Official DC United vs Dallas Burn POST Match Thread [R]

[Knave]

DC United 1 :: 1 Dallas Burn

Kevin Ara got more playing time!

No Flames - No Trolls

[DutchFootballRulez]

Convey was disappointing till he got his assist. Gros should be starting From now on. Moe later..

[bennyf118]

Is it me or was the whole game played at Adu's pace? :rolleyes:

Disappointing performance, but at least we got a point out of it. Glad Eski added to his total, hopefully it keeps his confidence high.

[Blacksheep]

Assist or no assist - Convey looked awful. How open do you need the goal to score? We are very luck to get out of this game with a 1-1 tie, but really should have been at least 3-0 DC.

[Cweedchop]

Good result, however this was another game where critical mistakes cost us 3 points..

1. Convey missing open net, again.. He had much more time than he thought he did and he should have at least forced a save from Gbandi on the goal line..

2. Perkins needs to make that save.. I understand the conditions were tough but that simply went thru his hands..

We clean up those two plays and we probably walk away with 3 big road points, but I'll take the 1 and go back to RFK thank you very much..

Overall this was not a pretty game.. I thought the passing was horrific teamwide with Moreno and Carroll being chief offenders today.. Twice today Carroll inexplicably passed five yards in front of him to a Burn player and Carroll had no immediate pressure anywhere around him.. Yikes...

I'm probably thinking that Olsen pulled up a little lame and that is why the sub was made and it made immediate dividends as Gros pushed the play to Convey who hit a perfect cross on the groung thru the box for Esky to put away.. Good stuff and well done..

Well, we almost broke the corner kick string today as Jaime had a sure goal taken away by an alert Pareja on the goal line..

Ezra had an OK start today, though I wasn't thrilled with his marking today as a lot of people got behind him though nothing came of it.. Petke was also in that group of players today that gave the ball away too cheaply under little pressure.. Hopefully Nellie will be back next week against the Mutts.. Today's conditions were not ripe for a player with a groin injury..

Oh well, I'll take the point....

[yabo]

Convey was disappointing till he got his assist. Gros should be starting From now on. Moe later..

His head didn't seem in the game until he got moved to the middle. I can't figure him out - talent without the consistency and focused mind necessary to really use it. Maybe he should be playing left back. ; >

Moreno stunk it up today. He held the ball too long and teammates stopped running. He was out of sink on his passing as well.

Keep Esky in there, he's in a groove and play Gros. At least we got a point playing ugly football.

We do have a slow back line and Ezra doesn't add any speed or coordination. This is a work in progress.

[Jester64]

I'm still trying to figure out what Cassar was doing on that play. But moreso, how could we have not frickn' scored? The whole series of plays was just ugly. The rest of the game looked like slow motion. I think missing that sitter put us into a funk, till Gros came on. Only good thing was that we got a point after playing so ugly.

[silentbob]

Only good thing was that we got a point after playing so ugly.
Yeah, I think we're pretty lucky to have escaped with a point. Dallas had way more dangerous chances and blew most of them pretty badly.

The only players who had remotely good performances were the Piefcuker and (to a lesser extent) Petke. Bobbito, as usual, alternated between brilliance and incompetence. Perkins let in his first soft goal. Carroll had several horrible giveaways that led to scoring chances. Jaime was running around like it was pre-season.

A draw on the road is never a bad thing, is what I say.

[Eismahn]

...I think the evolution we've all been waiting to see culminate is nearly there, especially with Esky's breakout last week, and our picking up Ezra. ...

..In a nutshell, Nowak holds the strings to win or loose this game, and we'll all be able to come up with a consensus report card come Sunday. He's smart enough though, I say we win 3-1, (keep an eye on Stewart, given his fiery 'tude in Rochester) and whatsmore, we'll look smart at seeing who we sub as well as when afterward.

Well, we're nearly there- I give Nowak a B+. I'd have had the same sub choices, in and out, but the timing I thought could've come quicker, maybe getting Freddy on the pitch the same time as Gros.

