It was a cold and blustery day as I took in FC Dallas training. Temps in the 40s, no sun. FCD is out on Field 8 rather than the fenced on Field 1. That's mainly to protect the surface due to weather. This time of year the club often rotates fields.

Today's session was just a scrimmage. I got to watch about 45 minutes of open play. I'll talk about it in a bit, but first some roster notes.

Coach Oscar Pareja reminded me (see bottom of this post) that anyone missing isn't gone or cut. It just means they aren't under contract for next season so can't train. In some cases they may be gone, but in others the team is negotiating with them, or considering options, before potentially bringing them back.

2017 roster players missing today for non-specific reason: Carlos Cermeno, Anibal Chala, Eduardo Cortes, Coy Craft, Luis Gonzalez, Hernan Grana, Aaron Guillen, Atiba Harris, Walker Hume, and Chris Seitz.

Players missing due to call up & are signed for '18: Kellyn Acosta, Jesse Gonzalez, Maynor Figueroa.

Players missing for medical reasons & are signed for '18: Michael Barrios (right foot surgery, out 4 weeks), Jesus Ferreira (right meniscus, out 1 to 4 months), Carlos Gruezo (non-soccer related surgical procedure), and Victor Ulloa (surgery for sports hernia, out 4 to 6 weeks)

Today's Game

This will tell you who is here today. Gray in a 4-2-3-1, Orange is a 4-4-2. Teams are balanced, this isn't a starters vs reserved.

Gray Team

Maxi Urruti

Ryan Hollingshead Mauro Diaz Bryan Reynolds

Chris Cappis Jacori Hayes

Alex Bautista Rula Holland Matt Hedges Reggie Cannon

Seth Wilson

Orange Team

Tesho Akindele Cristian Colman

Roland Lamah Paxton Pomykal

Diego Pareja Edwin Cerrillo

Julian Hinojosa Chris Richards Walker Zimmerman Adonijah Reid

Carlos Avilez

Who's Who of the Academy Kids

Alex Bautista - left back. Short'ish. Likes to get forward. Looked quite comfortable today.

Chris Cappis - A tall, deep-mid type. I've talked about him before a couple times. I'm a big fan.

Edwin Cerrillo - Formally a striker, moving to midfield this year. He has a calming influence about him.

Julian Hinojosa - Playing left back today, combined well and tried to support behind Lamah.

Rula Holland - A left back or midfielder playing out of position today at center back... and you could tell. I've seen him in MF where he's more interesting.

Diego Pareja - A.k.a Pareja Jr. Nice touch, good technical skill. Not physically ready and a bit wide-eyed today. Skills are there though.

Chris Richards - Center back, he impressed me today. Lanky, but has pace and knows what he's doing. I'll be keeping an eye on him.

Seth Wilson - a U17 keeper.

Notes and Observations

Bryan Reynolds is a Grown Ass Man (trademark Eddie Johnson). He's such an immense physical presence. Big, fast, powerful, intimidating, but with some skills on the ball. He really wants to go at people. He was almost never in FCD camp last season, I expect a significant contribution next year.

Adonijah Reid is really short, but has some skill and quicks. He didn't seem to be too excited to be playing right back today though.

Reggie Cannon is ready to take the next step. I'll be shocked if he isn't the right back for all of next season.

Ruben Luna was here today. He's out of contract and asked Oscar if he could train. If FCD is looking for a veteran striker for cheap depth they could do worse. But the odds are long at this point.

Yannick Abdallah, a trialist. I didn't see enough of him to really comment on his game, he came in at left back for about 15 minutes. Skinny with black curly hair in a ponytail. I know nothing more about him. (Arman's Note: Abdallah is 22-23 years old and played for an FCD club team in his high school days. He won Nike's Most Wanted in 2014. Does not seem like true defender, more of a midfielder from watching him in the past)

Catching up with Oscar Pareja

What does "returning to our way, our youth movement" mean in terms of your squad building?

At this point we're still in the process of evaluation and reflecting about this year. I took a week just to come down on the emotions and try to evaluate what we have done.

At this point we're in the moment of talking to ownership, and technical direction, to see what are the correct movements for the next year after the evaluation. I think it's the ideas we have, but we're still in the process.

So you're still trying to determine which direction you want to go in a lot of ways?

Right, because, you know with what happened, I don't think we need to just go crazy. We have a process here that has gone for years already. This year I think the first invested things did very well.

So we can lose our heads, just start going crazy, and it would be worse. That's not me, that's not what I want.

There's a deadline coming up, waiver, expansion etc, is that looming in terms of making decisions on your roster?

We're making some decisions at this point and obviously those deadlines will push you as well just to make it more clear. Because the players, I would like them to know what's going on and what's going to happen with them for the next year. That's going to come very quickly, first because we need it... We need to start getting our pre-season plans, and the team, and the squad, but also for the deadlines as you mention.

Is it fair to say that if we don't see players here the last two weeks then they aren't in your plans?

Not necessarily. Due to the union, you have players that are not on their contract, or the players that have not had their options picked up right away, they can not train. So that means if we are dealing with the cap, or we are waiting to finalize their evaluation, and where that we're going... There is a mix of things that make it blurry for you guys, but I know what it is. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are not in the plans.

Is there anyone from last year's roster than you can tell me for sure you are moving on from?

If I would have had it with anyone, I would tell you. Without hesitation. Cause I don't find any mystery with it. But no, there is no one that I can say right now that is not going to be.

So we are done with the evaluation but once again contracts, the money, the salary cap, the opportunity to bring someone else... all those things are the mixture.

How about the Academy team? Without naming names is there anyone you're looking at?

We are taking advantage of this time just to see them closely. Not because we don't know them, but because we want them to be competing with the first team. That's something that can happen during the year, but not at this time. I would love to see much more. There are some players who have been brought to the training... we'll see. Without specific names there are 5... 6 players that we're looking at bringing here... and we'll see.

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