So.... when do we panic? We started with three ties. Now we've followed that with two losses - including giving an expansion team their first win. Colin Clarke has a proven track record. Is it the players? We showed last season that you can't win a championship in the first month of the season, but you can definitely put one out of reach. Even two years ago when we sucked at home, we were killing teams on the road. It's been real quiet around here, anybody got any ideas what's wrong and how to fix it?
We got too many forwards and not enough defenders playing well. The team seems to be dependent on the long ball, even though the mids seemed like they would have some quality there.
Where should I start? I am not in the know like some of the "others" on here but I was told that Campos and a few others were not offered favorable contracts. So, we are starting over from essentially scratch. Rennie liked to play long ball with a target and it worked when we had guys like Campos (and Tom Heinemann). Essentially, what Nurse and Watson had to do is mop up and give the ball to Steele or previously to Gardner or Paladini. We miss Watson so much and now we are trying to push the ball up further along the pitch it seems. Right now, our bright spot is Zimmerman. He is playing out of his skin but he cannot do it alone. Our midfield needs to gel and our defense has to get better. Let's stay positive and hope for results. This is too early.
I'm not sure what others you're referring to, but as far as I can tell that's spot on - Campos would've liked to come back, but he didn't get the offer he needed to make it happen. Yup. This is the kind of dry spell that would pass unremarked in the middle of the season - but, because we don't have anything else to judge this year by, it's scary. The fact that it's scary can't be helped, but it's not like it's actually statistically meaningful yet as a guide to how the team is going to do all summer. I'm worried. But it's to early to be panicking.
I was referring to guys like McKenney and Miller. Our defense could have used them this year. When Shields got hurt, we put in Cory Elenio, who has no business playing right back and ditto for putting Amir at CB when King went down. To be fair, we had a goal called off wrongly and hit the post twice.
I'm 90% certain Miller was simply not offered a contract. But yeah, we really could've used both of those guys Saturday. Agreed. Elenio could play forward in a pinch, but we have no shortage of those. Where we need him is at mid.
To add to the positive thinking, in the past I've felt like the Railhawks may have peaked too soon. The playoffs/end of the last couple seasons have not quite lived up to the promise of the start of those seasons, so maybe they can try the reverse this year.
Clarke's got a long history of doing significantly better in playoffs and other tournaments than you might expect from his regular season results. Not really sure where that comes from, but I could be happy with it applying to our USOC and playoff runs this year...
Well, we're now 6 games in, almost 1/4 of the way through the season. I'm not panic-ing. With 6 of 8 teams in the playoffs, we shouldn't worry about that for a long, long time, but I would like to see something more than we're seeing.
I missed the game yesterday and it sounded like more of the same. Zimmerman is playing awesome right now. Too bad we cannot get a win even after scoring three goals at home. Somethings gotta change. Not sure what though!
Wow! A 0-3 drubbing. I am really upset. WTF is going on with the team? Another few weeks of this nonsense and I think heads will roll.
What heads are going to roll? You are not going to fire Clarke. There is no one to fire. Your best players and coach moved on. There is very little you can do except look to get some players on loan from MLS. While losing might effect attendance and hurt off the field, remember that 6 of the 8 teams make the playoffs. And there is no strong team in this league. It is wide open. Luke Mulholland was a huge player for Minnesota's playoff run and they didn't sign him until the USL-Pro season was over in late August. I would worry about Boss. I don't think you'll get much out of him. I believe he was counting on going to London, having a good Olympics, and then attracting European club interest. He would finally free himself of Traffic. Now he is injured and stuck where he really doesn't want to be. He should of signed that MLS deal.
Clarke has his bad spells, but he usually comes through. You guys are a quality team, so I'm sure it's just a bad moment and it will be gone soon.
The scary part is, it's a dry spell that's lasted a quarter of the season already. We've got 50% more goals allowed than any other team. (By goals scored, we're tied for third; by goals scored per game we're in fourth. Not the first-by-far we were in last year both up top and in back, but solid and respectable. It's only our defense that has a problem.)
Although clearly the defence is not gelling, I don't think it's fair to blame this all on them. I don't get to see too many of the games, so my comments will be restricted to Sunday's outing. In that game, at least, it seemed that the midfielders were failing, in many cases, to cover after the ball was turned over, especially on the outside. They were pushed far up the field, and often sucked into central positions toward the play, leaving vast open territory in front of the outside backs. I was particularly surprised that Elenio, who I generally think of as someone playing out of position, covering for an injured starter, was not afforded more protection from either the right mid (Shriver, I think - although I was thinking about him as a forward playing a bit out of position, also...) or either of the "defensive" mids. The whole game, it seemed that the Hawks did a pretty good job of working together when they made the game small (tons of possession in the first half, when they had the wind, but no final ball), but those not involved in the "small game" were not moving to good positions off the play, and the team was always in trouble when the game got big again - nobody to get on the end of long passes, out of position defensively on turnovers. They would work the ball for 4 or 5 passes, look good, then make a bad pass and turn it over into bad situations. Overall, they really seemed, back to front, to not be on the same page. Of course, to a certain extent, you would expect this: new manager, lots of new players, a few injuries, manager was gone with a death in the family part of the pre-season, iirc... but, you know, it's not the beginning of the season any more. They need to at least have the system down and be able to play together, and something is missing. On top of that, it was pretty disappointing that relatively few of them seemed to play with any urgency or fire until the last ten minutes, when they were already down two goals. I hope they get it together soon.
Oh, yeah. I wouldn't say it's all on the four guys in back. But when you allow 1.7 goals for every one you score, you don't expect to end the season with more than about 26 points. We have to improve that ratio, from one end or the other, and given that the ball is making it into the opponents' nets a fair amount it looks to me like the big question is how to keep it out of ours. And that's not solely the fullbacks' job.
I'm not sure there's any evidence that we're a "quality team." As others have stated, this isn't remotely the same team from the last year and a half. As often happens below D1, we've had wholesale changes. I'm willing to give Clarke a pass on this season, but I'd prefer if I didn't have to. And, of course, the last two D2 champions have been amongst the final playoff qualifiers.
Game in, game out, sure. But over time we get caught up in hardware and the trophy case. And, to be honest, only the very small fringe of fans in the United States really care about who wins the regular season. I happen to be one of them, but I understand my weirdness. In the U.S., success is measured by winning the championship game or series. Nobody remembers the Kansas City Royals winning 102 games in 1977, they remember the New York Yankees ending a 15 year championship drought by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Considering we've never beat Minnesota in the regular season, I'll take a point. I hope Gale is playing and Cory is taken out of makeshift defender. I'm also looking for someone up top to be the go-to striker. We have Zimmerman in the midfield as the go to right now, but we need a striker to help relieve the pressure.
Ugh. Something needs to change. 0-4-4. We're tied for last with Atlanta, but they have two games in hand.
Why is Clarke untouchable? This is the team he put together. He did not want certain players. Fine. He has the right to do so as the head coach. But the guys he has brought in are not doing too well. The ones that are trying are players from previous seasons. In my years of supporting this team (and I mean supporting as I have been a season ticket holder since year 2), I have never seen a team that looks so out of depth. Schweitzer's teams could not score often enough but defended like their lives depended on it. Rennie's teams fell short twice but always fought to the end. This team just plain old looks flat. I am willing to give Clarke a year to turn things around but come on. The fans deserve better!
Well, at least I got to see them get some preseason wins over those college teams I also follow the Philadelphia Union, and their season is going the same way since last year oop: