So it has been a short while since my last post. The preseason has now officially ended with two days off over Easter. Next week we will use completely to prepare ourselves for a tough season opener against Harrisburg City Islanders.

But here is the recap of the games that we played in the last week:

On Saturday, April 4th, we played our biggest test so far against Carolina Railhawks. The final result was 1:0 for us by a last minute from Deli. To be fair though, Carolina had the better chances and the result could have been easily the other way around. Ronnie pulled out some great saves, most notable an open header from 5 yards that he managed to tip over the crossbar.

Three days later we played University of Richmond at their and our stadium. It was the first time we played there and were able to test the field for our season opener next Saturday. It looks better than last year at this time, but still a little bit bumpy. We won the game 2:0 and looked pretty dominating in the first half. Leigh rested some players like Deli, Burke, Luke, Ronnie, Kelvin and myself. We had Maxwell, a trialist, playing the game in the right midfield position. He looked good and had a great assist for Bulows second goal.

Our last test was against UVA on Friday. After conceding a goal 20 seconds in the game, we were unable to score a goal for the first time in preseason and lost 1:0. I am sure that loosing the dress rehearsal will give our team the needed eagerness to look better next weekend. A couple of players still work on some minor preseason injuries, but nothing too much to worry about for next weekend.

March 31st. Last day of the off season. Tomorrow morning our regular practice starts at 9:00 am. Finally outside again. I am pretty sure there will be a lot of tactical explanation in the first session. How we move as a unit and how we put pressure on players. Its kind of the same every year. New players join the team and they all need to understand the system that Leigh prefers and likes to play. Especially young players need to understand their role in our team and what their responsibilities are once they are out there on the field.

During the last three days we had two scrimmages. On Sunday we won 1:0 against ODU. David Bulow scored an early PK after Luke got illegally stopped by the goalkeeper (great pass by Gerson!). A very strong wind effected the game and whoever was playing against the wind had problems getting out of their half. Overall not a very good performance from our side.

Today we beat VCU 3:1. Halftime score was already 3:0 after Ben Hunter scored two (PK and 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper) and Fabian hit a perfect volley out of 20 yards in the far corner. As usual against VCU, the game was heated on both sides. A lot of different players saw playing time today. Rosi started as a right back for Evan, who twisted his ankle in Sunday’s game pretty bad. Kenny Cutler joined us and started next to Luke in midfield. Also his first start for the Kickers this season had Fabian Dawkins. A second half sub that hasn’t played for us before was Trey Brown.

Make sure to come and join our team during Media Day and USA Viewing Party tomorrow at Home Team Grill starting at 7 pm. USA has a lot to prove after the disappointing 2:2 in El Salvador, which hopefully sets the stage for a good game.

Also, on a side note, Evan Harding won the FIFA 09 tournament at New York Deli yesterday. David Bulow lost in the semi finals while Ben Hunter had to say goodbye after the first round. In case you wondered what Pro Soccer players do in their spare time, playing FIFA is definitely one of the activities.

It was cold, but at least it didn’t rain. We won our scrimmage last night against William & Mary 4:2. David Bulow, who arrived the night before after driving two days from Colorado and sleeping on a couch for a couple of hours, scored twice and assisted one. Deli also had two goals and one assist. Offensively we looked much better than in the game against Longwood. With a bit more effectiveness in front of the goal, we could have scored a couple more. Defensively I think we looked not so good. Some miscommunication and a very good forward in #14 Alan Koger made our life harder than it should have been.

The starting lineup was Mark-Evan,Henry,Kelvin,Me-Burke,Gerson,Luke,Ben-Deli,David.
In the second half a cold sicken Burke was replaced by Pat. I did something to my ankle and got replaced by Ross. Fakundo and Kofi in Midfield and Rosi as a forward also saw some playing time.

Regarding player notes, Fabian Dawkins flew into Richmond last night and will join us. It is confirmed that Eliot Paschalis will not come back for another season and might retire from professional soccer.

