Following on from their first pre-season match for 2011/12 against Didcot Town, Oxford United headed out on Monday for their three match USA pre-season friendlies tour / team bonding week / Seacoast United visit.
As a first time visitor, it is easy to see why the region is known as New England - apart from the clapboard wooden houses, the surrounding countryside could easily be mistaken for rural Oxfordshire with grassy meadows and woodland. The local roadsigns and towns however suggest a surreal version of the English placenames that the colonialists named after their own hometowns. Boston is the biggest city, Manchester is about 20 miles East of Exeter where United were to play their first game, and Dover is a further 20 miles North and inland.
United are based in Portsmouth, about 60 miles North of Boston on the Gulf Of Maine. The weather has been hot, sunny, cloudless and humid, with temperatures in the 80s. After a few days training at the high school and on the beach, including taking sessions with a local school, on Wednesday the team went to the evening game between New England Patriots and Manchester United
- although plans for a pre-match barbecue were scuppered by the first rain in over a week.
Oxford's first match was played at Exeter High School. From what I could gather, the school relocated a few years back to an out of town site, and from the main highway the drive to the school was about another mile. The school was surrounded by sports fields, with all weather tennis courts and athletics track as well as grass pitches. An enterprising Seacoast fan had placed $5 parking signs at the entrance, however the local police were having none of it, insisting that as the school was public property, they could only ask for donations.
Confusion over a 6pm, 6:30 or 7pm kick-off meant your writer arrived well over an hour early for the actual 7pm kick-off. Chairman Kelvin Thomas was already at the ground, chatting to various of the Seacoast United coaches and management, and was quick to say hello. Seacoast is perhaps similar to the United youth and community system, running youth teams at all age levels, but on a much larger scale. Several of the Seacoast training staff were here from the North East of England to coach the youngsters, which would become apparent later from the stadium announcer's accent. The rest of the United non-playing tour were along soon thereafter. Matt from the ticket-office, Jerome Sale from Radio Oxford, Yellow Player Adam and Simon too. The players then arrived in a cortege of pick-up trucks with Chris Wilder, Mickey Lewis, Andy Melville, Alan Hodgkinson, and Andy Dubowski.
The Americans take a pride in sports, and the match took place in the William Ball Stadium, which is the school's American Football / Soccer stadium. This was an astroturf pitch, primarily marked out in white with the grid-iron ten-yard lines and markings, and the soccer pitch in yellow. There were also blue lines for lacrosse perhaps. Behind each goal were the American football posts, which were surely tempting some row Z shots and touch-down conversions. Also two reasonable sized electronic scoreboards, again designed for the gridiron scores. The "Bill-Ball" had two stands on either side of the half way line, in the traditional bleachers lay-out : uncovered benches, although aluminum rather than old fashioned wood. The main stand was perhaps 40 rows high on a steel frame contruction, with a decent sized commentary box at the top, and a roof top area for cameramen and photographers. Beneath the stand was an open concourse offering soft drinks, pizza slices or hot dogs. Being a high school there was of course no alcohol license.
At least one other fan had made the trip from England, although later on we did spot a few fans wearing polo shirts with the United logo.
About half an hour before kick-off, the stand started filling up, mainly it seemed Seacoast United familes and school children. All of the Seacoast officals wore the club t-shirt, which at least gave the game a semblance of a home crowd, whereas amongst other football shirts were a few Manchester United and Arsenal colours. A small souvenir stall was set up, with a 4 page team-sheet for a dollar, Seacoast scarves, tops, and a pre-season Seacoast-Oxford t-shirt for $20. A local mortgage company also had a stall giving out mini-balls, and trying to tempt new contacts with a half-time draw for Redsox tickets if you gave them a business card. After a half hour warm-up with music blaring out [The Who, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, Kings of Leon, ] both teams then came back out to Carmina Burana (the Old Spice music) with a Seacoast youth teams' guard of honour. Surprisingly there were no cheerleaders. Both teams lined up for the National Anthems before the main stand with the Stars and Stripes, and Union Flag. A Seacoast school girl sang both anthems beautifully, first our own, although she did surprise the Oxford squad and myself by continuing for a second verse after we had all cheered and applauded at the end of the usual verse and chorus.
