Happy Thanksgiving

On behalf of the FC Dallas / Pizza Hut Park front office, we hope all of you have (had) a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. We'll be back in December with more posts.

Expansion and Waiver Draft Info

Seattle Sounders FC today selected 10 players from 10 different MLS teams in the MLS Expansion Draft. No FC Dallas players were selected, neither were players from DC United, Chivas USA, or Colorado.

Teams are now permitted to begin trading again. Also, MLS will hold a waiver draft later this afternoon. For this, teams could submit names of players whose 2009 options were not picked up, and are waiving their MLS rights to those players. All teams will be able to select waived players - the order of selection is the same as the 2009 MLS SuperDraft, except that Seattle is at the bottom.

If a team selects any player, that player's option is automatically picked up (meaning, you can't just claim their rights). If a player is not claimed, he is a free agent. Any team that claims a player will drop to the bottom of the order for the next MLS waiver draft.

Players exposed in the waiver draft are not necessarily the only players that did not have their 2009 option picked up. Teams may decline to pick up an option of a particular player, but retain their rights if they intend on bringing them back for preseason, or are working on a new contract.

Hitchcock - Season Review: The Business...

FC Dallas GM Michael Hitchcock provided his review of the season for us to share with the fans. Below is a review of the business side of FCD; the first entry was a review of the team.
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The Business Operation for FC Dallas & Pizza Hut Park continues to grow. In spite of being in a strange economy (it's a wild business world out there right now), we're having our most successful year / season. Although we're all one company, and I'm the General Manager of FC Dallas & Pizza Hut Park, I'll focus this blog entry on FC Dallas specific business. Keep reading...

Allow me to start with commenting on our staff. We have a very talented, hard working staff; it's a dynamic group that has made a commitment to excellence. They're a pleasure to work with. That said, it’s an area, like the team, where we evaluate how we can improve. We are currently in the process of restructuring some departments, with the intended goal to give each department more tools to better accomplish our team goals.

Ticket Sales: We had our best Group Sales campaign in franchise history, finishing as one of the top Group Sales teams in MLS. We had three sales professionals - Roy Tewell, Evan Mitz and Matt Harber - who finished Best XI in MLS sales; and three rookie sales professionals - Kirsten Melander, Erin Cadenhead and Chris Baretta - who finished Best XI in MLS sales compared with rookie reps from other teams.

Overall ticket revenue increased by 16% over '07, and groups grew by 34%. We've grown our ticket revenue by 106% since moving into Pizza Hut Park in 2005. All that said, we're flat in season tickets, and that needs to change.

Full-Season seat sales continue to be a major area of focus. It's the core business that we need to grow. One area of disappointment in '08 was that we didn't significantly grow our Full-Season seats. We’ve hosted focus groups with past and current season ticket holders to gain a better understanding of their experience, and what we can improve on. We’ve had many internal meetings, and in a future post I’ll share some of our ideas in growing this area.

Sponsorship Sales: We’re very focused on selling the sponsorship for the front of the jersey. We are pretty far down the road with a couple of companies that are very interesting. I can’t comment further on the specifics, but what I can share with you that we’re experiencing what many companies are experiencing; marketing dollars are tight and companies are really evaluating their investments on a return on investment, more so than in the past.

Merchandise Sales: This is one major area of success for us. Between the team shop and fcdallasgear.com, we’re seeing huge growth in our merchandise sales. And, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, more people are wearing FCD gear around town. Our Merchandise sales are up 189% compared to ‘07, which were up 100% compared to ’06. With a ton of opportunity to grow our merchandise business, we’re very optimistic about this important and fast growing part of our business.

Media/PR: We continue to get more coverage each and every year, but we’re far from the mainstream media topic that we want to be. It’s a competitive sports market place, but we need to continue to sell the media on covering FC Dallas. We won’t be happy until we see/hear/read about FC Dallas in the mainstream media on par with other Major League teams in the area. We’re not expecting to quickly get the Cowboys-type coverage, but we know we don’t get the same attention that the remaining area teams get. We understand that winning helps this cause, in a major way.

