which runs from August until May

Preminiem Geregistreerd op: 17 Okt 2019 Berichten: 210

TORONTO -- Four games into the MLS season, the Toronto FC training room is packed. Cheap Soccer Jerseys Authentic . And more worrying, it is filled with marquee talent. Toronto (3-1-0) could be without as many as five starters for Saturdays visit by the Colorado Rapids (2-1-1) including two designated players whose combined pay this season is close to US$13 million. Catch the game on TSN starting at 4pm et/1pm pt. England striker Jermain Defoe (hamstring) is out for the second straight week. American midfielder Michael Bradley missed another practice Friday, his body feeling the effects of games for both the U.S. and Toronto last week. "Were giving him every single chance ... well make a decision (Saturday)," manager Ryan Nelsen said of his teams midfield general. Centre back Doneil Henry (knee) will sit out a second straight game. Jonathan Osorio (hamstring) is "probably a no" for the third week in a row and fellow midfielder Alvaro Rey (hamstring) is "very very questionable." Because of injuries and suspensions, Toronto has only five players who have started every game so far: goalkeeper Julio Cesar, defenders Mark Bloom and Justin Morrow and midfielders Bradley and Rey. And that number could be down to three after this weekend. Defoe was sidelined by a hamstring injury at Spurs earlier this season. Nelsen has said the two injuries are not linked and repeated Friday that the England star was dealing with a mild strain. Hamstrings are tricky things, especially for elite soccer players. Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke, for example, ran 12.2 kilometres in Wednesdays Champions League semifinal against Barcelona. Toronto, which has used 19 players to date, has had to put the brakes on Defoe, who has wanted to resume training. Nelsen, however, sees a bigger picture. "The one thing that we dont want is obviously him coming back and getting re-injured. And so if we have to sacrifice an extra week, we have to sacrifice an extra week." Nelsen said the team has been reviewing everything at its disposal -- from heart rate to distance travelled in training -- to see if things could be done differently. The club is also learning the ins and outs of the bodies of new players like Defoe, he added. The TFC manager says there are no alarm bells about the current spate of injuries. A challenging opening to the schedule and the long winter that has kept practices until this week to artificial turf under a bubble at the team training centre havent helped. Most top soccer pros would rather gargle cod liver oil than set foot on artificial turf. Nelsen believes that this is just the kind of injury run that all clubs go through at some point. "It happens at Chelsea, it happens at Man City, it happens at every single club. Hopefully were just getting all of them done now." Said captain Steven Caldwell: "Its disappointing that weve got a few injuries but a lot of them are nobodys fault." In the case of Toronto, this is a squad that brought in at least seven new starters this season. Time has been needed on the training ground to get everyone on the same page. Youre damned if you, damned if you dont, Nelsen said of practice regimens. "Because if you pull them out of training and just rest them, then theyre not ready for the demands of a game. Were sitting with three wins because the guys are fit and organized. But we couldnt have done that if we had all wrapped them up in cotton wool." Bradley presents an interesting case in point. Rested this week, he is probably the exception to the rule that starters need to practise. If he doesnt start, speculation will grow that he is dealing with more than the variety of strains the club has pointed to. The good news is the injuries have not slowed Toronto down so far. Missing Defoe, Osorio, Henry and the suspended Caldwell last week, it still managed to topple previously unbeaten Columbus away from home. Also on the plus side, squad players like rookie defender Nick Hagglund and second-year midfielder Kyle Bekker have stepped up. And veteran Bradley Orr showed his moxie in smoothly shifting over to centre back. Nelsen says his reserves have stepped up to the challenge during the current injury glut. But he is not about to say debate over his teams depth is over. "I always got told that anybody can play one, two, three games at any level," he said. "But its the ability to spit them out week in, week out ... thats the mark of what a really good player is." Orr will likely partner Caldwell in central defence with Bekker deputizing for Osorio in midfield again. Dwayne De Rosario could start on the flank for Rey with Issey Nakajima-Farran who scored off the bench last week, possibly partnering Gilberto up front. Jeremy Hall may get the nod if Bradley cant go. The pitch at BMO Field, poor for the home opener thanks to the brutal winter, should be better Saturday although the players know it will take time to return to top condition. "Its not going to be ideal," said Caldwell, who returns from his one-game suspension. Colorado, under new head coach Pablo Mastroeni, has already defeated Portland and Vancouver this season and tied the New York Red Bulls. The lone loss was a 3-2 decision to defending champion Sporting Kansas City. "Theyve got a really nice team thats been around together as well for a bit," said Nelsen. "Theyre a team, for me, that has no real weaknesses. Theyre just a lovely, solid MLS team thats going to be very difficult." Spanish midfielder Jose