Onto the game: trialist Chris Knopka played in goal for the full 90 minutes. Michael Duberry and Jake Wright at the back; Tony Capaldi and Josh Payne slightly further up; Simon Heslop, Asa Hall and Andrew Whing in midfield; Alfie Potter, James Constable and Jon-Paul Pitman up front. The game opened fairly convincingly, Alfie Potter darting through the defence from the corner flag to score within 4 minutes. For Seacoast United Phantoms, apparently eight of the eleven starters were under 20 years old. However, their youth did not seem to bother them, and they played with a little flair and most of the time seemed assured of their formation and tactics. Numer 6 Steven Palumbo caught the eye early on, with a few little step-overs and a quick turn of pace catching United out. Later in the game he would again intercept United's careless passing.
Seacoast got a penalty midway through the first half, which was duly converted. The home fans cheered and clapped politely, with a little commentator-orchestrated feet trampling on the stand.
For the rest of the first half, Seacoast attacked well, and had four good chances, shooting wide when one-on-one, one over the bar, and United looked troubled. Duberry at the back was most vocal in the team, and seems to be the missing link from last season with his confidence and experience at clearing the ball from danger. At the front, it seems United had been watching too much Leo Messi and thought that they could run past two or three players at a time and score. It was not to be. There was one more good chance for United at the end of the first half when a well struck shot was parried by the Seacoast goalkeeper with his right hand, and then controlled with his left hand as if he were a basket-ball player.
There was no half time cross-bar challenge, but a few hundred kids were having mini kickabouts, with the United substitutes trying to do some warmups in amongst them.
Second half, Chris Wilder moved down to the bench from his first half spot below the commentary box next to Kelvin Thomas, and unexpectedly for a friendly there were no changes at half-time. Eventually, a few were made, Damian Batt and Matt Paterson coming on. Batt was dangerous with some attacking runs up the right, and for the last twenty minutes United looked the stronger side. JPP also had a good shot hit the bar and looks a good prospect for 2011/12. With a few minutes to go, Harry Worley was brought on and played as centre forward, missing a fairly good chance which brought a round of applause from the Seacoast fans.
After a few minutes of added time, the final whistle went on United's first USA game with a 1-1 draw. Seacoast jogged off the pitch, United jogged off towards the centre circle I thought for a warm down, but were then sat heads-down in a circle for Wilder's post match school report. As a fan it felt like we had been playing against a team of plucky youngsters like Barnet or Lewes, and I don't think Wilder will have allowed his players to blame the Astroturf, the heat, new players, or even the lack of fans. Perhaps JPP, Duberry and Batt will have come away with some credit, but overall 5/10.
As a first time visitor, it is easy to see why the region is known as New England - apart from the clapboard wooden houses, the surrounding countryside could easily be mistaken for rural Oxfordshire with grassy meadows and woodland. The local roadsigns and towns however suggest a surreal version of the English placenames that the colonialists named after their own hometowns. Boston is the biggest city, Manchester is about 20 miles East of Exeter where United were to play their first game, and Dover is a further 20 miles North and inland.
United are based in Portsmouth, about 60 miles North of Boston on the Gulf Of Maine. The weather has been hot, sunny, cloudless and humid, with temperatures in the 80s. After a few days training at the high school and on the beach, including taking sessions with a local school, on Wednesday the team went to the evening game between New England Patriots and Manchester United
- although plans for a pre-match barbecue were scuppered by the first rain in over a week.
Oxford's first match was played at Exeter High School. From what I could gather, the school relocated a few years back to an out of town site, and from the main highway the drive to the school was about another mile. The school was surrounded by sports fields, with all weather tennis courts and athletics track as well as grass pitches. An enterprising Seacoast fan had placed $5 parking signs at the entrance, however the local police were having none of it, insisting that as the school was public property, they could only ask for donations.
Confusion over a 6pm, 6:30 or 7pm kick-off meant your writer arrived well over an hour early for the actual 7pm kick-off. Chairman Kelvin Thomas was already at the ground, chatting to various of the Seacoast United coaches and management, and was quick to say hello. Seacoast is perhaps similar to the United youth and community system, running youth teams at all age levels, but on a much larger scale. Several of the Seacoast training staff were here from the North East of England to coach the youngsters, which would become apparent later from the stadium announcer's accent. The rest of the United non-playing tour were along soon thereafter. Matt from the ticket-office, Jerome Sale from Radio Oxford, Yellow Player Adam and Simon too. The players then arrived in a cortege of pick-up trucks with Chris Wilder, Mickey Lewis, Andy Melville, Alan Hodgkinson, and Andy Dubowski.
