MLS Combine Report Day Three
January 13th, 2009 . 10:13 pm . By: Buzz CarrickDay Three at the MLS Combine always starts early, 9:15 AM this year. The idea is that coaches can get out of town after the games. Although that never seems to happen. Most of them seem to sit around Florida and do their final evaluation meetings for the SuperDraft then fly straight to the draft site the next day. Not that you care but I’m flying out of Miami tonight, or earlier if I can get on stand buy (hurray status!), and will be heading to the SuperDraft from Dallas Wednesday night to host our 8th Annual Draft Day Chat Room. You can find the chat room info on the left hand side of the site where the menu lists contact information. If you’re stuck at work and can’t watch TV then won’t you join us on line? By day three players are starting to get really tired so the games are shortened by a couple minute. This year it’s 40 minute halves, but I’ve seen 35 in the past. Today some of the skill drops off and those who might not be are purely athletic but have a real soccer brain show well. Day Three is also the day we see player taking the field in odd spots, usually by request of a MLS coach who has asked to see him there. Sometimes by necessity of injury and sometimes to make space for the aforementioned MLS coach request. Obviously by this point not a lot is going to happen to change my thoughts. So there will be less comments than on previous days. News and Notes- Omar Gonzlez and Rodney Wallace left on Sunday night to return to school. Settle down, it’s just for some classes, they aren’t pulling out of the draft. But obviously they won’t be playing today. - Dylan Curtis took a knock early in the first game this morning, although he did come back. - George John tweaked/aggravated/re-injured his knee in pre game warm up. He was really laboring and made it till halftime before he did it again and came out. - I need give some props to Paul Gerstenberger who is clearly playing hurt and can’t show anything. Tough situation but he hacked it out. - Andrei Gotsmanov tried to give it a go but didn’t make it to 20 minutes. Game One: Predator PowerSwerve (Red) – 2 vs. adidas Tiro (White) – 3Both teams in in flat 4-4-2. I’m disappointed we saw no 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 this entire tournament. Lots of goals today though. Again I may have missed a sub or two, although there are less of them as players are injured or leave. Predator PowerSwerve (Red) 1st Half
2nd Half
adidas Tiro (White) 1st Half
2nd Half
Comments and Thoughts on Moving DayRising… 88 Doug DeMartin – He was one of those interesting player shifts, starting and playing about 2/3s of the game at right midfield. I liked it. He’s smart and has good field awareness so he looks fairly good there. Still he lacks anything special in the speed or ball skill department. Just a very good soccer player. On one penetrating dribble he’s brought down in the box by Angus for a PK. DeMartin takes the PK and converts for the 1-0 lead to Red. 62 Chris Salvagginoe – When others are looking tired he isn’t. Work rate and fitness are high. Does some good things. He even got the tying goal at 1-1 when his shot was deflected on a partial block by Mirsky thus catching the keeper going the other way. 64 Graham Zusi – Played right mid, where I liked him, and centrally, where I usually don’t. I thought today he showed his soccer smarts. Hit a great cross for the goal to give White a 2-1 lead. 80 Quincy Amarikwa – Clearly didn’t want to play right mid, but he did it and showed he could pass a little. Was good again up top. I had an epiphany about him that I wanted to share as I finally figured out who he reminded me of. Stay with me here… Not noticeably fast, nor tricky on the ball. A bit on the small side, but stocky and strong. When not near the ball is a bit static but will battle like hell when he’s working for the ball. Tenacious and a nuisance to defenders trying to play out. Not afraid of contact, will hit, fight, scratch, and claw to score and does it in buntches… He’s a young Carlos Ruiz. The trick is figuring out if he’s MLS Carlos Ruiz or just a college Carlos Ruiz. Anyone who says they know which is guessing. 74 Baggio Husidic – This guy woke up today, or as one coach put it to me… “He has one speed, with everyone else tired today the game was played at the pace he likes and he took control.” His finish on the 2-1 goal was quality after Schunk laid the Zusi cross back to him. He also grabbed the game winner 3-2 White when Grendi played a Hertel cross back to the top of the box. 85 Lyle Adams – some nice runs on the right defensive flank, particularly the overlap and low cross for the 2-2 Red Tying goal. Holding Steady… 71 Ryan Maduro – Got his elbow up on Cronin and bloodied his mouth. That was a big blow. Cronin has to leave the game. Not the first time Maduro has gotten a very hard elbow into someone. 13 Steward Ceus – A guy I already thought was a project, although a VERY interesting one, had some rough distribution today. Underlying his raw nature. 69 Alex Grendi – I give him full credit for effort. After having to leave the previous two game with his troublesome ankle, today he got out there and gave it the old college try. Attempted to take some guys on, got into the box, made some moves… and then fired it over the top about 3 times. 89 Bryan Irwin – I won’t go so far as to say he had a good day, but he had a class one touch finish on the 2-2 tying goal for Red. Adamns overlapped and hit a nice low cross at the top of the box, Irwin one touch redirected it back post. Falling… 90 Yohance Marshall – More shocking decision making from Marshall. No highly regarded player has hurt themselves more in this combine in my opinion. Game Two: adiTunit (Blue) – 2 vs adiPure (Green) – 1Green in a flat 4-4-2, Blue in a diamond 4-4-2. adiPure (Green) 1st Half
2nd Half
adiTunit (Blue) 1st Half
2nd Half
