Greensboro, NC – The Carolina Dynamo outclassed Fredericksburg Hotspur 2-0 on a warm evening at picturesque Macpherson Stadium.

The facility has comfortable seating with a natural grass field. In another PDL oddity because of technical problems, the national anthem wasn’t played. Instead the PA announcer led the fans in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Carolina was a vastly superior team even using players that weren’t their top flight players.

Starting Line-ups:

Fredericksburg Hotspur: 3-5-1-1.
F: Nathan Foglesong
W/D F: Ryan Sappington
M: Asher Quave-Robinson, Vincent Llana, Nick Surkamp, Nicholas Foglesong
DM: Adam Smith
D: Nik Conklin, Daryl Ferguson, Santos Ramirez
GK: Emmett Rutkowski

Carolina Dynamo: 4-1-4-1.
F: Andrew Wenger
M: Luciano Delbono, Martin Murphy, Matt Sarett, Karo Okiomah
DM: Nick Brindley
D: Kris Byrd, Jonathan Campbell, Sebastian Ibeagha, Will Mack
GK: Chris Robinson

Fredericksburg Hotspur Observations:

Fredericksburg bunkered with up to 10 players behind the ball. It’s not particularly attractive to watch, but probably the best tactic for Fredericksburg playing against a better team.  All of the midfielders tracked back deep into the defensive area. The Hotspur wide midfielders marked the wide attackers while the central midfielders sometimes looked like center backs.

Given the conservative defensive approach, it was foolish for the Fredericksburg defense to play an offside trap late in the first half. This first goal opened up the bunker allowing more space in the defensive third. Essentially, this destroyed the defensive game plan.

Down a goal in the second half, Fredericksburg attacked with more players – even having some attacks with numbers up.

The other thing that I noticed is that Fredericksburg were missing some of their players that showed well at the beginning of the season.

Nathan Foglesong (Old Dominion(m)) didn’t provide anything up top, but in his defense he wasn’t getting much service or support in his 38 minutes of play. In the 7th minute, he dribbled the ball out of bounds, because he had too many thoughts (or ideas) and didn’t settle on any single attempt.

Nik Conklin (Long Island University(m)) is a good athlete, but lacks sufficient technical skills. He kept turning over the ball throughout the first half including in his box. More problematic, his defense was sub-par. He was abysmal against Carolina, after raising interest with his play against West Virginia in the first game.

In a smart move, Santos Ramirez has moved back to right back. I surmise to save his legs and mandating a substitution after 15 minutes. He didn’t provide anything positive to the attack. In the 11th minute, Ramirez allowed a pass to go over his head. He didn’t track it well.

The best player for Fredericksburg was Ryan Sappington (Bucknell). He is composed on the ball. In the 34th minute, he faked a pass centrally, opening an overlapping run on the wing to Nicholas Surkamp but the return pass Sappington dummied without the support behind him. In the 43rd minute, Sappington got the ball wide to Zachary Bowman (Stevens D3) who took a few touches forward before crossing the ball back to Sappington at the top of the box. Sappington’s first touch wasn’t precise and his shot led to a corner kick.

Michael Tegler (Longwood(m)) made a slick tackle in the 67th minute.

Daryl Ferguson is a fast, strong defender, but was a contributor for both goals scored by Carolina. Ferguson was marking Andrew Wenger (Duke) on the first goal. On the second, he held 2 attackers on-side without support. He either needs to get more help or step up to more closely attach to his other defenders.

Vincent Llana’s (Longwood(m)) set pieces were ineffective. His best was a 35 yard free kick in the 18th minute that Llana was trying to put in the upper corner of the goal, but it was just wide. It seemed that the goalkeeper had the corner covered, regardless. His other set pieces were too close to the goalkeeper.

Carolina Dynamo Observations:

With a US Open Cup match 3 days prior and a challenging PDL match against West Virginia Chaos the next day; Coach Mark Nicholls started a line-up that was not his strongest. Post-match, Nicholls stated, “[he] wanted to give players a chance that have worked very hard all summer and to be able to insert a fresh line-up against WV”.