Defense, excepting the Chinese fire drill up the middle, looked good- Ezra looked good out there on the island on the right-hopefully we can assume he'll look better as time goes by. Certainly occupied alot in the box on our corners. And for crying out loud, can we ONCE try and get both posts covered just in case a good cross comes thru? I'm TIRED of seeing balls bounced in the box, like Earnie's serve from the left around the 60th-ARGH!! No wonder we're quickly approaching hitting 300 without having scored off one(see the corner kick thread for more).
Thank the soccer Gods for Namoff being back and his usual stud self, good job of shutting down his wing, and marked significantly high territory well. Carroll, aside from 2 poor give aways, neither of which cost us, IIRC, just did what he always does, solid play for every minute of the season.
Hopefully with the shortage of forwards up top, Nowak QUICKLY (and I mean like Immediately, don't wait for Sunday ASAP) finds a plan to keep Jaime's legs under him. I don't like seeing him gassed, even for a minute, given his history of injury. Let's keep that scenario as distant as humanly imaginable.

Here's to the swaggering halo surrounding Esky getting bigger by the minute. Good effort on a great effective cross from Bobby, who inexplicably wasted his effort on goal from the right, as well as missing that sitter with 1 man(not the goalie, BTW) tending net. Anyone else cringe when all we sent forward there was Earnie feeding Bobby? :p

Have to agree with Wynalda, gotta question what's going on in his head when he gets in front of goal. Think Nowak,Arena et al could help him with a video game called, "10 mins in front of goal." Game would feature you as a forward approaching the box, each time with a different set of scenarios(# defenders, teammates making runs, goalie positions, reactions, etc) with the object being score as quickly and frequently as possible. Somewhere, something has gotten in the way of his making good choices- let's get him squared away, too good of a player otherwise to let him keep playing in frustration.

All in all, maybe a step back looking at last week, but given the roster choices and options, a step forward with respect to the season. Let's get behind the effort needed Saturday to keep us ahead of the Metroscum.

[GUTuna]

Ugly game and the conditions didn't help. But I'll definitely take the point on the road.

Esky - Way to grab another goal. You've earned another starting job.

Convey - Again terrible in front of the net. At least picked up a good assist on the goal.

Gros - This guy just gets involved in goals. Nice run and lay off for Convey. WHY ISN'T HE STARTING?

Nowak - Good work in starting Esky. As above, why in the world isn't Gros starting??? I'm not sure why Kovalenko is out there as he doesn't really fit in any position.

A road draw. Acceptable. Big game next week with us chasing the Metros and them coming to town.

[mellon002]

Anybody else think Carroll should be benched in favor of Gros? Isn't one defensive midfielder enough?

[vivaelbolivar]

Ill take the point even though it was ugly futbol :cool:

Anyway Freddy played like crap, all of his passes went no where, and he didnt even hussle for the ball, his game was a piece of ********
Moreno would have stayed had he not been exhausted
Gros should start from now on he has earned the spot
Olsen well he was not having a good game i hope he didnt pick up a knock
Eskandarian great goal although if he had missed that, it would have been pathetic, keep it up man because we'll need more of those
EZ even though he got beat a couple of times he is better than playing stokes when a defender gets injured
Finally Convey man what the hell was that how do you plan to get to Europe

BTW i hope Lassiter comes back to reclaim his title :p

[Cweedchop]

Anybody else think Carroll should be benched in favor of Gros? Isn't one defensive midfielder enough?


Well, for one thing, you pretty much need two defensive midfielders (or 1 and 1/2) if you are going to play 3 in the back and Carroll for the most part does the dirty work on this team with Benny helping out a great deal..

Gros doesn't even come close to doing the same type of job that Carroll does game in and game out.. Different players, different jobs..

I do think however that Carroll could use a game break every once in a while now that we are starting to get back to somewhat full health (at least defensively I mean).. Kovalenko played all or most of last season as the de facto defensive midfielder and I think he and Olsen together could do just as well as Carroll and Olsen do, but with a little better feel offensively.. Brian Carroll still struggles a bit offensively and today's bad giveaways are inexcusable and could be the sign of a tired player..

[Lanky134]

Anybody else think Carroll should be benched in favor of Gros? Isn't one defensive midfielder enough?

