FRISCO - On the surface, things have been relatively quiet for FC Dallas in an off-season that is now nearly six weeks old.
Former MLS All-Star goalkeeper Dan Kennedy, who Dallas happily snapped up after being awarded the #1 pick in the Chivas USA Dispersal Draft, has joined the team and recently expressed his excitement to be with Oscar Pareja's squad. Other than that FCD has not made any additions to the roster that drew Seattle Sounders FC twice in the MLS Cup Playoffs before crashing out on the away goals rule.
That doesn't mean there isn't lots of legwork going on behind the scenes.
Next up, is phase two of the MLS Re-Entry Draft set for Thursday. While phase one - in which you must guarantee the 2015 contract option of any player selected - passed without incident. Phase two - in which you have the opportunity to negotiate 2015 contracts - has seen many more players taken in years past, including defender Stephen Keel who Dallas picked in 2012.
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"I think there are some players of interest and we have to see how things develop," said Technical Director Fernando Clavijo. "But there are a couple players that are definitely of interest to us."
For practically the last month, at least one member of the FCD technical staff has been in South America scouting and vetting players they have identified as potential targets to add to the 2015 roster.
"We identified early on in the off-season our needs for next year with the players we didn’t exercise options [on] and players who aren’t coming back," said Clavijo. "We need to fill some spaces, so we’ve been pretty quick to identify our needs right away and that’s what we’re looking for. We’ve been traveling pretty much all over South America right now to try and figure out which players fit with us."
Clavijo said earlier this month that strengthening the central midfield is one of the top priorities of the club this winter, so it's easy to presume that is one of the targets FCD is looking at while holes at outside wing with the departure of Andres Escobar and potentially outside back depending on the status of Je-Vaughn Watson are also likely on the checklist. Unsurprisingly, the South American duo of Clavijo and head coach Oscar Pareja always tend to look south when finding new international talent to bring on board and the last month has been a crucial time to continue that process.
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"There is urgency with this travel too because most of the leagues are coming to an end across South America, [with a break] until mid-January, so now is the best time to go and see those players play in regular season," said Clavijo. "Now you can talk to them at the end of the season and if you have any doubts and want to see more games it would be after the new year so it was a crucial time to travel down there and see some players."
While new technology like Wyscout enables the staff to watch nearly any player with merit around the world, there is no substitution for not only seeing a player in person, but having the opportunity to meet him face-to-face and see if he has the type of personal character that is so important to Clavijo and Pareja.
"I like to meet the family and the player in an off-the-field environment and look at the player and see what he’s looking for; whether its money or way of life or what for his future, and all those things have a big factor in the decision at the end of the day," said Clavijo. "You want guys who come here and are put in the locker room and will be people who represent the club in a good way and it’s key. It could be a great player but if it’s not a good person I think you’re going to pay the price sooner or later."