That said, we appreciate the work that the reporters that cover the team put in, not only in covering the team, but the extra they do to convince their supervisors to give the sport of soccer space. We’re happy to be one of the few teams to get regular previews and recaps for all our games, even on the road.

We continue to be the leaders in MLS in new media, with the first, and I believe best team blog, and the popular FCD TV. We’ve seen a huge response to our new media efforts by fans and even the traditional media. We’re always looking at new opportunities to keep our fans informed. We share as much information as we can, and we know that you appreciate it.

Foundation/ Community Relations: We do over 300 player appearances a year, which is more than any other Major League team in the area. It’s an important part of our business model and one of our core values.

Our Foundation works with thousands of inner city and disadvantaged youth and raises hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to give back to the community. Whether it’s speaking to kids in schools, going out and conducting free soccer clinics, bringing kids to games, or supporting worthwhile foundations and community efforts - it’s all very important to our organization. And I want to take the this opportunity to once again thank our players - who put many hours in outside Pizza Hut Park to continue to help us make an impact in our community.

To close out the business review, I want to address one more topic: attendance, compared to last season.

When we moved into Pizza Hut Park, we expected many challenges, especially with regard to people giving our new stadium a chance - in a city that was still developing, and with a team that had just re-branded and changed its name and colors. For this, we can’t thank the fans that stayed with us through this transition enough.

In an effort to introduce new people to our new home, and our team, we provided many sponsors and associations complimentary tickets. After the first two and a half seasons here, we realized the number of people buying tickets continued to grow. Therefore this year, we reached a topping point, where we revised our policy on the distribution of complimentary tickets.

What did we see? An increase in tickets purchased, and tickets redeemed. That was our goal a few years ago, to raise the value of the team so that fans - many unlike you, our passionate supporters - would begin to feel passionate about the team, supporting us in this manner.

So while our attendance dropped from 07, our revenues increased; in ticket sales, merchandise, and gameday concessions. And, we've heard your feedback on improving that part of the gameday experience; we are exploring a number of options to improve concessions.

Overall, the FC Dallas fan base and brand continues to grow. We see it every day - that the interest in FC Dallas and our players continues to grow. We have a lot of work to do, but the staff is committed to success and becoming a great franchise.

Next, I’ll review the start of our Youth Development program.

Sincerely,

Hitch

General Manager
FC Dallas & Pizza Hut Park

InterLiga 2009 to begin at Pizza Hut Park

The Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (FMF), together with Soccer United Marketing (SUM), today announced the teams, groups, schedule and venues for InterLiga™ 2009. Pizza Hut Park will be the host to two doubleheaders for the sixth edition of the tournament, including the first match day on January 2, 2009. This will be the fourth consecutive year that Pizza Hut Park has been a venue for this tournament.

Friday, January 2:
Game 1 – Group A –Toluca vs. Morelia– 7:00 CT
Game 2 – Group A –UAG vs. Pachuca– 9:30 CT

Tuesday, January 6:
Game 7 – Group B –Tigres UANL vs. América– 7:00 CT
Game 8 – Group B –CD Guadalajara vs. Atlas– 9:30

Ticket information will be released at a later date. Houston's Robertson Stadium and Carson's The Home Depot Center are the other two host venues.

Hitchcock - Season Review: The team...

FC Dallas GM Michael Hitchcock provided his review of the season for us to share with the fans. This is the first of three entries we'll post over the next three days.
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At the end of the season, we spend a lot of time analyzing the year, which culminates with individual meetings with the players. I thought I’d share with you my review the FC Dallas season / year in three primary areas: (1) Team (2) Business (3) Youth Development. We’ll start with the team.

Last week, we completed our year-end meetings with all of the players (except for Kenny and Drew who were representing the U.S. National Team in Colorado). Most of the meetings lasted between 30-60 minutes, where Schellas and I provided our summary/review of the season and analysis of the individual player’s season. We focused a lot of time on the strengths and weaknesses of the team and the individual players, and discussed how we’re going to improve the team.

