MODS NOTE: This thread is for first-hand reports only. If people continue to chat here, we'll shut it down and reopen only for updates. It would be greatly appreciated if people posting first-hand reports would double post them in the thread below. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290617 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jan 5th Report Hey, just finished watching the morning training sessioin. Snapped some pics but my camera doesn't zoom very far so I don't if any of them are any good. I'll load them up tonight when I get home and see if any are worth posting. I also pulled out my vid camera and started rolling but a security guard came over and told me no videotaping. So later on I did some "on-the-down-low" videotaping while holding the camcorder in my lap, but I couldn't hold the camera up over the fence to get a clean shot, so that may not be any good either. We'll see. Got to meet a couple bigsoccer guys. Big shout out to AYSOCommish! Anyway, some quick impressions: The session was 1 1/2 hours long - they did some stretching, then divided into three teams - I'll call them A, B and C. They did some drills in their groupings - then the final portion of the session was 9 v 9 games on a 2/3rd size field - each team playing the other for 10 minutes - so each team basically played two 10-minute games. The A and B teams were comprised mainly of the more established guys and seemed to pit guys competing against each other for a roster spot. For instance, Chris Albright played right back on the A team, and Frankie Heydude played right back on the B team. To the best of my recollection: A team - Albright----Pope------Pearce Ralston---Donovan---Olsen -------Johnson---Ching------ B team - Heydude---Conrad---Mastroeni Quaranta---Dempsey--Carrol -------Twellman----Wolf The C team was primarily all of the new guys with few or no caps: C team - Pat Noonan---Ugo Ihemelu---Todd Dunivant Chris Klein---Kyle Martino---Freddy Adu -------Nate Jaqua----Chris Rolfe As you can see, some guys played out of position, but in such small scrimmages, guys were moving all over. There were 4 goalkeepers, Hartman, Reis, Guzan and Wells and they took turns rotating in and didn't stay with one particular group. My recollection is that Hartman was the only keeper really tested and he made one nice save. My player impressions- Donovan got the ball once with space in front of him and the assistant coach nearest him immediately starting yelling "Take it to 'em! Take it to 'em" It's pretty clear that they are really looking to Donovan to be the guy to press forward and attack quickly when he gets the ball. And that's exactly what he did. Made one of his fast-as-********** runs straight toward goal. But Ugo Ihemelu was defending him, and Ugo was probably the one defender out there with the pace to shut Donovan down and that's exactly what he did. In the little 5 v 5 one-touch drill before the scrimmage, it was pretty clear that Ugo had the poorest "touch" of the guys - but he is just so damn fast and strong - I don't see him making the team - but Arena clearly has an eye on him for the future - a 2010 back line of Ugo-Gooch-Spector would scare the hell out of me if I was a forward... Players that stood out from the pack (for good or bad): Twellman - had one clear goal scoring opportunity and hit it off the near post. D'oh! Johnson - looked rusty, but didn't seem to be limping or otherwise hurt - won a couple balls in the air and had one good scoring opportunity that he screwed up. Freddy - That kid can dribble. Smallest player on the team - but he held his own. His final passes were mostly off - a couple crosses really sailed on him - coaches were very supportive of him and kept talking to him during the scrimmages. Jaqua - Real frickin' tall. But he looked really slow out there. Chris Rolfe - Okay, here's my early prediction based on watching two ten-minute scrimmages on the first full day of camp.... He's going to make this team. And here's why --- thirty minutes of scrimmaging with Donovan, Twellman, Wolf, Johnson, Adu -- basically the majority of our offensive hopes outside of Brian McBride, and Rolfe was the only one to score a goal during the scrimmages. He slipped between two defenders, got a low cross from I think Chris Klein, facing sideways to goal, quickly cut it onto his plant foot, pivoted and shot it low far post. My only knock on him is how small he is - I had no idea he was that tiny - definitely smaller than Donovan. But he has that spark. He and Adu ran a nearly perfect give and go that almost put Adu in alone on goal. It was fun to be at the practice and so close to the field and get to hear how much the players talk to each other during the game, especially how vocal the goalkeepers are in keeping their defense organized. Guzan, especially, is very vocal back there. Maybe he was just excited to be playing behind a bunch of guys who speak English and can understand him. That was a joke, people. Just a joke... So there's my initial thoughts. Will post any good pics and vids tonight when I get a chance. If you have any specific questions I will answer whatever I can - just remember that all I did was stand outside the fence and watch...
