February 11th, 2009 . 4:39 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

Apparently he killed 23 men with his bare hands. – Doc

Not a bad day from training, although it’s a bit windy.  If not the brisk north wind that the mid 60s temp would be quite comfortable.  FCD has a scrimmage against Memphis this weekend, it will be interesting to see what kind of team FCD puts out there.

Today is the debut of the new ball machine.  It’s officially called a sidekick and fires ball with various level of spin and velocity. Today it primarily gets tested firing at keepers with a late try out on putting in crosses.

News, Notes and Observations

- Josh Lambo, Brek Shea, Anthony Wallace, and Peri Marosevic are all missing with the U20s.

- Michael Dello-Russo is back training with a Bill Laimbeer type face mask on.

- André Rocha is in town and involved in training for the first time.  From the amount of questions about him I would look for an article in the Dallas Morning News soon.

- Daniel Torres is here but he’s inside getting his physical done and then the typical fitness and mental tests.  He’s a natural lefty the coach says.

- Sean Bucknor is missing out on training with back spasms.  He’s inside getting treatment.

- MLS Pool keeper Bryant Ruekner is back in camp.  FCD will be hosting him this season.

- Adrian Chevannes and JP Rodrigues are gone.

- Down in Florida FCD will be playing 3 games.  February 17th vs Colorado Rapids, February 19th versus Florida International, and February 21st against BK Häcken out of Sweden.

- Marcelo Saragosa works exclusively as a right back today.

- Adrian Serioux makes his debut in drills (is it a coincidence with previous comment? I think not.) playing a left back but does lots of rehab on the side in the later half of training.

- Eric Avila works as the first team right mid.  Rocha is going to have to earn it.

- Young Hyndman III is back again participating in drills but mostly after Serioux goes back to rehabbing.

Catching Up with Schellas Hyndman

Good to have Rocha back?

Andre ran into some visa issues. In fact, he had a couple of issues in Brazil and when he arrived, there was potentially another issue. So we’re very glad first of all to have him back. We think he’s a very important player to the success of this team. He is behind and all credit to him, he’s been working out in Brazil, in Sao Paolo before he came. He came to me on Saturday and said that he was willing to do more training sessions to get caught up. I think that’s a great attitude.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  Heck yes, the kid’s a baller.

What do you want out of the Memphis game?

You know it’s tough. It’s tough to look for progression when you just played an MLS team and now you’re playing a college team. What we have concentrated on the last week was the principle of attacks, which is penetration. I thought we did a pretty good job of that against Houston in the second game. This week, we’re concentrating on a different principle, width. So the exercises are designed to get the ball out wide, to play combinations on the flanks, to get crosses and to get people forward. So we’ll continue that for the next few days. So what am I looking for in the Memphis game? I think all I’m looking for is continuing improvements in the area we’re working on.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  A win.

Will Rocha play on Saturday?

I think he’ll play in the game but right now, Andre is going to have to work a little bit to regain his fitness level. We haven’t measured it. And then, I think he has to work his way back into the team. I think Eric has worked so hard for us from day one. It’s not going to be an easy situation. It’s got to be one where you can’t be as good as Eric, you’ve got to be better because if not, Eric is going to get depressed, feel like he’s not getting a fair shake and we don’t want that. I think we’ve got time yet.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  He’ll play, but won’t start.  Avila is the starter.

Will Torres play Saturday?

I think all the players we’re counting on need to play. As a coach, I don’t think I want to be in a position saying that you’re late, so you’re not going to play. He was away with the Costa Rican national team and I don’t think we want to punish him for that like we didn’t punish Kenny. I don’t think Danny is ready to step in and be in the top 11. He’s going to have to go through training and put himself in a position maybe to beat somebody out. I think Danny can also compete as a left back. He’s naturally left footed, so we’ll be looking to see how he does there.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  Yes.  At left back.

Does Serioux getting back in change your view on him?

