Tuesday, April 10, 2007

CRAIG FORREST TRAINS WITH TORONTO FC

Very interesting news out of Toronto FC camp today, in that former Premiership keeper and Canadian International Craig Forrest trained with the club . Forrest who was forced to retire from West Ham United several years ago due to testicular cancer, had a long career in England with many years spent at Ipswich, and a brief stint at Chelsea before West Ham. Forrest will also be remembered in Canada for his many years of service to our national team, and leading Canada to the 2000 Gold Cup Championship. Forrest is now a popular television analyst for Rogers Sportsnet. I guess there is no better way to assess the players he will be covering then by stopping a few shots from them. Sounds like a bit of a publicity stunt for the network, though it's great to see the big guy healthy enough to even contemplate stepping up to train against professionals again. Here is the link to the Sportsnet article. http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article.jsp?content=20070410_135710_5052

In other news, Toronto FC's first game apparently scored ratings on par with the national ratings for the Toronto Raptors.

UPDATE: Both Mo Johnston and Craig Forrest have implied during a television interview on Sportsworld, that they are testing the waters to see if Forrest can regain fitness to serve as the back up to Sutton. Forrest apparently was very impressive in training, until a calf strain ended his day early.

5 comments:

arsenalist said...

So Mo Johnston's liking what he's seeing. I guess if there is a platform for Forrest to see if he's any good, it's the backup goalie of an expansion team.

I just hope he doesn't get injured too bad, he's already started tweaking muscles.

Anonymous said...

Btw, the link to the Sportsnet article is:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article.jsp?content=20070410_135710_5052

TORONTO FC SUPERFAN said...

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

It will be great to have someone with Craig's experience on the squad. I have feeling he will even be able to replace our current goaly if hes still fit. Lets just hope though that hes actually ready for the challenge and does not embarass himself if hes ever called upon. Its sad when you see legends play past their prime. But I think a goaly at 40 maybe has 1 or 2 good seasons left in them.

TORONTO FC SUPERFAN said...

Agreed. The media is reporting he is not coming back, yet I haven't yet heard Craig say that outright. It will take him time to get re-adjusted to the speed of the game. Playing on hard turf in places like RSL won't help an older player much either.