Post-match: DCU @ Houston 7/15/2012

Discussion in 'D.C. United' started by NattyBo, Jul 15, 2012.

  1. NattyBo

    NattyBo Member+

    Apr 30, 2004
    Nunya
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Post match thoughts and discussion go here.
     
  2. Stan Collins

    Stan Collins Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Silver Spring, MD
    What a match that was! If you haven't seen it yet, well. . .
     
  3. Bonus_Game

    Bonus_Game Member

    Sep 30, 2007
    San Francisco
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I ********ing hate Houston
     
  4. DangerMouse37

    DangerMouse37 Member+

    Jan 22, 2004
    WDC / Barra
    ...consider yourself lucky...
     
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  5. Cweedchop

    Cweedchop Member+

    Mar 6, 2000
    Ellicott City, Md
    Houston continues to be a house of horrors for United all-time.

    0-7-1 14 goals against, 4 goals for

    Bill Hamid showed his immaturity tonight by first hesitating on the play and then coming out like he was on fire. I would have bet $1000 that had Hamid not made contact with Kandji, that donk would have missed the open net.

    That being said, Houston isn't exactly AC Milan out there and for them to completely tear apart United's defense is distressing. Yes, teams with a man advantage usually win games like this, but I've seen them go the other way on occasion and the lack of discipline in defending was horrific.

    This team has a long way to go and needs to improve their road form before anyone can take them seriously. You can't play all your games at RFK. Sooner or later, United will start losing those games too.

    Additionally, these long layoffs have not been optimal for United. They got absolutely abused all over the field by Philadelphia in their previous game with a big break (somehow they managed to win that game) and got absolutely hammered tonight.

    Not good, not good at all..
     
  6. JoseP

    JoseP Member

    Apr 11, 2002
    I was down on Hamid before this game, but he really blew it. It could have been a competitive game.

    First, he was entirely too slow coming out. Then he goes in full force when all he needed to do was slow down the player with the ball. Then he fouls the player where everybody knows it is an automatic red. Take the red when you are up by a goal in the 80th minute. Don't take a red in the first 20 minutes in a 0-0 game. That is just beyond stupid.

    I know he is young and all, but, even a high school keeper would know how to handle that situation.
     
  7. bct81

    bct81 Member+

    multiple (DC United, Dortmund, Arsenal, Leeds....)
    United States
    Mar 17, 2007
    moving around the US every few years ....
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    ugly ugly ugly

    bright side: all kinds of great coaching points to be made from tonight.

    90 minutes of Houston humidity suckitude

    United looked like they had too much time off
     
  8. Cweedchop

    Cweedchop Member+

    Mar 6, 2000
    Ellicott City, Md
    United should just petition MLS to forfeit all matches played in Houston.

    It would save on airfare and the legs. Why go through the embarrassment of showing up?
     
  9. griffin1108

    griffin1108 BigSoccer Supporter

    Dec 5, 2003
    Virginia
    Very disappointing. Game started crisp, DCU got a few peeks at goal and everything was settling into a tight game. Then, Russell fell asleep ball watching and Bill Hamid demonstrated his astonishing lack of field awareness by stopping then starting and challenging Kandji. If he had watched tape, he should have known to stand his ground and Kandji would eventually ******** up the breakaway. Instead, Hamid goes out with no chance, hacks Kandji and game over. Ben really should sit Hamid for a few games after his red card suspension. If Dudar got in the doghouse for letting Adu's pass skip over his foot, Hamid should fare no better.
     
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  10. United fury

    United fury Member+

    Feb 9, 2007
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    DCU looked quite potent up until the early red on Bill. The red card plus the pk was a double whammy and fed right into Kinnear's hands. A 4-3-3 formation because of it's high pressure nature is such a killer on a team that's down a man and DCU has struggled with 4-3-3's all season. This match sucked, but look at it this way; if DCU can beat Columbus then the team will have gotten one more point then if they had tied both matches. I know perspective doesn't help with the pain but I think DCU stands a chance to rebound hugely in this back to back series with Columbus.
     
