The Wizards came from a 2-1 half time deficit to take a 3-2 lead before settling for a 3-3 draw with Salamanca FC's reserves tonight in Mexico. The players that didn't get the start against Chivas de Guadalajara's reserves earlier this week got the start tonight. The only exception was Santiago Hirsig, who played in the first half. The rest of the lineup was made of mainly of reserves, with the possible exceptions of Aaron Hohlbein and Kevin Souter. Hohlbein is still in a battle with Matt Besler for the starting spot next to Jimmy Conrad in the central of defense, while Souter appears to have fallen a bit behind Roger Espinoza for the starting left midfield spot.
The Wizards fell behind in the 22nd, when Rauwshan McKenzie pulled down an attacker in the box and the ensuing penalty kick was converted. KC got a penalty of their own in the 29th minute when Hohlbein was fouled, with Hirsig converting the spot kick. KC fell behind again in the 35th after a Salamanca attacker got in 1v1 with Boris Pardo.
At half time, the Wizards only made 2 changes, as Besler came on for Hohlbein and Graham Zusi came on for Hirsig. KC was level in the 52nd, as Matt Marquess and Souter played up the left hand side of the field before Marquess played a ball in for Abe Thompson who got the tap in. In the 59th the Wizards grabbed the lead as Zusi had a shot saved, but the rebound fell to Lance Watson who put away the tap in.
In the 70th, the Wizards made changes to the other 9 players that were in the game, with the rest of the first team coming on, except for in net, where Chris Brown took over for Pardo. In the 79th, Salamanca FC tied the game back up, which is how the game ended.
The good news from this result is that it saw the return of Herculez Gomez from his injury earlier this preseason. Also the fact that Zusi has now played a part in 9 of the Wizards goals this preseason. Definitely a good sign and hopefully a good sign of what to expect from Zusi this season.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
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2 comments:
I just can't get excited about Espinosa. I hope he really turns it on this year, he sure got plenty of chances to do so last year. With Hirsig and now Zusi coming on, there should be some good pressure for spots.
But remember with Espinoza, he got training that no one else, save Jack, got this offseason. He spent a good month or so training and playing with the Honduran national team, including being in camp with all their players playing over in Europe right now. That's training that should definitely help him out this season.
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