d moments that made the year memorable.In November, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on giving.Election week is a week of c

TORONTO -- After just six seasons of MLS play, Toronto FCs legacy of failure was stunning. The team had a league record of 45-88-55 -- outscored 300-201 -- after finishing seventh, seventh, fifth, fifth, eighth and 10th in the Eastern Conference. Toronto had won just 12 of 94 road games. The playoffs were nothing more than a soccer Shangri-La. And the franchise had gone through seven managers. Ryan Nelsen, manager No. 8 in Season No. 7, knew he was inheriting a mess when he was appointed Jan. 8. But straightening the shambles of a team that was the MLS doormat last season at 5-21-8 is proving to be a task of massive proportions for the first-year manager. As Toronto (1-7-4) prepares to host the Philadelphia Union (5-5-3) on Saturday, Nelsens team is mired in a five-game league losing streak -- during which it has been outscored 8-2 -- and has not won in 10 games. Torontos record in all competitions this year is 2-8-4. And apart from a March 9 victory at the Rogers Centre, it has not won a home league game since July 18, 2012, when it beat Colorado 2-1 at BMO Field. On the surface, Toronto FCs tarnish remains. Nelsen and team president Kevin Payne, who took over the club on Nov. 28, have brought in 19 new players. Four have already left and the team has already announced attacking midfielder Hogan Ephraim will return to Englands Queens Park Rangers when his loan spell ends in July. There is also speculation about the future of veteran defender Danny Califf, who has fallen to No. 5 on the depth chart, and who has been absent recently due to a virus, according to Nelsen. The manager, who is already eagerly awaiting the July 9 opening of the summer transfer window, defends the revolving door approach to personnel. "When we got here there was no scouting, no recruitment, no nothing," Nelsen said Tuesday. "There was no vision, there was no anything. "So we had to bring in players on short-term loans that wouldnt affect the team long-term, (so) we wouldnt be hamstrung by salary cap issues. And were not. We only brought in players because of the absolute unbelievable lack of vision that was here. We needed players in or we were in massive trouble. "Now those players, were not hamstrung by them, theyre going to be here on massive amounts of money. They can be moved at any time that they or we think. So in terms of that, yeah, were preparing for the future. But weve had to. Weve had to do drastic things like this because there was absolutely nothing." The most recent player to exit was former English teen sensation John Bostock, who was waived last week. "We had the opportunity to look at him and if it didnt work out, it didnt work out," said Nelsen. "He wants to play. His agent said he needs to play all the time and I couldnt guarantee him playing time." Nelsen does see light at the end of the tunnel despite a lack of clinical play at both ends of the field. Asked if he can see players on his current roster who will be fixtures on the team sheet next season, he starts listing off names: Joe Bendik, Ryan Richter, Doneil Henry, Gale Agbossoumonde, Ashtone Morgan, Matias Laba, Jeremy Hall, Jonathan Osorio, Kyle Bekker and Emery Welshman. All are 24 or younger. It was not a definitive list, but rather one reeled off the top of his head. Nelsen would likely add talented attacking midfielder Luis Silva, who is 24, to that mix. English defender Richard Eckersley, currently injured, is also 24. "Were a very young team," Nelsen said. "We have a lot of faith in a lot of the young guys. But unfortunately, theyre just young, just a bit inexperienced. Theyve just got to live through stuff and get experience." Nelsen has brought in the likes of 32-year-old Robert Earnshaw, 30-year-old Bobby Convey, 32-year-old Steven Caldwell and 32-year-old Darel Russell to help settle the ship. Of the seven losses this season, only one (last weeks 2-0 loss in New England) has been by more than one goal. Nelsen says his team is confident that it can win games. Pressed on why, the normally genteel New Zealander showed his steely side in turning the question back on the media. "Every game we potentially could have got points out of," he said. "You guys dont see it because you only take a look at the result. Just like yourself, youre not really educated on how a game can be. "When we start winning, you guys will be having a go at us because were only winning by one goal. And then once we win 15 in a season, youll be having a go at us because were only winning 15. Thats your job. "The players, they know. Theyre confident. ... Were very close." Nelsen, while generally accommodating with the media, has become more close-mouthed as the season has worn on. He is not likely to disclose personnel information unless asked and even then can dance around the issue. Practices that were once open are now only partially open. Reporters are restricted to glimpses of the final portion of the session, usually from distance. Admittedly Nelsen is used to the game in Britain, where media access is far more limited. Then again soccer is king there. Its not here. Nelsen has made progress and Torontos young talent is undeniable. Nelsen and his coaching staff have a meticulous plan. Their commitment to turning the franchise around is undeniable. Nelsen, who can be cut-throat when it comes to personnel decisions, has also shown a keen eye in identifying and promoting the likes of Osorio and Hall. The depth of his squad remains very much a work in progress, however. And Torontos inability to take its chances means that it is up against it when it makes errors at the defensive end. "We know we need to get better -- in all areas," said Nelsen. "Well just continue to work hard and continually try to do it." The good news on that