adidas/Disney Christmas Showcase

Region I Boys ODP Players
adidas®/Disney Christmas Showcase
Results

The 1989 birth year for Region I ODP spent a fantastic week in Florida at the end of 2005, playing four top level matches include-ing three against youth national teams. The experience for the 18 young men representing Region I was second-to-none, with matches against France, Spain, a rematch with the US U17 National Team from the Thanksgiving Interregional, and a good match against West Coast rivals Region IV. The matches were played at Walt Disney’s Wide World of Sports under sunny December skies in the Orlando area.

Veteran team coach George O’Neill was happy with the way the team played on the week, noting that while a couple of results were unlucky for Region I, he’s convinced the group got the most out of the week and demonstrated an ability to play the game in a way that will help each player progress in future years.

"People who know me know how competitive I am. I want to win games until I’m 103," O’Neill said. "But I would much rather they attempt to play good football then take shortcuts and win. They are working hard and learning about passing and being available for passes and combining. We don’t need them to go out and just kick the living daylights out of the ball so you need an ambulance for the ball at the end of the day. These guys are learning and playing well all the time."

Region I opened the event with a match against the team many observers felt was the best on hand at Disney, the France U17 National Team. The match was a tight affair throughout, with neither team giving or asking for any quarter.

The game was a virtual stalemate, the only difference provided by a sensational free kick goal from France’s Henri Saivet, a 17-year old who has signed a professional contract with French club Girondins Bordeaux. Saivet hit a 30-yard free kick that curved at high speed before going into the upper 90. Region I twice might have had an equalizer, especially when New Jersey’s Sammy Petrone was denied by a great save from the French goalkeeper. Pennsylvania’s Matt Brutto made some big saves for Region I as well.

Defenders Mark Wysocki (MD), Jeffrey Leach (CT) and winger John Tardy (ENY) were especially good in this match. Coach O’Neill said the team played pretty well, but he was especially glad with how the group deciphered areas they needed to improve upon when they met to discuss the match a few hours later.

"I thought we did OK. The French are technically very good, and very good at keeping the ball moving. Their vision and first touch were very good," he said. "Our guys worked their socks off and tried to play the football they are capable of. As a team I don’t think we played the football that we were playing in Austin (at the Thanksgiving Interregional). We weren’t making other teams chase the ball the way we did in Austin. Saying that, I thought our boys did a reasonable job. I think maybe psychologically, since it was a foreign national team, we might have been a bit nervous at the beginning.

"That night we asked them individually what they saw on the park so we could get on the same page development-wise. They were all bang on the money. They felt the other team moved the ball quicker, and then one of the guys asked when was the last time these guys trained together, so they understood some of the reasons why we didn’t play as well at first. As a region when we see each other, as with the other regions, sometimes our expectations our too high on the first day we came back. In Texas everything went right on the first day, but not as much here, but we were still right in the thick of it against a very good international side. Overall it was good, and it has to be said that their goal was incredible, one of the best goals I’ve seen in some time."

The second day brought a rematch for Region I against the US U17 National Team. Region I had embarrassed the national group in Austin 7-1. While the Nationals fielded a stronger lineup this time around, and were certainly more competitive than in the first encounter, Region I walked away with a deserved 2-1 win.

Drew Kotler (PA) made an excellent save in the early going, tipping a well-struck free kick over the bar. John Tardy was putting in his usual solid shift for the East Coast side, defending well and getting forward with regularity from his left back position. Sammy Petrone also continued his recent good form, staying active in the forward line with aggressive and intelligent running off the ball.

Midfielder Anthony Han created Region I’s first good scoring chance, stealing a pass and slotting a good pass for Jonathan Pereira running down the right hand side. Pereira was in on goal but his shot went wide as the US goalkeeper charged him down.

Then the US scored the opening goal, again with a well-struck free kick. But it was Region I responding immediately with an equalizer, as Sammy Petrone fired a shot in with his left foot from 30 yards out. Region I was causing the Nationals a lot of problems in the back, and Vermont’s Ethan Morrow created the next chance with a strong run down the left wing before hitting a good cross that ended up on the foot of Virginia’s Anthony Han, who shot just wide.

The US mounted a counterattack but Kotler did well to come off his line and grab the ball before any damage could be done. Than Ethan Morrow produced a little magic for what would be the winning goal. The Vermont winger juggled the ball past a defender before rolling it into the 6-yard box. From a scramble in front of goal, Han swept the ball beyond the keeper and into the back of the net to give Region I a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish.

The Nationals put more and more first-team players in the lineup but were unable to find the tying goal. One player who did very well for the US was Region I product David MacVane of Eastern New York. Kotler was up to all the challenges in goal however, and kept Region I on top.

The team came close to scoring another goal in the closing minutes in fact. Tardy played a good ball to Petrone in the area, and the striker’s shot was well saved. Connecticut’s Jeffrey Leach delivered a good long pass for Massachusetts forward Philippe Candido who sidestepped a defender and powered a low drive on frame, but it was well saved again.

