By Ryan Johnston, Sportsnet.ca

TORONTO -- Jim Brennan stood on the halfway line in his stocking feet at the completion of Toronto FC's final home game last summer and delivered a message of hope for the team in 2008: Playoffs.

It was a bold prediction from the team captain, considering Toronto won just six of 30 games in its first season. But six months later, Brennan stands by his prediction as the team prepares for its second home opener at BMO Field.

"I stand by it, I still think we will make the playoffs," Brennan said during the media gathering on Thursday. "It is just something I believe in. The players in the dressing room believe that we can do it. And with the players that are coming in now I don't see why we can't make the playoffs."

The winter months were a whirlwind of speculation for the sophomore club, with the rumour mill churning out an average of one new name a week. After the MLS transfer deadline expired on April 15, TFC had added Honduran international Amado Guevara, Frenchman Laurent Robert and Englishman Rohan Ricketts.

Guevara had an immediate impact, assisting on Danny Dichio's first goal of the season in a 3-2 win on the road against David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy on April 13. Ricketts did not suit up in that match, but he is excited at the opportunity to continue his career in North America.

"I think the MLS is bigger than what people in England give it credit for," Ricketts said about his soccer odyssey. "Since I have been here I have seen two games and the standard is higher than what I expected.

"You know what England is like, they think they are the best (at football) but they've only won the World Cup once ... and we created football."

Ricketts is a character and should his on-field performance match his off-field charisma then TFC fans are in for a treat in the former premiership player. As for his role, the former product of Arsenal's youth program is open to anything.

"Left, right, in the middle, wherever the manager wants to play me, I just want to play

football."

After starting the season with three games on the road in Columbus, Washington and Los Angeles the team will play in front of a sell-out crowd at BMO Field on Saturday afternoon (12:30 p.m. ET) against Real Salt Lake, a team TFC took four points (1-0-1) from in 2007. With the new players and a new manager in John Carver, expectations surrounding the team are high.

"I believe we can do things here," Carver told a throng of media after training. "And I said that after the game (in L.A.). I got everybody on the pitch together and I said, 'If you believe what you can achieve here, then anything can happen.' And that's what we believe as a group."

The team's resident prognosticator agrees; and he is eager to get out there and send the capacity crowd on Saturday home with three points.

"We have a good bunch here," Brennan said. "They are an ambitious group who want to get to the playoffs this year and do something big with his club."