Tiro (white) beat PowerSwerve (red) 3-2 with 2 late goals by GA Baggio Husidic.

1st half (Red):
GK: Sean Milligan (Dartmouth)
D:  Oscar Castillo (UConn), Yohance Marshall (USF), Ryan Mirsky (SMU), Lyle Adams (WF)
M: Doug DeMartin (MSU), Sam Cronin (WF), Pat Murray (Furman), Keum Sung Kim (Loyola-Illinois),
F:  Bryan Irwin (Portland), Quincy Amarikwa (UC-Davis)

2nd half (Red):
GK: Sean Milligan (Dartmouth)
D: Oscar Castillo (UConn), Ryan Mirsky (SMU), Yohance Marshall (USF), Lyle Adams (WF)
M: Quincy Amarikwa (UC-Davis), Pat Murray (Furman) , Akeem Priestley (UConn), Nick Zimmerman (JMU)
F: Doug DeMartin (MSU), Steve Zakuani (GA/Akron)

1st half (white):

G: Steward Ceus (Albany)

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

M: Graham Zusi (MD), Michael Lahoud (WF), Ryan Maduro (Providence), Dylan Curtis (UC-Davis)

F: Nick Perera (UCSB), Chris Salvaggione (UNC-Charlotte)

2nd half (white):

G: Milos Kocic (Loyola-MD)

D: Evan Brown (WF), Chris Clements (Tulsa), George John (Washington), Kevin Alston (GA/IU)

M: Ryan Maxwell (Tampa), Baggio Husidic (GA/UIC), Graham Zusi (MD), Alex Grendi (Penn)

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

ASSESSMENT

In italics are the previous game commments and assessment classification.

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

  • Brown (white) – good defense on Amarikwa; tackles well; from 1/11/09 (+): showed that he can get forward effectively; good work rate; did well in the middle; from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
  • Hertel (white) – assisted on the winning goal on a tremendous cross; from 1/11/09 (+): 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);
  • Husidic (white) – scored twice from inside the box within 2 minutes – easy shots – but he made them; from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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;

Who was adequate?

  • Amarikwa (red) – hacks George John (re-injurying his knee) – but John was able to continue, but was greatly affected; later blew by the injuried John and made a good cross; tried a bike (looked silly);  petulant about playing midfield; fouls frequently;  from 1/11/09 (+): scored 2 goals in the second half; neither goal was great; his first goal showed his confidence to dribble in the box with 2 defenders (Barnes/Knight) covering; seemed to be covered pretty well, but the shot squirted in (may have been a deflection).  The second goal was a disaster for Kitson from a Cronin corner kick that Amarikwa may have got a foot on to tip the ball in from 3 yards.  I don’t think he has MLS quality; from 1/10/09 (-): trying to hard; tons of speed; willing to be assertive; may not have enough talent – a player that deserves more attention.
  • DeMartin (red) – earned the only combine PK and scored on the PK; skeptical about his MLS prospect; from 1/11/09 (adequate): smart runs not able to beat a defender 1v1; from 1/10/09 (adequate): tries hard; not able to get around sufficiently; makes good runs;
  • Irwin (red) – from 1/11/09 (-): scored a goal from 10 yards off a driven Adam’s cross; other than that didn’t do much; not MLS quality; received a pass behind the defense but poor touch gave it to keeper; he’s lost;  from 1/10/09 (no opinion):
  • Ceus (white) – mistimed his jump on a high ball; not to be blamed for PK; from 1/11/09 (+): 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) – in his groove; doing what I expected; from 1/11/09 (+): 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;
  • Salvaggione (white) – tried a bike – missed badly; brilliant cross to a wide open Schunk – Schunk misses from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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) – defense let him down on the goal allowing Irwin to easily re-direct it to the far post; from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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) – good defensive stops; from 1/11/09 (adequate): couple of nice passes nothing extra-0rdinary; from 1/10/09 (+): confident; dangerous in the box; covering sideline to sideline well;
  • Angus (white) – nothing extraordinary; from 1/11/09 (adequate): didn’t embarrass himself playing right back; enamored with long diagonal – not simple enough; can I combine Husidic and Angus? from 1/10/09 (adequate): delivers a nice long ball; beaten for the goal;
  • Maduro (white) – uses his elbows too much; not good enough; his sombrero led to the first goal in the closing seconds of the first half; tries to no look all of his passes – too easy to read; from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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) – re-injured his knee from Amarikwa contact; tried to keep playing through it but was essentially done from that point onward; some like him – I’m not one of them; from 1/11/09 (adequate):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;
  • Grendi (white) – was able to play for more than a few minutes; beat Adams multiple times including beating Mirsky to drive into the goal laying the ball off to Zusi; at the combine, needs to be more selfish – take the shot; from 1/11/09 (-): 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);
  • Zusi (white) – beautiful second assist from a long looping cross that found Schunk’s 6 yards from goal – Schunk put the ball back to Husidic rather than missing another goal; Zusi tried chipping the keeper just high because he realized that Milligan couldn’t move; shot from 6 yards blocked – need to finish that; from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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;

Who needs to improve?

