September 11th, 2008 . 1:42 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Today is of course the anniversary of 9/11.  The FCD blog has some remembrances form players about where they were that day, I found it an terrific read, Ellinger’s is the most interesting.

To play along here’s my story, I was at home that day and got a call from my parents after the first tower was hit, so I was watching TV when the second plane struck.  My brother got married that following Saturday with the rehearsal dinner Friday.  He was on call at his hospital in El Paso till Thursday morning and no one knew when the airports would be open again.  So Wednesday I drove out to El Paso to pick him up and Thursday we drove back to Dallas together.

Please fell free to tell us your remembrance in the comments if you like to share.

The team is on PHP#5 today cause the adidas field is shutdown.  Field #5 has Wendy’s banners so we’ll call it the Wendy’s field.   If today had been any other day, “Where’s the beef!” would have been the quote.

News, Notes, & Observations

- Duilio Davino is in Mexico on personal business and won’t be available this weekend.  He isn’t cleared to play anyway by the medical staff, so it’s not a big deal he went home.  But I am feeling more confident about my prediction he won’t play for FCD again this year.  By the way he is guaranteed for 09.

- Adrian Serioux will back training with the team tomorrow.  Schellas says he has complete confidence to put him immediately back on the field, barring an injury playing for Canada.  Schellas says it’s particularly a no brainer this game because…

- Drew Moor is out for this next game on yellow card accumulation.

- Emerson Hyndman is here again, he participates in about half the drills.

- Brek Shea is inside, apparently he has a slight problem of some kind with his right knee that he’s been dealing with for a bit.  No official word on what it is.

- Victor Sikora came out and did some running near the field.  It was his first day outside rehabbing since the injury.  The team gave him some cheers and thumbs up for working hard to get back.  Ricchetti jokingly asking Sikora to sub into training in his place.  Good positive vibe in genearl.

- A reminder on the reserve rule about the amount of minutes.  It’s 120 minutes in 60 hours… so yesterday’s reserve game in Houston won’t effect this weekends game.

- Cooper looks leaner than earlier in the season, I like that.  Fitter, trimming, less bulk.  That’s a positive change in my soccer mind.  Man does this guy work hard.  He is the last one out virtually every single day.

Catching up with Schellas Hyndman

Don’t let it slip your mind that the coach speak translations are a bit.

How do you improve the team’s confidence?

“If you read a lot on confidence, it’s not something that anyone can give to you. It’s something you have to develop. The way you develop is doing the right things over and over again. If I’m a bad penalty kick taker and the coach tells me to take it and I don’t have the confidence to take it, then I probably won’t do well. But if I practice that PK over and over again and the coach tells me to go take a PK, then I would have the confidence to do it. I don’t think it’s something you give to anyone. You can help with the demeanor and getting to recognize what their strengths and weaknesses are so they can have a better game. But I don’t think it’s something you give to the players.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Practice makes perfect.

Can you still make the playoffs?

“Of course. I think that the games are enough for us to get to the playoffs but I also think that we have to get results and the results are wins.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Sure, we could win out.

Will you have a different approach for the DC United game than the Colorado game?

“Well, first of all, last week was a must-win game. I think if we’re thinking about getting into the playoffs, we have to think about the mathematical opportunities. Once that is out of reach, every game is a must win. As far as if I didn’t get that across to the guys last week, you know what, I did get it across to them. They’re the first ones to recognize that we hurt ourselves. They gave their full effort on the field and again, we’re inches away from winning and we come up short against a team that is not a great goal scoring team. So, it was very discouraging and disappointing. But one of the things I shared with the players is that we have to have the ability to move on. We can’t still be talking about the Colorado game. We have to accept defeat, move on and hopefully become better from it.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: We’re looking forward, not back.

Ricchetti looked pretty good at center back, will we see that again?

“I agree with you. I think Pablo did a pretty good job. I was pleased at his acceptance of the role and embracing that position. You know what, it wasn’t like we got beat by Colorado because of a mistake by our defense. We had a second where somebody got free on a corner kick. I think what Pablo does for us is he brings a lot of communication, a lot of maturity, experience and he’s a player that can bring the ball out of the back through the center. I think all those things are great benefits. But make no mistake, we’re going to miss in the defensive midfield role. All those things I just talked about being his strengths, he was a little bit more in touch with the team by being in the midfield.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  Ricchetti is the man, we’d be hosed without him this year.

Do you work with Saragosa to adjust to make up for Ricchetti not being in there?

