NYCFC Training Facility Thread
- Thread starter Gotham Gator
- Start date
Correct. We like to substitute rice with quinoa.
Right before Amityville and Copaigue.
But well before Speonk.
Was at the Training Facility event today (it was ok, nothing special), and during the practice we saw, Lewis was busting his ass; unless that’s a new found commitment of his towards daily training, I’m not sure how he could put more effort in.
Regarding the practice: They did small sided keep away, large sided keep away, build-up from the back to attack shooting drills (with stationary metal defenders to pass around), 3/4 field 11sided scrimmage, and full field 11sided scrimmage. Keepers worked on their own with GK coach during the keep away drills. The 3/4 scrimmage was interesting because the of congestion of players in such tight confines, making the speed of play. There was a beautiful play where Maxi was sprung on a through ball, rounded the keeper to an empty net, but instead of shooting he pulled it back on the dribble and toyed with the defender that hustled back to the net by rounding him, and finally laid the ball off to another teammate for an easy tap in.
Edit- any questions people had about why players are living right across the GW bridge can be answered by access to training. The drive along the palisades parkway is quick and easy and direct, maybe 15-20min depending on where their building is, but once beyond the GW, the traffic is crazy - took me an hour to get there this morning from Brooklyn and 1:45 to get home. That proximity to training and to YS is a no brainer.
Regarding the practice: They did small sided keep away, large sided keep away, build-up from the back to attack shooting drills (with stationary metal defenders to pass around), 3/4 field 11sided scrimmage, and full field 11sided scrimmage. Keepers worked on their own with GK coach during the keep away drills. The 3/4 scrimmage was interesting because the of congestion of players in such tight confines, making the speed of play. There was a beautiful play where Maxi was sprung on a through ball, rounded the keeper to an empty net, but instead of shooting he pulled it back on the dribble and toyed with the defender that hustled back to the net by rounding him, and finally laid the ball off to another teammate for an easy tap in.
Edit- any questions people had about why players are living right across the GW bridge can be answered by access to training. The drive along the palisades parkway is quick and easy and direct, maybe 15-20min depending on where their building is, but once beyond the GW, the traffic is crazy - took me an hour to get there this morning from Brooklyn and 1:45 to get home. That proximity to training and to YS is a no brainer.
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ferrarinycfc
Registered
I think Viera mentioned that the facility was designed to have everything they need and nothing extra
I heard multiple employees use that line, not just Vieira saying it to a reporter, so when the party line is the same across the board, to me, that’s damage control. NYCFC isn’t the only club to recently open a training facility, Atlanta and LAFC have too, and our facility, while it has everything they need, it is not that impressive. It feels small. The design feel skimpy. The exterior facade looks cheap. They mentioned, and were very proud of the fact, that the facade is a proprietary design, and I asked if there was a special function to it or it’s just an aesthetic? The response was aesthetic so that every club would look similar..... uh ok, I don’t think anybody will copy it because the rounded bands look “forced” and the small blue components (offices/conference rooms inside) look like cargo containers attached to the bigger massing. There’s no apparent room for expansion - they do have 10 additional acres that are undeveloped, but I’m not sure how the building expands based off the current design.
The Field:
Super nice but small. Evidently the 1.5 “pitch tablet” is designed for 5-8 hours of use a week. That means it can only be used for the first team, and nobody else. If the facility is the official Etihad City football Academy, then there needs to be more use-hours on the field, otherwise what, they’re walking across the street to the local community football fields? What happens when MCFC comes this summer and trains there, which they have announced, and both teams need daily practice?
The locker room:
It’s nice, but super basic, and I get the concept of being round to formulate openness and family, but it wasn’t a vibe that I’d find inviting - it felt like it lacked creature comforts and was just too sparse. Evidently they have a plan on where to let MCFC have locker room space, but they wouldn’t say - the existing locker room has zero room for expansion. Only the first team, no academy, no visiting teams, no extra room. That seems problematic.
The kitchen/cafeteria is really nice - fulltime chef.
The gym is basic an underwhelming. Physio areas seem really nice. They have each treatment area looking on to the next so that hurt players will see what they’re missing: treatment pools-> treatment tables-> gym-> field. That part made sense and creates a will to get better faster.
They have clocks everywhere because they say every second counts and being late earns penalty points for players (and staff?). I didn’t want to point out the irony of that rule. I mean I did, I really did, but it wouldn’t have been accepted with humility.
My sense is that this facility will do what it needs to do, but the club knows they were outdone and they’re spinning it the best they can.
The Field:
Super nice but small. Evidently the 1.5 “pitch tablet” is designed for 5-8 hours of use a week. That means it can only be used for the first team, and nobody else. If the facility is the official Etihad City football Academy, then there needs to be more use-hours on the field, otherwise what, they’re walking across the street to the local community football fields? What happens when MCFC comes this summer and trains there, which they have announced, and both teams need daily practice?
The locker room:
It’s nice, but super basic, and I get the concept of being round to formulate openness and family, but it wasn’t a vibe that I’d find inviting - it felt like it lacked creature comforts and was just too sparse. Evidently they have a plan on where to let MCFC have locker room space, but they wouldn’t say - the existing locker room has zero room for expansion. Only the first team, no academy, no visiting teams, no extra room. That seems problematic.
