MATCH SUMMARY
D.C. United continued its strong preseason form on Wednesday afternoon on the training fields of Fort Lauderdale Stadium with a 4-0 victory over Florida International University. Stephen King started the scoring for the Black-and-Red, as the attacking midfielder put home a shot from outside the area to give his team a 1-0 advantage. Three minutes later Kurt Morsink darted down the right wing and placed a precision cross into the area that found the feet of Chinese trialist Yang Men. Men converted his opportunity, giving United a 2-0 lead after the first 30-minute half.
United Head Coach Ben Olsen made four substitutions among his field players at half time, bringing forward Chris Pontius into the game to partner Blake Brettschneider up front. Conor Shanosky moved into central midfield, with Julius James and Rodrigo Brasesco playing in central defense for the second half. Brandon Barklage came into the match for Morsink, and immediately the winger put United up 3-0 with a blast from inside the area.
Branko Boskovic made it 4-0 after Brettschneider and Pontius played a nice bit of one-touch at the top of the area. Pontius played Boskovic through on goal, and the Montenegrin chipped the goalkeeper to round off the scoring. Unfortunately there was one injury in the contest. Midfielder Junior Carreiro suffered an ankle injury in the dying minutes of the game and had to be removed from the pitch.
GOALKEEPING NOTE
In the first half D.C. United netminder Joe Willis played in goal for FIU. In the second half Willis exchanged places in United's net with goalkeeper Chase Harrison, allowing both 'keepers to play the full 60 minutes.
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OLSEN'S THOUGHTS
After the match Ben Olsen offered the following comments on his team's performance, "I think every time we have a game it's a good chance for us to gauge where we're at, and we used a lot of guys that haven't had too many minutes up to this point. It was good to see some of those players, some of the trialists."
Olsen continues, "I thought everybody did pretty well. The first half was really sharp, in the second half I thought we got a little tired. The bad habits started to kick in during [the second half], and we made it more difficult than it should have been. Overall I'm pleased with effort and I'm pleased with the result."
When asked about Junior Carreiro's injury, Olsen stated, "He'll be okay. We need to check him out - we don't know the severity of [the injury] just yet."
SCORING SUMMARY
- D.C. United - Stephen King 12'
- D.C. United - Yang Men 15' (Kurt Morsink)
- D.C. United - Brandon Barklage 31'
- D.C. United - Branko Boskovic 53' (Chris Pontius)
D.C. UNITED FIRST HALF LINEUP
Harrison; Korb, McTavish, Shanosky, Woolard; Junior, Morsink, King, Boskovic; Brettschneider, Yang Men
D.C. UNITED SECOND HALF LINEUP
Willis; Korb, James, Brasesco, McTavish; Junior, Shanosky, Boskovic, Barklage; Brettschneider, Pontius
