For most professional clubs, these open tryouts are an opportunity for playing fans to meet and greet the coaches and players. I do not take anything away from the trialists or their efforts. If I was younger, I'd be right there with them. My question is "Do the Aztex really expect to find a diamond in the rough?" Many of the trialists will have good individual skills, but what of their tactical, decision making? How will they be able to fit into a professional system? How can they fit into the team? I hope the tryouts are a great time and everyone enjoys themselves. And know if I was twnety years younger, I'd be out there regardless the weather having the time of my life.
Yeah there were a few of Chanticos Army out there spectating yesterday... it was COLD. And windy. And the pitch was rather moist. The day was broken into three sessions of 2.5 hours each -- each player took part in one session. (I think today is the same.) Overall the quality of players seemed higher than the tryouts each of the past couple of years. I saw some very nice passes and a couple of great individual moves in the time that I was out there. But hard to say if there was somebody worth signing.... I will say it was great to see some familiar faces and be together watching football again.
There was a kid from Seria: D in Italy there who came to Austin for the tryouts. I didn't really notice him on the pitch. Also there was a Nigerian who spent most of the match on the ground . There were bright spots, but I'm going to hold off on my notes and recomendation untill after I see how they do today. Hmm. I might miss the 8AM tryouts if I see Stu Holden in Bolton's starting 11 in the FA Cup match though.
Thanks for the info guys, not thinking I'll be out there this morning either, but I was tempted. Too bad there hasn't seem to be anyone we HAVE to have. Not surprising, but would have been nice. We'll see what the coaching staff thinks.
mgrayscale will report soon on how the trails went. I wished I was there, but was very busy at work over the weekend.
I've got pictures and comments on the tryouts, and I'll post those later. I will so though that no one should get their hopes up that a real diamond in the rough was found.
hmm maybe I should give my report 1st, OK? What do y'all want to hear about 1st, the couple brights spots, OR the the moments when some players so messed up that they make you say "WTF was he thinking!?"
Lets go with both. My thoughts: I did get a chance to watch part of the 3rd session on Sunday. I saw a few players who did ok, but no one stood out as an exceptional player. While I was there the players were split into two games (left and right fields, whites and darks [pennies]). I watched the first game (~30 minutes long) on the left side. Both sides seem to go with a 4-4-2. Goalies: Both had fairly unimaginative/poor distribution. Dark goalie lingered on the ball too long at times and gave up the ball to a forward early in the game. He was fortunate not to be scored on. White goalie showed better control of the box, coming out to punch away crosses. Neither were really tested by shots. Defenders: None of the outside backs were very impressive. The white side's outside backs were quite poor. Centerbacks were much better with a shorter guy with longer hair playing well for white, and a larger, tall dark haired guy playing well for the dark side. The white centerback read the plays well and offered decent distribution. Midfielders: Midfield was a bit of a mess with players unfamiliar with each other. I liked the left mid for the dark team, a player in a full blue kit. He made good runs to the corner and generally looked to be the most dangerous player for the dark side. Unfortunately, he is very slightly built and was going against an unimpressive white team right back. Forwards: Not much to say here. Overall, players probably lacked a bit of vision with their passing. First touch and accurate passes were somewhat rare. The game I watched was very clustered and not spaced very well. The game could have greatly benefited from more open play.
