August 13th, 2009 . 2:13 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

I never saw a wild thing, sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough, without ever having felt sorry for itself. - “Self Pity” by D.H. Lawrence

What a beautiful morning, I was so jazzed to take my jeep to training until the weather report said thunderstorms at noon in Frisco.  Which I don’t think happened, although I don’t live in Frisco so I can’t be sure.  Training was on field 7 as the adidas training field looks shut down for the week.

It’s USA vs Mexico today, that and some person business pushed this report a day later.  Sorry about that, these things happens while this isn’t a job.

News, Notes and Observations

- Hyndman says FCD thought they had a player all lined up to sign but it fell through on Saturday due to some last second problem.

- Guest Player: Daniel Hernandez ex-SMU.  Hyndman says Hernandez is here to get in shape as he has some opportunities in Mexico,  SH also says “anything can happen” so you never know and Hernandez might also be plan C… or is it D or F…. for this rapidly closing window (or after the window, see below).  FCD does have an open spot.  He’s clearly not in game shape.

- Trailist: Brian Shriver. I don’t think he’s done enough outright to win a spot, but there is an open position.  If FCD finds no one else you might see him added just to fill the roster.  It’s very hard to make a team mid season out of college.  I hope he comes back in the spring if he’s not in now.

- Guest Players: Ruben Luna, Bryan Leyva, and Victor Ulloa all from the FCD Juniors U16 team.  All three are not to out of place in training.  You can tell they aren’t MLS ready, but you can also see the potential.  That’ really exciting.  It’s interesting watching FCD players around them, from the talking and play it’s clear they treat these guys no different than any other trialist or guest player. There is a demand for improvement and stepping up.  Wonderful to watch.  Luna has nice feet, but is just a bit off the mental speed yet.  Luna reminds me so much of Carlos Ruiz, including needing to drop some body fat if/when he becomes a pro.  Ulloa looks more of a defensive mid/defender but can read the game well.

- Alvaro Sanchez rehabs on the side.  Hyndman had something to say about him you’ll see below.  You should have seen Hyndman’s expression when talking about Sanchez.  Pissed, angry, annoyed, and frustrated only begin to describe it.

- Both Ray Burse and Drew Moor were particularly vocal today.  More so than I am used to seeing anyway.  Burse might be frustration, but I wonder if someone has finally convinced Moor he needs to be a dominate personality on this team defensively.  Particularly this week with Ricchetti suspended.

- In case you missed it… Pablo Ricchetti is suspended for the next game because of yellow card accumulation.  Hyndman says they have a list of yellow card suspension warnings posted in the locker room and that the warnings had discussed with all the players who were in danger. It would have happened eventually, but to get one for dissent is maddening.

- Kyle Davies is back in training and is clearly playing hurt.  Gutsy kid with heart there. If he makes it though the week I expect him to start despite being in pain.

- No sign of George John today, he’s probably inside.  I know he was out working on the sideline earlier this week.

- In mid September it’s almost a certainty that FCD will lose five players to the U20 World Championships.  Brek Shea, Josh Lambo, Anthony Wallace, Kyle Davies, and Peri Marosevic.  Two of the five are currently starters.

- The keepers were taking turns rotating out to go work with the keeper coach Drew Keeshan on the next field over.  Field 6 that is.

- Hyndman says Cunningham, McCarty, and van den Bergh are allowed to take PKs. SH also says that Cunningham missing 2 of 3 is a concern and that Hyndman will be making the decision on who’s taking PKs going forward.

- Just a reminder about transfers.  When the window closes FCD can still sign a player up until till the Roster freeze date of September 15th (strangely the same time FCD will lose the five U20s).  Any player currently out of contract can still be signed as a free agent as long as they were free agents during the last window.  The transfer window only is for players under contract that need a paid transfer.  Obviously cap room, allocation money, and discovery filings still factor in.

Catching Up with Schellas Hyndman

Now that you have a left back and right mid, what’s your biggest need?

I think we need a striker.  We lost a good striker, so I think we need a striker.  So a lot of our energy has gone into trying to identify a striker.  It’s just  very, very difficult because of the pressures on the players, the contracts that they are wanting, you know.  And we’re trying to get a player in here for a shorter term so we can evaluate them.

There’s a lot of things that some into the mix, but I think for us a striker would be something good because you know, because I think September 14th we lose five players and that’s going to take the roster down.  What happens if Jeff [Cunningham] gets injured or carded, or whatever it might be?  Or he just gets into a bad funk?  So I think that should be our concern and we’ve been working on it is all I can say.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: We lost one of the top strikers in MLS, what do you think our biggest need is?

If you don’t get a returning player before the window closes do you think there will be a chance to use the #1 allocation after the window?

