FC Dallas announced Monday that they have traded midfielder Arturo Alvarez to the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for allocation money and San Jose’s first round draft pick for the 2009 MLS Superdraft(originally Houstons pick, acquired in the Kamara trade). The 23 year old midfielder will be returning to San Jose after leaving the club in 2004 for Dallas. Alvarez has scored 3 goals and made 3 assists in 16 appearances so far this season with Dallas. Thoughts?
3rd Degree is reporting that FC Dallas are trailing River Plate Attacking midfielder Ariel Ortega. The 34 year old has 86 caps for Argentina, and has stated he would consider playing in MLS for $1 million dollars a year. If FC Dallas were to approach Ortega, it would have to be as a Designated Player, which head coach Schellas Hyndman has stated he is willing to do. Ortega has made 44 appearances for Riverplate since joining in 2006, scoring 13 goals. What do you think? Would this be a good move for FC Dallas? Is he a good DP choice?
3rd Degree is reporting that FC Dallas have completed a trade with Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wizards, seeing them acquire two international roster spots. FC Dallas sent their 2009 MLS SuperDraft 4th round pick to Kansas City for an international spot, and sent their 2009 first round Supplemental Draft pick to Columbus in exchange for another international spot. The trades will give new head coach Schellas Hyndman the necessary roster spots to acquire the two south american based players he is currently scouting.
Rating; 3(Likely)
According to goal.com, Romanian giants Steaua Bucharest are expressing interest in FC Dallas playmaker Juan Toja. The 23 year old Columbian joined FC Dallas after spending the year on loan from River Plate. Toja has been capped at the U20 level for Columbia, and has been named to the MLS All Star team each year since his arrival. Toja is said to be interested in the move as it could see him playing in either the Uefa Cup or Champions League tournaments. What do you think? How much should FC Dallas be asking for? Would it be a good move for Juan?
Hello!
Hope everyone is doing well. Enjoyed your 4th of July weekend, I did! Where to start, well we played on the Friday night coverage game on Fox Soccer Channel. If any of you watched the game, you’ll know that we had an hour delay due to a storm that was hovering over the pitch. It was a long wait because all of us were itching to get on the field and take care of business. Puerto Rico started their month long road trip and we wanted to get 3 points out of the match so that we could jump further up the table. Fortunately we were able to get 3 points in a muggy and wet night in Miami. Alex Afonso scored on a penalty set up by Sean Fraser. I started that game and was pleased the way our team came out. My ultimate goal as a defender is to keep a shutout and we did that, with some very good saves from our keeper Josh Saunders. As far as the game we played well just need to play a complete game for 90 minutes, because we did a little more defending in the 2nd half than we wanted to.
As far as the U.S. Open Cup, we did a franchise best of reaching the 3rd round. In the 2nd round we faced the Atlanta Silverbacks at home, which was fortunate, because it’s very tough to play on the road, so we had a good fan support behind us egging us on. We won that match 1-0 and were elated to play again in the 3rd round and even more motivated to play against a MLS team. We took on FC Dallas at Dallas. I’ve never been to Dallas so it was definitely something I was looking forward to. I know quite a few players on that team. I played with Ray Burse at Ohio State as he was my keeper, and I played with Brek Shea and Blake Camp with the U-23’s in Toulon. I also played with Abe Thompson and Michael Dello-Russo in my freshman year at the University of Maryland. We lost to FC Dallas 2-1 which was disappointing but as far as how we played, we did very well. The only drawback is we gave up goals in injury time of both halves. We gained a lot of confidence and came out pumped up for Puerto Rico. Outside of Open Cup play we’ve been unbeaten. We hope to continue that streak because it makes it a lot more fun.
For our upcoming schedule, we travel Saturday to Rochester to take on the Rhinos and it should be a very good game. Rochester has had its ups and downs but are playing good soccer since they’re getting back some of their injured players. That’s what we’ve been told in meetings. I feel very optimistic with our chances of going in there and getting 3 points. We just need to enjoy the game and be consistent the entire game. After that we travel to Montreal to play in their great atmosphere. They recently lost to Puerto Rico, so I’m sure they’re going to battle just as hard as we are to get a result. It should be very entertaining and fun to play at Saputo Stadium.
