{"id":19237,"date":"2013-05-10T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T09:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=19237"},"modified":"2013-05-10T02:02:13","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T06:02:13","slug":"pdl-roundup-azul-and-rams-in-newtown-pioneers-unleash-in-commonwealth-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=19237","title":{"rendered":"PDL Roundup: Azul and Rams in Newtown, Pioneers unleash in Commonwealth Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pdlfeature\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cramming in a few last exhibitions before their seasons start, last weekend saw three New England PDL clubs fielding trialists and testing their starting eleven against local teams. In Newtown, CFC Azul battled Connecticut Soccer League\u2019s Prosto SC before\u00a0the Re\u00e1l Boston Rams took to the field for their inaugural match versus Newtown Pride, all while the Western Mass Pioneers battled the NPSL\u2019s Mass United FC on the newly-refurbished Lusitano Field.<\/p>\n

Azul takes form<\/b><\/p>\n

Playing the second of three matches on \u201cSoccer Benefit Day\u201d at Newtown High School, CFC Azul took on Berlin Prosto SC, the current CSL front-runners (11-0-1) with former CFC defender Eddie Floyd on their roster.<\/p>\n

The first half of play saw Prosto\u2019s defense tested with their \u2018keeper making several key saves as Azul quickly configured its attack.<\/p>\n

But despite their best efforts, CFC\u2019s (and former Prosto) Thomas Obasi found the back of the net in the 41st<\/sup>\u00a0minute, capitalizing on both a well-placed through ball and lapse in Berlin\u2019s defense as he beat four defenders to deposit the only goal of the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a preseason game and it looked like a preseason game,\u201d said Azul Head Coach David Kelly. \u201cWe\u2019re getting better with each training session and match. It\u2019s just difficult when you have half of your squad then 60% of your squad and then 75%. But I thought we were good for the first 70 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the preseason squad was New Zealand national team defender Jonny Raj who recently committed with Azul after finishing up with Fairfield University.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Raj) was very good,\u201d Kelly described. \u201cCommanding, organizes, wins every battle. Right now, we have a certain plan (of) how we want to play, how we\u2019re going to defend\u2026 against other teams but he\u2019ll come up to speed within a couple weeks of training and a couple matches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also logging in an impressive performance was returning midfielder Sony Narro who almost put away a second goal in the first half, constantly making runs to build off of the attacking midfield behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hopes for 2013 are that we have a fast, athletic, and entertaining team,\u201d said Kelly in regards to what fans can expect to see. \u201cWe\u2019re going to play good football. The pace will be high. And I think we\u2019re going to be very entertaining and people should stop by.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boston rams against Pride<\/b><\/p>\n

After holding off a late attack from Prostos in the second half, CFC left the field with a 1-0 win as the Re\u00e1l Boston Rams came on for their first ever public match against host Newtown Pride FC.<\/p>\n

Playing with committed players and a number of trialists were also former MLS reserves Andrew Sousa (New England Revolution) and Ryan Maduro (New York Red Bulls), both standing out and committing to the Rams soon after the intense 0-0 draw.<\/p>\n

Both teams had players dishing out hard tackles while chances to score were sparse despite maneuvering from Rams winger Alexander Markes and a series of good passes from the already committed Luke Finkelstein and Paxton Ballard.<\/p>\n

The match could have easily gone in Newtown\u2019s favor early on had it not been for a handful of rapid reactions from Boston goalkeeper Brett Conrad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he played well,\u201d said Rams President Michael Madden. \u201cHe\u2019s a big, strong kid. Commands a lot of respect in the box when he\u2019s in there. But I also thought Keady (Segal) did equally as well in the second half. He\u2019s very athletic. He has a very calming personality for the guys in the back as well so I thought both of them played very, very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the Boston Rams\u2019 debut went smoothly as they put on a defense-minded show along with definite sparks in the midfield that were met by the Pride\u2019s own backline<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we played really, really well,\u201d Madden continued. \u201cI think in the defensive third and middle third, we\u2019re pretty strong. I think we possessed the ball very well in this part of the preseason after only playing together for the last four days. Communication was up and having that team chemistry was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mostly satisfied with their products on the field and noting where improvements are needed, the Rams and Azul now shift their focus towards May 11th<\/sup>\u00a0when both teams face one another in Easton, MA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first game of the season is going to be fun,\u201d said Madden. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be Easton Town night so we\u2019re going to have a lot of kids from Easton coming out. I think we play an attractive brand of soccer; we attack, we possess the ball well, we\u2019re looking to entertain the people who come out. And we\u2019ll have the Ram mascot.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pioneers break in turf with 5-3 win<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, up north as the Rams played to a scoreless draw, the Western Mass Pioneers met Mass United FC in Ludlow for a goal-filled outing on Lusitano Stadium\u2019s new turf field.<\/p>\n

The Pioneers opened the \u201cCommonwealth Derby\u201d with goals in the 17th and 33rd minutes from Javoni Simms and\u00a0DJ Pereira respectively before Mass United\u2019s\u00a0Alencar \u201cJunior\u201d Ventura<\/strong>\u00a0connected with\u00a0Ocane Williamson in the 44th.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ten minutes into the second half, the Pioneers scored again to make it 3-1 in the 58th<\/sup>\u00a0before United answered back three minutes later with a goal from Ventura.<\/p>\n

For another ten minutes, the score settled at 3-2 before Western Mass struck not once, but twice with goals in the 70th<\/sup>\u00a0and 73rd<\/sup>minutes, attributed to a sharp counter attack according to the Mass United website.<\/p>\n

Though Mass United pressed on all the same and was able to grab back another goal with Ventura earning a brace in the 88th<\/sup>, by fulltime Western Mass had broken in the new turf with a 5-3 win.<\/p>\n

Next week, the Pioneers will be off to Central Connecticut State University to face CFC Azul for their own home-opener on the 18th<\/sup>before coming back to Ludlow to face GPS Portland Phoenix on the 24th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the PDL about to kick off, New England’s PDL clubs participated in several preseason exhibitions over the past weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[87,93,84,225,91],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19237"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19241,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19237\/revisions\/19241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}