Off to Brazil

The team has boarded the bus to the airport for a 7:45 pm flight to Sao Paulo. The flight is scheduled to land Saturday morning at 8:50 am local time, and the team will then catch a connecting flight to Curitiba (landing at 1:10 pm), where CAP's training center is located.

Everyone on the roster is traveling with the exception of Dax and Arturo, who will head to Bradenton for U-23 camp from March 1-9. Andre Rocha is already in Brazil getting taking caare of visa stuff and will meet up when the team arrives. GK Dan Kennedy is also traveling as a guest player.

FCD will train and play four preseason games before returning to Dallas on March 11. We'll do our best to keep you updated throughout the trip. Here's an outline of the schedule in Brazil...

• Sat. March 1 - arrival / training at CAP Training Center in Curitiba, Brazil
• Sun. March 2 - training
• Mon. March 3 - game vs. Marucelli - 1 p.m. CT
• Tues. March 4 - game vs. CAP U-20's - 1 p.m. CT
• Wed. March 5 - training
• Thurs. March 6 - game vs. CAP - 7:30 p.m. CT - 1st Leg of USA-Brazil Challenge - Kyocera Arena
• Fri. March 7 - training / depart for Florianopolos
• Sat. March 8 - game vs. Avai - 1 p.m. CT - Estadio Adolfo Gonder
• Mon. March 10 - training / depart for Dallas
• Tues. March 11 - arrive in Dallas

We caught up with Adrian and Steve Morrow after practice this morning for their thoughts on the trip...

2008 FCD Uniform Premiere Party

Last night, FCD held its 2008 Uniform Premiere Party in the Verizon Wireless Club at Pizza Hut Park. Josh Roe (host of Southwest Kia SportsTalk on KFWD-52) served as the night’s MC, introducing the new uniform designs as modeled by Kenny and Drew.

In attendance were VIP’s, City of Frisco officials, sponsors, soccer partners, suite holders, members of the media, and of course – the team. The new jerseys are available online at fcdallasgear.com. Photos courtesy of Michael Clements.

FCD Partners with Lochrann's

Yesterday it was announced that FCD has formed a partnership with Lochrann’s Irish Pub in Frisco. The partnership makes Lochrann’s the home of the official post-game party following each home game, as well as the official away game viewing party location. Also included will be an in-stadium beer garden for all FCD home games (beginning March 30) located on the Pizza Hut Park stage.

Lochrann’s will also host a season kickoff party during the week leading up to the season opener vs. Chivas USA on Sun., March 30 at PHP (2 pm). Details of the kickoff party will be posted in the coming weeks. Lochrann’s is located at 6195 Main Street in Frisco, directly across the street from the south gate entrance at PHP.

Full press release here.

Sueño MLS Update...

Over the weekend, hundreds and hundreds of hopefuls with dreams of becoming professional soccer players came out to Pizza Hut Park to try out in front of FC Dallas coaches in Sueño MLS, the nationally televised six-week long quest to find one winner who just might have what it takes to be a pro, if not now, than maybe one day. Click here to watch the segment that ran on Univision's Republica Deportiva this past Sunday.

Throughout the entire four days, we kept hearing new interesting stories from and about the participants...quickly, we realized how much soccer means to each them - as we learned of what some went through just for the chance to tryout.

There were hundreds of participants from all over Texas...there was a 19-year that flew from Argentina to Dallas with a one-way ticket; he quickly impressed Jorge Alvial on Friday night and was immediately told to come back next week, leaving 59 spots open. Click here fore more...

They ranged from 15 years old to 37 years old...a group of friends that drove 20 something hours from North Carolina...a young player in Costa Rica whose aunt in Denver called him when she heard about Sueño, and he flew up here to tryout...a forward that defected Cuba in 2005 and flew here from Miami...participants flew and drove here from Chicago, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, New York, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Florida, Mexico, Honduras, Korea, and on and on and on...

