Afterwards we took in Doors Open events at the excellent Steam Whistle Brewery, which included free samples (as usual) and a hall full of model railway sets. Like a lazy-yet-intrepid photojournalist, I instagrammed a few shots of the day (exciting, dynamic feed shortly to appear on this page, allowing further lazy updates):
The weekend also saw the hapless Toronto FC pick up their first points of the season after nine consecutive defeats in MLS and become Canadian champions (doesn't take much, seemingly). The Guardian's account follows, as will - hopefully - more frequent updates from me over the course of the summer, starting with Friday night's trip to the Royal Ontario Museum's club night (booze + live music + dinosaur exhibits = ???).
The "worst team in the world" wins a game
The comments on last week's five things were kicked off by a link from one limeyfletch who posted a heartbreaking clip of Danny Koevermans being interviewed in the wake of Toronto FC's 9th consecutive defeat - looking near tears as he described the phenomenon of playing for the "worst team in the world."
This week, the "worst team in the world" not only avoided a record-equalling 10th consecutive defeat, but actually won, courtesy of a goal by one Danny Koevermans, as the game entered its final minutes and Toronto fans were daring to dream heady dreams of their first point. Instead, as Canadian nerves frayed in the 88th minute, Koevermans bundled home an awkward, point-blank goal that was treated with the ticker-tape enthusiasm of a 40 yard cup-winning golazo, by the success-starved Toronto fans, who suddenly found themselves wishing away a few minutes of injury time to take all 3 points.
Actually success-starved is not strictly accurate - Toronto won the Canadian Cup this week, against a stunned Vancouver side who must have looked at the teams' relative fortunes beforehand and thought they were a shoe-in for the cup and the Champions League spot that comes with it.
Toronto's decent cup form has been something of a mystery this season (they made an unlikely run to the CCL semi-finals as well), though those last ten minutes against Philadelphia gave something of a clue. It had been a dire game that most sides would have been happy to consign to the archives - but as it drifted towards its conclusion the feeling was that Toronto were feeling the pressure of the 9 games that preceded this one in league play and half-expecting disaster to strike. Paradoxically, even with more nominally at stake, the one-off nature of cup games has been liberating for them, without the weight of cumulative negative expectation dogging them. Making Koevermans' goal all the sweeter for their fans.
Their opponents yesterday earned the unwanted record of giving Toronto their first league points this season, to put the pressure back on Peter Nowak - this year's All Star Game coach, who now manages a side where he has shipped most of his stars out. On that note, I caught up with his former captain Danny Califf on Wednesday night, playing for his new team Chivas USA. Speaking to a couple of journalists he at first laughed and said he was going nowhere near the question of what had gone wrong with the Union this season, before pointing out that the turnover of players from season to season wasn't helping team chemistry or camaraderie. Asked if in his case this had anything to do with his relationship with the abrasive Nowak, Califf laughed again, before saying wryly "C'mon...We were regular homies..." (before discreetly opting to "leave it right there"). Behind the smiles Califf was clearly hurt by the sudden end of his tenure with a club he felt a deep affinity for. Without him (and LeToux; and Mondragon...) the side Peter Nowak has retained are looking worryingly anonymous. Though for one day at least they are unwilling stars in the game no-one in the league wanted to be part of - the game where Toronto got their first points...GP
