So there was not much music to talk about in January as all the lazy pop-stars & musicians were probably having an extended New years eve!! But some big hitter’s are back for the new year with some great material as you will see in my top 5 songs this month. Enjoy..

1. The Prodigy- OMEN ( 1 of my favourite dance groups are back with a dangerous track)

2. Chipmunk- Chip diddy chip ( Catchy Hip-Hop tune by a new London Geezer)

3. MGMT- Time to pretend ( Another great tune from this groups awesome album)

4. U2- Get on your boots ( Arguably the biggest band in the world are back with another catchy tune)

5. The Killers- Spaceman ( Probably the best song of their new album)

The boys were happy to get back to Toronto yesterday evening after a hard weeks training in Bradenton(FL). Now whether this was because it was Valentines day!! Or just because it was good to get back and see the family, you can make your mind up! Some of the new guys were pretty nervous with reports coming from various people that it was -20 back in TO, but when we got back in it was pretty normal at -1. Just before we left to come home we had our last game in Bradenton against one of our arch rivals ‘New York’. The game was split up into 4 periods of 25 minutes. One team played the 1st 50 minutes and then another team came on for the last 50 minutes. The game was as followed;

TORONTO FC  VS NEW YORK RED BULLS

team: Frei, Wynne, Kenton , Velez , Brennan , De Rosario, Amadoo, Cronin, McGlinchey, Barrett, Vitti

In the 1st half we probably played the best football the team have played all week. The passing and the movement was very crisp and the pressure when the opponents had the ball was very good as well. The 1st goal came when Chad was played through with a great driven pass by Marv , Chad was through on goal but un-selfishly played a square ball to Vitti who took a touch and then finished neatly under the keepers feet. The 2nd goal came when the young Gambian kid ‘Amadoo’ closed down ‘New York’s’ centre midfielder with great pressure and found Chad who was about 30yds out from goal. He then hit a superb shot from distance that nestled in the far top hand corner giving the keeper no chance. In the 2nd half we conceded a dubious penalty when the overly cautious referee awarded a hand ball against De Ro after the ball was blasted against him. The 2nd half we got a bit tired and the game got a bit sloppy which is understandable after a hard weeks training.

So thats me finished for now and i am off to watch the Milan Derby where i hope the only team in Milan pick up the 3 points!!! FORZA MILAN

After a hard afternoon yesterday where we practiced only once , we were back to our normal double session today. Yesterday was the dreaded 3 on 3’s in a tight area working at an intense pace and pressuring the person in control of the ball. We do numerous reps of these at selected time periods with rest time in between the 3 minute games. But no matter how hard these 3 on 3’s are, i know that all of the players would much rather do this hard work with the ball and goals than run stupidly for long periods around a track, pitch or forest!!  Back to today where this morning we broke up into 4 teams of 6 and played a mini tournament against eachother. 3 times through and the guys were spent after putting in lots of effort, even on the training ground there is lots of hustling and arguing between the lads as no-one wants to be on the losing team. Also adding to the fire is the dubious refereeing of some of our coaches, there response is that we should be used to it now while playing in the MLS!!!   Our new young goalkeeper Stefan Frei has impressed me alot already, and being on my team today i got an even closer look at him. He was superb today and really makes himself big on 1 on 1 situations, earning the nickname ‘Spider-Man’ already. Another guy that looks the business even though his only been with us a couple of days now is ‘Pablo Vitti’. He does not speak much english , but you can tell he’s a class act. He has great feet and movement and can turn on sixpence sharply. I look forward to seeing him in game action tomorrow against New York. It was also good to see my old mate Marv come and join us today after his exploits with the US national team. They got a great win against Mexico last night, so he was a pretty happy guy today.

A bit more excitement in the camp today with a couple more guys joining us and one member leaving us. I will start with Tyrone Marshall who left us today to join the new expansion team in Seattle. Tyrone was with us in Florida until sunday evening when he left to join up with the Jamaican squad in London. No one in the squad knew he was going and i do not even know whether he knew. Tyrone was a good member of the squad who got on with everyone, so we wish him all the best and will see him again soon on our first home game of the season. The arrival of two new faces to the camp cheered up the guys as well, firstly its great to see O’Brien White join up with the squad at last. He’s got a great big smile on him and when he gets fit we hope he can carry on his college form into the MLS for us which will be a big bonus. Then Pablo Vitti joined us later in the afternoon after our game with Chicago. Pablo is a young guy coming with alot of promise, so we are very excited to have him and cant wait to see what he can add to our attacking options. We do have a couple more youngsters from Gambia who are training with us. Now these guys are 16 & 17 , but have the physique’s of grown men! I do not know who scouted these kids, but they look very promising.

*GAME 2* TORONTO FC  Vs CHICAGO

Team; Sutton, Kenton, Velez ,Harmse , Brennan , Ricketts , Robinson, Cronin, Smith , DeRosario, Barrett        First 90 minute game against MLS competition this year. Chicago had quite a few guys missing from their starting line-up that you would see normally. They have been back training for 3-4 weeks now so the boys put in a good shift and you could not really tell the difference in fitness. They scored the only goal of the game with a direct free kick in the top corner from the lively winger Banner. Another good workout for the lads as we continue to build our fitness for the start of the season.

So, we have started that time of the season that every player loves!!! PRE-SEASON. You can ask every soccer player this and they will tell you that pre-season is a nightmare. And if you have not looked after yourself during off season, you will definitely be feeling the effect during your 1st week of training and maybe more. Now being as this is my 19th pre-season camp, i actually know what your body is going to go through. So as you get older and wiser , you know what your body needs and how to look after it more. We are very lucky at TFC as i think we have the best fitness coach in the business. He has got us working very hard from the start of day 1, but always with a purpose and meaning. This means we are not running around fields & tracks for long periods with no soccer balls. Our work has been tough and intense for different periods of times with all the intention being of match type situations. The boys are knuckling down as well and putting in the effort assisted by the ever encouraging coaching staff. After a few days training in Toronto we flew down to sunny Florida where we are currently situated in Bradenton. The weather has been hot, which makes the work-outs that little bit harder. But its what we need as we prepare for the up and coming season.

*1st GAME*  TORONTO FC  VS USA U20’s

We played our very 1st game of pre-season against the very impressive US U20 team yesterday. It was a scorching hot day and being as we had a morning practice and then played Vs the very athletic US team, i thought the lads put in a good shift. We played 3 halves of 30 minute periods with the players split up into them periods. Some guys played longer than others as we had Tyrone & Amado away on international duty and a few minor injuries in the squad. We had some trialists in as well with one of them ‘Mike McGlinchey’ from Celtic scoring a great back post header. ‘Darren Kenton’ who i have played against a few times in England played in defence and ‘Gregory Richardson’ from Guyana played up front with me in the final period. The last trialist is a guy called ‘Pablo Salinas’ from Bolivia who played wide right. Chad got the 1st goal with great determination in closing down the goalkeeper and slipping it into the empty net. All in all it was a good workout for the boys who are feeling it today and trying to get some rest in before our next game against Chicago on tuesday.

I will be trying to do a blog everyday while we are on pre-season camp, so keep posted. Thanks Danny