A smile etched on his face on a brilliantly sunny day, Toronto FC coach Preki looked as if he didn't have a care in the world as he put his players through their paces during an intense training session.

Yes, TFC have lost their opening two games of the Major League Soccer season by a combined score of 6-1. Yes, the team committed grievous defensive errors in both contests.

And yes, the club looked positively horrible during the second half of Saturday's 4-1 loss to the New England Revolution.

But there's no cause for concern, cautioned the Reds coach. Preki remains optimistic that better results are ahead, starting with Thursday's home opener against the expansion Philadelphia Union.

The key to turning things around will be for the team to maintain its work ethic, he says.

"I see, day in and day out, that these guys are putting a lot of hard work in here. They want to be successful. If I was seeing a different attitude and a different mentality, then certainly I would be worried," Preki told reporters Wednesday.

Galaxy fought back

He concedes that the club hasn't started well, but he also points out that neither did Los Angeles last season — the Galaxy won only two of their first 14 games but ended up finishing first in the Western Conference and reaching the MLS Cup final.

"Let's not put our heads down because we have two bad results," Preki said. "Let's build on the things that were positive and let's make sure that, instead of 45 [minutes], we play 90 minutes with the proper attitude and commitment."

Against the Revolution, TFC dominated and dictated the pace of the game for the opening 45 minutes before captain Dwayne De Rosario scored early in the second half to give the Reds a 1-0 lead.

But it went all downhill from there. Zack Schilawski scored a hat trick in 13 minutes and Sainey Nyassi notched his first goal of the season as the Revolution embarrassed the Toronto squad.

Still, the game wasn't a complete writeoff, according to Preki.

"We have to take a lot of positives from the first half of the game and forget about the 15 minutes of nightmare from the second half. If we can build on the first half, we're on the right track," Preki said.

The team's opening 2-0 loss to the Columbus Crew and last week's game were marred by defensive errors. Silly mistakes by veteran Nick Garcia and rookie Nane Joseph led directly to goals by the Revolution and killed any momentum TFC had.

What does the team have to do to make sure similar goofs don't happen against the Union?

"It's [about] individual responsibility. You can't cut those things out unless every individual takes that responsibility and says, 'Look, I have cut these mistakes out.' And if they don't, then we have to move things around," the coach explained.

Defenders Adrian Cann and Maksim Usanov, signed by the club earlier this week, could see action Thursday, as could Jacob Peterson.

Acquired in an off-season-trade with the Colorado Rapids, Peterson has been sidelined with a knee injury since September. But Preki said the young winger is on the mend and could be on the bench for Thursday's game, depending on whether he is cleared to play by the team trainer.