There was a 25 year-old from Utah who flew here on Sunday afternoon, hitched a ride from DFW to PHP, and when he realized he couldn't afford a hotel room, walked to a nearby 7-11. He had planned on sleeping there since his tryout was on Monday at 1 pm. A couple saw him outside the convenience store and asked what he was doing, when he explained he had a tryout with FC Dallas the next day. The couple, telling him he should be well rested, paid for his hotel room that night. He walked to PHP on Monday, tried out, and caught a ride back to DFW at 4 pm - his flight was on Tuesday at 5 pm, but as he told us, "its free to sleep at the airport,"...

We also were tipped off about Ezequiel Pedraza, a 20 year-old Argentine living in Orlando who could not make it to his Friday tryout - as his father had passed away the night before. His best friend, his girlfriend Erika, sent MLS headquarters a note explaining the circumstances, they then sent the story to us. Here's his story on print, or watch his interview here.

UPDATED: The 60 finalists have been selected, whose names were revealed on Wednesday, Feb. 27. These 60 will be invited to come back on Saturday from 2-6 pm, at which point 18 will remain...

FCD 0, SMU 0

If you were at tonight's scrimmage, we hope you've warmed up by now. It was 42 degrees at the start of the game, and now that it's ended, weather.com lists the temp at 38 'feels like 32'...

For a bunch of people, it may have felt even colder when the sprinkler system went off; first on the bench sideline with 15 minutes to go in the first half, causing both teams to jump up on the hill behind the benches...then, the sprinklers went off on the opposite sideline, where many fans were taking the game in...at about the 44 minute mark of the first half, the sprinklers started on the inside of the playing field, causing the first half to end maybe one minute short.

The timing allowed for the sprinklers to shut down, making for a dry yet still cold second half.

Now, getting back to the game, no scoring. There will be a write up on MLSnet.com / fcdallas.com in the morning.

For now, the FCD lineup was as follows (UPDATED: 3-4-3, cold hands may have caused earlier error:)
Burse (Kennedy 46'), Moor (Daniels 70'), Davino (Pitckolan 70'), Serioux (Mowlik 70'), McCarty (Dello-Russo 60'), Saragosa (Avila 70'), Rocha (Ricchetti 60'), Wagenfuhr (Wallace 46'), Ricardinho (Oduro 60'), Cooper (Thompson 60'), Alvarez (Mina 46')

Arturo and Dax on U.S. U-23 roster

U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team head coach Peter Nowak has named FCD's Arturo Alvarez and Dax McCarty among the 24 players that will participate in the team’s final training camp before 2008 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying. The camp will take place in Bradenton, Fla. from March 1-9, before the final 20-player roster travels to Tampa, the location of the first-round games in the qualifying tournament for Group A.

The final 20-player roster may include players not in the Bradenton training camp, and will be announced prior to the team’s arrival in Tampa on March 9, two days before the U.S. opens the qualifying tournament against Cuba on March 11 at Raymond James Stadium. The U.S. will then face Panama on March 13 at 7 p.m. CT and Honduras on March 13 at 6 p.m. CT.

Roster and scrimmage info...

A day after training under calm 60 degrees skies, the guys went out this morning for a session - fighting the wind and chilly temps. They'll all will be back for the 7:30 p.m. scrimmage against SMU. The game will be played on Field # 8 (no #4 as we previously thought).

* Polish defender Mariusz Mowlik joined the team on Monday for a trial...
* Andre Rocha has been approved for his P-1 visa...he'll go to Brazil a day earlier for his appointment...then we hope to get his passport back before we return (which worked out perfectly for a few other players in 07)...
*We've set up a couple of extra scrimmages for April...we'll host Midwestern State on April 7 and SMU again on April 13...

And...we are planning on being roster / salary budget compliant by the time we leave for Brazil on Feb. 29...MLS has chosen March 3 as the day that all teams must be compliant with regard:

• Roster size: team can have no more than 18 signed players on the senior roster and no more than 10 on the developmental roster.
• International players: teams may have as many international players signed (non-U.S. greencard holders) as they do international slots. International players must have all necessary paperwork (visa, international transfer clearance) in order to officially count on a roster.
• Salary Budget: teams must also be within the salary budget for the 18 senior roster players.
• If teams waive players, a waiver draft will be held prior to the 5 pm deadline on Monday in order to give other teams an opportunity to selected the players before making their own roster compliance decisions.

