"Our boys showed a great effort, and for portions of the game we held our own," said Nor'easters head coach and sporting director Kevin Nuss. "Obviously, Benfica is top club and have some world class players but we looked to play them straight up."

Benfica played most of their first team squad while playing two different teams of 11 for each half. The goals were scored by Raul de Tomas, who recently signed with the club a few weeks ago from Real Madrid, Jota, who was the top scorer at the Under-19 UEFA European Championship in 2018, Portuguese youth international Florentino Ruis, Brazilian midfielder Gabriel, and Serbian international Andrija Zivkovic.

"It continues to show that the hard work that the club has put in has built such a strong reputation that when a club like Benfica is looking for a friendly, they reach out to us," Nuss added. "We pride ourselves on giving our players the opportunity to play against top-notch talent every summer, and one of the biggest clubs in the world certainly fits that bill. We were very excited about the opportunity."

Dan Cordeiro of the Ocean City Nor'easters tackles the ball away from Serbian international Ljubomir Fejsa of SL Benfica during an exhibition game on July 23, 2019 at Rutgers University's Yurcak Field. Photo: SL Benfica

Among the Nor'easters players who took part in the game, eight of them were on the 2019 USL League Two roster, including the league's co-leading scorer Deri Corfe (Wright State / Chester, England) who was in the starting lineup along with Matteo Bennati (Ohio State / Genova, Italy), Ocean City's leading assist man Brandon Smalley (Florida Tech / Bridlington, England) and Ryan Inman (High Point / Birmingham, England). Smalley and Inman, who both started in the midfield, are one of just four players who played in every single league game for the Nor'easters this past season.

Starting on the backline was Gustavo Fernandes (Stong Brook / West Babylon, NY), who started 10 of the 12 games he played this season, and Daniel Kozma (Grand View / Budapest, Hungary), who was Ocean City's 2017 team MVP. Both players played 90 minutes. Marco Torino (Saint Peter's / Rome, Italy) came off the bench and played well, created a really good scoring chance, that forced a big save from the Benfica goalkeeper.

Starting in goal was Nor'easters assistant coach and goalkeeping specialist Matt Perrella (Rider / North Brunswick, NJ). Perrella, a current assistant coach of the women’s soccer program at Drexel University played professionally in both indoor (Harrisburg Heat, Syracuse Silver Knights) and outdoor soccer (Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Jacksonville Armada, Bethlehem Steel, North Carolina FC) during his playing career, that began in England back in 2014 where he played for the Newcastle United reserves team. Last year, Perrella suited up for Atlantic City FC in the National Premier Soccer League and was named the 2018 Keystone Conference goalkeeper of the year.

In addition to starting in goal, Perrella also played a big role in making the game happen.

 

Deri Corfe of the Ocean City Nor'easters battles for the ball with Gabriel of SL Benfica during an exhibition game on July 23, 2019 at Rutgers University's Yurcak Field. Photo: SL Benfica

"From my own personal relationships in the soccer community I received a call to get a team together to play against them. It was totally out of the blue but I accepted the challenge immediately and started making calls to see what Nor'easters players were still available," said Perrella. "For me, its always nice to test myself and challenge my ability and as a competitor you want these opportunities. To work with the Nor'easters and play under their banner was a great for the organization and I was happy they were on board and willing to allow me to construct a roster of players from other squads. I'm confident we left a positive impression and other opportunities will come with this showing."

Perrella was replaced by Jan Hoffelner (St. John's / Frankfurt, Germany) midway through the second half. Hoffelner, last year's NPSL goalkeeper of the Year with Duluth FC, made history in 2019 as the first goalkeeper in Nor'easters history to play every single minute of the season.

The team used a variety of guest players to fill out the rest of the gameday roster (guest players in bold)

STARTERS
Goalkeeper: Matt Perrella
Defender: Marcello Borges (Michigan / Kearny, NJ - Prev. club: Atlantic City FC)
Defender: Gustavo Fernandes
Defender: Daniel Kozma
Defender: Marcus Hackett (William Paterson / Montclair, NJ - Previous club: FC Motown)
Midfielder: Ryan Inman
Midfielder: Brandon Smalley
Midfielder: Matt Nigro (John Carroll / Strongsville, OH - Prev. club: FC Motown)
Forward: Deri Corfe
Forward: Joe Fala (Ramapo / Cape May Court House, NJ)
Forward: Matteo Bennati

SUBS
GK: Jan Hoffelner
Defender: Marco Torino
Midfielder: Dan Vicente (Georgian Court / Kearny, NJ - Prev. club: Atlantic City FC)
Midfielder: Dan Cordeiro (NJIT / North Arlington, NJ - Prev. club: FC Motown)
Midfielder: Kenan Hot (New York Red Bulls Academy / Lincroft, NJ - U-15 National Team)
Forward: Gerald Cubero (NJIT / Bound Brook, NJ - Prev. club: New Jersey Copa FC
Forward: Brian Saramago (Loyola Maryland / New Hyde Park, NY - Prev. club: NY Red Bulls U-23s)
Forward: Eddy Enowbi (East Stroudsburg / Silver Spring, MD - Prev. club: Lehigh Valley United)