1-0 to KCBus. It reminds me of a situation two seasons ago where Wolves went to the Emirates, battled and scrapped and hung on for dear life and it was 1-1 in stoppage time. Then substitute Andy Keogh spots the keeper off his line and tries a Beckham/Xabi Alonso shot from midfield. Arsenal go up the other end and score, 2-1. Game over. Keogh never played again for Wolves. That's how inexcusable it is to try s**t like that. Arrieta will have rightfully gotten an earful from Bob about it. In a way though, there's a silver lining there because no matter how incredible Arrieta's goals were, there is something for him to think about.
I agreed with you at the time of the play and I still do. However I also don't know what was going on with Arrieta at that point maybe his legs were a little jelloish and his lungs weren't strong. If that's the case I can see him thinking these two defenders are going to close me down but if I can get the ball to Tchani maybe we can lock this thing up. I really don't mind trying to close out a game like that. Could it have burned us, yes; did it, no. Did we end up needing another goal to win, no; could we have, yes. So again for the most part I agree with you but it was Arrieta not Finlay, not Tchani. Arrieta had been on full time, was gassed, he wasn't a guy subbed on to kill the game. He was a guy on tired legs with a tired mind that tried to make a play late he might be able to early in that game but couldn't quite pull off late. I'm not going to get down on him for that and if he felt it was the best move he could make with how he felt and how the pieces were positioned on the field then fine by me and I won't fault him if he feels the same way in the future.
"Killing the game off" at the corner flag is for cowards and self-professed tactical geniuses. Kill the game off with goals. Try to score.
The smart play in that scenario is to take it to the corner; not just to waste time but to try to win a corner kick. I'm still fine with the gutsy play though, especially if Arrieta thought he wasn't really going to be able to hold off two defenders for any significant amount of time and the risk reward was on the positive side. Either way this thread is getting off tack; so the real questions are: If Arrieta completes the pass and Tchani scores should we still fire Robert. Yes. If Arrieta takes the ball to the corner and we give up a goal or even goals in stoppage time should we still fire Robert. Yes. So there you go it doesn't matter how it played out we should still fire Robert.
Not when you're six minutes deep into stoppage time and shorthanded. There's nothing "cowardly" about managing a match, and recognizing time and score. I would call your approach foolhardy. Trying to kill the game with another goal nearly killed off two points. There's cowardly, and then there's reckless.
Actually, not playing any offense for 60 minutes (including both stoppage times) nearly killed off two points. It's cowardly but that's the way we seem to approach each game now a days; score once and hold on for dear life.
i don't get it. we can't score for toffee for an entire season, and people think that we can just score at will now? we can but dream.
MajorLeagueSoccerSoccer.com writers proving, yet again, that they don't actually watch the Crew. 2 goals (read: offensive explosion) and 60 minutes of bunkering (read: great coaching) will get you to the playoffs (read: head coach for life). Whee.
I saw a headline the other day that said "Suddenly, Crew have glut for offense as Arrieta explodes." First, two goals does not a glut make. And then the lede said something like, "Suddenly the Crew's offense is coming into focus." I shook my head and thought about the same as you.
You know, I want RW gone as much as the next guy, but I don't understand this line of thinking that lambasts him for pushing Meram to play with more defensive responsibility. How is trying to get a player to be more complete a bad thing? Meram already knows how to score and be an offensive threat. His biggest holes have always been his defensive responsibilities and his passing. I guess some of you think this points to RW playing Meram out of position, but that argument also isn't really an issue for me. Bottom line, this is something RW should be lauded for doing.
It's just funny that this article plays into the running joke about Warzycha not wanting his players to score and justing wanting them to be responsible. Of course no one wants Meram to be lazy on defense. And you're right, if there's one thing Warzycha has done well, it's stressing the importance of defending to guys like Rogers, Ekpo, Meram, and Anor who came in with a tendency to slack off a bit on that side. For me, that has been one of the major successes of his tenure. In other words: chill, bro.
But he cuts his nose off to spite his face because he sat Meram right off of 3 goals in 3 games with a club starved for goals. While I can respect him on one end for the demand of defensive responsibility, he turns a blind eye to the hot hand at the expense of it.
I don't necessarily disagree, it just seems that some posters go a little overboard in trying to almost make up ways RW is the worst coach ever (excluding Nee).
I worry about how Higuain's mentality will be received with Warzycha, given he sees himself as primarily offensive. Players with that mindset seem more prone to butt heads with the coach's "total defense" approach--especially if he's going to play MF or holding forward. Here is the quote that has me worried:
Was this how GBS saw himself before coming to Columbus? I remember him having a reputation for not playing much defense, but I never understood that. He seemed to work just as hard as everyone else.
The huge difference... GBS and that team, played defense further up the field. We didnt play 8 behind the ball until late 2009 thru current. (about the time of the Open cup vs seattle) You dont have to be box to box if our midfield would keep their shape and put pressure on the ball. I have no stats to back it up but i would venture to say we won more balls on the opposing teams side when GBS was playing.