Practice Observations: Missing Balls
May 13th, 2009 . 4:41 pm . By: Buzz CarrickWednesday, May 13, 2009, 10:00 AM, adidas Training Field
Not a bad day to be out, temp is in the mid 80s during training but there is a nice breeze and plenty of clouds so it’s not yet intolerable. News, Notes and Observations- For most of the session I was starting to think Hyndman was considering going 3-5-2 this weekend, as the first team ran that shape against a 4-4-2 from the second team. SH says that they were just working on it for late game situations when they might need a goal. Situational training is fairly common under every coach that has been here. - Pablo Ricchetti rehabs outside fairly aggressively today. If he come through clean he will probably play this weekend. - “Tom” Sanchez looked dangerous today on the outside, beating a couple players. But he also had a couple bad passes for turnovers. Still kinda hit and miss. - FCD has schedule a scrimmage for the 2nd team against DFW Tornados this coming Monday at 10 AM on the adidas training field. - Hyndman confirmed that on Monday there was a 6 hour meeting with Clark & Dan Hunt, John Wagner, and Schellas. I assume Michael Hitchcock and Bobby Hammond were also involved although I didn’t ask specifically about them. It was NOT a come to Jesus meeting but rather something HSG does every so often. At least they have with Hyndman he says. Apparently the meeting covers the entire organization in soccer terms: first team, academy, etc. - Break Shea got about 80% of the PT at striker today paired with Cooper. SH says they are looking to use his height on crosses and his work and intensity as a high kind of in the box striker. - Hyndman, despite the day off, offered for the strikers to come up and work on finishing. It seems as if they all took him up on it. - Last player out today: Kenny Cooper, Brek Shea, and Peri Marosevic. IT’s virtually always Cooper and Shea. It’s one reason I think She will eventually be terrific. The dedication and focus to do the extra work. Catching Up with Schellas HyndmanPossession was a problem against Houston, was it more Ricchetti missing or Houston play?
Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: I’m going to say Houston, but really the answer is Ricchetti. John Harkes was quite critical of Ferreira, how do you think he’s doing in that #10 spot?
Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Harkes needs to shut his yap before I use him as a target in my next kick to the balls demo. Do you have plans for the next transfer window?
Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Striker and Center back, the same targets as last window. TrainingAfter the warmup Hyndman took the team straight into a full field game situation. First team in the 3-5-2 I mentioned, the second team was 4-4-2. The entire day was this kind of sessions with various rotations. Here’s the first team…
and the 2nd team…
After 15 minutes of that a second version was used. Call it 2.0 if you will. Brek Shea swapped teams with Cunningham, Purdy swapped with Torres but played right back and moved Moor to left back. Rocha and McCarty swapped in the first team, leaving McCarty wide right. After 15 to 20 more minutes we saw version 3.0 which was basically just McCarty swapping with Avila on the team. After a further 15 to 20 version four had even more changes with Sanchez taking left mid, vd Bergh moving into the central spot next Rocha and Davies taking a spot in the back line for Moor. First team at the end looked like this.
Which is not very likely to see in a game soon. Training ended with three rotations (2 runs a piece) through the dreaded Tunnel of Love. There wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for this drill frankly. Lineup PredictionAfter talking with SH it’s still going to be a diamond four. For various reasons I think this might be the game Wallace gets a start over Wagner. I’m predicting Ricchetti is back which moves Saragosa to the rear line. The tough question is whether Drew Moor reclaims the center back spot next to John or if it’s Purdy or Torres. I’ll go with Moor for now, despite his two mistakes against DC. The back line with Purdy wasn’t horrible against Houston, so it won’t shock me if it’s Purdy with Moor on the bench. The fun question is Brek Shea. Did he do enough in his extended run today to get a start up top? I’m not going to bet on it, but keep an eye out for that.
