If asked to choose one word to describe the team as a whole this morning, we’d go with “recharged.” The team looked well-rested from the four-day weekend, and they wasted no time getting right back into it this morning with a high-energy training session that lasted a little over 2 hours. Everyone was back, including Brek Shea, Josh Lambo and Anthony Wallace, who are coming off a slightly shorter weekend after representing the U.S. U-20’s in a 3-0 victory against the Mexico U-20 team down in Laredo, TX last Friday night.Bobby Rhine also returned to the practice field for the first time since suffering a left ankle injury against Chivas de Guadalajara, although he worked off to the side individually with the training staff. Bobby will remain out for this Saturday’s home contest versus the Colorado Rapids after missing the two Open Cup games and the 4th of July game versus KC.
Joining the guys today was one new face and one familiar one. You already know about Victor Sikora (below left), the forward from Holland who is here training with FCD for the week. Another player who will be around this week is Carl Bussey (below right), who's no stranger to the area, having played for Dallas from 2002-2003 and at SMU prior to that. MLSnet.com's Steve Hunt with more from Schellas and the guys...
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19 comments:
Stop test players and hire a real forward. We need someone who can score goals and has a lot of professional experience.
Can we show up and watch practices? Man, I'd love to come see these guys train.
Great we have brought in a youth club coach
This is long and I apologize but I wanted to share.......
Who should be playing and who should be sitting - This has been argued over and over. I found some stats that I think answers this question -
In 2007 Cooper was out for part of the season with a broken leg, so please keep that in mind. Check this out though.....
In '07 Coop scored 4 goals and had 2 assists. So far this season he has 8 goals and 1 assist. In '07 he scored 1 goal for every 4 shots on goal he took. So far this season he as scored 1 goal for every 3.3 Shots on Goal - an improvement. Last season he scored 1 goal every 267 minutes of play, this season 1 goal every 178 minutes. Coop averages 1 shot on Goal every 52 minutes.
Toja was the teams leading scorer last season - he had 6 Goals and 1 Assist. So far this season 1 goal 2 assists - dismal. Last season he hit 1 goal for every 2.6 Shots on Goal he had - this season he has had 17 Shots on Goal and 1 found the back of the net. Dismal
Arturo - Last season 3 goals and 3 assists - 2 hair color changes. This season he has 3 goals and 2 assists and 1 hair color change - not too bad. Last season he hit 1 goal for every 10 Shots on Goal, this season he has hit 1 goal for every 3.6 shots on Goal. Much better. The problem is he only gets off 1 Shot on Goal for every 76 minutes of play. That is killing him.
Oduro - Last season he had 3 Goals and 2 assists. This season he has 4 Goals and 1 assist - on the right path. Last season he scored 1 goal for every 4.3 Shots on Goal he had. This season he has scored 1 goal for every 1.8 Shots on goal he has had. Last season he scored 1 goal for every 387 minutes of play, this season he has scored 1 goal for every 147 minutes of play. He averages a 1 shot on goal every 53 minutes this season. All much better than last season. Clearly the most accurate shooter.
Abe - Last season he had 5 goals and 1 assist. So far this season he has 2 goals and 1 assist. Last season he scored 1 goal for every 2.2 shots on goal. This season he has only hit 1 goal for evey 3.5 Shots on goal. This season he has averaged 1 goal every 196 minutes of playing time, last season he averaged 1 goal every 289 minutes. Abe puts a shot on goal every 56 minutes.
Landon Donovan averages 1 goal scored for every 2.3 shots on goal and 1 goal every 101 minutes of play.
FC Dallas as a team averages 1 goal every 75 minutes of play, LA Galaxy averages 1 goal 42 minutes of play, and New England averages 1 goal every 61 minutes of play.
So who should be playing and who should be sitting ?
Stats are nice but soccer is about team chemistry. Which is what we are lacking this year.
Thanks anon,
I appreciate the time and the effort that it took to put that together, but I agree with the post above. Stats don't always tell the story.
Take Arturo for instance, the offensive numbers only tell half of the story. His real problem is his lack of effort on defense and making runs off the ball. As for Toja, I loved him long before he really started scoring goals. It was his defensive effort, his amazing slide tackles, and his non-stop motor that made him special. The goals were just gravy. I would actually be in favor of moving him back to the holding midfield so he doesn't have the pressure of having to produce offensively.
I agree - the numbers have nothing to do with it. This team needs to build upon each other and the coach. That is not there right now. They have had a total of 3 coaches since the season started - Morrow, Marco and now the famous SH. There has also been an impact to the assistant coach as well.
