It being a bit cold outside when I left for training on Wednesday so I took a knit cap rather than my sun shade hat, and at this point I kind of regret it because the bright shining sun gave me a fresh sunburn. Price of doing business I suppose.

FCD practice was scheduled for 9:30 am but got started closer to 10, one presumes due to some video coaching or some such. Today's session seemed from my viewpoint to be about breaking a press, running a press, and attacking lines.

News & Notes

Callum Montgomery is missing as he's injured with a high ankle sprain. Oddly he's not listed on the FCD roster on MLSSoccer.com but is listed on the FC Dallas site as well as the MLS injury report (questionable).

Ema Twumasi is also missing today. He's also injured, something with his back. I'm told it's not serious.

Unfortunately, you can add Jacori Hayes to the injured list too, although I'd call him day to day. After the game on Saturday, he told 3rd Degree's Arman Kafai he was fine. But apparently, he has some tightness in the hamstring. Today he did some jogging and stretching to see if he could give it a go but the decision was made to pull him from training. Given the cold temps, that was probably a good idea.

Bryan Reynolds was with the FCD today and not North Texas. He was mixing in the rotations at right back.

Dante Sealy is back in town, he's on loan to North Texas SC so he's with them training today [Wednesday]. Apparently, some of the North Texas players were brought into the MLS team's training yesterday, but none are today.

Coach Luchi Gonzalez says he has a player leadership council or triad of sorts that consists of Matt Hedges, Reto Ziegler, and Carlos Gruezo. In addition to that, Hedges and Ziegler are co-captains and should both have the armband at certain points this season. Gonzalez also said captains could change too at some point.

His leadership position probably tells us something about the relative maturity of Gruezo. He's for sure taking on more leadership this year.

Speaking of Gruezo, as I've mentioned before, he got his green card. Confirmation comes via his not being listed as an international anymore on FCD's roster.

Coach Gonzalez says FCD's collective staff is looking into maybe playing some North Texas SC and FC Dallas players down with the U19s and U17s for the Dallas Cup and the GA Cup if the timing is right to gain international experience. If they are age eligible of course. That's an endeavor I fully support.

How is FC Dallas Under the International Limit?

One thing I can clarify, fans may have seen an article on MLSSoccer.com (the one where he talks about Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery) where Dan Hunt mentions FC Dallas is under their international limit of 9. That came as a surprise since by my count they have 10 internationals after Carlos Gruezo got his green card.

Cristian Colman (Matt Visinsky / 3rd Degree)

Basically, the rule that gets Dallas under the line is that players on the injured reserve don't count against the international limit. Cristian Colman and Francis Atuahene are both on the injured reserve list, so FCD goes from 10 to 8 and thus has one open international spot.

The trick, of course, is that eventually, both players will return to action. Each player has to be out at least six games to be on the IR. That's the easy part. After either player is cleared to train, has missed six games, and is ready for game action then the club will need to activate them and have an open international spot. At that point, FCD will need to use whatever methods they have at their disposal to open a spot. Trade/buy one, loan a player to North Texas SC, or waive/cut/buyout someone taking a spot.

Colman is about 6 or 7 weeks from returning to training FCD says. He might be able to play a game in July perhaps? Atuahene is a June to August return to training based on the initial report when he had surgery.

Observations

Based on the combos and rotations there are 4 to 5 spots up for in close competition this week. Obviously, with Hayes being day to day that is one of the spots up for grabs. But that 8-spot may have been up for grabs this week anyway, even without Hayes' injury, given how tight the battle was this spring.

Marquinhos Pedroso is looking sharper and sharper every time I see him. He's almost back to 100% freedom of movement as he continues to lose that stiffness to his motion. The left-back battle may be heating up.

Brandon Servania saw some time as an 8 today with Edwin Cerrillo playing as a 6. Those two players are both 6/8 in profile and can do either job. It's not surprising to see some rotation there particularly since Servania is going to be gone for the U20 World Cup.