  11. Bootsy Collins

    Bootsy Collins Player of the Year

    Oct 18, 2004
    Capitol Hill
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Not only that, but look at the schedule we've played up to this point. We've done well in the first half of the season; but our schedule has been skewed toward the bottom half of the table up to this point. Mid-August to mid-September are going to be very, very tough for us.
     
  12. Bootsy Collins

    Bootsy Collins Player of the Year

    Oct 18, 2004
    Capitol Hill
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's not all -- if you can, watch what he did afterward. Once he's beaten, there's a place he's supposed to go, and he started that way -- trotting along at one-quarter impulse power.

    By all accounts I've seen, Robbie Russell is a really great guy. I've never met him, but I expect he's very cool. However, for most of this season, he's sucked for us as a wingback. He can't play the position anymore -- he just doesn't have the jets. He gets overrun seemingly Every. Single. Match.

    If I was coaching against us, I'd attack down our right with through balls/long balls in the air to a wing or defender over and over and over.
     
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  13. itwasi

    itwasi Member+

    May 9, 2008
    I don't know
    Club:
    DC United
    Please don't mistake Boskovic for Gomez. He hasn't shown an ability to 1. play in the heat 2. control a high pressure physical team. He's the one to come off.
     
    DangerMouse37 repped this.
  14. Bootsy Collins

    Bootsy Collins Player of the Year

    Oct 18, 2004
    Capitol Hill
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't mistake Boskovic for Gomez. In his ability to hold pressure, he's maybe 30% of Gomez. The problem is that nobody else on the team (including Maicon Santos) is even 10% of Gomez. Put another way, both of your points above are true; but trusting Maicon Santos to hold possession for us instead is far sillier. You're saying Boskovic wouldn't have been good enough; I'm saying in this situation, Santos is worse.
     
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  15. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    Yes, Hamid made a bad decision but he's still the best young keeper in the league. Everybody just take a deep breath.

    The bigger issue was that the defense of Los Capitalinos was just awful. I am officially over Robert Isaac Oleen Russell. He's been the weakest link in DCU's defense all season and his allegedly swashbuckling offense is just swashing. Or buckling. Whichever's worse. It's time for him to sit. Sadly, Daniel Harry Norbert Woolard seems to be trending back to his norm as a journeyman defender after starting the season so brightly. Dejan Kwavlyckjjylk Jakovic and Brandon Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned "Big Mac" MacDonald both had an awfully poor night.



    *Some middle names may not be 100% accurate.
     
  16. DangerMouse37

    DangerMouse37 Member+

    Jan 22, 2004
    WDC / Barra
    Neither is right for the situation. A moody player like Santos could -- and did largely -- check out for chunks of the game. But I agree, Bosko would have feared poorly with the heat, this ref and the physical play. We'd have had to bunker and hope for a breakout, and certainly the team isn't built for that.

    Ben could have guessed better maybe. But the difference was likely 3-0 vs 4-0 the way the defense was playing, especially with Russell on the field. Clearly need upgrades on D.
     
  17. Section106

    Section106 Member

    May 1, 2003
    Hampton,VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Wasn't the third goal offside? The player that scored was in an offside position when the ball was played to the winger and then jumped back on to receive the cross. It should not have been allowed.

    And Russell should be cut tomorrow.
     
  18. itwasi

    itwasi Member+

    May 9, 2008
    I don't know
    Club:
    DC United
    I see what you're saying but it wouldn't have made a difference (I think we agree on this - given your other posts). So I don't know why everyone is getting worked up over it.
     
  19. JoseP

    JoseP Member

    Apr 11, 2002
    I honestly fail to see much difference between Willis and Hamid except Willis makes less stupid mistakes.

    Hamid has all the tools to be a great keeper. His growing up mentally has killed this team more than once. Never mind what he did to our Olympic hopes.

