Players Ready for Season to Start (written by: Truhlk)
As soon as I arrived at Xango Field the feeling in the air was electric. With a sunny day and no wind to speak of everyone seemed to be in a great mood and it showed in the way they practiced. Both Yura and Javi could be heard yelling out every time they scored in finishing drills and Mathis seemed to be having fun, berating himself for sending 4 shots in a row over the bar in an attempt to beat the keeper to the far upper v of the goal.
The defense looked very intense and could easily prove to be the team’s greatest position of strength this year. With Coach Frasier walking them thru a few basic exercises they looked very focused and in sync. The standouts to me were Russell and Wingert. They both were getting in tight on defense and denying opposing players any room to turn with the ball. Beltran was in good form as well showing a good touch and an ability to hold a player on his back and maintain possession.
The real fun though was watching the strikers. With Javi and Andy joining in they mostly worked on finishing though they did do some work on chest trapping in the box and short passes to go along with it. The shots were hard and mostly on target though a fair number sailed over the posts or clanged off them proving that the team is picking up right where they left off. The highlight moment of practice came with Javi drilling the third shot in a row to go in past Seitz following one from Tino and one from Robbie F. and then hollering and fist pumping his way back toward midfield.
All in all everyone looked pretty relaxed and were joking with each other over missed hits or great shots/saves. With a little more than a week to go before the first game they looked and sounded like a team that has come together and expects to win. The guys should be well prepared for Seattle come March 28th.