Re: Jan 4 Training Camp Updates To answer all the questions: Pope seemed pretty mobile - didn't do a whole lot during the scrimmages that I can remember. He definitely was the player who got the most attention from the trainers with extra stretching, etc. Johnson's missed chance was just a fairly open strike on the ball from some distance that he shanked high and wide. He looked exactly how you'd expect a top-calibar athlete to look after missing six months. I do remember at one point the A team had a semi-fast break down the right side with Ralston and the ball and Johnson made an awful run to the left that totally took him out of the play. But he also won a couple headers and looked to be moving comfortably. Adu was dribbling to take on players - trying to beat them one-on-one - a couple times, but most of his dribbling was trying to maintain possession in tight spaces - he does that really well - but this scrimmage wasn't too physical - the bodies weren't really banging - so that played to his strength. Martino ran around a lot - got several touches - but didn't do anything much to create any dangerous chances. Dempsey was slightly more dangerous - he had one really exciting run from the left side of the field where he turned and ran straight at goal and then tried to cut around the defender to go near post - but another defender got there just in time to toe-poke it away from him. Dempsey is still Dempsey - raw, but showing potential. The practice ran from 10 am to 11:30 am. They are doing mostly two-sessions a day I hear. 10 am and 4 pm I think. If I'm off work any days next week, I might go back down to take in another session - to see how things have changed as they get deeper into the camp. Also, for those who care, Chris Rolfe scored his goal on the "B" team defense with Kevin Hartman in goal. I think it was Jimmy Conrad who gave him the space to spin and shoot but I'm not sure on that.
Re: Jan 4 Training Camp Updates Okay, my little digital still camera sucks. It can't zoom in enough so most of the photos are out of focus b/c I went into the digital zoom range w/o realizing it. The video I secret taped is better and I'll hopefully have that up by tomorrow morning. Here they are: Here is what I called Team A doing their basic skills drill (passing, dribbling, etc.) Oddly enough, during this time when each group was doing a different drill (passing, one-touch mini-scrimmage and basic skills) Arena observed the group doing their basic skills. Here is Team C doing their one-touch mini-scrimmage. Another shot of Team C doing one-touch scrimmage. I'll try to post the video ASAP. It's much better.
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates You probably won't be able to recognize anyone in these videos. You couldn't decipher anything when these videos were 100mb each, and you can see even less now that they've been compressed to 30mb. It is what it is. If someone remembers who was on each team, it might help. I've long forgotten. The scrimmages were a blue team versus a green team on a short field. I think it was 5 on 5 on the inside, and alternating players from each team lined the outside. They were in play, but couldn't really stray much from their spot. Teams never changed, but players took turns being on the inside or outside group. 62.4% sure Onolfo was playing for the injured Albright, who tried to warm up a bit and stretch, but just couldn't go. bruce.zip :: Bruce before practice began, taking shots on goal against a strange dwarven carney. His strike rate explains his patience with Taylor Twellman. Zip file containing 3 videos, approx 20mb total. Scrimmage #1 :: Soccer. Twellman scores on a cross from Ching a few seconds in. Arena gets angry. Soccer is played with Donovan and Klein missing chances. Adu with some giveaways. Not sure if anyone else scores before they switch sides. After the switch, EJ scores twice. Adu gets knocked down. 7 minutes, approx 30 mb. Scrimmage #2 :: Rolfe finishes a low cross from Twellman. Meets it near post and does some little fancy flick to send it just inside the far post. Onolfo plays good defense. Klein scores. Ching misses an open header. Klein hammers the post from close range. 3 minutes, 30 mb. Scrimmage #3 :: Martino goes down. Martino misses. Hejduk slides in an own goal (I think). Onolfo scores on a nice through ball from Mastroeni(?). 3 minutes, 30 mb. Scrimmage #4 :: Hartman with a couple of good saves. Someone scores on a good ball from Adu(?). Twellman turns, shoots, and scores in traffic. Klein crushes a shot that lands somewhere far away. Dempsey dives. Dempsey hesitates and has a shot blocked. Landon gives the ball away (noting it here because it happened quite a bit an earlier drill, and was a recurring theme on the day). 3 minutes, 30 mb. Scrimmage #5 :: Olsen shaves the post on a low shot. Ugo has a poor giveaway. As TrickHog mentioned, he looks a bit out of his league technically. The Carney walks by on ball retrieval duty. Thought I was pinched. Adu shoots where there is no shot and gets the expected result. Twellman scores the goal of the day. Deep cross comes on as he poaches far post (stop me if you've heard this one before, Revs fans). Twellman elevates and hammers the ball upper-90 with a sideways scissor kick. 3 minutes, 30mb. Scrimmage #6 :: Landon hits over the bar and against the side of a building. Rolfe with a one-two to beat Ugo, misses the finish with the keeper to beat. Someone scores on a good cross from... I want to say Adu. Klein destroys the post again as more important matters are discussed. Dempsey attempts some stepovers that are downright Hejduk, not that you'll be able to tell from this video. 3 minutes, 30mb Scrimmage #7 :: Dunivant shoots just wide on a low, long range effort. Guzan with a good stop but someone puts in the rebound. Wolff with a nice jumping backheel flick pass thing... that went to nobody but looked great. Ching missed another header (Unless he scored. Someone should ask him which it was cuz I don't remember.) Adu with a nice blast that hits the underside of the crossbar and bounces down across the line (We assume.) 3 minutes, 30mb.
