Episode 344: Prepping for Postseason with Fanendo Adi

The Minnesota United is celebrating 10 years of action on the pitch and Alina Health has been proud to support them every step of the way. As official health care provider, we've enjoyed a front row seat to the excitement because there's nothing like caring for our looms. And the best part, pro-level care is waiting for you to, with specialized institutes and leading hospitals. Expert care is already right here, by your side and in your neighborhood, no matter where life takes you. Expert care, built for what's next. Alina Health altogether better. Welcome back to another fantastic episode of the Sound of the Looms podcast brought to you by Alina Health. I am your host, Derek Valentino. We are here with one of, if not my favorite, center forward, I've played with your DP, your MNUFC2 coach, Fernando Adi. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. Thanks a lot. I don't know if people understand. We go way back when I first signed for the timbers back in 2016, we played together. When you had just come off winning a championship, do you remember playing with me at all because for me it was really special because I had someone to look for. I was fortunate enough to play with you in Diego Valerio in Drawington. I mean some very good players, but to have a center forward like you that was demanding, that was loving, that was, your typical strong, powerful center forward was awesome. But do you remember anything about me as a player? No, I mean, or thanks for having me again, but you are an amazing guy. You give us all the credit, but you don't know that you brought an amazing leadership in the locker room. That's something that I think everyone that knows you talk about. You speak to everybody. You want to, you know, you blend between the English speaking with the Spanish speaking, so that was really, really good for us. But I can, I remember very well, we had strong characters in the locker room, and I remember you always beat the one to tell us that, "Hey, guys, come down, I'm just going to be okay." Yeah, we had some good players, but I enjoyed playing with you. I have a few of my assists during my time with you, which you always made me look good, which I appreciate. So we go way back for those who don't know and spend some time together on the staff as I was finishing up as a player, and you were there, and now you've transitioned into the first year as the two's coach. You guys have qualified for playoffs, yet a very successful year off the back of a very successful year. Has it been like transitioning, you know, into your role that you are now? Yeah, I think, I would say I'm quite lucky, because, you know, when I ended my career, I was fortunate enough to come back to Minnesota and start my coaching career all the way from the academy, spent, I think, a year and a half there, and then, you know, things happened in the first team, and was able to assist, come in the first team for that short period of time, and then Eric came, and, you know, I was fortunate enough for Khaled and Eric to allow me to stay the first team for that full year. And I did learn a lot from Eric, you know, I was a really, really good moment of learning, and then obviously last year I was being able to assist Jeremy, so I was able to implement some of the ideas of what I kind of picked off from Eric and the first team staff as a home. And this year, you know, it's a totally different game, you know, it's different from my coaching academy or coaching the youth teams. This is obviously development, but there's also that pressure, if I want to win, I want to start making a good name for myself as a coach and all of that. So it's been a great transition, lucky enough, you know, I have an amazing assistant coach in Nathan, who has been in coaching for over 20 plus years at a high level, up and down with the youth, but just having him being behind me, helping me, educating me on things to do when it's, you know, calming me down when it's a lot of pressure that has been fantastic and obviously we have come in the first team who we have a great relationship with and just hearing him and talking to him, being in video session when you guys in the first team I run your video, seeing how you guys doing, has been also really amazing and a blend with the first team and second team staff and great. So it's been a good transition. At Target, we're ready to cheer with the hometown fans and gear you up for an epic season. Whether watching from the stands or your living room, score big on game day with everything you need for the win. We're here to be your home field advantage at target and target.com. Yeah, it's been great and obviously I think the results have shown that you've learned a lot, you've grown, you've taught, but what would you say are some of the things where you've grown the most because obviously the coach you were when I knew you with the academy is different than the coach you were last year is different to the coach you are now. So take us in to just some of the behind the scenes and where you feel you've grown and learned a lot during your journey. Yeah, I think as a player, you know, you come up with some ideas, but as a coach now you have to start framing ideas of how you want to play and this is harder translating that into the players who you're coaching. And for me, I would say I learned so much from Eric and Dennis because Eric was such a young coach who has worked with like top managers and has seen so much top football that it was just amazing seeing him work and you know, just how he worked on our pressure calmness, you know, and the most one thing I really, really took from him was just his video analysis when he's showing the game or post-game or pre-game and that was really insightful to see how he made it so simple to understand and how he just a couple of points, you know, he's not trying to cover everything. He's just hitting the main point. So having him, having watching how he's on the sideline, how calm he's been relating even when the results are not going well has been also really good and then seeing him how he delegates work was very important and I think just video analysis and work delegation to his staff was just two amazing things that I told he was just exceptional and I've been able to not the best but I'm trying to balance it and try to see how I can learn and especially this year I've been able to really really delegate work to other people which I think is the next step in the coaching journey. Yeah, definitely. Also, it shows the quality of your staff, right. It shows your trust as a head coach to say, "Hey, I don't need to have hands on everything. I'm going to delegate, you know, to Jono, to Nathan, to the dressing season, to put a lot of trust in the good people around me." And for those who don't know, Adi is Nigerian. And it's no secret that the Nigerians have a strong emphasis on education and teaching and learning and you've been like that when you were a player. I know you always were very insightful into the tactics and stuff like that and now you're in a position in a developmental team to really teach and stuff. How is your background just as a person and you know, you culturally affected you and the coach for teaching even to this. We were supposed to do this podcast a little bit earlier but you kept a few of the guys to do some extra finishing. Obviously, you know, a thing or two about that. But just take us into just your ability to connect with the players from a teaching standpoint but also just really focusing on that development and that learning because I know it's so important to you. Yeah, I think thanks for the compliment but yeah, I'm so into education. I'm so into like thinking through things. You know, I'm a little bit of a liberal so we kind of change our mind here and there and all that. But when it comes to even from when I played, you know, I'm lucky to have played on a good players like you and all the guys who have really learned from as well and working on the club was really challenging because he's such a demanding coach and you could see that we fought a few times but how he managed relationships was very vital for me and that translates into, you know, I remember very well and it's a funny part but when we were there in Portland and some of the kids come, draft kids coming and I remember telling you that you have to pass Adi the ball, you have to give him the ball else you get in trouble. So, but it was fun because, you know, after they passed me ball at the end of the session I would call them together and I would tell you that this is what you should do here and all of that. So the education part of it has always been there but now in the second team, especially the guys get surprised because they see me reading books a lot, you know, they're like, what are you reading? On the plane, what are you reading and there's a day where I came into video analysis with them and I brought a book and I opened the whole page and I tell you, you have one class you stand and read and it was all about Kobe Bryant, the mentality, the winning ideas and how it's what you do every day, the little details in training that is going to take you the far is how you train is how you play and most of the time, even I had individual meeting with the players then I am. I told Joe then I say, "The goal you miss in training tomorrow yesterday, if you get an opportunity to get me going to miss it, that's the fact. You know, it's how you train, it's how you're going to play." So, education is something that we always continue learning, but I'm very happy to have someone that want to hear what people think. And, you know, I did a review of myself with something I always do with the players, and I told them to write, "I'm not in mostly. I don't want you to put your name there because then they will not do it right. I want you to tell me things I can improve, and that was very insightful to see that the things they mentioned that I can improve as well, even my wife said, "I can't improve." So, I took that back to my wife and I told her, "Oh, okay, this is true. I have to really improve in this area." So, that was fun to see, but, you know, I also want them to watch games, not just me watching games and seeing the tactics. I want them like, you know, now we're in the playoffs and here and there, but I sent them a game. I say, "Watch the game and write me three things on how we can do better to beat the team and three teams we need to do in order for the team not to score against us." So, I'm waiting for that report by tomorrow. So, you know, that's the education. So, the players start thinking, "Okay, I have a coach. He's not just, you know, let's go play. He wants you also to tell him what you think we can do better." So, you know, when we have that collaboration together, it becomes a lot easier to manage everything. Yeah, I think that's awesome insight into just you and the way you coach, and the way you delegate, because I think part of coaching is asking the players to be proactive, right? Not necessarily, "Hey, I've pulled the clips. I'm going to show you video." Well, no, you watch. You pull the video and then we can have a discussion about it. I think that's huge and insane. So, whether, again, people don't know this or not, is you're loving coach. You know, you have very personal relationships, but you also run a tight chip. Really? Just take us into discipline and how the discipline of the sessions, even when earlier in this year, you know, I would come in and help when there was a little bit of a transition. It was very, every session was very diligently playing. It was very organized, and there was a lot of structure. Just take us into where that comes from, and just, again, I know you run a tight chip, and I know you ask a lot of your players, but you never put, you push them out of their comfort zone, but ultimately something in which they can achieve. Yeah, I think I always say discipline is. I played soccer because I was very disciplined. You know, I grew up in the house of a military dad. Pretty much everything has to be done right. Focus and discipline was always big in our home, and it goes even to my daughter. Like, people look at my daughter and they're like, "She's not behaving like an eight-year-old." I say, because, you know, she's growing up in my house. So, you know, yeah, it's just a big part of me. But, you know, the players sometimes get shocked. They really get shocked. I come on the field, and sometimes the shoes are just everywhere. I say, "No, no, no, everything has to be in order." You know, at the hotel, the first thing players, when they come to us, they look surprised. Because I'm like, "You don't wear flip-flops into my meetings. You know, you don't wear flip-flops at the meal." So, those are little things, but our space is a developmental space. So, you need to start telling them, teaching them that, you know, this is how you become a professional. You would never see Messi or Christian Ronaldo going in the meeting with flip-flops. So, why do you think you have to do that? So, when you look at the top players, even in life in general, the most excellent people in the world, are very disciplined. People think, "Oh, they just privilate." "No, no, no, no, you have to be disciplined." Whatever, whatever, business, sports, and all of that. But you have to be disciplined. But also, my training sessions, I take time to plan them. I think through it. And I think you've seen my template of training sessions. Yeah, training sessions. It's always very comprehensive in the sense that, and what I do is, when I put that together, I put it in the locker room for the players to read it. And I do it on purpose, because I want them to know what we're going to do on the field before the step of that. So, there's a day where, and I know players, most of them were really. So, there's a day, I just, I just say, "Oh, when you get on the field, just wear your colors." We left the four colors on the field. And I think maybe only four players could pick. So, I just say send them on the line. I say, "Come on, let's send these little kids on the line." "Around them down, boy." So, I send them boys on the line. I say, "That's the last time, never." I take four hours to plan this session for you guys, so don't even get. Next time, you're going to read it. I'll tell you from now, everybody reads that freaking session. Listen to this again or so. Everyone reads it. Everybody reads it. Everyone reads it and, again, clearly, there's a method to some of this badness. And ultimately, you guys finished on a seven game on Beaton Streaks, on Beaton Streaks 16 out of 21 points. So, clearly, it's going well. What do you think was some of the success into your late season stretch that really propelled you guys into the playoffs? Yeah, if you look at our season, I would say true out of the season, we should lose basically four games. You know, those games were controlled by the opponents, but the biggest part of our team was just finishing. We could not finish right, and then we lost games here and there. We missed huge chances. And the team was just from nowhere, get a goal. And, you know, we've played a whole season without one of the guys playing Jack playing in a center bag is a mefiler. We played a whole season with probably three center bags or three backline players. So, it's been tough for us that way, but I think when the players could not finish at the earlier start of the season, we're losing game winning here and their tying games, but then, you know, not getting the result we need to get. But we all knew that the guys are playing well. Things are going well. Most of the games we've controlled. We have most box entries and other teams. We have shots on tie and get better and all of that. But the goals were the most hard part for us to find. And, you know, towards the end, likely for us, you know, Dario started doing the right things. We tell him, you are so fast. Nobody can stop you when you drive. I'll stop cutting inside. Go on your left and shoot. You know, the goal is basically okay. But at least you've done the right thing instead of trying to cut inside and then the pressure on you. So, I think that started happening. And, you know, Marcus did so well for us until he went into the first team. And the backline started, I wasn't getting right. The goal kept us through the great job. So, I think the goal scoring was big part of our change. And, obviously, when you score goals, it makes everything a lot easier. (upbeat music) Say hello to the Hello Kitty Ticket Pack. Starting from just $34, this package includes a ticket to Minnesota United's October 28th match against Sporting Kansas City, plus a reversible Hello Kitty and MNUFC Bucket Hat. Learn more at MNUFC.com/tickets. (upbeat music) - Yeah, I mean, if anyone knows that, you do. So, I think you know that well. But again, you touched on Marcus doing really well, taking this step to the first team. Darius, I think, is really taking the next step in his development as 12 goals and four assists this season, as well as other guys sampling a big role and Philip getting a national team call up and Lucho. Just take us into a little bit. Again, you don't necessarily need to touch on every player because I think they've all played really big roles. So, obviously, for the players who don't go through that piece, it's a team collectively as a whole. But you've had some pretty big player step this season for a lot of success. - Yeah, I think Marcus was really, really huge for us. At the start of season, he left us, but he's one where we knew that he was going to come. You know, we just knew like he's one of the best finishers in the club for sure. And, you know, he has his weaknesses here at there, but he's someone that is disciplined, position very, very well. He's positioning on everything. And the most, but I think, and finish as a forward. So, you know, he's called the law goes for us and we are very, very pleased and excited that he's back with the first team and he's doing quite well, scoring goals and helping the team. So, that's what we want to see and that's what our space is for to help the first team. That's what we all exist for. And it's also beautiful to see that when a kid is probably not doing the best, well, it's not hard. So many games can come down and can play. You know, and that has really, really helped us. But also, if you look at the whole team, we've had academic boys that have really been amazing for us this year. We played nine academies against Tacoma. And this guy's 23, 24 years old. And, you know, I was so impressed with the academic group for that day. And they've done well. We have Hector, Max, or Jose, Nosa, Issa, Carl, all of this guy contributing one way or the other. And that has been really been a good step for us. And then you come to the second team. We have Nick Danksam, you know, we have Kabya, we have Lucio, all this guy. You mentioned who have been really, really big. You know, we have Sam and Nick. And then we have Alpha Who, we think, we've got qualities to hopefully progress into the first team or wherever they go next year. And, you know, we're going to see how that works out. But these guys have really, really stepped up the game. And then obviously, we