Weird but true we scored in the first half, mendoza scored a brace and ekpo played well Ah this is more like it hesmer let in a soft goal, we concede from a set piece and can't beat a shit team
This team cannot afford to score three goals at home and NOT win. I hope we've seen the end of Julius James for a while. I mean, he wasn't the ONLY problem -- I'm still trying to figure out why our tallest player isn't man-marking on corner kicks. If nothing else, getting Iro out there will help us defend those. I'm flabbergasted by what Mendoza did tonight. Had the play on the goal line that wasn't finished, and crushed a solid goal moments later. Couldn't convert on a breakaway (keeper save), and then finished one moments later. Frickin' weird. MOTM. I thought Heinemann was decent tonight, despite what some others are going to come in and say. He was playing some pretty good through balls and was unlucky not to get an assist or two tonight. Most notably the first Mendoza breakaway. Was also the shooter on the ball that almost trickled over the line. Meram/Cunningham: Good to see them both get out there, and Cunningham at least had a couple looks. Ekpo: I'm still not impressed with his overall game, but that was a well-taken goal. And if I'm not mistaken, he played the first pass that set up the play which led to a block which led to the goal. Unfortunately, his lack of defensive bite kind of showed, as our midfield/back was often overburdened. Gaven? Gaven? Anyone? Anyone? Rogers: Had some moments, but still not anything to write home about. Gardner: Meh. The back: I'm not talking to you anymore.
MDL feed featuring color commentary by Alan Hopkins.... My brain cried every time he tried to make a point. This game.... weird. The Heinemann discussion toward the end of the PbP thread was... interesting. You could have switched out the "Heinemann" with "Moreno" and changed the year from "2011" to "2008" and everybody would have said it was a good performance back then. 3 goals from the run of play before we went up a man... another 3 goals conceded by defense. We'll bitch (rightly) that we should have won this game but people should not undersell the fact that we came back three times after going down. Fans maybe giving up on this team, but this team is not giving up on itself and that is important. Coming off two losses, this team could have folded up a couple of times during this game but they didn't. Now if we could only take control of the middle of the field in a game...
Mostly agreed. But... Even I have to admit that we just dropped two home points to a team that isn't very good. I mean, I'm glad we suddenly found the recipe for our goal-scoring woes, but we've got work to do on defense. Big time. And we still haven't beaten anyone good. Then again, New York was only able to get one point today, and they were playing Vancouver. That's really the only saving grace -- except for Philadelphia, who I'm STILL not sure about, no one else in the east is really stepping up either. Hopefully Bob can realize that Iro's time is now. Danny O'Rourke can't get healthy soon enough.
I'm starting to feel nervous that we are the new New England/ Dallas. And People are just looking for reasons to take our team away from us. Sorry Very frustrated.
Attendence was terrible. I was thinking a nice night on a holiday weekend would've drawn better, but then, it is a holiday weekend. The coolest part of the whole match was when Jeffro came on. I was on pins-and-needles, and I think everyone in my section stood-up every time he got the ball. I sure did think tonight was the night for the record(s) to fall.
worst part was it was horrible on a holiday weekend, nice weather and $1 beer night. the future of the crew looks gloomy.
Not a fan of Mendoza, but he was was driving the offense tonight and it died when he was subbed out. Why the sub? Gaven had a terrible night. Robbie did the usual. Defense was Swiss cheese the whole game. James?
Come on - Robert is the one that kept us from winning this game. Taking out Mendoza after 2 goals and the momentum clearly our way???? He should be Chivas' man of the match. It was like the air went out the team when that sub happened. Yes, Mendoza messed up badly twice and should have had 4 goals. But even this rec-level coach knows that when someone corrects their mistakes you stick with them. And the attendance issue - horrible but you cannot blame the fans. Management ripped the heart and soul out of the team after last year. Scoring few goals rubs it in even more. The fannies aren't coming back until management makes that great move and resigns Scholetto for the rest of the season in July.
None of it makes sense. Mendoza scores two impressive goals, but misses two ducks. Gaven's only contribution was a dive - albeit one that the linesman almost had to call. Ekpo's touch was crap more often than not, but brilliant twice. Marshall gives up a pointless corner/goal. Gardner did not impress me, although that isn't surprising. My biggest complaint is that Cunny should have come on for Wolfman, and at about the 60 minute mark. Mendoza was still contributing. And why not bring in the french guy, in a game like this? Aw, the hell with it.
Fans got their money's worth tonight. 6 goals is worth the price of admission. The 2 forward formation opens up the attack--but it also opened up the back. Chad got flat out beat for goal 2--that won't happen often, but it happened nevertheless.
While the back four (and James in particular) made plenty of mistakes tonight, I'd argue that at least part of the blame for the defensive woes (and part of the credit for the offensive success) should simply go to the fact that we removed Burns/Rusmir in order to put both Gaven and Ekpo in the center midfield. The switch certainly doesn't account for conceding a set piece goal. But at the same time, neither of those players really provides much cover defensively. It's true that Ekpo did a nice job in a withdrawn role last week, and I think Gaven does know what he's supposed to do defensively. But neither is really going to stick their nose into a tough tackle. As a result, Chivas was able to move the ball fairly quickly through the midfield, and it gave our defense less margin for error. Unfortunately, they didn't cope especially well...
From Mitchell's Twitter: Game was entertaining. As it should be when two teams that are similar in terms of quality play each other. We are not a good team. I hope that is clear to most people. Our strong point has now let in 7 goals in our last three games. Not good. Our offense, which has been anemic sprang to life this game. Now, with our DP (whom most have been rightfully critical of) finally having a good game, gets pulled while working on a hat trick and is throwing a temper tantrum, we have to go to the #1 team in the east next weekend. I'm sad that I'm happy that we tied and didn't lose.
2 points in May is a huge disaster for this club. 8GAs, Unspeakeable. The lineup was interesting, in a bad way, can't say that it wasn't offensive minded enough though. A Ekpo/Gaven mid pairing?. And just like always Gaven completely disappears in the middle. At the very least Robert recognized his egregious error in the midfield and adjusting the personnel without making a sub coming out of the 2nd half; that helped change the game in our favor. Unfortunatly for Gaven it did nothing for his performance as it was horrid all game. As for Ekpo, he's my man of the match. He started to see a little light in the 2nd half of the portland match and he carried it over into this game. A lot of good this game from him, I can only hope he can continue with this form. Good to see him break his duck as well. Rogers was horrid. There was one sequence where he had three chances to send in a good cross and didn't hit one that made it past the first defender. U.G.L.Y I think with the defense going the way it has, time to make some changes there. Iro should get his chance, Gardner looked good at LB as well. Although Chad has had howlers these last two games. I don't agree with the subs made. Why take Mendoza off when he's finally playing well when up a man? The Heinemann sub I get because he was toast when he was pulled, but Mendoza should have stayed on. Iro comes on and goes up top in the stoppage time? WTF is that? Chivas' corner goal was a thing of beauty. You can't serve a better ball then that, nor time the jump and finish any better then that. Hats off to them there. This team is pretty much shit right now, but at least they have a little fight in them. Maybe, hopefully, they can build on this.
I don't blame Mendoza for going to the locker room. I would be pissed if I was on my to a hat trick and my incompetent coach takes me out.
