Charlotte @ Elon

September 9, 2011

I ventured out to Elon. I was surprised that they were playing on their own field instead of inside the football stadium. The two times I played regular season games in Elon, they were on the football stadium instead of apparently their own soccer field they have. Maybe it had something to deal with it being UNC and that is a huge game that deserves to be on the football field.

Anyways, I went out to watch Charlotte play against Elon. That is the game I was assigned to watch. I did my research and decided that I was going to do reports on four players. Unfortunately I was only able to do two proper reports and I can summarize a couple of other players that I saw on the night.



Charlotte won 3-0. It was a pretty much a dominating performance from the 49ers. They controlled the game from the start. There were patches in the game where Elon gathered steam and got some quality opportunities. Once the Niners scored their first goal from Jennings Rex, they took full control until the end.




Charlotte:


Issac Cowles- Senior Centerback for the 49ers. One of the team's leaders. He communicates a lot with his team. Directing his backline in where they should go with the ball and their shifting along their line. He is a pretty good header. He won every header, defensive and offensive, that I saw. A very sure tackler, he tackles hard and firm making sure the ball gets cleared out. Technical ability is okay. Makes simple and short passes. When he does make those long range passes, they are often inaccurate. He is a bit slow but he makes up for that by reading the game real well by intercepting key passes.

My Opinion: Decent player if he decides to go to the next level, I think he would be better off playing in the NASL or USL Pro. MLS might be too fast of a league for him and the lower divisions often play a slower game with tons of crosses. He has shown that he can be dominated in the air.

Charles Rodriguez- Saw him against UNC earlier in preseason and he was playing CB. On Friday night, he was at the left-back position. I was not a huge fan of him in that outside position. Looked uncomfortable and exposed him as a slower player. Has decent vision able to play longer passes with great accuracy. Also is a player that can play with his left and right foot. Didn't get forward a lot but when he did, he drove in a decent cross. Got too over-agressive with his defending. An Elon player had his back to goal and Charles pushed him down multiple times to give Elon set pieces in dangerous positions.

Opinion: Not a MLS player. Technically, he is average. I wouldn't project him as a left-back. Could fit in with a USL Pro team that could use his accuracy in long balls. But I don't see him as a MLS talent.

Other Players I scanned from the Charlotte team:

Junior Forward Jennings Rex scored two goals for them. He is a junior for Charlotte. Hard worker. Likes to make runs in behind the defense. Nothing else stood out for me.

Another junior forward Donnie Smith might be an intriguing prospect. He is one of the leading scorers of the team. I didn't have a good look at him and nothing popped out about his performance on Friday night.


I wanted to look at senior forward Evan James. He didn't start the game. Even though he's started many before. He is an okay player. Has pace. Tends to over-dribble A LOT!! (had to put that in all caps). I hardly saw him make a pass. Then a couple of minutes before I was about to leave, he gets the ball at the half-field mark. He strikes a perfectly struck through ball to send Rex through. Which surprised me. He has tons of pace and he likes to dribble. I don't see him much as a pro prospect.


Elon:

Tried to watch junior forward, Chris Thomas, but he didn't get the start either. It shocked me even though he was the SoCon Player of the Year as a sophmore last year. I didn't see too much from his play. Elon were on the back foot for the majority of the game. The times he got the ball, he held it up well. But the service was lacking. So I couldn't get an accurate reading on him. I'll hopefully get to see him more this year and next. Maybe Atlanta would be interested in him, he is from there. Probably should have watched their game today, I saw on their website that he got 2 goals and 2 assist. It was against North Florida but I probably could at least gotten a better reading. I wonder why he didn't start on Friday with the Sunday performance he put on.


Nick Millington, senior transfer from Wake Forest. Defensive Midfielder. Kinda like Claude Makelele. Bull-dogish in his defending. Make a couple of key tackles to stop attacks. Okay technically. Keeps the game simple. Don't think of him much as pro prospect. He is too small for my liking. It isn't a problem with being small but definitely have to bring something else to the table.


Denzel Ogunyase, senior forward. Very quick player with decent dribbling ability. Took on Charles Rodriguez a couple of times and was very successful. Just a guy to note of.