If there is one thing Toronto FC has developed a knack for, it’s the ability to create a mid winter preseason buzz that heightens speculation around Major League Soccer and buoys hope for its fans. With a running total of eight failed seasons, many have come to take a cautiously optimistic approach to the stream of management and player changes that have occurred over the years.
If anything, the additions of Jermain Defoe, Gilberto, Michael Bradley, and Julio Cesar prior to the 2014 season and the subsequent failure to make the playoffs, left many followers with a tempered and sober dose of reservation about anything that happens in January and February.
Toronto FC Adds Depth with New Players
With a busy offseason that ramped up almost immediately after the 2014 campaign ended, a flurry of new acquisitions, and an especially feverish pace since mid January, there is little room this year to criticize the amount of preparation and effort that has gone into deepening the squad.
General manager Tim Bezbatchenko and coach Greg Vanney have appeared to be on the same page in executing a plan to fill the holes that were so apparent last season. Unlike past preseasons, 2015 has begun with an abundance of players and a solidly planned approach to training.
After the acquisitions of Marco Delgado and Robbie Findley, January saw a whole new level in lineup changes. On Friday, January 16th, Toronto FC announced the signing of American forward Jozy Altidore. The deal saw heralded yet doubted striker, Jermain Defoe head back to England to join Sunderland.
The move appeared best for both Altidore and Defoe. Defoe was rumoured to want a return to England and Altidore was in a major goal scoring slump. Having only scored once since joining Sunderland in 2013, Altidore was looking to return to the levels he had previously when he scored 39 goals with AZ Akmaar in the Netherlands. A return to Major League Soccer and an opportunity to play alongside fellow US national Michael Bradley, appear to be a motivational spark and a new beginning that will hopefully, for Toronto FC fans, develop into a mutually beneficial relationship.
With the arrival of Altidore, the focus was on how well he and Bradley might complement each other. Defoe’s departure would call for a new approach to offence. The resulting offense had still included Brazilian forward, Gilberto, but only for a few days.
On January 19th, Toronto FC announced the signing of Italian international and Juventus forward, Sebastian Giovinco. Giovinco is a versatile midfielder who has had flashes of goal scoring brilliance in Italy’s Serie A. With 20 goals and 23 assists in 130 appearances across all competitions, the 28-year-old arrives as a groundbreaking acquisition in Major League Soccer. As a European in the prime of his career, Giovinco is the first such player to show an interest in Major League Soccer. As a playmaker with a goal scoring touch, he represents a dimension Toronto FC has never seen before as well. Known as “Atomic Ant” for his intensity and his size (5’4 1/2″), Giovinco was originally planned to arrive in July after the end of the Serie A campaign. Further negotiations allowed for an early arrival however, and he has recently just arrived in Toronto (to much fanfare) and is participating in preseason training. He will undoubtedly play a number 10 playmaking role and provide Toronto FC with some long awaited creativity in attack.
Like Altidore, he had seemed to fall down the hierarchy of his previous team and was in need of a change. Feeling welcome in a new setting was a large part of his criteria in making a move. For Toronto FC however, the addition of Giovinco brings the total of designated players to four, one more than allowed by current MLS regulations.
The fallout appears to be the moving out of Gilberto, barring any unexpected changes. At this point, Gilberto is still in Brazil and Toronto FC is reportedly looking to strike a deal for him.
The addition of Altidore and Giovinco did great things to change Toronto FC’s offensive look. A replacement for Defoe and an additional playmaker were both needed. Bright Dike and Luke Moore still remain, while Andrew Wiedeman was let go and later signed with the Ottawa Fury FC of the NASL. Along the way in January, Toronto FC traded Kyle Bekker to Dallas and Dominic Oduro to Montreal, both for allocation money. While Jackson, Lovitz, Creavalle, Warner, and Osorio still remain, the move was on to further deepen the midfield. To that end, on January 29th, Toronto FC announced the signing of 33 year old Benoit Cheyrou, an accomplished and proven veteran who has spent the last seven seasons with Olympique de Marseilles of France’s Ligue 1. Like Giovinco, Cheyrou has played at the highest level in UEFA and domestic competition, having won multiple titles. Cheyrou is a distribution specialist and has no doubt been brought in to add some depth and composure to the midfield, as well as complement and support Michael Bradley in his similar style. Critics have still maintained that depth in wide areas is lacking, but most are positive on the addition of Cheyrou and predict that he will thrive.
Beyond the midfield, there was also the matter of bolstering the back line. Led by Steven Caldwell since 2013, some progress had been made in creating a defensive focus that made Toronto FC consistently more stingy and difficult to play against. Despite the addition and improvement of Mark Bloom and Nick Hagglund however, defensive prowess in 2014 declined and a lack of depth was exposed. This was obviously not lost on Bezbatchenko. In late January he added 22 year old defender Eriq Zavaleta, from Seattle for a second round Superdraft pick in 2016. Zavaleta comes highly regarded as a versatile defender and offers necessary MLS experience. Along with Justin Morrow, Zavaleta may very well add to the element of MLS experience that Toronto FC so badly need.
Injuries to Caldwell and Bloom in 2014 additionally highlighted the need for a defender (particularly a centre back) who could fulfill a leadership role. In 2014, too much had been expected of Hagglund and Doneil Henry in this regard. Bezbatchenko had apparently been searching for a leader of such calibre for quite some time. His efforts resulted in the late January arrival of Damien Perquis, a veteran Polish international defender who was in a third season with Real Betis in Spain’s Second Division. Perquis was actually born in France and has spent much of his career playing there in Ligue 1. Gaining Polish citizenship, he has 13 caps and one goal for his new country. He potentially represents a critical piece that Toronto FC has been lacking for quite some time. Arguably, Caldwell has had most success for Toronto FC in this position. Over the years, attempts had been made to add strength in the form of such players as Darren O’Dea and Danny Califf, but had only varying degrees of moderate success. Many critics have contended that this is the position any rebuild (of which there have been many) should start from.
In a recent move that appeared to sit less than well with Caldwell, the captaincy was handed to Michael Bradley. Caldwell appears to have moved on and by all indications is ready to play. Many will recall that at the end of last season, it was Bradley who stepped forward an essentially made a commitment to helping build a winner. In what was really a statement of vision, he also gave a prescriptive list of the type of proven and winning players that were needed to put together once and for all, a team that could get the job done, and move beyond the lacklustre, lifeless performances that characterized the end of the 2014 season. By all accounts, while Caldwell may lead the back line, Bradley is the now the undisputed leader in the bigger picture.
Toronto FC begins the 2015 season on the road in Vancouver, in the first of a series of seven road games. Reportedly, the preseason is intense and the desire to begin as a prepared, cohesive unit is a central focus. Only time will tell how the on field product unfolds and adapts.
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