Toronto FC was back in training Tuesday following its road loss to the New England Revolution on the weekend.
Here are some news and notes from today’s practice at the club’s training facility in Downsview.
LESSON LEARNED IN NEW ENGLAND
TFC’s 3-0 setback in New England on Saturday was only their second loss this season, ending an eight-game unbeaten run in MLS play in brutal fashion.
Even though it was Toronto’s worst performance of the year, there were no sad faces during Tuesday’s practice, with the players and coaching staff already putting the setback behind them.
Coach Greg Vanney said the loss in New England was simply one of the days for the Reds, who were battling fatigue and forgot about the small details that led to their success so far this season.
“Down a goal, we missed a couple of opportunities to equalize,” Vanney stated. “We were still giving away too many [scoring] chances, and I think that’s one of the things we’ve normally been good at… By not getting the equalizing goal and continuing to give up chances, we were running a very fine line on ourselves.”
He later added: “We were too loose, and in this league, where the margins are not enormous, if you [don’t pay attention] to details you become very beatable. And that’s what it was.”
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RICKETTS AND INJURY UPDATES
The club confirmed on Monday that Canadian forward Tosaint Ricketts has been ruled out for three to four weeks with a hamstring strain. He suffered the injury during last week’s 4-0 win over the Ottawa Fury in the second leg of the Canadian Championship semifinals.
A native of Edmonton, Alta., Ricketts has three goals in 12 MLS appearances this season, five as a starter. His absence means fellow Canadian Jordan Hamilton and youngster Ben Spencer will move up the forward depth chart behind Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore.
“Any time we lose somebody to an injury then the next guy has to be ready to go, whomever that may be. Our young forwards have to step up in this period because it’s going to get busy,” Vanney said.
“They’ve done a nice job, but it’s continuing to be consistent in their performances and what they bring to the team in every match. But we look forward to trying to get Tosaint back as quickly as possible within what makes sense for him.”
Vanney confirmed there are no new injury concerns for Toronto stemming from Saturday’s game in New England, a place where a number of TFC players have previously been injured, in part due to the artificial surface.
MORROW NAMED TO U.S. PRELIM ROSTER
Earlier this week, Toronto defender Justin Morrow was among 40 players named to the U.S. preliminary roster for next month’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. American coach Bruce Arena must submit a final 23-man roster on June 27 ahead of his team’s opener against Panama on July 8. Teams advancing to the knockout stage of the competition can change six players, but are limited to players named to their 40-man roster.
Morrow has one cap for the U.S. team, playing in a friendly against Canada in Houston in 2013 when the sides battled to a 0-0 draw.
TFC captain Michael Bradley and Altidore are expected to make the Gold Cup squad. For Morrow, the fact he was even named to the preliminary roster means that the U.S. team is finally taking notice of his solid play in MLS after largely being ignored by former coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
“I’m very happy for him. He’s been excellent; he’s played a couple different roles for us this year. He’s shown his ability to attack, and create and score goals,” Vanney said.
“When you’re having a very good run as he has been now for the better part of a year plus, and you can show that consistency … then I think it’s the right time and the right opportunity for J-Mo to get a shot.”
A QUIET WEEK AHEAD
The loss of Ricketts to injury is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the Reds have a bye this week and don’t play again until June 17 when they host D.C. United.
The time off allows Ricketts and other TFC layers who are dealing with small aches and fatigue to recuperate following a grueling May schedule that saw the team play eight games across two competitions.
Toronto is facing another five-games-in-two-weeks stretch after the break.
“It’s been a super busy run and some guys need to recover because we’re going to go into another pretty busy stretch of games in a short period of time,” Vanney said.
With Bradley and Altidore away with the U.S. national team, and Jonathan Osorio and Raheem Edwards with Canada ahead of next week’s game against Curacao in Montreal, it’s extra quiet around TFC’s training ground. Vanney plans to take advantage of that and the fact the Reds aren’t playing in MLS this week to work one-on-one with some players.
“It changes the vibe because we’re not preparing for a specific match, and so we can focus a lot more on some specific things with players or on the back line or the midfield group. We can break things down because we’re not looking at an opponent or preparing for a game – we get can some detail-oriented stuff done in a different way,” Vanney explained.
I spoke one-on-one with TFC defender Eriq Zavaleta after Tuesday’s practice. Look for my feature story on him later this week on Sportsnet.ca
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