It was a little overcast today at FC Dallas training which kept the temps down just below 60. As the slight chance of rain held off it made for some excellent training conditions.

Possession with purpose and variety of attack have been running topics with many of us in the media this week and it seems today's session is about that. The emphasis in the drills looked to be on longer passing, more vertical play, quicker build, and variety of attack. Plus some more breaking of the press.

News and Notes

Bryan Acosta, Jesse Gonzalez, and Carlos Greuzo are all missing with their respective national teams. Coach Luchi Gonzalez says they club always support the players and national team call ups.

Coach Gonzalez says he has an open, ongoing dialog with US U20 coach Tab Ramos. Come World Cup time FCD will fulling support Ramos taking anyone he wants to the World Cup, even an FCD starter. But for now, it was a case by case basis and FCD basically held their players back this week. Paxton Pomykal is too key a player right now and Jesus Ferreira has been coming off the bench a lot. Brandon Servania was the closest to being let go to the U20s, but Coach Gonzalez deemed him to important this week with all the pieces FCD is missing in midfield.

Moises Hernandez is missing from today's training. Coach Gonzalez says he's been loaned to San Antonio FC.

Ema Twumasi is still hurt. His back seems to have been a bit worse than originally suspected. He had an MRI this week and is now on a recovery regimen. No specifics on how long he's out. I don't think he's even shown up on the MLS injury report.

Jacori Hayes is doing some aggressive rehabbing out on the fields but isn't back in full team training. Coach Gonzalez says Hayes will not play this weekend as he would have needed to be back in full training today to be involved on Saturday. So while Hayes may come off the injured list, don't look for him against the Rapids.

Arturo Rodriguez of North Texas SC takes part in the entire FC Dallas session today. He's arguably the furthest along and the most integrated player from that squad having spent several months training with FCD at the end of last season.

Ronaldo Damus gets pulled in from NTXSC too, although after they finish their work. He takes part in the last 30 minutes or so of FC Dallas training as a wing/wide mid.

Francis Atuahene and Cristian Colman are still on long term injured reserve so don't expect to see them for a couple more months.

Ryan Hollingshead stepped out of training with about 30 minutes left. Coach Gonzalez says he is "tight" but is fine.

Bressan also stepped out with about 30 minutes, pointing to his hamstring. Coach Gonzalez said that was something new and will need to be evaluated after training or tomorrow before anyone can comment on it. From my non-trainer eye Bressan didn't look in any pain, just pointed to his hammy.

When Bressan pulled himself out, Edwin Cerrillo moved to center back. That's interesting. This kid is something else.

Bryan Reynolds spent about half of today's training playing right wing and the other half playing right back. Good for him. He can push himself at both positions and help provide some cover.

Reggie Cannon in back in full training and went the whole session with no problems. He looks great.

Callum Montgomery is back in training as well after recovering from his high ankle sprain. I think it's been a week that he's been back but this is the first time I've seen him.

Goalkeeper coach Drew Keeshan was missing today. He's been at a USSF goalkeeper coaching course and is due back in this afternoon. Good to see the coaching staff continuing their own development too.

Raul Herrera, who is a goalkeeping coach for the Academy, was filling in working with the FCD keepers. Nestor Merlo who is another Academy goalkeeper coach works with North Texas SC as their keeper coach.

Speaking of keepers, Carlos Avilez of North Texas SC also participated in FCD's training today. He even played left mid at one point after Hollingshead and Bressan stepped out.

Training Observations

Based on training rotations, the midfield is wide open. Sure, Paxton Pomykal is pretty much a lock based on his play so far this season but the other two spots are open. Edwin Cerrillo, Brandon Servania, and Pablo Aranguiz seem to be in the mix with even Thomas Roberts getting some reps. As I mentioned above in this post, coach Gonzalez says Jacori Hayes isn't going to be in the mix this weekend.

