Andrulis Out! gaining steam (last night recap)

[NutHouse4life01]

In case you missed it, there were multiple positive signs during last night's match regarding the strength of the Fire Greg campaign.

1.) Late in the match (80th minute or so), section 137 supporters started a "Stand up, if you want Greg out!" chant. We were able to get most of the people in our section to join in and it became quite loud. As we continued on with the chant for a good 3-5 minutes, at least 15-20 or so fans in the neighboring sections of 136 and 138 began to stand up and join us. We then moved on to a "If you think Andrulis should be fired, clap your hands!" chant, and received much the same results from other fans.

2.) Just before the final whistle blew, fans at lower level midfield on the east side of the stadium began to stand up and chant what I believe was "Sack Andrulis". We in 137 heard them and joined in.

3.) The most liberating experience of them all occured in the hour after the match had ended. A group of 15 or so Crew fans marched to Autograph Alley and chanted incessively for the next 45 minutes. We did a barage of Crew and anti-Andrulis chants. We received backing from some, including a few ushers and security guards. We then moved to the south side of the stadium and chanted for another 15 minutes in front of the Crew offices. Finally, at about 10:20pm, Mark McCullers himself came through the front office doors and addressed us. We spoke with him for over 30 minutes as he sympathized with us, and heard our complaints. I'm sure someone else on here will be willing to give a more detailed synopsis of the "roundtable" discussion we had with Mark.

If the poor results continue next week, I can assure you that we will work to acheive an even greater number of supporters to join us. Zak's original campaign has finally begun to really take form. Andrulis Out! is alive and kickin'.

[the Next Level]

No troll here. I am really wondering how he has kept his job so far? Can someone shed light on this for me (real info please)? What is the FO line?

Watching last night was terrible. I am concerned about the players. Martino gets a red card???????!!!!!!???? Martino?

Marshall scores a bad own goal????????!!!!!!!!????? Marshall?

Seriously. How has Andrulis kept the job this long? We are losing some of our best young players with him.

[NutHouse4life01]

No troll here. I am really wondering how he has kept his job so far? Can someone shed light on this for me (real info please)? What is the FO line?

Seriously. How has Andrulis kept the job this long? We are losing some of our best young players with him.

According to McCullers last night, the decision on the coaching situation lies solely in the hands of Lamar Hunt, the team owner, who rarely (if ever) comes to matches. He is an extremely laid-back and conservative guy, and most likely won't make a decision in haste.

[USvsIRELAND]

Keep it up!

You as fans deserve a good coach!

[Placid Casual]

We dont want to lose momentum now.

next Saturday should be the one game that everybody comes to. If you only come to 1 game a year, get down CCS, get in 137 and make your voice heard.

Remember a win next week does not change the fact that we need a new coach.

[ThePuck]

Methinks you fans are displaying some "mis-directed anger" tendencies towards your coach. True, he is a douche, but to blame your players behavior on the pitch as a sign he needs to go is a *little* too far. It's not like he subbed in a known felon with a history of violence, he had no control over those afore mentioned acts of stupidity. However, how he handles them will be the true test, though it's too little, too late, if I understand you right.

[Placid Casual]

Methinks you fans are displaying some "mis-directed anger" tendencies towards your coach. True, he is a douche, but to blame your players behavior on the pitch as a sign he needs to go is a *little* too far. It's not like he subbed in a known felon with a history of violence, he had no control over those afore mentioned acts of stupidity. However, how he handles them will be the true test, though it's too little, too late, if I understand you right.

Go away.

[kaiser kraut]

You don't know what you're talking about what so ever, so why open your mouth?

[mathiaslg]

I think MLS is burdened with having a number of morons at the head coaching position. The fact remains, however (and I say this as a relatively neutral Metrostars fan), Andrulis is the worst of the bunch. If he were coaching a European team, he would have been fired already.

[buckeye5]

According to McCullers last night, the decision on the coaching situation lies solely in the hands of Lamar Hunt, the team owner, who rarely (if ever) comes to matches. He is an extremely laid-back and conservative guy, and most likely won't make a decision in haste.