The meetings are very interactive, with players sharing their thoughts on the season and their personal performance. The meeting are extremely beneficial, we all realize: we all want the same thing – to win; and everyone feels the pain of this season. More...

My overall review: Disappointed with the way the season ended (this may be the understatement of the day). We had the goal of making the playoffs and peaking at the right time to make a strong run at the MLS Cup (see NY Red Bulls), and we fell short of our goal. If you look at our record (8 wins, 10 losses, 12 ties, and only five wins at home), you realize that if we could have held onto the lead in games that we were winning (we had 8 games that we were leading that ended in a tie (5) or loss (3)), and maximized points in those games, then we’re in the playoffs.

This needs to become a winning mentality - that when we’re winning, we win! Also, it’s important that we win our home games. We had the worst home record in MLS, and that’s not acceptable. Once again, it comes down to a winning mentality, that this is our home and we’re not going to give away points easily. Teams will need to come down here and fight us for the points.

I break down the season into three phases, not literally thirds of the season, but three phases that coincide with three different leaders of the team.

The first phase is the Steve Morrow-led FCD team: We had some positive results during the early stretch of the season, but overall things were heading in the wrong direction. All the things that were going wrong manifested themselves in the loss to the LA Galaxy at home in May. That’s when I made a difficult decision to make a change in leadership. Not an easy decision, but I felt and still feel it was the right one.

Steve is a good person and a good coach, but we needed a different type of leader for this team. Many people think that it was only this loss that led to this decision. It wasn’t. Everyone can have a bad game and these results can happen, but this team was heading in the wrong direction.

The 2nd phase is when Marco Ferruzzi was the Interim Head Coach: Under Marco and Drew Keeshan, the team rallied during a difficult time and during these four weeks, the team went .500. I thought it showed great character by the team to come together and fight hard for each other under very challenging circumstances. And Marco and Drew did a great job and really stepped up.

The final phase of the ‘08 season was the FCD team led by Schellas Hyndman and John Ellinger who joined Marco and Drew to form our coaching team: This is always tough, for the management team, for the players and for the coaches. There’s a new leadership style, new system, new structure; and in general, change. It’s all new. The challenge becomes that you don’t have the benefit of a two-month preseason to get everyone on the same page. Schellas’ preseason was four days before his first game against NY.

That said, I feel that under Schellas, we have a strong leader who is developing a winning mentality, creating a system for success, and will hold himself, the coaches and all of the players accountable. Accountability is the key to success and increased accountability wins some of the 12 ties, and helps create a mentality that this is our home, and we will win the games in our home.

I won’t go into detail analyzing player personnel in this blog. Obviously, with every decision we make, some work better than others for a variety of reasons. Just like decisions made in your business (or personal life.) What I can share with you is that we are committed to creating the best team. And we have a strong foundation of players to start us in the building process.

When we meet internally, we talk about creating a dynasty, which is sort of funny considering we haven’t won an MLS Cup championship or major competitions, but that’s what we’re trying to create: a team that has the personnel and infrastructure in place, so that when we win that first championship, we’re positioned to create a dynasty. Sooner rather than later!

In the coming weeks I’ll share more about what we’re doing in the off-season to improve the team (with the current personnel and new players.)

Check back later for my review of the business-side of our organization and our youth program.

Sincerely,

Hitch

General Manager
FC Dallas & Pizza Hut Park

The Protected / Unprotected Lists

Ealier today, all MLS teams were required to submit a list of 11 players that will be protected from the MLS Expansion Draft. Here's our official release.

Seattle may select a maximum of one player from each of the 14 MLS teams during the 10-round Expansion Draft on Wed., Nov. 26; four teams will not have a player selected. Players who are are part of the League’s Generation adidas Development program are automatically protected and could not be exposed. The following 11 FCD players are available for selection:

Goalkeeper: Ray Burse
Defenders: Aaron Pitchkolan, Duilio Davino, Andrew Daniels, Michael Dello-Russo, David Wagenfuhr.
Midfielders: Victor Sikora, Spencer Wadsworth, Chase Wileman.
Forwards: Jamie Watson, Jeff Rowland.

