Sourced from Daily Mail article
Sunderland and David Moyes to fly to New York for team bonding
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David Moyes is confident that a cold-weather mid-season break can help fire Sunderland to safety after revealing he will take his players running in New York’s frost-bitten Central Park next week.
Temperatures in the Big Apple have plunged to minus 4C in recent days but Moyes has not been put off by the the threat of sub-zero conditions.
Sunderland face Southampton on Saturday, who booked a place in the EFL Cup final against Manchester United with a 2-0 aggregate win over Liverpool in the semis.
‘The psyche is that, when we come back, we’ll think Sunderland is like Dubai!’ joked Moyes, whose side thrashed Crystal Palace 4-0 seven days ago and could emerge from the bottom three with victory at home to Southampton on Saturday.
'We all like the sunshine, apart from us ginger lads. But I’ve done it [New York] before and it works, so I’m hoping it will again.
'Sometimes they need a bit of a break. We are going to watch basketball, a few are going to the ice hockey, a few will go to Ground Zero and we’ll encourage that. You’d be surprised how many lads haven’t done that. They’re all pretty excited about it.
‘We’ll go to Monday to Friday and will train every day. We’ll do quite a bit of running in Central Park as well.’
Moyes told his players before the game at Selhurst Park about the trip and they duly produced their best performance of the season, winning 4-0, with goals from Lamine Kone, Didier Ndong and a brace from Jermain Defoe.
And he added: 'I hope they give me the same sort of response. I definitely sensed a lift when I told them.
'I’ve always thought if you treat players right, give them the best you can then you can expect the best back from them. We ask a lot of them so I’ll try to give my players the best back and make them feel good.
‘But the big thing for me is to get a team spirit so they look after each other on the pitch. I want them to build relationships off it too.’
The Black Cats have missed opportunities already this season to climb from the relegation zone, and Moyes said: 'Maybe we’re a club that doesn’t find it easy when the expectation rises. Maybe we’re better when we’re backs to the wall a little bit. We’re used to that here.
‘Now we’ve got a chance we’ve got to show that we can take it and get a result.’
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