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates Initial impressions of today's practice: Bruce split the group into two groups, it didn't look like there was any A or B side out there but one team clearly came out on top at the end of it. One team was Rolfe, Jaqua, Ching, Donovan, Carroll, Noonan, Klein, Quaranta, Pearce, Hedjuk and Conrad (maybe?). The other team was Wolff, Twellman, GAM, Martino,Olsen, Adu, Ralston, Ihemelu, Pope, Dunivant, and Dempsey. Albright and Mastroeni both sat out with injuries. Albright looked to be in pain walking. First game was playing 18 to 18 with three little goals set up. They did this for about 20 minutes. I think the final score was 4-3 to Donovan's team. Dempsey had a few for his team, Freddy had one. Ching played like ******** in this game. It looked like he was trying to kill the ball more than trap it. Klein played extremely well. Never been a Klein fan, but he played well tonight. Then, they played full field and put Hartman in the net for Donovan's team and Guzan in the net for GAM's team. I think Donovan's team out-played GAM's team big time in the full field game. Jaqua and Ching played very well here. They kept winning the balls sent up there and let the midfielders get involved so Donovan and Klein looked good in this game as well. Ching looked very good in this game, grabbing one goal (he may have had two). Noonan played very well too, Mooch gave him plenty of praise. The defense on Donovan's team was very well organized. Pearce and Hedjuk definitely look like decent picks for outside back for the upcoming friendlies. Besides Twellman and Wolff being over-shadowed by the Fire boys, not much else to report. my ************ camera.
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates GAM played ok. Not his best, but he is getting there. He did some good things shielding the ball and holding it up in the beginning, but after that he started to get the ball and just turn. He wanted to go at players (which was great to see), but the first step acceleration that we are used to from GAM wasn't there. He lost the ball a few times, but he was making some pretty good runs (off the ball) that were never rewarded. Dempsey, actually, worked well off of GAM to get the ball from him and play it back into his path so he could run on to it. But none of the other midfielders rewarded his runs so he looked like he was alittle frusterated. Another thing I noticed from this practice, no one wants to shot from more than 20 yards out. Donovan had a clear shot from about 20-25 out and he slipped it to the outside for a cross. The only shot from outside box that came was Carroll winning the ball in the middle, taking someone on and ripping a shot from about 20 out that went just wide. One thing I forgot to mention earlier, Rolfe had a pretty nice move against Ugo that just left Ugo standing as Rolfe beat him to the line to get a cross off that Ching missed. Rolfe and Jaqua played very well together. Jaqua is very good at shielding, Pope was on his back for most of the scrimmage and I don't remember Jaqua ever losing the ball to him.
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates: Week 2 Had the morning to kill so I dropped by. Very light session. Warmed up for about 15 minutes two laps around 3 fields and some stretching with keepers working on a second field. Broke into two groups. One group had guys crossing from both sides to 2 players at the top of the 18 making near post and far post runs. Other group spent time mainly showing for ball to players positioned outside the 18. Show, recieve dribble and pass to a different player. First from feet, then two volleys, throw. Most interesting was the final version with where players on the outside were juggling the ball and had to pass in the air to player showing for the ball who were required play two touch in the air back. They then did a simple two play passing drill and a heading drill where they simply went to 4 different cones and headed to a partner which was about the most demanding thing they did all morning. When they were finished the groups switched and did the same thing again. Most interesting thing was that Adu called it a day after the first warm-up lap. After he the first time around he stopped to see a coach and then went limping to so what I assume with a PT area inside the HDC. After about 30 minutes he returned in flats and jogged around the field for a couple of times.