Local TV / Radio for 2008

We've finalized our local television and radio broadcast partners for 2008...

For the first time in team history, each of the 30 regular season games will be available locally on English language television, including all 15 home matches. Local broadcast partners KFWD-52 and FSN Southwest will air 19 games, with national outlets ESPN2, Fox Soccer Channel, and HDNet combining to show 11 matches.

As previously announced, 15 of the games will also be available through national Spanish-language channels Telefutura (Ch. 49) and Fox Sports en Español.

All games will also continue to air live on 1540 AM (Spanish). KFWD-52 will join Telefutura in broadcasting the season opener on Sunday, March 30 when FCD faces Chivas USA at Pizza Hut Park (live at 2 p.m. CT).

UPDATED - Click here for the official release.

Toja and Brek Injury Update

Those that came out to the scrimmage today may have noticed Juan leave the field around the 75th minute with an injury. The latest is he has a left knee contusion.

What you may not have seen was Brek also went down, right after the post-game cool down session. Not risking further injury, Brek was carted upstairs to the training room. We are told he has a right Achilles injury and he'll meet with the physicians on Monday. He left PHP in a walking boot.

We'll look to have an update on Monday on the status of both players.

FCD 4, West Texas A&M 0

Beautiful day for soccer...much better than yesterday morning...sunny and 53 degrees for FCD's preseason scrimmage vs. West Texas A&M. FCD won 4-0 with goals from Dom, Abe (2), and Roberto.

Rather than two different groups of 11 playing each half, most of the first-half starters played for a bit in the second. Guest player Dan Kennedy played in goal in the second half, and loyal blog followers may remember Dan, as he traveled with FCD to Trinidad last November.

FCD Lineup: Lambo (Kennedy 46'), Dello (Yi 62'), Pitch (Davino 62'), Daniels (Serioux 62'), Bobby (Avila 60'), Wally (Toja 62'; Jones 81'), Dax (Chase 46'), Wags (Wagner 46'), Dom (Ibee 60'), Abe (Doudou 60'), Mina (Brek 60')

Scoring: Dom (10'), Abe (16'), Roberto (23'), Abe (51') (PK)

We caught a couple of the goals on tape...click here to watch.

Target shooting...

Today's afternoon session was conducted by trainers from the Michael Johnson Performance Center here on the adidas Field. The non-keepers did a variety of exercises which worked on different running techniques.

The three keepers, on the other hand, worked with the ball - or maybe some type of target practice.

Here's the drill. New goalkeeper coach Drew Keeshan lined up three balls at an angle. Two keepers had to stand in front of the keeper in the goal. Drew would drill shots, and the two were meant to shield the keeper as long as possible before moving out of the way. The keeper in the net had to concentrate on the ball coming at him, and react either to the shot or a deflection.

In these photos, you see Ray and Josh as the two 'target' guys. Dario is in the goal. Both Ray and Josh each took a couple of hits. However, as the exercise continued, we noticed both guys jumping the gun, if only slightly, to try to get out of the way.

The Park on Saturday...

NOTE: The FCD scrimmage versus West Texas A&M on Saturday, Feb. 23 will be held inside the stadium here at Pizza Hut Park. The game time has changed to 10:30 a.m.

If fans want to come watch, please use the west gate (by the Verizon Wireless Club). Section 102 will be open for fans. There is no charge.

Also note that pretty much the entire complex will be in use on Saturday - the Frisco Soccer Association, the Classic League, and Lake Highlands Girls Classic League are holding games throughout. Sueño MLS will be on three fields, including our own adidas Field. And the park is also hosting a job fair in the Verizon Wireless club from 9-3 pm.

Sueño MLS: The Dream Continues at Pizza Hut Park

Two thousand aspiring soccer players will try out for the FC Dallas coaching staff this weekend as they follow their dreams of becoming a professional soccer player in the nationally televised open tryouts, Sueño MLS: “The Dream Continues.”

After a successful launch of Sueño MLS last weekend with Chivas USA in California, the scene now turns to Pizza Hut Park, where from Friday, February 22 to Monday, February 25 players from 40 states and numerous countries will try to impress the FCD staff while being followed by Univision’s top-rated weekly sports magazine show, República Deportiva.