I stuck around Frisco to watch a North Texas SC afternoon training session and it turned out to be a scrimmage against the FCD U19 Academy side. I was going to include a couple of notes here but instead, I'll do a separate post as I have a lot more stuff.

Catching Up with Luchi Gonzalez

FC Dallas midfielder Jacori Hayes (15) dribbles the ball past Bayern Munich midfielder Meritan Shabani (16) during a soccer game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. (Shaban Athuman/The Dallas Morning News) (Shaban Athuman / Staff Photographer)

I thought one of the closest battles toward the end of the spring was Jacori Hayes vs Paxton Pomykal for the 2nd spot as an 8 next to Bryan Acosta. Can you talk a little about what you look for in that spot and why you chose Hayes for opening day?

What you saw with our rosters leading up to New England, with our preseason games, Jacori [Hayes] and [Bryan] Acosta were starting together with [Carlos] Greuzo underneath and we felt it was a good balance. We felt like Jacori was doing well, Acosta was getting his rhythm, getting to understand our system.

Acosta wasn't yet integrated fully defensively. He was being pretty adventurous offensively. And so we felt it was a moment that was good, that Jacori was balancing Acosta when we don't have the ball.

So Acosta has worked really hard the last week, two weeks, this week, these next two days... to understand his role defensively more. So that he can be paired with any profile. Whether it's Jacori, a Paxton [Pomykal], an Edwin [Cerrillo], a [Brandon] Servania - who can also play 6...

But for us, it was just a good natural progression of balance in the midfield. Maintaining good possession. Acosta was making good offensive production in the last few games, he showed it against Portland against the reserves, so it was good during the week and we went with it.

But the beauty of this team right now for us, and in my experience, is that you can make rotations and guys are going to be ready to step it up. Paxton is competing now in that 8-role with Acosta. Is that a possibility? Yeah, absolutely. But not final certainly.

And Jacori picked up a knock so we're going to hold him out another day. We're not sure if he's going to be cleared or not but he's a fighter. He wanted to get through it today, just to give it a chance so we'll take it one day at a time and we'll make the right decisions based on what we're seeing here in the training.

It looked like against New England, they ran a tight, compressed defense with a high back line looking to make you guys work to break them down closer to midfield. Was that maybe why you went to Pomykal late in that game? A guy who might be able to help you break them down?

Yeah for sure. They played a good flat line of 4-4 and defended the wide channels. So a lot of times when we drive we want to release our 2s and 3s and that was taken away pretty well by New England. But we have to be better at finding things internally and in behind them with the line.

In a 4-3-3, since you don't have a 10, is it important to have wings and 8s who can make penetrating passes into the box, into Badji, to help find those gaps in the defense?

Yes, the team should have center backs, 6s, 8s... and we do have 10, 10 can be 7 or 11s - or it can be 10 with double 6 - or 10 could be double 10s - so for me... you know you can look at Man City. You can call De Bruyne and Silva double 8s but they are also 10s.

So it just depends. You can have 10-8, 8-8, 10-10... You could call Paxton's profile closer to a 10 than an 8... You can call Jacori a pure 8... You can call Gruezo a 6... So there's hybrid guys and the clear guys...

Edwin, I think, is hybrid 6-8. Paxton is a 10-8 hybrid. Pablo [Aranguiz] is more 10-7 or 10-11. So I don't think it's like black or white.

We have the opportunity to do something that is, we believe, is going to help us beat lines. Not just the potential of just Paxton playing, or Jacori not playing or playing, or this player. It's also because of what we're working on in terms of our shape.

It's probably fair to say then, that you have a long way to go in terms of getting your team where you want it?

Oh yeah.

Are you happy with the progress?

I'm happy with the progress. This is a results-oriented world, professionally. So how can we grow, take development steps, at the same time compete. For our fans. And for our club and the jersey... to get points. I'm discovering that balance as we speak and it's a great experience.

Yeah, it's going take time to get it exactly where we want. Midseason is the shape going to be better? Yeah, hopefully. But I think all the teams are going to be better.