Here are several pictures from the Umbro Canada event yesterday night!

Other info: all home world cup qualifying games this year will be played at BMO Field and a friendly vs. the US national team on June 3rd as well!

Toronto FC ASN is on Twitter @TorontoFCasn! Follow us for live game action, breaking news and headlines covering Toronto FC, Canadian soccer and  MLS.

So everyone out there with a TFC blog, website or covering TFC is doing one of these formation set-up things.
So I thought I would do my own!

Some players listed are yet to be signed but expected to, so that is why they are there.
Keep in mind some players are versatile and the position they are listed in might not be where they actually play.
FYI, this list would be my guess for the 30 man roster we will have.

After taking a look, share your thoughts – be nice!

Here it is:

———————————————— Frei ————————————————
———————————————- (Kocic) ———————————————
——————————————— (*Bush*) ———————————————

Eckersley ——————– Caicedo ——————- Aceval ——————– Morgan
– (Maund) ——————- (Harden) —————— (Cann) ——————- (Hall) –
——————————— (Henry) —————- (Williams) —————————–

——————————– Frings ——————- De Guzman ————————–
—————————— (Dunfield) —————– (Bouchiba) —————————
——————————————— (Stinson) ——————————————

———————————————- Avila ————————————————-
——————————————— (Silva) ————————————————-
—————————————— (*Burgos Jr.*) —————————————–
——————————————– (Cordon) ———————————————–

– Lambe —————————— Koevermans ———————————- Plata –
– (Soolsma) —————————- (Johnson) ————————- (Makubuya) –
———————- (*Vukovic*) ——————— (*Jackman*) ——————–
* Players with a star beside their name are those who I think will be signed!

This post was written by @MahmoudShoblaq of @amersocc and @TorontoFCasn.

Toronto FC ASN is on Twitter @TorontoFCasn! Follow us for live game action, breaking news and headlines covering Toronto FC, Canadian soccer and  MLS.

This is just a short post to give everyone a heads up on who is/will be in camp during Toronto FC’s preseason.

This information is gathered through various internet sources and reports. (players’ twitter accounts, translated articles, rumors etc.)

This list will be updated throughout preseason!

I will start off with the list of players not ‘officially’ signed with the club, followed by the list of those that will be given a trial and lastly a list of signed players.

As the lists indicate there are 26 + 1 (Lindsay is inactive due to long-term injury) official squad players with 2 expected to sign, leaving 2 roster spots available for several new players (most likely academy products).

LAST UPDATE: FEBRUARY 3rd, 2012 – 5:00pm

Players expected to be signed:
Stefan Vukovic (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Efrain Burgos, Jr. (2011 Draft Pick) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP

Players expected in camp for trials:
Michael Green (2012 Supplemental Draft Pick) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Tristan Jackman (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Chad Bush (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Quillan Roberts (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Brandon John (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Tyler Pasher  (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Sergio Camargo (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Jay Chapman (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Jordan Hamilton (Academy product) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP

Current Squad (Under Contract):
Milos Kocic - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Stefan Frei - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Torsten Frings - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Terry Dunfield – CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Julian De Guzman – CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Eric Avila – CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Ryan Johnson - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Danny Koevermans - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Joao Plata – CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Ty Harden – CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Ashtone Morgan (Home grown) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Matt Stinson (Home grown) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Doniel Henry (Home grown) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Nick Soolsma - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Keith Makubuya (Home grown) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Oscar Cordon (Home grown) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Adrian Cann - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Elbekay Bouchiba - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Richard Eckersley - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Jeremy Hall (New Signing) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Reggie Lambe (New Signing) – CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Geovanny Caicedo (New Signing) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Miguel Aceval (New Signing) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Luis Silva (New Signing – 2012 Draft Pick) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Aaron Maund (New Signing – 2012 Draft Pick) - CONFIRMED IN CAMP
Dicoy Williams - CONFIRMED IN CAMP

Nicholas Lindsay (Home grown) – Reports indicate he will be out for the 2012 season.

This post was written by @MahmoudShoblaq of @amersocc and @TorontoFCasn.

For some time we have been looking for a way to implement forum functionality into this site. It appears we finally have a winner. The brand new Wizards.ASN forum does not require separate registration. If you have a Facebook, Twitter, Gmail or Yahoo! username (and seriously who doesn’t nowadays) you are IN and can start posting! This doesn’t mean the forum isn’t moderated however (spammers beware). Obviously hate speech and threats of violence or other intimidation are not tolerated either.

This forum is not meant to compete with other boards dedicated to the team, each of which are excellent resources. We just felt there was/is room for something perhaps intended for the more casual fan of the team that could integrate with the various social media platforms of the day. (Or, if you’re stuck in 2005, MySpace yes you can post with your Myspace username).