Sueño MLS is a six-week long quest to find the best undiscovered young soccer player in the nation. After this weekend, 60 participants will be invited back for the second round on March 1. From there, 18 will be chosen, and so on, until a winner is revealed on Republica Deportiva prior to the FCD vs Chivas USA game on March 30.

The FC Dallas coaching staff has put together a great group of scouts to oversee the first weekend, which will have tryouts going on for most of the next four day on three separate fields. Click here for the times of the trials.

Steve Morrow, Jorge Alvial, Marco Ferruzzi, Drew Keeshan, and Chris Clarke, will be out observing the talent throughout the weekend, with the support of coaches Chris Hayden, Darrin Hedges, Scott Foster, Francisco Molina, Chris Pulpanek, Rusty Oglesby, Chris Che, and Chris Ring.

Although we've received and placed over 2,000 applicants (which was the limit), we are still inviting players to come here and sign up. As happened in LA, many of those that signed up did not show - and in the case of the 2007 winner, Jorge Flores, he had walked up the first day and was placed in the tryouts.

First trip completed...

Dinner was late last night, and breakfast early this morning. We may have spoken (or written) too soon the other day when everything went smooth on the first travel leg. Since some of you seem to like reading some of these behind the scenes stories that tell of the team's travels, here you go: Click here to keep reading...

The bus was to be at the hotel at 6 am, with the guys eating breakfast and then departing by 6:45. By 6:30, we realized that the bus was not just late. We started making calls, without success. As the guys patiently waited in the lobby, and some staff outside, we see the bus on the opposite side of the highway, about to make its turn.

We're now on our way to the airport at 7:05, not too bad.

Everyone checks in - easy!

The team then needs to board a bus that would take everyone to the plane. Everyone gets on, except one - your's truely. The first bus was full so they tell the rest of us to get on another bus. The flight is at 9:15, and at 9:02, we still haven't moved from the terminal. A few other passengers ask the bus driver if we can get moving - not happening until he gets the order. A minute later, one more passenger boards the bus, and we drive right to the plane.

The flight was relatively comfortable. Expecting to land at 10:55 am, we begin to descend around 10:30. We're about 3-400 feet above ground, right over the runway, when the plane starts going back up. No one knew what was going on.

As we're heading back up, the pilot comes on the PA and informs the passengers that another American West plane in front of us was having visibility issues, so in order to avoid any unnecessary stresses on the runway, our plane gave way and literally, got out of the way.

We land 20 minutes later.

Now, on to immigration. Oh, and by the way, Dominic didn't not get his passport back this morning, so he and Daniel had to wait to get it back - once we land we're told they are set and will be on the 4:30 pm flight back to Dallas.

The Argentine and Brazilians are the last to get through, with the entire team already with the bags and on the bus. Dario gets brought into a separate room, and we're confident if there's one person that can talk his way out of whatever they called him in for, its Dario. He does. Apparently his green card is expiring (at least its not a visa issue!).

With that, we board the bus and are on our way back to PHP. The first trip is over...here we go...

Congrats to the Wagenfuhrs

David and wife Sarah welcomed their first child this morning - daughter Gabriella was born 6 pounds 11 ounces. As Wags tells us, "she's healthy and beautiful."

FCD 1 v Tigres 2 - FINAL

UPDATED - final

1: Kenny get's the armband to start tonight's game.
6: Tigres goal on a header by Jesus Palacios from six yards out on the right side after taking a cross from Carlos Esquivel from the left side.
15: fairly even game - neither team with a big threat yet since the goal.
16: Andre Rocha gets a yellow for a tackle on Palacios.
18 and 20: Tigres takes two corners that clear danger. The first one get's across without either team heading it out, the second one is headed high by a Tigres player. Click here to continue...

