Julian de Guzman Archive

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De Guzman walks right into a Bundesliga 2. relegation battle

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/31/2013

Julian de Guzman

Canadian midfielder Julian de Guzman will be thrown right into the fire with his new club, SSV Jahn Regensburg.

The Bavarian side announced the signing Thursday, as the transfer window closes. Club CEO Franz Gerber was quoted on the team’s official site, saying that the Canadian national-team veteran will “definitely help us in the fight for the league.”

De Guzman is no stranger to adversity. Being a Designated Player on Toronto FC, where wins are scarce and fan criticisms are vicious, can steel you for tough times ahead. But he’s in for another character test. Jahn Regensburg is at the bottom of the Bundesliga 2. table, with just three wins out of its first 19 matches. It is seven points adrift of the safety zone.
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Mallorca manager confirms that de Guzman isn’t signed — just “training”

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/09/2013

RCD Mallorca manager Joaquin Caparros did not confirm if Canadian midfielder Julian de Guzman’s training session with the club would lead to a signing or not.

Caparros spoke to the club’s official website about de Guzman’s presence at the La Liga team’s camp. And he was clear that, for now, de Guzman is in Spain to simply train with the club. Julian’s brother, Jonathan, had played for Mallorca. And, Julian knew Caparros from his time at Deportiva La Coruna — before the Canadian left La Liga to become a Designated Player in MLS.

“This is a guy who has finished his season and was fortunate that his brother has a home in Mallorca,” said Caparros (translated from Spanish). “I mentioned the possibility that he could train with us, and I knew him from the years he was with me at Deportivo La Coruna and we had no problem that he could train here. ”
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Mallorca: Julian de Guzman training with club

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/07/2013

Julian de Guzman: Training in Spain

Julian de Guzman is training with Spanish side Mallorca.

On Monday, the Spanish club confirmed on its website (CLICK HERE) that the 31-year-old de Guzman was with the club, but was not signed. Mallorca was the former club of Jonathan de Guzman, Julian’s brother who has moved to play with Swansea of the English Premier League.

The club’s website indicated that Julian de Guzman approached Mallorca about coming to train with the club.

De Guzman was dealt by Toronto FC to FC Dallas halfway through the 2012 MLS regular season, and his Designated Player contract expired at the end of the year.
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Six ex-TFC players change addresses in second stage MLS Re-Entry draft

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/14/2012

Eric Avila: Selected by Colorado

If Friday was your first day following MLS, all you’d need to do is look at the second stage of the Re-Entry Draft to comprehend just how many players have called Toronto FC home over the club’s relatively short six-year existence.

Of the 14 players taken in the second stage, six can claim that they’ve spent part of their careers at Toronto FC.

From the 2012 roster, TFC lost central defender Ty Harden and midfielder Eric Avila. Harden, who began the season as a starter in central defence, spent the majority of the second half of the season on the TFC bench. He moves to San Jose. And Colorado chose Avila with the sixth pick overall.

Conor Casey, who played with TFC in 2007, went to the Philadelphia Union. As the main scoring threat in Colorado, Casey was named MVP of the 2010 MLS Cup, which was held at BMO Field. New England nabbed Chad Barrett, the ex-TFC forward who spent part of last season in Oslo, teaming with Canadians Lars Hirschfeld and Tosaint Ricketts at Valerenga. New England also got Hunter Freeman, who spent part of the 2008 season with TFC before heading to Scandinavia.

Dan Gargan, the master of the long throw who was a fan favourite in Toronto, was picked up by San Jose, where he and Harden can swap TFC stories, provided they both come to contract agreements with the Earthquakes.
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JDG gets last-gasp winner for FCD, but Whitecaps offer nothing going forward

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/16/2012

Julian de Guzman: Winning goal scored at 95:39

Surely, “MLS doesn’t want a Canadian team in the playoffs” conspiracy theorists will be out in force after Julian de Guzman’s stoppage-time goal gave Dallas a 1-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps Saturday night.

The gap between the Hoops and the ‘Caps for the fifth and final playoff spot is just one point, though Vancouver does still have a game in hand.

But the Canadian midfielder scored his winner six minutes into stoppage time. And Dallas got a first-half penalty — which was saved by Vancouver keeper Brad Knighton — on what surely looked to be an iffy call at best on defender Martin Bonjour. So, surely FCD, got some help, right?

