Letters from Camp: "Of Men and Mice"

Times are tough for Preki & Mo... er... Lennie and George

With a couple of good preseason results against quality Belgrade sides Partizan and Red Star out of the way, Toronto FC started to look ahead to the next few chapters of training camp. With announcements both on and off the pitch today, Aron Winter and Paul Mariner (or Team WinNer!) and the gang are moving forward.
　
· The club will embark on its first "gruelling" away fixture against Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday as they have to travel to the Croatian side's practice ground. Okay, by gruelling we actually mean a 10 minute ride on a luxury air conditioned coach. Almost like having an away match at Lamport and travelling from BMO. Just less hot dog stands... and no GO Train tunnel.
　
· Two names will no longer be seen in preseason line-ups as TFC cut loose Dutch winger Bas Ent and young Uruguayan forward Santiago Gonzalez Acero. For Ent, this marks the end of a 7 month flirtation with The Reds which sees his career highlight with Toronto a halftime sub appearance in last summer's Bolton Wanderers friendly. Unfortunately for the not-so-quick, blind-cross happy Ent, TFC wasn't in the market for the next Dutch Andy Welsh. For the young Gonzalez Acero it seems as if his frail physicality and lack of ball control when faced with strong defenders (which MLS has a few) caught up with him - and with Joao Plata filling the "little man" quota, he was a long-shot at best.
　
· A new face was added to the trialist list as Team WinNer invited 23-year-old Dutch leftback Kevin Westmaas to camp. The sturdy defender doesn't have much of a professional record to his name but has had a history with Jong Ajax (Ajax Academy) and was no doubt familiar to Aron Winter. Westmaas won't have too long to impress the coaching staff and will have to be big in training to garner an invite back to Toronto at the end of the week.
　
· The club firmed up their travel schedule for the next few weeks, announcing that the next phase will see them return to the GTA with practices all of next week at their Oakville indoor facility. Anything to avoid the (minus-whatever-the-F-it-is) weather and also a chance to integrate the supplemental players who didn't make the trek to Turkey. After their Toronto stop, The Reds head to Orlando, Florida on the 21st where they will take part in the lengthy named Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic with matches against Houston on the 24th and either FC Dallas or the USL's Orlando City on the 26th. Aron Winter no doubt covets that famous mouse-eared trophy at a tourney that is rated as one of the Top 10 "Theme Park/ Cartoon-related Pro Soccer Tournaments in Central Florida". Goofy.

Letters From Camp: "Trial, trial again" - International trialists join Reds in Turkey

Javier Martina - Pride of Netherlands Antilles

Team Winter's goal of releasing more reliable information in four days than Mo Johnston did in four years continued today with the promised list of the remaining participating trialists. After the introduction of the three Canadians (Eddy Sidra, Gianluca Zavarise and David Monsalve) yesterday, TFC's "Camp GobbleGobble" in Turkey welcomed the following potential Reds into the happy family. Well, except for Uncle Dwayne... he's a bit miserable. Anyhoo, here's the latest contestants in TurkeyTime...
　
· JAVIER MARTINA: 23-year-old forward from the Netherlands Antilles. That's an island chain, not the Star Wars pilot. Joined the Jong AFC Ajax (Ajax's youth team) from the amazingly named FC Omniworld who are possibly a club from a Dutch theme park. Spent 3 season with Jong Ajax with mixed results culminating in a brief loan to HFC Haarlem before they went bankrupt... not his fault hopefully. Was highly rated for a period which did see him make two minor appearances for the main Ajax team. Big chances on a TFC club with few forward options.
· KING GYAN OSEI: Or possibly King Osei Gyan... or Gyan Osei King... depends where you read it! Either way, the Accra, Ghana born holding midfielder who attended high school in California was once such a prospect that Fulham snatched him up straight out of a Ghanaian academy. While never making it onto the Fulham First Team, the tough midfielder proved to be a useful member during a three-season loan spell at Belgian Pro League club Germinal Beerschot. And hey, who here doesn't want a Beerschot?!
· BAS ENT: Frequent visitors to The Yorkies and other TFC sources will have seen Bas Ent's name for a while now. The technical Dutch winger trained with Toronto last summer including getting some minutes in the friendly vs. Bolton Wanderers. Ent spent his young career toiling through the Dutch Eerste Divisie and lower with clubs such as FC Volendam and VV Katwijk before finding himself at the Dutch-phile Ohio-based club Dayton Dutch Lions in the USL PDL. Dayton isn't far from Columbus and Ent just wants to get away. Isn't it our duty to help an Ohio refugee? Please be generous.
· SANTIAGO GONZALEZ ARECO: While not yet a renowned name in International football circles this lithe 18-year-old Uruguayan striker has made a few waves in his home country. The 5 foot 8 hitman showed enough promise to play for Uruguay's highly regarded U-17 team and he also earned a spot on their U-17 World Cup squad in 2009. Hasn't managed to break free of his last club's (River Plate Montevideo) B-team where despite having an eye for goal has succumbed to criticisms of his fragile physical nature in the box.
· NICK SOOLSMA: The least known of the three Dutch treats in this group, the 23-year-old Soolsma has yet to cement a place up front with a club of any substance. Spent time with Holland's VV Young Boys and HFC Haarlem (the Dutch kind of Harlem, not the cool Hip Hop one). No word if Soolsma had anything to do with Haarlem's bankruptcy either. Despite flirtations with the Dutch U-20 and U-17 set-ups, definitely the dark horse of this group.

Pride of The Rebellion - Wedge Antilles