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With Toronto FC trading away one of their top defenders in Richard Eckersley on Monday, TFC supporters will likely be hoping that that on loan English defender Bradley Orr will be able to fill the void left by the departure of TFC’s longstanding starting right back.
TFC Captain Steven Caldwell, who knows Orr quite well from his days back in the United Kingdom, expects Toronto’s newest defender to be a valuable addition to the club on and off the field.
“Brad brings great character first and foremost,” Caldwell told RedNation Online. “He is a fantastic guy and a very good football player. So he will be a great addition with his experience. He will help a lot of the younger guys, like Ryan Richter, who plays his position, as well as everybody else. I’m very excited to have Brad with the squad and I’m sure he will be a fantastic addition.”
Overall, while much of the offseason modus operandi for TFC centered on the acquisition of players who are goal scoring threats, Caldwell still expects Toronto to be an improved club defensively in 2014 for a number of reasons.
While the acquisitions of marquee attacking players such as Jermaine Defoe, Michael Bradley, Gilberto and Dwayne De Rosario have received most of the headlines over the course of the offseason, the Stirling, Scotland native is also happy that the club has brought in experienced defenders such as Orr and Justin Morrow to add depth and experience to what was a very young back line corps outside of Caldwell himself.
“It is important (that the club brought in Morrow and Orr),” Caldwell said. “I think we had a reasonable defensive record last season, but we want to improve on it and be even tougher and have more clean sheets, to be even tougher to score against than in the past. With most teams the whole makeup of the team helps with that as well.”
In that vein, the 33 year old back line leader also believes that the team’s acquisition of top offensive players will also improve the team defensively as well.
“I do think there were periods last season when we were being asked to defend as a team and as a back four a little bit too much,” Caldwell added. “We have to keep the ball a lot better than we did at times last year and that gives the defense a chance to have a breather. Then it is up to us to make sure that we do our jobs and keep the ball out of the net.”
While he is high on the quality and experience that all of TFC’s newly acquired players will bring to the squad, Caldwell is equally high on the young players who made up the core of TFC’s defensive corps last season, citing youngsters such as Doneil Henry, Gale Agbossoumonde and Ashtone Morgan as players who should be much improved in the upcoming campaign based on the experience they gained in the prior one.
Ultimately, with Toronto strengthening in pretty much every area of the team over the past year, Caldwell sees a squad well equipped to have the type of successful season that TFC supporters are clearly craving.
“We are going to have great competition for minutes at the back and it is up to anybody that gets their chance to make sure that they are doing their given role and then keep their place in the team,” Caldwell explained. “When you have strong and healthy competition like that, it only helps create a successful football club.”
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