front is striker Danny Koevermans will likely come off the bench this weekend in his return from a 10-month absence due to a knee injury. Koevermans has been sidelined since tearing up his knee last July 14 in New England. TFC has gone 2-17-8 in MLS play in his absence. Saturdays game against the Union falls in the middle of a five-game run against Eastern Conference opposition. Toronto has already lost to Columbus and New England, with games against D.C. United and Houston to follow. Philadelphia currently occupies the fifth -- and last -- playoff spot in the East with 18 points. Nelsens view-- somewhat optimistic in the eyes of some -- is that his team (which has seven points) could be right back in the thick of things if it can beat the Union and D.C. United, which at 1-9-2 is the only team with a worse record than Toronto. Nelsens team has next week off thanks to a bye, so will have plenty of time to ponder the Philadelphia result. Torontos preparations this week will not be helped by the absence of captain Darren ODea on Ireland duty and Canadians Bekker, Henry, Morgan and Osorio. Henry and ODea are both starters and Osorio probably did enough last week coming off the bench in New England to justify a start. The Canadian quartet will return after Tuesday nights game against Costa Rica in Edmonton. ODea is also set to return following a marquee friendly against England. But the Irish defender will jet off again next week for a friendly against Georgia and World Cup qualifier against the Faroe Islands.White Air Max Australia .com) - The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks both take aim at their first wins of the season on Saturday, as the Canucks open their home slate at Rogers Arena. Clearance Air Max Australia .Y. - Detroit goaltender Jonas Gustavsson has earned NHL first star of the week honours after winning in his first three appearances of the season. http://www.shopairmaxaustralia.com/ . JOHNS, N. Air Max Australia Running Shoes . -- If this was Aaron Gordons final home game at Arizona, and it almost certainly was, then he went out in style. Air Max Australia From China .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable.In November, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on giving.Election week is a week of choices.Different versions of our future present themselves with uncharacteristic clarity. One voting lever summons one path, another triggers something different. Elections compress the uncertainty and chaos of everyday life into a constellation of impossibly discrete points of light.Yet the choices that precede freedom are far more frequent and require far more courage than quadrennial electoral rhetoric suggests. Its not elections every four years that provide our freedom -- its the choices we face every day: how we speak up, how we show up, how we struggle to belong to each other.Unlike elections, no one tells us how or when to make these kinds of choices -- they come without solicitous phone calls or TV ads. There is no day marked on the calendar. One seldom receives a sticker for making choices that require conviction. One may, in fact, receive the opposite -- wrath, skepticism and disapproval from others.Take, for example, Megan Rapinoe, midfielder for the U.S. womens national soccer team. Rapinoe took note of the eerie political alchemy that transformed when San Francisco 49ers Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel during the national anthem.Im disgusted w/way Colin has been treated & the fans & hatred he has received in all of this [sic], Rapinoe tweeted. It is overtly racist. Stay in ur [sic] place black man. Just didnt feel right to me. It needs to be everyone confronting problems in our country, not just people of color.She realized Kaepernick could not face this alone and decided to kneel during the national anthem in solidarity with him. Her job, like Kaepernicks, became threatened.Yet, despite professional blowback, including consternation by her teammates, Rapinoe has continued to kneel. Her decision isnt about her identity. It isnt about Kaepernicks identity. She kneeled --- just as Kaepernick did -- for one simple reason: we belong to each other.ddddddddddddWe cannot stand for a world in which some peoples lives are continually made invisible, denigrated, humiliated, endangered for their existence.And we dont have to wait every four years to make choices about how to build that world into existence -- we can make a different future for ourselves even when there is no election by speaking up and standing up, like Rapinoe and Kaepernick have done.James Baldwin said that to ignore what is happening in ones own backyard was the great device of whiteness.My whiteness and Kaepernicks blackness, in fact, depend on one another. My liberation belongs with his; his freedom belongs with mine. Kaepernick took a stand. Rapinoe took a stand. And by doing so, they -- like many others -- takes steps toward a future that values the ways our lives are connected to one another.These kind of choices are all around us, every day, regardless of election season. They are available to us on the football field and the locker room, this week and next, no matter who wins or who loses the election. Rapinoe and Kaepernick gives us courage to speak up for each other. They give us examples of choices and actions that remind us how we are connected. They give us a vision for how to use our voices and our bodies to build a world wide enough for all of us.The light they offer us has doesnt depend on elections. It depends on our choices to speak up for one another.Eleni Schirmer is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madisons department of Educational Policy Studies and Curriculum and Instruction, where she studies social movements and education. Her writing has appeared in Jacobin, The Progressive, Labor Notes and Education Review. ' ' '