Alert: The Tactics, Personnel and _______ thread

Espindola has a reputation of negativity. It works for him though. I think it's that chip on his shoulder that motivates him to play. He's a consistent player and never takes a play off. If he thinks there's an inch to be had somewhere he'll take it.

Not really captain material though ... He never struck me as a good communicator. Seems kind of introverted. Also probably not the guy you want interacting with the refs too much ...

 

He was giving the "load side" AR a huge ration of shit over a ball late in the game that was ruled a goal kick (Espy think it should have been a corner). I've never actually been able to hear the players yell at the ref/AR before from my seats, so I would say he wasn't very discreet.

 

Was he yelling in English, Spanish, or Spanglish?

 

Own Goal made a pretty good case Saturday night. That was scored with authority - keeper had no chance.

 

It was tough to let our leading scorer go, but I'm glad Own Goal is finding his feet with other teams.

 

Own Goal is humble also. No big goal celebration. He scores like he's scored before.

 

Own goal celebrations are some of the most awkward things in soccer.


Edit: I posted this elsewhere here as DC's would be celebration to our 1st goal, but I feel like it is apt for any own goal celebration too

 

Our attackers all slowly raised their arms and pointed at the goal, like "Look, it's in."

 

I guess that was after Tommy and Jason got over their spat.

 

I couldnt make most of the words, just his raised voice mostly but what I caught was English

 

Are we still playing a diamond? Seems weird to me.

Considering our injuries it seems our most logical option is some variation of the 5-2-3-1 or 5-3-2-1. We seem better suited to it now then when Olsen used it in the past.

--------------------------------Dykstra
Franklin----------Boswell----------------Parke-----------Christian
--------------------Kitchen---------------Arnaud
-----DeLeon-------------------Rolfe-----------------Espindola
--------------------------------Johnson

 

Theoretically that line of 3 should be constantly interchanging since all 3 can play all 3 positions. In fact Rolfe and Espindola should occasionally interchange with EJ too. Drop EJ deep and let Rolfe or Espindola go in front. Not sure if we're ready for such advanced concepts yet though

 

have you ever been to a reserve game? I was appalled at how the players spoke to the refs. Charlie Davies was especially vulgar.

 

Still worrisome to look at this team and their progress to date. Despite how obvious it may seem to the rest of us right now the defense should not be the primary area of focus, this team's defense is good, but not shut-out every time good, so the focus needs to be how to get the goal scoring average up above 2. Yet, Chad Ashton's recent post-match analysis still doesn't get it. As far as he's concerned, this group's immediate focus needs to be on how to grind out games and somehow get 3 points.

Chad's analysis here:
http://www.dcunited.com/news/2014/0...ad-ashton-dc-united-at-columbus-crew-april-19

 

I have promised myself that I will not read Ashton's post-match analyses this year.

They all seem to read how you describe it above.......

 

This ********ing picture every time

 

Whoa, only Dallas averages more than 2 goals a game, I don't think it's a realistic expectation for United to be able to do that. United's offense will be from set pieces and counter attacks with the occasional cross leading to a goal. They will probably always be scoring barely enough to win. The key is to minimize opponents chances when they are behind by keeping the ball away from them. This is where they need to focus, imo.

 

Impromptu mspaint contest?