March 9th, 2009 . 1:39 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

FC Dallas held their annual season kick off lunch party today at the Westin Stonebriar up in Frisco. There wasn’t a lot of earthshaking news but there are a few points worth mentioning.  I sat at a table with some other media and Dax McCarty.  He seems in good spirits, playing well will do that I guess.

- Clark Hunt spoke about the health of the league and how good things are going.

- Bobby Rhine is going the FCD TV broadcasts in some capacity.  Dave Dir and Brad Sham are still involved as well.

- There was a Q&A with Sham and Rhine asking questions of Ricchetti, Cooper, van den Bergh, and Hyndman.  Not surprisingly Ricchetti wasn’t asked about his contract.

- The Frisco Miracle League gave an award to the FCD Foundation for Ricchetti’s jersey exchange raffle and the LA Galaxy Charity game which benefited them.

- From talking to various people I get the feeling FCD is going to try and sign Alvaro Sanchez (a 24 year old Costan Rican attacking midfielder).  I thought he was interesting in the CAP game that was online.  An insider (not McCarty since one might think it was him given he sat at my table) told me Sanchez was even better in the third game and called his left free kick goal impressive.  Sanchez apparently goes by the nickname “Tom,”  It’s some kind of Japanese cartoon character who plays soccer from a show that airs in Costa Rica.  Allegedly he looks like the character.

Catching up with Schellas Hyndman

Afterward I got a chance to talk to Coach Schelas Hyndman for about 5 minutes.  He had a 2 pm meeting with ownership to talk about perhaps trying to sign Sanchez.  Since I didn’t have my recorder, I took a couple quick notes from what Hyndman said.

- Steve Purdy is fine.  He can play.

- The defense for the opener is almost certainly going to be Wagner, Torres, Purdy, Moor because of Saragosa’s injury.  Once everyone is healthy, Wagner is going to have his hands very full keeping Torres out of that left back spot.

- Offense is in great shape, but the defense is a concern, although not as much as the score line indicates.  Problems are still coming on set pieces, which they can fix, and when trialists and backups come in.  Which means depth is a bit of a problem right now, although injuries are a factor there.

- The quick opposition goal after a FCD goal is a much more troubling problem.  It’s mostly mental.  Hyndman talked about some specific ways to combat that, one of which is a period of intensity and high pressure attack to get their own 2nd goal immediately after scoring.  Force the opposition to sit back as it were instead of sitting back yourself.  

- With Ricchetti suspended and Pitchkolan suspended for the opener, and Saragosa injured, there is a gapping hole at holding midfield.  McCarty got a couple looks there and is under consideration.  Bruno Guarda may also get a look.  That spot will be decided this week in training.

- I asked about the idea of carrying a 5th striker on the roster since Marosevic isn’t really MLS ready, and Hyndman isn’t to concerned with forward cause Rocha and Ferreira can play there.  He also mentioned that Sanchez, if FCD does indeed try and sign him, can do the same. 

- Hyndman also mentioned in that same answer that Brek Shea has been starting at forward for the U20s alongside Peri Marsoveic.

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