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By Dylan Butler
CONCACAF.com
Toronto FC coach and technical director Aron Winter was defensive the past few months when it came to addressing his team's needs for the upcoming season.
Winter made solidifying the backline a priority, and that's been evident in the team's acquisitions leading up to the first leg of its CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Major League Soccer rival Los Angeles on March 7.
Late last month, TFC, which surrendered an MLS-worst 59 goals a year ago, signed Ecuadorian international defender Geovanny Caicedo, who began his career with Huracan of Ecuador and most recently played for LDU Quito.
"Caicedo brings great club and international experience to Toronto FC and can compete for a starting position," Winter said in a statement. "He is a player that we have been watching for some time and we felt he would be a food fit at our club and in Major League Soccer."
The Reds also signed English defender Richard Eckersley, who came to Toronto on loan from Burley last April and started in 22 of the 23 league matches he featured in and played in six CONCACAF Champions League games.
"Signing Richard was a very high offseason priority. Our team has worked tirelessly to ensure he would be returning," Winter said. "This signing represents another successful step in our offseason progress as a club. Richard is an important player for our club. We know our fans will be excited to see Richard on the pitch."
A few days later, Toronto added Chilean defender Miguel Aceval. The 29-year-old began his career in the Colo Colo youth system and most recently played for CD Universidad de Concepcion.
"Miguel is an experienced defender that has a lot of potential and can be very important to our club," Winter said. "Our defense needed to be addressed during the offseason and this signing complements our recent activity from last week."
Behind the bolstered backline is an open competition in goal between Milos Kocic and Stefan Frei. After Frei injured his knee in August, Kocic appeared in eight MLS games and all of eight of Toronto's Champions League matches.
"It's one job that we have to fight for," Kocic told MLSsoccer.com. "I have no problem doing my job and trying to do my best on the field. At the end of the day we can be friends off the field, but on the field we are fighting [to start].
"We know what's going on. We don't have to talk about it. We come on the field and we know what's expected of us and whoever plays better at the end of the day is going to play."
Toronto FC will be playing its home leg of the quarterfinals away from home - under the roof of the 45,576-capacity Rogers Centre instead of its regular home, the open air BMO Field. The second leg is March 14 at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles.