First the ones who probably should have gotten a little less encouragement from their families and a reality check by the guidance councilor. We had a couple goalies who were short and round, Vaquero and Bimbo. I didn't realize vaquero was a goallie when I first met him. He's 16 years old and, well, his parents are free to spend their money however they wish. But I would have advised both of them to get under the crossbar, jump up and hit the crossbar. If you can't do that, you can't be a goalie. In group 3, there was a 30 year bald guy who does not appear to have trained in the last 6-months. He was drinking a lot more water than everybody else. I thought he might have been adding on a extra 5-10 pounds solely from water weight. Nice guy, but he severely lacking in match fitness. And then there was the 300-pounder. I'm not kidding. Ask Matt. I'll be fair and say that I saw one instance where the weight worked in his advantage when I saw a defender bounce off of him. There was a guy in group:1, I called him doo-rag (I think he was number 111). He would show flashes of brilliance and skill on the ball...but then he he'd pass it along and decide, "that's it. I'm done!" and stop moving. If only he would be more aggressive and do more to follow the ball up to the goal, he could have been great on day one. But instead he looked great for 5-seconds and then would quit. He did that over and over again. For 5-seconds, he'd be the best guy on the pitch, then he pass the ball along and he'd just stop moving. Maybe he could be a good development player if he's young. But I was far less impressed with him on Sunday. In group 3, Day1- there was a guy who took a hard ball right to the Go-Nads. OUCH!!!! It smacked him full power and then rolled up his body as he fell to the ground. Hmmm. I think I will hold it there for a few hours and come back to post the good.
As an aside, I was at the Aztex office earlier today dropping off a CD of images I took this weekend. I asked Kay if there was going to be an invitation only tryout later, and if there was, if it was open to the members of the supporters group generally, Chantico's Army specifically. She said that she would check with Adrian (who was in a meeting while I was there). So, there may be a chance to see better performances before the first game. One player who may be there is someone I chatted with on Sunday, Vardan Adzemian (picture below), actually spoke with Adrian about an invite to those tryouts. He's got experience in Greece, at the LA Galaxy, and most recently, a loan stint at the Timbers.
Yeah, I saw the big guy in Group 3. On day 2 he was wearing a full purple kit. @Chanticos_Army saw him and referred to him as Grimace (I laughed):
Now for some of the brighter stars in Aztex open tryouts. Early on, one of my preferred players was a Haitian goal-keeper who came here from Florida. I was standing near by the goal-keeper warm-up drills and I saw this Haitian appear more pumped and energized to be there than the other players. Of course that group had Vaquero in it. He did lack a few physical attributes that I prefer. He does not follow in the fine line of American goal-keepers being big, tall, well built players with a lot of body mass. He was only of medium height and build. And I thought he had some judgment, but the opportunities to test that were few and far between. All in all, no goal-keeper really struck me as a must-have with the potential of being the next Brad Friedel or Casey Keller. Although on a comical note, there was one GK who repeatedly had trouble getting the ball off the ground when clearing and taking goal kicks. Confronted with his unfortunate inability to get it up, he would often show off quite loudly his impressive vocabulary. Unfortunately, 99% of it was decidedly unfit for children. I heard him up close, and then I could still hear him swearing from a 100yards away when I went to go sit by Matt.
My favorite player: #214 This was a medium-built, mid-sized guy from the Mid-West I believe. On day one, 214 was fast as lightning. Noticeably faster than anybody else on the field. His break-neck speed was hampered by some poor service from mid-fielders on some occasions, and poor finishing on others. Overall, he had a good read of the game, especially as a deep lying striker. He was the fastest thing on the field on day one, and he was running longer than others and was all over the place. He got to some balls faster than I would have thought possible. He was just above average for set pieces, and I think he can improve. If I were picking a player for development, #214 is my guy.
Next: #132 – Group 1 seemed to be the most rag-tag of the groups (IMHO) but I like 132. I was near by the corner when I saw him approach down the line, receive the ball, and use some fine foot-skills to get around a defender and then used his body to shield both himself and the ball as he made a perfectly placed cross that yielded a header shot on goal. I thought he repeatedly shined on set pieces. It seemed he may have had some stamina issues, but who doesn’t? After all that’s why we pick them up and start training for 90 minutes each day. I think he had fine foot-skill, good read of the game, very good service into the goal area, and a good positional sense and use of his body. I think #132 would make for a fine A-MF if he is still young enough to develop.
