Practice Notes & Quotes 03-14-03

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After nearly a month’s absence from the Washington, DC area, DCUnited gathered at the George Washington University @ Mount Vernon College field to continue its pre-season workouts.

Attendance
G – Warren, Geddes,
D – Reyes, Petke, Stokes, Namoff, Neuf (Morocco), Larry McDowell (American Univ)
M – Carroll, Quintinilla, Alegria, Convey, Kovolenko, Tony Otero, Barclay, Carroll, Olsen
F – Eskandarian, Quaranta, Stewert, Curtis

Also in attendance were Rimando, Nelsen, Prideaux, and Stoichkov. Each of them spent individual time with the trainer and the conditioning coach working on various individual training things. Nelsen looks to be ready to come back. He did several laps at full speed and didn’t show any signs of pain. Coach Hudson was not at practice. He is still in route from Miami.

Notes
Not much movement out of the players. I was very surprised that many of the experienced players waited for plays to develop instead of developing a play through movement. Compared to other practices this is abnormal.

Stoichkov spent most of the practice, during the scrimmage, pacing the sidelines and calling out assignments to various players. Several times during the scrimmage he pulled a player out for on-the-spot training for a short time. One example was when Quaranta received a ball along the sideline with his inside foot – if he had received it with the outside foot, he could have taken and pushed the ball forward with one motion. Also, Stoichkov constantly stressed to Olsen and Convey to remain wide; for Alegria and Kovolenko to constantly push forward; and for Quaranta to always be moving off the ball.

Namoff had a particularly effective day. Not only did he play a strong role in defense, particularly in frustrating Ali Curtis’ attempts down the right side, but also in offense on overlapping Ben Olsen. It is obvious that he’s worked on learning the defensive position, and it’s paying dividends.

The rookies had varying degrees of success. Carroll spent much of the time tracking back and helping out in defense. He might be the fastest guy on the team. Time and again he was able to come out of a midfield position and at least disrupt attacks along the back line. It is obvious that he’s not a pure defender, and needs additional opportunities to strengthen that aspect of his game.
Stokes is a very solid positional defender. He shut down several attacks, including a couple of 1 v. 1 with Stewert. However, one weakness is his passing coming out of the defensive third. He had several easy miscues throughout the day’s scrimmage.
Eskandarian made effective efforts that went for naught. For most the day he was matched up against Petke or Reyes and felt their physical nature. I am impressed by the fact that when dumped on an obvious foul, he keeps his mouth shut, dusts off, and gets back into play. Unlike his college days, he’s either learned to curb his “attitude” or knows that he won’t get any breaks until he proves himself at this level.
Barclay didn’t do much on either side of the ball. However, as with all the rookies, being on the second team, and playing an un-natural position probably worked against him.
Invitees Otero and Neuf actually showed well in the middle of the field. Although it was obvious that they were over matched by Black’s midfield, there were moments where they were able to bring the ball through midfield to threaten.

More than a couple of the people with DCUnited grumbled that the pre-season trip to Florida was too long. Not the fact that the actual practices or games are ineffective in preparing the team, but living out of the same hotel for almost a month was a bit much. Obviously the major snowstorm two weeks ago in Washington, DC ruined the plans of many to get some down time back home.

When asked about a GK Coach, Rimando responded, “I don’t know.” He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head and continued, “It’s something I’ve got to talk with them (the coaches) about.” He then asked me if I wanted the job.

There is no doubt that the chemistry of team is better. However, even though it is good, there are moments of angst. During the first half of the scrimmage (see below), Curtis was taken down in the box and thought that he deserved a PK. At the half-time break, he complained about that fact. Several of the players told him to “shut up” and concentrate on the future and not worry about what was in the past. Grudgingly Curtis accepted the fact and went back to play.

The next cut down day is on Monday. No moves are expected.

Practice
After standard warm-ups, the team broke into two sides:
Red
G – Geddes
D – McDowell, Stokes, Carroll
M – Barclay, Otero, Quintinilla, Neuf
F – Curtis, Eskandarian

Black
G – Warren
D – Namoff, Petke, Reyes
M – Olsen, Kovolenko, Alegria, Convey
F – Stewert, Quaranta

In the first half of about 45 minutes, each team was allowed 2-touch in the defensive third, 3-touch in the middle, and unlimited in the offensive third. The first goal came off a miscue by Carroll. He lost control of the ball in his defensive third and Olsen quickly pounced and dashed away on goal. Although Carroll nearly caught up and stopped Olsen, Olsen was able to get a cross off to Kovolenko at the far post. Off the half volley Kovolenko slammed the ball into the upper 90.

The second goal, probably the best looking series of play during the day, Olsen and Namoff were playing a short game along the right sideline, being effectively boxed in by Neuf and Carroll. Olsen finally found Stewert in the middle of the field to relieve the pressure. Namoff followed the ball to the middle, and Stewert dropped it to him just outside the box. Namoff one touched it to Quaranta in the box, but he realized he was effectively covered and touched it back to Namoff. Namoff one-timed it from about 12 yards out for a nice goal. Quick, short passing to maintain control by Namoff and Olsen; opening space with supporting runs by Namoff and Stewert; using a simple option, and not trying to over do anything not possible by Quaranta; and shooting when the option became apparent were all pieces of this assault.