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates: Week 2 My wife and I went down hoping to catch a scrimmage but were happy with what we saw. I have some video I may put online tomorrow and some pictures. The goalies were out first warming up, Guzan, Reis, Hartman and Wells(?). They did pretty standard goalie drills. Once the rest of the guys came out we wandered up to see them. Standing next to us was Ted Chronopolous and some of his friends (they got in). The players warmed up and ran some laps before spiltting into two groups for separate drills. Group A(rena): Klein, Santino, Mastro, Dempsey, Twellman, Carrol - and I think Rolfe, Ugo and the keepers. There were others and I will append when I get the pics and video up. The drill was your pretty standard centering drill with Klein and Carrol serving balls in from the right and Mastro and somebody else serving them in from the left. Bruce told the players he wanted to ball low to the ground between the 6 and the pk spot. Pretty good finishing by this group with highlights from Twellman and Santino and lowlights from Ugo. The other group - Gooch - had Donovan, Pope, EJ, Frankie, etc and they started off with ball control drills. One was a juggling drill where the juggler stays put and the players circle on the inside between 4 -5 jugglers trying to keep the ball from hitting the ground. I didn't see this group do this drill but the top group did when they switched so I assume it was pretty much the same. Absent and/or injured were Albright and Freddy to contradict the US Soccer report. Freddy took a knock from Olsen in yesterdays scrimmage and was rested by the trainers for today's sessions. Looks like a day off on Wednesday and half day on Thursday. Not sure about Friday, though I will try and make the afternoon session if it goes off. James
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates: Week 2 http://sagexile.forumsplace.com/message-44-0-asc-75.html report follows: So I spent the weekend in Los Angeles. Yesterday afternoon on my way back to San Diego I stopped by the Home Depot Center to buy tickets for Tuesday's Interliga games there. On my way out I noticed the US national team was beginning it's afternoon practice with an intrasquad scrimmage. I stayed and watched the scrimmage between what looked more like a first team (Blue) against a second team (Red). The Blue team began the game in a 4-4-2 with Matt Reis in goal, a backline of, right to left, of Frankie Hejduk, Eddie Pope, Pablo Mastroeni and Todd Dunivant. Ben Olsen played defensive midfield, Landon Donovan was the attacking midfielder, Pat Noonan was on the left and Santino Quaranta on the right. Up top was Nate Jaqua and Josh Wolff. In the second half Brad Guzan came in at goal, Mastroeni left and the team switched to a 3 man backline as Kyle Martino moved into the midfield and Chris Rolfe came on for Wolff. The Red team played a 3-5-2 with what I assume was Zach Wells in goal, a line of defenders of, right to left of Ugo Ihemelu, Jimmy Conrad and Heath Pearce. Brian Carroll was the defensive midfielder, in front of him was Clint Dempsey and Freddy Adu, Steve Ralston was on the right of midfield and Chris Klein was on the left. The forwards were Eddie Johnson and Taylor Twellman. In the second half, Kevin Hartman played in goal, Ralston and Klein switched wings and Brian Ching came on for Johnson. The Blues' Nate Jaqua scored the only goal of the first half as he cut inside from the left side of the box, beating Ihemelu, before firing in his shot past Wells. Blue dominated the first half, although Red were active in the first 10-15 minutes with Johnson in particular holding the ball well and pressing the opposition when they lost the ball. Adu looked hesitant at the beginning of the game and mostly passed the ball backwards or to the side. But Adu's skill on the ball was as good, if not greater than any player on the field. I was pleasantly surprised by how good Quaranta was technically. He showed a very good touch on the ball, was always making himself available to receive a pass, was very active down the right and also cut inside effectively. He also combined well with Hejduk as the Blue team dominated the right side of the field. Donovan pretty much was on cruise control throughout the scrimmage likely using it just to get back into shape and he didn't have much of an impact on the game. Olsen, however, looked pretty good at defensive midfield, winning the ball well, distributing it effectively and barking out orders to his teammates. Pope and Mastroeni, particularly the latter, controlled the defense well and took Johnson and Twellman out of the game after Johnson's lively opening. Hejduk was solid at right back and neither Klein nor Ralston got the better of him. Dunivant wasn't bad at left back and looked comfortable on the ball although Arena kept yelling at him to make sure he was alert to Mastroeni and Pope's positioning. But Dunivant can be beaten for speed which may