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TORONTO - Forward Joao Plata, who scored six goals to lead Toronto FC into the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League this past season, has been loaned to LDU Quito of Ecuador, the Major League Soccer club announced Wednesday.
The 20-year-old Ecuadoran, who played with LDU Quito before being acquired by Toronto in 2011, will return to his native country for six months - missing the Group Stage of the Champions League -- before rejoining TFC next year, the club said in a release.
Plata scored three goals in 26 league matches for Toronto last year, and had one more in four games to help the Reds win the Canadian Championship and qualify for the Champions League.
He does not have a goal in 10 matches this year with Toronto, which has won only two of 17 games and is in last place in the 19-team MLS.
Toronto FC also announced it had terminated the contract of Dutch forward Nick Sooslma by mutual consent. The 24-year-old Sooslma had scored three goals in 32 matches over the past 1 1/2 seasons with Toronto, and also had one goal in eight games in last season's Champions League.
The Canadian champion will begin play in this season's Champions League at home August 1 against Aguila of El Salvador.
In another move involving a Champions League-bound club, Real Salt Lake announced Wednesday that it had acquired forward Justin Braun, a fifth-year pro with 25 career goals, from the Montreal Impact in exchange for a conditional selection in the 2014 MLS Draft.
Braun has appeared in one Champions League game with Chivas USA in 2008, a 1-1 draw with Tauro.
Salt Lake will travel to Costa Rica to face Herediano on the opening day of the Champions League, July 31.
