First pre-season game (here are some bits and pieces of a game report from BTB and DCU's Twitter account): Vejle 4 DCU 1 (3-0 half-time score) DCU goal scored by ex-Swiss 3rd Division trialist Ange N'Silu (assist to Boyzzz Khumalo) early in second half. ------------N'Silu---------------Doe------------ ----------------------------------------------------- Pontius------------------------------Quaranta -----------De Jong-----Jacobson------------ ----------------------------------------------------- Wallace-----------------------------McTavish ---------------Veris------Janicki--------------- ---------------------Kocic------------------------ Substitutes: James Thorpe, Evan Bush, Brandon Barklage, Joe Vide, Boyzzz Khumalo, Domenic Mediate, Mike Zaher, Taiwo Leo Atieno. 2nd half: DCU lineup: Thorpe, Miller, Janicki, Mediate, Wallace (Zaher); Khumalo, Vide, Jacobson (Atieno), Barklage; N'Silu (De Jong), Pontius. http://twitter.com/dcunited http://www.behindthebadge.com
Results are meaningless at this point. What surprised me a little was that Quaranta was wide, with two newcomers playing centrally. But I guess he is a known commodity, so they wanted to test the newcomers.
The morning practice was mainly just a light knock-around in preparation for the afternoon’s main event. There is really nothing to report. The afternoon consisted of the game between DC United and Vejle Boldklub of Denmark. The weather was cold for the day. And the breeze was stiff, affecting any balls launched high in the air. Highlights Lineup GK – Kucic D – McTavish, Veris, Janicki, Wallace M – Quaranta, De Jong, Jacobson, Pontius F – Doe, N’Silu 3 – Vejle breaks down DC United’s left with a quick outlet out of their defensive half. Wallace able to recover to disrupt and combines with Veris to shut down threat. On ensuing corner man unmarked in middle of box, but header sails high over cross bar. 10 – McTavish is caught high, combine with Vejle’s speedy left winger creates an opening on DC United’s right. Janicki reads well and forces winger over by-line with some strength. 12 – Fast break going the other way. De Jong pirouettes on ball in midfield and slices a ball out to the wing for Quaranta. Quaranta taps around a defender then centers for a rushing Doe who one-times a shot that rings one upright, slides across the goal mouth and touches the opposite upright, and dribbles slowly out to the waiting arms of the Vejle GK. Doe holds his head in disbelief. 17 – Vejle pushes down DC United’s left flank. Wallace and Pontius close down on man with ball in corner, but allow enough space for him to get off a cross. As if by magic the ball sails just out of the reach of Kocic, but drifts into the far upper corner. GOAL Vejle 1-0. 21 – From deep in DC United’s defensive half, Quaranta lets loose with a bomb. Doe is already sprinting on goal and receives the ball in stride. Shaking a defender off his shoulder, Doe smacks a dribbler at goal, but it is covered up by the GK. 32 – Kucic shows some serious bravery going out to claim a high ball at the top of the box. He does a header into the ground, but manages to control the ball. 33 – Vejle again manages to control a loose ball at midfield. A quick pass to the right on an overlap gains the corner. The cross to middle finds the toe of a forward for a slick tap home past a diving Kucic. GOAL Vejle 2 – 0. 45 – A DC United turnover at midfield leads to a quick counter attack directly at goal. Janicki attempts to stymie the 2 v. 1, but is unable to stop the pressure. The Vejle forward shoots from 12 yards out. Kucic manages to muffle the shot, but it slips past him towards the net. The Vejle forward steps past a sprawled Kucic and taps home the goal. GOAL Vejle 3 – 0 2nd Half Lineup GK – Thorpe D – Miller, Janicki, Mediate, Wallace M – Khumalo, Jacobson, Vide, Barklage F – Pontius, N’Silu 49 – Jacobson uses some muscle in the middle of the pitch to steal a ball. He flips it out to the right to Boyzzzz who races to the bi-line and crosses. N’Silu traps and spins in place in the box, and slots it into the near corner past the Velje GK. GOAL DC United 1 – 3. 50 – Thorpe shows good judgment coming out to a ball at the top of the box and slams it away forcefully. Both sides playing well without either able to get an advantage for several minutes. Taiwu comes in at forward, and Zaher at left back. 65 – N’Silu manages to break free and open in the box. A cross is flipped in and he one-times it towards the open net, but it sails wide! 80 – Vejle manages to spring out of their defensive end with a ball over the top. The forward outpaces Mediate in running onto the ball and fires from a hard angle. The ball skips past a diving Thorpe into the far post. GOAL Vejle 4 – 1. A fantastic shot – no fault with either Mediate or Thorpe. Observations - In general it was obvious that these groups had not played together for very long. There were several times that they failed to support each other with runs off the ball, or on the other end, give mutual support in defense. Again, the younger players, those not being in a professional