Hendrickson's Debut

[BaileeDC]

My thoughts:

Personally, I don't think this was a breakout performance for Hendrickson. Much better than Stokes (good Lord, a tree trunk is better than Stokes), but still, not as imposing as I hoped he would be. Actually, I thought he played quite conservatively today; didn't go up too far, didn't make any hugely significant plays (as far as I could see)...Then again, he was acquired on Wednesday, and this must be a huge adjustment for him.

Any thoughts on this?

[Jabinho]

If he goes back to his old ways while he was here in LA, he'll be making lots of runs for you soon. He didn't look like the player we knew out there today and I'm sure it was a "conservative/safe" approach from the new team jitters..

[Lowecifer]

I thought he was pretty bad. It made me nervous every time the ball came down his side of the field.

[DCU]

I thought he was pretty bad. It made me nervous every time the ball came down his side of the field.
I thought EZ showed some rust, but that his play also highlighted the extreme lack of fundamentals evident in Petke, Prideaux, and Stokes. Brian Namoff is making the case that he is our best player. Ryan Nelsen, when healthy, also contends for that moniker. However, the rest of the defenders have sucked. EZ made good decisions for the most part, won his tackles, played strong in the air...After Prideaux and Stokes, his play looked good.

[kravi]

I was happy with Ezra today. Granted he made a couple of mistakes, but I would lay that on the "I haven't even practed with this team for more than two days" jitters. He's got potential. I saw him get a bunch of headers, mark his men (except when he got beat badly once), etc. Not bad. I think he'll improve in the next couple of games once he gets some confidence.

-Kravi

[mrknowitall]

I thought he did o.k. today...i wish we had him here in NE...he actually saved a possible game winner from ronnie O late in the game that seemed to have beaten perkins...if you continue to play a 3 back system, he's not gonna be going forward much...especially with the many attacking players you have on the field already(stewart,moreno,eski,convey,olsen,dema,etc)....you add another attacker and it can open you up for a lot of counters...i'm sure he's well aware of this...something we've been trying to get heaps to understand up here....attacking defenders get more opportunities to go forward out of a back four...with 3 in the back all 3 have to stay home more to take care of the two forwards...so, don't expect too much forrays forward...good to see you back EZ...

[C. Ronaldo7]

I thought he was good. He was excellent considering that this was his first game with the team.

[Atouk]

I thought he was pretty bad. It made me nervous every time the ball came down his side of the field.If by "pretty bad" you mean "looked ten times better than David Stokes," then I agree. ;)

[MikeLastort2]

I thought he was pretty bad. It made me nervous every time the ball came down his side of the field.Like Convey, he really doesn't want to play for DC.

;)

[JayRockers!]

Actually, I thought he played quite conservatively today; didn't go up too far, didn't make any hugely significant plays (as far as I could see)He was moving forward way too much in the second half. Two or three times he the camera showed no defender on the right, as Ezra had drifted to center. He was marking on the left a couple of times. Whether they were pickups for other defenders runs, or him just playing his own program, I couldn't tell. But I was much more confident with him in there than I would have been with Stokes. Even if Ezra looked gassed two or three times out there. Match Fitness will be the key if he takes a spot away from Namoff or Petke.

Thx,

Jay!

[Jambon]

He was effective enough for you guys. He's not a bad marker, and he reads the game well. His biggest weakness when with us was getting beaten with speed. Dallas doesn't really present that threat on the wings, so he matches up well against us. As others have already said, he's worlds better than Stokes.

[TEConnor]

Good enough for me. Good timing. Good ball winning. Good in the air. A threat on set pieces that almost created our first corner finish in eons (he was the decoy that opened up so much room for Jaime). A little slow on the first step, but with brains he'll keep up and catch up with most everyone. Decent distribution as well.

Cheers,
Tim

[Cristobal]

Good enough for me. Good timing. Good ball winning. Good in the air. A threat on set pieces that almost created our first corner finish in eons (he was the decoy that opened up so much room for Jaime). A little slow on the first step, but with brains he'll keep up and catch up with most everyone. Decent distribution as well.

Cheers,
Tim

My thoughts as well. This was a good pickup. Competition for playing time is a very good thing.

