After 10 days in South Carolina, Toronto FC returned to the pitch closer to home on Tuesday. The players trained in Oakville as they continue preparations for Saturday’s First Kick at Columbus Crew (kick off 4:00 p.m. live on GOLTV Canada and The FAN 590).

The only trialists still with the team are Argentine midfielder Martin Saric and Canadian defender Adrian Cann. After training, TFC coach Preki talked about his hopes of signing the duo:

“They made a good impact and we are just trying to find a way to squeeze everybody into the team. Mo is looking after that and I focus on what I have here,” the coach explained. The group is not big but I still we feel we have a squad of players that can work and fight for each other and get results.”

Gambain defender Emmanuel Gomez remains sidelined with a knee problem. Jacob Peterson and Chad Barrett continue to recover from long term injuries and Peterson was able to take part in a scrimmage with the rest of the squad on Tuesday. “Jacob is looking better every day and we just have to be patient. We just have to hope his leg doesn’t react badly after training.”

After being sent home from the preseason training camp in Charleston, striker Ali Gerba was not training with the team in Oakville. “He’s not in our plans and hopefully he can make a decision and we can both move in the right direction. We evaluated it as a staff after five weeks of preseason and feel that we want a different kind of player.”