    He's a kid. He should be learning the game playing in the reserves instead of with the top team. I think he may be a great player some day. But, right now he needs to learn from his mistakes in a different venue.
     
  20. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    Our summer schedule is pathetic. I don't understand how the scheduling could be so awkward. We have way too much time off between games in June/July.

    Everything leading up to this game had signs that the team was losing focus. Several players like McDonald and Pontius are on vacation in Arizona and California. Najar is off to London. De Ro is in LA rubbing shoulders with NBA players. Dudar is off dealing with family issues. Tan, White and Dykstra are off on loan in the minor leagues.

    And all this time there's a gigantic media love fest with the new owners, the team being in 1st place etc ... etc ...

    It seems like every time this team has a long layoff we lose all momentum and focus. There's another 2 week layoff after Columbus so some of these guys need to take responsibility and change this trend. I think this responsibility goes beyond the coaches. At a certain point some of those guys in the locker room need to step up and lead this team out of being complacent.
     
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  21. Shammypantaloons

    Apr 20, 2012
    Club:
    DC United
    I feel like we have two overlapping issues right now, one being resources we can (perhaps should) trade away and one being resources we're not utilizing that can be repappropriated.

    On the one hand, the old DC United "cult of character" still rears it's ugly head whenever discussions of Hamid come around. Fact is, Willis is as fine a performer as Hamid most of the time. Keepers are really not too hard to come by and in the MLS there are relatively few teams who are deficient at that position (actually I would say that there are too many good keepers relative to the number of spots for the first time in a long time). It's not simply this performance that makes me want to see him go, but the fact that his value keeps dropping over time. He's literally worth half as much on the international market now as he was before the Olympic qualifiers.

    Second, we have other resources that we just aren't using. So we have these guys we like, Hamdi and Dudar in particular, but there are others. We pay them a lot of money (whether relatively or objectively, you decide) and yet we don't get full use of them. I don't really care for the idea of a "super sub." I think so far we've done well mixing it up. Scoring has come from a number of sources and several people who got a lot of crap stepped up (see: Woolard). However, all this moving pieces around stuff is just as likely to bite us in the ass as it is to make us successful in the end stretch.

    Take a look at Santos and DeLeon, for example. They contributed heavily at Season's start and now they are fizzling out. Is that simply regressing toward the mean or are they being psyched out by lineup changes? I don't know. Quite frankly, with this new money we have, I think we should afford to get a highlight player either on D or at Forward to fill in our ranks. Someone who is "match ready" right away and someone we trust to be on the field every game (like a DeRo).

    I don't have access to/haven't ready these players contracts so maybe it's not possible for whatever reason to let them go, but I just feel strongly that our team would benefit from stability going into the playoffs, instead of hoping we get a diverse blend of contributions from a number of players.
     
  22. Transatlantic

    Transatlantic Member

    Aug 17, 2011
    Houston, TX
    Club:
    Celtic FC
    I was at the game and I don't know what to say.

    Bad combination with the red card ruined what could have been a good match. Even down a man I expected the players to show more determination. They simply looked tired and worn out.
     
  23. DCUSA

    DCUSA Member+

    Jan 14, 2006
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Bad showing all around, but they were never going to win, they just don't win in Houston. I was optimistic, but that was completely foolish. The worst thing about this game was the hit to their goal differential, which probably won't amount to anything in the end.

    DC needed a top game from Santos after the red to have a chance and they didn't get it, so it was just defending, running and wearing down. The best thing that happened was Russell going down so there was a fullback there who was in position most of the time, as opposed to never.
     
  24. DecadeOfDCU26

    DecadeOfDCU26 Member+

    May 2, 2007
    DC
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Wait wait...you are saying you would consider releasing Santos, who has what 6 goals for us, and Deleon, our first round draft pick who has showed great potential, after half a season?
     
  25. JeremyEritrea

    JeremyEritrea Member+

    Jun 29, 2006
    Takoma Park, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    4-0 final score? Glad I went to bed at halftime.
     

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