August 22nd, 2009 . 2:13 pm . By: Buzz Carrick

And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful wife! - David Byrne

What a glorious day for some soccer.  It’s about 70 in the morning when I left and it hits the low 90s by the end of training.  FCD has moved to the Dr Pink turf field right next to the adidas training field to prep for New York.  Red Bull Arena is coming along, so perhaps this is the last time at the Meadowlands for FCD.  Training got started a little late, so perhaps there was some video or chalk board work this AM.

SBI broke the Osorio Resigns story yesterday, it happened after training Friday so keep that in mind when reading this report and the comments from Hyndman.

News, Notes and Observations

- Daniel Hernandez is still around, he’s looking more fit.

- Brian Shriver appears to be gone, but I forgot to ask.  I hope he comes back next spring and plays in USL until then.

- George John is out on the side working with the trainer.  I’m hearing Sept 1st return to training for him, with a goal of playing when Davies leaves with the U20s.

- Marvin Chavez is not here yet, since he was signed in advance he won’t come till he gets his P1 visa and transfer.

- No sign of Tom” Sanchez.  Although he was out earlier this week we’re told.

- Bruno Guarda looked solid in the middle today, I’m seeing a step forward in his game.

- Marvin Chavez, when he gets here, will wear #17.  (That was in the press release, I just have this thing about numbers)

Catching Up with Schellas Hyndman

How does Marvin Chavez fit into the scheme here?

I think Chavez is, one, a player who can go into the striker position.  He’s played central striker as well, also a second striker, right or left midfield, and also attacking midfield.  I think he has all the positions of what we call our strike force.  For us I think he could be that player where we had Tom [Sanchez] as that second striker.

The thing with him is that he has a tremendous work ethic, so he works extremely hard on both sides of the ball.  He’s got extremely quick feet and is very fast.  I think he will something coming through there like a second striker.

And if you watch a little bit today, there was some interchanging between Cunningham and Atiba….

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: Like Michael Vick, but without the dog thing.

It’s more than fair, I think, to say the three guys you brought in are fast…

I think it’s fair to say they are all athletic, quick, fast, and it’s not just compared to you and me [general laughter], it’s compared to the league.  They really do add something to this team and I think you’ve seen it already.

You’ve seen Jair [Benitez] being able to match up to people with speed and you’ve seen Atiba [Harris] who is capable of running by people.  And now it’s the league, it’s a very athletic quick league.

You know it’s an interesting thing, from last year when I made my changes to this year there’s probably been about a 45% change.  Earlier it was a 40% before Jair and Atiba came on, but in that 40% change there was only two of eleven starters were changes.  David [Ferreira] and [Dave] van den Bergh.  So there was still nine of the eleven were players who were playing last year.

Now by changing two more players we’ve got four of the eleven.  Now let’s say Chavez comes in and does the things we expect him to do, it could be five of the eleven.  I think that’s how you turn this.  It’s not turning by me reading more psychology books or working more videos.  It’s about players and this game is always about players and we getting that right mix.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: I’m halfway from the shotgun shack to the beautiful house.

So was speed something you targeted as a deficiency, or is it a coincidence the guy you like happen to be fast?

No, it was definitely something I targeted.  It was definitely something I targeted because I felt like it was a deficiency in our team.  You hear it in every sport, you can’t beat speed.  It’ll kill you.  And you see in our defense if we are unable to run with people with speed how are we going to match up?  Yes, Pablo does a fantastic job because of his experience and he’s able to shift people around.  But at the same time if we have four pure speed guys in the back we wouldn’t have to worry about two many balls over us.  But we work hard on these acquisitions.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: You can’t teach speed.

I though Kyle Davies showed a lot of guts and heart playing hurt last week.

I agree. I think he’s really done well. I think he’s a competitor. He comes in with a different mentality than most young players because he’s been in England for a couple of years and you grow up there pretty quickly. I don’t think he was at his best but talking to him [Monday], I asked him if playing hurt him more and he said he feels better than he did last week. That’s a good step in the right direction.

Buzz’s Coach Speak Translator: That kids got balls.  He’s starting for us from here on out.  Except when he’s with the 20s.

Training

Some warm up and stretching leads to a box like pass and chase your pass kind of drill.  Pick up the pace and get moving.  Next was 40 yard possession style game that had some rule about zones and the amount of touches in certain areas.  Teams were the same for this as the next session.

Full play with goals, top of box to top of box (a short field).  Blue in a 4-4-2 and Red in the 4-1-4-1.  This game stressed quick midfield transition.

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

Couple of swaps, Torres into CB for Davies.  Guarda into CM for red with vdBergh left and Shea playing striker for blue.  Hyndman said these swaps are as much about figuring out who he can trust off the bench in certain roles as they are about who might start.  Perhaps the Guarda part is a response to Rocha dogging it on the second crew goal.

After open play Hyndman worked on free kicks for about 20 minutes.

Cunningham, Purdy, Marosevic, and Wallace did some extra finishing work with crosses from Shea and Wagner.

Lineup Prediction

Despite the loss, I thought FCD played fairly well against the Crew (who have now gone 20 straight without a loss at home).  FCD was in the game, and short of a mistake on a free kick might have stolen a point.  SH seems to agree as it looks like the team won’t change.

Thought of the Day

I’m not sure if you can tell, but the question about the new players being fast and if that was something Hyndman tired to target was one question in my mind.  Hyndman jumped the question halfway though to talk about the new guys.  His answer was a bit long and I reprinted the entire thing even when SH went slightly off topic cause I wanted to talk about what he said.

That was the second time this week Hyndman’s told the story about 45% of the team being changed but only two starters, till now, being changed.  The new guys make it four, maybe five.

I think it’s quite clear that Hyndman still thinks he’s only halfway done remaking this team like he wants it and that he’s still using other coaches’ players.  What that means, beyond his dissatisfaction, is that you can expect quite a bit more changes this winter.

It also explains why this spring SH said they weren’t yet a title contender and that he hoped to just compete for a playoff spot.

Side note: Interesting that he forgets about Davies, which I think underscores that move as a Ellinger bit.  Or perhaps that despite his excellent play, Hyndman still wishes George Jojn was in there.  Hyndman did comment earlier this week about the possibility of a John/Davies combo with Ricchetti back in midfield, but I’m sure he thinks as I do that it’s to late to work that into shape this year.

Categories: Practice Observations.

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