He added, “The older players set the example to the college players on how to prepare in training from their professional experience”.

With Carolina’s numerous goal scoring opportunities, they needed to finish quicker putting the game out of hand. Letting less talented teams hang around is a recipe for disaster.

The first goal was scored by Andrew Wenger (Duke(m)) in the 41st minute. Luciano Delbono sent a 25 yard over the top with Wenger working back to stay on-side. At the touch, Wenger turned and accelerated forward getting behind the defense. Goalkeeper Emmett Rutkowski half-heartedly came out and Wenger slotted the ball past him from 22 yards.

The second goal was another break-away in the 87th minute by 40 year old Ian Spooner (who is closer to AARP eligibility than his college playing days) from a long pass from the back by high school rising senior Jonathan Campbell. Daryl Ferguson held Spooner and Robbie Lovejoy (North Carolina(m)) both on-side, but he wasn’t marking either – positioning himself centrally, but not close enough to shut either down. Spooner turned and scampered 30 yards without pressure. Again, Rutkowski didn’t cut the angle and Spooner had enough time to put on his reading glasses, assess the situation and he buried the ball into the corner of the goal with a cultured strike much to the enjoyment of the middle-aged men in the stands.

Sebastian Ibeagha (Duke(m)) wasn’t fully concentrating, making countless unforced errors on receiving the ball. Additionally, he ignored players running laterally behind him. Lastly, he wasn’t providing the proper passing angle – he was too flat – providing a perilous position on a square pass. Ibeagha seemed impatient given that he didn’t have much to do. He’s a good player – but this game was not indicative of his skill and talent.

Wenger started at forward, but cycled back to central midfield in the second half. I suspect that Duke may play him at forward where he was very successful as a freshman. Last year, he played center back because of Christian Ibeagha’s injuries. With Ryan Finley transferring to Notre Dame and with Christian Ibeagha returning for his senior year, it seems obvious. But, I’ll see when Duke hosts North Carolina State, Southern Methodist and UCSB at the Duke Labor Day week-end tournament.

Wenger’s such a smart player and plays each position well. He reminds me of Chris Pontius, but may be a touch bigger though a touch slower. In the 25th minute, he beat Nik Conklin in the box on the dribble and dropped the ball to an open Martin Murphy (North Carolina(m)) at the top of the box. Murphy’s first touch failed him denying a clear shot.

In the latter seconds of the first half, Ibeagha made a sensational long pass that just cleared a defender and dropped onto Wenger’s chest. Wenger turned and with 2 defenders harassing him, drove into the box. Wenger unleashed a shot trying to nutmeg the goalkeeper, but the goalkeeper made the stop.

Murphy is very accurate on set pieces. In the 59th minute, he found Wenger but his header was too high.

In the 61st minute, Hotspur Surkamp stole the ball from Will Mack (UNC-Greensboro(m)) deep in the Carolina defense. But, Campbell (North Carolina(m) 2012) cycled over to block the shot for a corner kick. Another grey beard, goalkeeper Chris Robinson, owes Campbell a Kool-aid for saving him and potentially a game-tying goal, at that time.

Kris Byrd (UNC-Greensboro(m)) was too quick for both Nicholas Foglesong and Santos Ramirez. However, Byrd’s crossing was inaccurate.

Matt Sarett (Carnegie Mellon D2) was a much more accurate crosser. In the 26th minute, he made an early cross finding Wenger’s head, but the header hit the cross-bar.

Luciano Delbono (Wake Forest(m)) was stunned with an elbow to his high – no call. Hmmm.

In the 77th minute, Karo Okiomah (High Point(m)) decleated Adam Smith with a subtle move in the box. But Okiomah couldn’t decide whether to take the open 12 yard shot or square the ball across the box to Robbie Lovejoy (North Carolina), because of this indecision; Lovejoy couldn’t release his shot when the cross finally arrived.

In the 79th minute, Fejiro Okiomah (High Point(m)) dropped the ball to his brother Karo who squared it immediately to Freddy Gomez (Guilford D3) at the center of the top of the box. Gomez faked a shot with his first touch freeing more space for his second touch, but his shot was right at the goalkeeper.