2009 MLS Combine Day 2 (Game 1)

adiTunit (Blue) tied  Tiro (white) 1-1 in the first game of the second day of the 2009 combine.

1st half (white):

G: Milos Kocic (Loyola-MD)

D: Kevin Alston (GA/IU), Chris Clements (Tulsa), George John (Washington), Dave Hertel (MSU)

M: Ryan Maxwell (Tampa), Ryan Maduro (Providence), Graham Zusi (MD), Alex Grendi (Penn)

F: Nick Perera (UCSB), Ross Schunk (Redlands)

2nd half (white):

G: Steward Ceus (Albany)

D:  Calum Angus (SLU), George John (Washington), Evan Brown (WF), Dave Hertel (MSU)

M: Michael Lahoud (WF), Baggio Husidic (GA/UIC),  Ryan Maduro (Providence), Dylan Curtis (UC-Davis)

F: Chris Salvaggione (UNC-Charlotte), Ross Schunk (Redlands)

1st half (Blue):
GK: Stefan Frei (GA/Cal)
D: Kyle Russel, Jide Ogunbiyi (Santa Clara), Pavelid Castaneda (Duke), Rodney Wallace (GA/MD)
M: Brandon Barklage (SLU), Matt Poole (UVA), Richard Jata (Campbell), Joshua Boateng (Liberty)
F: Daniel Revivo (Winthrop), Peri Marosevic (GA/Michigan)

2nd half (Blue):

GK: Stefan Frei (GA/Cal)
D: Trevor Banks (ODU), Pavelid Castaneda (Duke), AJ Delagarza (MD), Rodney Wallace (GA/MD)
M: Kyle Patterson (SLU), Matt Poole (UVA), Brandon Barklage (SLU), Chris Pontius (UCSB)
F: Daniel Revivo (Winthrop), Peri Marosevic (GA/Michigan)

ASSESSMENT

In italics are the previous game commments and assessment classification.

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

• Ceus (white) – Nice; moves very well;  from 1/10/09 (+): very quick on his feet for the imposing GK.  Hung out to dry on the first goal; kept his team in the game by making a series of saves.  Upgrading;
• Alston (white) – got forward creating good goal scoring opportunities. touch is rough at times (that’s my main worry);  from 1/10/09 (adequate): made a few forays forward, but his touch was horrific at times;
• Maxwell (white) – tremendous improvement; playing quicker; causing problems in front of GA Rodney Wallace; his play created the first goal; have to wonder why he didn’t start demanding the ball with an injured player (Gerstenberger) in front of him – though no one from his identified it;  from 1/10/09 (-): confident on the ball; takes too long to deliver the ball;
• Brown (white) – showed that he can get forward effectively; good work rate; did well in the middle; from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
• Hertel (white) – very nice; good speed (quicker than on tape-surprised me); was able to hold off a stronger player (Revivo) in the box; though later lost Revivo in the box enabling a shot; suffered calf cramps in the second half, but told me that he anticipates playing on Tuesday; nice kid; from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
• Delagarza (blue) – solid; came on in the 2nd half; nice line on defensive defensive approach to prevent attacker from reaching the ball; from 1/10/09 (+): played his game; anticipation; had a nice clearing diving header; increasing his stock;
• Pontius (blue) – playing left midfield, willing to take on defenders; dribbling is very good; from 1/10/09 (+): 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
• Patterson (blue) – dangerous willing to attack; only placed 2nd half; from 1/10/09 (+): very active in the attack; trying too hard to impress (anxious); speed
• Boateng (blue) – MOTM; played left midfield but frequently gravitated into the center; created havoc with his dribbling; on the goal, he beat Alston with a “high kick (from Alston’s perspective)” then drove immediately toward the goal drawing defenders to him; he sliced the ball behind the defense to an on-rushing Marosevic who finished near post; from 1/10/09 (+): silky moves; showed that he belongs; increasing his stock.
• Frei (blue) – solid; hands are quick; takes forever to take a goal kick (won’t last in central america – yellow cards for time wasting); from 1/10/09 (+): moved well, good hands; starting to believe;
• Banks (blue) – much better! in just the second half, much more assertive; overlapping, stealing the ball; tough d; by end of the half, ran out of steam, technique suffered on a wild shot;  from 1/10/09 (-): giving too much space to the left midfielder

Who was adequate?

