Fire Warzycha, 2012 Edition (2.0)

Polish people have true grit

The loss at NE was the direct result of RW's inflexibility over the last seven games. Once again, he proves that he has no concept around roster management.

He let his ego get in the way of starting Williams, and the first goal was a ball that bounced right over Danny O'Rourke's 5'5" body which led to a kafluffle in the goalmouth. He's run Gaven/Milo/Birchall/Duka out there every game over the past three weeks. No wonder they looked exhausted. Arrietta had a bum ankle. Miranda and Marshall get no rest. #greatchoices.

I thought the subs were odd to me too. But I've stopped trying to understand. I've resigned myself to one more year.

I thought the subs were fantastic. Williams on for Birchall, Tchani on for Mirosevic and Renteria on for Duka in the 75.

/sarcasm.

Also. I dont care how tired Chad Marshall is, it definitely looked like he would have a chance to save his own goal.
But everyone in the stadium and on the tv watched him give up.

Ha! You had me here! On the email I only say the first two sentences!!!

Captains don't quit.

1st of all, this is thread #4 dedicated to this club getting pistol whipped by a dunce manager.

Secondly, you know who we have to thank for getting RW another year? Higuain and Bliss.

I wouldn't change having Higs here for the world. But the unfortunate side effect is that this will blind McCullers (short of complete coaching debacle in the playoffs, which is still possible).

FACT/DELUSION
FACT: Tired players before the run of matches, and pretty much the same lineup used during the run / DELUSION: (simplifies the matter to avoid being critical) 7 matches in 21 days will tire any team out
FACT: We're in the playoff race thanks to Higuain raising the level of the other players and his late match heroics / DELUSION: we went 4-1-2 in 21 days, has to be a coaching thing
FACT: Those 4 wins were against the bottom 4 of the East / DELUSION: See previous delusion

Bottom line is that with those 7 matches, Higs was the difference. There is no change in tactical application. Williams continued being run out at LB where he is weak. The subs seem to be cookie cutter, from a point to view of WHO is subbed out. For example, Duka, deserved or not, is always subbed out.

RW is a mismanager and is tactically stunted. We have Higs, Andy, Gaven, Arrieta to thank for those 14 points.

I think it is funny that RW believes, or likes to say that we have more than 11 starters. That anyone on the 23 can start for this club. But with a stretch like this, he's completely proven himself wrong.

He used 17 starters, which sounds really pretty good, but then break it down.

Andy (1) started 6 of 7, would have played all 7 barring his muscle pull, giving Lampson (2) a forced start. Down to 16 regular starters.
Marshall (3) played every minute.
Miranda (4) played all 7 and was only subbed once.
Danny (5) play the last 4, but looks to only be inserted as a consistent starter due to the Mendes injury.
Mendes (6) started the first 4.
Vuko (7) started the last 2, but might have been a forced start due to the Mendes injury and the Williams red card.
Williams (8) played all of the first 5 before resting himself.
Birchall (9) played 6 of 7. Rested in match 4, giving O'Red his first start.
Gaven (10) played every minute.
Miro (11) started 6 of 7 and was subbed twice.
Duka (12) started 6 of 7 and was subbed 5 times.
Higs (13) got 5 of 7
Arrieta (14) was hit up for all 7
Grossman (15) started the first 2 and made way for Higs.
Meram (16) started once in place of Miro in match 2 at Houston
Renteria (17) started once against TFC in place of the oft-subbed Duka

Take away Grossman, Meram and Renteria, (and excluding the goalkeeper spot) 13 guys started consistently in these 3 weeks. And Duka and Birchall look to be the only ones that were subbed for regularly.

part of me thinks, yeah maybe there should have been a little more rotation. the other part of me thinks, these are professional athletes, suck it up**
Caught in two minds on this argument to be honest.

**Based on the assumption that training sessions would have probably been reduced due to post game recuperation.

I wasn't really displeased with the subs last night on their face. It was obvious Miro and Birchall were gasped and useless and needed to come out. I'm still not convinced there were many other options to replace them that made sense except for the ones that RW made.

I'm not convinced you'd want Higs playing that far back from goal as someone else suggested. Nor do I think Duka is ready to play centrally at this level.

