"There is absolutely zero chance of natural grass being installed." Kevan Pipe, fired former head of the Canadian Soccer Association. 

                                               
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"It [FieldTurf] kills the culture of the game." - Julian De Guzman, midfielder, Canadian national team and Deportivo La Coruna.

"The best salesman in the world couldn't sell me on it [FieldTurf]. I hope in my career I never have to play on it." - Paul Stalteri, defender, Canadian national team and Tottenham Hotspur.

"If they get grass in there instead of an artificial surface, it would be easier to draw better players and teams from Europe to play exhibition games."  - Dwayne De Rosario, midfielder, Canadian national team and Houston Dynamo.

"Every game, every team, should have grass -- without a doubt. You can't ask any soccer athlete to perform at a high level on FieldTurf." - David Beckham, midfielder, English national team and LA Galaxy.

                                               
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Reality has set in for Toronto FC. With their playoff chances dropping as quickly as their players are to injuries, the focus has turned from their on-field play to the actual field they play on.

Here in Toronto, the synthetic playing surface of BMO Field has been subjected to an ongoing series of critical comments that started before the stadium was built, escalated by players and coaches who participated in the FIFA U-20 World Cup and hit new heights when it was a factor in keeping David Beckham from making his MLS playing debut on August 5.

The past week has seen articles appear in Toronto media where some of Toronto's many injured players, fearful of being openly critical, have taken gentle swipes at the playing surface.

A series of injuries that has stripped Toronto of it's best attacking players - Danny Dichio, Jeff Cunningham, Ronnie O'Brien and Marvell Wynne - has left the club starved for goals and losing sight of a playoff berth. Without a goal in 462 minutes of play, the club is in danger of setting a dubious record should they fail to score on Saturday against visiting Chivas.

Manager Mo Johnston raised eyebrows before season when he responded to criticism of the plastic pitch by saying: "Any player who doesn't want to play on FieldTurf is not someone who we would be interested in having on our team." Given the lack of depth and the glaring absence of a high-quality designated player, those words could come back to haunt him.

While no one can actually prove that the turf is responsible -  club and stadium officials have been almost strident in their defensive tone about the playing surface -  the players are beginning to hint around that playing on grass would be preferable.

Fans are also wondering if artificial turf is keeping the club from attracting a quality designated player. At first glance, you'd think not, since New York has been able to sign Juan Pablo Angel and Claudio Reyna despite playing on plastic. But the club will begin play next year in a new stadium that will have a grass pitch. There have been suggestions that certain European clubs will not loan out players to Toronto for fear the plastic pitch will take its toll physically. The summer visits of Aston Villa and Benfica have done nothing to allay that.

It's not like the club can act alone about changing the playing surface. The stadium is owned by the city of Toronto, its construction jointly funded by the provincial and federal governments, which gives the Canadian Soccer Association a say in its operation, but if Canadian national team players have anything to say about it, they want to see the pitch changed.

With funding supplied from three levels of government, one of the stadium's mandates was to allow community access. For $75 per hour, any bunch of weekend warriors can rent the place and act out their dreams. This wouldn't be possible on grass.

Nor would the installation of an inflatable dome in winter. The club plans to operate indoor winter soccer clinics on their home turf, giving some of their younger players a little off-season employment while helping to strengthen emotional ties with youngsters from Toronto's massive recreational soccer community.

On paper, this business plan involving the year-round use of the turf surface must have looked like a bureaucrat's dream. Too bad the core business of this great new stadium, the games that matter most, those of Toronto FC, aren't played on paper.

 The choice of turf over grass made some sense this year, given the amount of play it received from both MLS and FIFA's under-20 World Cup. But after watching this season's games so far, there is a certain sterility to the play.

The ball rolls well on it and generally rewards quick technical play. But neither TFC or Canada's national teams have ever played that style. Being hockey fans, we kind of enjoy a bit of biff and wallop. This current TFC squad would be much better rewarded playing all its games on a less pristine surface, something that maybe sees the odd rugby game.

You can see players shy away from making certain plays - slide tackles, cut backs in certain situations - because the turf simply has too much bite. When something has to give, instead of grass getting torn, it's a part of someone's body.

One solution that has been debated on fan forums is to install grass at BMO Field and have the FieldTurf surface transferred to nearby Lamport Stadium, where all the practicing and community access mandates can still take place. It's an older 10,000-capacity facility long past it's prime. Given that it sits in a lower-income area crying out for additional recreational facilities, it would be hard to imagine the city opposed to the move.

