Game #4:FIRE vs. Fake Goats 3/24/13 4:00pm (My50 & Unimas)

Well do we finally score our first of the year or do we tie the record going the first 4 games without a goal.

No Lindpere and Friedrich, does Frankie go with a 2 defensive midfielder formation like against SKC or does he go back to a 4-4-2 formation. What happen to Atouba? Not making the bench against SKC. Is he hurt? If not I think it's time to start him in Duka's place.

Starting 11 for sunday's game, since both MacDonald and Santos have look clueless give Quincy the start.

-------Quincy----------------Rolfe--------

-------------------Alex----------------------
--Atouba-------------------------Nyarko--
------------------Larentowicz-------------

--Segares---Berry---Anibaba---Kinney/Jumper/Thompson/Videria/Pause

-------------------Johnson------------------

It's time to get our first goal, so once that first goes in (hopefully) more will come. I'm going with a 3-1 win (we get our 700th goal in FIRE history).

Rolfe with 2 goals and Alex getting one....

GO FIRE........

Rolfe and Nyarko are good on the dribble, beating 1-2 players and moving forward. How do we get the rest of the team to join in?

Nyarko is not.

I'm not sure who I like better at rb. Vids and Kinney both seem capable. I feel like Kinney gives us a bit more offensively.

Not sit so deep like we did against SKC. There was never an outlet for them to pass to yesterday. Sure MacDonald was up there (and I don't think he was even that terrible), but on man against 3 or 4 defenders never going to work. Whoever plays left mid, and especially the guys in the center are going to need to get forward and show for the ball a lot more.

Larentowicz won't do that. Paladini might. Atouba will, Alex probably would. Maybe put Rolfe in the center (BLASPHEMY!) and Amarikwa in front of him next to MacDonald to at least give him two bodies to pass to.

Long term, get a real RB behind Nyarko so he has a quick outlet out of a double team so that teams can stop nullifying his ability so easily

What I want (given what we have)

----MacDonald-Rofle------
------------Alex--------------
Atouba--------------Nyarko
----------Big Red-------------
Sega-Berry-Anibaba-Pause*

Rolfe and Alex can be more fluid, switching spots altogether or simply moving back and forth between a 2-1 and a 1-2 formation up top with Rolfe dropping back next to him to create more.

I'm tempted to move Pause or Paladini in to d-mid. I'm not really sure who would be best in that role

What I expect

-------MacDonald------------
---------------Rofle-----------
Duka-----------------Nyarko
-----Big Red-Paladini-------
Sega-Berry-Anibaba-Pause*


*or anyone who is fit: Kinney, Vidiera, Thompson, Tornaghi, etc.

I was worried to post what I did because I thought you'd disagree.

But he's better than most on our team even if he's not a world beater. I feel like if there were another option up top with those two there'd be less pressure on them and more options for them. MacDonald needs to improve.

Duka gave up on a 50/50 ball and it made me want to make him stay in KC.

That has been Nyarko to a greater and greater degree. His development has stopped, but the rise in skill in the league hasn't

His 3-4 good entry crosses/runs a game is down to one or less per game. Right now, he's just another guy we tied up with a decent contract, who isn't earning it.

Chivas are down to 10 against LA and it's still 0-0, next week isn't going to be a easy game....

By the way, he got the red for basically being slide tackled. If it was anything at all it was a foul on the Galaxy player.

It also looked like he just got double yellow'd, so he probably said something (and rightly so) for being carded for the challenge to get the second one

Chivas get a last minute equalizer to tie 1-1. Justice done in my eyes. The fact that they were playing with 10 men was a joke if you look at the incident. No surprise that Salazar was the ref....

http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2013-03-17-LA-v-CHV/highlights/213997

I'm saying that a 10 man Chivas team just tied LA, the same team that killed us 4-0. So it's not going to be an easy game on Sunday against Chivas.

Nyarko is one of the best players we have and him and Rolfe are our only hope at starting any kind of attack at all. He probably dribbles pointlessly or tries to do to much because there is no one to help him. Last year the majority of our dangerous attacks and chances created came from him.

In terms of giving up on 50/50 balls I don't think that is true. He may not be the best defender but he does work hard and puts in effort to defend unlike Duka who gave up on way more than one 50/50 ball. Duka had one of the worse defensive performance I've seen. IMO he had the demeanor like he was to good to defend, like he doesn't need to because he makes up for it with his incredible attacking ability and skill on the ball. Countless times when there was a situation in which he needed to put pressure on a defender he would jog over to him no hustle at all then just foul the guy from behind because he was to lazy to actually defend.

And he spoiled dozens more attacks by not knowing when to either pass or shoot, and then getting to the endline and passing behind all of the forwards. Everyone know his shtick.

I don't dispute your claim about Nyarko trying hard on defense, he has to because he gives away the ball so many time or his runs end up in counters the other direction. As for Duka, Duka sucks, I never wanted him on this team anyway, but I'm not in the FO and I wouldn't have made the trade. Oduro would have gotten his wish to start, because we know Santos is garbage and Rolfe can't play anywhere where he has to have his back to goal because he can't hold the ball.

I would have waived Duka already. Did you think I was defending him? But I would have traded Nyarko already anyways because just because he's fast on the wing, and he can occasionally beat some clod, like the stiffs he trains against, that he's really good. He's not. He's not improved anywhere near enough to deserve the contract extension and salary bump he got. That's not wholly his fault, I blame the coaching staff as well because these guys can't seem to develop any players or make any new/incoming players, play well or even better than they did when they were drafted/acquired.

And yet, he's our only attacking midfielder worth a damn since Duka isn't a threat.

Of course, we can have all the wonderful approach play we want but it won't mean jack since when it comes to finishing, we can't hit the side of a barn from inside.

So basically you're stuck arguing for more crappy bunker/counter long ball that won't work because we have nobody fast enough to make it work. Thanks a lot. If it wasn't for all the Jamesons, Murphy's Stout and Boulevard Irish Ale I've consumed today, you'd have made me totally depressed, especially after seeing Chivas play LA today.

Yeah this was infuriating me. Nothing is more annoying than a player like this. Kid better step his shit up or ship the ******** out.

Neither is Nyarko

I really have to wonder what these guys have shown in practice or on tape to garner getting contracts as professional soccer players

Actually no, I want the exact opposite, I want technical players that don't play soft, or a the very least a hard man that's going to dish it just as hard as it's being given to our players, yes, I want a CJ Brown, I want a Jesse Marsch, I want a CAM like Nowak that would stomp on your face if you went after his ankles and I want an Ante Razov, who would kick you square in the balls to make sure he earned the card and not the grazing elbow that made you flop to the ground. ********, I'd take a younger Carlos Ruiz if I could get more elbows and hacks and fighting for every ball than I got dives.

I'm tired of waiting for Corben Bone and Nyarko to develop into something better. I'm tired of waiting for Paladini to justify his salary, and tired of waiting for Anibaba to not suck. Anywhere else in the world, these guys would be loaned out to lower division clubs to fight for their lives against guys who were trying to make it to the next level.

Not my problem you wanted to play pretend Irish.

This is a really important and accurate post. I agree 100%.

Or anyone else on our team, Rolfe included.

I wonder at what kind of coaching they receive that makes players stagnate or regress here but then do well when they go to other teams.

And don't even get me started Hauptmann.

Well you ain't getting it from this team, boyo. If we bench Nyarko we might as well just give up on midfield entirely and go with a 7-0-3 formation:

Santos--------------------------------Rolfe-------------------------------Macdonald
Sega---Jumper----Berry-----Paladini---Anibaba-----Larentowicz-----Kinney

--------------------------------------Johnson---------------------------------------------

Not that what we saw in KC was all that far from this.

If I was pretend, I would be depressed.

This is what I don't understand about the lack of rotating. If Bones 1 career goal vs a loss to a PDL team and 3 career reserves assists are enough for a contract renewal then he needs minutes, like full game minutes.

Duka and Nyarko haven't done shit and nether has the 2 strikers. They don't get to play the next game against the rebuilding Chivas.

The defense has been pretty solid for the majority of the games long into them. I'd go with that consistency logic and swap out some new attackers.

I was guardedly optimistic when we re-signed him, but I see my fears have come to pass.

Bad?

Worthlessness Carl Sagan would have trouble comprehending.

And it's the same thing, season after season. Players never develop, acquisitions fail to deliver, downward spiral.

I'm sure around the 5th of May, you'll be Mexican too.

This team needs some offense. A threat. Something. What we have right now might be the weakest setup we've ever had up top and in the midfield. I'm going to let to the cold medicine take me to lala land...

Why start Santos? Pause is healthy. And everyone knows Rolfe isn't a striker. He should be on the wing

Rolfe------------------------------------------------------------------------------Macdonald
Sega---Jumper----Berry-----Paladini---Anibaba-----Larentowicz----Pause---Kinney

--------------------------------------Johnson---------------------------------------------

I don't know... a bit too offensive for my liking.