Canadian teams add defensive depth By Steven Sandor Posted on March 31, 2011 1 0 564 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Both of the Canadian MLS franchises made moves Thursday to add to their defensive depth charts. The Vancouver Whitecaps announced the signing of French-Algerian central defender Mouloud Akloul. Akloul played one game for the Whitecaps in Div. 2 play back in 2010. He scored the match-winning goal and fractured his ankle in a 1-0 victory over AC St. Louis, and missed the rest of the season. Akloul is now healthy enough to play again. With the Whitecaps’ two main central defenders, Jay DeMerit and Michael Boxall, being regular callups to the American and New Zealand national teams, respectively, the Whitecaps need to make sure to have some reinforcements in the back. If DeMerit makes the U.S. Gold Cup squad, he could miss the better part of June. Toronto FC announced the signing of Jamaican defender Dicoy Williams. While Toronto’s back line was much improved in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Portland, it is clear that some competition is needed to push the starting four for their places. Portland is clearly the worst team in MLS in month one of the season, so the jury is out on the backline until it faces stiffer competition — which it might not get this week when a weak Chivas USA side comes to Toronto. While TFC technical director Aron Winter stated in a release that “He performed well in training camp but we couldn’t sign him until we made sure we had the international spot,” Williams did have some rough patches in the preseason Carolina Challenge Cup. But TFC need more than teenagers to be apprentices on the squad. Williams most recently played with Jamaican side Harbour View and has been capped six times by his national side.
