The few reporters who were in attendance, as well as some spring break campers, were treated to a full-field 11 vs. 11 scrimmage on Tuesday morning from D.C. United, which was back in action following Friday’s 4-1 throttling of FC Dallas, to begin preparation for this weekend’s visit by Seattle.
The first team handled the reserves in the first half of the scrimmage thanks to goals from Maicon Santos and Hamdi Salihi, but things finished tied after Stephen King finished off a nifty combination with Josh Wolff and Lewis Neal – visa in hand, it’s safe to say – and a penalty kick from Chris Pontius after Chris Korb was taken down in the box.
As for injuries and absences, Bill Hamid (ankle) didn’t practice but was working very hard on agility drills and running. Can’t imagine his absence will last long. Dejan Jakovic (groin) participated in full training, even running alongside Emiliano Dudar in the back for the first team – which was otherwise unchanged from the FC Dallas game.
Ethan White (knee) hasn’t returned to training and Lance Rozeboom (knee) is scheduled for surgery this week.
The assumption is that Andy Najar will rejoin the team on Wednesday after his participation in the CONCACAF championship game with Honduras on Monday.
There were two other notable participants in the scrimmage: Jaime Moreno and Verneri Valimaa, the latter who just finished his freshman season with George Mason; the word is that he’s transferring to North Carolina.
Not to overrate the quality of the training or the potential of the team, but the finishing drill after the scrimmage ended might’ve been the best I’ve seen for D.C. United in a long time. Korb and Neal were both serving fantastic balls while Salihi, Pontius, Dwayne De Rosario, Josh Wolff and Branko Boskovic all hit some superb shots.