A third goal came from Stewert simply blowing by McDowell into the left corner. The threat was obvious enough that Stokes was forced to move over in support leaving the top of the box wide open. Alegria slide into the open area, Stewert spotted him and passed, and Alegria sent a nice curving shot into the upper corner past Geddes.

The final goal came off the quickness of a Convey/Quaranta attack. A turnover at midfield, followed by a launch by Kovolenko found Convey and Quaranta moving against Stokes. A quick one-two past Stokes and a snap shot by Quaranta found the net.

Quotes:
Assistant Coach Trask
- What were the positives that came out of the month long training in Florida?
“I think the most important thing is the bond between these players that you never know you’ll have until you get them together. As you can see even today in training they enjoy each other. There’s a lot of talented players, and they enjoy working for each other. Even with some of the losses and the “bad play” we had in Florida, they never got on each other. There’s a strength to this team, and it will only be in time to know if they can do it on game day. But, we feel there’s strength on this team.”
“I actually had a lot of other players on other teams calling me, players that I’ve worked with in the past, saying that the rumor is out there that there’s a bond between these players. And it runs from the youngest in Santino to the oldest in Hristo. It’s a complimentary thing amongst the players.”

- Is that the new chemistry between the players a bigger effect than the actual presence of new and improved players?
“I think Marco is rejuvenated. I think some of the new players that have come here make him more willing to put in the work because he senses something good happening within the team. And then you bring in positive personality like Ernie Stewert and Hristo Stoichkov, who has been tremendous both on the playing side and off the field – little talks with guys while they’re getting water. You add guys like Kovolenko, who brings a real nice team spirit, but the right type of competitiveness.”
“And these guys really like hanging out with each other. There’s not 3 or 4 little cliques. They all enjoy each other. You’ll see eight, ten, twelve strong all together at dinner. That’s not happening very often in a professional environment.”

- What about the negatives? What weaknesses do you see even after Florida?
“As I was talking with the backs today after practice . . . We’re not concerned with the backs . . . maybe we are concerned about the backs. That continuity of three or four doing the little things to have a successful backfield. It’s going to be very tough on them. No disrespect to Doug Warren, but Doug Warren isn’t Nick Rimando. And Nick Rimando provides a lot of stability for us in goal. That’s why he’s here, that’s why he’s on the National Team. That range of Bobby Convey that we missed down in Florida was tough for a young player like Brian Carroll to provide. Bobby Convey is part of the full National Team.”
“When we start losing pieces of the puzzle it makes it very difficult for us to play against two of the better teams in the league in Kansas City and Columbus. And those were our poor results. Against Chicago we did some very good things against. But, against the other two teams we set them up for a poor result. We took full responsibility for the game in the Orange Bowl by moving Ivanov into the midfield. Ray and I, that’s our mistake. But you only can do that in exhibition games, and we’ve got to figure out what’s the best mix of players. I think Ray’s made mention in the press several times that there might be one of the gifted players sitting on the sidelines if the mix isn’t right.”
“I think you saw it a little bit today. Bryan Namoff is still a young, developing player but he did a lot of good things today to make us a successful team. Who knows, maybe he’ll be fighting his way into the lineup.”

- Are you confident with the bench and development players to be able to step in and keep the team competitive if there are several injuries or call-ups?
“Yeah. It was a bit unrealistic against Kansas City because we were missing our back line – then you’re taking a kid like Brian Carroll and playing him out of position, which is difficult and demanding on him. But we feel we got competition and strength, which we didn’t have because of salary cap and financial issues last year. If we were ever missing a Eddie Pope or Jaime Moreno last year, we just didn’t have the players to fill the void. As Santino grows up, and the addition of Alecko, and Stokes, who we feel has very good qualities and brings it on game day, is going to be a nice player. Just seeing the maturity of Bryan Namoff and Chino Alegria . . . these are guys going into their third or fourth year, and experience is key. You play against a team like Columbus, who has players on that team that have one hundred plus games played in MLS . . . that is valuable.”

