September 16th, 2008 . 3:00 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

“Where’s the beef?!?” – Clara Peller

Ok so I cheated and used the line I thought of for the last report, based on the team being on the Wendy’s field.  Which is appropriate give how many strikers were missing today.

What amazing weather, so nice I took my CJ7 out to training.  Nice ride, except for the part where the Tollway was a parking lot.

News, Notes, & Observations

- Kenny Cooper was outside rehabbing, and unlike anyone else, he stayed out and watched training after he was done.  No one does that.  Schellas expects him to train tomorrow and play this weekend.

- Jeff Cunningham is in Toronto on personal business.  He might not be back in time for the next game, but “being a good pro” Schellas says Jeff will be back if he can.

- Guest Player One: Zac Pope, ex-Duke wide player with some pace.  Drafted by Chicago.  He’s in as a temp reserve player and was with Jamie Watson on the Austin Aztex PDL team.

- Guest Player Two: John Burklo: Also in for the reserve game.  Just finished the year with Wilmington Hammerheads. Defender.

- Duilio Davino came outside and rehabbed for about 30 minutes, mainly jogging.  I’m not holding my breath.

- Victor Sikora has upped his rehab work to cutting and running cones.  I think I even saw some ball work.  I predict next week he’ll enter full training, then take maybe 2 weeks to be ready to play.

- Jeff Rowland is wearing #32, for those that care about such things.

- Adrian Serioux asked for and was given Monday and Tuesday off to recharge and recover.  Schellas says Serioux is a great pro and knows his own body and mind so they trust him to know that he needed the time off.

- Schellas won’t be traveling with the reserves, but will instead stay in Dallas and work out the first team as he says it’s far more important right now.

- Marco Ferruzzi did some extra work with Pitchkolan after training on his touch and passing.  Good to see Pitch still working his tail off.

- I mentioned Brek Shea’s slight knee problem last week, which of course wasn’t.  Apparently he even trained the day after I mentioned he was rehabbing it inside.  After he still felt some pain they went ahead with the MRI and found the meniscus problem.

- Drew Moor tells me his new four year deal is really 3 and a half, cause it’s retroactive for part of (half?) this season.  So he has three more years now after this one, guaranteed he says.

- Emerson Hyndman was here and dressed out again.  He did some basic warm up stuff and passing but wasn’t involved with any of the real team drills.

Catching up with Schellas Hyndman

Coach seems to have been feeling chatty today.  Don’t let it slip your mind that the coach speak translations are a bit.

Can you go into more depth, or be more specific, about why Guarda plays over others?  Is it defense, trust, experience in your system?

“I think it’s all those things but if you want to break down one of those things, it’s playing on both sides of the ball. He’s an instant defender. Whether he loses possession of the ball, he’s going to immediately try to get it back; or if a teammate loses the ball, he’s going to immediately try to get into the space and try to help defend. You also have to understand there is a synchronicity with that mentality and the player playing behind him. So, Saragosa and Pablo [Ricchetti] will both say to you that they like Bruno playing there. Just like Drew would say to you that he likes Pablo there. It’s a little bit of he helps the other players play a little bit better.

So, as far as is he a better technical player than Eric? I can’t say he is. As far as being a more experienced player than Dax, I can’t say he is. Eric and Dax both had the same opportunity to play that position and to do the things I want them to do, which is not natural [for them].

I will say that Eric is making improvements. When you look at a coaching mentality, isn’t that what you want your players to do, improve? So, if Eric’s a one-way player and everyone says that he does a lot for us one way but Pablo is dying over there saying to come back and help him. Now it’s much easier for Eric to learn how to play defense than it is to learn how to attack. It’s more mental.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: You’re my boy blue!

So why the emphasis on the counterattack today?

“I think it’s a great weapon, the counterattack. I’ve been with the team two months and a little bit more but we haven’t been able to touch it. Reflect back to the DC United game. It was like a counterattack, quick balls to our strikers who went one-on-one. If we were on, we could’ve scored four goals. Instead, we scored one great goal with Kenny, a counterattack where he gets a ball and beats a guy. Then, Eric comes out on the flank, serves it across and we’ve got Andre who’s on the other flank coming in scoring. Those are quick counters.

If you look back at DC United’s game, they possessed the ball better but they didn’t beat us in the midfield. They beat us on the flanks. One of the reasons they didn’t beat us in the midfield was because Bruno and Saragosa owned the midfield because of their hard work, energy and working. Now what we’ve got to do is be a little bit better defending as a group. We’re getting there. It’s taken me four to four and a half weeks to get Andre to buy into it and I thought he had a good game.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Cause we suck at it.

So how does the counter attack fit in with the system you’re trying to run?

“It’s more of a style. We’re in a style, a system, the 4-4-2 and people know where they are. Now, what we’re trying to do is change our transition play. We just won the ball. Do we build up again? Do we go backwards? Do we let them get 11 players back or do we strike? The thing with the counterattack is that it’s a heck of a weapon. Some of the best teams in the world, that’s their strike force. You need speed to do it and players who mentally want to get into the attack. That’s what those exercises are for.

