FRISCO, Texas – This morning FC Dallas took part in its second intrasquad scrimmage in seven days as the team continues to build towards game-readiness.
Without regular competitive fixtures, these scrimmages are a crucial litmus test for the work being done in the daily training sessions during the week.
“I thought it was a better scrimmage than last week in terms of overall positioning, decisions with and without the ball, defensive shapes and the build (ups),” head coach Luchi Gonzalez said. “I saw both teams having interesting builds out of pressure—and that’s really important in our next step. I think the presses struggled because of the builds being pretty good today, but there were still some good moments.”
Dallas hasn’t played a full competitive game since early March, so fitness and rhythm are front of mind as the team looks to recover from its setback in Orlando.
“I think there’s a lot of positives to take from it,” said midfielder Fafa Picault. “The most important thing right now is that we’re getting rhythm, getting reps. It was a longer game today so it’s definitely helping with the fitness side and obviously tactically gelling with the group so that’s very important.”
Intrasquad scrimmages also add an aspect of competition, something Dallas’ players are certainly craving.
“Mentally it’s important,” Picault added. “Obviously for the sake of adrenaline and competitiveness it’s very important to get these games because right now we’re not looking forward to (a game) on the weekend. So, it’s very important for us.”
It’s still unclear when FC Dallas will take the field again in competitive play, but Luchi and his staff are doing their best to keep the team engaged and ready for whenever its MLS season resumes.
“We’ve been adapting for months now and that doesn’t change,” Luchi said. “We just got to keep making every day important and make sure that we’re progressing each day and that we’re not stagnant. And that’s our job as a staff – it’s my role as a head coach – to make sure there’s a purpose with each session, with each exercise, and that includes what we do off the field. We’ve got to keep pushing that way and anticipate that we’re going to have a game soon.”
