Orange Legionnaire

Eddie Herstenberg of the Dutch Lions goes up for the header, while Dutch Lions Johan Wigger looks on.

Yesterday the Dayton Dutch Lions played their first game as a team against Xavier University and came out with a 1-1 draw that had it's high and low points. As far as high points, there were some great moments on the right side between Bas Ent and Evan Schwartz, Jeff Popella had a dangerous header, Oscar Moens is going to be a hard keeper to beat, and the passing and thought got quicker near the end. On the other hand, the Lions overall were a bit out of form, not fit, the passing was slow at times, the movement off the ball wasn't there like it will be, and the Lions had issues with teamwork (mainly knowing where the other player would be) at times. Not surprising since the squad has only been together for six days prior and none of the Dutch Lion players have ever played together in a competitive game before.. As the saying goes "great teams do not happen overnight."

An interesting way to think of early results in a Dutch context is this (in a best World Cup team to best PDL team comparison), the Dutch National squad (with Johann Cruyff and Wim van Hanegem) who introduced Total Football to the World during the 1974 World Cup, actually lost two weeks before the World Cup to a Second Division German club by a 2-nil score. The next week, the Dutch beat Argentina 4-1 in a friendly that gave them the confidence to march all the way to the World Cup final in 74'. Therefore, I think it will be interesting to see where the Dutch Lions are next week in their scrimmage against the University of Cincinnati. With a week more of training under their belts with new Head Coach Sonny Silooy, who arrived last night after the scrimmage. Further, there were positives despite the result, as I feel that during the third, 30 minute half the Lions picked it up and the American and Dutch players started clicking.

The Dayton Dutch Lions played three, 30 minute halves in this scrimmage against Xavier University. During the 30 minute halves, Xavier University interchanged players throughout; on the Lions bench where Assistant Coach Jack Hermans sat, the Lions decided tactically only to interchange their players at the start of each half.


Starting 11 for the Xavier University scrimmage.

Here are the three rosters the Lions went with (may be a bit wrong on positions because of interchanging)~

First 30 minutes:
------------------Moens-------------------
Schwartz------Giallombordo*-----VondenBenken
--------------------------------------------
----------Wigger--------Jones--------------
Herstenberg---------------------van Dinteren
---McCarthy------den Ouden--------Popella--

Second 30 minutes:

-----------------Moens------------------------
Jones-----------Segebart----------VondenBenken
----------------------------------------------
Ent------Wille------VanderSluijs-----Kissinger
----VanderSluijs---Popella--------Georgie*-----

Third 30 minutes:
-------------------Moens------------------------
Schwartz----------Segebart----------VondenBenken
------------------Godvliet----------------------
Ent----------------Wigger-----------------Wille-
----VanderSluijs----den Ouden-----Georgie*------

*Trialist

More Notes From The Game:

**The Dayton Dutch Lions connected on the first 70 (or so) passes in the game before Xavier University even decided to get a touch in (you'll see that in the video I'll post later). I think the Xavier University players were a little in awe of playing against some Eredivise players before they started to calm down.

**I think that the Dutch Lions had the best of the play in the first 30 minutes, especially the first 15 minutes. Near the end of that first 30 minutes Xavier University started to put things together.. When the Dutch Lions played a more American squad in the second half, it felt a lot like a college game, and seemed pretty even for the most part. In the last 30 minutes I felt that the Dutch Lions were at there best. Some real sharp, crisp passing down the right side between Schwartz and Ent. Some nice crosses by Ent that no one got on the end of.. And then two point blank opportunities that the Lions could not finish.

Everything was going the Dutch Lions way and they looked good to score.. When Xavier University got an opportunity against the run of play and one of their players finished the opportunity, with Moens being able to do nothing about it.

**Xavier University was 2-13-1 last year. But, apparently they got a new head coach this year and I kept hearing people in the crowd applauding how much better they are playing on the ground, instead of playing boot ball like they did last year.

**The first 30 minutes featured center back Andrew Giallombardo who played for Southampton's Reserve teams in recent years and also was on the U-18 USA National Team. Giallombardo is on a two week trial with the Dayton Dutch Lions and if all goes well may likely be signed.

**For your trivia purposes, the first player to score for the Dayton Dutch Lions was Geert den Ouden who scored off of a penalty, after a Bas Ent cross bounced around and came up off the turf hitting the arm of a Xavier defender. Den Ouden finished the penalty like a seasoned professional would do so (you can watch that in the video I'll have up shortly).

**I'll have some video up shortly from last night's Dutch Lions v. Xavier game, "A 90 minutes in 9 recap."