On a side note, my U9 teams Kickers Central ManU and Kickers Central Liverpool played each other yesterday afternoon. There is a lot of trash talking involved in the days leading to the game. Best trash talker goes this time to a 7-year old Liverpool player who ran around during warm-up yesterday calling all ManU players Man-Poo. Creative!

Yesterday we played Longwood in a preseason scrimmage. We won 2:0 by goals from Deli and Ross. Deli scored with a great turn after some confusion in the Longwood box and Ross hit a great 15 yard dropkick after Deli laid the ball with the head off.

Ronnie played the whole game. In the defense we had two signed players giving their first appearances this year. Henry joined the team, played 90 minutes and looked very strong out there. Maybe not as physical and fast as Trevor “The Truck” McEachron, but definitely with better feet. Kelvin looked solid as always. Overall our defensive line completed by Evan and me looked alright for that early in the season. In the second half Evan got replaced by Aziz (not sure about the spelling). Azis is from Guinea, but played several years in France. Very fast and played some nice long balls.

In the midfield Gerson played 90 minutes in the holding position. Also in midfield Burke, Ben, Fakundo, Rosi, Ross and Luke saw some action. Up top we played with Pat and Deli. Pats speed and Deli’s strength in the air looks like a good complement. Joey Worthen took the game off and ran a couple of laps instead, not risking any injury that early in the season.

We had a very good practice this morning and you can feel that the players, now that the first preseason game is over and more and more players join the team, get excited about the next couple of months.

Here are some very exciting news for our fans out there. Obviously I can’t say too much as long it has not been officially announced by the Kickers, but I can hint a little bit

The talks with a center back (hints: my neighbor during the last season or Counting Crows) are going in a very positive direction. This would be another huge signing for us and eliminates the risk of going into the season with two rookie center backs.

A Kickers staff member will also join our team this season. He played for us (actually set the record for oldest rookie ever played in USL ) before and will certainly improve the quality and depth of our team. A very competitive performer, he will add stability to the defensive midfield position, as the return of Eliot is getting more and more unlikely.

A new player at indoor practice is Trey Brown from the Winchester Impact Indoor Team. He is certainly a strong indoor player. It would be interesting to see how he performs on the big field. Maybe the coaches give him a chance in one of our preseason scrimmages.

The schedule for our preseason scrimmages can be found here.

Today we had our very first preseason scrimmage. Scheduled to play at UR stadium we had to reschedule the game due to the weather. The game was now played on a turf field in Woodbridge, Virginia, at 1:00 pm, a nice little trip for a Friday.

We lost the game 2:0 by two second half goals. Both goals resulting out of defensive miscommunication, which is absolutely understandable at this point of the season. The team still has not trained together outside and our center backs were all relatively new to the position. Gerson saw rather more time in center midfield for VCU during the last season, Joseph is also more a center midfielder type of player and Evan played right back for us the last two seasons.

Overall under these circumstances not a bad performance I would say. Our first half was definitely stronger than the second, probably also a result of tired legs in the second half. Palace had nothing in the first half that would challenge Mark. We had a couple of decent chances, a close header from Pat and an open shot 15 yards out from Burke. In the second half we probably had the best opportunity of the game up to this point, an open header from Deli 6 yards out that was saved by the goalkeeper. The longer the game went on the more dominating Crystal Palace became and this resulted in two goals.

We switched around our complete lineup at halftime and did a couple of more substitution later on.
I played 90 minutes as a left back … a clear indication of where Leigh sees me this season

Here are our lineups for both halfs:

1st. Half
GK: Mark
DEF (from left to right): Sascha, Gerson, Joseph, Evan
MID (from left to right): Burke, Luke, Fakundo Herrera, Ben
FW: Deli, Pat

2nd. Half
GK: Mark
DEF (from left to right): Sascha, Joseph, Evan, Luke
MID (from left to right): David Rosenbaum, Gerson, Ross, Ben
FW: Deli, Burke

Subs
Matt Cooper for Ben (60th)
Noel Sanjuan for Burke (60th)
Pat for Deli (70th)