The forum does not integrate comments posted to the site. Those remain a separate entity. Which is fine because it creates a church/state separation between the site’s proprietary content (and responses thereto) and topics that readers and fans are interested in discussing among themselves.

So go ahead and check it out!

After two opening the season with two home victories in league play, the Kansas City Wizards head west for their first road trip when they face the Seattle Sounders at Qwest Field for a rare noon start.

It has been a mixed bag for the Wizards in the past week. Last Saturday, Kansas City hosted the Colorado Rapids in league play. Although the opening minutes of the game were wide open, the game quickly bogged down, and tempers began to flare as both clubs were guilty of reckless play at times. The game’s only goal came from a set piece as Kei Kamara headed home a Ryan Smith free kick. The hard-fought victory vaulted Kansas City into first place in the Eastern Conference despite only playing two games this season.

By luck of the draw, both teams met three days later in a US Open Cup qualifier. Both teams rotated their squads; each club featured two starters from Saturday’s starting eleven. Rookie forward Teal Bunbury got the Wizards off to a good start with a fourth minute goal, but Colorado’s Wells Thompson equalized midway through the first half and then provided the game winner late in the game.

While the past week was a mixed bag for Kansas City, the same could be said for the entire season thus far for Seattle. The Sounders began their season in fine fashion with a 2-0 home victory over Philadelphia, but then fell 1-0 to New York the following week. Last week, they were on the verge of securing their first road win of the season as they led Real Salt Lake 2-1 in stoppage time. However, Brad Evans lost track of Alvaro Saborio, and the Costa Rican headed home Nelson Gonzalez’s corner kick to provide the dramatic equalizer.

The major question for the Sounders will be the depth of their attack. With Sebastian Le Toux now playing in Philadelphia and with Nate Jaqua on injured reserve, Seattle has to rely mostly on the three pronged attacks of Steve Zakuani, Fredy Montero and Freddie Ljungberg to produce goals. Sigi Schmid has picked up veteran Pat Noonan to give his team an offensive spark, but questions remain about a player who has cast aside by two clubs since last season.

Meanwhile, Peter Vermes’ Kansas City squad features multiple threats. Newcomer Ryan Smith has drawn the most attention with a goal and two assists already in 2010 as well as his exciting dribbling skills. However, Kei Kamara, who has been used both on the right wing at center forward, has two goals this season. Davy Arnaud and Jack Jewsbury provide goal scoring threats from midfield, and while Josh Wolff has lost a step since his early years in the league, he is still a player whose skill cannot be ignored.

Both teams feature solid back lines that are protected very well by deep lying midfielders in Seattle’s Osvaldo Alonso and Kansas City’s Stephane Auvray. This could lead to a low scoring game. The question is will Seattle’s sensational trio provided the goal that will decide the game or will it be Kansas City’s less heralded, but more balanced attack.

Kansas City Continues Road Trip Against DC

Going into Wednesday’s game against DC United (7-5-12), the Kansas City Wizards (6-10-6) find themselves in an unusual position: they will be entering the game on the heels of a victory.

After a two and a half month stretch where the Wizards managed only two points in league play and carrying a 424 minute goalless streak, Kansas City exploded against New England on Saturday in a 4-2 win. The Wizards also avoided setting a club record for consecutive minutes without scoring a goal when Claudio Lopez struck in the third minute.

However, the real story of the game was the play of Josh Wolff. After missing Kansas City’s previous game, a 1-0 loss to Real Salt Lake, due to injury, the striker had a major hand in all four goals on Saturday. Wolff’s run down the right forced a mistake from Darius Barnes, giving Lopez an easy scoring chance, and later in the first half, Wolff forced an own goal from Jay Heaps. Wolff scored two goals of his own in the second half to kill off any chance of a New England comeback.

Meanwhile, DC United enter the game after a 2-2 draw against FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park. Dallas twice took a lead only to see United grab an equalizer. The draw left United in a 4 way tie for the last two playoff spots.

While Adam Cristman is the only player on the Kansas City injury list, United enters the game with several key injuries. Defender Marc Burch has joined fellow defender Dejan Jankovic and forwards Thabiaso Khumalo and Ange N’Silu on the injury list. DC boss Tommy Soehn will likely replace Burch with Avery John, but Soehn also must decide on which tactic he will use on Wednesday. United began the game against Dallas in a 4-4-2 with Julius James and Devon MacTavish in the center of the back line, but Soehn switched to the 3-5-2 before halftime by removing MacTavish for Jaime Moreno.

The main concern for United in this game, however, simply could be fatigue. Due to the US Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League, this will be the fourth consecutive week where DC will be playing two games in one week. United’s form has dropped in the last month, and a team that once had designs on winning the Eastern Conference is now merely fighting for a spot in the MLS post season. With the key injuries to Burch and Jankovic along with a DC side fighting tired legs, Kansas City could be in position to do something they have not done since early April: win two consecutive games.