CORRECTION: we were informed that since Bobby Rhine had announced his retirement, he did not need to be included on either the protected or unprotected lists. We'll make the change on the release on the website shortly.

The Expansion Draft Rules

The Columbus Crew won the 2008 MLS Cup on Sunday with a 3-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls. That game officially ended the 2008 season, and today, teams are already getting ready for 2009.

Seattle Sounders FC will be the League's 15th team starting in 2009. While they've aleady signed a few players, the bulk of their roster will be filled this week, with the MLS Expansion Draft.

By 2 pm CT today, all current MLS teams must submit a list of the 11 players they are protecting - which means that most team will be exposing up to 17 players for Seattle to choose from. Before submitting their list, teams had a three hour window to make trades. The window closed at noon ET, and will open again after the Expansion Draft, which is set for the afternoon of Wed., Nov. 26.

A couple notes to keep in mind: Generation adidas players cannot be made available. For us, that means that Eric Avila, Josh Lambo, Bruno Guarda, Brek Shea, and Anothony Wallace are automatically protected. Blake Wagner, who played in 24 of the 30 games, will not be a Generation adidas player in 2009.

Also, teams may make available a number of international players equal to their total number of international players minus 3. FCD currently has eight internationals - which means we must protect at least three. The internationals are: Pablo Ricchetti, Duilio Davino, Adrian Serioux, Andre Rocha, Marcelo Saragosa, Dominic Oduro, Bruno Guarda, and Victor Sikora. Since Guarda is protected as a GA, we'll have to protect at least two more of the above.

So, with 5 Ga's automatically procted, we have 23 players that can be exposed from our 28-man roster. Eleven must be protected, which means 12 will have to be exposed. Click here for our current roster. We'll be back later with our list.

You can see the complete list of rules on this link.

Cooper - MLS Best XI, Comeback Player of the Year

MLS today announced that Kenny Cooper has been named to the 2008 MLS Best XI team, and was also named the MLS Comeback Player of the Year. Cooper is the sixth player in team history to be selected to the MLS Best XI team, and second Dallas player to win the MLS Comeback Player of the Year.

The Best XI is an annual award recognizing the League’s top 11 players at each individual position on the field – one goalkeeper, three defenders, five midfielders and two forwards. The MLS Comeback Player of the Year recognizes a player who has battled adversity and to returned to perform at the highest level in Major League Soccer. The winner of the Comeback Player of the Year and the Best XI members received the most votes from the media, MLS players and MLS coaches and general managers.

The previous Dallas players to be named to the MLS Best XI were: M - Ronnie O’Brien (2004); M – Oscar Pareja (2002); F – Jason Kreis (1999); GK – Mark Dodd and D – Leonel Alvarez (1996). Former midfielder Richard Mulrooney was selected the MLS Comeback Player of the Year in 2006.

FCD Juniors Play Saturday / Academy Liga

The FC Dallas Juniors will play at Pizza Hut Park for the second weekend in a row, this time taking on the Andromeda U-16 and U-18 teams tomorrow at 2 and 4 p.m. on Field 8. After both Juniors teams tied the Dallas Texans last week, the U-16s remain undefeated and at the top of the Central Conference while the U-18 team will have the chance to take down their age group’s division leader.

Switching gears slightly within the Youth Player Development System, this week FCD TV highlights the new Academy Liga program. It all starts here as Academy Liga provides a learning experience for U-7 to U-10 aged players by focusing on skills and development as opposed to stressing wins and losses. Check it out…


FC Dallas Youth Academy Liga Program from FC Dallas on Vimeo.

The guys in Spain...

