Game will be on espn2! Well so much for Red Bulls Arena being a Fortress... The Bulls offense is really not to blame... Titi and Coop have scored a ton of goals in the last 4 games, but the defense with the exception of Ryan Meara has played woefully! When Conde and Tainio are playing they aren't nearly as bad, but one thing is for sure...Rafa sucks! Keel and Holgersson have been poor at times but they don't have Rafa's experience or salary. So I primarily blame him for yesterday's lack luster performance!! So on to play the DC once again... They pulled out a road victory yesterday vs NE and have not been beaten in the last 4 games. So the Bulls need to get their defensive sh*t together and go down and beat da Scum...
Although DC's offense hasn't been that great this year they still have some good individual talent and are gelling together. DeRo will absolutely tear us apart if we continue our defensive lapses, Pontius, Salihi and the rookie they drafted form some good attacking players. Dax will need to work his ass off because Marquez sure as hell won't. I also like the progress Dax is making. We need to control the midfield and give as many touches as we can to Henry. If we do that we can squeak by with a 3-2 win. I also expect Solli to have a huge game, I remember last years April game he absolutely torched DC.
I feel like this is going to the situation every game this season. Control the ball for long enough for Dax to move the it into the attacking third and hope Henry and Cooper put in enough to make up for the inevitable defense lapses on the other end.
The problem I see with Dax is that he needs someone strong next to him even if it is Marquez not playing well. You play Dax along with someone not having a good game and I have just see him collapse. I hope he becomes a leader in the middle and brings up his partner in the middle, but I am afraid that won't happen. Dax was largely responsible for that first goal getting stripped right in the middle leading to that goal. He got away with a lot the prior game as well in the 1st half. I really hope he steps up. Now with Tainio out and Marquez likely missing at least a couple of games, I am crossing my fingers. This is why we need that extra DP midfielder which I expect is coming in July. I hope we can hold up well for the next 4 weeks or while we await the return of Conde and Tainio and I believe Marquez has been playing with an injured groin muscle to a forced suspension hopefully leads to a much stronger Marquez in a couple of weeks.
------------Henry-Cooper Ballouchy-Lindpere-Dax-Richards Miller/Lade-Holgersson-Keel-Solli ----------------Meara Marquez will face a lengthy ban. Hopefully it's long enough to convince Red Bull to get rid of him. Miller may not be available. Waiting on the update. I really hope Backe puts Lindpere at CM. He can play the destroyer roll very well and I don't trust Palsson. This gets our best available players on the field. A loss is not acceptable.
I'm another big fan of having Lindpere in the middle, the position that he himself stated he's more comfortable playing. His play at CM is what saved last summer from being a total catastrophe. Another thing to consider is that for the half hour or so that Lade and Lindpere had on the left side together last week they did not link up all that well. Maybe it had to do with Lade's nerves or the fact that unlike Miller he wasn't 5 yards away from Lindpere at all times, but the two struggled to find each other.
The whole team was terrible in the 2nd half. Also, Lade played mostly safe passes...understandably so. Lindpere was the man in the middle his first year and he was excellent. We also had an excellent defensive record that year.
Rafa played midfield, but yes he sucks a lot anyways. We need a caliber Central defender and a goalie. If one wants to gain experience he should do it in the second division, but not at this level. That goes for Keel as well as all the other players who just came in. That kid Lade shouldnt be trown in there against seasoned pros. Pinch Pinch, i thought we are watching Major League soccer here, please someone there needs to wake up. Send the kids to get experience elsewhere and hire some better players.
Yes the defense was very shaky last game and has been throughout this whole first part of the season, however what concerns me even more than the shaky defense is the fact that we didn't seem to touch the ball at all in the 2nd half. And last game was not the only time this has happened!! It seems that too often for my taste, we have found ourselves this year in situations where we cant seem to string more than 1 or 2 passes together before the defense intercepts the ball-- and it still very early in the season!!. Generally speaking, the crispness and accuracy in passing is sorely lacking in the team. The lack of a real playmaker at mid is part of the explanation for why so many passing plays die, but it can't be the sole explanation. One CAM isn't going to magically transform the entire team into a team with a high percentage of completed passes--rather this is a systemic team problem. Seriously at this level even the biggest bencher should know how to pass decently. I don't know what it is, sometimes this team plays well and at other times it just falls asleep on the field....