25: Blas Perez get's a yellow for Tigres for an intential handball.
26 - Tigres seems to be quicker, sharper... Dallas has had a couple of misplayed balls, traps, and passes. Yet to get a good chance at goal.
30: Duilio plays a low ball from midfield to Cooper who holds his man off, plays the ball wide left to Arturo, beats one man and leaves for Blake who goes by one guy on the left...nice build up but Blake cross is easily handled by the keeper.
31: Tigres comes back, somehow gets a low ball across the goalmouth but Ibee steps in front of would be shooter to clear at the top of the six.
36: Dallas defense seems more settled, holding a line with Tigres either trying to chip behind or take long chances. Last two crosses well marked and won by FCD defense.
36: BTW - a nice crowd has also settled in, not sure what to make of it since it's well spread and covering all levels. Maybe 15-20K? They are mostly quiet, but when the whistle, it sounds real loud.
40: Kenny wins a corner but the cross is cleared by Tigres. The second half subs are warming up for Dallas.
44: Esquivel scores the second goal...Kikin beats his man on the left into the box by the endline, and lifts a short pass to an on-rushing Esquivel at the near post, top of the six, who easily taps it past Ray.
46: FCD changes all 11...the ball stays on the FCD offensive side for the first five minutes
50: Ricardinho scores a left-footed rocket from 35 yards on the left side to the far side net...we don't like to editorialize but wow...the thing is, before the game, he came up to us on the bus and told us that he would score - we told him if he did we would recognize his pre-game confidence.
59: Pitch gets a yellow for a tackle near the sideline.
65: Tigres made one change at the half, and a couple more during the first 15 of the second. Dallas has pretty much held the ball so far.
69: just as we type the line above, Tigres gets a through ball down the left, the center comes in but Adrian steps in front of the shot which goes high.
73: Yellow for Jose Rivas for taking down Brek by the sideline near the area. Ricardinho takes the free kick, which drops to Abe with his back to the goal and two men on...Abe hits a backheel but the keeper quickly dives to his right for the save.
80: Ricardinho gets two more one-on-ones, but the defender does well on both to win the ball back. 87: Dominic beats one guys and rips a shot from above the arc that the keeper barely gets his fingers on for a corner....thing is, Abe was also open on the right...tough call to shoot or pass, especially for a forward.
90: what a game of two halves...while the first half Tigres had the better of play, the second half for the most part all Dallas.

Tigres: GK - 1-Cirilo Saucedo, 4-Flavio Rogerio, 29-Carlos Esquivel (8-Alejandro Villalobos, 86'), 5-Fabian Cubero, 9-Blas Perez (85-Jonathan Arenas, 59'), 11-Guillermo Marino (Jonatan de Leon, 46'), 17-Jesus Palacios, 22- Enrique Escudero, 26-Francisco Fonseca, 27-Diego Martinez (24-Jose Rivas, 65).

FCD: GK - Ray Burse (Dario Sala 46'), Drew Moor (Andrew Daniels 46'), Duilio Davino (Aaron Pitchkolan 46), Alex Yi (Adrian Serioux 46'), Abdus Ibrahim (C-Bobby Rhine 46'), Andre Rocha (Marcelo Saragosa 46), Dax McCarty (Anthony Wallace 46'), Blake Wagner (Brek Shea 46'), Juan Toja (Abe Thompson 46'), C-Kenny Cooper (Dominic Oduro 46'), Arturo Alvarez (Ricardinho 46').

Tonight's lineup (s)...

The guys just finished dinner, where the coaching staff also posted tonight's lineup (s) versus Tigres.

FCD Starting lineup___________ Second Half:
---------------Burse----------------- / ---------------------Sala-------------------------
----Moor------Davino----Yi------- / -----Daniels-----Pitch-----Serioux-----
--Ibee--Rocha--Dax--Wagner-- / --Rhine--Saragosa--Wallace--Shea--
------------------Toja----------------- / ------Ricardinho--------Oduro-----------
-----Cooper---------Alvarez------ / ------------------Thompson----------------

Tigres informs us that they will have a minute-by-minute matchtracker on their website, they also tell us that radio RG690 will call the game, and it 'should' be available on the station's website. We'll also try to keep fans updated here on the blog.

Day of game - Tigres

Breakfast was served from 8:30-9:30 this morning down in the hotel restaurant. At 11 a.m., as they did last year, the guys gathered for a stretch and some small exercizes.

