Rowdies get back to basics

Posted Jun 25, 2010 by Nick Murray

Updated Jun 25, 2010 at 01:48 PM

In the grind of a regular season, there can be little time between games to readjust and get back to focusing on what made a team successful in the first place.

With five days between Tuesday night’s U.S. Open Cup defeat and Sunday’s USSF Division II game at Portland, the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies have taken the opportunity to get back to basics, hoping it will help snap the three-game losing streak in the league and end the month on a high note.

The squad went back to basics both on Thursday and Friday, reaffirming the manner in which Coach Paul Dalglish wants the side to play.

“With all the games that we’ve had, we’ve not had any days to work on anything really because everything has been a pregame day or a recovery day,” Dalglish said. “It’s just getting back to the good habits and the principles that we created in preseason.”

A big focus in the past two days was the team keeping its shape and spacing, with the side going through some interesting workouts to re-establish the idea of side-to-side movement to help the team go forward, and also getting back to drills they used in preseason to sharpen up their passing and technique. The players were certainly appreciative of the reminders, and of the work Dalglish has done as a whole.

“Paul’s done a great job with us keeping us positive about that stuff, and Paul’s done a great job too incorporating everyone,” defender Rob Valentino said. “It didn’t feel like we’re missing anything, it doesn’t feel like we miss a beat because guys are playing all the time, he’s mixing the line-up up so guys are always playing and it keeps guys motivated. He’s done a great job with that.”

HEADED WEST: After a 14-hour trek earlier this month to Vancouver, the Rowdies make their last trip west of the season on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s game with the Portland Timbers. The side is hoping the experience of their trip to face the Whitecaps will help them better negotiate the travel this weekend.

“You’ve got to be professional, hydrate the body, you’ve got to drink a lot of fluids, water, Gatorade, you’ve got to keep your body hydrated,” Valentino said. “You’ve got to eat right, eat on time, adjust to the time zone a quick as possible, which wasn’t a problem in Vancouver.”

The 1-0 defeat to the Whitecaps was a disappointing one for the side, with missed opportunities in the second half leaving the team feeling it should have brought home some points. The way the game went as a whole, though, has the team expecting that if it plays well, it can get the result it needs to reinforce its position in the league standings.

“We have that one-game experience that we went all the way over there and we know what it’s like,” Valentino said. “If we have anything to learn from it, we’ve been there, we’ve been there and had a game that far away, so now we know how to recuperate our legs, whatever we need to do whether it’s ice-bath’s when we get in, we can do the same stuff we did when we got into Vancouver.”

DINGS AND DENTS: Josh Lambo has a sore neck after a challenge in the game Tuesday night against Miami FC, so Phil Lamarre is expected to back up Daryl Sattler for Sunday’s game. Aaron Wheeler is suspended for this Sunday’s game, but that has allowed the side to sit him out of practice to allow him to recover from some of the physical treatment he’s received in the last few weeks.