Ryan Johnston

Follow TFC and the Champions League with Twitter. I will update from training, on match day and whenever news breaks.

Preki.

A funny thing happened on the way to Toronto FC's fifth loss in as many tries away from home this season, it never materialized.

On paper, the trip out west was set up to fail. The much-maligned Nick Garcia was starting in the back four. The bench required a media guide and the opponent was MLS best in show. But minus the bravado of previous coaches, Preki has quietly established a group of players ready to compete as a unit regardless of whomever gets the call to start.

(As an aside, this now flies directly in the face of what was said about the team nearly a month ago to the day.)

For example, the aforementioned Garcia very easily could have packed it in after he was exposed in a pair of lopsided defeats to start the season. He didn't; and in lieu of taking that easy way out Garcia did only what Preki asks: deliver on the training ground and earn your minutes.

The 31-year-old Garcia has now played 180 continuous minutes without conceding a goal.

As for the 12 minutes the team got out of Joseph Nane, consider the circumstances. Preki does not play favourites; so Nane must be showing his mettle to deserve the responsibility.

Negating the Nutrilite

A win on Wednesday over Vancouver will give Toronto its second-straight Voyaguers Cup and a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League. Great for the Reds, bad for the tournament. Here's hoping the Whitecaps' jump to MLS in 2011 raises the stakes in this tournament, which has suffered in its third year.

In case you didn't notice

One time Top 10 world teenage player Jonathan de Guzman did not make the Dutch World Cup squad, and now at age 22 he has yet to earn a senior international cap for his adopted homeland.

It is time for Canadian men's national team coach Stephen Hart to go to that well once more.

When asked about the younger De Guzman during a media call to discuss the roster named for the upcoming friendlies with Argentina and Venezuela Hart did not rule out the possibility of a return in time for the start of Canada's 2014 qualification run.

"Jonathan has been injured most of the year, but when the World Cup is over it would be something that I am not hesitant to pursue."

Sportsnet will broadcast the Canada-Argentina friendly on May 24.