I was at the game yesterday and managed to take a few shots. Some of the better ones are below. Click HERE to go see the whole set (about 50 photos) Martinez, and Peralta were both very communicative, but there was a lot of talking going on amongst everybody. One of the highlights (hard to tell from the photo tho), Gallardo made a *slight* feint like he was going left and then continued to his right and the Danish player literally got juked to the ground (here)
Neat, thanks. My slow-ass dial-up connection thanks you that they're small (and still good) and load fairly quickly 1) Clearly, Gallardo is "a step behind" 2) Nice flat back 4
Cool photos. Im guessing seeing Gallardo Holding a Microphone and that guy from GOL TV, that the show AMerican Soccer will have something on our training in their next episode?
I thought that was the guy from GolTV too, but doesn't the microphone logo look more like Telefutura than GolTV?
Sweet pics elconejito. Nice looking out for the rest of us. Dap goes out to you too, Diceson. I really like where we are headed this season. Once we click, I think our starting 11 (maybe up to the 13th, 14th or heck 15th man) will truly bring fear to the rest of the league. Me likey. Thanks again.
i'm pretty sure at least one of the interviewers was GolTV. 2 Funny stories about my trip -Arriving at the hidden gate there was a rent-a-cop there who looked like he was about 80yrs old. Here's how our conversation went. Me: "I'm here to see the DC United vs Odense match" RAC: blank look... "You mean soccer?" in a slight southern drawl Me: "Yes. Yes I am, sir." RAC: "It's not a real game. They're just training." Me: "I know. I'm a big fan" RAC: "You still wanna go in?" Me: Grinning like an idiot... "Yes, please" RAC: shakes his head... "ok then" -#2... So as I'm walking back towards the fields, there is a group of soccer players heading my way towards the parking lot, away from the fields. One of them looked remarkably like Mapp from Chicago. As I got closer, it definitely WAS Mapp. And I thought "DAMN, that trade rumor I heard about on BS must've come true" referring to that post somewhere that we would get the DP from colorado and trade it to Chicago for Mapp or Rolfe or both. I cursed myself for not checking the interwebs that morning. My next thought was "DAMN, I missed the game everybody's leaving!!!!" Fortunately, as I walked a bit further I could see United playing (I was about 10mins late) on one of the fields. I also saw Chris Armas and I think I recognized a couple other Chicago players and quickly realized they were there for training too. If I had known I woulda tried a little harder to get there earlier and maybe take some pics of them too.
Nice. Also my old man told me on sunday Marcelo Gallardo is going to be on Republica Deportiva. So keep your tv's tuned to univision this sunday.
dude, you and Diceson (nice meeting you btw!) saved me The directions were spot on. Google maps, Mapquest, and that stupid GPS system in the rental car were of NO help! The GPS kept trying to make me drive though an apartment complex
Great meeting you too! Sweet pics! I'm glad to see you're not the only one to get the "It's not a real game they'all playin'" from the rent-a-cop
Im curious. How did the game end? What were the formations? How did Gallardo play? How was the 'd'? Did they look like they are starting to understand each other?
