May 14, 2006 | 16:05
Local area soccer fans may be interested to know that UNC Tar Heel and Raleigh Elite keeper Justin Hughes spent the morning training alongside Tim Howard and Marcus Hahnemann at the USMNT Training Camp. Hughes, a Wake Forest, NC native, is no stranger to the national team setup having represented the USA as part of the U20 squad at the FIFA World Youth Championships in Holland in 2005. It's wonderful that Hughes can get an opportunity to train with this quality of coaches and peers while the National Team is in town.
Practice continued today with an 11 v. 11 intrasquad scrimmage. A long-time TSF reader sent in this description of practice from his vantage point in the parking lot.
Team started 11 v 11 full field. Two 25(ish, I didn't have a watch) halves. 0-0 final. You'll want to check the photos to see who was playing each way (didn't have binoculars either). First chance went to yellow, Lewis (or Convey) sent a nice through ball that put Bradley in alone on Howard but he failed to finish. It was really the only notable chance I saw in the first half.
In the second, the yellow had a goal called back for offsides. Ball was going in but a player in an offside position touched it on the way. Howard had at least one fantastic save in the second half, diving left to turn one around the post.
After the scrimmage, field players did fitness work on an enormously and unnecessarily complicated grid of cones. Jogged on outside of the field, on the whistle, sprinted to point in the center and then back to the sides and resumed jogging...a brief rest and then repeated but every player with a ball.
GKs resumed seperate work, reaction saves, crosses and distribution.
McBride came over after fitness while the other guys stretched and hit shots on goal. Really impressive, a gk coach (Phil?) stood on the endline and cracked balls at McBride on the top of the 18. McBride settled 1st touch and hit with his second. I'll never call him McHead again, his 1st touch was unreal.
Building from the football tossing last week, today's game was "basketball" with a Gatorade cooler.
Monday is a rest day for the team.
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