Mari -- real name Jose Maria Martin Bejarano-Serrano -- introduced himself last week with two goals against Vancouver. The first, a swerving left-footed rocket, was judged the leagues goal of the week. Cheap Soccer Jerseys . Now he has a complete game. Scherzer tossed a three-hitter in his 179th career start for his first complete game and Victor Martinez hit his 16th homer to lead the Detroit Tigers a 4-0 win over the Chicago White Sox. Fake Soccer Jerseys . -- Jake Paterson made 39 saves as the Saginaw Spirit halted the Guelph Storms seven-game win streak with a 6-3 victory on Sunday in Ontario Hockey League action. NEW YORK -- Major League Soccer hopes to place its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. "Were making progress in both of those markets. I wouldnt say were close," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday ahead of this weekends championship game between Real Salt Lake and Sporting Kansas City. Former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham is leading the Miami effort and has the right to an expansion team at a discount fee of $25 million. "We are very excited about the opportunity of David putting together an ownership group and finalizing a stadium site in downtown Miami," Garber said. "We cant go to Miami without the right stadium solution. David understands that. The city understands that. That is an indisputable fact." New teams have been announced for 2015 in New York City and Orlando, Fla., increasing the leagues total to 21. MLS began with 10 teams in 1996, expanded to 12 and then contracted to 10 in 2002 when Miami and Tampa Bay were eliminated. "The Miami today demographically, socially, politically is very different from the Miami of 2002 where we folded the Miami Fusion," Garber said. "So we believe Miami could work if we get the right stadium situation. We dont have that yet." Falcons owner Arthur Blank heads the Atlanta venture, which would play at a new stadium for his NFL team, a venue scheduled to open in 2017. "Weve been working on a downsizing technology that we think would be unique, would be the only one of its kind anywhere in the world," Garber said. "Weve got to continue to work hard with Atlanta to see if this whole project makes sense for them. But I am encouraged by the discussions and hope to be able to finalize something." They would give the league 23 teams, one short of the leagues goal for 2020. Garber said Tuesday that Minneapolis, San Antonio, St. Louis and Austin, Texas, are among the possibilities for a 24th team. MLSs regular-season attendance average increased from 15,504 in 2006 to a record 18,807 last year before dropping slightly this season to 18,594. Garber said the league is spending more than $20 million annually on player development and must grow revenue. "Major League Soccer still loses money as an enterprise, and weve got to find a way that we can get closer to being a break-even enterprise," he said. The league receives an average of about $28 million annually from its national broadcast contracts with ESPN, NBC and Univision, which expiire after the 2014 season. Soccer Jerseys Outlet. In the first season after Beckham left the Galaxy, regular-season ratings dropped from an average of 180,000 viewers to 170,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. However, viewers for the playoffs not including the final have increased from 240,000 to 270,000. "We did a heat map of the MLS broadcast schedule against that of the EPL, two other European leagues and the four other major leagues in this country, and you get dizzy looking at the MLS schedule," Garber said. "What we need to have is a consistent game of the week or games of the week that run from the beginning of year to the end of the year as much as we can at consistent times. And if that can be a Friday or a Saturday or a Sunday, that would be a positive." In its first season televising the English Premier League under a $250 million, three-year contract, NBCSN is averaging 429,000 for games televised in the U.S. mostly on weekend mornings. Nine games on NBC are averaging 788,000. "I think what NBC did for the Premier League is unprecedented in the history of pro sports. They really took the Premier League and made it as important as anything that was going on in the NBC Universal family, and its paying off in ratings and its certainly making economic sense for them," Garber said. "So if were able to create that kind of a scenario with a broadcaster, I think it would be beneficial for us." Garber also went into detail on the leagues examination of whether to switch its March-to-December schedule to the international calendar, which runs from August until May. MLS discussed playing from July until December, taking a break and finishing from late February until May. "Its not just about are we going to play a few more games in cold-weather markets at an earlier time of the year. Its about what do we do with an extended break, because I dont care what market it is, were not playing in February and in January in places like Toronto, Vancouver," he said. "We went through some fairly extensive discussions as a league to figure out if we could do this sometime in the future. It wouldnt have been for 14. But thats not something that were going to do in the short-term." He also promised more transparency in the leagues complex and opaque player control rules, which make if difficult at times to determine which teams control rights. "We are still evolving," he said. "and we still are doing some of this stuff on the fly." ' ' '