July 1st, 2009 . 2:44 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

If I paid you to think, you could cash your check at the penny arcade. – George Jefferson

It’s perhaps not quite as hot today as last week, but there isn’t a cloud in the sky.  The normal blue of the Texas sky is a bright blinding almost-white.  It feels damn hot since there is no breeze or shade.

Hyndman has moved training up a half hour this week.  Every coach who has ever been here has done that during the summer.  Today’s session is a bit shorter than normal as well.

Another sign it’s a bad season, only two media today… on the Wednesday before the July 4th game, when FCD should have their best draw of the year… Myself and Denise from La Estrella.

News, Notes and Observations

- Dario Sala and George John are back in full training, but I doubt either will start this weekend.

- Steve Purdy and Daniel Torres do a bunch of ball training on the side, I would imagine both will train next week.  Or maybe even later this week.

- Marcelo Saragosa runs/jogs on the sideline, which also means a possible return to training next week.

- Alvaro “Tom” Sachez works on the side with a trainer, but doesn’t do extensive running.  So maybe two weeks on him.

- Bruno Guarda, who re-joined training last week, looks up to speed.  In fact he had the best performance on his team during the training session.

- The fireworks for this weekend are being set up on the parking lot next to the training field.

- Jeff Cunningham is on fire today.  He’s sharp, decisive, dangerous, and scores a bunch of goals.  Best he’s looked since coming to Dallas.

- David Ferreira also looks sharp today, playing some nice possession in tight space and making some good passes to spring Cunningham.

- I had a thought today why Kyle Davies seems to be a Hyndman kind of guy.  The strong positional sense aside, it mostly has to do with the the good decision making.  Or rather the lack of poor decision making.  He just never seems to make the pass to the wrong team and the blunder on the ball like other defenders do.

- No Cooper or Marosevic.  Cooper is with the Gold Cup squad and Peri Marosevic is with the U20s.  Or on the way to and from as the case may be.

- Trialist Adam Hinshelwood, a 25-year-old English trialist. He has been with Brighton (England’s League One) since 2000 and can play center back and right back.  Obviously the heat has to be killing him. Instant Scouting Report (Just Add Water): Under 6-feet but built.  Looks very strong.  Seems to have solid defensive skills.  Does look to pass forward with good vision, but when out of options tends to just lump it up the field.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Ok player, but I don’t see an upgrade on what FCD has now.

- Hyndman says a couple college kids are coming in next week.  A bit late IMO.

Catching Up with Schellas Hyndman

Do you have a philosophy on returning injured players, do they get their spot back or do they have to win it back?

You know what, I always kind of went with the idea that the best player played.  I’m a little hesitant with this one, because I know we’ve had injuries that have gone on for 4 to 6 weeks.  The team is playing better, yet we have some issues we want to continue to deal with.

I’ll make that decision probably tomorrow.  Whether we put in someone coming off an injury, or continue to go with our lineup.  I have a  funny feeling we’ll continue to go with our lineups cause I think we’ve changed our defense so many times that it’s really affected the coordination between players.  If we have payers on the verge of coming back, we’ll wait another week on them.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: When those guys played we sucked, I’m sticking with this starting 11.

Do you think Cunningham sees Cooper’s absence as a opportunity or a call to step up?

I think it’s both.  I think it’s an opportunity, he’s wise enough to see Kenny has started 40 plus games in a row.  It’s been hard, we went form two strikers to one striker, he’s been playing out wide, getting subbed around halftime, or coming in as a sub.  So he really sees a great opportunity for himself.  To get himself back into the mix of being a starter.

And the other thing is he’s a smart enough guy to know these opportunities won’t last long.  He’s got to come in with a great attitude, a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement, and just get things done.  Just to be out on the field is not what we need from him.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: He damn well better see it as an opportunity or we’re hosed.

You were given assurances this spring that you would have Cooper all year, are you still confident that is the case?

That’s my mind set.  But at the same time if someone comes in and offers money like they offered for Kaka… [general laughter]  We may not hold the owners to that.  It would be a tough conversation…  I’m joking around of course.

The thing is we’re counting on Kenny being here.   He wants to be here.  But I also know in this sport anything can happen on any day.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Madrid called after they couldn’t get Ribery.

Training

After the warm up and basic drills, training consists almost entirely of a 9v7 then 9v8 drill.  The point is to see how FCD gets forward with an extra player.  Learning how to break teams down and use the extra attacker to advantage.

Red is stomping the crap out of blue, although given the lopsided numbers that’s not shocking.  It’s actually the point of the exercise.  If Red weren’t stomping them I would be worried.

Red: Cunningham, Rocha, Ferreira, vdBergh, McCarty, Shea, Davies, Ricchetti, Moor.
Blue: Wagner, Guarda, Dello-Russo, Avila, Wallace, John, Hinshelwood.

The interesting part is that it appears vdBergh may move to the right with Brek Shea starting on the left.  Cunningham is playing the lone striker role.

Late in the drill Brek Shea moves up top on the red team with Avila going to right mid and vdBergh back to the left.  John and Wallace move to defense for red in a swap for Davies and Moor.

Lineup Prediction

So Hyndman says the lineup will mostly continue the same, even with people getting healthy.  Cunningham high, vdBergh right, Shea left I think from what we are seeing.  Most everything else the same, and that includes Davies and Burse.  John/Davies might be the biggest call to be made, but soon Sala/Burse will be in competition.

Thought of the Day

It still amazes me that FCD hasn’t been able to find any practice players… or really it amazes me the current staff doesn’t seem to want to find any practice players.  It’s been almost a month and a half since FCD could go 11v11 in training.

Former coaching staves here have found local players like Mario Torres, college guys like Alex Smith or Omar Gonzalez, guys from Trinity like Josh Greenleaf, former draft picks like Peter Louis, or siblings of players like Dustin McCarty (Dax’s brother).  Some guys spent months or even seasons training with FCD.  They knew their role but took advantage of the chance to train with pros every day.

No, 11v11 in training is not the same as a reserve game, or scrimmage with a college/PDL team. But it does have it’s place.  The last 5+ weeks FCD could only do 8v8.  That’s simply unacceptable.

With the loss of the reserve league it has become particularly important to figure out how to have some players with potential training with you day to day.  There is no PDL or college age team in the FCD system.  Surely there are some players who could be benefiting from some training time with FCD.

Categories: Practice Observations.

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