adiTunit (blue) beat adiPure (green) 2-1 in a game that adiTunit controlled over a hapless team of under-achievers to close out the combine.

1st half (green):

G: Alec Dufty (Evansville)

D: Darrius Barnes (Duke), Michael Holody (Michigan),  Matt Besler (Notre Dame), Jack Traynor (Notre Dame)

M: Daniel Cruz (GA/UNLV), Jokul Elisabetarson (UNCG), Aaron Clapham (Louisville), Raphael Cox (Washington)

F: Jordan Seabrook (USF), Graciano Brito (Quinnipiac)

2nd half (green):

G: Neal Kitson (SJU)

D: Wes Knight (College of Charleston), Darrius Barnes (Duke), Matt Besler (Notre Dame), Jack Traynor (Notre Dame)

M: Juan Guerra (FIU), Paul Nicholson (Rio Grande), Jean Alexandre (Lynn), Jeremy Hall (GA/MD)

F:  Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe (George Mason), Graciano Brito (Quinnipiac)

1st half (Blue):
GK: Stefan Frei (GA/Cal)
D: AJ Delagarza (MD), Jide Ogunbiyi (Santa Clara), Trevor Banks (ODU), Paul Gerstenberger (BC)
M: Kyle Patterson (SLU), Pavelid Castaneda (Duke), Andrei Gotsmanov (Creighton), Brandon Barklage (SLU)
F: Daniel Revivo (Winthrop), Chris Pontius

2nd half (Blue):

GK: Stefan Frei (GA/Cal)
D: AJ Delagarza (MD), Kyle Russell (Coastal Carolina), Jide Ogunbiyi (Santa Clara), Paul Gerstenberger (BC)
M: Kyle Patterson (SLU), Matt Poole (UVA), Josua Boateng (Liberty), Chris Pontius (UCSB)
F: Richard Jata (Campbell), Peri Marosevic (GA/Michigan)

ASSESSMENT

In italics are the previous game comments and assessment classification.

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

  • Clapham (green) – composed; good passer; only question for me is where will he play? not good enough as MLS AM; from 1/11/09 (+): tremendous; dominated the middle in the second half that enabled green to control much of the second half (now if one of the forwards could finish); from 1/10/09 (adequate): nervous early; good dribbling move to beat Lahoud and open up the middle – weak shot, wide left;
  • Barnes (green) – playing well inside and outside, positional flexibility; good in the air; good on the ball; speed; nice; from 1/11/09 (adequate): good in air; part of the tandem that lost Amarikwa on the dribble; potential; from 1/10/09 (adequate): good defensive anticipation; showed well wide and centrally; long throw started an attack;
  • Pontius (blue) – class of the day; scored a goal on a combination with Marosevic; placement of the shot was classy;  from 1/11/09 (+): 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
  • Marosevic (blue) – added an assist on a nifty chip into the box that Pontius converted; scored a goal on a Kitson brain fart; from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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.

Who was adequate?

  • Adjeman-Pamboe (green) – took credit for the blue defensive collapse on a long free kick got a piece when Frei and the defense stood around looking at each other; has had a good combine – ; from 1/11/09 (adequate): brilliant move on Adams; runs very well; tactically immature; touch raw; from 1/10/09 (adequate): dangerous opportunity driving the ball to the end line before crossing it back to the Seabrook in the box;
  • Guerra (green) – looks more confident on the ball; probably not worth an international slot;  from 1/11/09 (adequate): advanced the ball effectively to setup attacks (that died on the attackers feet; from 1/10/09 (-): good dribbler; doesn’t defend well enough to play wide midfield;
  • Seabrook (green) - quickness on the dribble; inconsistent; from 1/11/09 (-): has to finish when given open shots; from 1/10/09 (+): finished his chance; sometimes that is all a forward needs to do; will need to step it up if he wants to get into the first round;
  • Dufty (green) – wasn’t challenged – did ok; from 1/11/09 (-): didn’t do anything noteworthy; no opinion; from 1/10/09 (no opinion):
  • Delagarza (blue) – did well playing right back; able to get forward and made a nice cross; any MLS team that drafts him and hopes to make him a right back, will be sorely disappointed; MD tried him in his freshman and senior year wide; it didn’t work; his best asset is reading the game – he’s more effective central; oh well; from 1/11/09 (+): 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;
  • Patterson (blue) – only negative is his goal side defense is lazy at times; dangerous runs and on the ball;  from 1/11/09 (+): dangerous willing to attack; only placed 2nd half; from 1/10/09 (+): very active in the attack; trying too hard to impress (anxious); speed
  • Banks (blue) – gets back well; gravitating to where I expected him; did ok playing in the middle against a toothless attacking team; from 1/11/09 (+): 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
  • Castaneda (blue) – ehh; nothing special; took a shot right at the GK, ehh; from 1/11/09 (adequate): playing simple; not a flashy player but too slow to slow Maxwell; from 1/10/09 (no opinion);
  • Barklage (blue) – couple of passes; nothing horrible – nothing extra-ordinary; never going to be a star – but maybe that workman-like rate is his forte – maybe; from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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);
  • Gerstenberger (blue) – nothing awful – fought through the pain to play, made a few good crosses – stock dropping; from 1/11/09 (-): 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

Who needs to improve?

