FC Dallas will close out the preseason in a big way Saturday with the second installment of the USA/Brazil Challenge, when they face their Brazilian partner Clube Atletico Paranaense at Pizza Hut Park (7:30 p.m. CT). On March 7, the two sides matched up in Curitiba, Brazil on CAP's home field at Kyocera Stadium and the home team came away with a 3-1 decision.
Besides Saturday's match being FCD's final tuneup before opening the 2007 MLS regular season on April 7 at Real Salt Lake, Hoops head coach Steve Morrow is also looking for his team to deliver a better result against CAP than they did in Brazil.
"We're very much looking forward to it," Morrow said. "We feel that we didn't do ourselves justice down there, especially in the first half. I think the boys are relishing the opportunity to show what we can do against them because we know that we could have performed better against them down there."
The FCD boss admits that most of his starting 11 for the opener is already set, but there are still a few spots there for the taking.
"I want it to be close and want the guys starting on Saturday to pretty much be the same group that will start against Salt Lake," Morrow said. "I'm looking for those 11 guys to be playing together and have 90 minutes together as much as possible. I want to give other guys an opportunity to push for a spot as well. There will be a mixture of getting the starting guys playing together and giving a few others chance to win a spot. I still think there are one or two spots still up for grabs and want to give guys the opportunity."
One player whose status for the game is currently up in the air is Argentinian midfielder Pablo Richetti, whom FCD expects to sign once his visa is approved.
"It's a situation where I will have to gauge whether or not he will get his visa approval before next week," Morrow said. "If we don't think that's going to happen, we may start him on the bench and look to get him some minutes that way. If we don't think he's going to be available for the Salt Lake game, then we don't think there's much point in starting him."
That decision should be made sometime Saturday afternoon.
"I think we'll get a good idea tomorrow of how far that process has moved along," he said. "It's one of those things that's going to be touch and go and will be close. We will speak with the league tomorrow about it and take it from there."
But one spot that the FCD head coach said is pretty well determined is who his starting goalkeeper will be in a week's time.
"I think Shaka (Hislop) was better (in the last game)," Morrow said. "He will be the first to tell you that he didn't have a good game against Chicago (on March 17). I think he looked sharper in training in Puerto Rico (last week) and also in the game against Rochester (last Saturday).
"I do feel that (Hislop) is coming into better form, which is good. There is always going to be a fight for Ray (Burse) to make that starting spot. I want him to push Shaka the whole way and at the moment, Shaka knows he's ahead. Ray is pushing him hard but Shaka will be the starting goalkeeper next week."
One thing Morrow likes about Saturday's matchup with CAP is that it will give FCD an excellent test heading into the start of the regular season next weekend.
"When we started planning our preseason, I wanted this to be a good, competitive game for us," Morrow said. "I felt that it's very important to get a game like this in before the opening game of the season. It's a great opportunity for us to play against a good quality team again and raise our game in preparation for next week."
FCD forward Kenny Cooper agrees.
"It's a good opportunity for us," he said. "Having these relationships with CAP and Tigres UANL is great for both clubs and us as players. We got to play Tigres twice last year and they were both great games. It's the same with CAP. They're a quality side and got a great result against us last time. It's a great opponent for us to get ready to start the season with in a week."
Fellow Hoops striker Carlos Ruiz feels that his side is well-prepped for Saturday's preseason finale.
"We have a game with one of the best soccer teams in Brazil and it's going to be a test because it's the last game of preseason," Ruiz said. "Then, we only have one week before we start the season. I think we are well-prepared for this game and need to show how good we are and try to win the game."
Saturday's match will likely give the Guatemalan international another chance to get further acclimated to playing in Morrow's 4-2-3-1 formation, a departure from the 4-4-2 that FCD played in for much of the 2006 campaign.
"I like (the new formation) because I have more players around me," Ruiz said. "I know I need to find spaces because with all of those players around me, I need to make good runs to find spaces behind the defense. When I have Ramon (Nunez), Kenny (Cooper), Roberto (Mina) and Arturo (Alvarez), I have good players around me. At any moment, they can give me a great pass that will allow me to try and score a goal."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