The hotel is situated in a nice part of town, however, there's a highway right in front - which means there's a limited amount of comfortable space to walk around or run in. So, the team found a small space right behind the hotel. The grass is off limits as it appears they are resodding it. So, as you see in the photos, the guys were able to get some work in with the space available.

We'll be leaving for the stadium at 7 p.m., and with traffic, we should be arriving around 7:45. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:45...we'll be back after the team meal with the starting lineup.

Back in Monterrey...

The guys eat dinner after arriving in Monterrey; it's always interesting to see the player interaction. Here, we point out the far center table, where Duilio learns and practices English with Adrian, Ray, Andrew, and Wally.

=========================================

We landed without incident in Monterrey at 4:10 this afternoon. By 4:50 we were already on the bus...we didn't hear anyone say it, however we can mention here on the Blog that this was as smooth a first leg of a road trip as we've had. Of course it is the first trip of this season, but we're also comparing to 2007 trips.

It's a good start so far - everyone got through immigration, all our bags made it, and we quickly went through customs; Tigres had a couple of reps meet us at the airport, one brought us our hotel room keys so we could distribute them on the bus while we drove to the hotel. Dominic, who arrived on Monday night (visa stuff) with Daniel, even heard that he'll have his visa right away, meaning he should be able to travel back with the group on Thursday.

After going to their rooms, a few guys came downstairs to use the free internet in the business center. At 7 pm, the group gathered for a team meal. The Front Office management staff has been invited to a dinner with the Tigres execs this evening, and we're gonna tag along, so that's it for tonight...

Off to Mexico

After training this morning, the team is now on its way to the aiport to catch the flight to Monterrey. They'll face Tigres on Wednesday night at 8:45 pm CT, and will arrive back in Dallas on Thursday.

We'll come back later after we land and get settled in tonight, but for now, here's the travel list...

Dario, Ray, Drew, Alex, Bobby, Pitch, Blake, Dax, Arturo, Kenny, Ricardinho, Rocha, Marcelo, Brek, Daniels, Davino, Ibee, Dom, Abe, Adrian, Wally, Toja

UPDATED: Before the team headed out today we caught up with Alex, Brek, and Steve for their thoughts on the team's first trip of the preseason...

Preparing for Monterrey

After two-a-day sessions for much of the early part of preseason, the guys were in for just one practice today, a longer session which ran about 2 hours. The team started out doing some small grid possession work in two separate groups, then worked on team shape and building up the attack using the entire field, and finished with a six minute run.

The guys will be back in for training in the morning, eat lunch together at the stadium, and then head to the airport to catch a flight to Monterrey for the preseason game vs. Tigres on Wednesday night. We're waiting to find out from the coaching staff which players will be going to Mexico (only 22 will travel) and we'll post the traveling list as soon we have it.

U.S. Soccer Development Academy

The Pizza Hut Park complex fields are used often, pretty much every day and many evenings. So for many of us, this weekend is nothing new - 88 youth teams from around the country playing 88 games over the next two days in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy's first Winter Showcase.

What is unique is that coaches from the U.S. Soccer Federation men's programs are here, including: U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Bob Bradley, Under-20 MNT head coach Thomas Rongen, newly appointed Director of Development Academy Scouting Dave Sarachan and Under-17 MNT assistant coach and former FC Dallas player and coach Oscar Pareja. In addition, college coaches from all over the country are here.

U.S. Soccer has put many resources into keeping fans informed: check the U.S. Youth National Team Blog and www.ussoccer.com for up to the minute results, photo galleries, game highlights, and the popular Studio 90 features (which will include visits from FCD players). Click here for the schedule of games and results.

FCD 2, Univ. of Memphis 0

UPDATED (6:30 pm) - We got the game in, despite the heavy rains we received all day - the adidas Field drains excellently and held up just as good.

Marcelo Saragosa got on the board 10 minutes into the game, working a give-and-go with Dominic Oduro, and then taking a curling right footed shot from about 22 yards past the keeper into the right side of the goal.

Dallas put out a completely different 11 to start the second half, including Roberto Mina, who arrived from Ecuador today at 11:30 am. Less than two minutes after entering, Roberto chipped a ball across the goalmouth from the right side, finding Wags coming in from the left. Wags settled and hit a right-footed shot past the keeper from about five yards out. FCD finished the final 15 with 10 men after Brek was shown a red for a hard challenge.