It’s an unfortunate situation that the players aren’t coming back that we need.  I mean Szetela would have been a nice addition to the team but we knew we were getting Atiba Harris so why make that move and then not get Atiba Harris.  And then we would have had to let somebody go cause we already had 24 guys on the roster.

So for us if the right person comes back then of course we’d use it.  But right now it’s do we need another goalie, do we need another left back.  If those are the things that are popping up then unfortunately we won’t be able to use it.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Not likely.

(Ed side note: The left back is surely Heath Pearce, but who the heck is the American Keeper looking to come back? Marcus Hahnemann? Adin Brown?)

Has Alvaro Sanchez been out so long that it will be like getting a new player when he returns?

It’s a funny thing about injuries, the longer you’re out people think you lose fitness, you lose aerobic training.  But what you lose first is muscular strength.  Muscular strength is the first thing you lose and it takes about two weeks to lose that.  When you lose muscular strength, then it starts to effect the work ethic.  It starts to effect the lungs.  It effects everything else cause now you’re working harder to do the same type of work you were doing before.

It takes two weeks to start losing it and we’re already in week nine.  So even if he comes back there’s a recovery.  There’s a strength recover.  And there’s a technical confidence recovery.

So… you can imagine the words that are in my mind… that I can’t share with you… so…  ah…  I’ve excepted the fact that we’ve moved forward.  It’s things that can’t change I can’t change.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: He’s dead to me.

What’s wrong with him?

You know we’ve done everything we can.  We’ve done ankle recovery, x-rays, MRIs, we’ve done anti-inflammatories.  We’ve done everything we possibly can.  Part of it is there some infection in his ankle that is causing a problem, so we give him the anti-inflammatory, that showed up on the MRI.

But maybe part of it to is pain tolerance.  Maybe part of it is, “I don’t want to go out there 70%.  I’ll be evaluated at 70%.”   So I don’t know.  It’s been very frustrating for FC Dallas and I’m sure it’s been very frustrating for him.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Nada Huevos.

Training

Warm up, then the big X passing drill Hyndman loves.  There are enough players these days that a small group is on the side playing 5v1 at the same time.  After that it’s a large 40×40 shooting gallery.

White: Wallace, Davies, Purdy, Guarda, Cunningham, Ferreira, Ulloa, Marosevic
Blue: Hernandez, Torres, Shea, McCarty, Ricchetti, Shriver, vdBergh, Leyva
Green: Harris, Benitez, Avila, Wagner, Ferruzzi, Moor, Rocha, Luna

Next was a full field game.

Blue: Cunningham, Ferreira, Shea, vdBergh, McCarty, Harris, Benitez, Davies, Moor, Torres, Lambo
Red: Marosevic, Avila, Wagner, Rocha, Guarda, Shriver, Ulloa, Ricchetti, Hernandez, Purdy, Burse.

Luna and Leyva were sitting out but rotated in shortly.  Lots of swapping today.

Last out to do some finishing with Ferruzzi were Rocha, Purdy, Luna, Cunningham and Marosevic.  Shea was crossing for them.

Lineup Prediction

Looks like Hyndman got as sick of Rocha’s half effort as anyone cause the van den Bergh central thing is continuing.

Moor moves into the middle for Ricchetti and Torres takes the right side.  Normally I would complain about the change two things to replace one guy bit, but after the Torres game against RSL in the middle I’m not going to do it.

Thought of the Day

I think part of Hyndman’s immense frustration over Sanchez’s injury, or more specifically his length of recovery, is that they went 4-1-4-1 because of Sanchez being such a complimentary player to Ferreira.  Hyndman has even mentioned it a time or two.

Both Ferreira and Sanchez play deep (as a striker) and make ideal attacking mids to jump forward out of the 5 man midfield.  It was the interplay of the two and the timing of the swapping runs that was so effect.  None of the replacements for Sanchez play like that; not Avila, not van den Bergh, and certainly not Rocha.  It’s to late now to go back to a 4-4-2 for the rest of the season, particularly cause of the recent success in this current shape.

But I think Hyndman feels, and I agree, that with Sanchez in there, or a comparable player, they team would play be even better.

Combine that with the Hyndman distaste for guys that won’t play through pain and you get a boat load of disgust on the gaffers part.

Thought of the Day 2

I would have taken Szetela and still done the Harris/Saragosa trade.

For me Szetela isn’t a wide guy but rather a central player linking type player.  I’d have liked to have seen him used in this team in the middle with Dax and Ferreira, that is after all where he played in the U20s with Bradley and Adu.

Maybe Szetela could have been the missing Sanchez piece Hyndman has lamented not having.

Categories: Practice Observations.

12 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment