So far everyone that Klopas has brought over has really sucked. Heck half of them can't even get into a starting lineup. And to get into the starting line up you're competing against the likes of Lowry, Mapp, Husidic, and Pause, thus you really must suck if you can't crack that lineup. Los Cobos John Martinez Umanzor Krol Add to that the Busch fiasco and it's time to sack this idiot. Back to indoor coaching for you
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread Harsh but perhaps not far from the truth. The task was to replace Segares, Rolfe, and Blanco and the results have been mild failure, spectacular failure, and incomplete respectively. Busch had his problems and I still maintain he was the most upgradeable returning starter on the team, but replacing him with a rookie GK in a "must win" year will be biting us in the ass for many more weeks to come. We have 2 good-to-great target forwards and not a god damned person on the team can cross the ball, NOT A SINGLE ONE. No wonder goals have been so hard to come by this year. He MUST sign a damned good central attacking mid this summer, along with a proper right winger who can *gasp* plant it on John or McBride's head, and a fullback because I don't want a full year of Ward.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread As much as I care for Frank, as we go back to Sting days,he has to bring in someone who can make a huge difference on this team or his job will be in jeopardy.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread Martinez and Umanzor were CDLC guys and Klopas signed them because he wanted them. I don't think Krol sucks, he's only played 382 minutes that's just over 4 games, by years end he'll be one of the best left backs in the league. I'll give you John, if he doesn't do anything in the next 2 games I'm done with him also.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread His job should be fine. The next time he offers to have a public meeting and answer these kinds of questions you all should show up. He answers these kinds of questions all the time. Patience folks. We're not even six months into Cobos' reign. He and the Profe are tearing this club down and will be rebuilding it. No big deal. Frank's about the only hope this club has right now. Our front office is no longer full of soccer rookies but they're still novices. His soccer intelligence is essential and without it Dave Greeley would be picking the starting eleven.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread He's going to need to sign 2 DP's after the World Cup, if we have any kind of chance this year. I hope one of them isn't Blanco, he did a great job when he was but we already have two old guys (Brown and McBride).
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread I see little reason for this thread right now. I have no problem with CDLC to this point. Krol has been good so far. He will continue to improve and, by midseason, he will be one of the best defenders in the league. John has shown flashes of quality and, if he stays healthy, will be fine. The two El Salvadoreans have been very poor. My biggest criticism is using McBride in a single forward formation. I have never been a big McBride fan throughout his career, but I was really happy with his signing, especially since all we gave up was Chad Barrett, which was no great loss (yesterday notwithstanding). He has been good at times and poor at times. We can't question his heart or effort, but sometimes, he seems to be moving very slowly. However, I am not sure this is completely a Klopas problem. I think it has more to do with the observation of salparadisejr that we have no attacking central midfield, which IS a Klopas problem. I like Husidic and he is developing into a quality player, but he should not be handed the keys to the team. I definitely think Klopas needs to make a splash in the Summer Transfer/DP market before or after the World Cup.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread At the pre-season luncheon, Frank got up there and promised us this was NOT a rebuilding year. He said we'd be gunning for trophies. I didn't believe it then and results have proven that this IS, in fact, the rebuilding year we all dreaded. I'd feel better about it if they had just manned up at the start and said "You know what, fans? This year is gonna blow chunks like an overly sheltered college freshman at her first frat party. But in two years, I promise you we'll have a winner." I'd have been OK with that. The whole Busch fiasco might even have made sense instead of trying to sell us that Dykstra was the keeper of the present, which he is not. Why couldn't Frank just be honest. Did he think we'd all cancel our season ticket orders? Aaaauuuggh!! Margret Thatcher naked Margaret Thatcher naked Margaret Thatcher naked
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread I think this is a bit harsh. I mean, by definition any year you replace the coach and 4 starting players is a rebuilding year. In MLS though, that isn't mutually exclusive with gunning for trophies. I have no doubt the expectations are to win trophies, and those expectations are realistic too. Unfortunately I was watching a crappy JustinTV internet feed of the game on my iPhone so it looked like someone playing Raiders of the Lost Ark on an Atari 2600, complete with fidgeting with the A/V converter box to get the signal to work at all. This means I haven't seen the game to judge it but I still think this thread is just a bit of trolling.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread Agree with this post. Krol didn't have a good game in Toronto, but I think he's shown previously that he's a good player. He's better than Umanzor and CdlC seems to recognize that. The fact that dlC isn't playing the two players he was specifically responsible for bringing in (and is instead playing players brought in by Klopas) says something. I think John's shown better ability to put himself in good goalscoring positions that our other forwards, but his finishing touch is off. If he can't correct that admittedly major flaw, he's a waste of roster space, but I'm willing to give him more time (if only because he's coming off a really long offseason and has demonstrated good finishing ability in the past).
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread I don't care what Klopas said. We lost 3 critical players in the offseason. Any time that happens, even if you replace them with players of equal or greater ability, it's going to take time for chemistry to develop on the field (especially when you also have a new coach). And the fact is, this is a league that allows you to gun for trophies even with a poor start. Columbus didn't win a game until eight games into the season last year and they managed to win the SS (they had a 2-2-6 record after the first 3rd of the season).
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread Well, if you dvr'ed it or are planning to watch on your computer, my advice would be to skip it. The game is likely an aberration. In fact, if I'm CdlC I am likely telling the team "we are burning the tape. It never happened." We have been seeing decent signs over the past month. No time to panic from one game. If anything, I lock Brown, Conde and Dykstra in a room and say, "fix it!" That was the most disjointed and awful our backline has looked in a couple of years. Has to be really bad communication. I like our center backs and I am a believer in Krol to the extent that I think he will be solid. He won't replace Segares skills, but that's ok. On the topic of Frank though, we DID spend our first overall pick and two foreign signings on the back line, so it better be solid throughout the year. I admittedly only saw the guy against our backline on its worst day, but that O'Brien White looked far more dangerous than any striker we have, including John. Didn't we have him in here on trial a month or two ago?
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread We certainly do not look like a team that is gunning for trophies unless we're counting on the rest of the Sister City Cup teams to field U-16 squads. Oh well, this is MLS, after all, so it really doesn't matter what we do from now until September as long as it's sorted by October.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread Kwame Watson-Siriboe was our second pick. Bone was our first. Different guy. O'Brian White was Toronto's 1st round pick last year. He missed most of last year with an injury, but he was highly regarded coming into the draft.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread I assume that Segares is the third? Let's take them one by one. 1. Krol is/will be solid at left back. Even Saturday, he was not the problem. Segares barely played for us last year, so really, we are comparing Krol to Banner in the line up and we have upgraded. 2. Let me start by saying that Rolfe was my favorite players. Still, he was playing right mid most of the year. Nyarko is now in that spot. Rolfe was good for 5-7 goals a year, so let's assume that Nyarko can get to 5 or so (I think this is likely). He is far better than Rolfe as a wide midfielder. In fact, he has been our best and most dangerous player all year. 3. Blanco. At times we played much better with him. At times we played much better without him. He was an enigma, especially last year. We haven't replaced him although Baggio is showing signs that he could be a very good CAM and apparently, Bone is picking it up in practice and may be the CAM of the future. Either way, I do think we will and should pick someone up in the summer to fill the role. So, considering how little Segares was a factor last year, I would say that we have upgraded two positions on the field. With John playing up top, you could argue that it is three. Last year we finished second in the conference in points and made it to the conference final. This team can and should be able to do the same or better.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread I stand corrected. I've made this mistake before, and I'm not sure why I have a mental block on that first pick. Probably because all of the "experts" had us drafting Watson-Siriboe with our first pick in the mock drafts. Jesus tap dancing Christ. How many O'Brian White professional players are there? I stand corrected again.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread A few years back, I would agree. Now, only half make the playoffs. Given the closeness of the league, you can fall from 6 to 10 pretty quickly. So, you need to hang with the pack and play at least mediocre for the first five months of the season. Back when 8 of 10 made it, the playoffs were a joke.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread How long has Arena been at LA? Two or three seasons? I can't remember, but they started slow. I'm positive the team isn't set and I'm sure some players need to be worried about their spots. That's just the way it is. I mean, the team has had at least two people on trial so that's telling.