FCD Starting lineup___________ Second Half:
------------------Ray------------------------ / ------------------Josh-----------------
--Adrian-------Pitch--------------Alex-- / --Jamil------Dello--------Andrew--
-Rhine----Rocha--Marcelo---Blake- / -Ibee---Chase---Wally----Wags--
----------------------Toja------------------- / ----------------Avila--------------------
------Ricardinho--------Dominic------ / ----------Roberto---Brek-----------

No video today. You can kind of see how the adidas Field held up in the photo above, now look below at Field #4. Even so, we expect all this water to be gone by morning in time for the U.S. Soccer Development Academy games.

Dario's new number: # 44

Seemingly every preseason, there are a few players that request a different jersey number for the upcoming season. Sometimes the guys get the requested number, though other times, experience and/or seniority may prevent a change.

For the time being, rookies Brek Shea (#20) and Eric Avila (#24) appear set. For fellow rookie Josh Lambo - our kit man Marcus has a good idea what number Josh will wear. However, that number is currently held by someone else, who is waiting to see if he gets the numbers he's requested...we should know more soon.

In saying all this, one player who's new number is confirmed is Dario Sala, who will wear #44 this season. Click here to keep reading...

Dario has worn different jersey numbers in the past to honor different people or events in his life. For example, he once wore #27 to honor the day he met his wife, Margot. He's also worn #48 - in honor of his wife's father, who wore that number playing college football.

This year, Dario will honor his friends in Argentina with the #44...here's why, as he tells us:

When Dario was 13 - in 1987 - he was enrolled at Liceo Militar General Paz - a Military School in Cordoba, Argentina. The school had been founded in 1943, and each year's class was given a number. Therefore, 44 years after opening, the class of 1987 was called 'Promoción No. 44'...

He has remained friends and buddies with many of his classmates from that school - and they try to follow everything he's done as a pro (hi guys, thanks for visiting the FCD Blog!)...

So when a bunch of them gathered for a typical Argentine-style barbecue over the holidays, he told them he'd request a number change so he can honor the group - hence, he's requested and been granted, #44.

Roberto on his way...

For this post, we'll avoid another visa explanation and only tell you that Roberto Mina was approved for his tourist visa today in Ecuador, which allows him travel to the U.S. He has a flight that should get him here Saturday morning. The coaching staff already knows what he's capable of when he's healthy, so they want to see how he looks after missing all of last with injury.

Other notes: Ben Nason is no longer here...Conrad Smith will not be coming on trial as anticipated...Sheldon Emmanuel is scheduled to arrive next Wednesday to begin a trial...we anticipate 22 players going to Monterrey next Tuesday - sorry, video does not look like a possibility for this preseason game...we're close to finalizing a goalkeeper coach, could happen as soon as Friday.

Our favorite subject...

The guys are downstairs at the moment, coming in at various times for individual workout programs...in the meantime, here's a little more behind the scenes...Our favorite subject gets revisited - again...Visas!!

Many of the players and team staff need a visa to enter Brazil. And some also need visas to enter Mexico. This isn't the first time we've planned trips to either country, so we were confident that we understood all the rules and procedures for securing visas to our passports, especially here in the U.S.

Click here to continue reading...

In the case of Brazilian visas; we filled out our applications, made passport-size photos, found our passports - and mailed everyone's together to the Brazilian consulate in Houston. We then got these back within a couple of days.

Needless to say, we were a bit surprised last month when the Brazilian consulate told us that they would not accept any requests by mail - they are now only accepting hand-delivered passports / visa applications. They then told us we'd have to wait 7-10 business days to get these back, that is, once they had a chance to review them.

This presented a couple of challenges - first, we had players coming in at various stages...second, we now had a trip to Mexico coming up, for which everyone needs their passports.

So last week, Daniel Granados, assistant to the team admin and equipment manager, took a large packet of applications/passports/photos and flew to Houston early one morning. He taxied to the consulate, and waited in line to hand-deliver the documents. He then flew back to Dallas, not knowing exactly when we would get these back (but hoping it would be before we left for Monterrey).