As far as my down time, we’ve had a busy schedule with some workouts scattered in our week of prep, so we’ve been busy, but I do find time to “jump on the sticks” as my buddies and I call it from back home in Ohio. We play a lot of FIFA 08 on Xbox 360. Actually I’m writing this Tuesday night and I’m going to play my buddy Brent Rohrer, who I played with at Ohio State in a game after I get done with this. . His roommates are all very good friends and avid Fifa players, so there’s always a game waiting. So that’s about it as far as what I’ve been doing. Oh! I just finally went to the beach on our weekend off for the 4th and had a good time. It’s been some time since I’ve seen the ocean so it was a nice change of scenery.
I would like to thank those of you who submitted questions and we’ll get to that part now.
1. Hey Eric, other than Soccer what are other sports you most enjoy watching/player? Do you support any specific teams?
-Jimmy K, Jacksonville, FL
Besides soccer the sports I like to watch would consist of a few. I’ll throw in the teams I support with the sports that I watch. I like to watch hockey and I support the Philly Flyers. My cousin supported them when I was growing up so I just followed them and became a big fan. Was very excited to see them do somewhat well in the play-offs this year. The Pen’s were just too good. I like to watch all the Grand Slams for Tennis. Recently Wimbledon was on and man what a final between the 2 best players in the world. I’m a Federer fan personally. Also like to watch Golf, especially when the Majors are on. Tiger is unreal to watch, especially his last win at the Open. What an athlete to win the cup with a bum knee.
2. Eric, did you ever consider playing overseas after high school or college? Or were you focused on playing in the states.
-Steve G
As far as professionally, it was always a goal of mine, but to be blunt, I wasn’t good enough nor developed enough as a player to go straight from High School. High School soccer is an enormous leap to the pro levels. If the opportunity was there, I’d really have to sit back and think about it. After college, since we went pretty far in the tournament I couldn’t talk with an agent until afterwards, so I didn’t know too much. I was mainly focused on the MLS. I was invited to the combine and performed very well there so I was expecting to play MLS. I had known of a few options overseas, but I was drafted by New York so I was committed to them at the time.
3. Heya, did you follow Euro 2008 closely? What were your thoughts on the tournament?
-Cindy W
Cindy let me tell you this; I was very impressed by ESPN to cover all the games in some shape or form. When we traveled I knew we wouldn’t get the channel in our room, so I watched it online. My two teams that I was rooting for were the Dutch and the Germans. My family name is German, and I liked the Dutch since I was younger, when Davids played for them. So to see both of them lose sucked, but the Germans put up a good fight. They didn’t play well in the finals, but Spain was definitely the best team. Their unsung hero was their Defensive mid, Senna.
4. If you had a choice of a team(s) to play for around the world, who would you choose?
-Bob C
What a question. You could go so many routes as to what league I like the best or where I’d go for money. England has a very attractive style of football and they pay extremely well. I’d probably say I’d want to go to a German club, probably Bayern Munich or Schalke, just because they both have a very rich history and compete very well in their league.
5. First of, I love the blog! I was wondering, do you have a personal favorite formation? are you a more conventional 4-4-2 kinda guy, maybe 3-5-2?
-Jennifer C
As for formations, I’m more of a 4-4-2 kind of guy. My style of game is reading the game and anticipating balls being played into the forwards. As a center back you can do that, as long as you have cover with a 4-4-2 system. With a 3-5-2 system the center back is forced to chase down balls launched overtop the outside back down the line, thus a lot more running. With the 4-4-2 I have a little more freedom to play, meaning finding seams, passing the ball, splitting the midfield to find forwards and such.