It's the defense and our CM play. Henry pointed it out in the interviews after the game. In the 2nd half he hated that our backline was kicking the ball to no one in particular. Everything begins with the defense. If you can't win the ball back, and can't be productive with it once you've won it...well... And although he won't say it (for obvious reasons), Marquez simply isn't good enough. Tainio, Dax, and someone else will be fine for the CM spots. Also, Richards and Lindpere have been mediocre, but that is not the main problem.
Yep, our midfield got controlled and couldn't keep possession in the second half. Dax played a good first half but by the second half he seemed gassed and couldn't do much. Marquez doesn't mark anyone or doesn't cover any ground so that's probably one of the main reasons we couldn't get any of the possession. A Dax/Ballouchy CM pairing would give us a central pairing that will mark opponents and put pressure on them giving us more chances of possession. But it seems that Dax and Ballouchy are similar in playing style where Dax is a better version of Ballouchy.
Tried that pairing a few times last year and it was a total disaster. Marquez may not mark anyone, but Ballouchy isn't any better, he generally approaches a player and then does his best to not actually make a tackle... Dax looked like a deer caught in headlights everytime he tried to play a pure holding mid, most notably at home against DC last year when De Rosario tore him a new one time after time. I'd rather see Palsson/Lindpere and Dax
Each game it becomes clearer that RBNY needs to add a quality CB before anything else IMO. If we could somehow fleece some team into taking Marquez that would definitely allow us the financial clout to add a couple of pieces. I think DC will give our back line fits this weekend. DeRo is a very smart player and Salihi and DeLeon add the attacking impetus that the United has lacked the last several years. I am of the opinion that a RBNY win will require at least 3 goals. That will probably be true going forward until at least Tainio returns, though you can only paper over these deficiencies for so long.
Marquez is going to get a suspension and doesn't seem much better than last year. Tainio and Conde won't be back for a month and who knows if they will remain healthy after that. Henry and Cooper will cool at some point and we have no idea what we'll get with Agudelo this year. At some point we need to have the ability to win games 1-0. We haven't proven that ability yet. The offense is going well and the defense is poor. Same story as last year. That's the state of things. I'm willing to give the defense a little more time, but if it's the same by this summer I say we spend all our money on the defense and another CM.
Miller out for a few weeks because of the Chavez tackle, but let's not worry about that cause ******** Rafa Marquez, am I right BigSoccer??? Get at em Lade!
According to Brian Lewis this lineup is not only possible, but "perhaps likely". Palsson as a second half sub I guess? Oh and for the people who claim Lindpere is a natural winger, he stated himself today that he played centrally his whole career and wants to move back to that position full time.
Another case of Hans going back(e) on something he explicitly stated like 2 weeks ago. He said Lindpere could be one of 3 in central mid but not one of two. No idea why, since work rate is of more importance than speed at that part of the field. One issue though, that lineup leaves us with no aerial players to defend set pieces. Holgersson and Keel are it the rest are ********ing terribad.
Backe never said anything about putting Lindpere back in the middle. Lindpere was the one who said he prefers the middle. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/04/17/rbny-notebook-lindpere-ready-central-mid-role
Eh Lewis doesn't usually post that kind of stuff unless he has at least some reason to but you're right I haven't seen an actual quote from Backe yet.
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2012/04/marquez-suspended.html Marquez suspended 3 games. Wish the front office would get rid of this guy. He's either injured, getting suspended, playing nowhere NEAR his salary, or throwing teammates under the bus.
Take a photo kiddos. When a stain like the District considers you a stain and wants to kick you out of town, you know that your impending extinction is rightful.