Arsenal kicked off their Dallas Cup SuperGroup campaign in style this morning, coming from behind to thrash The Dallas Texans 5-1. Goals from Conor Henderson, Roarie Deacon, Luke Freeman and a brace from Josh Rees sealed the win.
Neil Banfield’s boys came into the game knowing Club Bolivar had beaten Chorrillo FC 2-1 in Bracket A, so a three goal margin would put them top. However, Corinthians and Barcelona had been beaten by American sides earlier in the day, so the Gunners knew they faced an up hill task.
ARSENAL: Martínez; Hajrovic, Boateng, Monterio, Bihmoutine; Frimpong, Ebecilio; Deacon, Özyakup, Henderson; Freeman
The Dallas Texans promised they would mean business this week, and followed that mandate straight from the off set. A slick team move saw Douglas find space on the edge of the box, but his volley ended up inches wide.
As Arsenal struggled to get into the game, the hosts kicked on. A hopeful ball over the top caused panic in the back line, leading to Martínez coming racing out of his goal. He got nowhere near the ball, and clattered into Richardson. Despite the huge protests from the crowd, no penalty was given.
The Texans would have their revenge shortly after, though. Arsenal failed to deal with a simple free-kick, and Eduardo Aranda was on hand to turn home from close range. 1-0, and thoroughly deserved.
It could have been more just minutes later, when a long throw was lashed just wide by Aranda, before Richardson smacked the bar with a neat volley. Özyakup then looked to respond with a rare Arsenal chance, but his free-kick hit the wall and was easily cleared.
Arsenal won another just before half time, but this time Henderson stepped up to take it. He curled the ball expertly, and despite a deflection, it flew into the net. 1-1 and the Gunners had a foot hold to build on.
Freeman showed off Arsenal’s growing confidence with a flick header that went just wide in first half stoppage time, before an injection of quality saw the visitors take the lead. Özyakup’s delightful through ball found Deacon, and as the ‘keeper rushed out, he finished well to put the Gunners in front at the break. 2-1.
Banfield rotated at half time, bringing on George Brislen-Hall in place of Bihmoutine. It may have a been a tactical change to combat the attacking threat of Richardson, but his second half only lasted a matter of minutes, as the Texan forward was dismissed for a second yellow card.
Arsenal pressed home their advantage, and all but sealed the win when Freeman bundled home Özyakup’s corner, after a shot from Ebecilio. 3-1, and no way back for The Texans.
Frimpong came off shortly after, with the Ghanaian looking a little tired in the midfield. Josh Rees replaced him, and he added the icing to the cake in the closing stages, with a delightful header to make it 4-1. He followed that up with another shortly after, finishing a fine through ball, for what proved to be the final meaningful action of the game.
The full time whistle brought to an end a super start to Arsenal’s Dallas Cup challenge. The young Gunners recovered well after going behind, and will surely face easier challenges ahead in Chorrillo and Club Bolivar.
What do you mean they will surely face EASIER challenges ahead in Chorrillo and Club Bolivar? They are even more rubbish than Dallas Texans?
From what sense I could make of it all, the Arsenal lads got it together by half time but the swashbuckling Dallas kids were good at defending, keeping their shape, good in the tackles, and their balls over the top and simple give and go’s into space down the wings brought them enough joy that the tie was pretty finely balanced until the sending off. In short, whether it was jet lag or all the events earlier in the day, or whatever, let’s hope Chorillo and Clube Bolivar are easier challenges! But I wonder if they will be. My sense is though that we got the easiest group.
In other news, Barcelona Juvenile B lost to the Academy of the MSL club FC Dallas!
That is right! American kids can play! Suck on that Barca! We can compete with anyone in the world… up to the age of about 21.
Josh Rees scores a lot of goals but he does not get much hype. What do you think of him,Jamie? I have never seen him but I heard that he is a hard worker(like Milner) rather than a natural talent like Fabregas.
How old is Rees? is he 16 or 17
As for Ozzyakup I love his through passes, can have a big future with Arsenal if he signs a new contract and can even get loaned to a club like Feyernoord
17, DoB Oct4 1993
ozyakup looks to me a really good player…i feel he should go on loan to the championship at least…in this match too, his play making seemed to be spot on – of course, this is only based on twitter updates from jamie!
Man, that was exhausting trying to keep up with the #Dallas Cup twitter feeds, including Jamie’s, and the search for a live stream which threw these up:
http://www.ustream.tv/user/chiacrew/videos
The video comes from s/o not with Arsenal. Local dude trying out his “toys” from what I could make out. He has posted 4-5 segments of the match, but only one of the goals and no sending off. (The vids at 7:44 until 9:20; the longest one is roughly mins 50-70) He’s either got terrible timing or terrible luck. So not much use for highlights lol! I thought I’d post it anyway.
PS. I wouldn’t expect this guy to turn up for the Arsenal match tomorrow, for better or for worse.
Everyone thinks freeman should go on loan next season, am i the only one who wants him to be given a chance in the first team squad? hes a very hard worker and hes got alot of technical quality, i think he would benefit from playing with players like cesc, rvp, wilshere, and nasri, instead of going to play in some kick n rush league with a bunch of talentless journeymen
he could be a big surprise next season imo
i’m a fan of Freeman …he’a progressed rapidly. Would like to see him out on loan to a good footballing team
Ozzie looks good to me…reminds of Cesc
Good performance from the players and josh rees the super sub of the day, what about miquel friends?
Gabriel isaiah,
Miquel had to meet up with Spain U19’s and play a tournament for them so he has not travelled to Dallas.
But what about Angha, Jamie? Surely he is more highly rated than both Boateng and Monteiro?
Good work as usual JS. Hopefully we make the latter stages and get on tele. Nice to see Barca beaten too. Surely the American teams are extra motivated, playing in Pizza Hut Park :)
It is a shame American kids still play in youth setups and not under professional coaching and training. I don’t know when we will ever realize these kids need to be in real academies. Good to see Arsenal doing well though. To be fair we have some guys that have already played professional there though so we should do well.
Fortunately, the largest problems with American youth development seem to have been identified. With Claudio Reyna overseeing the restructuring of our youth programs, I am confident we are well placed to make significant strides forward in technique and tactics. Unfortunately, I believe we still face certain cultural obstacles and the road remains a long one. But it’s great when they have the opportunity to play against boys as talented and well-organized our Arsenal lads!
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1656/nigeria/2011/04/18/2446939/samson-siasia-gets-arsenals-chuks-aneke-to-commit-to-nigeria?
Turncoat
Rumours going around that a stream will be available for the match v chorrillo. Is it true js?
Official streams will be only for semifinals and final. Stream you mention will be from phone with quality you probably don’t like.
Thanks bogdan.
I’ll follow the tweets then.
This may work, try in an hour
http://www.dallascup.com/vid/506973.html
Arsenal vs Chorrillo live updates here: http://twitter.com/YoungGunsBlog
Why was that geezer in the crowd getting warned? angry dad or coach?