Goals galore on MLS Combine's final day

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - After two average days at the MLS adidas Player Combine at Lockhart Stadium, the 62 participants came out onto the field on Monday with one last chance to prove something.

Seven goals fell on the final day, the same number of goals scored in the first two days of the Combine, to make it one of the most eventful and impressive days of the entire weekend.  "I think we finally saw some of the best soccer out of our guys because we got used to each other a bit more," said Greg Andrulis (George Mason University), head coach of adidas Tango. "I think the guys feel a little better about themselves heading into the draft and ultimately that was our job."

The event's best match came in the 11 a.m. duel Monday between adidas Teamgeist and adidas Tango, that saw a combined five goals scattered throughout 80 minutes of action. After a slow start to the match, in part due to the heat on the field, Teamgeist took the lead in the 26th minute as Rich Asante (Syracuse University) dribbled past two defenders at the top of the box and drilled a shot past the late-reacting 'keeper.

Tango evened up the score in the 31st minute as Jared Kent (Old Dominion University) collected a pass from John Cunliffe (Fort Lewis College) in the six-yard box and hammered a shot that deflected off the diving 'keeper into the bottom right corner of the net. The play developed as Cunliffe took the ball down the left side to the endline, making a defender miss, and then threaded a pass to a wide-open Kent in the box.

"The coaches were just saying that there are a lot of guys here who move off the ball very well and in my case it was just making the right pass at the right time," Cunliffe said.  Teamgeist took the advantage in the 35th minute as Nico Colaluca (University of Virginia) boomed a shot from 30 yards out into the top right corner of the net to put his team ahead 2-1.

Tango evened up the score again in the second half as Kent notched his second of the game in the 49th minute with a long-range blast from well outside the area. Jarrod Smith (West Virginia University) tallied the assist.  Just 10 minutes later, Cunliffe finally tallied a goal of his own as he recovered a loose ball in the midfield and streaked down the field, beating a defender one-on-one before depositing it into the back of the net.

"It's nice to come in here and score a goal against these guys who are considered to be the best in the country," Cunliffe said. "It was a mistake by the defender and I just happened to have been in the right place at the right time."  Earlier in the day, the match between adidas Tricolore and adidas Azteca finished with a 1-1 draw. Sinisa Ubiparipovic scored for Tricolore when he slotted home a Jerson Monteiro pass into the bottom right corner in the second minute of action.

"It was a tremendous goal and Sinisa seems to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time," said John Trask of the University of Illinois-Chicago, head coach of Tricolore. "He was involved in some way in all three goals that we scored this week. He's a talented player."  Azteca answered right back in the eighth minute as Clemson University product Dane Richards found the foot of Willy Guadarrama (Campbell University) in the box, slicing it under a diving 'keeper.

CHANGING POSITIONS: University of South Carolina forward Mike Sambursky impressed quite a few attendees over the weekend as he willingly moved from his natural attacking position to give his team depth on defense. "Mike played a lot of offensive positions in college, and when he and I talked, we figured out that playing as an outside back might be something that would suit him best," said adidas Azteca head coach John Rennie (Duke University). "He's not really experienced defensively, but he is really good with the ball. He holds the ball well and doesn't panic, which allows him to move the ball out of the backfield very well."

GENERATION ADIDAS PROSPECTS: Three of the early signings for the 2007 Generation adidas class took part in the Combine, showing their wares in advance of Friday's SuperDraft at the Indianapolis Convention Center. Established ahead of the 2005 MLS season, Generation adidas is a player development program that identifies and nurtures the elite youth soccer talent in the United States. The list of incoming players into this year's class will be announced on Tuesday, and all will be available for the 13 MLS teams to select in the draft. University of Virginia teammates Bakary Soumare and Nico Colaluca took part in all three days of the Combine and put together decent performances. For Colaluca, his true scoring ability did not show until the 35th minute of Monday's second game.

"Nico scored a good goal today," said Teamgeist head coach Mike Noonan (Brown University). "He just needs to be a bit more consistent in the way that he plays."  Highly touted 15-year-old Abdus Ibrahim (Richfield, Minn.) was able only to take part in the final day of the Combine for adidas Tango -- but had an immediate impact. "Abdus was fantastic for us," said Andrulis. "He came in here today and really gave us a spark in the midfield. He is a really good athlete with a lot of potential."

EARLY DEPARTURE: Forward Jeffrey Gonsalves (University of Rhode Island) was forced to pull out of the Combine early after he was unable to overcome a bout of mononucleosis suffered before the opening of the event. Gonsalves has gained some attention as a forward, and has been mooted as a potential No. 1 overall pick by expansion club Toronto FC, who hold the first pick for Friday's SuperDraft. Still, said URI head coach John O'Connor to the Toronto Sun: ""He was the second-best scorer in Division I soccer this season. MLS coaches already know what he can do."

ATHLETES' PERFORMANCE: Major League Soccer and adidas contracted the help of Athletes' Performance, a private business, to assess and observe each of the participant's physical characteristics and capabilities throughout the MLS Player Combine.

"We are here to help quantify their physical developments by doing a variety of assessments on movement function and movement quality and then performance measurement," said Charlie Wright of Athletes' Performance. "They do medical evaluations with the medical staff, trainers and physicians and then we evaluate them for their soccer skill."

In only their second year working the athletes at the Adidas Combine, Athletes' Performance trainers were on hand throughout the weekend to do the pre-game, movement preparation warm-up as well as a post-game regeneration.

"What we do incorporates good stretching, promotes good blood flow and regenerates tissue quality that had been damaged during the game process," Wright said. Using a variety of techniques, the athletes focus their attention primarily the lower body, hamstrings, quadriceps, shines, calves, groin and the bottoms of their feet.

"We were asked this year to provide the information we obtained back to the league, with the hopes of providing a structured support of education to both the team and the player," Wright said. "I think that it has been very well received by the players, judging by the amount of questions we are receiving and the attention they are providing us during their activities and their attitudes."

"I think it's great because these guys know what they are talking about and I feel like they can do nothing but help us prepare for the next level," said Combine participant John DiRaimando (Saint Louis University). "The stuff that they have us doing is more high-tech than what I think we have all experienced in college, so I think they are doing a great job in preparing us for what is to be expected of us in the future."