I’ve always been a fan of Adrian’s. I think sometimes you get bad luck with a run of injuries. But I’ll tell you what I think helped Adrian a lot was when Marcelo Saragosa goes out, plays right back and does a good job. That kind of helps the injuries recover a little bit quicker or you want to be on the field a little bit quicker because you don’t want too much time to expire where he’s done so well that here I am back and coach isn’t thinking about me because of conditioning level, run of injuries and not playing. I was very pleased with Marcelo and I think any coach will tell you, internal competition is the best thing for a team.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  No.  But he’s still hurt so we have to make other plans.

With cut downs likely before the Brazil trip, how crucial Florida is for many players

We’ve talked about it a couple of times. We as a staff have not sat down and made that decision, but I think reality is that decision is going to have to be made. You don’t want to be taking players with you to Brazil, putting your roster to 24 and then you have players there that didn’t make it. Two things-1) they’re not going to be happy and then you have to send them home and 2) it’s an expense. I think we probably will be finalizing our roster before we go to Brazil. Probably when we come back from Florida, the way I have it designed, we come back on the 22nd, which is a Sunday. I’m giving the players the 23rd and the 24th off so they can spend some time with their family before we take off again for another 8-10 days in Brazil. I think at that time, we will probably be making our decisions with our full roster.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator:  Those three games are the last chance for several players like Wileman, Watson, Pitchkolan, and Dello-Russo.

Training

First up, after warming up of course, is two half field drills.  This is the next step in the offensive build progression that started end of last week.  The one set of forwards and mids on each ends do simple builds ups.  The drill is about outside mids or over lapping backs getting in crosses as well as forward rotations.

Group 1: Cooper, Cunningham, van den Bergh, Ricchetti, Avila, Wagner, Dello-Russo, Saragosa, Sala
Group 2: Watson, Guarda (yes as a striker), McCarty, Pitchkolan, Rocha, Serioux, Moor, Purdy, Burse/Ruekner.

Second drill is a 40 yard mini game with two sets of all time forwards with keepers.  Mid and D groups do kind of a make it take it thing but every trip has a second ball in after the first miss or goal.  It’s replicates a second opportunity through a bad clearance and is mostly about the striker rotations.

Forwards 1: Cooper Cunningham
Forwards 2: Watson Guarda

Red: McCarty, van den Bergh, Avila
White: Ricchetti, Rocha, Hyndman
Orange: Moor, Purdy, Wagner
Blue: Dello-Russo, Pitchkolan, Saragosa

Last up is a larger 60 yard game with wide channels for crossers to play the ball in from.  This is not pure open play, the point is to build wide and get balls in.

Red: Cunningham, Moor, Pitchkolan, Wagner, van den Bergh, Guarda, Hyndman, Rocha
Blue: Dello-Russo, Purdy, Ricchetti, Cooper, Saragosa, Avila, McCarty, Watson

Cunningham and Cooper do some extra finishing after everyone else is done for the day.

Thought of the Day 1

Full credit to both Dax McCarty and Schellas Hyndman for the apparent clean slate.  McCarty has been exemplary since he came back in both on and off the field and has out performed Guarda.  Based on what I’ve seen and heard McCarty has moved ahead of Guarda on the depth chart.  Both the player and coach have embraced it being a new year and started over. 

Yes, FCD still wants a #10 and all things can change down the line.  But for now it looks like all is well that ends well.

Thought of the Day 2

If Marcelo Saragosa is getting the shot at right back, and Daniel Torres might now get a shot at left back, could Adrian Serioux be surplus to requirements around here?  Sure seems possible.  If not Serioux, then might also might not Wagner and or Wallace be extra?  We’ve heard two names of players not named Wagner and Wallace as maybe playing left back in the last week. What about Pitchkolan or Dello-Russo both of whom now seem third choice or worse? 

All of them are capable players on some level yet me be extra here.  Is there some value for any of them in MLS?  Might we see a trade or two before the team leaves for Brazil?

Sure seems possible.

Categories: Practice Observations.

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