‘Sluggish’ practice disappointing for Rowdies

Posted Jun 9, 2010 by Nick Murray

Updated Jun 9, 2010 at 01:31 PM

After a long flight back from Vancouver and a day off on Tuesday, the effort was there but the sharpness was lacking as the Rowdies began preparations for their game against Montreal at Steinbrenner Field this Saturday at 7 p.m. on Wednesday morning.

“They were a little bit sluggish today to be honest,” Rowdies coach Paul Dalglish said. “Little bit disappointed with the standard of practice today, as you saw, and hopefully we can just put it down to the long travel to Vancouver and back. If it continues tomorrow then we’ll start worrying, but we always look at the bigger picture, you’re allowed one bad days training I suppose.”

Certainly, it wasn’t for a lack of trying, and there were some nice moments in the mini-scrimmage that ended practice. But there certainly seemed to be a level of dissatisfaction among the players at the way practice went as a whole.

“Every session that isn’t of the standard you expect it to be is disappointing,” Dalglish said. “They worked hard, which is the main thing. I’ve always said I can accept mistakes when they work hard, and I can understand they’d be like that after the travel. That’s not an excuse, but I can understand it.”

HAPPY RETURNS: Erik Ustruck’s return to full practice is a welcome addition back to the squad, and the full back certainly seemed to be moving well throughout practice. Up next is the work to regain his fitness, and according to Dalglish while he may not return to the starting line-up against Montreal, playing against Legends F.C. next Tuesday is a likely scenario.

“You don’t want to throw him in the deep end too quickly,” Dalglish said. “We’re pretty lucky we’ve got the game right after Montreal in Dallas, the Legends game will be the perfect game for him to come back. There might be a situation where we need to use him before then, but we’re lucky we have that game where we can see him go 90 minutes and he’ll need those 90 minutes after the length of time he’s been out.”

Ustruck was very happy to be back on the field and said he felt good after going through the session.

“I think the biggest thing for me was not coming back too soon,” Ustruck said. “It’s a long season and the guys were rolling, the guys were doing well, so obviously I didn’t have as much pressure to come back, but I still put pressure on myself to come back, it feels good to be back out there.”

NEWS AND NOTES: Goalkeeper Phil Lamarre will return to the team on Thursday after the conclusion of his month-long loan to Miami. … Rowdies’ PDL affiliate the Portland Phoenix had the weekend off, but have added former University of Tampa goalkeeper Ryan Thompson to their roster. He’ll be with them for the remainder of the PDL season.