2009 MLS Combine Day 1 (Game 1) « Pro Player Pipeline

adiTunit (Blue) beat Powerserve (Red) 2-0 in the opening game of the 2009 Combine.

Chris Pointius (UCSB) opened the scoring in the 24th minute with an unstoppable blast from 20 yards that was in the upper corner before Evan Bush (Akron) could react.

GA Peri Marosevic (Michigan) added the second goal minutes before half time on a misplay following a corner kick. The corner kick defense clearance was inadequate and Jide Ogunbiyi (Santa Clara) headed the ball to Marosevic who was behind the defense (except for a player that didn’t get forward quickly enough. Marosevic took a touch and slotted ball past the help goal keeper (Bush).

Game was much better than last year and was better played than today’s later game.

Not too many surprises for me, but from both team I had seen all but 4 players live over the last 2 years. Of these 4, I had seen tape on all of them except Amarikwa.

All of the teams were primarily playing a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield.

1st half (Blue):
GK: Stefan Frei (GA/Cal)
D: Trevor Banks (ODU), Jide Ogunbiyi (Santa Clara), AJ Delagarza (MD), Paul Gerstenberger (BC)
M: Kyle Patterson (SLU), Matt Poole (UVA), Andrei Gotsmanov (Creighton), Rodney Wallace (GA/MD)
F: Peri Marosevic (GA/Michigan), Chris Pontius (UCSB)

1st half (Red):
GK: Evan Bush (GA/Cal)
D: Oscar Catillo (UConn), Ryan Mirsky (SMU), Yohance Marshall (USF), Lyle Adams (WF)
M: Jeff Harwell (SMU), Sam Cronin (WF), Akeem Priestley (UConn), Keum Sung Kim (Loyola-Illinois)
F: Doug DeMartin (MSU), Quincy Amarikwa (UC-Davis)

2nd half (Blue):
GK: Stefan Frei (GA/Cal)
D: Kyle Russel, Jide Ogunbiyi (Santa Clara), AJ Delagarza (MD), Rodney Wallace (GA/MD)
M: Brandon Barklage (SLU), Pavelid Castaneda (Duke), Andrei Gotsmanov (Creighton), Joshua Boateng (Liberty)
F: Daniel Revivo (Winthrop), Chris Pontius (UCSB)

2nd half (Red):
GK: Sean Milligan (Dartmouth)
D: Oscar Catillo (UConn), Ryan Mirsky (SMU), Omar Gonzalez (GA/MD), Lyle Adams (WF)
M: Nick Zimmerman (JMU), Sam Cronin (WF), Akeem Priestley (UConn), Pat Murray (Furman)
F: Bryan Irwin (Portland), Steve Zakuani (GA/Akron)

ASSESSMENT

Who had a good game (or played better than I expected)?

Pontius (blue) – besides the cracker of a goal, he was playing both sides of the ball. Holding the ball too long at times; best player of the day
Delagarza (blue) – played his game; anticipation; had a nice clearing diving header; increasing his stock;
Patterson (blue) – very active in the attack; trying too hard to impress (anxious); speed
Boateng (blue) – silky moves; showed that he belongs; increasing his stock.
Frei (blue) – moved well, good hands; starting to believe;
Cronin (red) – solid, solid, solid, giving away too much space in the first half along with his “defensive” midfielder Priestly. stock moving up;
Castillo (red) – overlapping, demonstrating his speed out of the back, making sticking tackles; 2nd half – played worse;
Zimmerman (red) – made a neat move on Wallace, pulling the ball back to draw Wallace in before putting it past him to attack from the sideline across the top of the box and hitting a good left foot strike; another weird play was his attempted throw in that slipped out of his hands and touched a red player; everyone stopped and he recovered the ball and dribbled past 2 and picked up a free kick right outside the box;

Who was adequate?

Gotsmanov (blue) – nice first touch, but his passing was off, reflective of not knowing his team mates; played as expected;
Poole (blue) – he is what he is; good ball tackler, but just as likely to be dispossessed.
Wallace (blue) – pressing to begin, didn’t let the game come to him; better in the second half;
Ogunbiyi (blue) – played quietly, starting the attacks with small touches to Poole and Gotsmanov; held off DeMartin in the box; big player; better than I expected;
Bush (red) – not blamed on either goal, but could have increased his ranking by stepping up and making the big save;
Gonzalez (red) – 2nd half only, winning head balls – but not adding enough to transition;
Adams (red) – getting forward; doing fine;
Harwell (red) – good shot off the dribble – active; need to watch more closely;
Zakuani (red) – quick; stealing the ball or going past his new butler (Russell); not able to pull the trigger when in the box; needs to relax;
DeMartin (red) – tries hard; probably not able to get around sufficiently; makes good runs;

Who needs to improve?

Marosevic (blue) – touch was rough, played as I expected. shooting off the dribble horrible shot.
Jata (blue) – bad free kicks (1 was a roller into the box); not executing with others; comfortable on the ball;
Revivo (blue) – didn’t do much, attempted a killer through pass but it wasn’t good enough; had a good 1st touch that beat Mirsky. knocked off the ball by Cronin
Banks (blue) – giving too much space to the left midfielder
Gerstenberger (blue) – rusty on the ball; his passing was inconsistent – trying to make the beautiful long killer pass
Priestley (red) – good on the ball but doesn’t play defense; as part of the central midfield duo that surrendered the middle of the field to blue
Marshall (red) – not controlling the middle, didn’t stop Pontius;
Mirsky (red) – not controlling the middle, didn’t stop Pontius;
Amarikwa (red) – trying to hard; tons of speed; willing to be assertive; may not have enough talent – a player that deserves more attention.

Who should consider a couple of days on the beach before starting a regular job?

Russell (blue) – Tried hard, but couldn’t stop anyone without fouling; he should put in a toll booth the way players were going around him; Zakuani should use some of that $175K (allegedly) to buy him some beers if he’s going to take advantage of him!
Kim (red) – Worse player out there; I’ve seen him twice this year and today was like they got some kid off the street; different player; he was dreadful; if this is your best, fake an injury.
Murray (red) – nothing redeeming in his half of play;

Who do I need to continue to observe/didn’t do enough today?