World Footy News

Editor: USFooty's Revolution headed to Atlanta for their second training camp of the year last weekend. The following report courtesy of Chris Adams at our partner news site, usfootynews.com. Chris will continue to provide stories for the international readership on worldfootynews.com, as well as working on the dedicated United States website.

The Revos have three training camps planned before they head to Melbourne for the Australian Football International Cup, one camp in each region of the US. The Western training camp was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. The Central training camp is this weekend in Atlanta. The Eastern traning camp will be April 12 as part of the Fort Lauderdale Spring Tournament at the new Broward County Cricket Stadium. The Fort Lauderdale camp will be the last opportunity for hopefuls to impress the coaches and USFooty plans to name their squad for Melbourne soon after the last training camp.

The coaching staff was very pleased with the Revo’s first hitout of the year. In the LA game, 15 Revolution hopefuls took on the Western All-Stars made up of members of the Orange County Bombers and the San Diego Lions. It was a hard fought affair, but the Revo’s were able to get the win thanks to their second half performance. According to Becker, "The Revs ended up with the victory, which, considering this was a regional tryout playing against all-comers, in itself, was not important. What is important is the way the guys played, particularly in the third and fourth quarters. We could see that the fitness isn't quite where we want it, but the team had the right attitude to close out the game. That was nice to see."

It is going to be a hard road to Melbourne for the Revolution. The team is literally spread out across 48 states with thousands of miles of travel needed to train and play together. Players, coaches and support staff need to raise money for domestic travel as well as the money needed to get to Melbourne. They also need to negotiate with their employers to be allowed leave that is longer than the standard 2 weeks most Americans get in annual leave.

Recently, Chris “Bluey” Carroll stepped down from the team because he was unable to give the time and effort that is necessary to be competitive in Melbourne. Coach Becker is concerned about a lack of depth in the mid-field. He thinks that the problem may stem from the fact that many USFooty teams play their more experienced Australians in the mid-field and so the Americans have less opportunity to learn the position. Still, there are some bright spots on the team including the Brunmeier boys who will be in their second season with the WAFL’s West Perth Falcons. Coach Becker has no doubt that the US will bring a highly talented, athletic and committed team to Melbourne. Whether they will be able to improve upon their third place finish, we will have to wait and see.