FRISCO -- The end of the 2010 season for FC Dallas was bittersweet: David Ferreira won league MVP and the team broke a two-year playoff drought, but they just missed capping off an impressive playoff run with an MLS Cup win, losing to the Colorado Rapids in the final.
For Heath Pearce, the bittersweet feeling may have been a little stronger. After playing a key role in FCD’s outstanding season, Pearce missed the entire postseason due to a hamstring injury.
“The season didn’t end as well as I wanted it to for myself,” Pearce told MLSsoccer.com by phone. “I had the injury, and nobody wants to be injured. [But] I’m proud of the way the team carried themselves throughout the whole playoffs. I’m real happy to have been part of that even though I wasn’t playing.”
With FCD’s season ending on Nov. 21 and preseason slated to begin at the end of this month, FCD players will have had just over two months off. For Pearce, that’s been a pretty long break.
“This is probably one of the longer offseasons I’ve ever had,” he said. “I wouldn’t say [my preparation] has really changed. I’m going to start workouts again on Monday for all of January.”
After taking some time off to relax with family in his native California, the defender is healthy once more and is counting down the days until preseason training begins on Jan. 31.
“I feel good. We’ll have to wait and see how [the hamstring] feels in training and stuff like that,” Pearce said. “I feel back at full strength again now that the injury is done.”
Pearce had to take some measure to ensure his hamstring fully healed, and that included foregoing any thoughts of participating in the US National Team’s January camp, regarded as one of the USMNT’s toughest of the year.
“I had a discussion with Bob Bradley sometime in December to discuss the situation with the January camp,” Pearce said. “We both kind of came to the conclusion that it would be good for me to head back to Dallas and get some workouts there to get ready for the season, just to make sure the injury is behind me.”
With the 2011 season fast approaching, the FCD veteran turns his attention to a team that will look to replace starting midfielders Atiba Harris and Dax McCarty, who were both selected in the MLS Expansion Draft, and forward Jeff Cunningham, who left via the Re-Entry Draft. Last year’s backup goalkeeper, Darío Sala, is also not expected to return.
“Yeah, they’re going to be tough to replace,” noted Pearce. “[But] I’m confident and I think everybody else is [confident] that the coaching staff is doing what they need to do to find replacements for those positions. … Hopefully we can get some guys that will come in and contribute right away.”
Dallas will need to fill those voids in a hurry, especially with the club's participation in CONCACAF Champions League for the first time in their history.
“I think it will be a great experience for us,” said Pearce. “With the expanded rosters and the return of the reserve league, all these competitions will give a lot of the younger guys opportunities to play throughout the year. Any time you play games where you’re going to Central America, it increases your level of experience and you learn a little bit more about the game.”