Toronto FC chases its fourth victory in a row Thursday night against the New York Red Bulls and is already walking on uncharted artificial turf with three victories in a row. With half its win total from last season already attained,  TFC also is developing something else in its second Major League Soccer season. That is competition for jobs.

“Nobody's got the divine right to start on the team and that's the way I want it, I want competition for places,” head coach John Carver said after last Saturday's 2-0 victory over the Kansas City Wizards.

One example is at defender. Because he is coming back from a dislocated shoulder first-year player Julius James has not played in a regular league game yet. Last week, TFC signed free agent Olivier Tebily who was available but did not play in Saturday's regular match. Both put in some time in the reserve game that followed and was won by K.C. 3-2. So did Jeff Cunningham, a 97-goal career scorer in MLS, who has had little playing time recently.

Marco Velez again started on the back line for TFC and made a mistake and Greg Sutton was called upon to make the save that preserved what was a 1-0  lead at the time.

Velez is learning to play in MLS after a successful career in the United Soccer Leagues.

Carver said he feels Velez will continue to improve. “Marco is going to get better and better, just give him a  little bit of time,” Carver said.

But soon after he added that with James and Tebily ready to play “There's pressure on him for him to perform. If he doesn't perform he comes out of the team and somebody else goes in and that applies to everybody.” 

Depth was something TFC did not have in its first season and so the injuries that came were devastating. If there are not so many  injuries this year, there still will  be players missing because they are called for international duty with the Olympics this summer and World Cup qualifying.

So, in addition to the healthy competition for spots on the team, there also will be a time when the players not playing now will be needed.
“You can see it's good now because we're sitting here and we're now talking about players who are ready to come into the team,” Carver said. “That tells you something about the strength that we're trying to add to the club and build the club.”