Baltimore MD - Crystal Palace USA defeated the Aegean Hawks 3-1 in their first pre-season friendly match of 2008. On a freezing night in Falls Church Virginia, each half was played by an almost entirely different Palace team, while the Hawks, missing their goalkeeper, borrowed one of Palace's trialists, Faouzi Bendaoud for the full 90 minutes.
The first 45 minutes were a combative affair, with both teams pressuring hard and creating plenty of ball movement. But the highlight of the first half was a retaken penalty. After Hawks' goalie, Bendaoud, brought Harold Urquijo down on the edge of the box, Matthew Mbuta stepped up to calmly slot the ball low and to the right for what appeared to be the first goal of the night. But the referee had other ideas - he ordered the penalty to be retaken after a Palace player had apparently entered the box before the kick was taken. Mbuta this time sent his shot down the middle and the keeper parried it away comfortably. Meanwhile, at the other end, the Hawks put together a nice combination of quick passes along the ground to set up their best chance of the half. The final shot beat Palace keeper Zak Thompson, but the ball rebounded off the post and was safely cleared by ex-Charlton reserve, Paul Robson.
After an abbreviated halftime break (due to the poor weather conditions), the second period soon proved to be the more action-packed. With just two minutes gone, the Palace defense repeatedly failed to clear the ball from the edge of their penalty box and the Hawks capitalized, with a crisp finish from 15 yards into the bottom left corner, leaving second-half Palace keeper, Dustyn Brim, no chance. But Palace seemed to be sparked into life by the early deficit, and on eight minutes, a flowing move up the right wing ended with trialist Zak Flores floating a perfectly weighted cross from the byline to fellow-trialist, Carlos Morales at the far post to head back over the Hawk's goalie for the equaliser. Eleven minutes later, Pat Healey, Larry Mark and Sergio Flores combined well for Palace's second, Flores finishing the move with a deft chip over the Hawks' goalie. Pat Healey secured the victory seven minutes later after collecting a Larry Mark pass inside the box and turning well to fire home from close range.
Palace USA Co-manager, Pete Medd commented after the match: “It was a good first run out. Everyone got 45 minutes and we were really pleased with a couple of performances. We looked tight defensively, which was our focus this first week, and still got forward and create multiple chances to score. However, we will be working on our finishing as our final pass and shot were poor, but all in all a good first friendly. Most importantly, we suffered no injuries.”
Crystal Palace USA team lineup:
1st Half:
Zak Thompson, Val Teixeira, Alex Ughiovhe, Paul Robson, Andrew Marshall, Bryan Harkin, Shintaro Harada, Harold Urquijo, Matthew Mbuta, Cecil Lewis, Sergio Flores
2nd Half:
Dustyn Brim, Olivier Tchachoua, Brian Moffa, Dia Hunte, David Feazell, Dan Lader, Pat Healey, Zak Flores, Carlos Morales, Larry Mark, Sergio Flores
