hey guys, Decided to have a little warmup for tomorrow's drive to Chicago, and pick up some Fat Tire , and drive out to Omaha to catch the match. Due to getting off work late and horrid directions, thank the GF, I missed the first half of the match. Boltnar did not play the second half. Yes, Tomas WAS there! Saw many new faces and some familiar. But first the play. We lost 4-0, however the 2 goals I saw scored on us were not because of poor play. Boltnar told me after the match many of the guys were tired coming in as people were coming straight from work. Minnesota earned the goals they got. They looked pretty good. The first we probably should have gotten back a little quicker but it was not an easy goal for Minnesota. I didnt see the holes and missteps that we saw at times last year. The midfield looked pretty good, working the ball around opening up opportunities. Some good balls up into space, couple good crosses, and least 4 corner kicks. The negatives... of course, we got scored on 4 times. I don't think we stepped up enough and pressured on defense. I think we need to be a little more aggressive there. On offense the midfield needs to push a little more. Little more activity off the ball. Lastly, when the ball gets deep into the final third we need to get bodies in the box more. During the match, Marc Grune was up and down often,very vocal. I had a few words with him afterwards. Very nice, approacable guy. I asked him about no announced signings, saying we were thought it was odd compared to last year. He said he prefered to wait until he had his roster to do so, no guaranteed spots on this team I guess. He pointed out the recognizable returning players to me which is my final comment: Tomas Boltnar Adnan Junuzovic Armin Mujdzic Sasa Borsic Joe Sithonnorath Lane Peercy Leo Krupnik
Thanks for the update! Hopefully the roster is announced sometime soon. I figured Armin was on the team since he was playing for a team against us in our Men's League last week, he seemed to be playing not to get hurt. Hopefully the addition of the Drake guys will create a solid team. A lot of the local high school guys are still playing on their HS teams. Should be an interesting year!
My bad! I guess another option would to go out the the Menace youth academy practices to see who is coaching and practicing with the teams, but if you didn't recongize anyone it wouldn't really help.
Just curious, why is DM playing Minnesota? This an open cup match? just a preseason? something else? Interesting fixture, anyhow.
Yeah it was a preseason game. The Thunder are down in Nebraska playing some exhibition games. This was actually the second time Des Moines and Minnesota have played this year. The first game was a nil-nil draw.