INFOGRAPH: Blas Perez and Je-Vaughn Watson
FC Dallas is coming off of their first bye week of the season and for two players in particular, the break couldn’t have come at a better time.
Blas Perez and Je-Vaughn Watson played key roles in the team’s hot start in 2015, but also played key roles on their respective national teams in the Gold Cup logging nearly 1000 combined minutes in the month-long tournament. The added rest has allowed their bodies to fully recover and prepare for the final stretch of the season.
“It was important because I had an intense month at the Gold Cup,” Perez said through an interpreter. “I talked to the coaches about getting some rest, and to me it was great. I’m ready to fight for this team.”
“I saw them [Monday] probably as sharp as ever,” head coach Oscar Pareja said of the pair. “It was not expected because they came from a few days [of extra training that] we gave them.”
FC Dallas, however, was not lost in their absence. While the two mainstays of the starting XI from the first half of the season were gone, two of their teammates rose to the challenge. David Texeira has started each of the last six games at forward, while Ryan Hollingshead has moved seamlessly from the midfield to outside back – starting each of the last eight games.
“He’s a hard worker,” Perez said of Texeira. ““I’m very happy for David to [play like he has been].”
For Watson, the emergence of Hollingshead on the back line comes as no surprise.
“I always tell him ‘You’ve got the potential to be one of the best players on the team,’ and it’s no surprise for me to see him playing left back and playing so good,” Watson said. “Ryan is a willing player – he’s willing to put in the work so whatever he has to do for the team, he can do it.”
Now that both Gold Cup players are back in Frisco, the FCD roster is deeper than ever.
“The whole squad is great for me,” Pareja said. “It’s not a feeling that I had last year too much or too many times and this year, until now, due to international call-[ups]. To now have them all available is fantastic.”
With proven talent at each position on the Dallas roster, the internal competition to make the starting lineup has an added bonus on each player individually.
“If you’re comfortable and you know you’re always going to play, you drop your guard. To have a player like Ryan, and a player on the right, Atiba, pushing for a spot there, it only makes it better for the team,” Watson said. “Today in practice you could see everybody started fighting to get into the starting XI.”
And although everyone wants to start, it doesn’t matter who get the call on Saturday because spirits in the locker room will remain high – and Watson said that’s what he missed most during his international absence.
“It’s a lot of fun in and out of the locker room,” he said. “That is one of the main reasons we are winning games – the camaraderie on and off the field. When we go on the field, it’s always the same thing. Nobody is trying to put anyone else down; it’s always giving words of advice [and encouragement] for you to push on.”