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread It doesn't look like this team is really going to do much this year, but I'll say this: Segares was great: but signing Krol looks to be a good signing. In MLS you can't just go sign someone who you KNOW is going to be an all star level player. So I think picking up Krol was a good move. Martinez: Appears to be a bust. I was hoping he would be doing what Nyarko is doing, but this was clearly DLCs guy, so .... Umanzor: Not sure what the expectation was for this guy. If it was to give cover to Krol, good signing. If he was supposed to start, then bad signing. Can't blame Frankie though, this is another DLC player. John: I still think he shows promise, and looks better than McBride. Is it a good signing, by definition, if this guy appears to be our best striker, even if he is only going to score 7 goals and not 16? Is there anyone on this board who thought Frankie was making a bad move signing a 24 yr old former EPL starter? No. The Busch "fiasco". There was no fiasco. Bush lost the starting job, and it was the right opportunity to move on with the other keepers. Frankie even said that "Busch wasn't going to be content to be the backup and support Dykstra". I don't know if he meant that in a positive way or a negative way, but either way, Busch isn't gone becuase Frankie screwed up something, DLC decided he wasn't going to be a part of his plans and I don't think it was a bad move. Draft: Just about everyone thought the Fire had the best draft after Philly with their 25 picks. So where do we stand on our lost players? Krol < Segares, but probably not buy much. Nyarko > Rolfe at RM but will miss Rolfes goals Nothing < Baggio < Thorrington < Blanco. Blanco created a lot for this team, and his replacement is.. Baggio. This is where we have lost it. If a healthy Thor was in there, things would be a lot different. But he isn't. But replacing Blanco isn't easy, so I'm not going to be too upset that Frankie couldn't go sign Ballack before the world cup. I don't think Frankie deserves to be shown the door at all. I like what he's done for the most part.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread Even better, look how many years it took Sigi to build the Crew into the MLS Cup winning side. The Crew were complete crap his first two years with the team but he kept tinkering and they started getting better little by little from month to month until -POW!- they got Schelotto and suddenly made the leap from very good to Champions. Please don't get me wrong. I know we're in a rebuilding year, in this sense of we won't be consistently competitive and we'll be maddeningly erratic as DLC tries various line-ups and tactics as he learns the team and the league and uses many formations while deciding who to keep and who to trade/cut. I was prepared for that coming into this season. I'm just not too happy that Klopas couldn't just be a man about it and admit the obvious, choosing to BS us instead. To answer Chris M.: Yeah sure, last Saturday was a ultracrap and that probably won't be the last game like that this season given DLC's justifiable experimenting, but I don't expect to get spanked again like that again soon, given the fact that, MLS-wise, we've got what should be some extremely beatable opponents coming up in Dallas, Philly, and even Colorado and New England. I also don't think we're a terrible team. We're certainly not DCU or Union bad. So while it is true that letting Busch go was a stupid mistake (I think we can all safely admit that by now), we need a goal scoring forward like a junkie needs his next fix, and I'd like to see us go get an upgrade right back two out of those three can be remedied. It will also help us tremendously once Thorrington finally gets healthy and can start at CAM. The only thing that scares me is the possibility that the East may send only two or three teams to the play-offs. NY and C-bus will finish first and second this year. But there's nobody else that jumps out to me as a solid lock to finish ahead of us IF the East sends another team to the play-offs. It's there for the taking and even in our current discombobulated state, I think we have the individual talent to grab it. We just need to find a consistent goal scoring threat other than Pappa and get Dykstra to talk to his back line. ----------- Finally, apropos of nothing in this thread, I know I think McBride is done and should retire but that doesn't mean I hate the guy. He's had a storied career, done our nation proud in WCs and is pure class off the field. It grieves me that he just doesn't seem to be able to produce on the field anymore. For both selfish reasons (Hey, he still plays for the Fire!) and because he just deserves it, I really wanted him to contribute and go out with an MLS championship.