Toronto FC III players were on the practice field for their first training session on Friday morning. The team began drills and tactical work following warm-ups. They played a small-sided match to work out any kinks in their game plan in preparation for the tournament which begins in a few days. The training pitch was surrounded by picturesque hills and forests. Following training, the team began the recovery process with an eight-minute dunk in the cold Ligurian Sea … not the most enjoyable moment for the boys.
After a hearty lunch of pasta, the team went out again for a light walk on the beach and had a chance to unwind playing some dodgeball and beach soccer. Team shirts swept the skins in dodge ball but team skins got redemption by defeating team shirts in beach soccer. Academy Director Laurent Guyot felt it was very important to keep the team awake and moving after a long and grinding two-day journey, “After training early Friday morning the staff and I felt it was important to keep them awake and active so they could recover from the flight and adjust to the time difference. This will help the players get a better night’s sleep since they are only a few days away from the start of the tournament. We also have a friendly match scheduled on Saturday where we plan to give every player 45 match minutes.”
Saturday morning Toronto FC III kicked off against L.I.A.C. New York and defeated them by a 5-1 score. During the match, Head Coach Danny Dichio split the team into two squads. Both squads saw 45 minutes of action against the New York based team. “I felt this system gave each player the opportunity to justify being named a starter XI (11) for the first match of the tournament on Monday”, said Dichio following the friendly.
Now the focus shifts to the start of the tournament on Monday. The tournament organizers are getting the fields ready for Monday and teams are not permitted to train on Sunday. This will allow Toronto FC III to recover from Saturday’s match and enjoy some downtime.
Up next for Toronto FC III is match day one of the tournament against S.S. Maceratese (Italy) with kick-off set for 3:00 p.m. CET (10:00 a.m. ET)
Toronto FC III (5) vs. L.I.A.C. New York (1)
Goal Scores:
1st Half: Matthew Srbely
1st Half: Shaan Hundal (Liam Fraser)
1st Half: Shaan Hundal (Liam Fraser)
1st Half: Robert Boskovic (Andrew Dias)
1st Half: Shaan Hundal (Aidan Daniels)
2nd Half: L.I.A.C NY
First Half Line-up: Phil Di Bennardo; Nikola Stakic; Brandon Onkony, Robert Boskovic, Andrew Dias; Aidan Daniels, Luca Uccello, Liam Fraser ©, Matthew Srbely; Malik Johnson, Shaan Hundal
Second Half Line-up: Gianluca Catalano; Dante Campbell, Rocco Romeo, Julian Dunn, Steven Furlano; Luca Petrasso, Kota Sakurai, Nicolas Osorio ©, Marco Mandekic; Kunle Dada-Luke, Daniel DaSilva
