Wednesday marks a new beginning for Toronto FC as the club debuts four new players in a revamped lineup. The club is returning from a 11-day break and will host FC Dallas at BMO Field.The feeling around the team is similar to the renewed optimism that exists during the preseason — everyone is positive and looking for a fresh start while its collective eyes are set squarely on making the playoffs.

Eddy Viator, who had been previously on trial with the NASL’s Montreal Impact, has signed with Toronto FC.The defender, who played in Guadeloupe’s 1-0 loss to Canada at the recently completed Gold Cup, is eligible to appear in Wednesday night’s matchup against FC Dallas.

When making trades, what is often lost in the business of the sports are the human stories behind the scenes that media and fans often never hear about. When a player is traded, there can be hostility towards the old club because a pre-existing situation (i.e. Dwayne De Rosario’s contract situation) or simply because they were traded and, as a result, felt unwanted. However, there are those rare instances where a player is thankful and happy to have been traded and still keep in touch with his former manager as a result.

Sometimes, you just have to wonder if artificial surface is preferable to temporary grass fields. Manchester City beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 Monday night in their Herbalife World Football Challenge friendly at Empire Field. But the talk of the match won’t be the audacious strike from Shaun Wright-Phillips that gave Man City the win. It won’t be on an impressive …

Looking back at the week that was in Major League Soccer, one game stands out above all others — Seattle’s 4-3 win over the Colorado Rapids was a wild affair that had the throngs of fans in the Emerald City on the edge of their seats.Mauro Rosales, who scored a goal and added an assist, was voted the MLS Player of the Week by the members of the North American Soccer Reporters on Monday.

With just days to spare, they learned that enough backers had been brought aboard to fund Rise and Shine: The Jay Demerit sStory, the documentary made by Lewis and Tutulugdzija about the current Whitecap’s journey from the lowest divisions of English semipro football to the Premiership — and a place with the U.S. national team at the 2010 World Cup.

While it has a long and hallowed tradition is show business, “break a leg” is probably not the best way to wish Cameron Knowles good fortune on the pitch. Presently in Montreal on tryout with the Impact, the 28-year-old New Zealand native is attempting to come back from not the first, but the second broken leg of his career.

In a pre-game press conference Sunday afternoon, Impact President Joey Saputo and Richard Legendre, Executive VP of the Impact and Saputo Stadium, announced modifications to both the schedule of activity and the design parameters of the upcoming expansion to the team’s home field.Disappointed in the offers received for the initial tendering of contracts for the project, Saputo told the media that in order to respect the $23-million budget, the construction will begin in September, rather than in July as announced earlier, and that the refurbished stadium would not be ready in time for opening day of the Impact’s first MLS season.

Impact coach and technical director Nick De Santis said after practice yesterday that he wanted to see more initiative on the part of his men, particularly in the visiting Atlanta Silverbacks’ third of the field. He got what he wanted from Eduardo Sebrango who scored two on the afternoon with the second allowing the Impact to snatch a tie from the jaws of defeat and taking him to the century mark for his career.

The Vancouver Whitecaps have been forced to postpone Saturday’s night’s scheduled match against Real Salt Lake, after the temporary grass pitch — installed so Manchester City can play on the real stuff for Monday’s friendly — couldn’t hold up to the rain.The field was declared unplayable.