Toronto FC star Dwayne De Rosario has been named TFC’s Esquire Player of the Month for July. Before the kick off at BMO Field Saturday, De Rosario was presented with an Esquire watch for his performance during the month. He continued the great form that earned him the recognition by scoring the first of two goals in the win against D.C. United that day.

De Rosario’s passion for the team was seen throughout this season but was not able to achieve the votes for the award in the previous months. De Rosario was recognized for his performances after scoring a goal in the 1-1 tie against his former team Houston Dynamo and another against Columbus Crew in the 3-2 defeat. He also gathered an assist on Chad Barrett’s goal in the 3-1 win at San Jose Earthquakes.

Dwayne continued his great form from the start of the season by adding to his scoring tally and surpassing Danny Dichio’s tally for a season. DeRo played strongly in every match to do what is best within his ability to achieve a result for TFC, he beat the likes of Chad Barrett, Adrian Serioux and Pablo Vitti for the monthly award.  The rest of the players even-though they did not receive the award deserve the nomination for their individual contribution and effort in the month of July. Chad fought all criticism to continue working hard and try to perform and winning an MLS Player of the Week recognition for scoring two goals against San Jose in a 3-1 victory.   While Serioux continued solid play at the back and Vitti’s performance improved tremendously helping him score his second MLS goal for TFC.

Previous TFC Player of the Month winners included Nana Attakora for the month of June, Amado Guevara for May and rookie keeper Stefan Frei for April.

TFC on Wednesday August 12th 2009 announced the signing of Haitian defender Lesly Fellinga. Fellinga has become a free agent earlier this summer after playing a season with the  Dutch club, SC Heerenveen.

Lesly Fellinga will wear the #5 jersey of Toronto FC after spending most of his youth and professional career in Holland (Netherlands). In 2007 he joined the Haitian national team, making his senior debut in a World-Cup qualifier in June 2008. Prior to playing for Haiti, Fellinga played for the Dutch youth teams through the U-19 level.

Fellinga will become available for selection following the approval of his ITC and work permit. After a few days of successful trialing with TFC, he will continue training with the team until his availability.

Information:
Name: Lesly Fellinga
Number: #5
Position: Defender (left-back)
Age: 23 (September 29, 1985)
Nationality: Haitian
Height: 5-8
Weight: 157

DC United’s match with Spanish and world powerhouse Real Madrid on Sunday at FedEx Field of course means absolutely nothing to any league or cup standings. It could be argued that the September 2nd Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final has more long term value and ramifications than this match. That match with Seattle may well feature United’s best XI but you are more likely to see that top team trot out onto to the park on Sunday.

In the middle of a long stretch of games in a confined time span with heavy travel considerations, Coach Tom Soehn has seemingly based his selections and managed the minutes of certain players based on his perceived importance of the match and the level of the team they are facing.

United played Real to a scintillating 1-1 draw in Seattle in 2006, playing the Galacticos down to the wire, arguably their best match of that season. In that match, then Coach Peter Nowak played a first team line-up before the packed house at Qwest Field.

Though barely into their pre-season training camp, United will be facing another Real Madrid team chock full of world-class talent including the recently acquired World Player of the Year, Cristiano Ronaldo.

During the recently completed World Soccer Challenge, though entertaining to a degree, it was definitively evident that the three European powers, AC and Inter Milan and Chelsea, were not coordinated regardless of their fitness levels.

United has always taken matches against teams of this pedigree a bit more seriously than other friendlies. Their international desires are ambitious and they don’t apologize for it one bit.

Though not playing for points or positioning, and most likely before a slightly smaller crowd in the enormous FedEx Field, Soehn is well aware of the value a good performance can have for that standing and for the remainder of his team’s season.

United recently advanced to the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League defeating C.D. L.A. Firpo of El Salvador on penalty kicks in the road leg of their play-in series.

“This club always puts a lot of emphasis on this tournament,” said midfielder Ben Olsen. “We want to be one of the better teams in this region and this is a way to put a stamp not only in America but abroad and show that D.C. United is a regional power.”

“We take every competition very seriously,” General Manager Dave Kasper said. “We want to win every competition and in order to do that, much like in Europe and South America, playing in this competition and that competition you need a deep roster.”

Before the arrival of David Beckham in 2007, United were the only Major League Soccer club with any name recognition outside of the United States and North America, especially in Europe. They have been the standard bearer for the league not only with their results but with their style of play.

In the home leg of the Firpo series, Soehn carried over just three starters from the 2-2 draw in San Jose the previous weekend, a line-up he felt was just good enough to get past a team that started their training two weeks prior and earlier than expected after replacing CD Chalatenango in the tournament. Instead his team fell flat and escaped with a shaky 1-1.