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread IMO, it's a tad early for this thread. GM & Coach While some, okay most of the blame for waiving Busch and starting a GK with no league experience (and who apparently couldn't direct traffic at a school crossing), falls squarely at the feet of Klopas, dlC brought along Martinez and Umanzor with him and both of them should never see the light of TP ever again. Maybe Klopas should have known better, and maybe he should have done a little more homework, but he gave dlC some slack and let him bring in Martinez and Umanzor. Now he knows dlC isn't the greatest at assessing talent, he needs to be careful about who they bring in and figure out the best way to get rid of the dead weight. Players Looking forward to seeing Thor back in the lineup. CJ's been great ove the years, but I'd rather see 3 at the back than watch another forward run by him like he's standing still. Pause is a good DM and can drop back to help as needed. I'm willing to give John a little more time, but if you're going to play one target forward, you need more than one guy (Nyarko) trying to hit the target.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread The biggest problem with this team is that much like Kasey Keller's performance yesterday, Brian McBride has reached his expiration date as a starter and major contributor. Also, I would hope that although he scored our only goal yesterday and he's attaining a Chris Armas "heart of the team" type of adoration,Logan Pause too is not a starter and was a major part of our inability mount any type of attack in the 2nd half. In the first half, aside from the freak goal, Toronto did little other than the Barrett shot that Dykstra saved. Every longball went 20 yards past their forwards. Where we failed was to attempt any more shots like Logan's after that. Toronto is a tough home opponent and no longer a pushover.
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread Yes, Segares was the third. Rolfe may have only been good for 5-7 goals a year, but he's been an intrinsic part of the team's attack since he was drafted. Nyarko is proving to be surprisingly talented (surprising in that I never expected the kind of flashy dribbling he's been exhibiting consistently this year), but he's still adjusting to the midfield role. I have no doubt he'll continue to do so, but his decision-making in particular has to improve before he can be considered an upgrade from Rolfe. Blanco was involved in so many impressive goals last year (watch Scaryice's top 10 goal compilation from last year's Fire at the bottom of this post) that even though he was misused as a forward for much of the year, he's incredibly difficult to replace. Considering he's possibly the most unique player the league has ever seen (Valderrama is the only one that I think comes close in terms of playing style), he's practically irreplaceable. The team's attack almost always went through him. Pappa has been too inconsistent so far. I expected him to step into Blanco's playmaking role, but if anything, that role is being played more by Nyarko right now, and as of this moment, he's not as effective (see above). Segares was an important part of the team, though you're right that he was injured for a lot of last season. I like what I've seen of Krol so far, but we haven't seen enough of him yet (partly due to that dumb red card he picked up). Then there's Busch, Prideaux (I wish we still had him in place of Ward), and a new coach. Which brings me back to my original point. Yes, we may have actually upgraded from some or all of the players we lost, but due to the sheer number of replacements that have been made, it's going to take time for on-field chemistry to develop. Not surprisingly, the team has at times looked excellent (Houston) and at times looked chaotic (Toronto). I expect that as the season progresses, we'll see more and more of the former and less and less of the latter. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqPh9QF8Xvo"]Chicago Fire best goals of 2009[/ame]
Re: Frank Klopas Deathwatch Thread When 8 out of 10 teams made it to the playoffs (2004), we didn't. Just saying. We are in 4th place in the conference, but behind each and every team in the West. We need to "hang" in the league-wide overall standings to last at least as long in October as a pumpkin on a porch.