Thought of the DayHyndman had a stat he wanted to share with the media today. Within their 1-6-1 record this year, at halftime, FCD was 3-1-4… but they have given up 8 goals between the 50th minute and 68th minute. (He’s not attempting to show they have been good in the first, but rather to show where the primary problem seems to be in the 2nd). Hyndman says his first instinct was it being a fitness problem, but playing well a man down to Chivas for 60 minutes seems to point to that not being it. It could be concentration, which is certainly part of it, but SH also think it’s physical and mental toughness. He thinks the team is missing some bite. Saragosa won the ball 23 times in midfield, which is a good number of times, so the problem wasn’t in winning the ball. The problem seemed to be how many times FCD gives the ball back. I think Hyndman is right about that. Houston is very hard to play against, they have shut out 4 straight teams now. But there were to many FCD balls that just ended up right back in the hands of the Dynamo. And that hasn’t just been a problem against Houston, but against every team FCD has faced. This team needs to learn to value the ball more. Soccer is easy when you have the ball, cause the ball does the running for you. It’s when you have to play defense you get worn out. 25 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Buzz,
These practice observations are the primary reason why I consistently visit the site – good shit. I’m ready to see Wally and Brek with the first team in the near future – we can’t do much worse.
Wow, first time I ever heard anyone critical of Drew Moor in Dallas but here’s SH saying John has no one to play with in the middle and Buzz saying he could be benched. FCD has THE worst defense in the league but Drew is our best defender by a mile although that may not be saying much. I think he’s droped off BB radar as well. At least he earned a good contract before this happen.
He may be our best defender on paper….but he sure hasn’t been playing like it. I thought it was really interesting to see Saragosa wearing the armband on Saturday instead of Moor. (Obviously because Pablo was out.)
As far as performance goes…I think the best defender FCD has is John John.
And yeah, Buzz…keep the practice observations coming. Good stuff.
Hmmmm…bad coming out after halftime? Is that not when the coaching staff implements some changes?
OK, so Brek Shea looks great, but he hasn’t even made the bench for six weeks.
I’m personally ready to see what Brek Shea can do as a starter….perfect time for him to step in and generate some excitement. It looked to me like the team had a “don’t care” attitude vs. Houston, so some new blood might help.
They have needed that 3-5-2 every week. Better late than never I suppose
I’m reali excited with this lineup prediction (with Shea up), but I would like to see the lineup , but with Richetti in for Rocha out, and Moor for Purdy.
To me, it seems like our best offensive player just isn’t getting enough touches on the ball. I’d wonder what the play would be like with this lineup:
Ferreira and Cunningham up top (Shea subs in for Cunningham)
Cooper plays offensive mid (seems like we get killed by our lack of height and touhness in the offensive mid area. This would also get Cooper more touches)
VDB on left, Dax defensive mid, Avilla on right
Put Richetti in central defense along with Moor. We have got to get some leadership and experience back there!! Saragosa and I guess Wagner out wide.
Saragosa in the game = loss
So we need possession yet we don’t play our best possession-oriented player in McCarty? Rocha is consistently worthless yet we keep playing him
The personnel begs for a 3-5-2; the personnel also begs for a coach that actually knows what he’s doing
man that 3-5-2 formation looks alot like what we really need to be playing. Saragosa has less ground to cover by being partnered with another defensive minded player in the middle. he still shouldnt be on the field, but if thats the case, then stick him somewhere where he can be covered, rather than on the right so players like Huckerby, Lewis, Pappa/Mapp, Rogers, etc can run passed him. of course, Richetti is in there if fit.
McCarty can be a 2-way mid like he wants and make those penetrating passes.
of course, if this formation actually worked, Steve Morrow would still be the HC here and we wouldnt have SH trying to fit a diamond peg into a pentagonal formation.
I’m not sure that 3-5-2 is a viable formation for FCD’s personnel. I don’t think SH has the wingers that can effectively get it done going both ways for that formation.
