Men's Soccer: Day 3 In England
8/19/2004 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Aug. 19, 2004
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND
8:40 a.m.-- Wake up call, which is essentially going and knocking on everyone's dorm room since none of the rooms have phones.
9-9:10 a.m.-- The team has a light jog/stretch in the parking lot.
9:30-10:15 a.m.-- Breakfast at the University of Manchester cafeteria. This morning's meal is over easy eggs, bacon (which was essentially what Americans call ham), toast and a variety of cereals and fruits.
10:30-11:45 a.m.-- The teams travels by bus to Crewe, England, for its first game of the trip.
12:45 p.m.-- Game time.
Maryland 2, Crewe Alexandra 0
CREWE, ENGLAND - Despite just two rain-shortened full squad practice sessions, the Maryland men's soccer team defeated reserves from Crewe Alexandra 2-0 Thursday afternoon at the Crewe Alexandra Training Ground.
"I thought we played very well for having played together just twice," head coach Sasho Cirovski said. "We played against seven guys who are regulars on the Crewe Alexandra team, so it was not just reserves, and our guys responded well to that challenge.
"Coming into the season, the play in the midfield is a question mark, but we played well in that area today."
Cirovski elected to start the game with a primarily veteran lineup, starting forwards Abe Thompson and Jason Garey, midfielders A.J. Godbolt, Domenic Mediate and Ian Rodway. The lone newcomer in the starting lineup was freshman Stephen King. In the back was David Glaudemans, Chris Lancos, Kenney Bertz and Michael Dello-Russo.
The playing field was not of regulation length, so the short field caused a lot of the play to occur in the midfield. The two teams went back and forth quickly with possessions for the first 15 minutes, before finally the Terps broke through with a score after Domenic Mediate finished a rebound off a bicycle kick from Jason Garey that was saved.
Crewe Alexandra used its speed and aggressiveness to challenge Maryland all over the field, but the Terps were able to use excellent skill on the ball to create separation from the defenders.
Maryland started the second half with a few substitutions, with Kevin Reiman and Maurice Edu going into the midfield, and Eric Brunner checking in on the back line. Five minutes into the second half, Ian Rodway won a ball in the midfield and fed it to Reiman who held off a defender down the field and finished for the second goal of the day.
Edu was able to create space for himself several times later in the second half, but none of those opportunities found the back of the net.
Other players seeing action in the second half were Ellis Welker, Keith Vereb and Dan Waldo on defense, Spencer Darman Allen and Dello-Russo in the midfield, and Aki Kadotoni at striker.
Goalkeeper Noah Palmer finished the day with four saves, all of which came in the first half. Palmer made several excellent stops within the first few minutes to keep Crewe Alexandra off the board.
Rodway and Thompson each played the entire game.
Maryland 2, Crewe Alexandra 0 Scoring: MD-Mediate (Garey); MD-Reiman (Rodway) Shots:MD-10+10=20; CA-10+3=13 Shots On Goal:MD-5+4=9; CA-4+0=4 Saves: MD-4+0=4; CA-4+3=7 Fouls: MD-10; CA-9 Corners: MD-2; CA-5***
3 p.m. 4:25 p.m.- The showers up and heads back to the University of Manchester. Kevin Reiman comments that one of the players from Crewe Alexandra is tough not only because he was 6-3 and rock solid, but also because he is a red head. Apparently, Reiman thinks red heads are much more imposing.
4:45-5:20 p.m.-- The Terps get dinner at the campus cafeteria. Tonight's meal includes some steak, pasta, carrots, peas and potatoes.
5:20-7:10 p.m. -- Free time. Most players spend it catching up on e-mail at the campus computer hub, going to the convenience store and getting phone cards, and going to the store to get snacks.
7:15-8:40 p.m.-- Training session for those players who did not log a large amount of minutes in the game today. Thankfully, the rain waits until the session is over as it begins to sprinkle as the team makes its way back to the dorms.
8:50 p.m.-- The players bring their jerseys to the first floor of the dorm to be washed, and in exchange they get pizza before being excused for the night.
Check back in to umterps.com for tomorrow's update.
