We seldom here any news about what TFC is up to regarding scouting missions . Not sure why this is but it would be nice to know what is going on regarding attempts to bring in new talent. I was reading the article below this morning and Dallas are very up front in what they are doing, they do not promise anything but they do give details of where they have been looking.
Anyone have an opinion on this?
"We've received some very, very good, interesting people. So we're in the process still of evaluating and hope that we can go through the process and have somebody on board with us in the near future," Hyndman said. "... We've got a lot of look on this, considering we don't have anybody named. At the same time, the position is really designed a lot to help me in player identification, so somebody who has been around and has got a little experience, who understands the college game, understands the level that we're looking at for MLS players, international contacts and realizing no one person is going to have all of those." Like every other coaching staff in MLS, Hyndman and his staff have spent much of the offseason looking at players. The head coach went to Ghana in late November, top assistant John Ellinger ventured to Germany and goalkeeping coach Drew Keeshan returned from a junket to England just before the end of 2009.
"There was a player that we had brought over during the year," Hyndman said of Keeshan's trip. "We went over and saw him again. We had continued to make contact. At the same time, it was a wonderful opportunity for Drew Keeshan to shadow a coach. It was a learning opportunity for him to be with some of the better clubs like an Everton and so forth to see what they're doing to bring back some ideas and make him a better coach."
The FCD coach recounted his own travels so far this offseason.
"I'm the type of person who just doesn't sit around. I went to Ghana and spent eight days there," Hyndman said. "Once I got back, two days later, I was at the College Cup. I got back and the next day, I was in LA looking at junior college players who will slip through the draft because they're junior college players who didn't have a chance to go to a four-year school. We saw some players that we liked and they're on our Discovery List. They might be a pleasant surprise. The only thing I know about the offseason is that we haven't been playing games. I haven't looked at this as an offseason."
Once FCD begins preseason practice, he expects a number of the players he and his staff have seen to be front and center for trials.
"I'm thinking maybe eight," Hyndman said. "That's a pretty good number of players that we've seen, we've identified and then we want to see them now a little bit closer. I'm very excited about some of the people we've identified and things we've done in this offseason for the future. I know I was excited last year because I thought it was an improvement in the offseason. I was on the job for four or five months and then, thought we made an improvement. I think this year, we're making another improvement coming off of a season where at the end, we were playing some of the best soccer in the league."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com