News & Notes From Week 3: Raising The Level

The intensity at LAFC training this week has been at a different level. According to coach Bob Bradley, that’s all by design.

“This week we raised the physical load. So today was the hardest training session yet,” Bradley said following Tuesday’s session.

Using the entire length of the field, Bradley had his squad working at a high clip for long stretches. The day’s focus was pressing and exploiting space, both in the attacking third and defensively.

The commitment to pressing the action on both sides of the ball is something Bradley has weaved in throughout all of training camp.

“One of the ideas is, as we attack, how do we organize defensively,” Bradley said. “So that when we lose the ball, we’re not a team that is easily countered. We also have to have good starting points to try to win the ball back quickly. That requires a lot of detailed work and also a lot of physical work.

“For now, we construct training sessions that push players different ways, on different days. And then based upon that work, we can assess at that moment where the overall fitness level stands. But I feel that for the moment, we’re getting good work every day and players are moving themselves along physically.”

News and Notes

• New signing Mark-Anthony Kaye spent time at left back at training on Monday. On Tuesday, he was playing a midfield role. “His versatility and his athleticism are good starting points. So we’re working to get him just to think faster. See passes faster. And be a little sharper with some of the things on the field. But he’s still shown in the early days that he’s a player with a very good mentality and wants to improve,” Bradley said of the former Louisville City player.
• Former Philadelphia Union midfielder Maurice Edu and former Shirak FC midfielder Bryan de la Fuente are no longer training with LAFC.
• Bradley and his staff have discussed extending some players up to 60 minutes for LAFC’s preaseason scrimmage on Friday against NYCFC. That decision depends on how the rest of the training week goes, according to Bradley.
• Laurent Ciman and Aaron Kovar trained off to the side on Tuesday. Bradley said, “As you go through preseason, you want to make sure that little things don’t linger. So at times you pull guys out of the football part and have them do some physical work. And then you look to bring them back in as quickly as you can.”