Baltimore MD - Palace were missing eight members of their squad for tonight's contest in College Park, but managed to put together a decent performance, earning a respectable draw against a physical and determined University of Maryland side.
A scrappy first twenty minutes saw both teams turning the ball over frequently and each defence effectively absorbing attacking moves by the opposing offense. Palace's newly signed goalie, Matt Nelson, was called into action for the first time after nine minutes as he produced a confident punch clear off a tricky cross.
 On 24 minutes, the Terrapins saw their first half-chance go begging when Palace failed to clear a free kick into the penalty area, resulting in a Terps forward skying the ball over the goal on the volley. Moments later, the Eagles made the break-through when Mattthew Mbuta sent a perfect, diagonal lead pass to Pat Healey breaking into the Terps' half. Healey continued his run to the edge of the box from where he fired low and hard to the far post. The Maryland 'keeper got down well to stop the shot but the ball squirmed out of his hands straight into the path of Sergio Flores who made no mistake from six yards.
Both sides were finding their attacking rhythm and three minutes later, Palace's new 'keeper was tested again. A sweetly struck free kick managed to find a gap in Palace's 5-man wall but Nelson was equal to it, diving to his left to make the clean save. In the 36th and 40th minutes respectively, Carlos Morales and Matthew Mbuta each went close with shots from distance. Maryland had the two final opportunities of the half - one blasted over from 15 yards, the other a piledriver on target but well held by Matt Nelson just above his head.
Maryland took full advantage of the momentum they took into the break, levelling the score a mere 17 seconds into the second stanza as a Terps forward received an angled pass on the edge of the penalty area and turned Palace defender David Feazell. He took a couple of steps to his left, spun and struck it with power even while falling over, beating Nelson's outstretched hand and inside the far post.
The Terps came ever so close to taking the lead four minutes later when a deftly chipped cross from the byline flew over the Palace keeper and Alex Ughiovhe, but it was just inches too high for the lone Maryland striker to do anything but head over.
In the seventh minute, after consulting with his assistant, the referee showed Sergio Flores the red card for a foul on a Terps defender. e was immediately replaced by Cecil Lewis (rules for friendly matches are agreed by both teams' coaches and the officials before kickoff.)
On eleven minutes, Palace had an excellent opportunity to regain the advantage when Bryan Harkin, playing with a cast on his left hand to protect two broken fingers, put Cecil Lewis through down the left wing. The Terps' 'keeper made a late decision to try and beat Lewis to the ball, well outside the area, and Lewis shrugged off the challenge. He laid the ball back to Harkin in corner of the box, but Maryland defenders had sprinted back in numbers to cover and Harkin's low shot was deflected clear.
Palace were in the ascendancy again, and on 15, Cecil Lewis dummied a defender at the edge of the 18 yard box but his well struck low shot was blocked but let lose again by the Maryland goalie, this time to be cleared by his defence. A minute later, the opportunistic Carlos Morales fired wide right. Two more minutes and Morales in involved again, crossing low from the right corner to Matthew Mbuta in the six yard box, but somehow the ball eluded Mbuta's touch entirely as the goal sat wide open before him.
Matt Nelson had only been training with Palace since Monday and his lack of match practice showed when he dropped what should have been a relatively routine take from a Terps free kick. The ball fell into the path of Maryland player, but his touch let him down and Nelson was able to atone for his mistake. The 'keeper nearly garnered an assist as he bowled the ball up the left wing to Matthew Mbuta who stormed towards the Maryland box, but his carefully placed 20-yard effort was nicely held on this occasion by the Maryland goalie.
Nelson's concentration let him down in the 23rd minute as he fumbled a bouncing ball from a harmless, long-distance header. He made up for it though, when one minute later, he looked in full command of his area, snatching a tricky cross out of the air and holding on with authority. The remainder of the match was played out without incident.
Palace Co-Manager Pete Medd was relatively happy with the performance, considering the circumstances: "It was a decent match - Maryland's a good, well-organized team. We had eight regulars unavailable today, so we had guys in different positions than normal and I think they adapted after the first fifteen minutes. Save the first twenty seconds of the second half, I think we played pretty well." He looked forward to having all of the missing players back in time for April 25th: "We'll be bringing eight quality players back into the mix for the start of the regular season, so we're feeling pretty good. For the George Mason friendly, at least four of them should be ready, plus we'll have one of our center-backs - Mike Lookingland or Abe Kante - back after this weekend." Lookingland and Kante are each playing for a different indoor team that happen to be facing each other in the first round of the MISL playoffs.
Palace's final pre-season fixture is on Saturday April 19th at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia - kick-off time is 1:00pm. Then it's on to the season opener on Friday April 25th at 7:30pm at home against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. |
