FOXBOROUGH — Think back to April 1989, when Sports Illustrated wrote a several-page spread about the Packers’ first-round draft choice that year, lineman Tony Mandarich. At one point in the story, the magazine went into great detail about his personal grocery list which, as one might expect, would feed an army battalion.
For a lineman, the calories Mandarich had to inhale in order to perform are upward of 4,000 per day. That’s a lot of chow.
For a soccer player conditioned to run for eight to nine kilometers over the course of two hours? Believe it or not, it’s not too far off from that — especially when the players perform in a system which generates a lot of energy, much like the system Brad Friedel has instituted with the Revolution this season.
In the months leading into this year, Friedel brought Anton McElhone to Foxborough as the club’s head of fitness, which is an all-encompassing title — including looking after the players’ diets. McElhone, a Glasgow native who studied sports with exercise science at the University of the West of Scotland as well as obtaining a master’s in strength and conditioning from the University of Edinburgh, served in that capacity while the Revs gaffer played at Tottenham Hotspur FC in North London.
Since coming aboard, McElhone has carefully crafted the Revs’ dietary plans, and has done so in a way that takes into account not only the player’s positions but their hereditary backgrounds, as well.
“We have (the players eat) between 2,500 to 3,000 calories, depending on the size of the player,” McElhone said after training on Tuesday afternoon. “The players who are 200 pounds will eat a little more than the guys who are lighter, like 180 pounds. The key thing is where we don’t over-eat every day of the week.
“There are days for loading up: the day before the match, the day of the match, we’ll carb-load them with pastas or rice or chickens. Very simple foods, because what we don’t want before the match are foods that’ll un-settle in their stomachs. Rich foods, creamy foods (aren’t on the players’ lists) — yogurts are fine, like Greek yogurt and stuff like that. That would be part of the salad or dessert.”
Revolution midfielder Diego Fagundez, whose work rate in Friedel’s system sees the Leominster resident pumping out serious amounts of wattage as he chases the defenders and the goalkeeper in an effort to create turnovers, said that his caloric intake can sometimes reach 3,500 per day.
“There’s always a lot of snacks, fruits, meals that you eat during the day, so you’re probably eating six or seven times a day,” Fagundez said.
A typical during the day meal schedule for DF14 is as follows:
- Breakfast at Gillette Stadium prior to training: “Eggs, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, whatever’s here. Hash browns, potatoes,” he said.
- At 12:30 p.m., it’s lunchtime: Lunch for DF14 usually consists of fish, chicken, rice, broccoli, beans.
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