was not aimed at Lahoud’s terrible attempted clearance that led to the goal, but rather at the decision to include the former Chivas USA man in the match at all. He continued to work hard as he ran around the field, but he was weak in his positioning and did little to help the Union. On Toronto’s goal, not only did he whiff on his clearance, but he was beaten twice after that by Nick Soolsma, first in the race to the endline and second in failing to cut off the pass in to Danny Koevermans. And that is why it is not as easy to convert midfielders into defenders as the coaching staff seems to think.

Antoine Hoppenot – 4

In yet another week where the opposition’s subs proved more valuable than the Union’s (See San Jose and Seattle), Hoppenot’s inclusion ahead of Martinez (or McInerney or Hoffman for that matter) made little sense. For all the hustle and effort Hoppenot provides at the Reserve level, he simply may not possess the physical tools to battle it out in MLS. Was reduced to clutching and grabbing as he found the size and strength of defenders too much to overcome.

Josue Martinez – n/a

Huffed and puffed a bit, but 7 minutes was never going to be enough time for him to get into the game, especially with his defense conceding a bad goal in the middle of it.

Geiger Counter

Juan Guzman – 1

Still seemingly with an ax to grind with the Union following his dismissal of Keon Daniel, Gabe Farfan and Peter Nowak in Los Angeles a month ago, Guzman had a shocker in Toronto. Showed clear bias when failing to award free kicks in favor of Adu while buying into every flop, flail and dive from Plata on the other end of the pitch. Failed to censure Toronto’s violent Julian de Guzman until after he had handed out an absurd card to Pajoy for shielding Plata off the ball.

Inconsistent, slow to make decisions and showing an odd tendency to call fouls in bunches and then none for a period, Guzman is the type of referee that infuriates players, and coaches, and fans. Amazingly blow par.

Rigby Radar

Bob Rigby – 0

This has gone on long enough. Comcast needs to relieve Bob Rigby of his duties, immediately. Before you get to the awful pronunciation of names, the inability to correctly identify players or the analysis that is flat out wrong, there is one major flaw in Rigby’s commentary that is too egregious to allow him to continue.

Commentators are not players on the teams for which they call games. While Rigby belches pro-Union propaganda, he refers to the Union  by saying “we” did this well or that such and such a decision was a great move by “us.” As a broadcaster whose goal should be to maintain even a modicum of objectivity, it flies in the face of professionalism to hear a commentator openly rooting for one side as if only a call from the coach is keeping him from leaping off the bench and running onto the field to help his teammates.

Preferred lineup for June 16 vs DC United

4-3-3

MacMath; Gaddis, Williams, Valdes, G. Farfan; Okugo, M. Farfan, Gomez; Hoffman, Mwanga, Martinez