You might have someone good at getting forward (Avila) but stinks covering and getting back. You might have someone that can get back, but be ineffective going forward (Wallace)…
If you think FCD gives up goals now, imagine how bad it would be with one less defender! They can keep attacks from width from developing with four defenders as it is.
3-5-2 for this set of players is NOT an option.
I agree with you (and I guess Hyndman) on the give aways. Its been a problem for this team for years now.
I respectfully disagree, we don’t even have 4 real defenders (Saragose as right back? Dello-Russo isn’t much better), adding a 4th brings majorly diminshing/negative returns. Our outside backs constantly lump balls forward and get beat 1 v1, I don’t see them adding any value. Most teams charge straight through the middle. We have way more quality midfielders than we do quality defenders, so why are we wasting them?
Add that 4th defender in as a forward or midfielder and at least TRY to score some goals. Tuck 3 defenders a bit more centrally (Moor, John, ____… still not sure there is anyone to fill in the blank, which is a travesty considering how long the coach had to fill the void). I don’t see why you assume Rocha in a 4 man midfield will be any worse than in a 5 man midfield. Van den Bergh is now free to be a true winger, we have a real attacking mid, and Cooper has a player to play with up top. At least possession in the midfield with McCarty and Richetti and maybe a bit more strength up top will take some pressure off the defenders
Related to maintaining posession, it’s pretty clear that our defense has no composure. During the Houston game I got tired of screaming at my TV about mindless longballs to noone. Even when defenders had time they just booted it upfield. Greg Vanney, though relatively slow while he was here, was composed on the ball, and varied his play out of the back (i.e. sometimes to the midfield, sometimes forwards, sometimes down the line, sometimes diagonal, sometimes switching). That kind of play is essential; without it, you make things easy for the opposing team and very hard for you to score.
I find it funny that SH complains about John Harkes. I watched and listened to him, and all I could think was, “What if the great Eric Wynalda was still in the booth? He would be relentless and ruthless on most players on this team.” John Harkes too critical? Not even close. Eric would have said how it really was, which was beyond terrible.
BTW, saw an avertisement on an email that I get from AEG (Nokia Theater) that FCD tix are $5 again this week. So I guess there will be 4k in the stands again? If you need tix, get the cheap ones so you can spend your good money on booze. You will probably need it.
Buzz,
FCD’s problem starts in the back and comes forward (how is that for genius thinking). Drew Moor is our best defender. He likes to play center back. He is our best centerback, but that is not his best position. For years and when playing for various national teams, he has demonstrated what an asset he is at right back. Our problem is that a right back is our best center back.
If we can find an expereinced CB, then Moor can move outside. Between the new CB, Moor, John and probably Davies (at LB), we can begin to possess and build from the back. We can move the ball through the mid-field and create situations in which the midfield and outside backs set up the forwards in better scoring situations. The connection between each third is what will help FCD manage games. Currently there is too much disconnect between each and that helps lead to all of the give aways.
Sorry. I hit submit before I editted. I hope my comment makes sense.
Drew Moor at CB is death to any Nats opportunies. He’s perhaps 6-8 on the radar for RB but not in the top 20 at CB. I’m sure he would like to play RB plus I’m sure he likes to get into the attack and not always be the last defender who gets beat.
———Cooper–Shea———-
————-Ferreira————–
–VdB–McCarty–Rocha–Avila–
——Davies–John–Moore——
Ricchetti still injured
Cunny and Sanchez first subs
=
Win (at least on paper
)
[...] partner. Dallas is in such need of change that one time defender/midfielder Brek Shea practiced as the “other” forward today. Shea would provide significant height for vdB crosses and a solid second target. Brek is also part [...]
rearrranging the furniture on the titanic are we?
A Richetti/McCarty central midfield increases possession immediately. I think adding the third midfielder (CAM) is what we need to do in order to get the best players on the field…that’s the objective, right?
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