I wasn't going to mention him by name, because showing too much interest drives up prices as he can now go to Portland and show that Austin is interested in him or that Austin supporters want him. I was going to post that we had an uninvited (and very welcomed) guest show up to speak with Coach Heath. I read somewhere on the web a thread comment that when-ever he started for Portland, they didn't lose. I spent about an hour talking with him, and he seems like a good, down to earth player that loves Soccer. Plus he knows all my favorite Galaxy players like Alecko Eskandarian, and I can now say that there are only 2-degrees of seperation between me and David Beckham! But unfortunately I have not yet seen him on the ball, so hopefully there will be an opportunity for CA to watch an invite-only tryout/training session with him. Anyways, from what I gather, he was quick to get into soccer signing a developmental contract with the LA Galaxy, training and playing in the Galaxy Reserves matches and being a possible sub in MLS matches. He had a loan spell with the Portland Timbers. As I said, somewhere on the web a fan noted that whenever he started, they won.
I don't think we need to worry too much about that. From what I could tell, he's not with a team now, but I would like to think that some day we'd have the power to dictate player salaries (delusion has now begun). Although I'm not done with the report, I did want to let everyone know that I've posted 37 images from the weekend, so you can check out some of the players that were out.
OK guys for those of us too lazy to do the research. How old is this guy and what position did he play in Portland when they went undefeated? If we sign him, where do you see him playing for us?
Lazy buggers... He was born in 1984 (making him 25). He's listed as a Defender, but when I spoke to him, he said that he can also play in Midfield, although he does prefer the left side. I do think it's a bit premature to discuss a signing, however, his resume at least makes him a candidate (in my opinion) for an invitation trial. The thing that concerns me is his lack of playing time at many of the clubs he's been at. Add to that, the only play film I could find was a short 21 sec clip on [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxrhAtB_f3A"]YouTube [/ame]that doesn't show much.
A lot of those guys this weekend worked hard and I think it's unfair for the official supporters to get on a forum and blast a few of them for their mistakes. No one has mentioned the incredibly talented right center back for the white team that ended the last day on the left field. He made some incredible tackles and had some great recoveries. And although there were some guys out there that wouldn't make it by a long shot, they essentially donated to your club just to have a great experience in the try out. And for the GK that supposedly swore all day....I heard him curse once and he was the only GK that had a vocal presence as well as a physical presence in the box. Ease up on these guys.
No one is arguing that, and if you go back and look at the thread so far, you'll see far more positive comments that "...blast..." comments. I agree with you that there were a lot of folks that came out this weekend and gave their all. They are to be commended for that. There was a lot of promise out there, that unfortunately, is not quite ready for a professional soccer contract. It's really a shame, as I think if we had a amateur squad, then there is a greater chance some folks would have a chance. There are also those that come out that don't have the awareness of others around them, the field, or the skills to make it at a professional level. As many of our supporters were not able to make it this weekend, those of us that were there are simply relaying what we saw. However, this is a supporters group. We make comments around the squad and those trying to get on it that reflect our opinion, not that of the organization. And to call their participation a "...donated..." activity to the club is naive. There is a history of players getting picked up at tryouts not only for the Aztex but other organizations. Gareth Evans was someone signed from last years tryouts. There have been others before that. So if you don't like what's being said by supporters, then it might be good to give this forum a pass.
I think the "donation" in question is to make sure that the people who try out really want to try. Otherwise you'd have yahoos like my 5'8" 240lb self out there trying to play. The fee is there to make sure they're serious. Also the club has rental expenses for the field, and the hotel costs which I believe are included in the "donation".
From Matt's Report on Chantico's Site: Multiple "well connected" sources said there are 3 additional signings that will be announced very soon. That would bring the total number of signings to 13, and according to the source, Adrian now has his starting XI, and is simply filling out the squad. Such great news as the clock ticks down to the first match!!! Good stuff, to say the least, to hear from the Gaffer. I thought the 10/11 that wikipedia says we have looked pretty solid. But whats this then??? Trying ta turn an army scarf into a russian babushka are we?? For shame!