It’s interesting. We’ve been giving up goals on corner and free kicks, more than anybody in the league. We worked a little bit on it the other day and all we did was brought one more man back. We went from 10 in the box with one player out to bringing that player and putting him in the zone. So, now we have three people playing the zone and everyone else doing man-to-man marking. We gave up 13 corner kicks against DC United and didn’t get scored on. We gave up two corner kicks against Columbus and got scored on. I think part of it is learning who you can count on and can’t count on. If it’s a weakness, get more people there.

I think the counterattack is a heck of a weapon and something we need to put into out strike force. We’ve got a reserve game tomorrow and because of the importance of training tomorrow with the first team, I’m staying back. Thursday, we’re going to start up right where we left off with the counterattack. We’re going to work on it and it’s going to be a general part of our attacking.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: We’ve been trying to get forward faster since I got here.

Can you still make the playoffs?

“We’ve missed some great opportunities to establish ourselves in a safe position like the Columbus game here, the Columbus game there and the Kansas City game there. You look at those games and the Colorado game, where we had a couple of players who didn’t get the chance to play because of off-the-field issues and that affected us, giving up a goal on a corner kick again. At DC United, we’re happy to walk away with a 2-2 tie and a point. Again, with any luck, we could have won the game. Any luck on their part and they could have killed us because they had more possession and more quality chances. So, you take away all those potential points and we are where we are.

We need to embrace these opportunities as we run down to the end as our opponents are. What I said to our players about it very simply is that we will continue to fight for the playoffs as long as there’s a mathematical chance. We’re going to continue to talk about it and continue to focus for it. But we also have to understand that we’re only in control of our own destiny and not the opposition does. We could win all these games, every one of our games. But if our opposition wins every one of their games, we’re not getting in. So, we can’t control what they’re going to do. We can only control what we’re going to do. We’d like to give ourselves a better chance.”

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: It’s not up to us.

Training

After warming up and some rotations though some passing drills, Schellas moved the team into a set of drills to emphasize the counter attack.  Specifically fast recognition after wining the ball and moving quickly in the offensive direction and “eliminating defenders” by moving past/behind them.

First set of drills started with a 4v4 in 10 yards space at midfield, when the defending team won they quickly played wide to an wing mid for a cross or back to a holding mid who then played wide for a cross. A lone forward worked against a defender and goalkeeper.  After some rotations two of the “mids” would crass in behind the striker with one chasing defender.  After some more rotations defenders were added outside on the wide mids, but support defenders were put in behind the wide mids.  All through out the drill the talk is about quickly jumping on the opposition an and getting the extra man in.  It was quite complicated with lots of variation so I won’t bother giving you any of the player sets.

Training finished up a full field, although the opposition is down a man and the first team is “countering” the whole time.  This drill made it look like Schellas was running out a 3-5-2 but it was just the overload counterattack.

Grey: Rowland, Oduro, McCarty, Guarda, Saragosa, Rocha, Wallace, Ricchetti, Daniels, Dello-Russo.
Red: Wadsworth, Rhine, Wileman, Avila, Watson, Wagner, Pitchkolan, Moor

One late set of mids included a Saragosa left, McCarty and Guarda central, with Avila right.

Lineup Prediction

I got a $1 that says Cooper plays, he’s just like that. Cunningham will be back I imagine, if not it’s Oduro.  Guarda is written in pen.  Ricchetti is looking fantastic in the back, so Saragosa is the d-mid. Rocha had maybe his best game all season.  Serioux should be ready, Moor will be back in the first team, Wagner improving, so Pitch sits I think.  The only question is left midfield where I’ll say Dax continues based on training today.

However, since it’s early in the week I have a thought… given how much trouble Schellas seems to be having finding a left mid…  How about Pitch stays on the field with Moor central and Serioux right.  That moves Pablo back to midfield, where Schellas loves and said they miss him, and let’s Saragosa play wide left.

That’s very possible I say.  In fact I predict this is what happens.

Thought of the Day

I been thinking about Cooper and his desire for a new contract.  FCD says they have made Cooper a good offer, although we don’t know of any specific numbers.  It’s believed that offer is in the neighborhood of Davino’s $400k, as high as it can be without being a DP.  Cooper’s gotten a $1 million offer, give or take, from Rosenberg.

Cooper likes it here in Dallas, I still think he’d love to stay despite aspirations of Europe.  He’s young after all and has a long career ahead.  But I just don’t think HSG will make Cooper a DP.  So what it will come down to may be, will Cooper give up roughly half a million dollars for the next two or three years just cause he likes it in Dallas?

What would you do?

Yeah, me too. 

Thanks for the time in Dallas Kenny, we’ve enjoyed it.  Good luck in Norway.

Categories: Practice Observations.

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