Dejan Jakovic started at right back instead of his customary central position to give Bryan Namoff a well deserved but costly break. Avery John got the call on the left and Greg Janicki started in the middle and his dreadful turnover at the top of the penalty area led to Firpo’s goal.

Jaime Moreno was the only true creative force until Christian Gomez, Luciano Emilio and Chris Pontius came on later in the match. Pontius actually replaced Moreno, who knocked home a penalty kick to equalize the match just before halftime.

In the return leg, Soehn fielded a first choice line-up that once again did not include Pontius and though it was difficult, got the desired result. The rookie has had a sensational season and though he came on in the 72nd minute, his omission was a sign of the team’s depth.

Soehn has used the standard pattern of fielding B-teams in the U.S. Open Cup matches while resting starters for MLS league matches. He has rotated his big three attacking personalities-Moreno, Gomez, Emilio-with all three playing at least 45-minutes in every MLS match during that stretch, barring injury. Olsen is routinely a game day decision but has played at least a half when available.

United is as healthy and deep as they have been in recent weeks with the return of Santino Quaranta and Jakovic from U.S. and Canadian national team duty respectively, despite two severe injuries in recent weeks to Brandon Barklage and Boyzzz Khumalo in successive U.S. Open Cup wins.

Moreno, Olsen, Gomez, Fred, and Emilio have all been injured and missed significant time. One fortunate break for their rehabilitation and conditioning, and for entire team during this stretch, has been the atypically cool weather and low humidity in the Washington area.

United played six matches in 18-days culminating in the penalty kick win Tuesday in El Salvador. They played their worst match of the season at Colorado, dropping a 3-0 decision at the tail end of three games in eight days with the latter two in the western half of country. Shortly thereafter, both national teamers left and a series of injuries to their best veteran players left Soehn needing to make decisions on how to use his players and still get results.

“We are all counted on,” said Moreno. “He has been clear on that all year, everyone is counted on and everyone has to be ready. Hopefully no one will get injured and we can take off the second half of the season, which is the most important one. We have a deep team and everyone has proven every time they get their chance so everyone has to be ready and be expecting to play.”

Kansas City Looks for Vital Win Over Resurgent Galaxy

The Kansas City Wizards (5-6-5) will return to action on Saturday when they take on the LA Galaxy (6-3-9) at Community America Ballpark, which will mark the first time that the Wizards will host the the Galaxy outside of Arrowhead Stadium. This will be the second and final meeting between the sides after a 1-1 draw in late May at the Home Depot Center

It has been a difficult month and a half for Kansas City as Curt Onalfo’s team have been eliminated from the Superliga and the US Open Cup and have not won a league match since a 3-1 victory over New England on June 13, dropping the club to fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The frustration continued two weeks ago in the Wizards scoreless draw against New England at Gillette Stadium. With both sides forced to field makeshift lineups due to the Gold Cup and injuries, the visitors enjoyed the better of the play but poor finishing and solid goalkeeping from Matt Reis extended Kansas City’s goalless streak in all competitions to three games.

The Galaxy, meanwhile, have won four straight league games, and amazingly, appear to be a threat in the Western Conference. Last Thursday, with David Beckham returning to the squad for the first time since his controversial loan to AC Milan as well as the less than flattering reports in Grant Wahl’s The Beckham Experiment, Los Angeles dismantled the hapless Red Bulls 3-1 at Giant’s Stadium thanks to spectacular goals from Alecko Eskandarian, Landon Donovan, and Eddie Lewis.

Much of the credit for this turn around should be given to head coach Bruce Arena, who took over last August. Arena has seemingly followed the George Costanza philosophy of simply doing the opposite of everything the team did last season. Last year’s wide open games with little defensive emphasis along with young players struggling from a lack of a strong head coaching presence have been replaced with a disciplined system executed by veterans. Most importantly, though, games that would have resulted in defeats in 2008 result in draws or even victories in 2009.

A win over this Galaxy side would be massive for the Wizards. A victory could move the club to within a point of fourth place Toronto with two games in hand, but a loss could drop them to sixth place in the conference. Unfortunately for Kansas City, many signs point to another low scoring defeat. Los Angeles has been difficult to break down this season with goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts doing a fine job to stopping any shots that get through. Meanwhile, the Wizards have been struggling offensively and will have to find a way to score with Davy Arnaud and Roger Espinoza in the attack due to the Gold Cup.

The optimist, however, will remember that a home game against the Galaxy last year was the turning point of the 2008 season. With the Wizards at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the Beckham circus came to town, and Kansas City came away with a 2-0 victory. The Wizards did not lose a game for the rest of the season and qualified for the playoffs. Perhaps the week off along with a packed Community America Ballpark may be the perfect tonic for Kansas City.