Phoenix FC Head Coach David Robertson took a few moments during a break in Saturday's open tryouts to discuss getting out of the office and back on the pitch, expectations from this year's tryouts and lessons learned following Phoenix FC's first year in USL PRO.
About being back on the pitch:
It's great. It such a long off season. I'm used to being off six weeks and then you start again. It gives you a lot of time to regroup and get things organized. Obviously we'll be better prepared this year. The first season is always going to be tough. We learned a lot - me, in particular - about the level of the league, the players we need. As I said, it's just great to be back on the field. It seems to be an eternity since we played before.
Expectations coming out of open tryouts:
You never know. It's hard to know exactly where [a player] fits in. Various levels of players come. We have a lot of guys from out of the country and from around the states. Guys are obviously serious about getting a chance to play. Plus, there are other local guys who definitely have a chance. We won't make too many decisions this weekend but over the next couple of days we'll invite some to pre-season camp. If some really shine we might just sign them straight away. It's hard to tell. Somebody may look good here but you don't know who they're playing against. That's the tough part. That's one of the things we found last year with our tryouts. I think our level of players here this year compared to last year is pretty high. As I say we've got guys who are going to different combines and tryouts. There's one guy here form Trinidad and Tobago. They're not so much chasing a dream, but they all want to keep playing. I think they need to keep things simple and make sure they're not overdoing things.The USL PRO is such a tough league. It's hard. You've a lot of athletic players with a lot of speed in it the game's quick and you get closed down quick a lot. You just got to play the ball quickly and that's what we're trying to look for here.
Lessons learned about the level of the league last season:
It goes a long way. I think a year leading up to our first season I watched a lot of games. But, I think until you're actually involved in it it's hard to gauge the league. We learned a lot. We know the type of players we need. We picked up seven or eight players from tryouts last year and probably four or five of them were good enough. Other ones weren't quite up to that level. But it was hard because even during pre-season last year we played local teams - men's league teams. Until we played our first game against Los Angeles we didn't even know what level we were on. We competed well all season. Every game with the exception one we were there or thereabouts. Up until the last four games we still had a chance to get into the playoffs. But, it wasn't to be. And that's what could happen here. To be honest, there are players in this league that should be playing in the MLS or playing at different levels of professional soccer. But, in the U.S. there are men who want to be professional soccer players but there are not many professional teams. If you get that opportunity you've got to take it because if you don't there's always somebody willing to take that spot. Look at guys like Donny Toia. Look at his stepping stone. He played in Tucson the year before, played for us a year and now he's with Chivas.
On the new USL PRO Teams and schedule:
It's a lot better. The one thing is we play Sacramento and Oklahoma City four times, we play LA Blues, which are Orange County now, four times, we LA Galaxy [Reserves] four times. Almost half our season is against four teams. Traveling to play each of those teams twice you still have a bit of travel and booking, but its not quite as far. It's going to be exciting for us. The LA Galaxy - it's a reserve team - but I imagine there will be some first team players playing. I've been to a few combines and spoken to a few guys from Oklahoma City and Sacramento and they're excited about being in the league just like we were last year. It will be interesting to see how those guys do because the first season is always the toughest. For us I think it's just getting the level of player that's required for the league. I think our depth and our roster last year probably wasn't strong enough. We had a lot of injuries. We went through five goal keepers last year. I've never had that happen before. This year we're better prepared and we know what we're looking for in players. We've already agreed or verbally agreed with 14 or 15 players already. So, we're making headway. We are going to get some players who have played in the league; experienced guys who've played in the league that will help. We had some foreign players come over here and they underestimated the league. They thought it was going to be easy since it's a U.S.A. lower division. There are guys that should be playing in the MLS that are too good to play in this league. But, they're all fighting to get that jump up and get that contract. I have a line of emails from agents and players that played in the league last year that are not getting a contract all fighting for spots. Each team can have 26 players on the roster and they're all fighting for those spots.
Other impressions from year one of soccer in the US?
Last year, if you look at the [Lamar Hunt U.S.] Open Cup a lot of USL teams beat the MLS teams in the cup. It just shows you the levels and that there's not much between the two. As I say, we played Real Salt Lake Reserves last year and tied them twice 0-0. And those are the games my guys gave everything they've got because they want those guys' jobs. Plus, this year we're going to play six games against MLS opposition. People want to play in USL PRO to show what they can do.
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