Sometimes in sports, the scoreboard doesn’t tell a game’s story. Last Thursday’s exhibition match between Eugene Metro F.C. and AC Milan was one of those times, because the game was about more than the 2-0 victory for the Italian club shown on Papé Field’s scoreboard.
The Eugene Metro F.C. select team was a collection of college players who had only practiced together for three days. The Primavera squad from AC Milan is filled with young players who are one step away from playing for one of Europe’s storied clubs.
That a group of college players gave the organized and efficient Italian side a run for its money was not reflected by the final score.
The match was the second in a three-game preseason tour of the United States for the Italian club. AC Milan is one of Italy’s most successful soccer clubs, having won the Italian league 17 times and the Champion’s League seven times, including this season. Their Primavera squad is the step just below the first team and features under-20-year-old players and also features three players who represent their nations at the U-21 level, including Nigerian forward Kingsley Umunegbu.
Milan played the Portland Timbers of the United Soccer League’s A-League on Tuesday, June 19, and lost on penalty kicks. After its stop in Eugene, the Italian club played another A-League squad, the Minnesota Thunder, on Saturday and defeated them 2-1.
Though the Timbers and the Thunder are matches for the professional level of the Primavera side, the team of college players assembled by Eugene Metro F.C. gave Milan a team of equal age. Most of the college players are from west coast schools, including Pacific-10 Conference teams UCLA, Oregon State, and the University of Portland. Many of the Eugene Metro F.C. Select players attended Eugene high schools.
Let the game begin
After player introductions and both the Italian and United States national anthems, the match kicked off under the evening sun of the longest day of the year. The attacks began soon thereafter from both sides, though Milan held much more of the organized attacking force early as the Eugene Metro side figured out how to play together. Only practicing together as a team the week before the match, the Eugene Metro players were forced to be talkative throughout the game but especially early on as they felt their way toward playing as a cohesive unit.
Eugene Metro director of coaching Mac Wilson, who served as head coach for the exhibition, said, “We had to communicate. One of our pre-game main topics was ‘We’ve got to really over-talk.’”
The chatter was non-stop on the pitch from the Eugene defenders, including UCLA defender Ryan White. Though the shot and attempt totals were equal early on, Milan looked the superior attacking force, building up attempts quickly and playing balls out to their wingers, including Enrico Da Ros. Milan had an attack cleared out by EMFC in the seventh minute that was almost turned as a fast break, but Northern Illinois’ Emmanuel Luvert, a South Eugene alumnus, was flagged for offsides.
After about fifteen minutes of truly scintillating play, the pace of the game settled a bit, and the EMFC players were able to build up better attacks. They forced a close shot that AC Milan’s keeper, Daniel Offredi, was forced to collect, and then two minutes later Vermont’s Jordan Casilneck popped a quick shot in after switching the ball in his feet for another save.
After more attacking opportunities for both sides, it was Milan’s Da Ros who finally put a goal on the board. Switching over to the right wing from his starting spot on the left, Da Ros picked up a loose ball, stopped at the corner of the 18-yard box and sent in a shot that EMFC keeper Brian Rowe could do nothing about. The UCLA keeper picked the ball out of the net as the Italians erupted in celebration, embracing right next to the benches.
Milan’s Umunegbu had a few good chances stopped, and EMFC sent shots wide and over, leaving the score 1-0 at halftime.
The Italian side pressed again at the start of the second half, though the pace was not as high-tempo as it was at the beginning of the game. A hard tackle from behind earned Milan’s forward Pierre Aubameyang a yellow card; that did not stop the Frenchman from having a good game, though, as he was influential and effective playing up on the left wing in the second half.
The game was mired in a battle in the midfield by the time the hour mark rolled up on the game. Davide Ancelotti, a midfielder, entered for Milan; he is the son of Carlo Ancelotti, the current head coach of the senior AC Milan squad. As the match continued and EMFC became more desperate, some of the hosts’ attackers, including Luvert and Crasilneck, tried to work through the tough defense on their own; it’s a testament to the Italian club’s defensive skill that they quickly forced the American players to lose the ball and to twist and turn their way into trouble. Milan kept it away in midfield and played a tight, technical, slow build-up game as the clock neared the final minutes of the match.
Desperation for EMFC turned to the long-ball, with the University of Portland’s Leland Wright the target. Wright almost converted a tying goal after springing Milan’s offside trap and taking a left-footed shot at the far side of the goal; the keeper was beaten, but the ball bounced less than a foot wide. All Wright could say after the game was, “I thought it was in.”
The game was killed off less than thirty seconds after Wright’s miss, when the Milan attack countered and a rebounded shot fell to the feet of Alessandro Cattalan for the second goal.
More than the game
Wilson said it was “Unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of in Eugene.”
“(It) truly felt like an international match. They’re a professional club and it shows.”
But for the players, coaches and fans, there was more to the game than what happened between the lines.
The Italian players were grateful for the chance to play and seemed to genuinely enjoy the experience. They also went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant with the EMFC players, coaches and club families on Wednesday, an event that also featured a few other members of Oregon athletics.
“(Oregon women’s basketball coach) Bev Smith was there, (Italian sophomore forward Mary Sbrissa) did all the translation, so we had everything in English and Italian all night,” Wilson added.
And for the American players like Leland, who exchanged shirts with the Italian side after the match, it was as encouraging an experience as a loss can be.
Leland was thankful that “We got an opportunity to play and actually made it a game where it could have gone either way. It’s just a crazy eye-opener for all of us and all these fans to know, you know…we’re not that far behind, we’re right there with them.”
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