While Kenny and Drew were with the 'big team' last night in Denver, three other players are with the U.S. U-20 MNT for a camp in Spain: goalkeeper Josh Lambo, defender Anthony Wallace, and FCD Juniors midfielder Josh Hernandez. Lambo and Wallace started the first two games of the trip, a 5-3 loss to Real Madrid Reserve team on Wednesday and a 0-0 draw against Atletico Madrid's Reserve team today.

Cooper Scores for the U.S.A in WCQ

Photo: Getty Images

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FCD's Kenny Cooper scored the game-winning goal for the U.S. Men's National Team tonight in in his first career start for the team, helping the U.S. to a 2-0 win over Guatemala in the final game of the Semifinal Round of 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifying played in Colorado. 

This was Cooper's second career goal for the U.S. MNT, and his third cap. In January 2007, he scored off the bench in his debut against Denmark, a 3-1 win. Two months later, he also appeared as a sub in a 0-0 draw with Guatemala. 

The U.S. has advanced to the final round of 2010 WC Qualifying, which will resume in 2009. 

Congrats to Kenny! 

NCAA Men's Soccer Tourney

On Monday evening, the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee announced the bracket for the 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship. The teams will be vying for the right to compete at the 2008 NCAA Men’s College Cup December 12 and 14 right here at Pizza Hut Park, as we host the tournament together with SMU.

Wake Forest University, the defending national champion was awarded the No. 1 seed. The University of Maryland earned the No. 2 seed; St. John’s University (New York) was named the No. 3 seed; and Michigan State University earned the No. 4 seed.

All first-round games will be played either November 21 or 22, while all second-round action will take place November 25. The top 16 seeds receive a bye in the first round. Click here for the complet bracket...Predictions on which four teams make it to PHP?

Moor and Cooper - U.S. MNT

Drew Moor and Kenny Cooper will both remain with the U.S. MNT in advance of the FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Guatemala on Nov. 19 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Colorado (7 pm CT, ESPN Classic and Galavision). Here's U.S. Soccer's unique announcement of the 20-man roster:

The United States, Costa Rica and El Salvador have already advanced to the Final Round, with the remaining three teams to be determined on Nov. 19 on the final matchday of the Semifinal phase. The draw to determine the placement of teams in the CONCACAF Final Round hexagonal for 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying will take place on Nov. 22 in Johannesburg. Teams will learn their opponents as well as home and away dates for all 10 Final Round qualifiers that will determine the three automatic berths for CONCACAF in 2010 in South Africa.

FCD Juniors Update

Above: Bradlee Baladez for the header. Below: Ralph Velasco dives in defensively.
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The FC Dallas Juniors U-16s and U-18 each earned draws versus local-side Dallas Texans on Saturday in their first games here at Pizza Hut Park. The strong wind and temperatures in the 40s weren't enough to keep family, friends, and fans of FC Dallas from turning out, as we had a couple hundred fans in attendance.

For the FCD U-16s, this was the first game it failed to win this year. Though dominating play, the team went down a goal in the first half. However Jonathan Top evened the score with five minutes left to play to keep the team undefeated. The U-18s had a similar result, going down a goal early in the second game. This time, it was London Woodberry who headed come a Cody Adams cross with three minutes to play to earn the tie.

Beginning of the Off-Season...

Most of the player have already begun their off-season, and a few are already on their way to their respective hometowns. The coaches? They're still working, scouting as many college games in person or on the tube as possible.

Last week, assistant coach John Ellinger was in San Jose, Calif. looking at a players from PAC 10 and Big West schools. This weekend, he's in Raleigh, North Carolina for the ACC Tournament. Marco Ferruzzi was at the Conference USA first round games earlier this week in Dallas, and is in Evansville, Indian this weekend for the Missouri Valley Conference Tourney. Drew Keeshan is in Tampa, Florida this weekend looking at players in the Big East Tournament. A few more trips are also planned before the NCAA College Cup, which is here at Pizza Hut Park on Dec. 12-14.

