Crew continue their good streak of matches vs. RSL at Crew stadium. Danny O'Rourke comes back into the lineup and the defense holds. RSL missing key players in central midfield and defense ends up getting exploited by nice plays by Renteria-Tchani and Williams-Gaven. 2-0.
Congrats on the win. You guys thoroughly outplayed us tonight. Perhaps the power outage was a foreshadow. You played lights out. Hopefully you all get your power back soon, but at least you can all go home happy.
Well, good to see the Crew win this shortened game. What? They actually played from the 40th to the 70th minute? My DVR got all screwed up with the late start and by the time I realized the recording had ended and I switched to live it was the 70th minute; just in time for lightning to scramble my signal for another couple of minutes. Some good combination play by the Crew for the first goal; maybe even the second one. Tchani producing when back in the middle which only leaves Birchall playing out of position. Besides Schoenfeld who plays out of position anywhere on the pitch. Maybe Warzycha wanted to even it out by playing 10 on 11. His first touch isn't too bad if he can reach it after it rolls 10 yards away from him. If I ever see another Crew player dishonor the uniform the way Renteria did in the first minute I'll burn all of my uniforms. He should be ashamed of himself.
I'm thinking that dive is why he had such a hard time getting calls late in the match. His reputation is catching up to him.
Defense and Andy were BRILLIANT!! that one first half through ball caught us off gaurd when RSL striker scuffed shot that was ONLY mistake i caught (and i am pretty critical to say the least). Midfield did a brilliant job of working back, and strung passes together nicely. Strikers hustled an worse down defense. MVP? - Nordecke Glowsticks and SMOKE!!!! must be brought back. I'm thinking blackout the galaxy would be appropriate, and it's national TV. It got the chant going for a while and people who usually didn't participate in chants got in the spirit when the glowstick was in hand! Good idea
He is built like a stinkin tank why oh why go down so easy...in the second half did have a nice recovery of possession on a long ball, pretty stuff and an assist. On another topic, James lost the mark several times in the 1st half. Once when work with Williams on a diagonal run from left to right. Again on a similar run from R > L when working with Miranda....and I think on a corner kick. Could have cost us. Bad communicating? Leaderless D? Great to see Danny O' back Good results -The whole production came off well even with delays, weather and etc.
Something to notice, as I'm sure many did, was the beautiful layoff by Williams to Gaven on the goal. Everyone in the place thought he was going to blast it and see where it fell but he fronted that and laid it off beautifully to Eddie. Even my wife said "Wow, did you see what he did"?
Initial reactions: 1) Finally, a much-needed win and impressive showing at home when there was a big crowd on hand. 2) Um, yeah . . . I've always LOVED that Tchani dude. 3) Stadium sounded world-class during the broadcast last night. 4) As anything other than a late-game sub when the outcome is more or less decided, Schoenfeld is a bad idea. 5) How is it that Renteria passes with such precision, but shoots as though he's aiming at the sun?
I keep forgetting you follow Chelsea and are used to Drogba. If he's going to dive, then at least let there be contact or someone in the same zip code. It looked bad live, it looked worse in slow motion; like a bad Hollywood flick.
The first goal was all Renteria. Well, him and the RSL defense apparently out getting their legs waxed or something. Great job beating Wingert - if he wasn't left-footed he'd have been out of soccer five years ago; I had a three-legged dog who could out run that schmuck - like a rented mule despite actually falling down, Renteria turns the corner and hits the only yellow shirt in the box, who is being completely ignored by the entire back line. Really awful. Your dear sweet old Granny would hit that one seven out of ten if you left her that wide open. The Gaven goal was almost as bad. Solid stuff from the Crew but it helps a bunch when the defense is standing around with their thumbs up their asses.
Will Johnson stepped on Renteria's right shoelace (and presumably right shoe), untying it. Yes, Renteria dove, but it wasn't completely absent contact from Johnson. Renteria and Tchani were the Crew's best two players. Schoenfeld is a two-bit hack.
mind if I post this on the RSL boards? it's "nice" (well not really, but ya know...) to see that other people see just how bad we are right now in the back. and in the middle. and on the wings (we don't have any). and up top. and on the bench. etc you guys more than deserved the full 3 points. at one point I was cheering for you to bag more goals just so Kreis would be forced to not pick up MLS journeymen (which means they tend really suck) and make a real change to the squad. It's not going to happen, though. Also, why the hell didn't you get Steele a red card? I ********ing hate that guy and now he is going to play on the 4th and ruin the holiday for me.
I think Williams has proven to be a good player for the Crew. Seems like every game he is creating a scoring chance on set pieces. Defensively he has been solid despite no consistent CB partner. Schonefield is terrible and I can see why the MONTREAL IMPACT cut him loose.
Gaven got MOTM which is fine, but I thought Josh Williams played a great match in a match in which the Crew played their best match of the season. The pass he made to Gaven off the corner was class. He was a rock in the defense and one of the reasons RSL looked shockingly uninspired going forward. RSL looked like a beat team in the second half . They played with no sense of urgency and a big part of it was Williams as well as the back line disrupting any potential scoring opportunity. Great match played in front of a big crowd.
I think Schoenfeld should be forced to watch the replay of Williams trapping the ball and pushing it forward in one move, then faking the shot and feeding Gaven. That trap and push set up the whole goal.
It's also worth mentioning one of the highlights of the broadcast, when Dwight suggested that Danny O is the Duncan Oughton of his generation. Duncan was nothing if not empathetic.