  • Zimmerman (red) - poor touch in the box squandered a goal scoring opportunity; from 1/11/09 (+): dangerous in the box; nice touch; big body; made a vicious bone-crunching tackle on Wes Knight; this year’s Geoff Cameron? maybe; from 1/10/09 (+): 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;
  • Castillo (red) – lost Perera in the box luckily it was just Perera; from 1/11/09 (adequate): regressed with poor timing on his tackling; from 1/10/09 (+): overlapping, demonstrating his speed out of the back,  making sticking tackles; 2nd half – played worse;
  • Priestley (red) – not aiding in the attack; as an attacking midfielder – not meeting the basic requirements; from 1/11/09 (-): not creating enough; strong on the ball; but not making the critical pass to spring his forwards; from 1/10/09 (-): 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
  • Mirsky (red) – lost his man in the box; struggled to stay with Dylan Curtis (who isn’t a blazer); just not good enough; good jumping ability;  stuck Maduro as retribution for the Cronin elbow; from 1/11/09 (no observations): only played 2nd half as a right back – no observations; from 1/10/09 (-): not controlling the middle, didn’t stop Pontius;
  • Maxwell (white) – too many bad touches and holding the ball too long; from 1/11/09 (+): 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;
  • Curtis (white) – ran by Mirsky – this may be his MLS career highlight; from 1/11/09 (-): 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) – one of the biggest disappointments to me; he just isn’t playing nearly good enough; from 1/11/09 (-): 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);

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

  • Adams (red) – beaten by many attackers on the left and right; like a revolving door; got an assist with a tremendous cross; college resume may be sufficient and that the combine is an aberration; I’m not so sure; from 1/11/09 (-): beaten often and regularly; tried to get forward without adequate rotation; from 1/10/09 (adequate): getting forward; doing fine;
  • Marshall (red) – making dumb plays; tried to dribble out of the back and loses the ball; losing his man; he made a few defensive stops; he’ll be on a MLS roster; from 1/11/09 (adequate): better, though doesn’t look comfortable; good defensive positioning; from 1/10/09 (-): not controlling the middle, didn’t stop Pontius;
  • Kim (red) - more of the same; from 1/11/09 (horrific): better, but wasn’t possible to be any worse; not MLS player; from 1/10/09 (horrific): 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) – blah; from 1/11/09 (horrific): in 70 minutes, absolutely nothing productive; from 1/10/09 (horrific): nothing redeeming in his half of play;
  • Milligan (red) – doesn’t move well enough; from 1/11/09 (didn’t play): according to my notes, he didn’t play – though he was scheduled to play in the first half; from 1/10/09 (no opinion):
  • Perera (white) – there are studs and duds – Nick is one of the latter; from 1/11/09 (-): 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;
  • Schunk (white) – should be compelled to return the combine T-shirt; from 1/11/09 (horrific):  more of the same – no comments; 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?

  • Cronin (red) – after an errant Maduro elbow connected with Cronin’s lip, he called it a day and left the park; from 1/11/09 (+): the most polished player at the combine; good tackle; timing; from 1/10/09 (+): solid, solid, solid, giving away too much space in the first half along with his “defensive” midfielder Priestly. stock moving up;
  • Zakuani (red) – did nothing significant in the second half; from 1/11/09 (adequate): burned down the side with Elisabetarson in his wake; got a slight window in the box with Knight battling to stay with him, but Zakuani hit a weak shot; hasn’t put his stamp on this combine; from 1/10/09 (adequate): quick; stealing the ball or going past his new butler (Russell); not able to pull the trigger when in the box; needs to relax;

Who didn’t play/missing?

  • Bush (red) – did not play; from 1/11/09 (-): indecisive; from 1/10/09 (adequate): not blamed on either goal, but could have increased his ranking by stepping up and making the big save;
  • Bernstein (red) – from 1/11/09 (didn’t play): pulled hamstring on first day of practice;
  • Gonzalez (red) – did not play; from 1/11/09 (adequate): better getting around; for those surprised that he is ploddingly – no kidding; needs to read the game quicker; what I expected; from 1/10/09 (adequate): 2nd half only, winning head balls – but not adding enough to transition;
  • Harwell (red) – did not play; from 1/11/09 (adequate): started but suffered a knee injury on ball-to-ball contact; in his limited time had a good pass getting aroung the corner and a weak free kick that rolled to the keeper; from 1/10/09 (adequate): good shot off the dribble – active; need to watch more closely;