June 22nd, 2007 . 12:14 am . By: Gina Zippilli

I’m happy to report that all 98 of the pictures I took in Toronto made it back to Texas safely. That was one of the main concerns I had throughout the entire duration of the trip- nothing major like our airline potentially losing our luggage, being detained at customs for whatever reason or somebody being arrested for something illegal. Hell, I wasn’t even too concerned with how our team would do after being on the road for the third time in eight days. I was worried about my pictures and how I was going to manage to get my memory stick home in one piece.

Amy and I left Dallas a little after noon on Friday and spent the entire three hour flight goofing off and having a good time. Air Canada has an in-flight entertainment system consisting of various movies, television shows and games. We spent the first hour and a half watching Austin Powers and then started talking afterwards. Amy and I were reminiscing on last year’s bowling tournament and laughing about how badly I bowled when we heard one of the men sitting in front of us utter the words “FC Dallas.” Our ears instantly perked up, and we soon found out that they, too, were soccer fans. After that, I watched the last episode of my favorite show on my iPod and the next thing I knew we were landing in Toronto.

After an hour long bus ride, thirty minute trip on the subway and four-block stint on a streetcar we finally made it to our hostel. We met up with Travis and Warren, ate on King Street, laughed hysterically during karaoke and then walked down to College Street and back before calling it a night.

Saturday morning was when Parrish decided to join us from Chicago. Our first destination was the CN Tower, the tallest building in the world, or so they say. The view from the CN Tower was amazing. It was actually where I got my first glance at BMO Field. I also got to sit and stand on the glass floor. For those of you who have never been to the CN Tower, there is a glass floor that looks straight down to the ground from about 1300 feet up. Apparently, it is sturdy enough to hold fourteen large hippos. Standing on the glass floor didn’t feel quite right at first, but after a few seconds felt fine enough for me to jump on. My original plan was to do a handstand, but there were too many other people around. Now that I look back on it, I’m kind of glad it was too busy because it was weird enough just standing on it with two feet nevermind standing on my hands.

After the CN Tower was lunchtime, and after lunchtime was the Toronto Blue Jays game. Yeah, the Blue Jays smoked the Washington Nationals, or at least we’re pretty sure they did. Like any other true soccer fan, we left the game at the top of the ninth inning because the time was beginning to inch closer and closer to 4 PM. The Blue Jays were one thing, but the US National Team was another! We headed back over to Shoeless Joe’s, the same place we sang karaoke at on Friday night, to see if they carried GolTV and lucky enough for us they did. At one point the US game was on one screen and on the screen next to it was the Canada/Guatemala game. Already knowing the result of the latter game (Canada smoked Guatemala 3-0), we began to talk about how we hoped we’d have Carlos for next week’s match against Colorado. More about that one later.

Dinner on Saturday night was at a Japanese restaurant on King Street called Asakusa. This place struck me a bit odd. It was around 8 PM on a Saturday night and yet we were the only people in there. One would think this would be a red flag to other people, a sign maybe not to eat there, right? I don’t know why, but we ignored the signs and ate their anyways. Warren and I were the only ones paranoid about potentially getting sick (don’t know about him, but I’ve been there, done that before. It is the WORST feeling in this world), but fortunately we dodged a potentially huge bullet.

We walked around town a little more after that, and what is funny is that the FC Dallas blog says the team headed to Wayne Gretsky’s around 9 PM that night. The five of us probably just didn’t see anybody because we passed by Wayne Gretsky’s around the same time. What a coincedence that would’ve been.

Sunday morning, we drove to BMO Field blaring Bowling For Soup’s “Come Back to Texas” out the windows. As we approached the Toronto tailgate, we were greeted to a boisterous round of, “Who are ya?” chants followed by tons of handshakes and introductions.

The Toronto fans are one of the nicest groups you’ll ever meet in MLS. They’re up there with the New England Revolution’s Midnight Riders in terms of friendliness, hospitality and generousity. The first question they asked each of us was, “Did you REALLY make the trip up here all the way from Dallas for the game?”

The minute we’d nod our heads, their jaws would drop in amazement.

The game was- well- we don’t have to talk about it, do we?

We do? Okay, fine.

I thought Dallas started off well, but twenty minutes, a few bad touches and a few bad calls later we were done for. After Toronto scored the first goal, I stayed optimistic but my concern was growing. After the second the optimism was dwindling and after the third I just knew we were done for. The fourth goal was just insult to injury.

A few thoughts from the game: what is Jeff Cunningham going to do after he hits 100 goals? Has anybody told him MLS probably won’t allow him a three digit number on his jersey? I’m about to make some Salt Lake people mad, but this is my take on it. Jeff is a great guy, but the number of goals you’ve scored as your jersey number? Tacky!

… I could also be saying this because Dallas doesn’t have a guy like Jeff. If in a few years, Kenny Cooper is up in the 90’s and changes his jersey number every year? I may very well love it.

As far as serious thoughts are concerned, I thought the interaction between Chris Gbandi and Ronnie O’Brien was classic. I really wanted to see Chris get up in his face a little more and let Ronnie know what an overpaid, tempermental little baby he is. Chris never once backed down and I was really proud of him for that. Not that I would’ve expected any less, but he was a lot more physical with O’Brien than I thought he would be. I loved every minute of it.

The other thing I noticed was that this was the most fired up I have ever seen Dominic Oduro. I do recall him getting up in a Toronto player’s face sometime during the second half and Chris Gbandi having to hold him back. How often is it that we see Gbandi doing the holding back? I was pleasantly surprised to see the fire in Dom’s eyes and I really hope thats an energy he is going to bring to more games from here out.

The last player I am going to give props to is Carlos. To immediately fly back from national team duty to play with your club team is a classy, classy move. Honestly, its one that I would’ve never expected to see from him. That was another pleasant surprise on what was an overall frustrating day.

After the final whistle, I managed to convince everybody to find our team’s bus so we could say hello and at least let the guys know we were supporting them. They weren’t in the mood to talk, and I couldn’t blame them. At least they knew we were there, right?

Postgame festivities moved from BMO Field to another Shoeless Joe’s location. We played a fun kickaround with the Toronto fans and then one of their supporters, Malcolm, accompanied us to Centre Island via the ferry. Centre Island was the perfect way to wind down the trip. The sun was setting and the breeze was really kicking up. Amy, Travis and I had a great time taking pictures and doing cartwheels in the sand. We left Centre Island around ten, walked back to our hostel and wrapped up our last night in Canada.

Amy and I caught our flight home around 2:30 on Monday afternoon and landed in Dallas about 4:30 local time. When I came back from Salt Lake City I went straight to bed, but this time we went back to Amy’s and watched Zoolander. Once I got back to my house around 9, I uploaded my pictures and then crashed pretty hard.

All in all, Toronto was a great trip. The city is awesome and Toronto F.C. have some awesome supporters. As far as the game is concerned, I’m really not too worried about it. I know that sounds horrible, but I wasn’t going to let the result of the match ruin the trip. If you roadtrip for your team expecting a win, more often than not you will return home disappointed. It’s that simple. I’m so happy that I made the trip because not only did I get to see FCD, but I was able to take in a new city and see a different country at the same time. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Categories: Commentary.

7 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment