Carlos Hernandez Valverde

Been reports Carlos is stocking up supplies. Plenty of Kentucky Fried Chicken in his emergency kit.

Actually the epicentres have been virtually all out in the sea.

Anyone know where Carlos has gone? (apart from KFC)

Yeah what's the story has he featured in preseason games?

Yes.  Quite a few.  He had a break and was not here at the weekend, was back at training yesterday.

Yes, but just wasn't around on the weekend for the game on Saturday or the family day on Sunday. Dunno why.

Edit: Hard News lives up to his name with the hard news. There you go.

Carlos, Paul, Stein, Jeremy.

The new season will be something to see.

Yum yum.

Hopefully they have the big guns out in Rotorua. Getting close to the season so need to make sure that things are settled.

Played last night in a hit out at Wellington College Turf involving several TW players

So what's the views on Carlos' pre-season work?  

I think it's not overstating things to say that how he performs will define our season.  His only competition for that spot is Rufer.

In an attacking sense he's really the only major change to last year and of course the hope is that he knits together a talented group of attacking players.  Undoubtedly he's on pretty big money.  There does seem to be some concerns about his physique and fitness after the weekend which is a little worrying.  

I know we haven't seen him yet, but I'd call Cunningham a pretty major attacking acquisition too. 

Yeah fair call. It may take a bit of time for the team to gel because its a different style, Hernandez is a big part of it. It would of course help if he was around earlier for preseason and featured more. Ifills injury doesn't help either. 

Hernandez was hungry for work in Vegas - but need players to work for him. They move to closed space, where he looked to open space, then had to go back. ( BruSki) 

I really feel like we can do something if we get Hernandex, Ifill, Cunningham and Waffles fit and on the pitch together - I just want to see them!

Merrick said his mercurial midfielder Hernandez was in trim form heading into the season-opener against Brisbane in Wellington tomorrow.

"He tells me every day what his weight is," Merrick said. "He came here 85.5kg and even [yesterday] morning he says 'I've lost another 300g'. He's down to just over 80kg. When - if my memory serves me right - he won MVP for the best player in the A-League, I think he was 84. He put on more weight after that but it's probably the best shape I've ever seen him in."

Weightwatchers programmes do work ?

Carlos has certainly lost a lot of weight. he looks in decent shape. I hope this proves to be to our advantage. 29 hours to go........

So apparently he's down to 80kg, from being at his heaviest of 85kg. Can't believe he only weighed 85. I'm at 89 and I'm thin as.

Indian food

Carlos should add a lot - certainly the only import we've had with a decent international pedigree for his country. I didn't realise until checking out his internationals for Costa Rica recently. It's impressive and not widely known:

Checking out his international appearances for Costa Rica, more impressive than I realised  -35 apps, 7 goals

The stats for him on Wikipedia are very incomplete - rather check out his page on FIFA.com here:

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/statisticsandrecords/players/player=182587/index.html

including: 2001 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Argentina (all four games incl. vs. Netherlands, Ethiopia, Ecuador and Czechs in the round of 16)

2004 Athens Olympic Games (all four games vs. Morocco, Iraq, Portugal and Argentina in the quarter-final)

World Cup qualifying:  9 apps in 2006 qualifying incl. against Mexico, USA, Trinidad, Canada, Honduras, Panama, Guatamala

(Costa Rica qualified directly as third place side in CONCACAF behind USA, & Mexico);

4 apps in 2010 qualifying vs. Mexico, USA, Honduras, El Salvador (called-up for the final round of qualifying & Costa Rica made it to play-off vs. Uruguay as fourth team  in CONCACAF )

His most recent appearances for Costa Rica were in three friendlies in 2011.

Sounds like Costa Rica will be facing the Socceroos in November. Gotta be a great chance for the national team coach to have a look at Carlos & Kenny with a view to the World Cup.

Well that sucks. Was hoping Carlos would get a chance to push his case for Brazil.

[Edit: Gallop just confirmed Aussie v Costa Rica on 19th November in Sydney. Maybe they doing home & away games? ]

Commentators last night mentioned Carlos has told to be on stand by in case he is selected to face Aussie. Would love to see him selected, no mention about Kenny. I posted in the Sommet Sports thread, that they will look into getting the rights for the game if there is enough demand.

I heard the same