atmosphere prior to this camp, made basic mistakes of letting plays develop then reacting, not creating and forcing opponents to react. Also, there was some lack of confidence apparent. - De Jong continues to impress me for a kid that is only 17 years old. While he didn’t have an overwhelming game controlling the center, in fact, got a little lost for periods throughout the game, he did manage to stick it out. Furthermore, he’s very active in defense, almost too much so, getting pulled out of position on a couple of occasions. - Wallace is a very physically gifted player. However, much like all physically gifted American soccer players, they’ve managed to be noticed because of their physical prowess, not in addition to it. Wallace does have some foot skills. However, he needs to learn the game better. And he needs better discipline. I believe he might turn out to be a “poor man’s” Marvell Wynn. Maybe very much like one of my two all-time favorites, Mario Gori or Ben Iroha. - The battle of the GKs goes to Thorpe today. As with all rookies and sophomores, anytime they go head to head, the latter wins competition nine times out of ten. The half-year experience at this level, even in practices, is that important. And you could tell that Kucic was caught unawares to a degree. This was his wake up call. Will he answer is the question? - Related to the above, Jacobson is proving to be something above average. I believe the one year overseas in a professional atmosphere did prep him for this type of action. He might be the surprise young player this season. - N’Silu is a rough, physical player. You’re not going to get anything pretty out of him, but he looks like he has a lot of determination. - Vide and Mediate are guys that you want to have around. Neither one will impress you with skills. Most likely neither one will win any games for you. But both will get stuck in and work hard for you. - As the veterans on the field, Quaranta and McTavish played well together on the right. The couple of organized attacks did flow better on that side. Likewise, although not always perfect, the coordination in defensive efforts seemed present, although both were surprised by the speed of the Vejle left winger.
While I'm not totally convinced yet, I think this group has some raw talent that could translate well.
Something else to add in favor of Thorpe: last year, he was by far the most active third string goalkeeper in United history. (You could argue for Perkins, but really he was a third string GK for a few weeks and jumped up to the 1 or 2 spot during his rookie year). You can't discount all of those reserve games that he saw. Heck, even seeing games from the bench helps. I like the potential of Kucic, but I also hope that Thorpe takes advantage of the opportunity, too.
I like Thorpe... he's a good guy both on and off the field... the same couldn't be said for Wells (who was kind of a high-on-himself douchebag).
Apparently in Italy they believe that if a player hits both posts on a shot that is not a goal, his team loses. Though I've seen it for a team that wins, that must be the exception proving the rule. It's nice to know there is a non-performance reason for DCU losing.
Wells has been described as one of the nicest guys you will ever meet according to people on here. His play isn't the greatest but I never got the message on and off the field that he was too cocky or high on himself.
IMO, yeah... saw him at a bar once and wasn't exactly impressed with his behavior. (e.g., kinda sleazy... hitting on multiple girls even though he supposedly has[/had at the time] a girlfriend.) Just IMO. He was perfectly nice & friendly at the team event I went to, but then again people behave differently in different situations...
"Apparently in Italy they believe that if a player hits both posts on a shot that is not a goal, his team loses" AHAHAHAHAH!!! Who told you this?? I am from Italy, and I have never heard of such a thing... I saw it once or twice this happening, the one I have more clear in my memory is a Udinese-Verona in the first eighties, Zico - if I recall correctly - shot, the ball hit the post at the right of the goalkeeper (Garella) then went across the whole goal, hit the other post and bounced out on the field. The game ended 0-0.
"DC United vs. Vejle Boldklub" By the way, why's DCU website completely silent about this game? It seems like the Pravda newspaper at the times of Breznev... When I saw the score on livescore.com I thought there was a mistake, because I hadn't heard anything about this match... I even went on Velje's website (all in Danish, I tried to figure it out anyway) but no sign of it there either
When the team relaunches it's website, I think that'll change, but right now the content must go through MLS. You can find match details,discussion, etc on www.behindthebadge.com, the team's Blog site.
Guess what I found! http://web.mlsnet.com/mls/schedule/2009/preseason.jsp A link to all friendly/competions games of all MLS teams... I'm not sure why the Red Bullshit will play so many games in Argentina...