Greenville, SC – In the second game of the Diadora/Spinx Furman Invitational, Furman beat Bowling Green (BG) 2-0 with a man advantage for much of the second half. While BG has some skillful players, their play is predicated upon hard tackles and an abundance of fouling.
Starting Lineups:
Furman: pretty standard 4-4-2
G: Josh Zimmer
D: Takato Ban, Lewis Chaloner, Michael Erwood, Chris Klute
M: Dane Roberts, Rob Victor, Patrick Murray, Jonathan Collier
F: Fabien Vorbe, Coleton Henning
Bowling Green: generally 4-4-1-1 (flat central DM and 2 wide MF; target fwd Krkeljic)
G: Paul Shoemaker
D: Kyle McNayr, Thomas McLean, Jacob Lawrence, Tyler Deal
M: Gavin Dozier, Dusko Topolic, Hunter Van Houten, Ahmad Smith
F: Chris Jurtovski, Vuk Krkeljic
Furman Observations:
With BG a man down for the final 36 minutes, Furman was able to push across 2 goals after man-handling BG for the bulk of the game.
The first goal was scored by senior reserve forward Andrew Krysiak from 12 yards in the 81st minute. While the shot was nice, the play was contingent upon senior AM Patrick Murray driving into the box before delivering a square pass to Krysiak who took one touch to his left before striking the ball with authority.
Murray was much more assertive in the second half – pushing the ball into dangerous positions. In the first half, he was taking too long to decide where to pass the ball. He needs to think quicker, anticipate where he wants to go and make the pass there. Analagously, it’s like the quarterback spending too much time in the pocket. At lower levels, you can get away with it, in the NFL, you get your head handed to you. Quicker.
Junior central defender Michael Erwood is a very sturdy defender. He’s good in the air and he has sufficient speed to recover on defensive mistakes. Early in the first half, he cleaned up a mess from behind to stifle a BG attack. However, a few minutes later a mis-communication between Erwood and GK Josh Zimmer almost resulted in an easy goal for BG forward Vuk Krkeljic.
Freshman left back Chris Klute is very athletic, smooth on the ball and makes “marshmallow” passes. While watching him, it was a pleasure watching him deliver soft, fluffy, easy to handle passes - the ball looked like a marshmallow – that his team mate can easily handle. His passes are weighted perfectly. Klute needs to be more tactically aware of his defensive position in relation to the attacker. In the past, he could use his speed to cover his mistakes (and he might be able to get away with it at times at Furman), however; at the next level, this deficiency will be punished.
The second goal was started by sophomore RM Dane Roberts driving the ball around the corner beating the BG left back. Roberts crossed the ball to sophomore forward Brooks Duff into the box. Duff took a shot that was blocked, he retrieved the rebound and scored in the 86th minute to essentially end the game.
Freshman forward Fabien Vorbe is going to be very good. He has speed, power and skill. He is going to need to find a way to create his own shots with physical defenders.
Senior right back Takato Ban is a good 1v1 defender and he has the ability to advance the ball up the right side.
Junior reserve midfielder Jordan Howard has a silky touch with the ball. At the end of the first half, he took a calculated gamble taking a looping 35 yard shot that the BG GK was able to punch away right before going under the cross bar. Nice shot.
Freshman midfielder Warren Creavalle plays too many “hopeful” balls – in that he hopes the ball goes to one of his team mates.
Bowling Green Observations:
BG transition attack with numbers from defending corner kicks are very dangerous. If not for an ineffective passing, this should have led to a goal (or at least an opportunity).
BG led fouls almost 2 to 1 and were on the wrong side of shots almost 4 to 1. When freshman Vuk Krkeljic picked up his second yellow with 36 minutes to play, BG was in bad shape. Before this, Krkeljic was consistently off sides and had several bad touches.
Red shirt sophomore LM Ahmad Smith is a good dribbler and aggresively defends. Early in the game, Smith punched Dane Roberts that was seen by the ref. Dumb play.
With the game still scoreless, sophomore midfielder Dusko Topolic had a terrific shot that only a terrific save by sophomore goalkeeper Josh Zimmer (after having barely anything to do for most of the game) kept the game scoreless.
Junior midfielder Hunter Van Houten is a slick ball handler evidenced by a pull move behind his plant leg that eluded his defender and sent Van Houten up the field. He’s a pretty classy player worth watching.
