Collins John Saga Opens Some Questions

In Carlos de los Cobos' post-game press conference it was pretty standard commentary until someone asked him about the decision to start Brian McBride over Collins John (10th minute of the audio link):

"Even though Collins John scored in the last match, I don't think he play good.  My role as coach is to demand that the players give 100%.... When Collins doesn't give 100% in practice, he don't play.  I need 11 players in a very good fitness level."

Puzzled fans started to kick around these quotes from Collins John's twitter account today:

"@ stadium cant believe we gonna practice outside 2day !! In this RAIN Wednesday, August 04, 2010 7:27:00 AM via ÜberTwitter"
"Day 3 i hope practice is a bit more relax 2day! 7:48 AM Jul 28th via ÜberTwitter"
"Practice last 2 days is WAY 2 HARD! 12:24 PM Jul 27th via ÜberTwitter"

Let me just start off by saying Collins John's Twitter account is very.... entertaining and a window to his world.  That said, all of his complaining about practice before the LA Galaxy game did not prevent him from scoring a goal, setting up Marco Pappa's goal with a pass to Husidic, and he even laid off a ball headed for him that allowed Pappa to strike the ball in and Banner to score on the rebound off the goalie.  Did Collins deserve total credit for all of those goals?  Of course not.  However, this is a team that went from scoring 2 goals in 570 minutes to a team that scored 3 goals in 18 minutes with John around on each goal.  To bench Collins John in favor of Brian McBride over a Twitter dispute and perceived lack of hustle at practice is infuriating.  Freddie Ljungberg zipped his way through New York's defense and a one - two touch pass partner could have made the game wide open from the start.  Instead Freddie played the role of one man army and the artillery of John sat on the bench.     

CLDC better have tried everything under the sun to get Collins John in line.  Tell him to stop Twittering about the team.  Make him do laps or push-ups before practice until he starts giving 100%.  It makes me worry about the coach's control over the team in general.  Does he feel the entire team needs to be put on notice and Collins John's start was the sacrificial lamb?  Perhaps most troubling is the possibility that Collins John might be right.

Hard practices would explain why the team bunkers down into a 4-6-0 formation in the last 20 minutes of almost every game.  Heavy training would also explain Brian McBride and C.J. Brown aging 5-10 years between last November and now.  The last time CLDC coached a club team was a single year in 2006 at C.D. FAS in El Salvador.  Before that it was one year in 2003 at Irapuato FC.  A lot of research on player training has been released since then and I'm curious as to how much of that has fallen under Carlos' eyes.  I don't doubt his tactics during games but I am starting to wonder what kind of a motivational and fitness coach the Fire have here.  The fresh legs of Ljungberg and Castillo might dazzle everyone into believing everything is a-okay but I'll be watching the pace of everyone else from minute 1 to minute 90.