• Salvaggione (white) – only playing a half, didn’t do much to distinguish himself; dragged a cross to set up a team mate that didn’t read the play;  from 1/10/09 (+): very active; good balance; better than he showed me at UMass and MD; can he keep it up?
• Kocic (white) – showed too much on the near post for the goal; also calls for the ball very late. from 1/10/09 (+): not challenged a lot, but moved well; tipped a dangerous shot over the bar; played like he did last year;
• Lahoud (white) – couple of nice passes nothing extra-0rdinary; from 1/10/09 (+): confident; dangerous in the box; covering sideline to sideline well;
• Husidic (white) -composed on small passes; very patient – at times too patient (for me), some of his longer passes were off target without pressure; nice pass to setup Salvaggione in the box late in the game;  from 1/10/09 (adequate): nice first touch to get the ball ready to attack (space); question his work rate;
• Angus (white) – didn’t embarrass himself playing right back; enamored with long diagonal – not simple enough; can I mix Husidic and Angus? from 1/10/09 (adequate): delivers a nice long ball; beaten for the goal;
• Zusi (white) – composed (funny – I write my comments before entering them here, opinion didn’t really change); good powerful shot just wide right; blew a break-away with a poor pass in the first half.  started a good sequence with a good pass to Husidic. from 1/10/09 (adequate): composed on the ball; played as expected;
• Maduro (white) – does not have the personality (fortitude) to play DM; drove from midfield to the box with 4 defenders accompanying without causing severe distress; made a killer one touch pass to get Maxwell behind the defense;  from 1/10/09 (adequate): good passer, drops into the midfield too much; don’t see too much upside;
• John (white) – aggressive in the air, stepping up to break-up attacks before the forward can receive the pass; from an offensive corner brought the ball down and drove to the end-line and made a nice cross that required Frei to make a difficult play to stop; generally good defense; from 1/10/09 (-): painfully slow in the back; good touch to allude a forward; tall;
• Poole (blue) – couple of good tackles; not setting himself apart from others;  from 1/10/09 (adequate): he is what he is; good ball tackler, but just as likely to be dispossessed.
• Marosevic (blue) – scored the goal taking the shot to the near post; good run; his 1st touch especially off the chest is abhorrent – it bounces up;   from 1/10/09 (-): touch was rough, played as I expected.  shooting off the dribble horrible shot.
• Castaneda (blue) playing simple; not a flashy player but too slow to slow Maxwell;  from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
• Barklage (blue) hard; willing to put himself in harms way to get to the ball; good breaking up a play by anticipating the play while playing centrally; I prefer Barklage wide; put on a dribbling exhibit taking on 2 players several times in the same 5 yard area (not very productive); from 1/10/09 (no opinion);

Who needs to improve?

• Perera (white) – scored a goal but still doesn’t do much more than take up space;  from 1/10/09 (-): just not good enough; received a long ball from Angus that he wasn’t able to control or strike;
• Curtis (white) – I don’t like his game; his touch, passing, decision making;  as a plus probably a very nice person and kind to his mother; from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
  
• Clements (white) – mixed feelings; good step on defense; beat on dribble by Boateng in the box; very concerned about his ability; from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
• Grendi (white) – re-injured ankle again; before that had a powerful shot off the dribble; he needs to be able to show what he can do; from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
• Wallace (blue) – having trouble marking Maxwell; not until very late in the first half did he make a note worthy play getting forward to cross the ball to Revivo in the box in a dangerous position;  from 1/10/09 (adequate): pressing to begin, didn’t let the game come to him; better in the second half;
• Ogunbiyi (blue) – misjudged cross and ball went over his head – embarrassing;  from 1/10/09 (adequate): played quietly, starting the attacks with small touches to Poole and Gotsmanov; held off DeMartin in the box; big player; better than I expected;
• Jata (blue) – doesn’t know how to run off the ball – nice pass to Boateng runs right at him; in a real game either would have been carded for 3 ill-timed dangerous tackles (guess someone told him to play some defense (guess no one said good defense); another bad free kick – c’mon guy, I’ve seen you hit a rocket free kick; from 1/10/09 (-): bad free kicks (1 was a roller into the box); not executing with others; comfortable on the ball;
• Revivo  (blue) – hesitant to take an open shot; weak on the ball allowing players to muscle him off the ball expecting the ref to save him (not happening) – time to put on the big boy pants;  from 1/10/09 (-): 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
• Gerstenberger (blue) – tried playing for the last 30 minutes; suffering from painful calf problems; limped around; got forward to combine with Pontius; can’t really evaluate completely;  from 1/10/09 (-): rusty on the ball; his passing was inconsistent – trying to make the beautiful long killer pass
• Russell (blue) -didn’t cover the cross when the ball went over Ogunbiyi’s head; only played the first half; the less that he plays the better that I like him;  from 1/10/09 (horrific):  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!

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

• Schunk (white) -  from 1/10/09 (horrific):  may be too quick to judge, but he just hung around the box which may be good enough to outjump smaller college players, insufficient;

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

• no one
  

Who didn’t play/missing?

• Gotsmanov (blue) -  suffered  a hyper-extended leg early in the first game; very disapointed that he can’t play; getting treatment; wants to play on Tuesday – unsure; from 1/10/09 (adequate): nice first touch, but his passing was off, reflective of not knowing his team mates; played as expected;