When you have a change of structure like this, things will work or not work. I think the players deserve more credit than what they are receiving because it is tough to have these changes (not just 1 but 3) and not have an impact.
any idea what position Bussey plays? I remeber him playing for us back then but not much else. where has he been since then?
"When you have a change of structure like this, things will work or not work. I think the players deserve more credit than what they are receiving because it is tough to have these changes (not just 1 but 3) and not have an impact."
Finally some reasonable, positive (sort of, at least) comments. I, too appreciate the time the above poster took to present the stats -- we all know how frustrating has been, lately.
As is quoted above, all of this HAS to have had an impact on the players. I've met the guys at practices and such -- they are ALL nice, open guys that truly seem to care about their fans (and Kenny is just AWESOME). We forget, I think, that they are people, not just "players."
Think about it . . . things seemed to be going pretty well, at least, until the assistant coach was fired -- for reasons we'll never really know. Three days after that was the disaster of an LA game . . . SOMETHING must have been going on in the background, and none of it was any good for the team. And since then have been two more changes.
Also, they had up and down results during the recent glut of games, from tying Houston, almost beating the real Chivas to . . . well, ya'll know the rest. That was a lot of games in a short period of time.
Maybe the time off was a good thing for the team -- to rest up and to clear their minds and/or ponder what they need to do from this point forward.
Anyway, I still believe that this team -- that these guys -- have the potential to pull it together and perform.
GO, YOU HOOPS!!!
MH
Carl Bussey
Date of Birth: 11 October, 1978
Position: Forward
College: Southern Methodist
Bussey was named the Defensive Player of the Year for the Missouri Valley Conference. A two-time All-Western Athletic Conference selection, and a first-team All-American in 1999, Bussey also scored nine goals and two assists for the Mustangs this year. He was named to the 1999 All-WAC first team after being second in scoring for SMU with 12 goals and seven assists.
yeah I guess we do forget that sometimes MH. Ive met some of them too and they are so down to earth and kind; they deserve more respect then some of these comments give. Yeah Im glad they all went out there today with energy. Im going to go cheer for the guys on Saturday and hope they clobber Colorado after this bad stint. Good luck Guys!!
Neither of these guys inspire confidence.
"Neither of these guys inspire confidence."
Right on brother! We are 13 out 14 teams in this league and we are bringing in someone no one has heard of and someone that was a role player nearly a decade ago. Can I renew my season tickets now?
where these 2 guys have been? we realy don't care! if they can produce? that all we need, guys! we are at bottom of our group so if not ahead of the quakes that all we need to worry about! and how to get out of this mess.
The stats are only one componenet of what is happeneing with the team. 2 things stand out in these stats - Toja has disappeared from the attack and we do not put shots on goal.
Anyone that gets excited about Bussey is smoking crack. He is the owner of the Mustangs Soccer Club here in Dallas. He runs a group of youth teams around the metroplex.
My guess is this is another Hitch move. If he is on the team maybe his players and their parents will buy tickets !!!!!!
Mark me down as NOT EXCITED
It seems to me that this soccer coach and his management team has no clue.
Point one, "Ellinger is in South America searching for striker to pair with Cooper".Why are you in search of a striker? What you need is to restructure and bring in better defenders who are not close to retirement age and bring in a midfielder that can distribute and display agression.You can bring in Eto or Drogba you will not succeed with this kind of midfielders and defenders.
You are trying hard to prove that Cooper is the best striker for your team,and that Oduro and Thompson are not capable of pairing with him. YOU ARE VERY WRONG.
You have given Cooper every chance to succeed Check this STAT-Cooper has started 16 games and played 1427 minutes scored 8 goals and one assist.Oduro has Started 6 games played 590 minutes and scored 4 goals with 1 assist.With this stat who is more prolific striker?If you have to base logic with this STAT then you should start Thompson with Oduro.
FC Fan,
I think we would succeed if we brought in drogba or eto
If there is talk of Cooper going back to Europe why in the world would we trying to pair anyone with Cooper ?
Face it Oduro is a much more efficient striker, more accurate, and can put the ball on the goal. Who knows what Abe is - I personally think he is a work in progress - BUT I do think he could pair with Oduro - but if Coop is leaving us we need to work towards what we do when he is gone.
fc fan said: "bring in a midfielder that can distribute and display agression". Haven't you guys figured out you have one of these. Need I say it AGAIN?? Eric Avila.....duh. sign me SoCal Avi fan!!
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