Roma wins friendly at Wrigley Field
AS Roma dominated the first half in an easy 4-0 victory over Zaglebie Lubin of Poland in an international club friendly at Wrigley Field.
Despite the easy win, the Italian Serie A team's first-year head coach Zdenek Zeman wasn't pleased with his squad's overall performance.
''I'm not very happy,'' Zeman said through an interpreter. ''We were good enough to convert the first three chances we had, but I'm not very satisfied. We scored some good goals and that's it.''
Lubin's players, not made available after the game, might have differed. Roma scored its four goals before the first half was complete, with scores from the three forwards, Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, Erik Lamela and Bojan Krkic, plus a 30-yard blast from midfielder Panagiotis Tachtsidis.
Osvaldo was in perfect position in the right side of the box to take the pass from Krkic and convert it easily for Roma's first goal barely a minute after kickoff.
Tachtsidis beat Lubin goalkeeper Marek Koziol from midfield in the 19th minute for a 2-0 advantage, and Roma built from there. Forward Erik Lamela was left unattended in the 30th minute, and he floated an easy shot over Koziol for the third goal. American Michael Bradley had one of the assists.
Krkic became the last of Roma's forwards to score when he ran though the Lubin defense and beat Koziol from point-blank range in the 43rd minute.
Roma captain Francesco Totti hit the post with a right-footed shot in the 71st minute.
Roma goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, lightly tested, made one great save, a diving grab of Darvydas Sernas' bid to break the shutout in the 75th minute.
''Still, they got too many chances,'' Stekelenburg said.
Zeman added: ''I'm not happy with the way we played their counterattack.''
Lubin, while credited with seven shots on goal, was controlled enough to allow Stekelenburg to take in the Wrigley Field atmosphere.
''I've played on better fields, but a lot of people came to the game, so it was a nice day,'' Stekelenburg said. ''Roma is popular in America.''
Attended by 22,181, it was the first soccer match at Wrigley Field since 1984, when the Sting of the North American Soccer League split its schedule between there and old Comiskey Park.