A separate writing gig put me at RFK Saturday and I was able to watch the first practice. This report is not meant to be exhaustive, but I thought I'd share some observations. My favorite part was as I arrived, a few minutes after the scheduled start, Stoichkov a few women, family members I guess, pulled up behind me in an SUV. I guess he had phoned in that the DC street system caused a bit of confusion (if he was driving past the Capitol, who can blame him). Anyway, he got out on the park lickety split and soon the players had a little meeting in the middle with Ray and while it was out of earshot, at one point, Hristo was making a bowing/worship motion to the rest of the team. After splitting up into groups for some tease the cat drills, they played a pretty lengthy scrimmage, I'd say at least 30 minutes each half. There were some guest players on hand, including David Hayes, Hamisi Amani-Dove and a keeper from West Virginia Wesleyan, Jorge something. Everybody on the roster was there except for Convey, Rimando and Olsen (national team), Alegria (visa issue), Stewart, and Doug Warren (supposed to arrive later in the week???) Anyway, one team had Marco in the middle and Hristo operating on the right. Both of them were showing off some spectacular long-range passing (almost like they were trying to one-up each other). They seemed to genuinely enjoy playing together. Eskandarian scored the first goal for the blue team, taking a pass from Quintanillia and burying it past Michael Behonick. In the second half, Hamani-Dove scored when Behonick lost his footing going for a through ball (lots of slipping in the second half), which left the former Dallas player with an open net. Quaranta scored with a neat little chip of Behonick (who did make some good saves, I should point out). The other goal came when Hayes (I think) raced down the right and hit a low cross to Eskandarian, whose shot was saved point blank by Jorge, but the rebound fell to Ali Curtis and he knocked it in. Eskandarian was pretty nifty, making quick moves and creating space for himself. He has a really quick shot. He'll score some goals. Quintanillia looked very good in that spot behind the strikers. The middle is going to be very crowded and Ray was saying afterward it will be very hard for him to pick a lineup. The other player who really impressed me was Kovalenko, he was running around like it was the World Cup finals, I think fans will quickly grow to like him for his work rate. Of the new players, David Stokes looked quite good in the back. His technique is really solid. Brian Carroll was very active on the right and rode out some challenges well. Hayden Woodworth played in the middle and showed some good touches on the ball in the first half, and gave it away a couple of times in the 2nd. John Swann was a gritty battler in the back.
Thanks for the report, that's great stuff! That's a very crowded midfield. On the other hand, that depth may turn out to be a life saver.
Probably not too important, but Jorge is Jorge Geddes, an extremely highly rated DII goalie at WVW. He is, IIRC, a native of Malawi of all places.
always good that our newbies are doing well (eskandarian especially). although what does the hayes and dove mean? just coming to the off-season for training or......
Thanks for the report, GersMan. Do they have practice on Sundays, specifically tomorrow? I've seen the schedule on the website, but wasn't sure if practice was 7 days a week or not. 10:30am, right. Anything special one needs to know to get in to watch (which gate to go to, etc.)? Are cameras allowed? I might be in DC tomorrow and other weekends, and if they're having practice I'd stop by to have a look.
Thanks a lot Gersman. Thats very interesting to read. BTW, did they spend a lot of time on fitness? I can't wait to see what the final roster looks like and I can't wait until the April 5th game in Richmond, I'll be there!!!!
some of the players were on their hands and knees and throwing up afterwards, if that's what you mean.... just kidding, I didn't see if they did any stretching beforehand, they were just kicking it about (waiting for hristo) when I walked in) after they met i guess they did some very light calisthenics, running sideways, etc... back and forth. I guess they warmed down for 10-15 after the scrimmage. weasel - they made me show a press credential when I came in so I guess it was not open per se. It was inside RFK but I know some (most?) of the time they practice on auxillary fields outside the ground (on Oklahoma, I think someone told me - not sure if those are open). At any rate I believe I was told there is no practice tomorrow. Just realized I forgot to mention Ivanov. He really knows how to tackle - and onrushing attackers for the other team are going to be thinking about it when he's out there. He tackled Hristo once and Hristo waited a few seconds before he got up, just checking to make sure everything was still there I think. I joke about that, but I don't mean that he's dirty, he's just a hard tackler. Hey Jamie Moreno: ACHTUNG BABY!!!!! (sorry, I don't know Bulgarian for "WATCH OUT - and neither do most of you).
I hear that David Hayes is better than Pele. Again! What's the deal this time? It's never-frickin'-ending with this guy and the visa problems!
Our defense has to be the best in MLS this year. And there's got to be someone we're trading away. But who? Can't wait to this guy, and the rest of DCU play. And Gersman, how big is Ivanov?
Re: Re: Saturday Training LOL! You beat me to it Benjamin! Maybe we could play a 0-10-0 formation with 10 central midfielders. Gers- great report! Thanks for taking the time to post it.
I think our defense is quite good as well.. I think LA will have better numbers initially because their team is already rock solid defensively (#1 in MLS last season) and added a world superstar defender/midfielder in Hyung Mung Bo.. Just because United now has a top notch roster of defenders (Reyes, Petke, Ivanov, Prideaux, Nelsen and Stokes) doesn't mean we have to or should get rid of any of them.. Suspensions, callups and injuries are all part of the mix and having this quality of depth can not be detrimantal IMHO.. I'd stack up United's top 6 defenders against any team in MLS right now.. No need in rocking the boat unless we can manage a trade that blows our socks off..
Agreed. Its just that it seems like I could see some of them gettin unhappy with a lack of playing time. Particularly because we'll likely play a 3-5-2. Though I'm all in favor of keeping them. They're all young too. This season is going to be very very exciting.
Great Report GersMan. As many of you already know, GersMan has a bunch of well written articles up on TopDrawerSoccer.com, and while it's a site focused on US Youth Teams, you can read a lot about Convey, Santino, Warren, Stokes, Eskandarian and our former winger Mapp there. http://www.TopDrawerSoccer.com Thanks for the report, it's all good news, particularly that our P-40 players didn't look like fish out of water. Esky scored and Stokes sounds like he adjusted to the speed of play well. Of course, everybody is rusty and we have little if any chemistry, so it's not a real test yet, but still, nice to see for a first day! Also it's good to see our reluctant trade acquisitions (Petke and Kovalenko) came ready to prove themselves. That competitive fire fueled from offseason trades often is just what some players need. I'm curious how Carroll did compared to Namoff, and what positions they were played. Thanks GersMan! -Tron
I am too. I've been thinking about this and I don't think Hudson will bring both along this year unfortunately. And I also think Namoff will be the one to go if Carroll adjusts to the speed of play.
Carroll played on the right side of midfield and to be honest I didn't really notice Namoff (which is not to say he did poorly, I just didn't notice him). Petke's distribution and marking were more what I would expect for the first practice of the year. In that kind if hyrbrid 3-5-2/4-4-2 formation, he was trying Nelson at the d-mid position for a while, and he didn't look too bad there. Not saying that means anything at this stage... BTW, no reason for this team to trade anybody. Convey, Olsen, Quaranta will all miss some of the season,maybe Reyes as well (does Ivanov play for Bulgaria and Euro qualifiers?). We've seen Marco with injuries and I think Hristo will come off the bench a lot. The team will need all of these guys.