We won! Which I find kind of confusing. Also ... That is #DCU's first win since the Open Cup final Oct. 1, and first in #MLS play since beating Montreal on Aug. 17.— Thomas Floyd (@ThomasFloyd) April 6, 2014
An ugly, ugly match. New England looked in this game like we did against Columbus, except we didn't play like Columbus. We won, hopefully that motivates the guys to improve. I wonder what this does to EJ's ego, considering he mucked up every opportunity he had tonight and on his first real run at goal Doyle did something worthwhile. Espindola's best match of the season. He tried a lot.
Here's my observations : 1) I worry about our CBs, but if they have one strength it's protecting a narrow lead in the end when the opponent has to resort to hopeful crosses into the box. They can deal with that all day 2) Much better tactical mix in midfield. The shape looked right the whole game. Nothing amazing but nothing conceded either. 3) People will criticize EJ, but IMO in this game specifically I think the system took a step forward. Players were giving him options when he held the ball up. Players are also starting to recognize the little pockets of space he likes to operate in ... just the timing was off which resulted in lots of offsides. Finally I do have to say that the Revs are a pretty poor team right now. I had them pegged as a playoff team in preseason, but so far I've seen nothing good from them and Heaps seems to be set on a pretty incompetent system.
Couldn't agree more. Fagundez has regressed to DeLeonic levels, although DeLeon really outdid himself this game. Saer Sene is just bad at this game. He's like a slower Kenny Cooper with worse teeth. They seem to suffer from the same 'no one wants to really score goals' problem that we face. I think if we pulled DeLeon, pulled Neal earlier, pulled EJ and put in Rolfe***, Doyle and Jeffrey we would have looked a great deal better. Every opportunity Neal/EJ/DeLeon had they killed. *** although aside from the goal, Rolfe coming on did give a lot more possession and opportunities to NE. He didn't play particularly well.
-Espindola is the best player on the team. -EJ is finding a way to get behind, finishing atrocious. -Rolfe has no business playing wide mid, but you can see what he can do around the goal. Espindola wide and Rolfe taking the place of Espy is something I'd like to see. Espindola plays like a mid, it might be worth it to play him there. -NE didn't do dick, and United is still ripe for picking. Good, eff them. -Nice games from both outside backs. 3 points, feeling no pain!!!!
Jeffrey? He looked terrible the last time he played. I hate to admit (cause I kinda like the guy) but agree Re: Neal.
Hard to argue this right now. Sharp goal last week. Sharp assist this week. It's possible that Silva's injury has a positive effect on Espindola. Maybe now Espindola will be given more of the creative freedom to continue these performances. When Silva comes back he can be more of a complementary creative force instead of being "the man".
When Neal and Arnaud are starting in your midfield, it's bad. One of those guys once in a while would be fine, but not like this. So a 2-0 win under these circumstances is terrific. It helps that NE looks lost.
I'd go with the same exact starting 11 for next game ... including Arnaud and Neal and Rolfe off the bench. Wins are so few and far between I see no point in rocking the boat now.
If Neal pulls that stuff again United will be playing with 10 men, they got lucky today. He has to cool it.
Agreed ... He's not good enough to put out there if he becomes a card liability. You'll take the risk with better players, but not Neal. What I did like from Neal is just a more natural left wing presence. Generally good decision making in possession and he'll whip crosses in. Better than Arnaud, Porter or De Leon who all look out of place on the left ...
I didn't know Own Goal had been traded to the Revs. Tonight, Chris Rolfe sent Lewis Neal back to the bench -- a big improvement. I said to my son at the game "we've finally got a smart player who can score." I would like to see Arnaud on the bench as well -- but Jeffrey or Caskey or maybe Martin has to play him there. The first 20 minutes the defense looked shambolic and thanks only to NE's atrocious finishing -- thank you Saer Sene for channeling your inner Kyle Porter -- DCU was lucky not be down 2-0. However, the defense did tighten up, the entire team got more physical and pushed NE around after that. Kitchen was a beast, I really like Espindola's constant movement and general soccer intelligence, NDL runs around like he's on speed, but he can disrupt a defense (theirs and ours) and I thought Dykstra looked very composed.
I also was impressed by Dykstra. Not a lot to do, but he looked the part. It's a feel thing for me, and he didn't make me nervous.
First of all I blame Jay Heaps. But the midfield was cohesive, the backs played ok, the center backs did what was needed, Espindola worked hard and the two subs effected the outcome for the better. EJ, what can you say, not a good day at the office. But we won an actual game! I left RFK singing!
I bet Neal gets suspended by MLS' disciplinary committee because of that tackle on Farrell. My biggest complaint is Christian. I thought he had another terrible game minus the own-goal assist. Too many giveaways in dangerous areas - (would love to see his pass completion percentages for the past four games). Next week, NYRB will use Sam/Wright-Phillips along the flanks and their speed will be too much for Christian and our CBs.
Don't know what it looked like on TV but live it looked like a 50/50 challenge. And I was maybe 50 feet away.
The second one was fine, the first one was a studs up challenge where his foot was about 10 inches off the ground.
I wanted Rolfe and Doyle in the starting lineup, but at least they got minutes - and looked good. Rolfe has always been a favorite of mine. The good: DeLeon- ran his ass off and made the defense react. Arnaud - didn't play his age (neither did Rolfe, but Arnaud went 90). Parke; Franklin; Kitchen: Dykstra; Espindola. The puzzling: EJ - he did some very good things but he has to get more selfish. In fact, the team needs to stop being so cute on the attack. Often, we let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We passed up a lot of decent shots waiting for better shots - which never came. The not so good: Boswell was great in the air, but he made a silly, dangerous pass across our goalmouth that could've/should've been a goal for the bad guys. And that was the worst own-goal I've ever seen.
Christian held up well defensively. NE definitely wanted to attack him and his side, Fagundez was the left wing but got most of his touches on the right hand side. Dorman leaned that way also. So Christian had more to do than any of the defenders. Having said that, his passing was poor, 32 completions with 22 unsuccessful. Franklin wasn't much better percentage wise. I'd like to say that part of this is due to not playing so safe all the time, passing amongst each other along the backline will pad your stats but won't do anything worthwhile, other than kill the game. No, I think some of this is due to the fullbacks imposing themselves, and this will be a good thing in the long run.