Training Report: 1/21
After a day to shake off the rust, the Sounders FC held their second day of training camp on Saturday at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. Head coach Sigi Schmid again split the team into two groups, with the veterans making up one group and the rookies, non-roster invitees and a few returning players made up the other group.
After a warm-up the young group played short-sided 4v4 games with small goals, with a group featuring Babayele Sodade, Michael Seamon, Michael Tetteh and Alex Caskey showing a dynamic attack.
After those games, they moved into shooting drills and a 1v1 attacking/defending drill. They finished their day with a few minutes of the beep test before finally ending with a weight training session.
The veteran group went through a warm up, then played a 7v7 game on a shortened field with the goal being to pass to players within an 8-yard by 8-yard pod at either end of the field.
After another series of drills, they too did a few minutes of the beep test and a weight training session.
Supplemental draft pick Jason Banton was on hand Saturday, but did not participate in team drills after a full day of travel on Friday. Steve Zakuani, meanwhile, took a lesser workload on Saturday after taking part in a full training session on Friday.
Seattle took the day of on Sunday and is scheduled to return to training on Monday morning at the team's training ground at Starfire in Tukwila.
Here are Sigi Schmid's comments from after training:
(On what he’s seen the past couple days…) “It’s getting the ball rolling a little bit and getting everybody’s body used to the daily pounding again and the routine. I think the spirits have been good, I think the practices have been intense, I think you saw the second group likes to compete…They want to win every time out. I thought the young guys were better and calmer today. That was better soccer, as well. I’ve been pleased. The energy level has been good. I think there’s been some good play, as well in there, there have been some good goals in there. We have to just continue along those lines.”
(On how the abundance of new players has affected training this year…) “I’m trying to learn everybody’s names. We’ve had the groups separate a little bit so from that standpoint it’s trying to ingrain into guys already—you see certain habits from people, especially the young players, that they’ve had—not taking plays off, shifting in transition…There’s little comments I’ve made to guys, ‘Hey you’ve got to change your speed, you can’t go all the same speed all the time.’ So those are little things you pick up upon, and those are things you try and ingrain in them. The reason for keeping the groups separate, too, is you ingrain it a little bit so when you bring the two groups together, they already know it’s going to happen, because there’s going to be a veteran who’s going to bark at them for not changing their speed, for taking that play off, for not getting back quickly enough. So the more they can get of it before, the better it is.”
(On if the training plan has changed this year because of the early CCL game…) “The initial part of it probably isn’t going to change all that much. Once we get to Florida, it’s probably change a little bit. Once we really identify…this is what we think is our starting lineup, part of that evaluation is going to be on the fitness level of some of the guys. There are a couple guys I’m concerned about a little bit, that I don’t think came back as fit as I would have liked…so that might affect who we play or how we start in that first game. Once we identify that group of 13 that we think the starters are going to come from, their training rhythm will probably change a little bit as we move into mid-February and in preparation for the game.”
After a warm-up the young group played short-sided 4v4 games with small goals, with a group featuring Babayele Sodade, Michael Seamon, Michael Tetteh and Alex Caskey showing a dynamic attack.
After those games, they moved into shooting drills and a 1v1 attacking/defending drill. They finished their day with a few minutes of the beep test before finally ending with a weight training session.
The veteran group went through a warm up, then played a 7v7 game on a shortened field with the goal being to pass to players within an 8-yard by 8-yard pod at either end of the field.
After another series of drills, they too did a few minutes of the beep test and a weight training session.
Supplemental draft pick Jason Banton was on hand Saturday, but did not participate in team drills after a full day of travel on Friday. Steve Zakuani, meanwhile, took a lesser workload on Saturday after taking part in a full training session on Friday.
Seattle took the day of on Sunday and is scheduled to return to training on Monday morning at the team's training ground at Starfire in Tukwila.
Here are Sigi Schmid's comments from after training:
(On what he’s seen the past couple days…) “It’s getting the ball rolling a little bit and getting everybody’s body used to the daily pounding again and the routine. I think the spirits have been good, I think the practices have been intense, I think you saw the second group likes to compete…They want to win every time out. I thought the young guys were better and calmer today. That was better soccer, as well. I’ve been pleased. The energy level has been good. I think there’s been some good play, as well in there, there have been some good goals in there. We have to just continue along those lines.”
(On how the abundance of new players has affected training this year…) “I’m trying to learn everybody’s names. We’ve had the groups separate a little bit so from that standpoint it’s trying to ingrain into guys already—you see certain habits from people, especially the young players, that they’ve had—not taking plays off, shifting in transition…There’s little comments I’ve made to guys, ‘Hey you’ve got to change your speed, you can’t go all the same speed all the time.’ So those are little things you pick up upon, and those are things you try and ingrain in them. The reason for keeping the groups separate, too, is you ingrain it a little bit so when you bring the two groups together, they already know it’s going to happen, because there’s going to be a veteran who’s going to bark at them for not changing their speed, for taking that play off, for not getting back quickly enough. So the more they can get of it before, the better it is.”
(On if the training plan has changed this year because of the early CCL game…) “The initial part of it probably isn’t going to change all that much. Once we get to Florida, it’s probably change a little bit. Once we really identify…this is what we think is our starting lineup, part of that evaluation is going to be on the fitness level of some of the guys. There are a couple guys I’m concerned about a little bit, that I don’t think came back as fit as I would have liked…so that might affect who we play or how we start in that first game. Once we identify that group of 13 that we think the starters are going to come from, their training rhythm will probably change a little bit as we move into mid-February and in preparation for the game.”
Posted in Sounders FC