The problem, as many are saying, is that RW put himself in this predicament by not resting Birchall and Miro more in the previous games or during this game. Why not, as others suggested, start Williams at centerback and move DO to central mid with Tchani? Then you have more flexibility to bring on Miro for DO for slightly more offense, or start Meram or Renteria instead of Gaven, so you can bring Gaven on centrally or wide late in the game.

I'm a little less on the "suck it up" as being the other part as, I don't trust that we will win games with more than one or two players rested and we need all the points we can get.

You also have to look at who is injured and how that affects things. With so many players out, do we really want to go a "B/C team?" If you keep the same lineup, you get that synergy which, of course is a great thing. However, as we know, you also run the risk of players being fatigued and more prone to making boneheaded mistakes. Ideally, they'd all be able to work with each other and off the strength of each other, but if several players are hot, ride that hot streak. (And we know what happens when our best players are benched.)

As you say, there's two sides to the argument and each one makes sense.

USA lost to Jamaica 2-1. FIRE WARZYCHA!

I'm going to put this here:

That is exactly right. This is why I love William Hesmer and why he was the best leader the players and supporters could have had. He wasn't merely a "rah rah" guy who wouldn't dare rock the boat. He didn't accept easy answers and excuses. He didn't go along with the FO line when the FO line was garbage. You can hang the decline from 2008-2009 on the economy, on MLS rules, on expansion drafts, on personnel moving on, whatever. The fact is that the organization had no plan for what to do if they won, and there's just no excuse for that.

The last 4 years were arguably the biggest missed opportunity by a professional sports organization in this country in the last 30 years. Maybe, with the announcements of sponsors, player moves, and actually doing some marketing, they're finally snapping out of it, I don't know. But what I do know is that the things that are going on right now are things that should have been done 4 years ago, and they are things that a few of us—a very few of us–were astonished that were not going on back then. I'll always remember hearing McCullers stand up at Casino Night last year and saying what a tremendous success 2011 was that we made a play-in game to the playoffs, and how he and RW were happy to point out that they had proved the doubters wrong. At precisely that moment, while I was thinking "Is this guy kidding?", I was looking to see if I could find Will Hesmer sitting with the players, because I wanted to see what his reaction would be to that. I wanted to ask him what his thoughts were. Everyone else was listening to the weird sales pitch that was going on from the FO and their PR people, about how everything was Massive and we were Daring To Be Massive and what a Massive season it was and Massive Massive MASSIVE!...and all I wanted was to say thanks to William Hesmer for trying to lead a team that had been failed by it's leaders, because I had a feeling he felt the way that I felt, and I had a feeling that he was gone.

This to me is probably the most damming statement we've heard of any current or ex player (not released in an exp. draft). And while it's not specific in it's nature, I think you can read in between the lines sufficiently to say that we missed our potential in 2009 at the very least.

It would be very interesting to get a few beers in him at a bar after work one night and get the rest of the story.

Well, he IS the union rep for the players after all

Hesmer is a Socialist.

Those talks with Will and Brad were a grounding experience (intentionally and unintentionally, respectively) on an otherwise euphoric Sunday afternoon in Carson, California. In a way, they made the rest of the day that much sweeter. It was impossible not to cherish every single second to its fullest.

Signed,
(A reporter)

I'll preface this by saying I respect Hesmer and I think he has a good head on his shoulders.

That said, am I the only one that thinks he seems incredibly smug every time he gets interviewed?

Come on

A dynasty built upon the solid foundation of Gaven, Ekpo, Rogers, Lenhart, and Marshall (when healthy)? What other young, young, great players is he talking about? This seems like camaraderie talking more than anything.

I think he's overreaching with the dynasty stuff, but I do think we would have been better off with Carroll, Evans, Moffat, Lenhart and Brunner, among others, than without.

So was that a retirement statement from Hesmer?

Fire RW for making the all time leader in almost every GK category retire.

Not sure if truly remarkable hyperbole, or if serious

RW didn't start higuain. Fire RW.

Hi guys. What do we have to do?

I have no idea. I HAVE to think that if we miss the playoffs, it's curtains for RW, right? HAS TO BE!!!