Nana Attakora remains a work in progress.

It was a year ago this weekend when the Toronto FC defender made his first start of 2009 — and just the fourth of his career — logging 76 minutes in a wild 3-3 tie against DC United in Washington.

It was TFC’s eighth game of the season. That evening, joining Attakora on the back line were Marvell Wynne, Adrian Serioux and Marco Velez. Regular defender Jim Brennan took a turn in the midfield.

Since that game, all of those other guys have moved on from the TFC lineup. Meanwhile, Attakora has started all but four of the team’s last 29 games, including each of the first six so far this season.

Aside from goalkeeper Stefan Frei, he’s the only member of the Reds to play every minute in 2010.

The guy who struggled to get playing time at the start of last season is now the team’s workhorse.

“It’s a lot different than last year,” the 21-year-old Orangeville native said Tuesday with characteristic understatement as TFC (2-4-0) began preparations for Saturday’s visit to BMO Field by the Chicago Fire (2-2-2).

For Attakora, a member of TFC since its inaugural season of 2007, it’s been a pretty simple formula. Increased playing time has meant increased confidence.

“I feel a lot more confident and comfortable out there,” said Attakora, who, despite appearing in only two-thirds of the games last season, was named TFC’s player of the month twice and also was awarded the club’s most improved player award for the year.

Attakora finished with two goals and four assists in 2009, his first points in a TFC uniform.

So far this season, which began in tumult as a host of personnel changes carried over from the pre-season into the games that matter, Attakora has been the one constant, playing on a backline that has featured seven different players in the other three positions.

“He’s athletic. He’s good in the air,” said head coach Preki Radosavljevic, who has employed the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Attakora as centre back most of the time.

But Preki, who has watched his side surrender 11 goals in four road games, all losses, knows that even though Attakora has been his best defender, he needs more from him.

“I still expect him to be more confident on the ball, to find little holes and gaps when he has the ball on his feet and not to panic,” Preki said. “These are the things that I try to encourage him every day to do.”

Attakora said he’s encouraged by the challenge from Preki to improve.

“If he wants more of me, that means I have a lot more to offer,” he said. “It’s great to hear something like that.”

Frei said it’s clear Attakora wants to make himself better because he “works extremely hard, day in, day out.” The goalkeeper wants to see his centre back be more vocal, though, taking charge in the middle.

“If he realizes how good he is, he’s going to become our leader in back,” Frei said. “He’s a big asset of this team.”

Attakora, who was named Canada’s under-20 player of the year in both 2008 and 2009, agrees that getting better on the ball is key. He said it’s a combination of calmness and thinking quicker, especially at the international level where the game moves at a much faster pace than Major League Soccer.

“I do think I need to speed up my game,” said Attakora, a veteran of more than two dozen international matches with Canadian youth sides who debuted with the senior national team in Jamaica in January.

Attakora says after all the changes at TFC, he’s getting comfortable with his teammates, though he admits that it’s been a particular challenge with Russian Maksim Usanov, who has limited use of English.

“We’re getting better at it as the days go on,” said Attakora, noting that all the lineup changes in the midfield also present a challenge because it’s important to learn where they like to receive the ball.

“That’s a key because that’s where the play starts,” he said. “If we don’t get it to them, they can’t get it to the strikers.”

Defender Nick Garcia returned to the training field Tuesday for the first time since he was dropped by a punch to the face by Montreal Impact striker Roberto Brown during last Wednesday’s Canadian championship opener. The TFC veteran, who had a few days off, said he isn’t sure if he was knocked out but he still doesn’t have 100 per cent hearing in his left ear. Brown, meanwhile, has been suspended indefinitely by the Impact for the incident, which happened in the 35th minute of a game TFC went on to win 2-0 at BMO Field. . . . Fellow defender Ty Harden, who in the same game sustained a nasty cut to his leg that required 22 stitches, is likely out three to six weeks, according to Preki. Harden took a boot on the shin from Impact goalkeeper Matt Jordan on a scramble in front of the goal as Toronto scored to make it 1-0. The 12th-minute goal, which was originally given to Dwayne De Rosario, was awarded to Harden on Monday following a Canadian Soccer Association review.