Well that's it for the inaugural season of Toronto Football Club. They showed a bit of the old spirit to drag themselves back from 2-0 down today, with the fat, generally useless Collin Samuel grabbing the first, and "cult hero" (but crap footballer) Danny Dichio scoring the equaliser.

It's been an interesting, at times exhilarating and exciting, introduction of the MLS in a football-hungry city, and although it turned out to be a bit of a damp squib following some early promise, I think the organisation can be quite pleased overall.

One of the problems I suppose, is that the club was a victim of it's own "success". All things considered, it's quite an experiment to suddenly appoint a coach and then give him 15 new players and get him to try and build a team with them, especially when you are competing against squads that have been together for at least 3-4 years. Although the team started off slowly, Mo Johnston managed to put together a quite compact unit, and in the heady days of summer, the results were quite good. There were wins, unbeaten runs, clean sheets, and a thumping here and there, all backed vociferously by the U-Sector, Red Patch Boys, and more lazily by the Tribal Rhythm Nation. Not only that, but the club managed to string together a few results on the road, and there were serious hopes of a playoff spot in July.

And then it all went topsy turvy. The FIFA U-20 World Cup meant that TFC had 6 consecutive away games, and they lost their form. The casual fans began to lose their enthusiasm as the novelty wore off, and the whole Beckham spectacle seemed to distract everyone. Add to this a near-800 minute goalless streak, and you'd understand why there are some people that are quite happy for relegation NOT to exist in the MLS.

As it were, TFC finished bottom of the Eastern Conference with 24 points. If you'd asked most pundits at the start of the season where they saw a brand new team finishing, they would probably have said last, and so no one can really be surprised at how things turned out. The brief period of good form did make a lot of people overly optimistic, but things evened out in the end.

Mo did well with the players that he brought in, but they were generally quite limited, and once opposition teams figured us out, we didn't offer much of a threat. Injuries didn't help, but more quality will be needed next season. Jeff Cunningham and Andy Welsh must go, and Greg Sutton and Ronnie O'Brien must stay fit. Marvell Wynne and Maurice Edu are two of the best in the league in their positions, and will be a big part of this team's future. But there is definitely a need to bring in a top quality, marquee player ala Juan Pablo Angel, Beckham or Denilson.

TFC go into next season with the best fans in the league, and the highest attendance, and this on its own should be enough to attract some quality players. Here's to hoping for better for next year!