DCU - FC Dallas Reserve Match

[Hedbal]

Just back from the greatest bargain in sports. We went up 2-0, then Dallas scored and it looked as if it would be a repeat of last night's nightmare. But no, we came away with a win.

Our lineup: Addlery and Mupier up top; DeRoux, Dyachenko, J. Carroll, and Moose in the midfield; and a makeshift defense of Burch and Brad North (a forward!) outside and Mediate and Simms in the middle.

Our first goal was a long crossfield pass from Moose to Burch, who sent a perfect cross to the back post for Mupier to head in. the second was a shot under the keeper by Moose from a clever pass by Dyachenko. Dallas scored on a powerful header off a corner.

Moose sure didn't look like someone who needs hernia surgery, but he leaves later today for Germany.

I didn't notice anyone playing badly today, although for all of DeRoux's speed and trickiness nothing much seems to come of it. Burch looked fine, and North was not lost on defense. Dyachenko continues to puzzle me. He seems to have drunk deeply from the Jaime Moreno chalice: he seems to just be going through the motions sometimes, then really turns it on. He has a nice calmness and control of the ball (usually), but instead of powering towards the goal and using his size to an advantage he favors the backheel and the clever pass. I hope the coaching staff is patient with him, because he is a talent.

Namoff has begun running but he told me he is wary of trying to return too early. With the stinker the defense played last night he might be put under pressure to return sooner than he should. I hope not. He is our best and most consistent defender, and we need him for the long haul.

[Primate]

How does Mupier look? Anyone have any reports on him?

[s0ccerm0m]

Just back from the greatest bargain in sports. We went up 2-0, then Dallas scored and it looked as if it would be a repeat of last night's nightmare. But no, we came away with a win.

Our lineup: Addlery and Mupier up top; DeRoux, Dyachenko, J. Carroll, and Moose in the midfield; and a makeshift defense of Burch and Brad North (a forward!) outside and Mediate and Simms in the middle.

Our first goal was a long crossfield pass from Moose to Burch, who sent a perfect cross to the back post for Mupier to head in. the second was a shot under the keeper by Moose from a clever pass by Dyachenko. Dallas scored on a powerful header off a corner.

Moose sure didn't look like someone who needs hernia surgery, but he leaves later today for Germany.

I didn't notice anyone playing badly today, although for all of DeRoux's speed and trickiness nothing much seems to come of it. Burch looked fine, and North was not lost on defense. Dyachenko continues to puzzle me. He seems to have drunk deeply from the Jaime Moreno chalice: he seems to just be going through the motions sometimes, then really turns it on. He has a nice calmness and control of the ball (usually), but instead of powering towards the goal and using his size to an advantage he favors the backheel and the clever pass. I hope the coaching staff is patient with him, because he is a talent.

Namoff has begun running but he told me he is wary of trying to return too early. With the stinker the defense played last night he might be put under pressure to return sooner than he should. I hope not. He is our best and most consistent defender, and we need him for the long haul.

Thanks for the report. Interesting that our reserves can defeat an MLS team's reserves but not a second division USL team...

[Stan Collins]

Maybe there's a difference between players trying to prove something as individuals and a team trying to prove something. DCU Reserves are the former.

[KGDG2005]

For those of you who could not make it out to the match here are a few pics (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgdg/sets/72157600844561982/) that might give a flavor of the sweat inducing conditions and the crowd at the match

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1137/824748958_08bf6031e6_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgdg/824748958/in/set-72157600844561982/)

KGDG
Come On United (States and DC)
www.screaming-eagles.com
Sorry, there are no donuts left - how about some pound cake?

[Sundevil9]

Here's a link to some photos that I took.

Click Here (http://picasaweb.google.com/Kolb31/715ReserveMatchFCDallas)

http://lh4.google.com/Kolb31/Rpr2dplnisI/AAAAAAAAAWY/Zy9FsqS_64Y/s800/IMG_2335.JPG

[JoeW]

Thanks for the report. Interesting that our reserves can defeat an MLS team's reserves but not a second division USL team...

Not really. First Harrisburg really sought to play it conservatively (kicking the ball out to stop play) and was clearly motivated for this match--it was probably the biggest match they'd played all season to-date.

Second, I think the Harrisburg loss was a combination of a couple of things:
--error by Nolly on the header. That happens (as we saw with Perkins) at times.
--failure to finish. The reality is that Kpene has yet to score, Mupier is young. Addlery has shown he can put it in the net but has a ragged first touch. So when those guys are your frontline, you'll get goals some nights and not others.
--poor crossing against Harrisburg. DeRoux seemed to contribute little in the way of crosses both matches. But against Dallas, Moose was wide and his ball set up the first goal. I thought he was playing centrally against Harrisburg.

[LN - Dougg]

I told you guys they were saving themselves for the Reserve Cup. :rolleyes:

[s0ccerm0m]

Wow - did you see our bench for this match? Shawn Crowe (makes sense), Guy Roland-Kpene (okay) and then Josh Gros, Bobby Boswell and Devon McTavish. And Josh had to play more than 20 minutes. Our depth is seriously threatened when 60% of it is comprised of guys who played the entire 90 minutes the night before.

[JoeW]

Wow - did you see our bench for this match? Shawn Crowe (makes sense), Guy Roland-Kpene (okay) and then Josh Gros, Bobby Boswell and Devon McTavish. And Josh had to play more than 20 minutes. Our depth is seriously threatened when 60% of it is comprised of guys who played the entire 90 minutes the night before.

I think the team is deliberately trying to give Gros some minutes at outside mid (see the Harrisburg match). And Boswell didn't play during the copa until the end and his form is suffering. So I see their inclusions as being less about running out of bodies and more about feeling like some extra minutes wouldn't hurt them.

[Hedbal]

I think the team is deliberately trying to give Gros some minutes at outside mid (see the Harrisburg match). And Boswell didn't play during the copa until the end and his form is suffering. So I see their inclusions as being less about running out of bodies and more about feeling like some extra minutes wouldn't hurt them.

Also, I think they wanted to be careful not to expose Moose, seeing that he was flying to Germany later that day for his sports hernia operation. As soon as he scored what proved to be the winning goal Gros came on in his place.

BTW, Moose looked very good out wide. The practice field is rather narrow (and short), and he and Burch, to name just two, were crossing from touchline to touchline throughout the match. Among other attributes, Moose delivers an excellent long ball, such as the one to Burch which was then centered to Mupier for the first goal.

[Sundevil9]

My favorite part of the match:

Second half, Moose earns a corner and Burch takes his time getting across field to take it. Moose has been standing along the endline at the edge of the penalty area with the ball and passes it to Burch to take the corner. Burch looks at Moose and says "You might as well stay there, you're kinda useless in the area on this"....both players laugh and Moose draws a defender out of the box to guard against a short corner.


Second favorite part was seeing the broken window on FC Dallas' bus, which had fallen victim to a wayward shot.