I'm sure Diceson will have a MUCH better version, but my recap of the game is below. I arrived a few minutes into the start, I'm hoping nothing too interesting happened. United was in a 442 and lined up with Wells as GK. At least I assume it was Wells, I've never seen a photo of him. He is the one doing jumping drills in the photos. Defense was (right to left) McTavish, Martinez, Peralta, Burch. Midfield was Moose (with a haircut), Gallardo, Simms, Fred. Forwards were Jaime and Emelio. The starters played the 1st 45min, the reserves the 2nd 45mins. Carvallo was GK in the 2nd half. He doesn't look as small as I thought he would. I only recognized J.Carroll (center D) and Mediate (left D) along the defense. Jamil Walker was on the right midfield. Neil and (I think) Monteiro were up-top. I have no idea who the others were DEFENSE: The defense was sometimes in a flat4, and sometimes had martinez up a little higher with Peralta behind in a kinda stopper/sweeper setup (but not as pronounced). Peralta tended to stay at home more and Martinez would roam a little bit. Both of them would call out instructions to other defenders and midfielders regarding positioning and whatnot. There was a lot of communication going on in a mixture of english, spanish and spanglish It seemed like a lot of the talking was directed towards the mids, asking them to come back further/quicker, pick him up, etc. Martinez is F A S T. He comes in really hard when he challenges for a ball. It's kinda hard to describe until you see it, but I'm not sure how MLS refs will react to it. It's not that he's fouling the attacker... he's not. But he comes flying in at 100mph and solidly positions himself between attacker and the ball. Takes the ball away cleanly. But he comes in so fast and if the attacker falls over the ref might think it was a reckless shoulder charge (which it wouldn't be). He reminds me a little bit of Ryan Nelsen when he was here in that he always got a piece of the attacker just to "let him know he was there" as he cleanly takes away the ball. Now Martinez does the same thing, but its after charging him from 10-15 yards away. Does that make sense? The biggest weakness for the defense IMO was Burch (mainly) and McT kept getting beat on the wings. Odense was able to consistenly get around the corner and turn in crosses. Martinez and/or Peralta were usually there, but there were a couple of occasions where Burch/McT got beat so bad that they had to come over and help. Which then led to unmarked bodies in the box. Most of Odense's chances came from counter-attacks or semi-delayed counters (like the 2nd wave). When United had a chance to settle in, they were pretty hard to crack. Odense also won a lot of headers. MIDFIELD: First of all... Gallardo is top-notch. He is a completely different style from either Gomez or Etcheverry, altho his role is more similar to a classic #10 like Etch was. He really pulls the strings for the offense. He's always looking to spring players behind the defense (usually Fred) on diagonal passes. He's pretty mobile, but stays fairly central. Compared to Gomez who frequently found himself up next to the strikers. He also will come all the way back to the defenders to get the ball and start the attack. Defensively, they would be in a flat4. Offensively it looks more like a diamond midfield with Simms hanging pretty far back and Gallardo just outside the semi-circle at the top of the box. Fred got to the endline a few times, Moose... I don't think he did (but I could be wrong about that). Moose looks to be about what he was last year, which isn't a bad thing per se, but you kinda want to see a bit more. He has the tools, he just needs to push forward more. He cut off all that hair too. FORWARDS: Last year when the forwards got the ball with back to goal there usually wasn't anyone to play the ball off to so it was up to them (Jaime usually) to hold the ball and wait for help, or spinoff and go it alone. In this game the forward/midfield gap was much smaller and it looked they they were making a concerted effort to play the ball back to the mids almost immediately. Almost like they were practicing wall passes with the strikers as the wall. It was pretty effective. while that was going on, one of the wingers would try and sneak up the field (usually fred). Jaime had two of his typical "Jaime" runs. Once along the corner of the box with Fred overlapping he was able to face-up his defender and juke him to the ground before pushing to the endline for a cross that was blocked. The second one he got the ball at the top of the box and drove right down the center. He was ambushed by 3 (maybe 4) Danes and tumbled to the ground. I thought it was a foul, but no call by the ref. It was good to see though. IN GENERAL: I'm not sure where the Danish team is physically (are they in off-season?), but they were in much better shape than United. It wasn't as drastic as them with hands on knees gasping for breath, just cases where they would walk back to position and the Danes would jog back. Even