For one day at least, it was much Adu about nothing.
Before a packed stadium, a World Cup-sized media contingent and a national television audience, D.C. United phenom Freddy Adu turned in an anticlimactic 33-minute professional debut yesterday at RFK Stadium.
The 14-year-old from Potomac entered the game to a standing ovation when he replaced forward Alecko Eskandarian in the 61st minute. But he looked lost at times as United opened the Major League Soccer season by defeating the defending champion San Jose Earthquakes 2-1.
Adu, who appears poised beyond his years, showed no public dismay over his mundane debut.
“I got it out of the way, now I’m ready to go starting in L.A. [on Saturday night],” Adu said. “I wouldn’t change anything about today. I’m glad I had this experience.”
Adu met reality in the 84th minute when 35-year-old San Jose defender Jeff Agoos stonewalled him as the youngster tried to take on the veteran one-on-one in the box.
Agoos held his ground, blocked Adu’s way, and then stole the ball.
“Were you expecting him to score three goals today?” Agoos asked. “The kid is 14 years old — you guys have to give him some time. He came in, he touched the ball, he played some balls back, it’s going to take time. He’s not going to score three goals in his first game.
“The worst thing that can happen is that the media puts a lot of pressure on him. I think today he made an impact as much as a few other guys — probably not as much as everybody would have liked, but he held his own today.”
Fortunately, United’s other forwards surfaced for the first time in nearly two years. Jaime Moreno scored a goal and assisted on Eskandarian’s eventual game-winner before 24,603 at RFK.
“It’s a challenge to have five or six forwards on the team [because] there are only two [starting] spots and it’s hard on the coach,” said Moreno, who appeared in 11 games for the MetroStars and missed most of last season after back surgery. “It’s a hard decision for the coach to see who is going to play. Freddy is still young. I know there are a lot of things going on with people thinking it’s going to be easy, but we knew it wasn’t going to be easy and he knew, too.”
This was the first time both of United’s forwards have scored in the same game since Sept.19, 2002, when Henry Zambrano and Ali Curtis delivered in a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Burn at RFK.
“Everyone is wondering who is going to score the goals this year for D.C., so we had two forwards who scored tonight,” Eskandarian said.
Moreno, who was officially signed for a second tour with United on Friday, scored the game’s first goal in the 12th minute on a header off Earnie Stewart’s free kick. In the 39th minute, Moreno played a beautiful 20-yard ball over the top to Eskandarian, who finished with a left-footed, 12-yard blast that beat Earthquakes goalkeeper Pat Onstad to the right corner and made the score 2-1.
San Jose had tied the game 1-1 in the 19th minute on a penalty kick when United goalkeeper Nick Rimando came off his line and fouled Earthquakes forward Brian Mullan on a breakaway in the box. Danish international midfielder Ronnie Ekelund converted the penalty kick.
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