TORONTO – Of the number of new star players in training at Toronto FC camp, it was the smallest of the group that had the largest presence on the field.
Diminutive Italian attacking midfielder Sebastian Giovinco participated in his first practice session with Toronto FC on Wednesday as the team continued preseason training ahead of their first regular-season game March 7 (6 pm ET, TSN1). TFC head coach Greg Vanney ran drills and held full scrimmages in a session he and his players described as “intense,” and he was left impressed with Giovinco when the day was done.
“I’m very pleased,” Vanney said of his new midfielder. “It’s what I had seen of him when we were doing all our scouting. He’s very quick and nifty in the pockets, in those little tight spaces. He gets himself facing forward and he’s shifty. He can unbalance defenders and create little fractions of time in areas where a lot of guys can’t. His vision around the field to bring other people into the game is special.”
Giovinco’s first impression of the team was a positive one, too. He described the training as “fun” but “at the same time, tiring,” and said his teammates formed “a good group and a united group.”
He was also impressed with the team’s training facilities and said he was looking to find his fitness because he had not been training since leaving his former team Juventus early this month.
“Little by little I'll get there,” Giovinco said.
Already, the connection between midfield general Michael Bradley and Giovinco started to form as the two went up against each other on the training field. They also took time in the intervals to speak with each other in Italian. Bradley and Giovinco both played against each other in the Italian Serie A with Chievo and AS Roma, and Juventus, respectively, but the new TFC captain quickly put that rivalry aside, saying simply that “we’re both Toronto FC now.”
“It's the first training, so it's a bit tough, but in the next days we'll get to know each other better,” Giovinco said. “He speaks Italian, so that makes me happy. I have someone who understands me.”
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Bradley said he believes Giovinco fit in well with the rest of the team, too. He certainly looked comfortable in training, cracking shot after shot on Quillan Roberts’ goal and picking out wide players with long, swooping passes.
“Good players find ways to fit right in, and he certainly is a very good player,” Bradley said, of his new teammate. “As we all get to know each other a little bit better and he becomes more comfortable with the group and the locker room, it will get better and better but I thought, for his first day, training with the group, he didn’t waste any time.”
