The fans of every team who play us seem to be saying "we gotta get more guys who play one-touch soccer" lol.
The score....was 5-3. We showed that we're vulnerable against quality players. If Frank had started Cronin, how would that have changed the result?
Of course it was! I love the depth that allows us to have an effective different look depending on who is on the pitch.
That was some poor defending. Never want to concede 3. That said, DC is really on form and high scoring, and we were busy on the other end so it's a little more understandable. Could've easily had 6 or 7.
The team seemed to have almost infinite capacity to score, and that meant the defense started getting a little sloppy. But when they closed in on us with the second goal, we almost immediately bagged two more for a three-goal differential. That third goal was on Busch, and after that it seemed we went to full throttle defense or we probably would have gotten a sixth goal. A decent crowd for a midweek game, and since it's almost all hardcore fans at those games, people were pretty energized. Even after that DeRo rocket. Referee: fortunate that no one got hurt. He let so much go by, and then gave out yellows for stuff that was milder than other fouls he'd overlooked. Fouls that happened right in front of him in a couple of cases! Without Baca or Cronin in the midfield, the first part of the game felt kind of porous. It took Moreno and Khari a while to figure it out, but I still think Moreno was the weak link in the starting 11. Chavez is fun to watch. Lenny behaved himself but this was his first full game and he was gassed by the end. Entertaining soccer and can't argue the result. Even if the DC fans are claiming they held back because their more important game is Saturday.
Its hard to say that. DeRo's goal was great, but other then that I felt we controlled the first half pretty well. After half time you could see the team wasnt matching DC's energy, up until DC scored. We quickly re-established control and scored 2 more. Then he team sort of cruised through the rest of the game, while DC admirably pressed. The point being, when we wanted to control the game, we controlled the game. DC was able to have moments and get back into it at times, but mainly because we were letting them in the game. Im not happy about how we closed out the game, and think that the team needs to focus on defense and record shutouts again, but I dont feel like DC ever had us on the ropes.
Offense was potent (again), but our defense looked a little suspect all night. On several occasions, we were saved by our midfielders dropping back and clogging things up in the middle, otherwise this might have been a tighter game. Nice night for Chavez and Moreno. Dawkins had his moments, but lately he seems to want to be Mr. enforcer. Too many fouls. He also needs to take some shots when he's unmarked at the top of the box. Baca brought a lot of energy and hustle. A good sub. Stephenson was erratic- not one of his better games. Wondo and Lenhart were stellar. It's amazing how we've become such an efficient and dangerous attacking team. I just hope we can keep this up.
Yeah, I think we had a handle on the game throughout. We scored almost at will, then took our foot off the gas. Have we had any shutouts since Bernardez went out?
Absolutely. I'm very happy and never expected to have a season like this anytime soon, but I'm trying not to jinx things. I think we have a group of players who are above average individually (especially mentally, which I particularly love. They all play intelligently and to their potential), and are blended together with so much sense. Just to temper my elation, I note we still haven't seen our guys in enough situations to guage exactly how good they are in a broader context than what they have accomplished.
LenHEART - is the heart of the team. I'm glad that he made the steak dinner bet with Frank. He is much more effective when he's not playing underneath a yellow card. All in all I thought that the team started out looking a little lackluster, but the goal from DC proved inspirational. This team has great spirit and will not be denied around the goal. We scored by crashing the gates with 3-4-5 players.
Agreed It's funny you say this. Most DC fans are saying the opposite. They're pissed that Ben put out this lineup and worked our first team guys so hard when the TFC game is so much more important with the new playoff structure. What most DC fans are saying is that Dudar would have made a big difference and we really need to get more than 1 center back healthy (and that we're glad that Salihi finally broke his MLS cherry). Regardless, it was a very entertaining game. It sucks that this was this was a Wednesday night on Direct Kick while ESPN will be showing a mediocre NY team play a mediocre LA team this week end.
Considering it was his first ever game, the ref did an excellent job tonight. Sure he let some things go, but for the most part they were minor things. The fact that the game was so free of confrontations (except for the play where Dawkins got his deserved yellow) is a clear indication that it was well-officiated. One of the smoothest and fairest MLS games I've seen in quite awhile.
As I posted at the half: Chavez is just ridiculous. He's the guy that does stuff that makes you jaw drop sometimes. There was one play where it looked like he jumped 4 feet or something to win a header. Just tormented DC all night long. Now, if he could only shoot... Moreno can hold the heck out of the ball, but dang he is slowwwww. He had chance to break in on goal in the 1st half and it looked like he was running in molasses. And has he taken a shot yet?
I did not say the referee was terrible -- we've seen far worse! -- and mostly he was consistent in his non-calls. But I did see more physical fouling, from our team too, than I have noticed in other games, and I would say that is on him. For example, there was a multi-person melee near the end of the first half that was oozing negative energy and left a DCU player on the ground for many minutes before anyone seemed to notice. Players were slipping a lot, and he counted quite a few of those as fouls even though, in many cases, no one had been touched. I'm in favor of letting the players play, but, like I said, I thought he took some risks and we were all lucky not to see serious injuries.
THINGS THAT YOU MISS IF YOU DON'T GO TO THE GAME... The camaraderie on this team is pretty remarkable. You see this in their pre-game hugging rituals. Seems like every player hugs every other player. It's fun to watch Kari because he's obviously a little uncomfortable with it. Right at the end of the game (and during the game after a goal) wondo slaps hands with the Ultras. I've noticed this before and it happened again tonight: There is one big, shirtless ultra on the field, but behind the 3 foot fence. Wondo runs over there and hugs him first. Also, Wondo slaps hands and signs autographs for every fan hanging out around the periphery of the field at the end of every game. Pretty cool. I slapped his hand myself tonight.
Yikes, on this first day of the newly-renovated site, I couldn't post at all from my smartphone (thankfully, that'll likely get fixed soon)... The final score is: 5 - 3 GO SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES!!! -G