FC Dallas head coach Steve Morrow will return to familiar surroundings this weekend, as he embarks on a weeklong scouting trip to England. Between 1988 and 1997, Morrow played for English Premier League giant Arsenal and netted the game-winner for the Gunners in their 1993 League Cup win against Sheffield Wednesday.
Morrow recently completed his first season at the helm for the Hoops and although he's looking forward to returning to his roots, he admits that his excursion represents only a small part of the scouting that he has done and will do between the end of the MLS season and the beginning of the 2008 preseason, which should happen in early to mid-February.
"It's a huge process," Morrow said. "I've managed to build up a lot of very good contacts all around the world and those have certainly increased this year. With all the contacts that I have in Europe and in South America, we're managing to build up a great network of scouting. We have people at every corner of the world. The last few weeks have really been spent talking to agents and to different teams and clubs out there.
"We have been using all our contacts to reach out to them with what we think our needs are for the team," he added. "We're getting DVDs of players and resumes. We're going through all that at the moment and trying to stay focused on what we need for next year and following up on those players by getting DVDs and etcetera."
In the time leading up to Morrow's trip, he has been seriously working the phones in preparation.
"I've been busy for the last week talking to agents and contacts that I have in Europe," Morrow said. "I've been trying to find games that I can watch featuring players that I think could really help us next year. It's always a lot better to see them in person instead of watching DVDs.
"I've made progress as far as figuring out some players to target and would like to say which games I am looking at but I have a few games to see. Hopefully the players I have my eye on will be able to sufficiently impress me and we can move forward with some of the targets that we've got. That's primarily the focus of me going over there for the next week."
Last season, FCD had no players of European descent on their roster. Forward Kenny Cooper, a Dallas native, spent several years in the Manchester United youth system before signing with the Hoops in 2006. Goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, who was released in 2007, was a Premier League veteran and midfielder Adrian Serioux played for Millwall before coming to MLS in 2006 with Houston.
But it's not like the Hoops have always been devoid of European players. In 2006, they had three such members of their roster. Ronnie O'Brien (Ireland) was an all-star and one of the league's best set-up men before FCD traded him last offseason.
Midfielder Simo Valakari (Finland) served as team captain for two seasons before not being offered a contract during the last offseason. And fellow midfielder Mark Wilson (England) spent most of the 2005 and 2006 seasons in Hoops before being released midway through 2006.
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