The kitchen/cafeteria is really nice - fulltime chef.
The gym is basic an underwhelming. Physio areas seem really nice. They have each treatment area looking on to the next so that hurt players will see what they’re missing: treatment pools-> treatment tables-> gym-> field. That part made sense and creates a will to get better faster.
They have clocks everywhere because they say every second counts and being late earns penalty points for players (and staff?). I didn’t want to point out the irony of that rule. I mean I did, I really did, but it wouldn’t have been accepted with humility.
My sense is that this facility will do what it needs to do, but the club knows they were outdone and they’re spinning it the best they can.
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Disappointed but not surprised to hear this. It has given that impression going back to the design stage.
That's only one day per week. Typo? Or am I missing something? I realize your point is that it is low, but this is crazy insane low.
I mismemered- it is 6-9hrs each week. So 1-1.5 a day
Thanks. Even so. The field can only take 1.5 hours of use a day? Wow.
Did you guys get anything tangible as a token of the day?
A cleat bag and a luggage tag. So no.
Summary of yesterday's events.
We arrived around 10AM and parked across the street from the training facility over at the World Class fields. We signed waivers and waited around for a while for everyone to arrive. Around 10:45 they distributed cleat bags with NYCFC logos on them. I guess if I was a golfer or soccer player it might be useful. I'll have to figure out something to do with them. They took individual pictures of everyone in attendance. Again, I probably would've preferred a picture at the actual training facility but maybe that's asking too much. Then they walked us across the street to the training facility. There's still a lot of work going on around the facility, specifically at the service entrance.
At 11AM the walked us into the facility and out on to the area around the training field. This gave us our first chance to snap some photos of the field. It's stunning. After a quick welcome by Patricof, there was a goalie training session done right in front of us. About 15 minutes later the rest of the team came out. As mentioned earlier they did some keep away drills and then scrimmaged on a 3/4 field. It looked like Tinnerholm took a hard elbow to the head at one point and was down for a couple minutes. It was difficult to see though because we were so far back. I wish they could've moved us over to the opposite side of the field so we could've watched.
After the training session they brought us back across the street to World Class for lunch. I thought it was decent spread: wraps, salad, chips, cookies, fruit, and soda/water. They also had the fields set up for some free play. They organized some games for the kids and the adults started a pick up game. My biggest issue was the down time after lunch. We probably at around 1PM and they had us hang around until 3:30 when the team finally cleared out of the facility. This was the only thing that was disappointing about the day's events. I felt like they should have had something more meaningful planned. Maybe some sort of community service activity or Third Rail could've run some sort of meet and greet for the board members. I'm a Third Rail member (though not really active and feel like I'm not they're demographic age-wise) and from my perspective, it's definitely "cliquish" so it would've been nice if Third Rail board members could've done something with everyone there.
Anyway, we were there for a long time and it seemed like a lot of people left after a while. Finally around 3:30 they informed us that we were going to start the tour. We were brought back to the training facility and divided into 3 groups. I ended up in the last group with Jen Knowles, the VP of marketing for the team and another guy who does game day production at the stadium. They were somewhat informative but I probably should've gone on one of the other tour groups with the facility manager.
Here's some pictures from inside and outside:
We arrived around 10AM and parked across the street from the training facility over at the World Class fields. We signed waivers and waited around for a while for everyone to arrive. Around 10:45 they distributed cleat bags with NYCFC logos on them. I guess if I was a golfer or soccer player it might be useful. I'll have to figure out something to do with them. They took individual pictures of everyone in attendance. Again, I probably would've preferred a picture at the actual training facility but maybe that's asking too much. Then they walked us across the street to the training facility. There's still a lot of work going on around the facility, specifically at the service entrance.
At 11AM the walked us into the facility and out on to the area around the training field. This gave us our first chance to snap some photos of the field. It's stunning. After a quick welcome by Patricof, there was a goalie training session done right in front of us. About 15 minutes later the rest of the team came out. As mentioned earlier they did some keep away drills and then scrimmaged on a 3/4 field. It looked like Tinnerholm took a hard elbow to the head at one point and was down for a couple minutes. It was difficult to see though because we were so far back. I wish they could've moved us over to the opposite side of the field so we could've watched.
After the training session they brought us back across the street to World Class for lunch. I thought it was decent spread: wraps, salad, chips, cookies, fruit, and soda/water. They also had the fields set up for some free play. They organized some games for the kids and the adults started a pick up game. My biggest issue was the down time after lunch. We probably at around 1PM and they had us hang around until 3:30 when the team finally cleared out of the facility. This was the only thing that was disappointing about the day's events. I felt like they should have had something more meaningful planned. Maybe some sort of community service activity or Third Rail could've run some sort of meet and greet for the board members. I'm a Third Rail member (though not really active and feel like I'm not they're demographic age-wise) and from my perspective, it's definitely "cliquish" so it would've been nice if Third Rail board members could've done something with everyone there.
Anyway, we were there for a long time and it seemed like a lot of people left after a while. Finally around 3:30 they informed us that we were going to start the tour. We were brought back to the training facility and divided into 3 groups. I ended up in the last group with Jen Knowles, the VP of marketing for the team and another guy who does game day production at the stadium. They were somewhat informative but I probably should've gone on one of the other tour groups with the facility manager.
Here's some pictures from inside and outside:
