Dynamo Player Combine Coverage
Combine preview
Day 1 minute-by-minute
Day 1 photos
VIDEO: Day 1
VIDEO: Day 2
The Dynamo’s prospective player combine continued Thursday at the Carl Lewis Track & Field Complex, with head coach Dominic Kinnear returning from college scouting this morning to oversee the session.
The training session was similar, though not identical, to Wednesday’s workout. Personnel-wise, Dynamo Academy forward Chance Bergen missed Thursday’s practice due to illness while first team defender Mike Chabala joined the squad to fill out the roster.
After players had warmed up, they played an 8 v. 8 half-field possession game without goals or goalkeepers, simply trying to hold the ball as a team for as long as possible. The players then split up into different teams for an 8 v. 8 half-field scrimmage to goal, playing longer than on Wednesday.
Thursday’s teams were as follows:
Orange – Tyler Deric, Nelson Akwari, Geoff Cameron, Yordany Alvarez, Gherland McDonald, Brandon Poltronieri, Omar Gomez Galicia, Jhonatan da Silva, Francisco Navas Cobo.
Blue – Tally Hall, Risto Lakic, Pablo Salazar, Mike Chabala, Yedi Zahiri, Emmanuel Gaytan, Pablo Brenes, Diego Velazquez, Jade George.
Goals were few and far between on this day, with Alvarez and da Silva notching strikes for the blue side, although Alvarez may have been called for taking four touches on his goal.
Cameron, Chabala, Navas Cobo, Kinnear, and Steve Ralston stayed afterward with the goalkeepers for some extra finishing.
Ralston and Wade Barrett both leave town for their own scouting trips tomorrow, with Ralston headed to the ACC semifinals and Barrett to the Big East semifinals, so Kinnear and goalkeepers coach Tim Hanley will run the remaining two training sessions. Kinnear also said he was impressed with several players at the ACC quarterfinals, which was attended by representatives from most MLS teams.
College Soccer Update
In other Dynamo news, both Alex Dixon (North Carolina) and
Matt Boullt (Tulsa) notched assists on Wednesday as their teams advanced to the
semifinals of their respective conference tournaments, while Sebastien Ibeagha
(Duke) showed well in the Blue Devils’ 1-0 loss to Boston College.
Other Academy players still alive in conference tournament action include Josue Soto (SMU), Matt Kirby (Denver), and Pat Wall (Notre Dame). Clayton Holz (Stanford) concludes regular season play tonight.
The Houston Baptist University men’s team was seeded No. 1 in the Atlantic Soccer Conference tournament in Garden City, N.Y., and will face either Longwood or Howard in the semifinals on Friday.
Dynamo Academy U-18 defender Leo Ayala, the 2010 Dynamo Academy Player of the Year, is expected to sign a letter of intent with Central Florida, Dynamo Director of Youth Development James Clarkson reports, one of several Division I signings anticipated from the Academy this year.