2008 FC Dallas Off Season Plans from FC Dallas on Vimeo.

The players? Our FCD TV cameras were their when they arrived back in February...and, the cameras were also there this week as they prepared to leave ...

The Board

Although the 2008 season has been over for us for a couple of weeks, the board in the locker room today made it pretty clear. During the season, that board is used to post training times and other important messages and / or notes. Most of the guys cleared their stuff out on Wednesday following the scrimmage. The majority will have their exit physicals today.

Once training ended, Schellas and Hitch began jointly meeting with each player. About 10 players had their meetings yesterday up here in Hitch's office, each taking about 30 minutes. They'll wrap up the meetings next week.

Final Scrimmage

The 2008 season has officially come to an end following this morning’s intrasquad scrimmage inside the stadium. It was an opportunity for the coaching staff to evaluate current FCD players as well as the three trialists -- Daniel Torres, Carlos Johnson and Kevin Ouma. Also participating today were Josh Hernandez, London Woodberry and Bradlee Baladez from the FCD Juniors program, and two former FCD Youth players who currently play at Richland Junior College -- Andrew Scaglione and Fernando Garza.

While today’s game wasn’t necessarily about the result, the green squad ended up winning 2-1 on goals from Bruno Guarda (15’) and Jeff Cunningham (35’). Woodberry added a goal for the green team in the 75th. Since the coaches had a few players switch teams at halftime, we’ve listed the first and second half lineups for each squad…

Green Team
First Half: Sala, Wagner, Torres, Pitchkolan, Johnson, Watson, Wileman, McCarty, Hernandez, Ouma, Oduro.
Second Half: Sala, Wallace, Torres, Ricchetti, Johnson, Garza, Baladez, Woodberry, Ouma Watson.

White Team
First Half: Burse, Wallace, Daniels, Scaglione, Spencer, Sikora, Ricchetti, Guarda, Avila, Rocha, Cunningham.
Second Half: Lambo, Wagner, Daniels, Scaglione, Wadsworth, Sikora, Wileman, Guarda, Avila, Rocha, Oduro.

Cooper and Moor join U.S. MNT

Kenny Cooper and Drew Moor are on their way to Denver, Colorado today to join the U.S. Men's National Team for a four-day camp.

Following the completion of the camp and the next round of club matches, U.S. MNT head coach Bob Bradley will announce the roster that will train in advance of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Guatemala that is scheduled for Nov. 19 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in (7 p.m. CT, live on ESPN2 and Galavision).

Cooper had made two previous appearances with the MNT, the last one against Guatemala on March 28, 2007 at Pizza Hut Park. Moor has appeared in five games, including three earlier this year - one being a WCQ versus Barbados in June.

FCD Juniors Update

The FCD Juniors played two games in Houston this past weekend in U.S. Soccer Development Academy play.

On Saturday, the FCD U-16s defeated Houston's Texas SC 6-0, receiving four goals from Ruben Luna, and one each from Jose Perez and Scott Sprick. The U-18s tied Texas SC's U-18 2-2, with goals from Jesus Gamino and London Woodberry.

On Sunday, the Jrs. U-16s defeated previously unbeaten Texas Rush 5-0. Bryan Leyva, Darin Kruzich, Victor Ulloa each scored once, and Luna added two more. Later, the FCD U-18s defeated Rush's U-18s 3-2, Gamino scoring twice and Woodberry adding another one.

The FCD Juniors U-16s are 7-0 on the season, and have scored 26 goals while only surrendering 4 - by far the best numbers in the Texas Division at this point. Ruben has scored 15 goals in the six games he's played in, tallying games of 1, 3, 4, 1, 4, and 2 goals; he missed one game when he was moved up to the U-18s.

The FCD Juniors U-18s are 3-2-2, 11 points, currently in fourth place, but have played one less game then the teams ahead.

Both FCD Juniors play their first home game of the season on Saturday, Nov. 15 when the Dallas Texans visit Pizza Hut Park (2 and 4 pm).