- Although you and Ray have said that the attack will come from every position, anywhere on the field, are you still relying on having one player such as either Quaranta or Stewert to have double digits in goals, maybe 25+ in points? Or will it be more of an even approach where three or four players get 15+ points?
“Sure, I think that’s one of the keys with what we did in Miami. While Chacon ended up as the leading goal scorer in the league, we ended up with 4 or 5 players right around nine or ten goals. I think that’s what we believe in, a bit of ‘Total Football’ in the final third.”
“We’re expecting Bobby’s numbers to increase. That’s one of reasons we put Dema in the midfield. Not only is he a solid midfielder as practice shows you, but he can get forward and score goals. I think he scored 15 goals for Chicago two years ago, and that wasn’t as a forward. So we brought him in. We believe Ernie . . . we’re not looking for 20 goals from Ernie. If it happens, great. We’d love to see him in double digits, and close to double digits in assists. We think Marco’s production, with his increased work rate this season to provide more numbers. Whether it’s 15 to 18 assists and 5 goals, or 8 goals and 12 assists, we believe that’s going to be an improvement. We think Ali Curtis is coming along and score goals in this league. We feel Alecko Eskandarian can score goals. Santino was on pace last year before his injury to score 8 or 9 goals, and about 6 assists. The way Bobby Convey ends his season, if that was the case all season, he would have been at 8 or 9 goals. We feel we can hurt teams in a lot of different ways. We’re not going to rely on the Grazianni, or the Taylor Twellman, or Carlos Ruiz to come up with 23, 24, or 25 goals. Hristo Stoichkov looks tremendous and scores in every practice we have. We’re going to get goals from him whether it’s in a starting role or possibly coming off the bench. There’s just too much talent not to be scoring goals.”

- On the other side of the ball, several teams do have a dominant forward. Do you expect to have to defend against that type of an attack this year, or do you think other teams will also be looking at ‘Total Football’ types of attacks this season?
“It all depends. You take a look at New England, and of course Taylor Twellman was their leading scorer. You look at Columbus, I believe they had 2 or 3 players with between 9 and 13 goals, so they can hit you in a number of ways. Dante Washington can score goals, Jeff Cunningham scores goals. They’ve got guys like Brian Massoineuve coming out of midfield. Edson Buddle looks like he’s coming on, and it looks like he’s going to score goals. So it depends on the team you’re playing against.”
“To be one dimensional is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing. Can Taylor Twellman hit 23 goals again? Can Carlos Ruiz go 20+ goals again, or are some other guys going to have to pick up some of the slack for them? I think we’re going to be a little bit more like Colorado. I believe they had 3 or 4 players in the 10 goals range.”

-With a month left before the first game, what are you going to work on going forward?
“I think the big thing is that we’ve got to play in game situations. Dave Kasper, Ray and I have talked a little bit about the bottom line is that this team needs to get solidified. You saw it today. The more minutes that guys like Bobby Convey and Dema Kovolenko get, they’re going to get more comfortable. It’s the same for Chicago, which is a very new team, and the same for New York. I imagine they’re going to be predominantly in the scrimmage mode. That’s what we’ll be doing.”
“There will be times we pick apart the game and work with the forwards on finishing, or work with the defenders on certain aspects. But the bottom line is how well they perform on the 11 on 11 situations. We’ll be bringing in guest players trying to keep our numbers up.”
“I think one good thing we learned in Florida is that we’ve learned some of the strengths and weaknesses of the new players on this team. We have a much better feel after playing some of the MLS teams what players are capable where, and how that affects the players around them – who can play left back behind Bobby, and who cannot play left back, and how that middle of the field is going to work. Where is Marco going to be asked to do his damage from? Is it going to be a little bit more holding mid? Are we going to push him up almost as a front-runner? That is going to come in time as we play and we play and we play.”

- How important are the pre-season games?
“I’m not a big believer. I know that 9 days before we started the season with the Fusion, we played DCUnited in Charlotte. We lost 2-0, and I don’t think we had a shot on goal. I’m not sure we had possession in their half of the field. We ended up being the top team in the league and DC missed the playoffs. So, you take pre-season games with a grain of salt. Yes, it’s important. Yes, we’re putting in work for the season. We’re also looking at our personnel. We’re looking at our younger players. We’ve had several players missing for injury and National Team things. How important is it? I’m not that concerned. The season starts April 12th, and any coach who thinks pre-season games make a difference is crazy. I just don’t think it’s the right way to look at it.”
“Yeah, did we lose a couple of games? Did we not compete? Fair enough. And if anyone wants to look at that, that’s fair enough. But, that’s not the regular season. We’re not that concerned about it yet.”
“We have some excellent exhibition games coming up against George Washington. We’ll be playing Richmond Kickers twice. We’re going to be playing American University. We’re trying to get a game against Maryland. And we definitely have the two games against top A-League teams. So we feel like we’re right on course.”
“We feel like we’re right on course. We’re probably about 75 to 80 minutes fit. We’re missing that extra 10 to 15 percent that comes when the lights get turned on. That’s basically where we are and we’re comfortable with that.”
“It’s a long season. We have 30 games, plus the playoffs, and the Open Cup. We’re looking at potentially a 40 game season, and we’ve never been the type of coaching staff that looks for our team to peak in the middle of March. Any fan that wants to look at us say that those performances in pre-season are what makes or breaks us as a coaching staff, I think that’s a bit unfair. We don’t feel as if we have a gun to our head and we’ve got to get results down in Florida.”
“There were a lot of great things that came out of Florida, and there were a lot of negatives that were forced on us as a group because of the weather. Hindsight being 20-20, would we have stayed in the same hotel? Maybe not. It’s a great hotel, and our players were comfortable there. But I don’t care where you are, even if we were in DC for 26 straights days, and not had any breaks built in for these guys, these guys would have been climbing the walls. That’s part of pre-season.”