It's also hard to imagine the provincial or federal governments objecting if it proves to be a move that also benefits the national team and creates a new playing surface for local or regional youth competitions.

By selling out it's 20,000 seats for every game, fans in Toronto have made it clear that this will be one of MLS' best-supported teams. The two-years-and-growing waiting list for season's tickets has already prompted talk of expanding the stadium capacity.

That would have been hard to conceive of a year or two ago in this very discerning soccer market. There's an appetite for the game here that still has a long way to go before it's satisfied. Many fans want to see TFC take on the glamour clubs of Europe when they visit North America.

A grass pitch would remove the biggest obstacle to seeing those sort of lucrative, image-enhancing games take place. The sort of match-ups that would seal the deal on seat sales in an expanded stadium and possibly make the team look more interesting to a marquee player, which would only add to their already-massive merchandise sales.

Put down real grass and players and management alike will be rolling in the green stuff.

There wasn't much doubt that we were in for a challenging evening when we climbed toward our upper deck seats and found one side of the stairwell draped in red and white, the other side ablaze in orange.

Dwayne De Rosario's family, friends, and social associates were in the house.

On a night when rain fell like a bad Bible story, and roads around Toronto's BMO Field clogged like bad arteries, the reward for the Toronto FC fans who arrived early was the sight and sound of Club De Rosario.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

De Rosario was back in his Toronto home and supported by several hundred of his most ardent supporters. Though some speculate the number climbed above 1,000, the truth is, he had a stadium full of admirers. It's no secret that T.O. wants De Ro.

Canadian soccer fans want this country's player of the year to come home and play where he'll be utterly adored. He's aware of that. But he's also been the complete professional and refused to demand that it happen at once.

Playing on a championship team is not something every player gets to enjoy. So many professionals spend entire careers chasing titles that never arrive. When a player finds himself in a winning situation, it's hard to give in to more basic instincts and head for home at all costs. De Rosario has one title under his belt and, perhaps more importantly, the respect of North American soccer fans for sticking with his team. It would be easy for him to leave if he wanted to.

Club De Rosario was there to remind him he's loved no matter what shirt he wears. Toronto FC fans were there to remind him he'll be loved more than ever if he makes both parties happy and moves home. The chants went up from both camps, increasing in volume and intensity as the wind and rain did likewise. Through it all, the mood stayed positive. There was laughter and good cheer everywhere.

It didn't hurt that Toronto fans were singing in the rain after a first half lead supplied by Andy Welsh's unstoppable header, the finishing touch to an inviting free kick from Ronnie O'Brien. 

Despite wearing a knee brace to offset the effects of a ligament injury, O'Brien's skill with either foot has proved to be a creative spark for a Toronto team now rebounding nicely after four straight losses to start the season.

That both players would combine to score the only goal in a 1-0 victory was appropriate. It's no coincidence that the return of O'Brien's cultured touch on the right wing has given Toronto an equally potent option to Welsh's crafty play down the left. The result is an invitingly open middle, drawing creative play from midfielder Maurice Edu, or even surging runs from the back by standout defender Marvell Wynne.

Toronto manager Mo Johnston stayed calm in the midst of an opening run of four goalless losses, preaching patience. His vision of what this team could become has slowly but surely materialized and it's beginning to look like the heightened expectations formed by a good pre-season performance were not entirely out of place.

If Toronto fans had doubts about his ability to build a team, and do it making quick, instinctive decisions about personnel, they've been well put to rest. When disgruntled midfielder Richard Mulrooney forced a trade, it was to Houston for defender Kevin Goldthwaite, the scorer of Toronto's first-ever winning goal against Chicago.

When Goldthwaite spilled Mulrooney with a harsh challenge early on, it brought a strong response from the crowd.

Whether De Rosario or his legion of supporters noticed such subtleties is unknown. But he has to be aware that this is already one of MLS' strongest franchises. The man at the helm is showing he knows what he's doing. The fans in the stands are proof of approval.

If De Rosario loved winning an MLS title in Houston, he has to know now that the only way to top that will be winning one with his hometown team. Here's betting that it will be sooner than later.

Toronto FC make their home debut Saturday before a sold-out throng of 20,000 that will raucously welcome them into BMO Field, an absolute gem of a new, soccer-only stadium.

