TFC Pick Up 4 Players at SuperDraft & We Say Goodbye to Barrett and Conway

By: Sairax | January 14th, 2011

After a long day of trades, drafts, and Rooney’s brother, we finally can step back and see how Toronto FC fared in yesterday’s MLS SuperDraft. I’ll spare you all of the minor backroom details and get right to it: TFC picked up four new players and offloaded 2 more to continue the mass exodus from BMO. You can find the entire list from the SuperDraft here if you’d like to know who the other teams managed to pick up. Here’s a bit of info on the new guys:

Demitrius Omphroy: 21 year old defender from the University of California. Was diagnosed last year with Multiple Sclerosis, which he seems to be dealing with well by keeping to a healthy, organic diet and taking daily injections. He is more of an attacking defender and is deemed to be a decent pick who could fit TFC’s new style under Winter. Played with Stefan Frei in college and speaks highly of our keeper. You can follow him on twitter @MeatyTwit.

Matt Gold: 22 year old midfielder from Ohio State University. He is 5′9″ and was picked up to most likely serve as a depth player for the squad. Hopefully he’ll be worth his weight in gold (eh? See what I did there?)

Junior Burgos: 22 year old midfielder from California Polytechnic Institute. Another player picked up for depth. Has dual citizenship for the U.S. and El Salvador, and has actually made one appearance for El Salvador’s national team.

Joao Plata: 18 year old forward from LDU Quito in Ecuador. He made seven appearances for LDU in 2010 and scored one goal. He is quite short at 5′2″, but is very quick and skillful on the ball. Had a good Combine where he played out wide instead of in his preferred position up front in attack.

So there you have it. We weren’t expecting anything special considering how low our picks were, but overall the management team seem to be pleased with the players they were able to pick up. I should clarify that none of these players have yet signed a contract, so it is possible that they might not even be in the team when the league kicks off. We’ll just have to wait and see what develops.

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Besides welcoming the potential new players to TFC, we also have to say goodbye to two others. Chad Barrett has been traded to LA Galaxy for future considerations, and Jon Conway is off to Chicago after being traded for Chicago’s third round selection. Chad is a player that divides opinion amongst supporters. I’ve always liked him though. He’s the kind of scrappy underdog type that I tend to root for. At first he was notorious for missing sitters and wasting good goal scoring opportunities, but he always worked hard on the pitch, tracked back, and harried defenders. Though he was missing chances, he tended to get into good positions and just lacked that killer finish. In 2010, we saw him starting to score and I really thought that it would be his year to go and grab 10-15 goals for us. Unfortunately, he picked up a hamstring injury that put him out for a big chunk of our season and we had to rely on DeRo to come up with the goods most of the time. Now he’s off to sunny California where he is most likely going to be filling a hole for the Galaxy up front with the departure of Edson Buddle. Chad had a bit of a temper at times and lost his cool every once in a while on the pitch, but he always gave us 100%. He leaves TFC as our 2nd highest goal scorer of all time, with 21 goals in all competitions (that’s just 10 behind DeRo). My favourites were the ones against Montagua last season in the CCL qualifiers and the goal he scored in the “Miracle in Montreal” that led to our first Nutrilite Canadian Championship.

At the end of the day, it was his massive contract that ended up being what brought his time with TFC to an end. I wish him good luck in his career and I’m sure he’ll come back to BMO this year and score a hattrick against us. That’s just how it works with ex-TFC players.

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I’ll also miss Jon Conway, our backup goalkeeper to Stefan Frei. He was a great team player and always had a positive attitude on and off the pitch. I also enjoyed his behind-the-scenes video segments for “Conway’s World” on the club’s website. His exit from his first, and final, league match with us where he was sent off for retaliating against a Columbus player will always stay in my mind as he made his way to the tunnel saluting the crowd. I remember listening to him on the Fan590 Soccer Show and found him to be a really genuine and well-spoken guy who was knew a lot about the different aspects of the game. I hope he enjoys his time with his new team Chicago Fire.

You might be noticing at this point that our squad is looking pretty thin at the moment. The players we picked up from the draft are not really first team players and we let go a huge number of players during this offseason. The new management have amassed a lot of allocation money and have cleared up a ton of cap space, so it is likely we will see the club look outside the MLS to acquire the kind of players we need to strengthen the first team. If they’ve done their homework, it should work out well, as they can really try and get players that we specifically need in certain positions rather than pick up a few draft players or fringe players from other MLS teams and try to find a way to fit them into our new system.

We should also be seeing the return of Dwayne De Rosario to preseason training coming up in a couple of weeks. It is being reported that TFC received an offer for DeRo from Celtic, but the club ended up rejecting it. Here’s what Aron Winter had to say about it:

“Celtic inquired about the possibility of extending Dwayne’s time with them. My preference is for Dwayne to start the season with Toronto FC right from training camp.

“We are making a fresh start and need a strong competitive camp. Dwayne is the captain and leader and needs to be part of building a new winning culture.”

There are obviously still kinks to be worked out regarding DeRo’s contract and wages, but it has become clear that the Toronto Oranje Revolution will have a place for the TFC captain. Things between DeRo and the fans are a bit edgy at the moment, but if he comes back and works hard with the team then the supporters will most certainly welcome him back with no harsh feelings. His captain status might still be questionable, but his ability and commitment on the pitch has obviously made the management team see his worth to our club.

There’s still a lot of work to do for Winter and the rest in constructing the new look for Toronto FC in 2011. They seem to be on the right track and I’m excited to see what they will be adding in the weeks to come.