[elconejito]

much more secure than stokes has been, and i think it gave petke a little piece of mind not having to explain to stokes where to be every few seconds. i also felt more secure than with prideax out there.

he made a difference on set pieces offensively and defensively right away. i dont think it can be underestimated that petke is normally the only one on the field who can consistently win a header in the box (either one). if the other team has more than one guy who can head the ball we are in trouble defensively, and all the other team needs is one guy to take out our arial threat. we won't break our corner kick streak until we get some height out there

poses some interesting questions when nellie comes back. while i think our best line is petke-nellie-namoff, i wouldn't mind seeing petke, nellie, EZ. this would give us some actual threats in the air on set pieces with those three being able to go up and win headers.

the question then becomes where does namoff go? he could give carrol a break once in a while, or maybe be teamed with him, but that would force another mid to the bench maybe dema or benny...

[Casper]

I'm mostly just happy for him that he didn't get (incorrectly) called for a penalty on that play that Quill said he committed a handball. That would have pretty much ruined it.

[fatbastard]

i dont think it can be underestimated that petke is normally the only one on the field who can consistently win a header in the box (either one). I don't know what games you've been watching, but Petke's heading has been somewhere between bad and non-existant the past few games. I don't think he won a single one against Cowlumbus.
I haven't seen Saturday's game yet, but the last few have me wondering why I ever thought he was good in the air.... sorry to semi-rag on Mike in an Ezra thread, the sentence just touched a nerve I guess :)

[elconejito]

I don't know what games you've been watching, but Petke's heading has been somewhere between bad and non-existant the past few games. I don't think he won a single one against Cowlumbus.
I haven't seen Saturday's game yet, but the last few have me wondering why I ever thought he was good in the air.... sorry to semi-rag on Mike in an Ezra thread, the sentence just touched a nerve I guess :)

therein lies the problem. if the BEST header we've got on the field can't get his noggin on a cross, what hope does anyone else on the team have?

other than EZ who else (right now) is a threat for DC on a corner?

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jaime has gotten his head on 2 or 3 (all year)... maybe esky, but i dont think so. stewart?no. bobby?no. benny?no. dema?no. gros?maybe. carrol?no. cerritos?no. freddy?no. namof?no. prideaux?no. some of it has to do with the service (especially early in the year) but even when we do get a nice cross swung in there is nobody there to finish.

i probably should have phrased it as "petke is normally the only one on the field who can win a header in the box". he used to be really good in the air. when he first got here and as i remember the wanker in NY/NJ. i think before he was able to position himself, set his feet and jump, but now he's constantly reacting to balls played behind him and multiple runners flying by as well as substantialy more ground to cover, so consequently he cant plant his feet to jump. add to that fact the numerous times when he has been marking somebody and he (as well as the rest of the defense) has to reshuffle in order to pick up a player left wide open. in the Cbus game, he marked marshall (unsuccesfully, i might add) leaving everybody else open for free headers. he cant mark everybody....

When you play a team like SJ for example. you've got Goose swinging in a nice corner kick. then you've got dayak and ching as your target. when they play DC petke marks dayak, but who marks ching? or if petke marks ching then who marks dayak? while when we have a corner, petke goes up the field and is marked by.... lets say dayak. then you've still got goose and ching free to clear away headers. on both ends its a lose-lose. what we need is another "presence" in the box. if stokes did nothing else (he didn't really...) he made himself known on set pieces. EZ can bring that as well. When good 'ol nellie comes back thats why i'd like to try a backline of nellie, petke, EZ. now THAT is some serious beefcake we can bring up on a corner....

[TEConnor]

I'm mostly just happy for him that he didn't get (incorrectly) called for a penalty on that play that Quill said he committed a handball. That would have pretty much ruined it.

Good point about the handball.

Tim

[cdunnington]

He was moving forward way too much in the second half. Two or three times he the camera showed no defender on the right, as Ezra had drifted to center. He was marking on the left a couple of times. Whether they were pickups for other defenders runs, or him just playing his own program, I couldn't tell.

I saw only the second half, and I was instantly thinking of the situation a couple years ago, where Convey was often less than effective as a winger because he was playing left back to cover for an out of place Ivan McKinley. Similarly, Stewart spent a lot of time tracking to the right back where there was an obvious hole in our defense.

[BroonAleMagpie]

Good point about the handball.

Tim

I thought it was pretty obvious that he was attempting *not* to play the ball with his arm; the commentators made some remark about how intentionality/active v. passive was no longer a feature of handball calls. Since when? What did I miss?