MLS Rookie Watch: UCSB's Pontius Takes Opening Week Honors
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MLS News
Sunday, 22 March 2009 16:59
Around the league it was a good opening week for the rookies. Many showed well.



On Thursday, Jeremy Hall had the job of trying to wake the Red Bulls up as a sub early on and fared pretty well. Number one draft pick Steve Zakuani got on late for Sanna Nyassi and looked strong continuing to threaten the slow RBNY defense. That right side for Seattle is going to be a big problem for defenders all year.

In Kansas City, former Maryland Terp Graham Zusi started for the Wizards in a losing effort to Toronto FC. Zusi had an underwhelming debut getting his pocket picked by Jim Brennan who eventually capitalized on a nice TFC move.

The Reds prevailed with two of their draft picks in the starting line-up getting great efforts from Wake Forest man Sam Cronin and big goalkeeper Stefan Frei. Frei was never really threatened other than Davy Arnaud's two rockets with which he could do nothing but watch.

Head on over to Houston where the other UPenn graduate, Alex Grendi, influenced a Columbus tie, a better outcome than fellow Quaker Danny Cepero's 3-0 loss to the Sounders.

Grendi was the Crew's fourth round pick and replaced Robbie Rogers in the 46th minute, ultimately assisting on Guillermo Barros Schelloto's equalizer. Not a bad way to start your MLS career.

Kevin Alston - New England fullback
Despite being outshot and at times, outplayed by San Jose, New England grabbed the away win with the help of two rookies, Darrius Barnes and Kevin Alston. The two were a big part of a tight New England defense that was able to hold off constant attacks from Bobby Convey, Darren Huckerby, Ryan Johnson, and Arturo Alvarez.

A busy weekend at the Home Depot Center with Chivas USA and Los Angeles home matches producing a lot of first chances for the the new blood.

In the Chivas USA match, starring Paulo Nagamura, Wake Forest midfielder Michael Lahoud entered in the 54th minute right before Nagamura unleashed his double salvo. In the Galaxy-DC United, United fielded the hardworking Chris Pontius up front with another Terp Rodney Wallace making his debut as well.

The Galaxy gave First Kick starts to AJ DeLaGarza and Omar Gonzalez, both former Terps. Are we starting to see a pattern here? MLS is high on Maryland with four former Terps grabbing starts this weekend—DeLaGarza, Zusi, Gonzalez and Wallace—and another coming off the bench.

Regardless, the presence of Gonzalez and DeLaGarza wasn't enough to keep DC United from scoring two but with the help of fourth-round pick Kyle Patterson's assist on the Donovan equalizer, the Gals were save a point after a rough start.

CHI's ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Chris Pontius
None of the SuperDraftees were as impressive this week as DC United's Chris Pontius. The versatile forward scored his first MLS goal in style with a fantastic curler from the edge of the box to put United up 2-0.

His work in preseason has drawn rave reviews and it's good to see him hit the ground running. It was Rodney Wallace who provided him with the assist. The rookies got it done as part of the United offense, but ultimately the win wasn't to be as Donovan and some unfavorable ref decisions got in the way of a good DC start.

I will get the clip of Pontius' goal once it surfaces. The goal, however, might at least stop people from throwing out the Party Boy references. Doubtful, but there's a chance...

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