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Editor's Notes: Vanney in, Turf wars and a new Crew

Time for the coaching carousel to start in MLS as Nelsen is out in Toronto. The Crew looks to re-brand and the Women's World Cup has a turf problem.

By Alicia Tolar
Vanney is now the head coach of Toronto
Vanney is now the head coach of Toronto
Victor Decolongon

Vanney In

Sunday, it was announced that Ryan Nelsen was no longer the head coach of Toronto FC. In that same press conference it was announced that Greg Vanney would be the teams new head coach. Rather than going the usual interim coach route TFC has instead opted to make Vanney's position permanent right off the bat. Only one of the assistant coaches has been offered the chance to stay on while the rest have been let go.

Toronto may also be losing Jermain Defoe. Queens Park Rangers and Hull City are both rumored to have put in offers for Defoe. The offer from QPR is said to be in the neighborhood of $11 million and according to Kristian Jack's Twitter account (@kristianjack) Defoe is in England.

If Defoe leaves it can only increase the chances of Michael Bradley leaving the team as well. Bradley has struggled since joining the team earlier this season. He has one goal and one assist this season while he missed time for the World Cup his time spent in Brazil was less than stellar. However with his large contract it will be hard to move him to another MLS team.

Cue mass panic among TFC fans.

*Update: The Toronto Sun is now reporting that Jermain Defoe will be staying at Toronto after rejecting multiple offers for him.

New Crew

The Columbus Crew have a club re-branding in October complete with re-branding party on October 8th. There has been some talk that the re-brand will include a new name for the club specifically Columbus Crew SC. It sounds like the team will be changing its logo from the three construction workers to a Columbus skyline. A change to the logo is no surprise as Anthony Precourt said when he took over the club that he would be looking to change the logo. They do intend on keeping the "America's Hardest Working Team" moniker. It also sounds like the club will  be keeping the yellow and black color scheme.

The hope is that this re-brand will breathe life back into the club. Sporting Kansas City re-branded a few years ago and have seen success since then winning the MLS Cup last year. The Crew hopes that their re-brand will help to attract better players to the club. Usually, money and success are what attract better players to a new club.

Turf Wars

The Women's World Cup is set to take place next summer in Canada FIFA awarded to the World Cup to Canada despite knowing that the players would be forced to play on turf. Now some of the top players in the sport are threatening to sue for what they see as gender discrimination. In July a group of players including Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach sent a letter though legal representation threatening said lawsuit, but FIFA nor Canada have responded to the letter.

The legal team is currently looking at Canadian laws to figure out their best grounds for filing a suit. In the mean time things have started to heat up on social media as players on both the men's and women's team in addition to celebrities have started tweeting about the inequality of it.

Players want to see grass unrolled on top of the turf. While still not an ideal playing surface it's better than playing on straight turf. It was done during the 1994 Men's World Cup at the Pontiac Silverdome.


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