October 2nd, 2007 . 4:24 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

You talk the talk. Do you walk the walk? – Animal Mother

Ok boys and girls, it’s go time.  FCD is taking this one very seriously.  So seriously they are taking the team to a hotel right after training and sequestering them through to game time tomorrow.

Morrow gave the boys a speech about how big this game is.  Some of these players may get only one Cup final in their entire career.  This is a once in a life time game.

Notes for the Open Cup Final

Hitch came out to training and asked me to pass along the following.

- FCD has brought back the $1 Beer from 5:30 to 7:00 inside the stadium.  Get there early and get your game face on.

- The stage area is being opened as a Beer Garden for the entire game.  You can stand there with your beer before and during the game.

- FCD is opening the Verizon Wireless Club post game to all fans no matter the outcome.  FCD players will be doing the meet and greet thing there after the game.  Certainly we all hope it will be in celebration.  Drop on in and meet your favorite player.

News Notes and Observations

- FCD had a set of the balls that are used in the USOC for training today. They tired to make sure only those balls got used to help every one dial in their feel and touch.

- Cooper trained and looked strong.  Morrow says he’s come very far in the last 10 days and they want to get him minutes in the next few games and push his fitness to 90 minutes with an eye at the playoffs.  They were surprised by how long he went in the reserve game and are looking to get him involved in the first team from here on out.  Cooper stayed out after everyone and did some shooting drills with the US Open Cup balls.

- Attitude seems very positive, not that there isn’t an awareness that they have struggled.  You can sense the team knows it needs to get things going again, but it’s not negative and doomed like back a few years ago.  Everyone seems focused and ready to fight.  I like the vibe I sense.

- In case you missed it, Ruiz will miss two games independent of a suspension. One game for yellow card accumulation and one for the straight red he got.  He is however eligible to play in the USOC.  The suspension will take place in the next two regular season games: at Columbus and home against Chivas.

Catching up with Steve Morrow

In case you’ve been living in a tree and just joined us… my coach translations are a bit.

On the Cup Final vs regular season

We’ve had that talk with the players today.  It’s a completely different game, different occasion.  In many ways you approach it with a different mentality.  I’ve played in them myself as a player. It’s a one off game and the players have to give it everything. It’s an occasion that might not come back for some players.  I hope it does.  I hope it comes back for all of them and for this team as well.  But it might not, some people might get to play in only one cup final throughout their career and you have to make the most of it. You have to give it everything out on the field and you’ll never get it back again.  Regular season games you always got a chance in the next game to make up three points.  You’ll never get this back again so we have to give it everything and not have any regrets. I know the players will do that.  And the other thing is I want them to enjoy the occasion.  It’s a chance to win a medal and have something that lives in the memory for a long time.  It’s a very special game for everyone involved  with this organization and I want the players to go out and enjoy the occasion as well.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: It’s money time.  This only comes around once in a career.

On the Final being at PHP

If you think about it being the other way around, if the final was in New England or somewhere else, I think it would give the game a completely different look.  We have to be very happy to be hosting a final here.  It’s a big occasion for everybody and I think it gives us a big advantage as well and we have to make the most of it.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: $1 beers. One dollar.  Home field.  Priceless.  Everything else?  Mastercard.

Can you comment on the Clark/Ruiz double red card?

I can certainly comment on it.  I’ve spoken tot he league about it and I thought it was… [long pause]… ugly.  I thought it was very ugly.  The player lost his head.  Ricardo Clark knows better than that and he shouldn’t do that.  That was extreme violent conduct and their head coach certainly apologized to me.  I hope the league look at it very, very closely.  I never like to see any player get long suspension, but the league have got to look at it and set a standard. They did that with one of our own players last year.  As far as Carlos [Ruiz] goes, I didn’t feel it was a red card offense at all.  He gave the player a little nudge in the box as the cross is coming over.  All good strikers do that to try and free up a little space for themselves by giving a little nudge in the box.  It happens on every set play.  For me Carlos didn’t do anything more than that and it was not worthy of a red card.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: Clark better get six games.

On referee’s aggression toward Ruiz

 I think referees will look out for certain players, not just in this league, I think you get that everywhere.  They know what to expect from certain players and I certainly think that [Ruiz] does get treated differently.  That’s one hand and the other hand Carlos is for me, we’ve spoken about it, he’s gotta learn to try and stay away from it a little bit more.  I think he got into a one on one battle with Robinson for 90 minutes and it took away from his game a little bit.  Carlos needs to learn to concentrate on what he needs to do for himself and for the team and not get involved in stupid other things that are going to take his focus away from the game.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: Refs hate Fish, but he’s gotta know that and stay focused.

