One of the offseason signings charged with stabilizing Toronto FC's back line did not even make it to opening day.
TFC released Ecuadorian international centerback Geovanny Caicedo, citing family and trouble adjusting to the league as reasons for ending his brief tenure with the club.
"We are certainly disappointed with this outcome," TFC coach Aron Winter said in a team release. "During the preseason Geovanny expressed difficulty adjusting to the style of Major League Soccer. This reason combined with being away from his family, we were willing to accept the contract termination. We felt it was in the best interest of Geovanny. We wish him the best in his future endeavours."
The personnel move is the latest in the club's struggle to shore up the back line, which conceded a league-worst 59 goals last season. The defense looked extremely tentative during Wednesday's CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal match against Los Angeles, with Torsten Frings repeatedly needing to provide cover for centerbacks Miguel Aceval and Ty Harden.
Here are a few more notes from around MLS:
REVS SIGN WHITE
Eight years later, Jeremiah White is finally a member of the New England Revolution.
White, who was drafted by the Revs in 2004 but opted to pursue a European career instead, was signed by the club on Friday after being on trial for a large portion of the preseason.
A right winger with pace and a former standout at Wake Forest University, White had career stops in Serbia, Greece, Denmark (at AGF Aarhus, where he teammed with Revs midfielder Benny Feilhaber), France, Saudi Arabia and Poland before ultimately returning home.
He joins a crowded midfield that includes the likes of Feilhaber, Shalrie Joseph, Kelyn Rowe, new signing Lee Nguyen and Clyd Simms.
SEATTLE ROOKIE DURAN HURT
Seattle Sounders rookie defender Andrew Duran will miss up to six weeks after re-tearing a meniscus, according to the Seattle Times.
Duran, the Sounders' first-round pick in January's MLS SuperDraft (15th overall), was a standout at Creighton, but he had an injury-plagued career with the Bluejays as well. He went unscathed in 2011, but suffered a torn ACL in 2009 and tore his meniscus in 2010, ending his campaign five games into Creighton 's season.
Duran is slated to provide depth at centerback and right back for the Sounders.
FERNANDEZ, ROSALES RECEIVE GREEN CARDS
Friday brought some good news to the Sounders as well. While Alvaro Fernandez and Mauro Rosales occupy two of the club's Designated Player spots, they no longer occupy international roster slots.
Both Fernandez and Rosales have received their green cards, freeing up two international slots on the club's roster and reducing the club's number of internationals to six. According to The Times, Michael Gspurning, Adam Johannson, Christian Siveabaek, Cordell Cato, Michael Tetteh and Amadaou Sanyang are the only players that require the international player designation.
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What do you make of TFC releasing Caicedo? Do you think White can make an impact for the Revs this year? Worried about Duran's injury history in light of this recent development?
Share your thoughts below.
So that’s where all of our ticket revenue is going!
Aceval is from Chile, maroon.
Yeh because Plata and Aceval on TFC aren’t ecuadorian… tool!
As an Ecuadorian international, he has talent.
He didn’t want to put in the effort to adjust to the league. They better hope Cann returns soon…
What a chump. This guy wasn’t hurt. He had an opportunity to make a name for himself and he pissed off the opportunity.
Actually, they already have the hat trick, I forgot all about Ryan guy.
Hey Revs way to sign all the washed up American euro talent. You should have signed Eddie Johnson for the hat trick.
Even Ecuadorians hate Canada (specifically Toronto).
Looking forward to seeing Jeremiah White’s scorching speed. He’s a good pick up for the Revs.
Maybe Luke Rodgers should have gone to Seattle.
It’s the huge community of lawyers in Seattle who deal with immigration issues that makes this process shorter for SSFC than others. Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing are constantly shuttling foreigners in to town and have to get them legally cleared. As a result, all these lawyers are highly skilled and specialized.
Or, SSFC just pays federal employees to move things along.
Damn you auto correct! Fishy, not fishing.
Just looked it up, “Due to numerical limitation on the number of these visas, the current wait time for approval is four to five years for all non-retrogressed countries (including Western Europe), and many more for the retrogressed countries”
Something fishing is going on here…
How does Seattle keep getting these guys Green cards so fast? I am impressed/jealous.
Family reasons makes sense but trouble adjusting the league makes no sense when the league hasn’t started yet, that sounds more like code for “soccer reasons,” ie, we’ve decided when can do better.
I’m almost a little excited for watching the Revs this year. Weird.
Finally…the chance to see what Jeremiah White is made of. His highlight videos on youtube look great, but I’ve always wondered just how good he really is. He’s never been shy about claiming to have USMNT potential, now we’ll find out of there is anything there.
Caicedo looked horrible in the one game he played at disney. Wheres that guy that was mad at him not playing in the ccl match?
Adiós, Geo. No dejes que la puerta te pegue en el trasero al salir.