Rick Titus is 39 and has been around. His soccer odyssey has included a stop in Major League Soccer with the Colorado Rapids in 2002.
Tomorrow night, he will return to playing with one of three teams he has competed for this season, Real Toronto, at the Ontario Soccer Centre.
Titus was one of three late additions to Toronto FC after nine players were called up to their national teams for World Cup qualifying matches over the weekend. Toronto had tried to have the game postponed.
Toronto chief scout, Tim Regan, 27, who played in MLS as recently as last season, came out of retirement to join Titus and another defender, Diaz Kambere, 22, who was on loan from the Vancouver Whitecaps of the United Soccer Leagues.
Toronto head coach John Carver said the third additional player was allowed after forward Abdus Ibrahim, 17, was injured in training late in the week.
Toronto led Saturday's game on a 30th-minute goal by Tyler Rosenlund, who had a tap-in courtesy of a pass from Rohan Ricketts, the recipient of Chad Barrett's through ball.
Toronto was a bit unfortunate not to score another goal from some good chances, and late in the first half had what it thought was a penalty denied when Barrett was pulled down in the penalty area. Barrett said referee Kevin Stott told him that he went down too easily.
Soon after, Chivas tied the score on Daniel Paladini's laser-like shot in the 41st minute. Jonathan Bornstein scored the winner in the 58th minute and Ante Razov scored just before the end of the game after five minutes of stoppage time.
Mississauga-born Titus said he received a call on Thursday to see whether he might be available.
Considering the team that Toronto put out and the unlikely chance at victory, Titus said the atmosphere at BMO Field was "unbelievable."
"I loved it," he said. "The fans are crazy. I'd heard about it, but I didn't know the fans would be that [raucous]. I loved it, great atmosphere."
Carver said he thought Regan and Titus did their jobs, but added that Kambere's mistakes contributed to Chivas's first two goals. The coach, however, was understanding of the young player's difficult position.
"The team fought hard," Titus said, lamenting the missed chances in the first half. "If we had put them away, we could have been up 3-0 at halftime."
Carver said he was disappointed in Marco Velez, the only regular defender with the team on Saturday. Velez was ejected in the 45th minute for retaliating with an elbow after he took an elbow from Alecko Eskandarian, who also was shown a red card. Carver felt Velez should have shown more restraint.
Titus has played this season for the Toronto Lynx of the United Soccer Leagues' Premier Development League and the Italia Shooters of the Canadian Soccer League. Real Toronto plays in the Ontario Soccer League's MJ West. "We all got together and put together this team [Real Toronto] to try to win the Ontario Cup," Titus said.
Real Toronto will play in the men's Ontario Cup final on Sunday.
In his career, Titus has had three stints with the Lynx and also has played for the Hampton Roads Mariners, Whitecaps, Rapids, Charleston Battery and Edmonton Aviators. Add Toronto FC to the list.