No. Frankly, a team that offers as little offensively as the Whitecaps doesn’t deserve points from matches. Read the rest of this entry »

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Injury, suspension force Hart to shuffle lineup ahead of Panama rematch

By
Steven Sandor
– 09/10/2012

Olivier Occean: Not available for selection

Canadian national-team coach Stephen Hart got the result he wanted in Friday’s 1-0 win over Panama, but will be forced to shuffle his deck ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup qualifying rematch in Panama City.

With Will Johnson out because of yellow-card accumulation and striker Olivier Occean not even making the trip to Central America because of an injury picked up in Friday’s win, Hart will have to make some changes.

“It was best to send (Olivier) back to his club (Eintracht Frankfurt),” said Hart in a conference call with media on Monday. “We have make some changes to the lineup. We trained today and players know what their roles are.”
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Hart preaches a balanced approach for Canada ahead of Panama WC qualifiers

By
Gavin Day
– 09/05/2012

Stephen Hart PHOTO: CANADA SOCCER

It’s the rare occasion where just about any hyperbole will do when describing the importance one game means to the Canadian men’s national team — and the men’s game in Canada as a whole.

Friday’s World Cup qualifier between Canada and Panama at BMO Field in Toronto is being billed as the most important game in at least a decade. Picking up four points in the first two games has raised the expectations of this team and two games in September will either see that expectation realized or it could all come crashing down if Canada can’t put in two solid performances against what could be the toughest team in the group.

“Do we really have to talk about the importance of the game?” was Stephen Hart’s no-nonsense answer when asked about the importance of Friday.

“You have four games and you have to look at it that way, but you can’t play before it comes, so the game at home against arguably the best team in the group is extremely important.”
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MLS salaries: The Canadian Rich List

By
Steven Sandor
– 08/02/2012

Will Johnson: No. 3 on the Canadian Rich List

The MLS Players’ Union released its second salary update for 2012 on Aug. 1. With the closing of the transfer window, it gives us a more complete picture of what teams are spending.

Going through the names on the list, we decided to pick out the Canadians in MLS — and rank Canada’s Rich List (or Poor List, depending on some entry-level deals). We don’t discriminate between players on loan, players rumoured to be retiring, players who are stuck on reserve squads. If they are on the list — and getting paid in MLS — we ranked them.

The first number is the base pay for 2012. The second number is guaranteed compensation (which is the criteria used for ranking purposes).
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TFC or MLS? It doesn’t matter who killed the Mellberg deal

By
Steven Sandor
– 07/26/2012

Don Garber

Yes, surrouding ESPN’s halftime show, an MLS All-Star Game in Chester, PA. was played.

But, for a heck of a lot of MLS followers, the most interesting part of Wednesday evening came in the network’s halftime chat with league commissioner Don Garber. Garber was asked if MLS had indeed blocked TFC’s efforts to sign Swedish veteran and former Aston Villa centre back Olof Mellberg.

Garber’s answer was interesting. He said the deal wasn’t in the best interest of the league, but that MLS HQ did NOT block the deal. He said it was TFC’s decision not to go ahead with the contract offer.
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It’s a deal of convenience for Toronto FC; a fresh start for Julian de Guzman

By
Steven Sandor
– 07/13/2012

Julian de Guzman

One rule of thumb: If you have a Designated Player on your roster, and he’s healthy, he should never, ever be riding the bench. He should never be a depth player. Nothing looks worse on your organization than showing your fans that you don’t have confidence in a player that you broke the bank to acquire.

Julian de Guzman had become a squad player at Toronto FC. So, on Friday, his DP contract was shipped to FC Dallas for Andrew Wiedeman, a forward who has played all of 172 MLS minutes over the last two seasons. But Wiedeman does carry a Generation Adidas contract, so there’s no cap hit to TFC.

And that’s what the deal is about: Freeing up cap space for TFC and opening a DP slot. Because MLS doesn’t reveal the financials that go on with trades, the Twitterverse is rife with speculation that TFC will eat part of JDG’s contract, which expires at the end of the season. And really, if TFC wants to pay his salary, that’s fine — as long as the DP slot and that US$167,500 cap space (half a DP hit, as we are halfway through the season) frees up, MLSE is free to spend its millions as it sees fit.

“Losing someone like Julian is never easy but this deal gives us increased flexibility to address areas where we have more pressing needs and opens up a designated player spot for our club,” said Toronto FC Head Coach and Director of Soccer Operations, Paul Mariner, in a release. “On behalf of everyone at Toronto FC, I’d like to thank Julian for his contributions to the club and wish him well in his future endeavours.”
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