Thoughts after watching the Columbus Crew train

I had the chance to watch the Columbus Crew train the other day. It was your typical impressive Pro team practice. Warm up, possession focusing on spacing, followed by work with the back four and functional training working in crosses.

Two thoughts came to mind while watching:

1) Columbus have a lot of really good young players. Hopefully MLS will not break up this group. This is the first time the league has seen a team build rather than go for immediate success. They have been forming this group for 3 years and I think it will pay off this season or next. If this team sticks together and learns from veterans like Schelloto Heyduk and Ezra Hendrikson, they could challenge for not only MLS Cups but also those intercontinental championships that nobody really understands - they just pop up for the teams that won something. MLS loves parity and moving players, but it would really be a mistake if when one of these kids shows well they send him to Colorado or something to help that market. This is one of the down sides to league owned teams.

2) I overheard Sigi Schmidt's speech to the 30 or so players afterward. Unbelievable - the same things you would say to your youth teams or college team. He was talking about focus and responsibility, accountability for yourself - how the drive to become the best player you can be has to come from inside the player not from the coaching staff. It was remarkable to me to hear this from a coach basically still deciding who to sign and who to cut. If he was getting the impression these players could do better attitude-wise, then is there any hope for the rest of us?