I got there after the first period so all I got to see were the reserves. Moose, Arguez and Walker looked impressive throughout. Everyone else had their moments but nothing notable. Fearington looked alright but you could tell he was not yet*NSYNC with the rest of the gang. I could have sworn he called Jeff Carroll "Brian" late in the game when asking for the ball. Peter Nowak was in attendance and was looking fit and trim. He is either way ahead or far behind the style curve with the blue camouflage spandex top. It was nice to see our possession game and passing carrying-over from the first team. I'm looking forward to Motagua on Friday.
is it fair to say that this game mostly played by the reserves? i mean, did Gomez, Emilio or Moreno play?
I was told the first 30 minute period had Olsen and a few other starters rotating in and out. However when I got there, it was strictly the reserves. The starting team was on another field with Soehn. It was surrounded by a fence tarp so I figured they wanted their privacy. Normally that would not stop me from snooping around, but I just spent more than an hour getting there and didn't want to go back home right away. I forgot to mention Casal and Kpene in the earlier post. Kpene was very active up top but, just like Fearington, needs time to blend in with the group. He had some decent runs but many times was double teamed. More than a few times he held the ball well with a much bigger FIU defender draped all over him. Casal was impressive. He was gliding up and down the left side constantly burning his defender. Since we were playing underclassmen many months removed from being game fit, I took that with a grain of salt. I made a point to focus on the new guys but I completely forgot to look out for Welton Silva. I have no memory of him. The best part of the whole scrimmage was seeing Troy walking around carrying the big orange Gatorade jug in one hand and the rack of water bottles in the other, with nary a limp. Everyone appeared fit and healthy.
I caught at least two of the FIU goals. One had a solid build up through our midfield and defense which was great work on their part. The other goal was near the end of the game when they pretty much resorted to long balls over the top. It seemed their forward went from having his back to our goal, to spinning around and unleashing a head high volley that lobbed our keeper (Nolly?). It was quite impressive but looked more lucky than skillful...but I'll give the guy credit for trying. It was...dare I say...Gomez-esque.
Please tell me you're not going to pay any attention to a second hand account of the second half of a scrimmage game.
Huh? I just wanna know who played defense, and whether they played well or poorly. Since we're pretty thin in defense these days, and since Soehn apparently had the starters on a different field, the men he had back (Wilson + ?) are whoever he has in mind right now as his defensive subs; I'm curious who the "?" are.
OK, I guess you are going to pay attention to it then. Where are they, Bradenton again? Maybe I should ask my nephews to go scout the team. And yes, I am kidding. Sort of. I just don't know that it necessarily follows that the guys who played in a scrimmage against FIU are the guys Soehn has in mind as his subs.
There's a summary on the website: http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/news/tea...nt_id=85084&vkey=news_dcu&fext=.jsp&team=t103 Lineup: Jay Nolly (Shawn Crowe 47), Facundo Erpen (Devon McTavish 30), Bobby Boswell (John Wilson 30 [Jamil Fearington 60]), Bryan Namoff (Stephen deRoux 30), Ben Olsen (Jeff Carroll 30), Clyde Simms (Bryan Arguez 30), Brian Carroll (Justin Moose 30), Josh Gros (Kasali Yinka Casal 30), Luciano Emilio (Jamil Walker 30 [Welton Sliva 60]), Jaime Moreno (Guy Kpene 30)
Come on, Mike, every time someone puts on a United shirt their performance is important for the sanity of dozens. You should know that by now! So back to Bootsy's question...
So, according to the game report from Garbaggio, none of our starters played for more than 30 minutes. So you might want to change your question to what was the score after 30? And your answer would be 1-1. Bootsy - does this help? Have to say I was going thru daily report withdrawals for a day or two, wondering where guys like Diceson are.
Jeez, Bootsy had a good question. Perkins went out with a tweak and the next thing we see is a college team putting 3 goals in against us. Chivas is a week away. It's not unreasonable to want to know if our backup got schooled by FIU. ...and I'm still not sure we know the answer.
Wilson and McTavish were both playing centerback at one time or another. I don't recall DC ever switching to a 4 man backline. On the side closest to me DeRoux played left back for at least one period and Fearington right back in the next period. I wouldn't really say we took these kids to school but you could definitely tell who the pros were. FIU had some nice players out there. One critique for DC could be the lack of shooting from outside the box is not limited to our first teamers. Regarding our goalkeepers, neither Nolly or Crowe were real busy. Apart from the FIU tally where they had a good buildup and score we really controlled the match. FIU scored a wonderful goal off a volley but I have to believe that was sheer luck. I will say that we produce some wonderful d-mids. Arguez played wonderfully for someone straight out of club soccer. Moose seemed very poised and confident on the ball. He was everywhere. Breaking up passes and quickly switching to the counter-attack. It was a good workout...nothing more, nothing less. No one was reckless. No one got hurt (Stoitchkov are you listening?)