Region I coach George O’Neill said his team overcame a hard-fought effort from the 90s.

Defender Leach, identified last summer at the Region I ODP Camp in Rider, NJ where he was playing right back for the Connecticut team, came in for special praise after the match from O’Neill. Leach noted that the Region I defensive unit has good communication and chemistry.

"We jell pretty well as a team. The guys on defense are good friends so it makes it easier to communicate and play well," Leach said. "We’re not the biggest group back there but we tackle well and we play simple. We have enough speed back there to cover each other’s backs, and hopefully we can get a shutout in one of these next games." O’Neill said the team’s competitiveness saw them through in the face of a much-improved effort from the National Team. "These guys have a great desire to win. They are very competitive," he said. "After the lopsided result in Austin, the national team were not going to let that happen again, but our guys played a very good game and deserved to win."

Day Three brought another close match as Region I dropped a 2-1 decision to Region IV. Jonathan Pereira scored a great for Region I in the 2nd half, lobbing the keeper from distance to cut the lead to 2-1, but Region I couldn’t quite get the tying goal, despite dominating the 2nd half. O’Neill said the team was unlucky to lose, noting starting goalkeeper Matt Brutto took an Achilles injury, which helped lead to both goals. "In the first half of the game Region IV dominated. Their midfielders were very good at moving the ball," O’Neill said. "We dominated the 2nd half but just couldn’t score the 2nd goal."

The match referee missed a kick to the Achilles tendon of Brutto, which felled the big goalkeeper as he was rushing to cover a ball in the area, and Region IV scored into the open net. Brutto gamely tried to continue, but the full extent of the injury was apparent when Region IV scored again on a shot Brutto would normally have no trouble stopping. "He showed his heart when he tried to go on," O’Neill said of his talented goalkeeper. "He’s a young fellow and maybe should have come out, but you know he’s brave and a good lad and wanted to play."

On the final day, a Spanish national team that featured players from illustrious clubs such as Real Madrid and Valencia, beat Region I 2-0. After a scoreless and somewhat quiet first half, Spain struck for two goals in short order. Region I was hampered by an early injury to midfield general Andrew Giollombardo . Anthony Han and New Jersey’s Matt Kassel put in good shifts as 2nd half substitutes in midfield, while Andreas Chronis cleared two balls off the line in short succession to keep the score line tight. The best scoring chances for Region I came when Kassel fed Sammy Petrone for a shot that was blocked in the area, and on a surging run from Jeffrey Leach down the right followed by a cross to Anthony Han that was fired wide.

O’Neill praised the Spanish team, as well as the fighting effort put in by his own side. "Again, fatigue was a big factor so we were rotating players. They were very good but in the last 15 minutes of the first half we started coming grips with things. Their vision and movement of the ball was very good and they made us work extra hard, which we are always willing to do," he said. "We need to continue to work on first and second touch, receiving the ball and releasing it, and not panicking but releasing it with comfort. "

The team has shown good improvement and maturity over the season thus far under Coach O’Neill and Kevin Anderson, building on the lessons imparted by last year’s coaches Robbie McCourt and George Nazario.

"I think what happens is that kids develop at different speeds. These guys were doing OK, but as they had that experience of playing in Argentina last spring and then going back with the State teams and training together during the regional camp this summer, the things that Kevin and I have been saying to them, just as George and Robert were saying last year, have started to stick," O’Neill said. "It’s like all of a sudden the light comes on and they say, ‘I see what they are talking about!’ When we pass them on to (U18 coaches) Tommy Lang and Dean Foti, they will get better still, and there will even be other players who are not in our squad that will still be blossoming in Region I. It always happens that some players develop quicker than others, but we have good cohesion among the coaches, and similar thinking about how things get done, even though every coach has his own style and methods."

O’Neill, who gave special praise to defenders Mike Volk (DE), Mark Wysocki (MD), Jeffrey Leach (CT) and Nick Orozco (VA), said the group will be together a couple more times this week. "Seven or eight of the boys will train in January with the U18 National Team, and some of them may go to Europe in the spring for an international tournament," he said. "We will go in April as a group to Gradisca in northern Italy on the Adriatic Coast for a major tournament. We were there last year and lost in the semifinals to Juventus. Brazil was there, the Russian national teams, Atletico Madrid and a number of major Italian clubs. It’s another great opportunity for this group and I know they can do very well there again."

Region I ODP Roster for Disney Showcase:

Goalkeepers: Matt Brutto (EPA), Drew Kotler (EPA)

Defenders: Andreas Chronis (ENY), Jeffrey Leach (CT), Nicholas Orozco (VA), Mike Volk (DE), Mark Wysocki (MD)

Midfielders: Andrew Giollombardo (NJ), Anthony Han (VA), Nirav Kadam (MD), Matt Kassel (NJ), Ethan Morrow (VT), Lucas Swertloff (NY), John Tardy (NY)

Forwards: Philippe Candido (MA), Jonathan Pereira (RI), Sammy Petrone (NJ), Jesse Rodriguez (DC)