Friday, February 29, 2008

BYU 2008 Tryouts Day Two

No pictures today, since I made an unplanned stop at the tryouts while dropping my son off for early morning seminary classes. I was only able to stay for 30 minutes or so, enough time to catch two rounds of 8v8 scrimmages. They play two scrimmages at a time, side by side on the indoor field, which makes it hard to pick out all the good stuff that’s going on—it’s awfully fun to try though.

The play was faster and more aggressive today. I was talking to one trialist today right after he’d scored an opportunistic goal on a rebound off the top bar (I don’t see him listed on the roster, so I don’t know his name). He mentioned the increased urgency as well saying, “People are more aggressive today, there’s always someone going for the shot.” Another observer and I thought the players looked like they were getting more confident with each other too, resulting in much smoother play.

I also spoke with Robert Grant, a keeper from Scotland, after the first scrimmage. He made a comment that must be common around the PDL, “I’m tired, homework just knocks me out.” It's got to be hard to juggle playing soccer and keeping up on the classes.

Bryan Black, one of the keepers I wrote about yesterday, was at it again this morning. He seemed to be holding his own, making a tough challenge during the second scrimmage.

Just before I left, I talked to Chad Sackett. He’s not looking forward to trimming the roster down to the 24 player limit. He also mentioned that they’d recruited three high school players to come out, and would have one more slot to fill from the other high schoolers who’d come out.

One final note, I was surprised at how international the trialists were. There were a couple of guys from Scotland, a couple from Brazil, and some from Mexico. It’ll be interesting to see how many of them make the team, and how that will affect the flavor of play this year.

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