Comments and Thoughts on Moving DayRising… 43 AJ Delagarza – Under the heading of a MLS coach asking to see a certain player in a different spot is clearly the Delagarza at right back change today. He’s a heck of a defender and gets the game. He’s not going to be a flyer like an Adams or Alston, but he does look very good in defense first kinda way. He even got forward into the opposition box a couple times. 54 Peri Marosevic – Separated himself from the masses today. As the play of the tired field fell off, his did not. Scored the first Blue goal to take a 1-0 lead. First one he intercepted a horrific clear by Kitson when he harassed the defense down in the corner and scored with ease on a bending shot into the 20 yard open net. Had the assist on the second goal. Score sheet aside he shoed more game than he had on the previous two days as the time opened up. He didn’t actually play midfield like it shows above, when he came in Jata shifted back to midfield. 51 Chris Pontius – Played a couple spots and was strong and skilled in all of them. Working hard even on day 3. Scores the second Blue Goal to go up 2-0. Pontius is given acres of space up the middle of the field and then plays a nice give and go with Marosevic at the top of the box and then put a class finish on it. 45 Brandon Barklage – Best day for him although frankly that’s not saying a whole lot. Like other who did well today his high fitness and work rate paid off as he was able to beat some people. Holding Steady… 27 Graciano Brito – He got more involved today but did nothing to dispel my thinking he’s Julian Nash 2.0. 50 Kyle Patterson – Didn’t hurt himself, but wasn’t quite as dangerous as the last two days. Fatigue a factor I’m sure, still working hard and running about though. 20 Kwame Adjeman-Pamboe – Scored the late Green goal on a booming clearance by someone on this team. He manages to somehow beat his defender to the ball and get a toe to it to flick it high in an arch. Frei, who appears to have been coming out thinking the ball is going to bounce to him, is caught off guard and the ball loops over him for the goal. A weird bounce and perhaps the one bad decision Frei made this weekend. Falling… 10 Neal Kitson – For the second time this combine he shows bad feet… or maybe it’s bad thinking. Tries to clear a ball up field instead of out and it goes straight to the harassing Marosevic who nonchalantly scores. Next?That it’s from the individual day by day MLS Combine reports. Tomorrow I’ll have my Combine wrap up. Then we’ll do our final SuperDraft Rankings by position. And look for my Top 20 prospects on ESPNsoccernet tonight or tomorrow. 16 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Buzz,
Does Pontius play wide or narrow when at left wing? Does he hug the sideline like a true left wing or does he instinctively keep coming inside?
Also, what’s the word on Hertel at LB, still good? What about Hertel and Alston when they switched sides? Is Lyle Adams a legit right back or still struggling a bit there?
Lastly, can Angus play RB as suggested before the combine or does it just not work for him? Does he lumber or not have the pace for the spot?
Thanks yet again for the great draft coverage!
OE, Pontius… both.
Hertel, yes still good.
Adams very legit, but he will need some PT to work the kinks out of switching sides.
Angus, no. Wide right wasn’t good.
Barnes played right back today I noticed. Do you think he projects better out wide or in the center?
I like Barnes better in the middle as he has covering speed plus some size. But it looked like the outside spot might be worth looking at. That helped him.
Buzz,
Excellent work keeping me updated. I owe you a buck. Actually if everyone could email me a buck, maybe I could go out there with you next year and be your little helper. I guess we’re all in the wrong field. If it were any other sport, we’d all be getting paid jack.
thanks again,
Jamie Lucchesi
THANKS AGAIN FOR THE GREAT WORK BUZZ!!
Is MIKE MAGEE ending up in LA??
how did clapham and zak, respectively, fair in the 3rd game. I see each only played a 1/2 in their respective games yet any impact?
Thanks, Buzz! I’m guessing Zakuani had another underwhelming day… any prediction who the top pick will be?
No love for de la garza in the ESPN piece … even though he showed a lot of polish. Just how short is he?
Also … could Yohance Marshall be dogging it intentionally so he falls to a favored coach? Or is he really that bad?
What about Trevor Banks from ODU? He was on the rising player list on day 2. He started for tunit at centerback and then played the last 20 of second half at right back in the third game. Banks played with Ring, Holladay,and Besler any input on these players as well?
The four played on the 87 Region 2 squad together.
Generally speaking if I didn’t mention a guy then he did the same as the games before.
Bert, Clapman I like, I see a mid round pick there in talent. Zakuani didn’t do anything special.
Eugene, Seattle is looking to trade down. To hard to say who will go till we know what teams is going to be there. If it’s seattle I think they are more inclined to take a defender.
liverpool, in the top 20, off the top of my head, there were only 4 center back. Delagarza is quite good, but the height makes him a risky pick and thus not top 20. As for Yohance… sure it’s possible. Hard to fake bad decision making. Lazy I would believe was sandbagging.
Banks was only rising relative to day 1 when he was terrible. Just not a good enough defender yet. he would be a project.
Based o the keeper comments, it looks as if the taller keepers didn’t perform all that well. It’s a shame the combine didn’t invite Aaron Johnson from Campbell University. Outstanding feet and savings ability along with good decision making and distribution.
[...] The best forward pairing goes to Pontius and Marosevic who combined well together and caused problems for their defensive opponents. Their stock will be rising like gas prices did in 2008. AJ Delagarza (Maryland) moved to right back and did not lose a step looking very comfortable all game. His transition to right back will take some adjustment, but he has the skill set and professional attitude to become a good player in the MLS. Draft Guru, Buzz Carrick, offers additional information on day three of the MLS combine. [...]