According to the MLS stats, DC had only 4 shots the entire match. 1 was on goal. Looks like Woolard's header was it!
Reading Goff's tweets, it may be worse -- Pontius came off with what could politely be called "butt soreness." Says his one of his glutes has been sore for several weeks -- is this the opposite of the dreaded "sports hernia".
Didn't they say that Houston had not given up a goal in four home matches handled by this ref? It should not be a big surprise that he was selected for this stadium opener and that the scoreless streak has been extended. Even the NFL doesn't allow the sort of late hits that Houston delivered repeatedly in this match. I'm not saying the ref determined the outcome, but he certainly was a contributing factor.
Yeah, we were watching with a soccer novice (Ravens fan), and even HE was asking why the ref" let that orange guy let him hit that guy in black, when the other orange guy smashed that first guy worse"...Houston definitely had the benefit of many of the calls, and I think the first yellow on Houston was given on the call of the fourth official.
or as Goff put it in his write-up "Pontius, United’s second-leading scorer with five goals, aggravated an injury that has bothered him for weeks. He, too, will undergo testing at home." http://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...er-dc-united/2012/05/12/gIQA2n0BLU_story.html
Yeah so, Pontius, Kitchen, Dudar, Jakovic, DeLo... at least we had a good team. I didn't see the first, half, but I'm assuming that since the highlight reel started at minute 30 I didn't miss too much. Watching the second half, I couldn't believe we were tied, because the marking, and closing down of players was almost nonexistent. Every single player seemed tired, and nobody more than Dero. Then I saw King and no Kitchen and things made even more sense. After about 10 minutes of watching it began to feel like the chances of Houston scoring were being calculated by the ticking of the game clock. I didn't understand Pontius being taken out because he looked incredible to me for that few minutes, but I saw the injury news. Salihi wasn't really set up for success in that game, so it's hard to judge, but he has some great first touches. Seems to me he is really the prototypical type of DP United has set their sights on lately, a guy who is a solid player, who bring quality, but is just not going to set the world on fire. That Bosko couldn't get on the field in this game, starting or as a sub, certainly seems to indicate he's not in the long term plans. I can't see, despite some good work he did, how Najar wins that LM spot from Boskovic if everything is going to plan. I'd like to think he's got some kind of fitness issue we don't know about. Otherwise, I honestly feel bad for the guy. He didn't help himself at times, but he had a real shot that got taken away by that tackle. Russell was HORRIBLE with the ball. He needs to just be a board and pass it off to someone else nearby on days like that. So many possessions died from his foot. I have some questions in this game, such as why not put Najar at RB, Korb on the left, and Boskovic at LM? Why not put Boskovic on, move Dero up top for Pontius? And that's all aside from the issues I had with Ben's choices all throughout the road trip. I think if he had been more conservative in SJ, we would have had a much better chance at 1pt today, and possibly then too. It bothers me that in the post game he was surprised at how tired the players got during the game. Really? You're running some of them into the ground and they've been on the road for over a week, and it's hot in Houston and you're surprised at this now?
Hmmm .... Ben could of done a lot. De Ro was finished by the 50th minute (you can even argue by the 1st minute). I don't understand why Benny insists on running his 33 year old legs into the ground with 90 minute shifts every single game. I just simply refuse to believe that Boskovic isn't worthy of at least an occasional start in the place of De Ro. What's the point of this depth if we don't use it? We ran De Leon into the ground when we had perfectly good options to rotate (Pontius, Bosko, Najar). Santos is another example ... Ben has a hot striker in Salihi and refuses to give him a start, instead going with the guy that was already showing signs of serious fatigue in SJ and Toronto. So of course Santos is gasping for air by the 50th minute and we're essentially playing down a striker for the last 40 minutes. Ben and Chad spent so much time focusing on depth! depth! depth!, but depth is useless without management. Managing minutes is usually one of the last things learned by inexperienced managers and Benny is almost certainly overdependent on his "sacred cows", especially De Ro. De Ro is totally miscast in this squad as the full time 90 minute central midfield workhorse. I'd like to see De Ro come off the bench one day and take advantage of late game tired legs, instead of being the guy with the tiredest legs at the end.
Spot on. Those of you who, in the immediate wake of the SJ match, were asserting on here that it was OK that Ben went for it there -- still think so? Will you continue to think so if and when we don't have Pontius or Kitchen Wednesday night, and with players like DeRo dead on their feet? Since the match against Jersey, when it seemed like our best lineup had been determined, the man management has been atrocious. And now all the chickens have come home to roost.
I was actually thinking about you that second half since you've been beating the rotation drum since before the road trip. In the end you may have been right, but I still think some of the fatigue could of been avoided last night if we start Boskovic and Salihi. If we would of ended up down 1-0 anyways, at least you have a relatively fresh De Ro and Santos coming in off the bench late to give us a spark. The way we started the game we pretty much used up our spark in the first 30 minutes, and of course the injuries to Kitchen and Pontius were the final 2 nails in the coffin.
