It’s a cliché to say the most important thing about pre-season matches is to get minutes in the legs, but clichés exist for a reason.
Sunderland fell 1-0 to Leeds United Thursday night (or Friday morning if you were watching in Sunderland) in Harrison, New Jersey, and other than the lone — and very ugly goal — the most interesting thing that happened in the match was who got minutes for the Black Cats.
World Cup returnees Brian Brobbey, Nilson Angulo, Noah Sadiki, Habib Diarra and Simon Adingra all
made their pre-season debuts in the loss, but Robin Roefs didn’t play.
Sunderland started the match with an almost identical lineup to the 4-2 loss to Liverpool — Ellborg in goal, Nordi Mukiele, Dan Ballard, Luke O’Nien and Reinildo across the back, Alan Browne, Chris Rigg and Enzo Le Fée in the midfield and Trai Hume and Romaine Mundle on the wings.
The lone change was up top, where Brian Brobbey made his return in place of an absent Wilson Isidor.
Leeds, on the other hand, made seven changes from their 3-2 loss to Wrexham on Saturday and among the changes was the debut of Tarik Muharemovic, the Bosnian defender who was reportedly a Sunderland target but signed with Leeds for €37 million?
Swedish World Cup starter Gabriel Gudmundsson also made his pre-season debut, whilst free transfer Harry Wilson and Japanese World Cup veteran Ao Tanaka made their first starts.
It was Tanaka that set up the Leeds goal.
Le Fée hadn’t put a foot wrong throughout the first two matches but Tanaka deflected an attempted flick into the path of Lucas Nmecha, who passed the ball in off the post from about thirty five yards as Ellborg twisted and fell trying to get back from outside the penalty area.
Ellborg barely had anything else to do in the half, making his only save in the twenty sixth minute, yet drew the ire of the fans inside Sports Illustrated Stadium several times for standing on the ball well outside the area while Leeds refused to pressure him.
The most dangerous span of the game for the Black Cats came inside six minutes.
In the eighteenth minute, after one of his long stretches on the ball, Ellborg found Le Fée on the right, who leapt to volley it into Brobbey’s path. Brobbey looked to have a chance to attack, but dropped it back for Le Fée, who wasn’t there.
The rest of the good looks came from the left side — Mundle got into a space, but pulled a pass back to the spot Brobbey had vacated a moment earlier.
Two minutes later, Mundle set up probably the best opportunity of the half, sliding a ball to Reinildo. The ball probably went over the endline, but play continued, and Reinildo found Brobbey in the middle. The Dutchman, though, whiffed badly from six yards and then Le Fée did as well with a chance from further out.
Shortly afterwards, Brobbey and Mundle forced a turnover and Brobbey set up Hume inside the box. Hume one-touch dropped it back to an onrushing Mundle, but his shot wasn’t close.
Brobbey was replaced by Timur Tutierov after thirty six minutes, not long after an altercation with Leeds’ Joe Rodon.
Sunderland’s right side and Leeds’ left almost didn’t exist in the attack. Wilson was essentially a non-entity, and Muharemovic, who was excellent, and Gudmundsson kept Mukiele, Hume and Rigg quiet the rare times the ball strayed to the right.
Leo Hjelde and Nilson Angulo replaced Ballard and Mundle at halftime, while Noah Sadiki, Habib Diarra, Simon Adingra, Archie Lightfoot, Jenson Jones, Tom Proctor and Jenson Seelt came on after an hour to replace the rest of the outfield starters.
Timur Tutierov also continued his impressive pre-season.
Playing as a striker for the first time this summer, he twice got on the end of crosses, though his headers were weak. Late in the match, after moving to the wing when Trey Ogunsuyi replaced Angulo, he combined on a give-and-go with Adingra and forced a save from eighteen yards.
Adingra was also bright playing on the right, though he often meandered into the middle of the formation and twice had shots blocked.
The second-choice back line of Jones, Seelt, Hjelde and Lightfoot largely avoided the lapses that occurred against Liverpool — Diarra and Sadiki’s protection certainly helped — but Ellborg was called on to make four saves in four minutes. Daniel James had the best chance of the half at seventy seven minutes, but Ellborg stood tall and blocked Dan James’ blast off his chest and out for a corner.
Sunderland will complete its US tour on Sunday at 5 p.m. against Wrexham in Chester, Pennsylvania.