Davino on Republica Deportiva

Duilio Davino was a guest on Univision's popular Republica Deportiva on Sunday, Nov. 9. As many here know, this is arguably the most popular weekly Spanish-language sports show on TV here in the U.S., featuring our friends Fernando, Rosana, and Felix. Here's his segment...
On Wednesday, Duilio will be a guest of Televisa - Mexico's TV giant - during the broadcast of Mexico's friendly versus Ecuador in Phoenix.

Congratulations Kenny and Pablo

Kenny Cooper has been named the 2008 FC Dallas Most Valuable Player and Pablo Ricchetti has been chosen as the team’s Defender of the Year as voted by the local media.

Kenny also gets the Budweiser Golden Boot for his team-high 18 regular season goals and Pablo has been recognized as FCD’s U.S. Soccer Foundation Humanitarian of the Year for his work within the community. Schellas Hyndman notified both of the awards while addressing the team before practice this morning.

Local media members were asked to provide their top three choices for both MVP (open to all players on the roster) and Defender of the Year (defenders, goalkeepers and holding midfielders). Other players receiving votes for MVP included Pablo, Andre Rocha, Dario Sala, Marcelo Saragosa and Jeff Cunningham. Others receiving votes for Defender of the Year were Dario, Marcelo, Drew Moor, Adrian Serioux, Blake Wagner, Duilio Davino and Aaron Pitchkolan.

Read the full press release here...

(Photos - Rick Yeatts / FC Dallas)

Three in on Trial

Pictured above from left to right are Daniel Torres, Carlos Johnson and Kevin Ouma. All three players have come in on trial and began training with the team on Thursday.

Central defender Torres and right-sided defender / midfielder Johnson are from Costa Rica and both recently wrapped up the season at Bryne FK in the Norwegian second division. Torres has also spent some time in MLS with Columbus (2001-2003) and Salt Lake (2006-2007).

Ouma is a Kenyan-born attacking midfielder / forward who has spent time with Mathare United (Kenya) and Al-Ryan (Qatar). All three players will continue to practice with the team next week, including the intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

The Goals of 2008

FC Dallas scored 59 goals in 38 total games this year, including regular season play (30 games), U.S. Open Cup competition (2 games), and international friendlies (6 games). Here are the goal scorers...

• Kenny Cooper (18 regular, 1 Open Cup, 1 friendly)
• Dominic Oduro (5 regular, 1 friendly)
• Jeff Cunningham (5 regular)
• Abe Thompson (3 regular, 2 Open Cup)
• Andre Rocha (3 regular, 1 friendly)
• Arturo Alvarez (3 regular)
• Juan Toja (2 regular, 1 friendly)
• Drew Moor (2 regular)
• Ricardinho (2 friendly)
• Aaron Pitchkolan (1 regular, 2 friendly)
• Bruno Guarda (1 regular)
• Marcelo Saragosa (1 regular)
• Victor Sikora (1 regular)
• Jamie Watson (1 friendly)
• David Wagenfuhr (1 friendly)
• Pablo Ricchhetti (1 friendly)

For your viewing pleasure, we’ve put together a video of FCD’s goals during the 2008 season, in no particular order. You’ll notice one goal is missing --- Ricardinho’s tally against Tigres in Monterrey on Feb. 20. Unfortunately, we did not have a high quality version of that goal to include, but the rest are all there. Enjoy….

FCD Goals 2008 from FC Dallas on Vimeo.

A lot of info...

After a couple of days off-site, the group came back to practice outdoors here at Pizza Hut Park. Since they really are not training for anything right now, we'll leave out a practice report and just give you some nuggets of info:

