Mesanovic trial at minnesota thunder

[jordan]

Even Easier 7-0 Victory Over Morelia On Saturday In Rochester

By bruce

Dark Clouds News & Vice

North East Minneapolis (June 21, 2004) -- Using an entirely different squad from Friday nights match, the Thunder trounced Morelia in front of 2000 in Rochester. Trialist Semir Mesanovic scored 5 straight goals to open the match, before Craig Miller and Aaron Paye finished em off.

More new faces and a thorough thrashing were the highlights of Saturday nights exhibition down in Rochester for our Thunder in their second match against Mexico's Morelia Reserves.

Former Colorado Rapids forward David Castellanos made his second appearance in a row. He is a very tall and broad shouldered striker with what looks to be tons of potential.

Semir Mesanovic, on trial with the club, was a rousing success scoring 5 times. The first one being the prettiest. Mesanovic took a great pass from a healthy Brent Jacquette and raced up the left side angling in to the box. As he approached the keeper, and the defenders began to close him down, the crowd held their breath waiting for him to blast it far post. Instead he shocked everyone by quickly stopping and gently chipping the ball over the keeper and easily into the net. Gorgeous play indeed!

Nate Knox played the match at center back and had a nice showing for himself, winning many headers as he should have against a far shorter team.

As mentioned before, Brent Jacquette was back on the field after his shoulder injury. He made a lot of great defensive stops on the left side. No one got past him all night. He also got involved in the offense with several great passes up the wing for big success. Two of his passes led directly to goals for Semir.

Brian Roberts started in defense as well. Coach Lagos seems to want to get him on the field as much as possible to gain experience for the late season stretch run when every available quality player will be needed.

Our goalkeeper Terry McNelis had to make a few more saves than Warren did the night before. He cleanly caught a couple of decent shots, and snuffed a couple other runs into the his area with sliding smothers.

Amos Magee made 3 or 4 of those classic Amos moves down the wing providing amazingly accurate crosses into the box that also produced results. He seemed to save his bursts of speed for exactly the right moment to have the biggest surprise and impact. Of course the veteran provided some quality defense as well.

Kiki Lara, Chris Vorenkamp, Greg Wheaton and Aaron Paye filled out the midfield with good solid passing and coverage. Morelia could get nothing thru the center of the pitch all night long.

Paye moved up front late in the match and slashed thru the defense for a great flying kick score.

Craig Miller joined the midfield at half time, adding his impressive speed to the wing. His hard work got him a crazy late strike off a goal mouth scramble.

Even third keeper Mike Madigan saw action, but as a defender late in the match, along with Mike Wilson and Kevin Friedland as defenders as well.

Lastly, the grass at Mayo Stadium was about a foot and a half long. The Thunder should have brought Johnny Menyongar on the trip so he could have worn some camouflage shorts and hid in the tall stuff to strike surprise attacks "from out of nowhere!"

Starting Line-up:

McNelis

Jacquette

Knox

Roberts

Magee

Lara

Paye

Wheaton

Vorenkamp

Castellanos

Mesanovic

Subs:

Miller

Friedland

Madigan

Wilson

Notes on Semir Mesanovic: From Bosnia via Canada. Has played for Besiktas in Turkey, Osijek in Croatia, Sarajevo in Bosnia, and the Indiana Blast in the A-League last year. Currently plays for the Milwakuee Wave Orange Ballers of the MISL. He has played internationally for Canada's youth teams and Olympic squad.

[jordan]

there was this from a few days earlier to the one i just posted

By Kyle Sheldon

Minnesota Thunder

June 15, 2004

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Tuesday, June 15, 2004) - Tuesday morning marked the Thunder’s annual Kids’ Day game, as the Thunder faced off against local Minnesota club team Inferno ’95 on a warm, sunny afternoon. 4,106 were on hand to see the Thunder win the contest, 6-1.

Francis Doe scored three goals in leading the Thunder to the 6-1 win over Inferno, while Zafer Kilickan, Semir Mesanovic and Aaron Paye also scored for the Thunder in the victory. Thunder goalkeeper Terry McNelis made three saves in securing the win.

Adam Schmidt scored the lone Inferno goal in the 67th minute.

The Thunder controlled play in the first half, easily knocking the ball through and around the Inferno defense.

In the 22nd minute Thunder midfielder Chris Vorenkamp drove a long, diagonal ball to the deep right corner of the field to a streaking Zafer Kilickan. Kilickan collected the ball inside the goal box and beat Inferno goalkeeper John Dierkhising with a near-post shot for the first goal of the game.

Just minutes later Thunder midfielder Amos Magee collected a loose ball 30 yards from goal and fed a pass to Francis Doe who turned and drilled a shot from 18 yards into the upper right hand corner of the goal past a diving Dierkhising.

Semir Mesanovic closed out the scoring in the first half when he hit a low free kick from just outside the left side of the goal box that somehow found its way through the Inferno defense to sneak into the far right corner of the goal.

Inferno got on the scoreboard in the 67th minute when forward Dale Weiler sent in a cross from the left side of the field that bounced once before midfielder Adam Schmidt hit a diving header past Thunder goalkeeper Terry McNelis.

Thunder forward Aaron Paye added to the Thunder’s goal total in the 77th minute when he received a long pass from 50 yards from goal. Paye outran the nearest Inferno defender and slid the ball past Dierkhising into the back of the net.

Francis Doe scored the final goal in the game in the 88th minute when he brought down a long clearance from Nate Knox. Goalkeeper Dierkhising came off his goal line in an attempt to clear the ball, but Doe chipped the ball over Dierkhisings head from 40 yards and the ball slowly rolled into the goal to put the final score at 6-1.

The Thunder are next in action on Friday, June 18 versus the Morelia Reserves of Mexico at James Griffin Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by visiting www.mnthunder.com or calling the Thunder office at 651.917.TEAM.