On the Denilson verdict after six games

So far I think we’ve seen some good things.  I don’t think we’ve seen enough good things over the course of 90 minutes.  we’re looking for him to… We brought him in here to do something for this team and that was to give us something in the attacking midfield position.  Give us something in the last third of the field.  I think we’ve seen glimpses of it, but not quite enough.  So, so far I would say it’s been inconsistent, it’s been good at times.  We all know that players need a little bit of time to settle in to a team, to fit into a team, to fit into a new league, and for everyone to get used to his style of play and for him to get used to his teammates as well.  As a coach you see it every day and you know in the long run whether it’s going to be what you require and what the team requires and I’m starting to get a clear view of that.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: Not good enough, he’s running out of time.

Is Denilson running out of time?

I don’t want to comment too much on that side of it right now but like I say I’ve got a clear view in my mind of where I’m gonna go with it.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: Time’s up.

On Blake Wagner’s debut

I thought he did well.  I wanted to put Blake in a situation where it was gonna test him.  I know what David Wagenfuhr can give me.  David’s a great player for this team, he’s always been consistent when he plays and he’s got the experience. I wouldn’t have found out anything more about David in that game and I wanted to find out about Blake.  He showed me that he can play very maturely for a young kid and I thought he did that. He gave away a few balls at times unnecessarily, but overall over the 90 minutes I thought his performance was good.  He didn’t look out of place at all which pleased me.  I learned a lot from his performance about what he can give the team in the future.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: The kid’s money and I am a genius for picking him in the SuperDraft.  You’ll see Blake again.  Soon.

(Note: I know Morrow didn’t pick Wagner, but FCD picked Blake on Morrow’s scouting and recommendation of him.)

Training

Nothing tactical today, it was more about being positive and keeping spirits up.  Started with a long warm up that including jogging and some keep away games.

After that was a series of mini games with four team.  They played a round robin and then a “playoff” set.  Each game was about 20 yards long 7v7 with mini-goals.

Orange: Serioux Jones Daniels Ibrahim Wagenfuhr Toja Ricardinho
Yellow: Ricchetti Goodson Botero Wileman Ruiz Gbandi Cooper
Green: Yi McCarty Rhine Sandy Denilson Alvarez Dello-Russo
White: Thompson Wagner Pitchkolan Wallace Moor Oduro Pareja

Order of finish in the round robin:
1. Greeen with two wins and a tie (7 pts)
2. Yellow with two wins (6 pts)
3. Orange (I didn’t hear the points on the bottom two)
4. White

In the playoffs both games went to golden goal and Orange upset Yellow in the 2-3 game.  Green held off a valiant White team in PKs.

In the final Orange pulls off the upset to take the cup.

Lineup Prediction

Based on what I saw in training here’s the lineup for tomorrow’s cup game.

*snickers*

Suck it, Revs.

Thought of the Day

This is as big as it gets. 

For me this is the biggest game of the year.  I put the US Open Cup before almost everything in US soccer. 

You see I am not a fan of “playoffs” in soccer. In my opinion anyone can get hot and win MLS Cup (See LA Galaxy).  In fact I place the Supporters Shield (awarded for the best over all regular season record) ahead of both.  Since FCD can’t win the shield, The USOC becomes the more important trophy to be won for me.

Listen, I fully understand that in the US the “champion” is the winner of the playoffs.  I get that. I get that the mainstream media look to MLS Cup.  I get that foreign players look to MLS Cup.  I get that MLS looks at MLS Cup.  I get that average fans look at MLS Cup. I don’t care. 

The USOC has 100 years of tradition. God forbid MLS fails and goes down the crapper, but if it does 100 years from now Dallas Burn will still be on that cup for the 1997 title and I hope to see FC Dallas on it next to 2007.

It will make a wonderful celebration of the tenth anniversary of 3rd Degree.  Yup, 3rd Degree was founded 10 years ago, Oct 1997.  All this month we will be doing some small stuff to commemorate our history and FCD’s.  It would be the icing on the cake to set that off with the best thing, in my opinion, FCD can win this year.  The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

So go win the Cup boys.  Win it for the fans, win it for yourselves, but mostly win it for 3rd Degree.

Categories: Practice Observations.

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