"Guess who just got back today. Them wild-eyed boys that had been away. Haven't changed that much to say. But man, I still think them cats are crazy"

Watching training today triggered the above Thin Lizzy classic in my head.

There was also a nice heat break this morning, as it was only up to 82 by the time the session, which kicked off at 8:45 am, ended.

Today's session had a lot of focus on maintaining consistent energy, the word "relentless" being tossed around a lot. There was also a large defensive focus coming from Peter Luccin on moving and defending as a collective back five.

I clarify that's the back four and the 6, before you run off thinking it was a 5-3-2.

News and Notes

Kenny Cooper is around again helping out the coaching staff. He says he's mostly working at "The Pit" doing soccer and performance training right now. Kenny is always such a joy, I think he would make a fantastic coach for young kids if his coaching ambitions run that direction.

Callum Montgomery, having played 90 minutes for North Texas SC the night before, has to sit out today after the warmups as he's in "recovery." I teased him about being a 22-year-old young man and having to sit out, which we laughed about. I think he wanted badly to be out there though.

Ricardo Pepi, Thomas Roberts, Jesus Ferreira, Edwin Cerrillo, and Brandon Servania are all back from US Youth National Team camps and fully participating in the training.

Reggie Cannon, Jesse Gonzalez, Paxton Pomykal, and Bryan Acosta all traveled back today I was told and should all be back in training tomorrow.

FC Dallas Head coach Luchi Gonzalez says he got reports from the U17 (Raphaël Wicky), U20 (Tab Ramos), and U23 (Jason Kreis) coaches on each of this players and expects to get reports on his senior cap players from Gregg Berhalter (or his staff) in the next day or two.

Cesar Murillo was used as a practice player today since he didn't get off the bench in the North Texas SC game. The rest of the North Texas team had the day off.

Hope Kodzo and Emmanuel Awuah, the young Ghanaian trialists, both did some work with one of the FCD fitness coaches. Awuah got invited to jump in and make up the numbers on the final scrimmage of the day.

A practice player we've seen before named "Fierro" is involved today. Good chance this is him, Raul Fierro (I didn't ask for his last name.) He played for FCD Youth and Luchi knows him. He shows once in a while to help the team as a practice body.

I noticed earlier this year that in the heat of play Jesus Ferreira's name gets reduced to just "Zeus." It's kind of growing into a full-blown nickname, I think, based on how often I'm hearing him called that in and out of play.

Practice Observations

From the look of things all the guys who just got back from US Camps look to be in rip-roaring form. They all have a bounce, a swapper. Every single one seems to have taken a step forward in confidence. Ricardo Pepi and Thomas Roberts yes, but even more so Jesus Ferreira, Edwin Cerrillo, and Brandon Servania are all looking terrific today. New levels here.

Edwin Gyasi plays the whole session at right wing and honestly, it's the best he's looked that I have witnessed. Is it enough to crack the lineup? No... I don't think so. But better is better and it is worth something.

Zdenek Ondrasek is completely entrenched as the top striker. He doesn't rotate out of the first unit a single time. Cristian Colman is playing with the 2nd group as the 9 while Ricardo Pepi mostly plays a midfielder due to the short numbers.

I really enjoyed Emmanuel Awuah today, he was playing some center back right in front of me. Good body control, good touch. Can pass well. All that in a kid 16 or 17 years old, give or take.

With Reggie Cannon not back, Bressan takes most of the reps at right back with Bryan Reynolds getting some time.

Johnny Nelson gets some left back reps too.

Catching up with Luchi Gonzalez

We've talked before about how Wednesday is a big prep day for you. How comfortable and confident would you be with your three senior national team guys coming back having missed Wednesday and stepping right into the lineup?

Yeah, it's not easy. We'd prefer them earlier. Wednesday is one of our higher peak days, Tuesdays as well... in terms of intensity and load. But Thursday and Friday are good days to integrate them and just to walk through tactically. Those guys have done very well during the year to implement our ideas and that's why they've earned opportunities.

So we're very confident they're going to integrate very quickly. We don't have a starting lineup yet, we don't know who's starting this game. We've got some ideas. We've got some rotations as well cause we want to start strong, finish strong... and tomorrow will be a good opportunity to do those things and integrate them quickly.

We're going to do some video tomorrow. They've got today travel/rest so tomorrow won't be a high load but a good technical/tactical load for them to integrate as quickly as we can get them.

With only 5 games left, do you think about every game by itself or do you think about the Wednesday Seattle game when planning the Chicago game?

Yeah, one game at a time.

I know Seattle is very important, at Seattle. If we're putting 1% of our thought into that game and that's 1% less into the Chicago - I think that's a mistake. I think we need to give 100% focus and respect for the goals to get maximized points in Chicago.

That's the process I believe in and that's the way we're approaching this week and this next game.

With more road games left than home games do you feel like it's going to be important to get some road points over this last bit?

100%. We have to get points. We have to get points in Chicago.

No excuses. We must walk into Chicago with the desire to win and get three points.

In hindsight, it looked to me like Bryan Acosta wanted to get a yellow card in that last game. Was it his plan do you think? Did you guys discuss that?

No, no we didn't. [Chuckles]

I don't think he did it on purpose. I know him well, I think it was a play.... He's been getting quite a few yellows. I don't think this game was any different than others in terms of him trying to get a yellow. Not at all. I don't feel that way, not at all. Cause he's a competitor and he wants to help his team take the right steps.

He is coming back from national team duty tomorrow, we will be traveling. So he's going to get a good recovery and he'll be ready to help this team in Seattle.

We're you surprised Paxton Pomykal played against Uruguay? What was your anticipation for him going into this camp?

I'm not surprised. I had a feeling. They sent guys back home, some of the European based guys, so it created some room. However, that game was going I have a feeling Pax was gonna get in there.

You know, Pax and I have been communicating. He felt good about his week. And he felt he could help contribute in any way if given the opportunity. It was a vibe, it was a feeling that he could have gotten in. But if he didn't, I know it was just a matter of time before he earned that. He's not in any rush.

He came in and his first touch was to engage their last line and go at their last line... and that was fantastic to see.

We're proud of him and looking forward to having him back tomorrow.