“Yes, I do. I think he’s a little bit more high energy player, so he likes to get a lot more movement. Sometimes when he does that, he gets pulled out of position. We talk about the role of marking in the central midfield and trying not to go any wider than the penalty box.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: It’s like trying to put a leash on the Energizer Bunny.

Does the team miss linking play when Ricchetti isn’t in the midfield?

“What we’re trying to do with our 4-4-2 is turn it into a tighter midfield, more of a tighter diamond because we really don’t have the flank players. Victor (Sikora) was going to be our one flank player. So, by not having flank players, you’re asking them to go out to the flank like Andre (Rocha) to play out there. By bringing the diamond a little bit tighter, it gives us more people in the center and it also frees up diagonal runs by the striker and to get the fullbacks forward.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Since I have no wings, and Red Bull is only in New York, we’re pulling the wide mids central and looking for width out of the back.

Has FCD struggled on set plays because of talent, physical reason, or mentality?

“It may be all of them. First of all, you need physical ability. If you’re attacking in a set play, you need a player that deliver a ball where it needs to go. That’s the physical part. Then you have to have the player who has good technique in hitting the ball. We had a recent game against Colorado where one of our players had two absolute great chances to head the ball. The technique wasn’t there. The ball was delivered but the technique wasn’t there and we missed two opportunities to score, so it’s technical. The physical part is a combination of size. The bigger and stronger you are, you’re going to outmuscle someone who isn’t as big as you. All you have to do is look at basketball rebounding. I think the third thing is mental, an attitude that I’m not going to be denied and that I’m a warrior who will fight for every ball. If you look at the ones we have given up, we have been giving up some pretty soft ones where people weren’t marked, people were running through and out jumping us or out muscling us. That comes down to attitude.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: All three.

It looked like there was some good chemistry with Oduro back on the field against Club American?

“I think it [the chemistry between Kenny and Dom] is better than Jeff and Kenny in the beginning. Jeff is a player that we brought in to score goals and he’s scoring goals. Kenny has dropped off on his goals but I don’t think we can blame Jeff for that. Maybe we should say that Kenny has got to score goals. It’s not like Dom has assisted Kenny on a lot of goals. For me, the bigger issue is that we’ve got to get Kenny back on track. If we can keep Jeff on track, then I think we’ve got two players who can score goals. I will say to you that I thought Dom did a good job against Club America. His speed and their lack of preparation to play us was something they could not handle. I think they made some adjustments at halftime but basically, they couldn’t handle his speed. They key word I keep using with Dominic when I talk to him is just consistency.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Cunningham isn’t the problem.

Training

Warmup and some sprints, then straight into a 30 yard long, field width wide game with 3 mini-goals behind each team.  Drill was to emphasize team shape.  Team shape is a theme today as Schellas is tweaking his formation slightly based on the inability to find anyone who can play wide.  Schellas talked about it with the media above.

Green: Rhine Daniels Dello-Russo Wileman Wallace Watson Rowland Avila Oduro Wadsworth
Gray: Cooper Cunningham Saragosa Rocha McCarty Guarda Wagner Pitchkolan Ricchetti Moor
Red (Neutral): E. Hyndman

Second drill was a full field game with two variations on each side.  Some interesting spots were Dello-Russo at d-mid (showing even more versatility), Wadsworth at center back (just making up numbers with Shea hurt), Ricchetti at center back all day, Avila trying some left mid, Wallace left back, McCarty playing both sides wide, Rocha playing some central with Saragosa, and a Cunningham/Oduro pairing.

Last drill was a game of two halves, where it’s 7v7 in either end, when the defense wins they have to transition to the other end, if offense scores they turn and transition back to the other end.  “Make it-take it” in a way with three tams.

Schellas finished up with the dreaded “tunnel of love.”

Lineup Prediction

Serioux in for the suspended Moor at right back, Ricchetti stays in defense, no Davino.  Looks like Dax gets the left mid spot again and Rocha is in from the cold.

Thought of the Day

So the interesting question for me becomes, what happens with Moor comes off the one game suspension?  Ricchetti has been playing very well in the back after all, and Moor is a solid right back.

Do we see Ricchetti remain at center back with Moor right and Serioux left?

Or does Ricchetti return to midfield with Moor back in the middle and Serioux right?

Or perhaps my favorite, the highly unlikely Serioux as d-mid leaving Ricchetti in the back and Moor on the right?

I predict Ricchetti will move back to midfield with Moor in the middle and Serioux right.  Schellas has already said they really miss Ricchetti in midfield.  He’s also said Moor is a better center back than right back, with which I agree, and we know Schellas really likes Serioux on the right.  Plus he’s dubbed Wagner “good enough” on the left.

Categories: News.

19 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment