Here are a few updates today:

Pablo Ricchetti

Pablo Ricchetti remains an emergency option depending on any needs in the RSL midfield including for the recently injured Kyle Beckerman.  Two things to keep in mind regarding RSL moving forward and signing the player.  The status of Beckerman who appears ready to go this week will make the need for a player like Ricchetti less urgent.  Also, the team also may wait until well into August to make a decision.  For now, however, Ricchetti continues to train with the team. Read the rest of this entry »

• Congrats to Nick Rimando who won MLS’s Player of the Month award for the month of June after not allowing a goal in 3 starts.  He follows up teammate Alvaro Saborio who won the award for the month of May.
• Kyle Beckerman looks to be iffy as far as participating in tomorrow’s match.  Coach Kreis said after practice that things were “looking good”, but Kyle was less optimistic.  He’s feeling some sharp pain in his left foot still, and said that he “can’t run, but other than that it’s fine.” Read the rest of this entry »

Here are a few notes from today’s practice:

• Javier Morales is sick with strep throat.  His availability for Saturday is severely questionable as he was not able to make it to today’s practice.
• Fabian Espindola was receiving treatment for the high ankle sprain, and also did not participate in practice.
• Jamison Olave’s activity was limited due to the fact that they were playing on the turf at Spence Eccles Field House.
• Ned Grabavoy did participate fully in practice, as there was no tackling involved.
• Chris Wingert also participated, and appears to be ready to go, or at least close to it.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few midweek notes:

1. US Soccer chose not to review either of the two penalty kicks suffered by Jamison Olave in Houston.  They did, however, review a foul from behind on Morales that received no foul call. 
2. The league overturned the original ruling for Seattle’s 2nd goal on Saturday.  It was originally ruled an own goal, but was given to Tyrone Marshall.  You can review the play here at the 3:25 mark.   Was Marshall offside?
3. Both Kreis and Lagerwey claim that the main point of tomorrow’s Open Cup match in San Jose is to win.  One line of logic for this?  By winning Open Cup games they will continue to advance, and have more chances to develop their younger players.
4. There were some hints given on the roster for the match: Campos and Morales will be making the trip, but keep in mind that it’s a two-game trip.  Morales definitely out for San Jose, but could Campos see minutes? Schuler and Melia did not make the trip. 
5. Luis Gil receives the call for the US U-18 National Team.  He will be in Carson training at the Home Depot Center from April 25th through May 2nd.
6. Jean Alexandre versus Messi?  Well, probably not, but Jean did get called into the Haitian National Team, and they have a friendly scheduled against Argentina during the first week in May. 

I attended the practice today up at Park City. The most exciting part of the afternoon was the ride up there (because of the snow storm). Here are a few things that I did learn and observe:

• The practice wasn’t very intense. They broke into groups and did some drills and had some brief short-sided scrimmage play.

• Jason Kreis was not in attendance.

• Kevin Reiman has been released.

• Only two trialists were in attendance: Steve Clark and Luis Escalada.

• Kennedy Owusu-Ansah has had to return to Hertha Berlin. No word on the level of interest that RSL has in him, or if this is the end of the line.

• Jorginho Paulista and Alexander Viveros also no longer with the team, and it is presumed that their trial with the team is over. I will try to confirm the status of these.

See my thoughts on Clark and Escalada after the break.

Steve Clark seems to be quite athletic. He also finished 2nd in the beep test. In addition, he is a Keepin’ It Real reader, so he gets bonus points for that. While it’s hard to evaluate a keeper in practice, he seems to have good reflexes, and could give Reynish a run for his money at the 3rd keeper spot.

Escalada does appear slightly on the heavy side (although he was wearing two layers and long sleeves), but it wasn’t as dramatic as I was expecting from the earlier reports. He also seems to have a casual attitude in practice. However, I also always felt that Espindola had a casual approach to practice, so it’s hard to evaluate. I did notice that he seemed to have a nice soft touch on the ball and a decent shot in the few instances that I saw him in action with the ball.

UPDATE: I have been cautioned about drawing a conclusion about the 3 trialists who are no longer training with the team (I hear the team is actually high on Kennedy Owusu-Ansah).

I managed to get out to practice today for the first time in a long while. It was noticeably different than practices I had attended in the past, particularly those in preseason or very early in the season. First, this group seems to have really bonded. An example of that is that as they started the jaunt above, Rimando gave Dema a hard time and asked him if there were going to be any slide tackles during the warmup. Second, they seemed really loose and casual. When they were playing a small goal scrimmage with Kreis on one side. He went to block a shot and slid to the ground and the ball made contact with his hand, and several players were yelling “handball”. Kreis had the biggest grin on his face that I’ve seen from him. I see this as a sign of the team coming together, the confidence that comes with holding down first place in the West and the fact that they don’t have another league game until Monday.

Here are a couple of other tidbits:

• Fabian participated in practice. Seemed to move reasonably well.
• Clint Mathis is still hanging around with the team.
• Adam Acosta and two similar looking (possibly BYU players) named Mike were working with the team.
• Findley was with the team (Sturgis and Seitz of course are with the Olympic squad).

PRACTICE PICS