Toronto FC set for Florida trip
Posted February 10, 2012 5:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto FC is heading to Florida, but it’s not going to be a vacation for the players.
Far from it.
The team leaves Monday for Orlando, where it will hold the next stage of its pre-season training camp from Feb. 24 to March 3. While down in the Magic Kingdom, the Reds will participate in the Pro Soccer Classic, an eight-team exhibition tournament featuring the Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact and Sweden’s B.K. Hacken.
TFC plans to bring 32 players to Florida, and coach Aron Winter and his staff will have until March 1 to finalize their 30-man roster for the 2012 Major League Soccer season, which for the Reds begins on the road against the Seattle Sounders on March 17.
Although Orlando represents players’ last chance to impress Winter before has to make his final roster decision, assistant coach Bob de Klerk admitted that they have an idea of who will be sticking around.
“We already know a little bit, because we have an idea which positions the players can play in,” de Klerk told reporters Friday.
The Florida trip will likely decide who will be the starting goalkeeper this season, though.
Both Stefan Frei and Milos Kocic shared goalkeeping duties last year after Frei, the team’s starter, battled injury problems. De Klerk characterized the battle for the starting position as an “open competition” between the two shot stoppers.
“They’ll get their moments to play (in Orlando) and then at a certain moment, I think two weeks before (the start of the season), then you make a decision (about who is the starter), because those guys need to know who is No. 1 and who is No. 2,” de Klerk stated.
“At this moment, both are very good and they have to fight for their chance.”
The team made some minor roster cuts a week ago, releasing four of the five players that they selected in last month’s MLS Supplemental Draft. De Klerk said at the moment they don’t have plans to make any more cuts before leaving for Florida.
“We’ll bring everybody and then we’ll see over there in Orlando,” the Dutchman said.
Even though 32 players will be in Florida, the club currently has 38 players in camp. De Klerk confirmed that injured defenders Dicoy Williams and Jeremy Hall will remain in Toronto to receive treatment and undergo special training.
Nine members of the club’s youth academy joined the senior team at the start of training camp two weeks ago. De Klerk explained some of them have school commitments, so only a few of them will be in Orlando.
One player who will make the trip will be defender Adrian Cann, the club’s MVP from the 2010 season. Cann is still recovering from off-season knee injury and has been practising on his own during recent training sessions. He’s made progress, though, and the club feels he could soon be ready to participate in training sessions with his teammates.
“I think when we start it Orlando he’s going to train a little bit with the group, but slowly. We hope that within two or three weeks he can be ready for 100m per cent training with the group,” de Klerk offered.
Cann’s recovery is good news for a defence that conceded a league-high 59 goals last year. To address the problems at the back, Winter signed several new defenders in the off-season, including Chilean Miguel Aceval and Geovanny Caicedo of Ecuador.
Fellow defender Doneil Henry has been impressed with what he’s seen for the newcomers thus far.
“They’re both very strong on the ball, and comfortable passing it out from the back,” Henry said.
Left fullback Richard Eckersley has also been impressed with the way the South Americans have worked hard in camp. With more time, Eckerlsey feels the back four will come together as a cohesive unit.
“It’s more about building the chemistry and working together, and that’s what we’ve been doing. Hopefully we build on it even more when we go to Orlando. That’s the aim anyway,” Eckersley said.