explain why he mostly stayed back in defense when the team was in a 4 man backline. Wolff was active without really being dangerous. His replacement Rolfe was more dangerous and set up the only goal of the 2nd half when he beat Pearce to the byline and pulled the ball back for Martino to score just like Wolff's pass to McBride in the World Cup v Mexico. Jaqua looked like a younger version of McBride and was pretty effective holding the ball and passing it off but his presence also seemed to make the team more inclined to hit long balls towards him rather than building the play up on the ground. In the 2nd half Adu was more assertive and made the two best passes of the scrimmage first setting up Ching, who got behind Dunivant, but Ching wasn't fast enough to take advantage of the situation and Dunivant recovered to thwart his shot. Later Adu, on the right side of the box, laid the ball off nicely to the overlapping Klein whose low cross was batted away by Guzan. At the other end Hartman wasn't seriously tested but other than the goal he was very alert coming off his line to intercept through balls to Jaqua, Rolfe, Donovan and Martino. Quaranta, Donovan, Martino and Rolfe seemed to work the ball around nicely amongst each other. The only player I can think of in camp who didn't play was Albright who I imagine was nursing some sort of injury. Of course this was only just one scrimmage but I think most of the players looked like they belonged out there. I thought Ihemelu struggled the most of those I saw play, particularly with his positioning but he'll have a few more weeks to try and get that sorted out. The New England contingent-Twellman, Noonan, Dempsey and Ralston all looked out of sorts. I was hoping to see Pearce at left back but found him playing a marking back instead which isn't his best role. He did look like he is pretty fast though. And with a little more confidence Adu can certainly play at this level and I hope we'll get a chance to see him in these upcoming friendlies. Without the European players present and with Mapp out injured, the US will really be hurting on the left side of midfield in these upcoming games. If anybody has any questions about any of the particular players I saw, feel free to ask and I'll try and answer as best I can.
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates: Week 2 I was at practice tonight as well as monday. For pictures please check out... http://homepage.mac.com/jbilgihan/PhotoAlbum25.html Tonight's practice started with jogging and then the team broke in to two teams and played a warmup game where the players throw the ball to each other and try to keep it from hitting the ground. There are four goals 2 big and 2 small. It seemed as though one could score only by using heading for the big goals and kicking on the small ones. It seemed fun and the guys seemed to have fun playing it. Then the groups broke up into 2 and there was an attacking drill and defending drill. The players that were given yellow pennies were defending and the attacking players tried to get the ball past them. Pretty simple drill but played at a fast pace. The leftover players (not part of drill but rotated in) practiced finishing at the other end of the field. The last part of practice was finishing drills where the players had to control a pass with less than two touches and shoot on goal. Players that excelled were Santino, Dempsey, Donovan, Freddy, Wolf and Twellman. The standouts for the offense/defense scrimmage were Donovan, Frankie, Santino, Carroll, Pope and Johnson. I am sure that there were other players that did well, but it was cold. I have some video I will try and put up soon. James
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates: Week 3 I've been to three training sessions, and hope to get to a few more this week. I didn't take many pictures because I didn't think they were very good, but I'll post them anyways..I promise I'll get more this week.
Re: Jan Training Camp Updates: Week 3 This thread is for updates only. If people continue to chat here, we'll shut it down and reopen only for updates. Thanks for the summaries -- I've moved them to a new thread, linked below, for more open discussion about the camps. Questions about timing, etc. should be posted in the thread below. It would be greatly appreciated if people posting updates would double post them in the thread below. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=290617
First Hand Account? A videocamera must be sufficient, even if it's not mine... Check out www.ussoccer.com... they have posted video of the intrasquad scrimmage this weekend. The "A" team in blues were 3 - 1 winners, with Pope (!), Dempsey (best goal, off a fantastic dead ball cross from Heath Pearce), and Rolfe (on a breakaway, clinical finish) scoring for the blues, and Chris Klein off a free kick from about 35 yards out to round out the scoring for the reds. Pure speculation: most of the blue team will be starters against Canada.
