Rocket Robin's opinion of the Toronto Lynx 1997 season. (Written November 16, 1997).

Well I'd been waiting for Toronto to get back into pro soccer even before the awarding of the franchise was announced.

I was able to get to all 15 home games played this year at Varsity Stadium.

Although the team attendance did not reach 2000 for any one game, at least the attendance did not decline as the season wore on which is something that couldn't be said for the 1993 Toronto Blizzard or 1994 Toronto Rockets. It does get a building block anchored for next year. The team is committed for the long haul so the stability is something that can be used to build up crowds. Some expected rivalries have taken off already such as the excitement of any of the Montreal Impact and Rochester Raging Rhinos games.

The Lynx season was a string of streaks. The lost their first two games then won ten in a row. They then lost six and won three. Lose one, win one then limp into the playoffs by losing their last five games. They finished fourth of six teams in their division and drew Montreal in the first round. They were in first place early in the year. There wasn't any momentum the last month of the season.

It was great to see young Canadian players like Dwayne DeRosario and Paul Stalteri playing for the team. DeRosario was snapped up by a German team after a few months. I hope the Lynx can keep the pipeline of young talent flowing to their team.

The roster included many local players from the CNSL league in particular the Toronto Italia who also supplied the coach Peter Pinizzotto.

I don't know if Canada can ever again support a Canadian National League but for now having a team playing at least North American Division 2 calibre can only help the popularity of the game in this city.

The mainstream media coverage hasn't been good but then as I'm writing this, the Lynx web page has been left to lapse since mid-August which doesn't look professional at all. Their web page was too high-end as well and I heard people agree with me that it didn't load properly. I'd say setting it up so the lowest common denominator browser could access it would be more practical.

Rocket Robin
robing@clo.com

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