Practice Report: Drills, Small Sided and Wide Field Games

(On the upcoming week of training and games…) "We want to get them into a Wednesday-to-Wednesday rhythm for the beginning of the year and the competition that we’ve got with Santos. You’ve got the Columbus Crew on the Wednesday, then the following Wednesday you’ve got Atlante, then the following Wednesday you’ve got Jaguares, then the following Wednesday you’ve got Santos. It allows us to build into a really good rhythm in terms of playing them. This next phase in Florida for us is about games—it’s about training and working on things in training in terms of our tactics and finishing, and things around goal like we did today. At the end of the day it’s about you making sure the first group gets games and the second group gets games to help their fitness."

(On if the rookies have to adjust from being on the college schedule…) "It’s always a little more difficult because they get in their rhythm of the seasons that they’ve had in college. So now you’ve got guys that are in here, [who], by the time we get back from Florida they’re about seven games into their regular season at that point. They usually don’t hit the wall, if you want to call it that, until usually about May or June, and that’s really when they hit the wall. Right now, everything is still new, everything is still excitable and so they’re okay for right now."

(On if he’s happy with the roster trimming process so far…) "Yeah. Obviously, we’re moving forward. There are a couple of guys that, even in the last group, that we liked, and we’ll keep our eyes on. We’ll keep monitoring them. We just felt, at the moment, we were okay in certain positions. But there’s still a couple of young guys that we think have potential and we’ll keep our eyes on them as we move forward."

(On if there have been any surprises in camp so far…) "Anybody who plays well is always a good surprise. From that standpoint, everybody is putting in a really good effort. We’re trying to make some decisions on some players. David Estrada is a player that we’ve pushed around the field a little bit into different positions, just like Roger Levesque has, but with David we decided about a little over a week ago that we’re going to concentrate with him more up front and let him play more up front. I thought he looked pretty sharp today with the goals in tight and him being up front that game. [Adam] Johansson is acclimating and we’re happy with him. [Christian] Sivebaek missed some time when we were in Arizona because of a knee, but his knee feels good now. I thought he looked pretty sharp today. All those are good surprises because everybody’s starting to look sharp. Ozzie [Alonso] and the usual suspects have done a good job. Marc Burch, I think, scored a couple of great goals today at training. There are guys there that are pushing."

(On how Brad Evans and Jeff Parke looked in Arizona…) "Obviously, we have to remember that they’ve had 12 more days of training than some of our guys have had because of their earlier start. What we tried to do is we gave Evans a day off in between there a couple days. We tried to do the same with Parke. We’re going to be cognizant of that, as well, making sure they get an appropriate day off here because they’ve been at it a little bit longer. I thought from sharpness of play, they were good.

(On the race to be the number two keeper…) "It’s a battle. Obviously, Josh Ford is injured right now and that’s unfortunate for Josh because I thought he did well for us last year. Bryan Meredith and Andrew Weber have performed very well, so we’re going to make some decisions here soon. It’s a very competitive situation."

(On if any new players will be joining them in Florida for a trial…) "No, we’ve got to see. It depends on what agent calls us when we get there and who we can bring in. Obviously, we never stop looking—that’s the case, you found that out last year. If the right situation comes along, obviously we’ll take advantage of it and have that guy on the team. Somebody’s going to lose a spot, but that’s the way it is. It’s the pros."

The team has apparently decided not to make official announcements about who has been cut. From what we can tell, though, Jason Banton would qualify as the biggest name not to be with the team at this point.

I want him to be healthy. I want him to score goals for us. I want him to abuse Borchers in open space and slot goal past Rimando when I travel to the away fixture this summer in Utah. But, I don’t think any of that is going to happen this season and sadly maybe ever.

I know the sentiment of many of the authors here is that you can’t cut a player while injured. That said, especially after seeing how LAG are getting every drop out of every penny available to them under the cap, the time quickly approaches where the team needs to move on.

When it’s convenient commentators here drop “this is a business” about various matter—the axiom is also true when it’s not convenient. In 2011 100k in salary paid for 2 Sanna Nyassis (not saying I want him back, just using his salary as a measure) or the recently returned Juninho or 80% of a Joel Linpere or 100% of a Jorge Perlaza (looking at how some teams spend their money).

That roster slot and cap space is so valuable, especially if we are going to catch LAG. If not now, the time to let OBW go is very close.

Doing a little research on Guiterres, I found an article from FEB 1 on SSFC Rumors. In the article the site quoted a Honduran paper, La Tribuna, saying that Ever Alvarado was coming for a 10 day trial but Guiterres was coming to play the season with the Sounders new U23 squad. Looking at the La Tribuna article, it does appear that Guiterres may indeed be coming to play for the U23 squad. As always, translation is an iffy thing, but this would offer another explanation of why Guiterres is still training with the parent club while Avarado has returned to Honduras.

. . . and Estrada is still the non-starter making the strongest demand for more time in the rotation.

Whither Ochoa? I know he has a newborn baby and all, but his name sure hasn’t come up much in camp reports. Something going on there?

Some pictures from training

http://www.soundersphotos.com/2012_Training_2_09/

On the same token I’m not looking for Jeff Parke or the other centerback to make a rambling 30 yard run slashing past three players in middle of the midfield and having a shot from the 20.

I’m pretty sure if Sanna Nyassi were a centerback he would attempt this