It's October and it's 80 degrees at the start of training just before 9 am. Unfortunately, it's pretty humid too so there's no real break from the sweat.

Since FC Dallas played on Sunday, today was more like a normal Tuesday in that there wasn't a lot of tactical work. Instead, this was a pump everyone up, fun, competitive session. The entire thing was team-based head to head with four groups.

This late in the season; team chemistry, mentality, and cohesion probably takes precedence over tactical drilling anyway.

News and Notes

Paxton Pomykal did not take part today as a precaution, giving him a day of rest. Coach Luchi Gonzalez says they hope Pomykal and his lingering hip flexor issue can be worked toward making the roster and contributing this weekend, maybe even starting if he comes through.

Brandon Servania is back in training, clear of his concussion protocol. Coach Gonzalez called Servania an important piece, which he certainly is. FCD missed him badly against Colorado.

Dom Badji trained today but took a slight knock in the quad region toward the end of the session. FCD will evaluate him but he should still be in the mix this weekend.

Bryan Reynolds is still out after hyperextending his knee playing for North Texas. He should be back next week competing for a spot.

"Pollo" Cortes, North Texas SC's second keeper, is helping make up the numbers in training today.

There are no FC Dallas roster players training with North Texas SC today. Except perhaps Dante Sealy of course, I didn't go and look for him. Obviously, he's on loan for the year and isn't really an FC Dallas player this season.

The media learned at training that Zdenek Ondrasek got the call up to the Czech senior team for the first time. His face genuinely lit up with excitement when talking about it. Good for him. What a great honor to represent one's country for the first time at the senior level.

WATCH: Zdenek Ondrasek talks about how special it is to be called up to @ceskarepre_eng, but he knows there's a very important game on hand before he departs for international duty. #DTID pic.twitter.com/RTLPhSIIuG — FC Dallas (@FCDallas) October 2, 2019

Reggie Cannon and Bryan Acosta have also been called up for the next international window by their respective national teams.

Training Observations

Lots of small side games with the 6v6 teams. Low touch count, quick pace, quick restart, quick ball movement, and quick pressure. Everything was about high energy and high competition. Plus some finishing and shooting.

One of the rules in the shooting portion of training was a shot high over the bar giving a -1 score on your team's goal tally. Which made me chuckle thinking about recent finishing.

Jesus Ferreira looks really crisp shooting today, focused. I'm sure he's pissed about that miss last weekend.

Brandon Servania looks 100% to me. I talked to him a bit, he says he feels great. This was his first time going through concussion protocol. I love where this kid's at right now, mind and game.

The intensity that Reggie Cannon brought back form the last US came is continuing. He looks to be at a new maturity level this last few weeks to me. Carrying himself a little differently in a way I can't quite define.

Santiago Mosquera continues to be in peak form just like he has been coming off the bench of late. If he could reproduce it for 90 minutes it would be spectacular.

Eric Alexander is fitting into the team and executing Luchi-Ball better than he has since he arrived. I don't know that he'll see the bench soon, but he looks better.

Team Green wins the FC Dallas training competition. (10-2-19) (FCD Communications / Garrett Melcer)

Team Green were the winners today: Callum Montgomery, Reggie Cannon, Jesus Ferreira, Santiago Mosquera, Edwin Cerrillo, and Jesse Gonzalez.

Catching up with Luchi Gonzalez

Did you guys catch a little bit of a break with red cards to Roger Espinosa and Ilie Sanchez?

That's there, but certainly not a focus even this last game. I wasn't looking at a score... now if we were drawn in the game, if it was a draw, I probably would have wanted to know the other scores with ten minutes left. Just to be professional about it.

Potentially the same idea here in this game. I probably want to know the scores if were in a draw, knowing what they are with 10-15 years left, but when we're chasing the game and we're down... I just wanted to get back into the game. I couldn't care less what the other scores were. I didn't find out till after the game. That's the staff and myself making sure we're prioritizing were focused on the right. For our family, for our players.

I'm sort of meant it more as a going-forward since you're going to have to play them this weekend. Those are two key players for them. They're going to be out.

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Yeah, those are important players. Ille is a distributor, Busquets style of the league. You know, I think he's a great player and Espinoza is a personality, a winner and has been so important that that franchise so, I'm sure they'll miss him.

But other guys are going to be hungry to step up and that's what we're going to expect from Kansas City and that culture and that team that they're going to, I'm sure, be very energetic to block what our plans are.

So we look forward to that challenge.

You've been leaning a little bit on Dominic Badji down the stretch here using him both as a wing and as a nine. Can you talk a little bit about what he's bringing to the table for you that makes him valuable?

Badji, since preseason has been flexible with doing whatever it takes to help this team, you know, and we could easily just pigeon hole him and said "No, you're competing just at the nine and either you get that done or you don't," but he's been, from the preseason, open the help this team in any way possible. On the wing... centrally.

I think he's really learned a lot and he's shown to be a good student in terms of adapting to the requirements of the wing and ball recovery and defensive shapes, presses, and then movement. He's had some good moments.

I know recently he hasn't had goals and ultimately as a forward you want to score and or forwards are in this game valued in terms of their goals, but he's doing a lot of things that help this team on and off the field that are allowing us to be in a position now to compete in this last game.

Brandon Servania the back half of the season has become a key player for you. And obviously, when he went out you guys missed him a little bit. Can you talk about what he's doing over the back half of the season to sort of elevate himself and maybe where his progression will be next?

Brandon is very mentally strong. He's had ups and downs, but he's always been steady mentally. And enjoyed the game and been open to learning and embracing challenges.

The young man is having a very positive season, opening debut season. I know last year he was a first-team player, but he was on loan to get experience.

He's very important. We did miss some in Colorado. He gives us balance. I think in our midfield a bit of good defensive recovery and positioning - and a bit of good support, build, and attack - and I think he's a good balanced piece - and we're looking forward to having him in our mix in this next game.

Santiago Mosquera has looked pretty effective coming in off the bench for you, looking sharp. I know he's coming off of an injury before. Is he close to being able to play a whole game or is he mainly at this point just going to be a key tool for you bench wise.

I think he has to push to be relevant from the start. You know, that's that that is the absolute expectation for him. It's taken him some time to be recovered, to get fitness, to get rhythm, confidence, which I think he's doing progressively with each game.

So he's competing this week to earn a starting spot and that's what I expect of him. And we'll see how he responds to that.