Practice Tidbits and Pics
October 1, 2008
Today was one of those practices when you notice just an extra bit of intensity. The highlight of practice came during the last 30-40 minutes when a full-length scrimmage was held. Before that however, they held a drill where they tried to work the edge (outside) of the field. This seemed to be an attempt at improving the teams play out wide. Here are a couple of highlights:
- Sturgis and Russell were practicing in central defender role. Look for one of the two to get the start on Saturday. I believe that Sturgis will at least be in the 18.
- Clarification on the issue with goal footings: the issue is actually that the footings are set at the full 120, which doesn't give us the flexibility to shorten the field length while using the World Cup goals.
- The crew was re-installing some seats in the south endzone. I'm not sure of the reason for this, but the crew has been going through all of the seats in the stadium cleaning them and testing them.
- Update on Fabi's status: there is still a hope that he will be available for the Oct 18th match. He is not currently practicing, however.
Based on a conversation with Bill Manning I was able to get some insight into a couple of contract situations:
- Apparantly there is no buyout issue with Fabian, because he came to us so young, and unproven. It was unclear whether this has already been dealt with, if we acquired him outright initially or if the buyout is just so minor that it's a given that the team will be able to get it done.
- Bill reiterated that he's confident that we will get a deal done for Jamison Olave.
These two players, along with Javier Morales who was recently signed to a 4-year deal are clearly part of the foundation that the team is trying to build upon.
