Monday Morning Gaffer: College Cup Final
December 15th, 2008 . 3:26 pm . By: Buzz Carrick
Great final, two very good teams and a good college game on offer. Sure I wanted to see Wake/Maryland, but this matchup is a good one. While not the lock pro talent of Wake, both these teams have a ton of young talent that will end in MLS sooner rather than later. Some of it as soon as this year. What a great goal to win it as well, nice build up and a terrific finish. North Carolina 0, Maryland 1El Bueno (The Good)What a terrific game, high pressure, big stage, and based on the play a fair result. UNC expended everything on Friday and just couldn’t keep up with Maryland. The Heels had real trouble holding possession when they could get into the Maryland and ended up playing a very direct game I bet their not used to. A great tournament overall, a big upset, some great late goal heroics. Good times. What a big game player Graham Zusi is. He did it again, popping up late in the game to get the winner. His coach even talked to him about just that very opportunity, so not only is he coachable, he’s smart enough to recognize it coming and pounce on it. A well deserved College Cup Offensive MVP award for him. He’s got grit and tenacity and outworked most people on the field. I think he’s got a shot at MLS cause you can’t teach determination and will.
I really enjoyed watching Michael Callahan play. He’s so calm and confident in possession, his demeanor rubbed off on his teammates who just kept coming. His run through the gap late almost produced the tying goal. He’s just a real nice, well rounded central midfielder that would do well in a two man flat four. Does he have enough for MLS? I’m not sold. But I still like him. He’s a leader to, check out his post game quote… he speaks like he had a bad game. On the contrary young man, you were excellent.
Matt Kassel is a supurb player, what skills this kid has. How in the world did Red Bull let him get away? If I have my story right they offered him a developmental deal. Did they just not value him for a full Generation adidas deal or were they not allowed? Tremendous touch, he can hit a sweet pro-class bending and dipping corner or free kick. Plays head up and has terrific vision. Full credit to Cirovski starting the senior Marchiano over him out of respect and then getting Kassel in for the bulk of play. Townsend’s work rate is immense, what a terrier. The guy is relentless. Late int he game when UNC went 3-4-3 (more on that later) Maryland’s reaction was to go 4-5-1 with Townsend as the lone striker. He spent the last twenty minutes running sideline to sideline in never ending pursuit of the ball making it almost impossible for UNC to play out of the back on the ground. Mind-blowing effort.
Cameron Brown, the UNC sophomore midfielder, is a terrific talent. He’s got really nice ball skills. He’s smooth, has great field awareness and moves away from pressure without looking. He’s a lanky, pale white guy with low socks… if he were to wear #14 he could do a fair Johan Cruyff impression (relax, just a look-a-like). With Urso or David Rodriguez behind him next year Carolina should have a very nice central midfield to build around. Schuler and Dowrsky up top, Loyd and McCarty wide… could be a nice year for them. Delagarza has good instincts, some ups, and a little quickness, but at a listed 5′9″ he is far to small to play center back in MLS. Does he have enough range to play wide at next level? Hum… good question. He’s certainly a good enough reader of the game. It will be interesting to see where he plays at the MLS Combine. El Camino Central (Middle of the Road)Omar Gonzalez was your Defensive MVP of the College Cup. Certainly in and of itself that’s not terrible as he’s a heck of a player and he had a good Cup. But sometimes I really think we in the media have very little imagination or ability to think outside the box. Why is the Defensive MVP, or Offensive MVP for that matter, always someone from the winning team? In the past, usually the voted DMVP is the winning keeper, this time it was the biggest center back on the winning team. I would say that this year, perhaps more than any other year, the Defensive MVP should have been on the losing team as Brooks Haggerty spent two days standing on his head and played well above his talent level. Wake had 20 shots on Friday and Haggerty 7 saves. On Sunday Maryland had 10 shots and Haggerty 4 saves. Haggerty got UNC to the final and gave them a chance to win the game. He deserved the Defensive MVP award. Hell, Davis didn’t even think Omar was Maryland’s best defender.
Hall, a big time prospect, had in my opinion an average College Cup. I wanted to really like him, but he just wasn’t effective, which is not to say he was bad mind you, he just didn’t alter the game much. I expected his pace to force the opposition to sit way back and that didn’t happen. Shriver ran out of gas, but give him credit for the Herculean effort for Friday. His future is as a wide midfielder, I think, as he’s best running at people. He tired to get it going early but by the final twenty he just wasn’t able to add much. UNC in general just couldn’t get enough pressure going forward in numbers. If they had a little more recovery time they might have been able to replicate what they did against Wake.
No Tan Bueno (Not So Good)I didn’t like the late UNC tactical change, as they took out the dangerous Brown to put two defenders, Williams and Graye, up top in a 3-4-3? I get the spread the field thing the coach talks about below, but Brown was your best dribble penetrater… The run Callahan made late that almost broke for a goal was one Brown could have replicated frequently. UNC ended up with David Rodriguez of all people playing as the attacking midfielder, which I don’t get at all since he’s a center back or holding mid.
There were multiple really bad tackles from the Maryland Forwards early. I’m sure they didn’t want to let the Heels build out, but there were a couple times I thought someone would get hurt for sure. Those kind of two footed flying tackles, even if they do miss the target, have no place in soccer. It’s a shame to see that out of players as talented as Townsend and Herrick. Sure, I get setting the tone, but these were beyond simply being physical. All-Team TeamHere’s the All-tourney team. Guys I voted for are in bold. Kitson (St John’s) A couple of those guys at the bottom I’m not real sure about. Schuler didn’t score and he’s All-Tourney? Delagarza I can’t argue with, maybe in looking for upside I just can’t get past how small he is. Other than the assist on the UNC goal four minutes into the Wake game, Loyd was invisible most of the time at right midfield and he never really got behind the defense to much effect. I voted for Ike Opara (Wake Forest), Matt Kassel (Maryland), and Michael Callahan (UNC) over those three. Opara is so good he changes everything the opposition does to try and compensate and he was a force in the first game in Friday. Callahan was UNC’s best midfielder for me, he’s very calm and composed. He almost had the game tying goal late for UNC in the final. Kassel despite being a freshman played the bulk of both games as the holding mid even though a senior started over him. On Sunday he was arguably Maryland’s best player, just sublime. Although since he doesn’t start I’m not shocked he didn’t get the votes. 2 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
ZUUUUUUSSSSSIIIIIII!
Graham Zusi was a great player all weekend, and has a great soccer name, too. I really wanna see if this guy can translate it to MLS. He’s the one I’ll remember from the tourney.
Delagarza is small, but he looked sharp in both games. And his demeanor from warm-ups thru the game gave off the aura of someone who could easily belong at the next level.
And from where I was sitting, way to make the long trip to Frisco from Maryland, Terps fans. Well done.
Out of the three games, I thought Maryland deserved to win, but the most entertaining soccer was the second half of UNC-Wake Forest match after UNC punched the big guys in the nose, got a goal, and then tried to survive the onslaught. Very nice.
Hall has some talent but he’s being played out of position. He is a right footed player playing on the left wing so his dribbling runs take him into the center of the field where it is more congested. If he was playing on the right wing he could utilize his pace better by beating the outside back and hitting in a cross. I see the reasoning for him on the left since when he cuts in it allows the pacey left back to make the run outside of him. I was really impressed by Gonzalez because he won everything that came near him whether it was in the air or the ground. He reminds of a Rio Ferdinand type of center back where he would be more effective next to a destroyer that would allow him to mop up any loose ends.