October 30th, 2007 . 4:16 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

Sometimes in football you have to score goals. – Future FCD forward, Thierry Henry.

Beautiful day today, what wonderful weather we are having.  It makes watching training fabulous.

The team is in a very positive mood today although practice remains intense as it was last week.  The coaches continue to push the intensity and aggression.  No matter what happens I don’t think FCD will be rolling over.

News Notes and Observations

- Ricchetti experienced some discomfort in his groin/hamstring late in game one. It’s been a recurring problem for some time.  He tightened up a great deal yesterday and was given today off.  Morrow said Ricchetti will be re-evaluated later in the week.  Hopefully Pablo will recover enough to play, but you can tell he is slightly limited still.  I wouldn’t be shocked if he can’t go this weekend.

- Today was the best day I have seen from Ricardinho in some time.  He was active and intense with an energy I have rarely seen from him.  Inconsistency in a young player is not uncommon, but if he could bring this every day he’s be starting.  I hope FCD can figure out how to keep him.

- Thursday FCD is flying to Houston for this game after taking the bus during the regular season.  Some of the players not in the 18 man traveling squad may be going down on the chartered busses on Friday with the front office and fans.  Last check 3 bus loads were making the trip.

- Special thanks to the Just Score family who brought out the cookies for players and were nice enough to share with media as well.

Catching up with Steve Morrow

Just a few words today, with a few less words after each which have little to do with reality.  Kinda.

Who has the greater pressure?

I certainly don’t see us under any pressure.  We’re one nil up. We’re the guys who are in control of the situation, we’ve got the lead. We intend to build on that lead.  All the pressure’s on Houston right now.  They’re playing at home.  They gotta come out and try and get a win, try and tackle. It’s our intention to go there and try and get an early goal.  I very much see the pressure on them.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: It’s all on them.

On Sala Performance

I thought Dario did well.  Leading up to that game I kinda felt for the first time that he was really 100% healthy and ready to go.  He showed that to us in practice, for the first time in several weeks he was as healthy as he has been.  I thought Dario had a good game, made a couple of saves, and looks back to his normal self.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: Dario’s Back.

On the back line

I thought Bobby and Chris did a great job for the team.  They showed their experience, they’ve been in that situation many times before. They showed it in practice leading up to the game. I thought both those guys played a very relaxed and composed game, they were relaxed and composed in possession of the ball as well and that spread throughout the team and throughout the rest of the back four. I though they did a great job.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: My back four dominated.

On Ruiz vs. Robinson

I thought with Carlos, and Kenny, they probably could have done a better job for us.  They both know that.  They had one shot on goal between both of them over 94 minutes which for two strikers of their caliber and their ability it wasn’t quite enough.  Those guys told me that before I told them, so they both know the situation.  The same thing applies, we gotta focus on what we want to do and focus on our game and not get caught up in one v one battles too much. I think it’s important that we stay focused in that direction.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: We stunk up top and we know it.

Did your mentality cause the foul misbalance?

My mentality, plus the referee’s mentality. [genearl laughter] It’s definitely something we focused on during the week and it’s just being very physical.  The players were very wound up before the game.  They showed a lot of intensity in practice and a lot of intensity in the locker-room before the game.  They were definitely fired up and ready to go.  I think quite a few of the fouls could have gone either way.  The referee made some close calls and things I didn’t think were free kicks.  We got 23 called against us and they got eight called against them. So it seemed a little unbalanced to me.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: We brought it, the ref couldn’t deal.

On generally having more fouls.

I think when you’ve given up more fouls than the opposition it maybe shows a little bit more about your mentality.  I certainly mind it as long as it’s not in my penalty box.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: We’ve got the biggest balls of them all.

On game plan execution to shut down Holden and Mullan?

The things that we focused on, I was certainly happy with during the game in terms of getting pressure in wide areas and stopping crosses.  We gave up too many free kicks around the box, it’s something we talked about, to be careful in not giving away free kicks around out penalty box and not putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure from set plays.  Bu the things we focused on defensively I thought we did well.  But I think we can do better with the ball, certainly in the second half.  I see that as a way of playing defensively, keeping the ball. If you’ve got the ball you don’t have to do to much defensively and we want to be able to go to Houston and posses the ball better.

Buzz’s coach speak translator: Damn I can coach.  But we gotta hold the freaking ball.

Training

After warm up and stretching, training again began with the 30 yard box stuff. Simple possession and movement that eventually morphed into 1v1 chase and defend drills.  By the end of the drill the pace was really being pushed.

After that was 8 vs 4, each team would send four defenders into the other groups box to chase and defend.  It’s a fairly standard high intensity drill that FCD does.

The session finished with a sideline to sideline game with keepers, 8v8 with 4 outside the field helpers in each offensive end.  This is always a game the players enjoy.

Group 1: Ruiz Daniels Wagenfuhr Cooper Pitchkolan Oduro Serioux Yi McCarty Wagner Toja Alvarez
Group 2: Moor Goodson Gbandi Rhine Ricardinho Ibrahim Jones Denilson Wallace Wileman Dello-Russo Thompson

Lineup Prediction

No reason why anything will change, except perhaps Ricchetti’s injury.  In which case it might be Dax McCarty in the middle, or Toja central with various other options on the left side.

Possibly even Denilson.

Thought of the Day

Watching the HDNet broadcast is like watching a Houston home show. Glenn Davis, who is an outstanding commentator normally, I can forgive a little.  He can’t help but be a Houston homer since he lives, coaches, and plays in Houston.  He coached Gbandi at one point if I recall correctly.

He’s also not near as bad as Balboa, in who’s eyes Houston could do no wrong.  Apparently they are the greatest team in the world despite the fact they are only 2 points better than FCD over the last two years.  Of course to be fair Houston does have a MLS Cup and has done quite well against FCD over the same span.

Come on Marcelo, this is a close series. Try to see it from a bit more of a neutral perspective since you are on what is in theory a neutral broadcast.

Ruiz is not the dirtiest player of all time and Robinson is not the cleanest player ever.  Houston doesn’t have the best offense in the league or they would not have finished second in the weaker West. Let’s give a little credit here to what is a fantastic pair of clubs.

Both of them are good teams.

Categories: Practice Observations.

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