Or being fresh for Colorado on Wednesday -- the kind of match we need to win, rather than the kind of match it'd be good if we won (which was this past one, or the one in SJ). Kitchen's injury to me looks like bad luck; but if it's true that Pontius has been nursing this for a while, then that's further evidence of bad man management.
Definitely man management issues and lack of overall planning for the season. Its about points and to maximize them you have to plan ahead. I don't think this coaching staff is quite there yet, but I do think we're watching a very good player grow into a coach...that's going to take time. How much time is still to be determined. Unfortunately the lack of management experience will likely bring on injuries to an already injury ridden side. As always, I'm hoping for the best!
Isn't that what Ashton is there for? He's been coaching long enough to know that which a bunch of internet nuts seem to grasp. Either the claims of increased "depth" are just part of the typical Kasper/Payne hype or they're real. The only way to find out if the touted "depth" is there is to play your depth players (except for King -- really is Morsink really that much worse? At least he gets stuck in and looks like he gives a shit while he's playing.) I think Bosko's contract is up at the end of this month (has it been 2 years already?), it's clear he no longer is part of the squad in any meaningful sense.
I can see a use for King, as an offensive sub. (Please wait, and let me finish. ) I say offensive in the way that he does provide a little more in the attack than Morsink, but is not as good in defending. At the point that Ben subbed him in, DC was trying to score, so he put King in. If the match were tied, or DC had been up a goal, my guess is that he might have put in Morsink, who is a better defender, IMHO. But the point still remains that we had some players who were dinged-up, the team knew about them, and continued to try to play them in all 180 minutes. That is just bad coaching. Now, I guess we're forced into seeing how much "depth" we truly have, this week.
I simply don't understand Salihi coming in so late and Boskovic not coming in at all. I know Ben had to burn a sub early, but still....
I don't recall seeing Boskovic on any injury report. If Ben is not going to play him, especially in the next couple of games, he is as good as gone, IMHO.
You guys are just dense... Depth means the guys you play after you run your starters into the ground... DUH!
DeRo has played all but 30 minutes this season, on a team that has played the most games in the league. Botch. Plain and simple. His frigging back up is a DP! I've said it before and I'll say it again, guys need to be relatively fresh towards the end of the year when they will have to scratch and claw for points. There are moments in a season when you have to 'punt', a term I've heard here a few times, in a derogatory manner. San Jose was a great spot to punt, but they went for it. It didn't take long to bite United in the ass. When players are healthy you have to rotate b/c there will always be injuries and then that luxury is taken away.
I recently read a rather snarky article in one of the soccer coaching magazines which belittled American soccer players (and, by extension, American soccer coaches) for believing that the key to success in the game is to outrun and outwork the opposition. In contrast to this mindset, the author used Thierry Henry as an exemplar of the "European" player, who seems not to be working very hard but places himself precisely where he ought to be to propel the team forward. Boskovic is like this - he doesn't run around frantically but is usually in the right place at the right time. Also, Bosko doesn't run with that arm-pumping style (Olsen? Cruz?) that signals "I'm working my butt off." Instead, he "glides" from place to place, which can look as if he isn't going all out - but he gets where he needs to be when he needs to be there. I think Olsen expects his players to be like his hyperactive self and doesn't appreciate a calmer, more contained approach. It's a shame, because I really believe Bosko could be a great contributor, if only he can get on the pitch.
I'm not sure I agree (with the Olsen's expectations part), but that's a really good take. Olsen does want to play one-two touch and move, and that doesn't seem to be Bosko's game
This is shocking to me. I don't understand how there's any chance that this strategy would pay off in any way. De Ro's game has been in steady decline for weeks. He looked like maybe the worst player out there for us along with Russell, who I think is 2nd on the team in minutes played.
Re Bosko's style, this might be a cogent argument if we'd ever actually seen Bosko play. For sure he's gone, but even still unless he's done something secretly reprehensible that we can't know about (unwanted advances to Talon? Drinking Red Bull in the locker room?) I can't see having not played him this much. Agree about not running DeRo into the ground. Just can't see how King, Wolff, Neal et al are the answer to anything but a short term question. When this is all over (ie when he's shipped out) I'd sure like to know what really went down and why he hasnt been in the mix at all this year.
While I appreciate the attempt to explain Bosko's not playing based on his style of football, I'm not buying it. Sure Olsen prizes hard work, but he also played with Etch and Moreno and no one ever accused either one of those guys of being "arms pumping" workhorses like Cruz. I think Bosko hasn't been playing because Olsen has decided that he doesn't offer much. Bosko's first partial season was miserable because the team stunk, but he did show up out of shape (and after accepting DP money). The second season began with him glued to the bench until his "breakout superstar" performance against the Reserve Team of probably the worst team in the league. Based on the empirical evidence, e.g., his actual playing, Bosko sits somewhere south of King and north of Morsink, which in MLS terms is the middle of nowhere.