  • Knight (green) – held Pontius on-side for the game winning goal; I really like Knight – huge ranking jump for me;from 1/11/09 (+): terrific getting forward; touch was above average; beaten by Amarikwa for first goal; from 1/10/09 (+): showed well; confident out of the back; good passing/tackling;
  • Traynor (green) – too slow for MLS; not enough technical skill; from 1/11/09 (+): better; attacking the line, making nice crosses – Alexandre misses the shot; from 1/10/09 (adequate): good tackling and dribbling; treading water (e.g., not really improving his standing);
  • Besler (green) - doesn’t close attackers; too slow in the central defense; takes too long to deliver passes; reckless with the ball in his zone (dispossessed); from 1/11/09 (+): aided in the attack, brilliant pass around Kim to ND team mate Traynor out on the wing to set up a good chance; got forward with a good run has adequate foot skills; from 1/10/09 (no opinion):
  • Elisabetarson (green) – exposed for his inability to pressure quick midfielders and forwards; never showed his hooking corner kick; not good enough; from 1/11/09 (adequate): couple of nice tackles – not too impressive; looked slow running next to Zakuani; from 1/10/09 (+): creative; nice passing; hard tackling
  • Cruz (green) – fast – if it wasn’t this little soccer thing, he could be very good; from 1/11/09 (adequate): adequate – not setting himself apart from the crowd; powerful shot; from 1/10/09 (-): horrible game; passing, dribbling and even his dive in the box was amateurish;
  • Holody (green) – too slow; allowed Revivo to stand there, receive the ball and turn – how about messing up his hair at least?  from 1/11/09 (adequate): team played better defense with Holody in the game; from 1/10/09 (-): slower than I thought; allowed the ball to enter his box that Perara could not convert;
  • Alexandre (green) – While others may like him, I don’t see the skill; after making a particularly hard foul and being chastised by the ref, seemed to just wander around without being involved in the game; I don’t like his touch; from 1/11/09 (-): brutal 1st touch; missed his shots; did have one shot that was struck well and on target; from 1/10/09 (adequate): aggressive hard tackler, reckless at times; technically weak; reminds me of Brandon McDonald; probably will have many suspensions;
  • Hall (green) – not doing anything; from 1/11/09 (-): coasting; not finishing (had a swing and miss at a rolling ball.  Received a cross from Adjeman-Pamboe 15 yards from goal on the far post and tried to either pass or float a shot or heaven knows what – turned out to be a drunken quail that resulted in a goal kick; from 1/10/09 (adequate): didn’t differentiate himself against the competition; needs to assert himself more; his central midfield is a black hole at times;
  • Boateng (blue) – not sharp; will he be able to last a MLS season?;  from 1/11/09 (+): 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.
  • Poole (blue) - just hasn’t done enough; he’s good at what he does – but isn’t enough for MLS; thank you good bye; from 1/11/09 (adequate): 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.
  • Frei (blue) – not sure what the problem was with the goal – whether it was communication or minor brain freeze – unacceptable;  from 1/11/09 (+): 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;
  • Ogunbiyi (blue) – balance is shakey; not impressed – but he has a big body; from 1/11/09 (-): 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) – didn’t do anything besides getting in the way; from 1/11/09 (-): 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;
  • Russell (blue) – didn’t embarrass himself; from 1/11/09 (-): 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?

  • Brito (green) – grrrrr; I’m very disappointed.  He just hasn’t done anything; he has speed and doesn’t know the best way to use it; his soccer acumen is abysmal; from 1/11/09 (adequate): didn’t finish in the first half; ran well off the ball; from 1/10/09 (-): clumsy – showed his front-end speed; not good enough on the ball; played much better against Loyola this season; nerves – perhaps.
  • Nicholson (green) -absolute and utter crap; even the backs refuse to pass it to him, because he was so bad; from 1/11/09 (-): much better – still not nearly enough, but was able to rise to mediocre; too many touches – needs to play quicker; from 1/10/09 (horrific): clueless, not nearly good enough;
  • Kitson (green) – horrible; gave up the first goal on a bad touch that Marosevic converted; from 1/11/09 (-): let in both goals, but swatted away a Cronin corner kick that he should have caught or “punched” away; brutal goal kick; rotten performance – disaster; from 1/10/09 (no opinion):
  • Revivo  (blue) – not checking back – waiting for the ball to come to him; just not pressing himself; not MLS quality; from 1/11/09 (-): 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

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

  • Cox (green) – didn’t do anything that generated a comment; from 1/11/09 (-): blew a good opportunity by passing to the wing rather than the breaking Brito; beat Adams on the dribbling; very left foot centric; from 1/10/09 (-): small; bad game passing; needs to use his speed more to create space;

Who didn’t play/missing?

  • Wallace (blue) – did not play; from 1/11/09 (-): 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;
  • Gotsmanov (blue) -  tried to play, couldn’t stepped off after 20 minutes; did nothing to change my pre-combine opinion about him; from 1/11/09 (missing): 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;