The scene just improved at Toronto FC and Chivas USA

Major League Soccer just toughened up. And by some measure.

Three teams have new coaches and new direction – along with fresh hope.

Two franchises that were wandering in the woods before just added heft and direction to their management teams, and I’m throwing a thumbs-up to both moves.

The smartest guys in the room at the moment at in Toronto, where Paul Mariner will be the new technical director. Mariner was at the right hand of Steve Nicol in New England until a little more than a year ago, when he left to take over Plymouth Argyle in England. Things didn’t go as well as expected there, so now the former England international will oversee personnel matters at BMO Field.

Remember, Mariner was part of the tandem that presided over all those prescient New England Revolution draft picks late in the last decade. So now he’ll pick the players for TFC. Meanwhile, Aaron Winter will coach them.

I love that a Dutchman will bring his land’s attitude about the game to MLS. Winter collected 84 caps for Holland between 1987-2000. That means he played at the international level under Rinus Michels (inventor of total football), Leo Beenhakker, Dick Advocaat, Guus Hiddink and Frank Rijkaard. He also learned under some greats during his playing days at Ajax, Inter and Lazio.

Of course, the operation can only succeed if Mariner and Winter mesh. I have no reason to believe they won’t; you just never know how the soup tastes until you combine all the ingredients into the boiling pot.

Still, it can only be an improvement. Four seasons have come and gone and the team at Exhibition Place has yet to taste MLS playoff soccer. Stylistically, they’ve been an abomination. Mo Johnston and John Carver liked the long ball. Yuk. Preki liked defense. Yuk. No one particularly cared for attractive soccer – except presumably the fans, who probably wouldn’t have minded seeing a bit of it.

Chivas USA, meanwhile, is a team that has flailed at all attempts to establish a true identity. Hiring Robin Fraser won’t help in that area, and that could be the new coach’s undoing in the end. Still, it says good things that the Goats went out and plucked Fraser before someone else did. And, for sure, someone else was going to.

Everyone who meets Fraser likes him and comes away with great things to say. Real Salt Lake officials have long done their best to keep Fraser, who was probably one of the league’s highest earning assistants under head man Jason Kreis. But officials there always understood that they were living on borrowed time where Fraser was concerned. They knew he was destined to steer his own MLS ship. Chivas USA will be the beneficiary – assuming they can manage everything around him sufficiently, enough to give the man a fighting chance. I’m not convinced they can, but this moves the club in the right direction, at least.

So here’s the bottom line as it pertains to the rest of MLS: the league did just improve. I don’t expect Chivas USA and Toronto to be the doormats they were before. Two teams that were barely playoff contenders and never championship contenders are stronger today, and they could easily lap any laggard side that fails to improve this off-season.