The Subs Bench Daily Blog and Weekly Podcast

New Zealand – got better as the tournament went on after a lesson by Spain in the first game. The 0-0 against Iraq was the countries first point in their tournament history, and to be fair they had the best chances and probably deserved to win. There were some promising signs for the World Cup playoff [...]

Well Canadian footy fans nightmares have appeared to become true.  Asmir Begovic has chosen to represent his parent’s home country of Bosnia instead of Canada, who he has represented previously multiple times in the U20s.  Now let’s get this straight, Begovic has not said anything himself, but the manager of Bosnia has come out and [...]

The Gold Cup is set to start next week, and it is shaping up as a farce. Mexico and the USA have both sent understrength teams, while Canada is hit with injuries and players not being selected for personal reasons. It would be unimaginable for nations to not send anything other than the strongest teams [...]

Dear Diary,           Guess what? I have my very own brochure! I think it does a wonderful job of selling what I have to offer. In fact, I have had interest from all kinds of big clubs around Europe like Hull and Stoke. The best thing is that it doesn’t undermine my career to date [...]

Denilson, once the most expensive player in the world after his $35 million transfer to Real Betis has well and truly washed up in the backwaters of football. He signed for Vietmanese V-League side Hai Phong Cement on a six month contract on 2nd June. However, after only three weeks and 45 minutes on the [...]

With fan favourite Danny Dichio set to retire from professional football at seasons end, MLSE must surely consider honouring a player who in three short seasons has become the first TFC legend. Dichio will be talked about by TFC fans for years, even decades to come. Future fans will be aware of Dichio because of [...]

A quick update to give a bit of a tribute to Martin Laursen who has retired this summer. Although he only ever played less than 100 games for Aston Villa, and in fact only just over 200 games in his whole career he will be remembered in England as a brilliant centre back, the like [...]

I’m sure many of you heard about the amazing scenes in Montreal after Toronto FC had to score four goals (five after Montreal went up after 20′).  The day before the game, Matt, Shawn, his younger brother and myself made the 10 hour drive from Windsor to Montreal and we did not regret it one [...]

While in Montreal for the final game of the 2009 Nutrilite Canadian Championship, The Subs Bench has learnt that the much talked about designated player at TFC will be Julian de Guzman. It is believed he will sign on July 15 and make $1 million per season. Irregular paychecks in Spain have taken there toll, [...]

England’s recent matches against Kazakhstan and Andorra have once again raised the usual question that appears when the English play such opposition – why should we have to play such poor teams, they should have to pre-qualify. It is true that the other confederations (except for South America) do have a number of qualifying rounds [...]