Battery-Railhawks Draw, Davies is Back, and the USMNT is Serious

Yesterday the Battery traveled up to Cary, North Carolina for a preseason friendly, at Wakemed Soccer Park against the NASL's Carolina Railhawks.

The game would end in a 0-0 draw. Neither team threatened very much, and the Railhawks would "dominate" (well as you could in this game anyway) the possession in the offensive third. The lack of attacking is typical in these preseason games, and I would take this result with a grain of salt.

Last night Charlie Davies made his debut for DC United against the Columbus Crew, in a game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

Davies would enter in the 56th minute, as a sub in the second half for Joseph Ngwenya. In the 63rd minute he would get his chance to make this debut one to remember.

Chris Pontius was pulled down in the box, and Davies would step up to take this PK for United. He buried it to the bottom right.  He wasn't done. Not by a long shot.

In the 77th minute Davies collected a long ball and ran past the Columbus keeper to put his total for the day up to two.

In an emotional post game interview, Davies said:

"This has been like a storybook tonight. I don’t think you could write this stuff. You can’t make this up, and once the whistle blew I was so relieved that we had won. I looked at the fans and that’s when the emotion hit me. I thought to myself, look at the support, look at how much people wanted me to succeed. To score two goals on my debut after a year and a half out, it’s honestly amazing. I knew I was ready, and I knew that I wanted the opportunity, but it feels great to seize the moment. To survive the [car] accident and still be able to play soccer, it seems like there is a reason why it happened and this goes to show that with faith and belief that you can achieve the impossible. Tonight it feels like I achieved the impossible."

This was Davies first game for a first team squad since the car accident that he was in, in 2009.

It is rumored that the United States Men's Team will be playing a scrimmage against world champions, Spain in Foxboro, Massachusetts on June 4th, 2011.

This match would be the last game before the CONCACAF Gold Cup that the United States is hosting in the summer of 2011.

If this match is played, it will be the last in a line up of tough teams that the US has faced since the World Cup. Some of the highlights are Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay.

The US is really getting serious in these friendlies. We haven't been seeing too many match ups against the top teams in the world for the United States, and this line up of teams coming to the US, could get more people interested in the team, and get them more media coverage. When you play teams that are this well recognized, there are no negatives.

The USMNT will be playing Argentina on March 26th at the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey, and Paraguay on the 29th at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee.

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