Dallas’ Julian de Guzman lets former TFC boss have it

Score a goal of high drama, one that keeps your team relevant a little longer in MLS playoff pursuit, and you have earned the floor. So, what did Julian de Guzman do with it?

The FC Dallas midfielder used his time at the pulpit to verbally beat the heck out of his former employer. Specifically, he went swinging away at Toronto FC manager Paul Mariner. What de Guzman said after his 96^th-minute squeaker found its way home Saturday against Vancouver.

I’ll never forget the words of [current TFC manager] Paul Mariner saying that he wants to make sure he’ll send me to a last-place team and let me burn in the heat. It worked out for myself, getting the last laugh, the karma of things. Right now who’s the last place team in the league and who’s battling for the playoffs?”

For the record, and in case you haven’t studied the MLS standings just yet today, Toronto resides in last place in the East. Dallas sits sixth in the West, still hanging onto hope of reeling in Vancouver for the conference’s fifth and final playoff spot.

Not that de Guzman’s verbal grenade tossed Mariner’s way should surprise anyone. According to this story, the Canadian international let the fuse about a month ago. From the Toronto Sun:

(TFC is) still missing a bit of planning and direction,’ de Guzman told Red Nation, an online soccer magazine, in August. ‘I don’t think everyone is on the same page and that’s what leads to the results.’ ”

The other words that mattered Saturday came from FC Dallas manager Schellas Hyndman, who publicly acknowledged what everyone suspected all along: that TFC continues to pick up de Guzman’s salary following the teams’ July trade.