3rd Degree

March 27th, 2008 . By: Buzz Carrick

Just when you get on a roll; here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again. - Damian Kulash

Lovely day, low 80s.  Lots of media out today, at least compared to usual.  Lots to see, tactically.

It’s time for the season to start, perhaps my most favorite time of the year.

New, Notes, & Observations

- David Wagenfuhr is missing today, not surprisingly. He’s getting a bunch of scans and tests done.  Morrow and staff are admittedly worried about him. This is Wags’ 4th concussion overall and his 3rd in just over a year.  They think this one happened on Thursday last week in a collision on DouDou Toure in training.  Wags didn’t experience any symptoms until after the game Saturday.  Needless to say this is a very serious issue for Wagenfuhr.

- Duilio Davino trained today and looked fine to me. No hesitation or tentativeness in his movement.  If I had to guess I expect he’ll play this weekend.

- Ricardinho was originally listed as out 2 to 3 weeks with his ankle.  Morrow says Rico is for sure out this weekend.

- Burse deal is moving forward; he’s in Portland checking out the Timbers.  If/when the deal goes down Burse will remain on the FCD roster but will be placed on the developmental squad thus opening space to add André Rocha.  Burse can be recalled at any time and Morrow says they will limit him playing in USOC games for Seattle, just in case.  This is a great deal for both teams, and should be of great benefit for Burse to get to play every day.

- Today was Dax McCarty’s first day back.  Morrow gave him a couple days off after the U23s qualified for the Olympics.

- FCD has traded Jamil Roberts to San Jose for a supplemental pick.

Catching up with Morrow

The translations are a bit.  I don’t speak for Morrow.

On the Burse loan deal:

We’re looking to get that deal finalized today.  I think it’s a great situation for him.  First and foremost, Ray is a big part of our plans here in Dallas.  At this point Dario’s won the starting position.  We want Ray to be ready to step in and unfortunately in this league with the way the reserve league is set up you might get a game every two to three weeks.  We want Ray to have a little bit more than that.  It’s something Ray’s very, very keen to do.  It’s a good situation for him; he gets game time and good playing experience at a high enough level.  We can call him back at any time if we wish.  We feel this way he’ll be a lot more ready to step in if we need him rather than maybe not being as sharp as we need to be by not playing or having one reserve game every two to three weeks.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Howie Mandell called…

How was the first day back for Davino?

It was what you expect his first day back into training.  He’s been working hard on his fitness the last two days; that’s the first day he’s come back into a full practice with the ball.  Obviously he’s a little bit rusty having missed a couple weeks of practice.  We’ll see how it goes the next two or three days leading up to the game and make a decision as late as we can.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  Money.

How’s Toja?

Good.  Fitness is getting better every day and he just needs match fitness.  That’s another decision we’ll make closer to game time, but he’s looking better every day and we’re very pleased.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  He’ll play, not sure if he’ll start.

How’s Davino’s Communication?

Good.  He’s experienced; he knows the game well.  He’s trying to pick up English as he goes along.  Obviously that’s not ideal right now, that he’s not fluent in English, but he’s learning fast.  He knows all the main things to say, the important things to say, and he’s picking up phrases as he goes along where he can communicate where he needs to.  We got some guys in the back who know some Spanish as well. 

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  The language of soccer is uni….  Wait, I mean football, the language of football is universal.

Big load on Cooper this year- how’s he carrying it?.

Great.  Kenny’s up for the responsibility; he’s up for the task.  He knows the pressure that’s on him this year. He’s the sort of guy who takes it in stride and doesn’t worry about it.  He gets excited about it and is looking forward to the season.  He knows the responsibility on him to score goals for the team.  We’re all confident he can do that for us. 

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  We call him Sherpa Cooper.

Any progress in getting Cooper to play center channel?

We’ve talked to Kenny about that.  He understands his role and we want him to stay higher up the field and be able to push the back lines and make them defend a little bit deeper, same with Abe.  We want them to create a little bit more space for our midfielders to be able to play a little more advanced.  Kenny does it for the right reasons.  He’s so hungry and he wants to be involved in the game all the time.  His enthusiasm gets the better of him at times, which is no big fault, really. We’re coaching him to stay up higher.  It suits him as well cause we want to get him into the box where he’s gonna be dangerous.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  It’s like trying to get the Tasmanian Devil to play central channel.

Training

After the warm up and stretching, the team was immediately broken down into two teams both playing 3-5-2.  This clearly showed us the depth chart as of this morning.  The teams took turns doing walk-through and build-out exercises for about 30 minutes, then broke down and played 11v11.

First Team

Second Team

During the walk-though Dello-Russo took rotations at right wing back with Rhine and McCarty.  Ibrahim and Toure just watched and Chase Wileman swapped in a few times at left wing back.

Moor was in a right center back first, but he and Yi swapped a couple times.  Yi played most of the open game on the line with Serioux and Davino, reinforcing that he’s likely starting for Moor this weekend.  We didn’t see Pitch take a turn in Moor’s spot. 

Halfway through open play, Toja was moved to the first team with Rocha taking Saragosa’s spot next to Ricchetti.  At the same time, McCarty swapped with Rhine in the first team.  Pitch also took a turn with Serioux and Yi, in case Davino can’t go, one could assume, I think.

One or two other notes… Dello-Russo played at right center back for the 2nd team.  Wileman swapped into CM for Wallace who went to left wingback.  Moor took a turn at center back when Pitch went to the first team.  Ibrahim also got some time as a wing player for the second team when it went 3-4-3 because both Rocha and Toja were in the first team.

Lineup Prediction

I think Davino plays this weekend, although that’s just my gut based on what I saw today.  Morrow was very clear on Toja being a gameday decision.  If Toja starts it’s fairly clear Rocha moves back and Saragosa comes out.  Dax, it being his first day back, didn’t supplant Rhine, but clearly it’s possible.

If I were going to bet, I’d put money on Morrow sticking with his midfield (minus Wags) from the last two preseason games.  That means Toja and McCarty on the bench to start, but expect both to play.

Thought of the Day

Exciting times.  It’ll be fun to see how many changes happen between now and the end of the season.  I got a feeling some young kids might be playing some serious minutes by the end of the year.  Notably Brek Shea, in particular.  Watch for both Avila and Wallace to get minutes in midfield, as well.

The spring time is a wonderful time of year.  Every team thinks they have a chance; every player thinks this is their year.  It’s just a fun time of rebirth and renewal.  It makes me positively giddy that opening day is this weekend.

I’m sure it’s how baseball fans feel this same time of year.

Categories: Practice Observations .

15 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment