Practice Observations: Dark Skies
April 23rd, 2008 . 10:39 pm . By: Buzz Carrick
Training was in the big stadium today rather than on the training field. FCD usually trains there on the day before a home game. The sky is ominous but nothing comes of it during the morning; tonight…well, tonight it was something else. News, Notes, & Observations- Bobby Rhine was rehabbing today on the sidelines. I think he may be the second hardest rehabber I’ve ever seen behind Jason Kreis. He’s not going to play tomorrow as the ten-day layoff to the next game is a nice window to be sure he’s 100%. - Pablo Ricchetti and Juan Toja both trained today and both are a wait-and-see-how-they-react-tomorrow kind of thing. I’d say that makes them “questionable.” - David Wagenfuhr is going to take six weeks off with zero training (starting last week). According to Morrow, if after six weeks David is still having headaches, they will either try another six weeks, or perhaps consider the year off. - Jamie Watson is still around, competing for a developmental spot. Unfortunately, there is no open developmental spot as the one spot they had was taken by Ray Burse with his loan deal. - John Harkes and John Paul Dellacamera stopped by training today. - Dominic Oduro has taken to wearing tube socks pulled all the way up in training of late. Not sure what that’s about. - Dax McCarty looked to be struggling with his back today. Morrow says that once he warms up and gets into the flow of the game he’s fine, but they do need to solve it. Catching up with MorrowThe translations are a bit. I don’t speak for Morrow. Was the 3-4-3 a decision based on tactics or personnel?
Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: I’m a freaking genius. So speed was why Ricardinho was the high striker instead of Cooper?
Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Alvarez and Cooper both think they’re wingers, Rico thinks he’s a target striker, the rest is magic. How’s Wagner doing?
Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Two steps forward, one step back. How was Brek Shea’s debut
Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Sexy and seventeen, he’s my little rock and roll queen. TrainingAfter warm up and stretching the team did some short sprints to push the pace. It was fun watching Serioux and Oduro, two of the fastest players on the team, go head to head. Lots of jawing and talking, but all in good fun. Next was a basic 5v5 shooting gallery drill. They teams were divided, give or take, by age. Young was getting their butts kicked at first but rebounded in the second half and won the game. Here’s the two teams. Old (White): Ricchetti, Dello-Russo, Watson, Rocha, Oduro, Pitchkolan, Serioux, Davino, Saragosa, Thompson, and Wileman. And that was about it for the day; no walk through. Just some shooting drills for a few guys. It’s not shocking, really, since the team didn’t get home ’til 11 Monday night. Lineup PredictionGiven that the team won and Morrow’s tendency to stick with a winning team, combined with the little amount of work FCD was able to do this week, I think Morrow will stick with the same team. Saragosa played well, so it seems quite logical for him to keep his place. We might see Toja back in for Ricardinho, but the Revs are a team that has killed FCD down the wings in the past. So the 3-4-3 makes some sense, as well; I will stick with it in my prediction.
Thought of the DayI’m a bit nervous about this one, I must admit. A bit of a short turnaround with the Sunday game and FCD getting stuck playing the Monday reserve game means there wasn’t a lot of work this week to prepare for New England. Ricchetti and Toja probably aren’t back long enough to play, or maybe they are physically… but how likely is Morrow to insert them straight into the team? At some point the undefeated streak has to burst and the Revs have been a FCD bogy team of late… FCD’s been scoring early and holding on… So somebody please tell me I shouldn’t be worried. 15 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There one a roll. Everything is going to be fine.
Great report, as always — thanks! Everything you say makes sense, and the lack of preparation time (since the team got back late on Monday) worries me, too. It would be great if the undefeated streak would continue, but not the end of the world if it didn’t, I suppose. Still, I would LOVE to see them beat the NERds tonight! And although they’ve not been totally consistent, they have just seemed like a more skilled/prepared/cohesive (or whatever) team than last year, so far.
Go FCD!!!
It’s April. FC Dallas never loses in April.
I think it makes sense to put in Ricchetti and Toja if they are healthy just because they are also rested. Benefits of a deep team. Now, whether matchup wise that works I am more unsure as that depends on wh the Revs throw out there also. I know I am worried that they could put pure speed on the outside but their discussion boards show wildly different lineups so who knows?
No mention of Thompson? Buzz why didn’t you ask Morrow his role or use given his strong play in the first game and his brilliance in the last? Richardinho is complete garbage but he’s up in the target role? It makes no sense. I would love to see Abe leave and play somewhere to haunt Dallas. He would get 10-12 golas a year with consistent minutes but Morrow just doesn’t get it. If I’m Thompson I ask for my relase or be traded.
I predict a slow, choppy game as Saragosa (aka “Flow Killa”) takes the field. I also predict this is Rocha’s breakout game and he provides a score (G or A) in a 1-1 draw.
Dick, another reporter asked about Thompson and unless I really need to use the answer I try not to use questions I don’t ask. I try to respect the story they are writing… But by now it should have run, or it won’t, so here’s the Thompsn Q.
On Thompson taking advantage of his chances
“He always has done that. This isn’t the first time he’s come on as a sub and scored late goals for us. He’s a very valuable part of the roster. We know what we’re going to get from him whether he starts or comes off the bench. I thought he did well with his goal and with holding the ball up for us late in the game when needed.”
“The message for those three was for them to sort it out….” I like this quote.
I would like to see FCD win this game tonight for a couple of reasons – not the least of which is recent history v NE. Be nice to beat them – especially at home, and especially in front of a national audience. (On that note, hope the $1 beer/sausage promotion gets butts in seats.) Not sure how much the team cares about any of that, but I’ll bet they don’t want to go into a relatively long layoff with a loss.
Buzz is probably right about the starting lineup, but I could see putting Toja and Ricchetti in there from the start if they’re ready to go. Why not throw out their best, especially given the time off after this game. No expectation for them to go 90, either. Bring on Abe and Marcelo to kill off the game.
Great stuff Buzz, as always. No surprise about Bobby either. Here’s to a nice win tonight!
for us to fair well, we need ball control. i don’t think marcelo and rocha in the middle can give that to us…especially when shalrie is being disruptive. i would be happy to see pablo in for marcelo to direct the club. i’d rather have toja than little ricky. he was starting to develop chemistry w/ coop and artie.
buzz, id like to see you ask SM about how he feels about his team being only about 10 minutes from having a full 12 points on the season with 4 full out victories.
I’m sure he wont say those lost points will come back to haunt us, but he can at least acknowledge that the season would be looking alot different right now with those points.
BTW, this should be a win given that we have most of our starters and NE is missing so many. We clearly have the stronger team tonight. They have the stronger keeper (barely given Sala’s form), our D is stronger currently, our midfield should be better since they are missing 3 starters there, and our forwards are surely better this season (who thought we’d ever say that after our pre-season)
April, this isn’t exactly what you aer asking, but here’s Morrow after the third game…
Morrow on the strong start.
“We’ve always said we want to get strong and better as the season goes on. I think we’ve had a decent start as we’re one of two teams unbeaten in the league at the moments so that’s positive. I think we should have gotten more from the first two games. We feel like we should be sitting on 9 points right now. The start that we had was expected in many ways in my eyes. I think it takes a while as you go through the start of the season to gel as a team and get that understanding going. I think it started to come a little against New York and I think there’s still a lot to come from the team in terms of what we do with the ball and getting more cohesive as a defense as well.”
Just because NE has a depleted squad should not allow any of us Hoops fans to predetermine the scoreboard. That is the beauty of fútbol when a lesser team is able to defeat a greater team, so let’s not jump to conclusions. On the other hand, I do agree that FCD must exploit the fact that NE’s squad is depleted b/c tonight’s points can make a difference later on in the season. I had a dream about tonight’s game so I will not mention the result of the game in my dream so that I don’t jinx it, but I just want FCD to continue their streak.