have Darius, who, you know, just in the last two to three months has been very, very excellent for us. And we're all excited for them. Filip, you mentioned, we're excited for their progress and everything. So our space is all about helping the first team, but also giving these kids the opportunity that, okay, maybe it doesn't work out here, but another team can definitely see. see that you've done so well and that can go with you. - Yeah, and I think the biggest thing from my standpoint with your group is there hasn't been too many times if any where someone from your team hasn't come up with the first team and looked out of place. Everyone looks as if they can belong or can get at our level, which I think is a testament to you and your staff as a whole to how good they are, how physically fit they are and just also the football acknowledge and the other thing I'll give a shout out to is no one sees this, but alpha and along with the other guys, after every session help clean up, help strip the field of mannequins, of cones, of bibs, even if it's something small, they might pick up a little square here or there before they walk off and again, that's some of the discipline that you talk about, but it's also a respect thing that again goes very far. And first team guys don't always do it and that's neither here nor there. - Yeah, it's definitely understandable, you know, for our spaces, we always tell them like, listen, you know, bend is out there and now we're setting up this thing. So the only thing we can do for helping is, you know, when we finish can we clear the field and we are really excited that there's a good testament when they go into the first team as well. - Yeah, it happens every time without even asking and again, they do it, it's just part of their habit. And for me, it's a respect thing that clearly has been spoken about and a standard has been set. So when they come in, obviously they perform well in a pitch and then eventually at the end of it, there's a respect thing which I think goes a really long way and sets a good example for some of the younger first team guys as well. But fast forwarding now a little bit onto the playoffs. Ventura County, talk to us just about the excitement of your group and preparing for that match. - No, I think we're very excited, you know, the boys have been waiting for this, actually sticking too long to wait till the next game. So in some way, you know, it's also good to get a risk for Ventura within that time, so, you know, we give them a good rest and now that we're back to training and, you know, we just have to prepare well. I think we have to stay calm, that's a big thing for me. You know, when there's games like this, everyone becomes too tense, you know, we just have to stay calm and play what we have been playing. You know, we've been doing really well, don't change. Anything, just look at what they do and how can we play better? How can we be better than them on the day because you can plan all you want. But, you know, if the day comes and your guys are not ready, it becomes a show somehow, you know, so we just have to respect the opponent. They're a very good team. They put a lot of numbers high, they've scored the most goals in the league, if 58 goes, then anybody in the entire league. So that's the telling that they've been doing something, right? And, you know, the way they play is very tricky because they will send a lot of number high to field and now you have to either get pressure on the ball or you have to sit back, which I think most teams are trying to sit back a little bit and, you know, don't give them enough room to control the game and score the goal. So, the most important thing for us is how can we counter their high number of the field overloads and for us doing that, we just have to press from the front and, you know, ensure when you win the ball, the few games we've seen when you win the ball, high up the field, they usually kind of displays because they have so many numbers high up the field. So, for us to stay in combat, understand that there's something on the line. It's just a game that you lose you out. So, I think that makes it even more exciting. - Yeah, I mean, it's exciting for me and it's exciting for the fans again to follow all your guys' success to be in good form going into the playoffs and then, you know, ultimately, hopefully your preparation and it goes out there and puts you guys in a good place to succeed. But, ultimately, my last question would just be, how are you just managing the break? Obviously, there's a little bit of time in between the games, but in preparing for the game, you know, we have to go too much in detail, but, you know, is it some games, is it 11? Is it, you know, maybe seeing some new Academy kids, a little bit of rest, just, you know, how are we kind of managing the break a little bit? - Yeah, I think we've given them a rest already. Now, we're back, we're keeping the group quite tight. We're not going to involve a lot of new faces in the group. You know, want to keep the group solely focused on what is the next three, four weeks of this playoffs and see how it goes. But, the group is going to get tight. It's going to stay tight and we have an inter squad within ourselves, hopefully tomorrow and then, you know, next week, we might have a friendly game, which we don't know yet, but we're trying to see how we can play a friendly game with another team and if that works, I'll be perfectly able to do some work, we'll probably play an inter squad within ourselves again, and just get ourselves ready for what to come. - Awesome, awesome. Well, my man, thank you so much for coming on this week's episode of the Sound of the Loans podcast. It's the most I've last laughed on a podcast, so I appreciate you on that one. - But again, for me, it's been awesome seeing your progression from being a leader in the locker room, to being an Academy coach, to being an assistant coach, not being one of the head coaches for the second, or being the head coach for the MNUFC too, and all your success and your discipline, and the way you teach the guys, it's really, really been awesome to see and inspiring for me in my journey. So, you know, Kudos to you on that. And again, thank you so much, and thanks a lot. - From myself and the organization, wish you all the best in the play. - Oh, we appreciate it. - Thank you. - Thank you. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]