Toronto FC

MLS announced the name and logo of the 13th MLS club, Toronto FC. They will be playing in , yup, you guessed it, Toronto. Toronto is not in the United States, just in case anyone was wondering. Their home will be the National Soccer Stadium at Exhibition Place, which will also serve as the home of the Canadian Nationl Team.

MLS has Toronto listed right now as being an Eastern Conference club, which makes sense. Scheduling for next season should be interesting, as with 13 clubs, 1 club will be essentially given a bye for that week. That isn't much of a difference from this season as not all the clubs play the same day. I just hope that the 14th club gets started in 2008, because more than 1 season of uneven scheduling might pose some problems at the end of the season.

Expansion is good for the league and once there are enough clubs in the league to pair down the matches to home and away, the individual matches will mean just that extra bit more, especially against Red Bull New York for DC United fans. One question I have concerning Toronto FC is that according to Wikipedia -

In February 2006, MLS decided the MLS Supporters Shield and the MLS Cup winner will represent the United States in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. If the Supporters Shield winner wins the MLS Cup, the team with the second-most points also qualifies.

What happens if Toronto FC wins either of these? Will a Canadian club represent the United States in the CONCACAF Champions Cup? I know that the other 12 MLS clubs are not fielding all US players, but they are US clubs. Toronto FC is a Canadian club, playing in MLS. So, are they ineligible? This needs to be reolved by Garber & Co.

I might actually try and make it up to Toronto for some DC United away matches next season. It should at least be friendlier than Gianst Stadium has been.