TFC makes roster cuts, more to come

Toronto FC’s roster purge has begun.

The Major League Soccer club had 42 players in camp at the beginning of pre-season training last week. That number is down to 38 after the team confirmed Friday it has released four players: midfielders Arthur Ivo and Mike Mazzullo, and defenders Nickardo Blake and Mykell Bates.

All four were selected by TFC in last month’s MLS Supplemental Draft. A fifth supplemental pick, midfielder Michael Green, is still in camp.

This was the first round of roster cuts, but there will be more to come.

With 26 players under contract and needing to finalize his 30-man roster for the upcoming MLS season by March 1, head coach Aron Winter has a short period of time to decide who stays and who goes.

“It won’t be a problem to get the roster down to 30,” Winter said.

The Reds currently have nine academy members training with the senior side, and Winter said that the majority of them will travel with the team to Orlando where it will continue pre-season camp later this month.

Whether any of academy players will be signed to the senior team for the 2012 MLS season remains to be seen, although Winter admitted one or two have the potential to do so.

Still, the Dutchman has spoken with the kids and told them not to expect a lot -- that allowing them to participate in the pre-season camp was more to give them a sense of what it takes to become full-time player rather than an indication that they are close to graduating to MLS.

“While we think they have a lot of qualities, the step from the youth to the first team, for the most of them, is too high. We have to bring them along slowly,” Winter warned.

“We are proud that in your youth system we have good young players (and we wanted) to reward them and to give them experience training with the first team.”

Remaining on the theme of young players, the club’s two rookies Luis Silva and Aaron Maund are keen to impress the coaching staff in pre-season. Both were selected in the first round of last month’s MLS college draft, and at the time Winter admitted he expected Silva, a midfielder from the University of California at Santa Barbara, to make an instant impact as a starter.

Maund is more of a long-term project, although Winter said the Notre Dame defender could be a regular contributor this season.

“He’s defensively good, he’s sharp and he has good skills. (But) it’s the same with our academy players -- when you’re coming from college, you need some time (to develop) because the level is much higher,” Winter offered.

“But in the end, I think he has the quality to become a very good defender.”

As for Adrian Cann and Dicoy Williams, TFC’s starting central defenders from 2011, they are still on the road to recovery after both underwent knee surgery in the off-season.

Cann and Williams are currently training every day on their own, and Winter is taking a cautious approach, not letting them practise with the rest of their teammates until they are game fit and able to participate in all of the drills.

“Both of them need some more time,” Winter admitted.