• A few guys are out with injuries that they often would play through in a season: Aaron Pitchkolan has turf toe; Michael Dello-Russo and Pablo Ricchetti have hamstring injuries; Adrian Serioux is resting that left knee that forced him to come out of the LA game; and of course Marcelo Saragosa, Brek Shea, and Jeff Rowland are still rehabbing their knees.
• FCD Juniors midfielder Josh Hernandez trained with the team again today. The coaches want him to get used to a 'call-up', that way he's a little less intimidated when he joins the U.S. U-20's in Spain later this month.
• David Wagenfuhr stopped by earlier this week. It had been a while since we here at the FCD Blog had chatted with him. He sounds like he's doing good, though didn't comment much when asked about playing again.
• We've finalized our end of season plans. No extra game, though we will be having an intra-squad scrimmage on Nov. 12.
• The guys will practice outdoors on Thursday and Friday of this week, and then the first three days next week. After that, they'll be doing exit physicals and individual meetings with the coaching staff and Hitch. They will likely be done by Nov. 18 or 19.
• Tomorrow we'll have two guest players, both from Costa Rica, who just ended their season playing in Norway. Danny Torres and Carlos Johnson will arrive today and train with the team through next week. We may have an additional guest player on Friday.
• We're also finalizing plans for the preseason. The idea is to have the players in by Feb. 2, and then train in Brazil, Argentina, and Florida. Details are being worked out, so we'll keep you updated as this unfolds.
• Duilio Davino will be a guest on Univision's popular show Republica Deportiva. They've been wanting him on all season, but the weekends never seemed to work out - until now. Duilio will also be a guest in the Televisa TV booth next week when Mexico plays Ecuador in Phoenix.
• The coaches are talking with our partner clubs to see if we can have a few players train with them this offseason.
• Adrian has been called in for the Canadian National team for a World Cup Qualifier on Nov. 19 againts Jamaica.
• Finally, our coaches begin their NCAA off-site scouting this weekend, with John Ellinger going to San Jose. All the coaches will be on the road next weekend, spread around the country

Hitchcock - Letter to fans...

FC Dallas General Manager Michael Hitchcock
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Looking back...

As I sit in my office looking down at our beautiful stadium, it pains me to know we won't have an FC Dallas playoff game this year. It hurts as a General Manager of the team, as the leader of a Business Operation, and mostly, as a fan.

All of us in the Front Office are passionate fans of FC Dallas and Major League Soccer, and this season’s results hurt us, just like they hurt you. We all ride the highs and the lows of a season, and this one has had its share of both.

Our vision remains to "be the best,” which is easier said than done. It’s not just our vision as an organization, but also as fans – we want to be the best, we want to win championships, we want to lift trophies. Keep reading...

At the end of every season, there's a time for reflection and analysis of the team, the players, and our entire organization. We accept that not every decision works out exactly as we’d like. But we stay committed to what we're trying to create at FC Dallas – a winning team that we are all proud of.

I've been fortunate enough to have been a part of championship teams and organizations in D.C. and LA, and I've experienced first hand what winning a Championship means to the fans, the team, and front office and organization. I want that here. We all want that here. And that’s what keeps driving us.

I want to take this opportunity to once again thank you for your commitment to us. It's encouraging to see more and more passionate fans come to our blog on a regular basis to interact and share your feedback.

During the off-season, I intend to blog more often to keep our loyal fans updated on what we're working on. Next week, I'll share our analysis of the season in greater detail.

Keep coming back and we'll do our part to keep you updated on everything that's going on with your team...

Sincerely,

Hitch

General Manager
FC Dallas & Pizza Hut Park

Moor and Sala re-sign

FC Dallas General Manager Michael Hitchcock today announced that the team has re-signed defender Drew Moor and goalkeeper Dario Sala. Per team and league policy, terms won't be released.

Moor started 27 games in 2008, finishing second on the team amongst field players with 2,430 minutes played, while also adding two goals and one assist. The team’s first pick in the 2005 MLS SuperDraft (6th overall), Moor took on an increased leadership role in 2008, wearing the captain’s armband seven times.

Sala started 28 games during the 2008 campaign, matching his MLS career-high (2006), and also posted career-highs in shutouts (seven) and minutes played (2,520). The seven clean sheets were the most by a Dallas goalkeeper since 2001 (Matt Jordan, nine). The Argentine helped the team to the fourth-best goal differential (+4) in MLS.