Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sean Stays

Bob Bradley announced his final roster for the upcoming World Cup Qualifier against Guatemala in Colorado and Sean Franklin has been included. He was called up for a four day training camp last week and will now remain in Denver through Wednesday night's game, which can be seen on ESPN2 and Galavision starting at 5 p.m. (PT).

U.S. Soccer unveiled the roster this afternoon in a rather unorthodox way with an homage to Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues. Check it out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to our Rookie of the Year, Sean. I'm glad that he got the nod from Bradley to stay. I hope he will get the opportunity to play in his first ever Senior MNT cap. I hope all of our guys (MLS-based) play extremely diligently and well. Guatemala is out for blood and pay-back... If our team is not as tough, as strong, as combative... the game can easily get away out of control.
I aslo want to give a shout-out to the Galaxy RIOS U-16 & U-18 squads that played up in the Santa Cruz area over the weekend. Eventhough, they didn't do as well as they would have hoped... I am sure that they tried to give it their all. But, not to take away from SC-Breakers... who I believe came out the more prepared and practiced team(s). It's okay that the LA Galaxy RIOS didn't do as well. With every loss / draw there are so many valuable lessons that young, aspiring, energetic, learning players can take away. Nothing... Nothing will ever replace hard work, will, and practice. The more the same group of guys are available to practice, to train, to scrimmage... the more cohesive, the more ready... the more quicker the players become. Away games are not going to be easy games. Away games introduces variables, uncertainties, time-differences (perhaps), and sleepy legs with groggy attention spans. The opponents know this and will always seek to exploit it. To be consistently strong & good - takes consistently rigorous training, practice, and scrimmaging. The will, the fight, the mentality of the players must be always in sync and unified. And, the coaches try always and extremely hard to drill this into players... to make players understand positioning, timing, counter-attacks, marking, crossing, passing - all of it done to carry a stronger, unified team across the pitch towards the opponents' nets. Do not give up; you guys play because it fills you... it completes you... it makes you stronger and more centered and at peace. This is the beautiful game and it is the universal translator in motion, speed, control, agility, endurance, and finish for what men can accomplish even when words & phrases amongst them are different.