Jesus Ferreira does a strength drill in FC Dallas training. (Claudia Castillo / FC Dallas)

When Pablo Aranguiz is in the midfield, and this is the first time I've seen that since very early in the spring, there is for sure a shift to more of a 6/6/10 or maybe a 6/deep 8/10 look. Whichever way you slice it Aranguiz is much higher up the pitch than the other mids... which makes sense given how little defense he plays.

Brandon Servania seemed intense today, really sharp. Seeing the opportunity?

Competition seems to be open at striker as well. I witnessed Dom Badji, Zdenek Ondrasek, and Jesus Ferreira all get rotations up top. That could be really interesting depending on which way things break.

Catching Up with Luchi Gonzalez

While you stress possession, you have also talked a lot about possession for possession sake not being good. How do you translate that into what you hope to accomplish on the offensive end?

Yeah, so that's the objective. It's clear that's the next step for us. I thought we did better with it against LA, obviously less so against Columbus. Columbus was pretty good in their block and very tight. They made it difficult to break down their midfield line and that led to them transitioning and gave them some opportunities. So we're very aware that's the next step for us. It's a process.

I think we're defending well with the ball but certainly, we want to generate much more shots on target. Crosses were pretty good last game but crosses with purpose, getting more numbers in the box, getting more chances - like you said, turning them and being more dangerous - that's absolutely the goal and today's exercises showed a lot more verticality, as well as yesterday's, to take more risk. We want to take more risk.

We're finding the balance but I like the foundation. The foundation is there, but we definitely need to find the balance for us to get points.

You're missing Carlos Gruezo and Bryan Acosta in the midfield, but I was watching training and you've got five young players competing in there. As a coach is that in a way exciting?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's not great to lose key pieces and personalities in the locker room and talent on the field, but we're really proud of them [Greuzo & Acosta] having national team opportunities. We're a development club so we should fully support that. And want them to do well, represent our club and their country well.

But at the same time, we've got young guys competing and even veterans competing in those roles. I know Jacori [Hayes] has a knock so he's not cleared for this roster, hopefully, he can compete for the next one.

But absolutely, it's exciting. It puts a big smile on my face to see these guys prepare for a potential opportunity on Saturday.

I looked at Dom Badji's heat map after the game and it looked like he wasn't in the box as much as one might like. Is that a dialog you've had with him, something you are working on with him?

Yeah, he's a player who's dangerous in and around the box. But we also didn't get the right support to get enough in the box. With the exception of those last 10 minutes.

We need to have more players running forward near the edges of the 18 so that we can use and find Badji in good spots to put away goals. That's absolutely something we want - not just Badji but any player at the 9, if it's Jesus [Ferreira] or Corba [Zdenek Ondrasek] - So anybody that's at the 9 we want to feed them more.

Yeah, they are part of our build and possession. Yeah, they can be a good link player. Yeah, they can be vertical. But we certainly need to use their talent, which is to be near the goal.

Both John Nelson and Pablo Aranguiz looked pretty good in their short runs at Columbus. Have they put themselves into your thought process as potential starters?

Yeah, I would agree with that. Both were impressive when they came into the game. Nelson made his debut and played well. A very confident, clear, and technical player. Pablo showed a lot of energy.

So those are guys who were in the mix today [in training] and we'll asses.

It looked in the first few games like Santiago Mosquera has spent a lot of time playing centrally, drifting inside. Is that tactical or just his nature?

Yeah, we absolutely want him to do that. That's his strength. He finds those little pockets in the midfield. But we want to add to that. Today's session was really about that.

Once we're looking for it and don't play him, his next movement needs to be in behind [the defense] with different angles and movements in behind, diagonally across, looping out on the same side, but just being a threat in behind the outside back. As soon as he sees he's not getting that ball.

We forced it today. You saw him getting in some really good spots behind today. I think they were a product of use just introducing that idea more in his head and that we're expecting it of him and it was good to see that in training.