The Hounds cap off their first preseason weekend by defeating a strong Army team 3-0. A completely clean sheet on the weekend to boot! I don’t know if it was the tactics, the players, or the fact it’s the second game in two days but the Hounds played a little more open and didn’t dominate possession as much as yesterday. Give Army credit, they hounded (ha) the Hounds quite a bit and made it difficult. Still, the midfield looked pretty good which is nice to see considering how much work they’re getting under Steffens system. The Hounds struggled a little on offense during the first half again, but it was better. I give them the benefit of the doubt for now since 24 hours isn’t enough time to make major changes. I’m more interested in seeing how they look next weekend. Not much else to say other than it was a pretty solid performance for the boys in black.

Starting XI
Hulings, Pasher, Flunder, Okiomah, Russell, Okai, Moloto, C’deBaca, Kyei, Cabrilo, Green

Sadly I didn’t get a good look at the formation.

Notes
– Yesterday I think I mixed up Kolarac and Virgara. Still trying to put names to faces. Let’s just say someone didn’t look too sharp.
– As you can see in the video at the top of the post Thompson actually had to do a little bit of work today. Besides the penalty he made a couple good saves and generally looked very good in net.
– A tip of the hat to Hulings in the first half. He ended up seeing a decent amount of action and looked pretty good. He played more aggressive than I expected and made himself big.
– No Arena and Dallman today. Arena caught a stomach bug. Dallman missed both games this weekend. I assume he’s dealing with some sort of injury.
– Again I’m impressed with Pasher’s speed. I really like what I see with him.
– Besides fancy footwork Moloto has a decent little cross. Several times he chipped it from the far side of the 18 to a dangerous spot in front of the net.
– First time we’ve seen Cabrilo this year. He looked a little rusty. It seemed like they were looking for him a lot on crosses and he had a couple nice headers. Just needs to get a little more power on them.
– C’deBaca played pretty high up most of the time he was in. If I didn’t know any better I would’ve said he was a forward. He had a good step to his pace and good awareness. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him like this. Hopefully he can stay healthy.
– Green had a couple nice low crosses into the box from out wide. He seems to be playing more as a winger than I remember him playing last season.
– I kind of like what I’ve seen of Kyei and Vegter. They might turn out to be quiet but solid players.

#UNLEASH