While we waited to receive the first batch, we more players continued arriving into town. As you know by now, we had everyone here this past Monday by evening. All the guys that arrived that night quickly had passport photos taken, and filled out their applications. They also handed us their passports. Then, on Tuesday of last week, Daniel flew back down to Houston for round #2.

In the meantime, our friends at Atletico Paranaense made a call to their friends at the Brazilian consulate in Houston....and, when Daniel arrived in Houston the second time around, he was told to wait at the consulate instead of flying back...

Daniel came back on Tuesday evening with everything - he had everyone's passports, with visas!
Thanks CAP!!

But wait, there's more...today, Daniel took Dominic, Juan, Ricardinho, Marcelo, and Andre Rocha to the Mexican consulate in Dallas - they quickly got their Mexican visas placed on their passports. Now the coaching staff has a full selection of players to chose from for next week's trip to Monterrey...Dom will actually go a day earlier with Daniel, since he now has to get his P-1 visa (we're done explaining, believe us, he needs it in order to re-enter the U.S. since this will be his first time out of the country after he received notice of the extension of his visa).

A few player notes....

Earlier today, Steve confirmed to us that the team is in talks with Chilean forward Reinaldo Navia, exploring the possibility of him joining FCD.

Also, Gustavo Cabrera's trial with FC Dallas has ended...he trained with the team in the morning but not in the afternoon...Jesus Ledesma will not be coming on trial as previously expected...and, we'll try to get an update on Sheldon Emmanuel and Conrad Smith on Thursday...

ESPN Deportes - SportsCenter...

We didn't get a chance to provide you video of yesterday's presentation, and here's a little-known secret for you. The main reason - we were shooting for ESPN Deportes...talk about a step up for our FCD TV crew!

On Tuesday, ESPN Deportes called from Mexico asking if we could provide them video of Duilio's presentation and first practice...we taped, edited, and sent to them...here's the bit they ran on ESPN Deportes SportsCenter:

First Photos - Duilio and Rocha

We held an short media session with Duilio Davino and Andre Rocha today before the team met and went out for their first practice together. Here are a few photos of both, first with the new FCD 2008 home jersey, then at training:

UPDATED (following the first comment): You can pre-order the new jersey by contacting our team store: www.fcdallasgear.com.

They're all here...

Dario Sala and Josh Lambo (R) work on a drill during Tuesday's practice.
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We had 31 players at the afternoon practice, the most we've had this preseason on the field at one time...Dax, Juan, Artie, Duilio, and Andre were the last of the signed guys to join the group, having completed their physicals, concussion and heart tests earlier in the day.

The 28 familiar faces / names at practice today were: Dario Sala, Ray Burse, Josh Lambo, Drew Moor, Michael Dello-Russo, Alex Yi, David Wagenfuhr, Bobby Rhine, Andrew Daniels, Duilio Davino, Aaron Pitchkolan, Adrian Serioux, Pablo Ricchetti, Marcelo Saragosa, Blake Wagner, Andre Rocha, Dax McCarty, Arturo Alvarez, Chase Wileman, Anthony Wallace, Juan Toja, Brek Shea, Eric Avila, Ricardinho, Kenny Cooper, Abe Thompson, Dominic Oduro...Abdus Ibrahim was also here, though he only did some running after suffering a mild concussion during yesterday's practice.

The other three were Doudou Toure, Jamil Roberts, and Gustavo Cabrera...Scott Jones and Ben Nason sat out as they were both sick.

More on André Rocha...

So André Rocha is officially part of the team (though now we have that one seemingly always annoying bit remaining - getting him his visa)...he becomes the second player loaned from Clube Atletico Paranaense to FCD, joining Ricardinho who arrived here last July. He's not a goal scorer, or a goalkeeper, which makes pulling highlights a bit of a challenge. However, we were able to come up with a little fun video to give you a glimpse...

And their numbers are...

We won't be able to stream today's intros...it's not going to be a formal press conference as we've seen in the past, more like a media mix zone. We're to fit in this media availability between a team meeting and the practice session, which starts at 3...we'll be back later with more, but for now, we'll leave with this: Duilio will be # 4 and André Rocha will be # 11...