Bloomington, Indiana -Notre Dame did their Sybil impression beating Duke 4-1 after losing to Akron 3-0 2 days prior. After the second goal, a defeated Duke gave up. It’s very early for a team to stop playing and new coach John Kerr is going to have his work cut out for him preparing his team for next weekend games against Harvard and American. At least, Kerr knows Harvard extremely well.
Notre Dame isn’t as good as the 4-1 score nor are they as bad as the 3-0 drubbing that Akron put on them. They still might win their division in the Big East but they are going to have a difficult time accomplishing this.
Starting Line-ups:
Duke: 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield
GK: Brendan Fitzgerald
D: Doug Ferner, Darrius Barnes, Pavelid Castaneda, Ian Kalis
M: Kwasi Ayisi, Christian Ibeagha, Cole Grossman, Josh Bienenfeld
F: Kyle Bethel, Mike Grella
ND: 4-1-3-1-1 with 1 DM and 3 MF and withdrawn fwd and solo forward
GK: Andrew Quinn
D: Alex Yoshinaga, Aaron Maund, Matt Besler, Jack Traynor
DM: Matt Armstrong
MF: Dave Donohue, Michael Thomas, Justin Morrow
W/drawn Fwd: Jeb Brovsky
Fwd: Bright Dike
Duke Observations:
After the second goal, senior goal keeper Brendan Fitzgerald lost his confidence. Up to that point, he was the best goal keeper of the week-end (including the Loyola-SCU match). Prior to the game, I was thinking that he may be #2 GK in the ACC – after Chris Brown in BC. Possibly, Akira Fitzgerald from WF. He was screened on the second goal and got down too late and the ball got under him. After that, he was tentative coming out – indecisive.
In the second half, undersized freshman goal keeper Jan Trnka-Amrhein (sp?) relieved Fitzgerald. He gave up 2 quick goals. He didn’t impress me throughout the half. Kerr may want to stick with the “old dog” – Fitzgerald.
Senior forward Mike Grella scored the only Duke goal in the 79th minute from a rebound off a PK. So, technically, he didn’t score off a penalty but realistically, he did. The PK was called from a trip of Kyle Bethel – right call by ref Pawel Wydra. Grella placed the PK lower left and Andrew Quinn covered the shot well but couldn’t hold the ball. This wasn’t a game that Grella would put on his resume. He earned a corner by pressuring Matt Armstrong in the box, made a terrific pass to sophomore Nick Sih that went over jumping senior Jack Traynor. Sih didn’t get to it – but should have been able to get to it. In the second half, I appreciated that he stepped in front of Alex Yoshinaga to steal possession. Grella wasted an opportunity with the game at 0-1. He gathered a rebound just outside the box and took a shot that barely missed hitting the space shuttle. The ball kid spent most of the afternoon retrieving that shot, he needed a parental escort to drive him to Illinois. You get the idea. Why would Grella pick up a stupid yellow in the waning minutes of the game for running his “yap”. Does he want to miss a big game? This is Grella’s team – he needs to take more leadership and responsibility to set the tone of the season.
Oh, speaking of leadership, 2007 Duke alum Michael Videria signed a contract last week with Hamilton in the Scottish Premier League.
Sophomore AM Cole Grossman had a bad first half. His corner kicks were terrible – either right to the keeper or not clearing the first defender. Junior Justin Morrow beat him through the midfield because he took a poor defensive angle. Grossman left the game in the 25th minute and did not return. I expect that it wasn’t related to an injury (I could be wrong), but was more because of his quality.
Because Grossman was having an off day Bienenfeld was moved more centrally. While he was adequate, I prefer him wide.
I like Darrius Barnes. He didn’t have a good game nor did Pavelid Castaneda. Going to 3 in the back, bled 2 additional goals on Duke in the second half. Missing senior central defender Graham Dugoni was a huge loss. Kerr moved Christian Ibeagha to DM and moved DM Pavelid Castaneda to central defense and moved Barnes from RB to central back. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. Kerr never found an answer at right back. While this worked against IU for much of the game, it was obvious that it didn’t work against ND. Ibeagha doesn’t have the passing skills that Castenada has. Additionally, with a physically strong ND forward Bright Dike, Ibeagha would have been a better match-up than Castenada or freshman Ian Kalis.
Freshman midfielder Temi Molinar had the best pass exposing the ND defense in the second half. Freshman forward Kyle Bethel received the pass with a terrific first touch allowing him to shoot with his second touch from the top of the box that went just high. Good play that Duke can use to build on.
Duke is better than this score, but they don’t have depth nor can they afford to make many mistakes.
Why no junior midfielder Jordan Lewis?
Notre Dame Observations:
Big win. Defenders played better. However, Duke didn’t run at them with speed and power like Akron’s Zakuani did on Friday.
Midfielder junior Justin Morrow opened the scoring in the 7th minute from a Jeb Brovsky service that Morrow hit with authority to the far post. Morrow has more speed than I had previous noticed. He had a tremendous first half. MOTM if not for Dike’s 2 goals.
Senior target forward Bright Dike scored two goals three minutes apart in the second half that essentially ended the day for Duke. Dike is a stocky, strong player. The first goal was a present from the indecisive Duke GK Trnka-Amrhein who couldn’t decide to come out or stay back. So, he decided to go halfway and was at Dike’s mercy. Dike struck the ball into the far post. In the 51st minute, he scored again by going around freshman Ian Kalis and driving a powerful low shot into the same spot.
Freshman midfielder Brendan King continued to be active and he is pretty good. At the end of the first, he passed/shot the ball that had the Duke GK in no-mans land. It went just wide. He marred his performance by throwing a temper tantrum when he was removed in the second half. He was stomping around, throwing his shin guards down, taking a drink of water and throwing down the cup. Son – it’s time to grow up. You have a ton of talent. You are not the best player on the field. Keep developing and you’ll get your minutes. Your petulance impresses no one.
The Alex Yoshinaga right back experiment continued. He has never played right back at ND. While I have like his defensive ability in past years, I’m not sure that he plays right back well enough in college never mind in the pros. For example, all defenders know that in your box that you want to head the ball upward (it gives the defense time to either retrieve or cover the opponent). Yoshinaga headed the ball down into the middle of his own box. I’d like to see him at the end of the year if this experiment continues to watch his progress.
Steve Perry (taking the 80’s rocker title with the graduation of Northwestern’s David Roth) scored the second goal with a low hard shot that got under Fitgerald. Michael Thomas forwarded the pass to Perry.