Not with a three-man back that's not known for its speed.

[roadkit]

I agree with Dutch, Weed, et al.

Convey needs to ride the bench. One more game like that and he can kiss the EPL goodbye.

Was it just me, or did Ezra look like he has problem going 90? Actually, he wasn't the only one, but I'm trying to figure out what the improvement over Prideaux is. He got burned several times.

Passing was horrific.

Congrats to Kreis for the record.

Anyone know where I can get a #15 jersey with the name "OPEN NET" on it?

[mcontento]

Convey...His head didn't seem in the game until he got moved to the middle. I can't figure him out - talent without the consistency and focused mind necessary to really use it. Maybe he should be playing left back. ; >


That's no joking matter, but it is the truth. If he wants to stay on the field he should be moved as far from the goal as possible because he makes Stewart look accurate.

[slip2break]

Even though EZ made us all very nervous from time to time, I have to say I was happier having him on the field then Stokes. That being said, he did look like he had difficulties going the full 90. But no harm no foul right?

Jamie- a bit out of sinc with the rest of the players today. But I prefer the Alecko-Jamie tandum to anything else we fielded this year.

Olsen- I am pretty sure that knee is still bothering him. At the DC-Rochester match he spent the entire 2nd half with an ice bag on that knee.

Gros- I love every moment this guy is on the field. But, the midfield is so deep from Nowak's prospective that the kids not going to get any starts unless someone is injured. Ultimately, Convey making his way overseas seems less and less scary with each passing week though now doesn't it?

Convey- I am pretty sure the busy schedule of the past 7 to 10 days caught up to him today. He looked great on Wednesday, and seemed to be the highest spirited one on the squad.

Ernie- The difference between him and the Bobby's play today is Mr Stewart is quite the vet by way of comparision. I have no idea what anyone thought they saw on Wednesday in terms of some sort of tempertantrum at half time, but I was like 5 feet away from Alecko, Olsen, Ernie, and Bobby after the whole "Nowak" making them jog incident and Ernie didn't seem all that heated to me. If what was said was true and "if" Nowak was as professional as I believe him to be, then there is no way Ernie gets the Arm Band today.

2nd DefMiddie- As was pointed out today by Waldo, our backs are slow. That 2nd DMid is essential. Carrol has played every minute this season. There has to be a behind the scenes reason for this.

[rtiemens]

Tuned in for the second half. Nice goal by Eski following a nice buildup by Gros and Convey. Convey' miss was not as blatant as the one he had a few weeks ago, IMO, but it was a good chance blown nevertheless. I have about given up on Convey. He is just not that good, I don't think; though I admit I have not seen anywhere near all or even most of the games he has played. He seems to be devloping into a journeyman, AJ Wood-quality player, if that. If someone still thinks he is EPL material, I would (seriously) be interested to know why you think so.

I thought he midflield was both flat and out of position quite a bit. The passing, in general, was terrible. Stewart was invisible, as nearly as I could tell other than a nice slide tackle to stop a Dallas run into the box after the player had gotten behind him. As much as I like Earnie Stewart, he is just not contributing to this team in proportion to the salary he is paid.

And though I love to see DC United on TV when I can, I have to wonder about the wisdom of MLS showing games like this where there are (maybe) 3500 people in the stands. Televising a game in front of an almost empty stadium cannot be good for the game or the league.

[Nogra Rover]

Not a pretty game, a lot of mistakes. Usually, we end up getting no points. So this may be progress. The conditions appeared pretty poor, that may explain some things. Plus, Convey, still should have done better, was probably wrecked after his schedule. But a great assist.

Carroll had just about his worst game. How many balls did he give away? Yikes.

Perkins should have made the save. Oh well.

Still, a point. A solid goal and solid point.

[CHICO13]

Just got back from the Barra party at Kilroys and things are a little fuzzy, but the one point we almost unanimoulsy agreed on is that Convey doesn't want to be on this team. It wasn't the missed goal on a WIDE OPEN net, but his body language. He simply carries himself differently when playing for the Nats. There is no joy or passion when he plays for United and it shows. Convey supporters flame away, but I don't think we're wrong....