Ça commence samedi

[François]

Alors, la saison commence ce samedi en USL D1, voici un petit preview des 2 matchs de la fin de semaine:

Samedi 16 avril
Richmond - Atlanta 19h00


Dimanche 17 avril
Virginia Beach - Atlanta 18h00

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Atlanta Silverbacks (14-11-3, 5th place Eastern Conference)
Returning: 3 of 5 leading scorers (combined for 20g (of 40), 10a (of 27)), GK Joe Barton, 1.25 gaa, 10-6-1
Lost: Veterans John Ball, Velko Iotov, Alan Woods, Andrew Lewis, GK Anthony Tokpah 11gp, 4-5-2, 1.335 gaa

Head Coach David Vaudreuil:
Last year we weren’t fit for the first two games so hopefully by the time we get to the third or fourth game we’ll be flying.

You have many new foreign players from the likes of Ghana, Jamaica, Sweden and Bulgaria to name a few. How do you plan on integrating these new players into a squad that just missed the playoffs last year? The style of play hasn’t been a big problem. Almost everyone speaks pretty good English which is a real big factor. All the guys I’ve brought in are here because they like to play a passing/attacking style soccer. The style of play has been the same. We don’t have any players that play real direct, over-the-top of the defense type soccer. We all try to play on the ground, passing the ball, involving the whole team in the attack. My defensive system is a little different for some people. It’s something we work on every day. But as far as integrating the foreigners, that hasn’t been a problem.

You have most of your offense back from last year in Cozier, Brooks and DeLima. What areas were you looking at to most improve for the 2005 season? For sure we improved our depth. The roster is going to be one or two longer than last season. We have a lot more team speed. We also improved the level of play. The big concern for us is losing our captain and best defender. Fred Degand is playing indoor right now. The big two are Andrew Lewis who is in med school and Alan Woods who is in Charleston. We have a completely new back line this year. We picked up Antonio De La Torre who has played his whole career in Mexico’s professional divisions and played for the Colorado Rapids last year. He’s an important addition to the team. David Hayes brings a ton of experience to the team, with many years in the [USL First Division] and for DC United. But it’s still a brand new back line.

Richmond Kickers (17-8-3, 2nd place Eastern Conference)
Returning: 4 of 5 leading scorers (combined for 30g (of 42), 16a (of 34)), GK Ronnie Pascale, 17-8-3, 0.98 gaa
Lost: Rookie M Clyde Simms to DC United, Veteran M/D David Hayes (3g, 5a) to ATL, longtime Kicker Rob Ukrop to retirement

Head Coach Leigh Cowlishaw:
You’re mixing several first- and second-year pros (McColm Cephas, Matthew Delicate, Robert Ssejjemba) with former MLS players (Chris Carrieri, Richie Williams). How has their chemistry been during the preseason? Excellent. We have mostly returning guys and three or four new players to the team and they’ve been accepted by the old guard. It’s blending in very nicely. When you’re winning in preseason, that helps with the chemistry. We’re very excited to kick off the season.

Do you expect them to take time to come together as a group? I think there will be two areas (for them to come together). Obviously, on the field it will take time for them to understand each others way of playing. Off the field we haven’t had great opportunities to socialize as a group yet. Once we get on a few away trips on the bus, that will make it very easy. We’ve put in a lot of long hours getting prepared and organized for the season.

Two of your top three scorers (Cephas and Delicate) are products of the Richmond Kickers Future PDL team. Do you see the Future continuing to make an impact on the Kickers senior team? Hopefully. It would be great if we were able to pull one or two players each year who graduate from the Future and obviously from (colleges) into the pro team. It certainly helps that they’re familiar with the club and the philosophy and the staff. It would be great. I’m always able to go out and scout and watch [Kickers Future] players because they’re close by.

Virginia Beach Mariners (11-14-3, 6th place Eastern Conference)
Returning: 2 of 4 leading scorers (combined 9g (of 41), 10a (of 35)), GK Matt Nelson, 11-12-2, 1.46gaa
Lost: Leading scorer Dante Washington (17g, 6a)

Head Coach Shawn MacDonald:
With the loss of Washington, who do you anticipate will score goals for the Mariners this season? Good question, we hope to score goals by committee. We hope several different people score. We don’t really think that we’ll have one top guy but our two new forwards that look pretty good are Teafore Bennett, who plays for the Jamaican National Team and also David Castellanos, who played with Minnesota last year and the Colorado Rapids. They are two new forwards. Dante was a unique player, no one is going to really replace him. Jakob Fenger will also be playing up top, last year he played midfield for us.

Last year the Mariners gave up over 40 goals (1.4 gaa) last year. Who has been brought in during the offseason to shore up the defense? We did bring in some new players. We brought in Justin Thompson who played for Vancouver last year. And we pretty much have the same players back. He’s solid, he’s big, he’s good in the air, he’s very strong. This is only going to be his second year in the league but he plays like a more experienced player. Russell Hutchison is back, he had an injury problem last year so if he can stay healthy that will be a big help.

[Bxl Boy]

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