Thanks so much for reading, once again hope you had a good weekend and thanks so much for the questions! Keep them coming! Email them to Eric@americansoccerreader.com
-Brunes
According to Phil Stephens and 3rd Degree Norwegian powerhouse Rosenborg BK will be returning to watch another FC Dallas game. They will be sending chief scout Stig Torbjornsen will be returning to watch cooper July 4th against Kansas City. Torbjornsen will also be joined by Head Coach Erik Hamren as Rosenborg director and agent Jan Schiefloe, who apparently specializes in transfer from the US to Scandinavia. This all seems to suggest that Rosenborg are very close to making another bid for the FC Dallas striker, after having t heir initial $1 million dollar bid rejected by MLS. Cooper’s value is rising very quickly. What do you think? How much is Cooper worth? Would it be a good move ? I personally think if
According FC Dallas’ blog River Plate VP Mario Israel and GM Alredo Wodke flew to Dallas to meet with FC Dallas GM Michael Hitchcock to continue discussing a possible partnership between the two clubs. The two River Plate reps will spend the next few days in Dallas attending Fridays match with Kansas City. A partnership between the two clubs would be a great thing for FC Dallas and Major League Soccer. River Plate have a rich tradition of developing quality players, and if FC Dallas could work out a deal with the Argentine giants, it would be a great achievement. What do you think of the potential partnership?
According 3rd degree Norwegian powerhouse Rosenborg was the club that we reported had a $1 Million dollar bid for FC Dallas’s Kenny Cooper, rejected by MLS. Apparently Roseborg had a scout at recent games taking a look at both Kenny Cooper and Brek Shea(who we also reported was targeted by Manchester United). Rosenborg took part in last years Champions League campaign, drawing with Chelsea in England, and beating Valencia twice in group stages. What do you think? Would Norway be a good move for Cooper/Shea?
Hello Fans,
Sorry for the long lay off, but last week was a bit crazy. Game in DC Saturday, followed by a game in New England midweek, and another game at home on Saturday. On top of that my parents paid me a visit from Texas on Thursday, so needless to say I haven’t had much spare time! Speaking of time, it doesn’t get much better this week as we head to Phoenix, Arizona for a friendly game against Chivas (of Mexico). Then we head straight from there to Los Angeles for our game Saturday night against Chivas USA. A nice, nine-day road trip. Oh but wait, the story gets even better! Our flight was supposed to leave from Newark around 6:30pm tonight, but we were delayed and didn’t depart until 9:30pm. Have to love being in the hands of the commercial airlines!
I am writing this blog from the plane. I guess you could call it my office for the next week (and the hotel). I am looking forward to Phoenix, as it is one of the few places that I have yet to visit. Thank goodness the stadium we are playing in has a retractable roof, since it has been a balmy 100+ degrees for about eight days in a row in Phoenix! Oh, don’t worry though, the forecast while we are there for 3 days, highs around 110 and lows around 80.
We are currently in the middle of hectic time of the year for us. As I mentioned before, we just played three games in eight days. Over the next two weeks we will play another four games in various competitions:
6/25- Friendly vs Chivas (Mexico) Phoenix, AZ
6/28- MLS vs Chivas USA Carson, CA
7/1- US Open Cup vs Harrisburg City Islanders TBD
7/4- MLS vs Colorado Denver, CO
That makes for 4 games, in 10 days! I am getting tired just thinking about it. What can you do, the schedule is what it is and you have to play the cards you are dealt. Hopefully we can get results in all of our games and along the way some young guys who have not played that much gain some playing time and experience. These next four games will be a great opportunity for many guys to prove to coach that they deserve a spot on field or as a sub.
About those past two games….
Clearly in DC, we were quite poor. Every team is going to have a game here and there where things might not go their way, but that was not the case for us that game. We simply just didn’t want it as bad as the other team. We were out worked and the result showed.
In New England, there were some changes made; mentality, formation, and personnel. I thought the team did a great job of letting New England know from the beginning that what happened in DC was not going to happen again. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was effective. There was some good soccer played, along with some scrappy soccer. At the end of the day we had put ourselves in a wonderful position to grab three points on the road against the best team in the league. Unfortunately we gave up a goal late (one that none of us were pleased with, because we knew it was way too easy). At the end of the day we still had earned a point, but more importantly we could look ourselves in the mirror and know that we had given an honest effort and gone toe to toe with the best team in the league at their place. We had something to build on!
On Saturday against Dallas, we fielded the same lineup as we did midweek against New England. I thought the team did an even better job of letting it be known to Dallas that it was not going to be an easy day on the job. From the beginning we sustained high pressure and gave them little room to play. Eventually that paid off for as, after Sinisia delivered a great ball off a corner kick and Gold was there to nock it home for just a few yards out. It was another great start for the second game in a row, and one that we fully deserved. If it were not for their keeper to make some quality saves throughout the match we could have found ourselves up at least two goals, if not three. Dallas’ chances were few and far between. Their best chance coming towards the end of the game, but Conway was there to make a terrific save and preserve the clean sheet. It was a great stepping-stone from our performance in New England, and we were able to gain another notch in the win column.
Looking forward to this weekends match against Chivas USA, I think we have to bring the same heart and desire to the game that we did last week. If we continue to build on our past two games and get a bit lucky, then we have a great chance of coming back with some points.
Your Questions Answered:
1. Hey Hunter, after the departure of Jozy, looks like you guys might
be in the market for a striker, if you could pick a striker to join
the Red Bulls, no matter how unlikely, who would be in your top 5?
-Stanley E
Stanley,
Fernando Torres, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Toni, Miroslav Klose
2. Hello Hunter, after the D.C United result, it was rumored that JCO
really gave you guys a talking to, do you think this helped the team
turn in a stronger performance against New England?
-George M
George,
I would have to say that based on our past 2 results against New England and Dallas that it definitely didn’t hurt! We all realized that the DC game was a poor effort and performance, and one we do not want to re-create. There was only room for improvement after that game. I think in both the New England and Dallas games you saw a much more inspired and passionate team on the field, yet a team that still played some good soccer as well.
3 Hiya Hunter, I’ve read that there are many professional players that
play lots of footy video games, are there any guys on the Red Bulls
that are particularly big on video games? Any card players? Thanks!
-Jessy F
Jessy,
To be honest I am not sure who is good at FIFA on our team. I never have been one for playing footy video games. As far as card players, there are plenty of those on the team. The usual suspects playing cards are usually myself, Magee, Boyens, DVB, Leitch, Goldy, and Conway.
4.Hi Mr. Freeman, if you had to mark Cristiano Ronaldo, how would you
go about it?
-Michael W
Michael,
Kick him as hard as I could and hopefully he would have to come out of the game. Haha, no in all seriousness though I am not sure that there is a good/right way to mark him. If you try to get close to him and deny him the ball he still has the speed to get in behind you. But if you respect his speed and give him just a few yards of space to get the ball and run at you, you are in trouble too. He has such great quality in so many categories (speed, skill, passing, shooting, heading). He is one of those guys that you have to mark by committee, because I don’t think that there is any ONE defender in the world that likes their chances of stopping him 1v1 over 90 minutes.
5. Hey Hunta! (i’m from the bronx) If you could bring one player from
another MLS team to RBNY, who would it be and why?
-Johnny G
Johnny,
Hunta huh? I thought that was Boston talk. I had a coach from Boston, and he used to always call me Hunta. Guess the Bronx and Boston have something in common other than baseball!
To answer your question, that’s a tough one. I will go what player I would take for each position:
Forward- Dwayne De Rosario (plays there sometimes, and had to list him here so I could fit in Gomez)
Mid- Christian Gomez (very creative)/ Shalrie Joseph (dependable, hard working)
Defender- Eddie Robinson (no one likes to play against him)
GK- Brad Guzan (very good and young)
According to 3rd Degree, Major League Soccer has rejected a $1 Million dollar bid from an unknown European club for FC Dallas striker Kenny Cooper. Cooper, who has English citizenship as a result of his father, has been in good form for FC Dallas this season, scoring 7 goals in 14 starts. The 23 year old Striker spent 3 years with Manchester United before joining FC Dallas, and has earned 2 caps with the United States Mens National Team. The european transfer window is fast approaching, and we would not be surprised if there are further bids tabled for the young striker. How much do you think MLS should ask for Cooper? Any thoughts on what club might have been interested?
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