US Soccer has the team doing Aqua Arobics... http://www.ussoccer.com/editorial/content.sps?iType=9943 Interesting tidbits...one a days from here at least through the end of the scrimmage cycle (at least that is what I gleaned). james
I cruised by the Wednesday morning session. Lots of running, then they broke up into three groups. Group 1: Defenders. Did defender things. Group 2: Midfielders (including Donovan). A couple players on the wing with lots of balls. A bunch of guys standing about 30 yards from goal in the middle of the field. A pair of players kinda seperates from the pack. Guy on wing does a quick little dribble and makes a hard low pass towards one of the two players. That player makes a one-touch layoff to his partner, who shoots first-time on goal from outside the box. Results were hit and miss. No player really stood out. I take that back. Quaranta stood out on a couple of Simon Elliots. Donovan's layoffs were exquisite. Freddy got frustrated - most of the time he shot at the keeper or missed the frame completely. Group 3: Forwards. Bruce himself makes passes to players from varying positions. Players cut around cones (sticks) as directed and work on first touch + shot. They work on shooting near post, far post, dealing with a keeper who stays on his line, and then with a charging keeper. Bruce emphasizes looking up to see where the keeper is, but few seem to have that kind of awareness. Jaqua looked bad, but had a couple good shots. That's kind of how everyoen seemed to look though. Rolfe showed a great first touch. EJ's first touch was bad, and as a result, shots were often off. It's kind of amazing to see - the way a good first touch often resulted in a perfectly placed goal, and a bad first touch resulted in a bad miss. No player stood out as a clinical finisher or as being completely inept. After all this, it was scrimmage time. Short fields, 4 teams. The teams played two games each, with teams rotating after the first game. I think one team was Pearce/Conrad/Adu/Noonan/Ching. Another was Rolfe/Donovan/Dempsey/Pope/Hejduk or something. I give up. I don't remember anymore. Bruce watched the Freddy team both games. Not sure if there's any significance there.
I went to practice this morning, and was seriously the only person there watching the practice, which might mean everyone else has a life, but hey I haven't gone back to school yet, and what else am I going to do at 10 in the morning. Anyways, I got there when they were finishing up their warm up, which was dribbling, passing and some ladder work. They they spilt up into two teams and did a full field scrimmage. Blue Team: Hartman, Boswell, Dunivant, Ihemelu, Noonan, Jacqua, Zavagnian, Quaranta, Klein, Olsen, Johnson Red Team: Reis, Pearce, Conrad, Pope, Hejduk, Dempsey, Carrol, Donovan, Twellman, Wolff, Ching Red team won 1-0 (Wolff) Scored in the first 5 minutes of the game, didn't see the build up, but he scored from a little outside the six yard box. Heard the coaches saying thatBoswell kept Wolff onsides for the goal. Martino, Rolfe, Adu, and Guzan subbed in at half. Rolfe was called offsides around 4 times, but the coaches talked to him a bit but liked that he was making a lot of offensive runs. He rarely gets knocked off the ball for someone his size. A few free kicks in dangerous positions but nothing real exciting, Freddy took one that I remember but went high. Klein seemed to be playing right back, but made a lot of runs forward. Zavagnian was very vocal in the middle, he seemed to be talking the most on the field. Hejduk was getting in hard tackles left and right, slide tackling the ball away from everyone. I really don't know what else to comment about, I guess if anyone has specific question ask away, but I don't want to keep rambling. After the scrimmage Bruce gave them "free time" or if they felt alright they could cool down and stretch in the middle, which most of the team did. Landon, Freddy, and Clint did a shooting drill, with one of them swinging it in from the flanks and the person in the middle hit it first time, then turned and checked to the keeper coach who was hitting balls in, which they turned and hit in two touches. Landon rarely missed, while Dempsey and Adu had a little more trouble with it. The only other two who used their free time was Dunivant and Conrad who hit long balls to each other the width of the field. And that was it, I think John O'Brien was there, not quite sure since he was clear across the field. but I've heard that he's in LA rehabbing. I'll get pics up in a bit. Hope this helps those of you who can't make it out to practices, don't hesitate to ask any question, I'd be happy to answer, just don't know what you want to hear. -Alison
Thanks for the report. Could you tell how Twellman/Ching/Wolff were lined up? Was one of them withdrawn a little? Did any outside backs make interesting runs down the wings? Edit: Oh crappolio! This thread isn't for discussion... sorry. Just wanted to ask a question.
Twellman would usually be the one dropped back the most if I remember correctly. Pearce made a few good runs down the left flank, he shanked one of his crosses though. Hejduk was of course up and down the line like a mad mad and swung in a few good balls. Freddy didn't stand out either way, made a few good passes, a few bad. And just that free kick that I can remember. Eddie looks to be getting his speed back, but still working on the touch, same with Freddy didn't stand out either way.
http://community.webshots.com/user/tallyhoaliho21 Here are the pictures that I got before the battery on my camera ran out. Not the best, but still better than nothing. Just click the US National Camp album. Hope to be going to the session tomorrow as well.