 It's the sort of reaction that might be understandable if this was a club that had won a championship, made a series of high-profile off-season signings or just got Jose Mourinho angry. But this is an expansion team in an early-season crisis, having lost, on the road, their first three games by a combined score of 9-0.

 The results hardly matter. Nor will the outcome of the home opener. The stadium will be filled all year and it will be a league leader for attendance and atmosphere. You see, it's not the team that matters to most fans, at least not just yet. It's the game itself. 

That's the remarkable part of these circumstances. World Cups aside, fans here have endured a steady diet of negative soccer coverage from prominent local media outlets, yet their healthy appetite for their game has not only survived, but grown.

Despite the absence of any broad-based marketing campaign, season ticket sales topped  7,000 prior to the January announcement of David Beckham's transfer to L.A. Galaxy and are now close to 14,000 in total. Single game and group ticket sales have assured that every home game will be virtually sold out. It's a remarkable re-birth for pro soccer in Canada.

The collapse of the North American Soccer League and, later, the Canadian Soccer League, forced the city's last pro team, the Blizzard, to close up shop, leaving Toronto fans without a fully-professional local team to follow for almost two decades.

Yet the game has continued to thrive locally, a growing interest visible most summer weeknights in the form of jam-packed recreational playing fields, or every four years when the streets fill with chanting, singing, flag-waving World Cup fans proclaiming support for their favorite team or homeland.

Streets shut down, traffic gets diverted, beer mugs clink, everyone smiles. Only hockey could top this reaction, and an NHL title for the Maple Leafs isn't on anyone's radar.

Perhaps the most profound evidence of soccer's development here is found in the home-grown talent who have recently moved on to enjoy outstanding professional careers.

The long list includes: Dwayne De Rosario at Houston Dynamo, Paul Stalteri at Tottenham Hotspur, Tomas Radzinski at Fulham, the De Guzman brothers, Julian at Deportivo La Coruna, Jonathan at Feyenoord. And then there's Paul Peschisolido, a charismatic striker known throughout England as the 'Super Sub', with 114 goals, and counting, since leaving the crumbling Blizzard in 1992 for Birmingham City and a handful of clubs thereafter. There are others on the way.

This was never enough to satisfy soccer's abundant media critics. Led by Canada's largest daily newspaper and the city's most influential sportstalk radio host, they lined up to slag the building of the $72 million stadium, which is truly a wonderful showcase for the game. They branded it a white elephant as they forecast that the team would flounder and quickly wither, part of the eventual and, they hoped, final demise of professional soccer in North America. 

 The instant impact of Toronto FC suggests they couldn't have been more wrong. It has also sparked an urgency among soccer fans in Vancouver and Montreal, two major markets with and established history of strongly supporting the game, to see their cities become the next targets for MLS expansion.

So why have soccer fans, before a ball was kicked in earnest, before a full team had been assembled, suddenly thronged to support Toronto FC, when media indifference suggests they should be watching something else?

The critics have always maintained that, sure, lots of kids, in ever increasing numbers, were playing soccer in past years, but that didn't have any bearing on how well a pro team would do - they've failed before, surely they'll fail again. Well, the world changes quickly and quietly these days.

Previous generations of soccer players lacked the media options to stay in touch with the game as they grew older. Today, though, their kids, this generation's young players, are able to maintain their interest in any league, watching live games on digital or satellite TV, playing video games with more detail about the sport than ever before, or simply loading their iPods with highlight clips from the internet via youtube and sharing them with schoolmates. Has anybody under the age of 18 not seen Lionel Messi's sensational goal vs.Getafe?

 The return of the pro game now gives those aspiring youngsters a chance to watch live action, share in the noisy stadium atmosphere and develop their own hometown heroes. Since mom and dad were playing the game themselves not so long ago, they 'get' soccer, so it's not hard now to get them to buy tickets.

All of this seems to have passed under the noses of the city's mainstream media, an old guard that had to be courted in past years to ensure that vital publicity and promotion endeavours reached the eyes and ears of the ticket-buying public.

Soccer in Canada, and much of America, for that matter, has arrived at what's often referred to nowadays as'the tipping point', succeeding without the approval or co-operation of the traditional media mechanisms. 

Someone should call the papers and tell them about it. But the game's doing fine without them and their opinions just don't seem to matter much any more.  Kinda like how soccer fans felt 'round here about 10 year ago.