TORONTO – Toronto FC continues to prepare for yet another tough away game, this time heading down south to Texas on Saturday to take on FC Dallas.
For Canadian midfielder Jonathan Osorio, the match – which comes one week after TFC's second bye of the young season – can’t get here soon enough.
“It’s been a bit difficult to get a rhythm and I think that’s what the team needs,” Osorio told reporters at training on Tuesday. “We need to now get into a rhythm of playing games, playing with each other and learning off every game.”
Against FC Dallas, Toronto FC will have a chance to put to test the defensive work put into training over the last two weeks. Center back Damien Perquis and full back Mark Bloom return from injury, though central defenders Steven Caldwell and rookie Clement Simonin will miss the match due to their ailments.
But, Osorio says, the defending doesn’t just fall on the shoulders of the team’s back four.
“We just need to now be a bit more aggressive defensively, as a team,” he explained. “When we talk about our defensive struggles, it’s not the back four that we’re talking about; it’s the whole team, collectively. As a team, there are times when we can make plays higher up the field and sometimes we don’t. That puts us in bad positions. When we start doing those things, you’ll see we’ll start playing better.”
This next match isn’t just another road game for Osorio, though. He’ll be squaring off against fellow Canadian international midfielder Kyle Bekker, who was traded to FC Dallas during the offseason from Toronto.
It’s a meeting Osorio says he’s looking forward to.
“He wasn’t only my teammate; he’s a good friend of mine,” Osorio said of Bekker. “We keep in touch and speak a lot. I’m sure I’ll see him down there but during the game we’re on different teams and that doesn’t matter. I know he’s happy there and I know he’s excited to play us, too.”
He and Bekker could be reuniting as teammates soon enough, as Canada get set to take on Dominica in a 2018 World Cup qualifier at BMO Field on June 16. Despite being a regular for Toronto FC, Osorio has missed the last few rounds of national team games, but he says he’s not worried about being left out.
“It’s not concerning because we keep in contact a lot,” Osorio said. “We have a lot of communication, between the coaches and the players, and it has been really good lately with the Canadian Soccer Association. So, I’m not concerned at all. As long as I keep playing and getting minutes and performing, I’m confident that I’ll definitely be in the mix, at least.”
He’s as hungry as ever to put on the Canada shirt, and Osorio said it was “very important that this generation does well” in World Cup qualifying, too.
“If this generation doesn’t do well, it could hurt the next generation coming up,” he said. "But, if kids see us doing well, they’ll start getting hungrier and start becoming more committed to football. Sometimes I see little kids walking around and practicing here [at the training grounds] and they’re good. They’re really good. We have talent, just as much talent as the rest of the world. It’s just the development that needs to improve, which it is. Now, and in the future, we’ll see that.”