The Americans take a pride in sports, and the match took place in the William Ball Stadium, which is the school's American Football / Soccer stadium. This was an astroturf pitch, primarily marked out in white with the grid-iron ten-yard lines and markings, and the soccer pitch in yellow. There were also blue lines for lacrosse perhaps. Behind each goal were the American football posts, which were surely tempting some row Z shots and touch-down conversions. Also two reasonable sized electronic scoreboards, again designed for the gridiron scores. The "Bill-Ball" had two stands on either side of the half way line, in the traditional bleachers lay-out : uncovered benches, although aluminum rather than old fashioned wood. The main stand was perhaps 40 rows high on a steel frame contruction, with a decent sized commentary box at the top, and a roof top area for cameramen and photographers. Beneath the stand was an open concourse offering soft drinks, pizza slices or hot dogs. Being a high school there was of course no alcohol license.
At least one other fan had made the trip from England, although later on we did spot a few fans wearing polo shirts with the United logo.
About half an hour before kick-off, the stand started filling up, mainly it seemed Seacoast United familes and school children. All of the Seacoast officals wore the club t-shirt, which at least gave the game a semblance of a home crowd, whereas amongst other football shirts were a few Manchester United and Arsenal colours. A small souvenir stall was set up, with a 4 page team-sheet for a dollar, Seacoast scarves, tops, and a pre-season Seacoast-Oxford t-shirt for $20. A local mortgage company also had a stall giving out mini-balls, and trying to tempt new contacts with a half-time draw for Redsox tickets if you gave them a business card. After a half hour warm-up with music blaring out [The Who, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, Kings of Leon, ] both teams then came back out to Carmina Burana (the Old Spice music) with a Seacoast youth teams' guard of honour. Surprisingly there were no cheerleaders. Both teams lined up for the National Anthems before the main stand with the Stars and Stripes, and Union Flag. A Seacoast school girl sang both anthems beautifully, first our own, although she did surprise the Oxford squad and myself by continuing for a second verse after we had all cheered and applauded at the end of the usual verse and chorus.
Onto the game: trialist Chris Knopka played in goal for the full 90 minutes. Michael Duberry and Jake Wright at the back; Tony Capaldi and Josh Payne slightly further up; Simon Heslop, Asa Hall and Andrew Whing in midfield; Alfie Potter, James Constable and Jon-Paul Pitman up front. The game opened fairly convincingly, Alfie Potter darting through the defence from the corner flag to score within 4 minutes. For Seacoast United Phantoms, apparently eight of the eleven starters were under 20 years old. However, their youth did not seem to bother them, and they played with a little flair and most of the time seemed assured of their formation and tactics. Numer 6 Steven Palumbo caught the eye early on, with a few little step-overs and a quick turn of pace catching United out. Later in the game he would again intercept United's careless passing.
Seacoast got a penalty midway through the first half, which was duly converted. The home fans cheered and clapped politely, with a little commentator-orchestrated feet trampling on the stand.
For the rest of the first half, Seacoast attacked well, and had four good chances, shooting wide when one-on-one, one over the bar, and United looked troubled. Duberry at the back was most vocal in the team, and seems to be the missing link from last season with his confidence and experience at clearing the ball from danger. At the front, it seems United had been watching too much Leo Messi and thought that they could run past two or three players at a time and score. It was not to be. There was one more good chance for United at the end of the first half when a well struck shot was parried by the Seacoast goalkeeper with his right hand, and then controlled with his left hand as if he were a basket-ball player.
There was no half time cross-bar challenge, but a few hundred kids were having mini kickabouts, with the United substitutes trying to do some warmups in amongst them.
Second half, Chris Wilder moved down to the bench from his first half spot below the commentary box next to Kelvin Thomas, and unexpectedly for a friendly there were no changes at half-time. Eventually, a few were made, Damian Batt and Matt Paterson coming on. Batt was dangerous with some attacking runs up the right, and for the last twenty minutes United looked the stronger side. JPP also had a good shot hit the bar and looks a good prospect for 2011/12. With a few minutes to go, Harry Worley was brought on and played as centre forward, missing a fairly good chance which brought a round of applause from the Seacoast fans.
After a few minutes of added time, the final whistle went on United's first USA game with a 1-1 draw. Seacoast jogged off the pitch, United jogged off towards the centre circle I thought for a warm down, but were then sat heads-down in a circle for Wilder's post match school report. As a fan it felt like we had been playing against a team of plucky youngsters like Barnet or Lewes, and I don't think Wilder will have allowed his players to blame the Astroturf, the heat, new players, or even the lack of fans. Perhaps JPP, Duberry and Batt will have come away with some credit, but overall 5/10.
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