when everybody was walking, the Danes had a little more bounce in their step. The reserves were much more energetic. In spurts, the passing was good. Really good. But there were also cases where the ball was played inaccurately and led to a turnover. Also there is still quite a few times where the pass goes left and the runner goes right. We also didn't get much production from the wings other than Fred, and that wasn't a whole lot. There was a fair bit of interchanging among the mids/forwards. Jaime and/or emelio would check back to the ball and a mid would try to fly past on a run. Jamil looked decent out there on the wing, although there wasn't much asked of him defensively. Offensively, he got around the corner pretty much whenever he was played the ball. The problem is they didn't play the ball out there often enough. I thought the right fullback (#31) was awful. He only got beat once or twice, but he was so slooow with the ball and making decisions with it. It impacted Jamil because by the time he got the ball under control, took a touch, looked up, took another touch, then passed the ball Jamil was no longer open. J.Carroll only lasted about 5mins. He went up to challenge one of the Danes on a header and the guy came down on his foot. He immediately stopped running as the play went past him. Not sure who replaced him. It looked pretty serious and he was on the sidelines with an icepack later. Neil is built like a fire hydrant. I think the 5'4" listing is generous He is supremely hard to knock off the ball though. He had no trouble holding off the larger, physical Danish defenders. He's pretty quick and harrasses defenders pretty well. Very similar to an Esky-type energy. Also, a really cool thing, all the starters were watching the reserves while doing their cool-down/stretches. There were several calls for diagonal runs (mainly from Gallardo) by forwards and mids. There were a couple of "Bien Enano!" calls which means basically, "Good job Midget!" directed at Neil. I almost busted out laughing. I guess that is his nickname.
Great write up. Man I wish I had made the trip this year. John's write up is up now also. Great to have two different perspectives.
GREAT WRITE UP elconejo! From what you wrote I can already imagine the style of offense that you guys will be using. It seems that DCU is going to play way more compact than ever before, basically having the complete team within a stretch of about 30-35 yards. I can tell that Gallardo without a doubt is going to have COMPLETE control over the attack. He's already doing that in the scrimmage games, so I dont see how its going to change any during the season. I also envision DCU playing a more ball control game than they ever have before. It seems VERY ARGENTINIAN from what you have explained in your write up. You will probably see a lot of triangulation plays and attack. Sometimes very vertical and at times slowing down with control of the ball to break apart the opposing teams defense. Also it seems like the two central defenders understand each other. Just have to get your two outer defenders to get in harmony and hopefully your back line will be solid. The flat line 4 defense will probably change a little into something slightly more staggered when they begin to understand each other. Also its going to be needed when you guys start playing more compact and faster. All in all I'm very excited for you guys. Seems like your teams is headed on the right track and you will join the ranks of those that play the beautiful game. Ill be here keeping an idea on you. Maybe even head down to a game or two.
The last Danish Superliga match for Odense was on December 2 and they are in off-season until March 15, so ther is still 5 weeks to the Danish league kicks off. As for the Odense team playing this preseason match, then they were missing their NT players due to a Danish NT friendly in Slovenia 4 days ago so the team was a mix of regulars, Subs and reserves.. Odense Lineup : Anders Lindegaard (reserve, has played 1 of 18 Superliga game this season) - Jan Tore Ophaug (useful sub, 2 SL games or 101 minutes this season), Atle Roar Håland (debut, newly signed, but expected to become a regular), Søren Jensen (useful sub, 5 SL games), Jonas Troest (regular/rotation, 13 SL games or 875 minutes) - Jonas Borring (regular starter, all 18 SL games), Esben Hansen (Regular starter, but newly returned from a short ½ season stay at Kaiserslautern), Matti Lund Nielsen (reserve, 1 SL game or 6 minutes), Cristian Bolaños (Super-sub, 12 SL games or 553 minutes) - Djiby Fall (newly signed, fee US$1.6 million and expected to be a regulat starter), Johan Absalonsen (regular, 13 SL games or 993 minutes). Subs used : Bechara Oliveira (rotation, 11 SL games or 706 minutes), Peter Nymann (rotation, 12 SL games or 671 minutes), Srdjan Radonjic (sub, 6 SL games or 269 minutes), Anders K. Jacobsen (reserve, 4 SL games or 27 minutes) ---- The general opinion at the official OB Odense website seem to be that this match was a 'quiet day at the office'... . .