Pathetic. If ManUnited fans are upset with Glazer imagine what they would do if the apathetic Lamar Hunt took control of a club in England?

[jlo]

I am also an interested but neutral observer. I am frequently stunned at how a talented team like the Crew seems to underperform. But they will show flashes of brilliance once in a while. I have assumed from what I have heard and seen that Andrulis was a bad coach, but what, specifically, has he done to incur the eternal wrath of the Crew faithful? What makes him so bad? Why did Razov call him an idiot?

[buckeye5]

I am also an interested but neutral observer. I am frequently stunned at how a talented team like the Crew seems to underperform. But they will show flashes of brilliance once in a while. I have assumed from what I have heard and seen that Andrulis was a bad coach, but what, specifically, has he done to incur the eternal wrath of the Crew faithful? What makes him so bad? Why did Razov call him an idiot?

Just a few examples to begin with....

(1) He does not have the respect of the players. A good example is the sound bite confrontation between him and our beloved goalkeeper Jon Busch (we thought (when he played before injury) he was the only one that gave a damn). Busch said something about the lacking effort of the team. GA then responded, a week later, with something about he needs to keep his mouth shut and just do his job. Additionally, GA has singled out on multiple occassions guy who did a poor job to the public.

(2) The team never appears organized. Case and point is our penalties. We have taken four this year, only one of which was by a striker and/or captain. The penalty taker always changes and appears to be the most random individual (we've missed 3 of 4 by the way, the only make being the one striker Cornell Glen made). In New York, our penalty taker was Chris Henderson because he hadn't scored yet this season. Please.

(3) There is no fighting spirit on this team. We've given up the first goal 8 times this season. In six of those games, we never ended up scoring. I can only think of one of those eight games were we showed any effort (at New York) or heart.

(4) Undeveloped talent. Danny Szetela, Edson Buddle, Kyle Martino. These guys, if they play, just appear to walk around the pitch like they just woke up. Meanwhile, guys like Jamal Sutton, who are torching the reserve league, never even make the bench.

(5) Results. Look at last nights game.

[myshap]

Read and learn

Fire Andrulis I (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61709&highlight=fire+andrulis)

Fire Andrulis II (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118616&page=1&pp=15&highlight=fire+andrulis)

Fire Andrulis III (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167668&highlight=fire+Andrulis)

Fire Andrulis IV (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=209541)

[BBBulldog]

Greg had about 40 fans on Saturday :D

[POdinCowtown]

I am also an interested but neutral observer. I am frequently stunned at how a talented team like the Crew seems to underperform. But they will show flashes of brilliance once in a while. I have assumed from what I have heard and seen that Andrulis was a bad coach, but what, specifically, has he done to incur the eternal wrath of the Crew faithful? What makes him so bad? Why did Razov call him an idiot?

Fair questions. It should be kept in mind that Greg only got the job to begin with by hanging around while previous coaches left or were fired. He basically inherited the job without a search process. He seems to be skilled at blame deflection.

Andrulis is a poor manager of talent. He hasn't done a good job developing younger players. Marshall is playing worse this year than last. Martino is playing worse than 3 years ago as a rookie. Buddle is lethargic and less productive now than 2 years ago. We have to keep trading for veteran players who have been developed by real coaches. Meanwhile performance in reserve matches doesn't bring opportunities to play in first team play. Sutton, Gallardo, and Vazquez are doing well for the reserves but haven't played in senior side play.

Andrulis is poor at in game adjustments. His substitutions are frequently late and usually defensive. In hot weather games, he's only made 1 sub. He's subbed defenders for attackers in tie matches. Back when there was 10 minute overtimes, the opposing coach would invariably call his team over, huddle them up and tell them what he wanted to do. The Crew would invariably be spread out stretching, and rehydrating. No coaching could be seen. The Crew will almost always go to a bunker defense when we have a lead after the 70th minute. In 2003, we frequently couldn't hold the lead. In 2004 our defense was pretty good and we usually could. In 2005 we can't get the lead to begin with.

Andrulis is a poor tactician. In last year's home playoff match, we entered 1 goal down in a total goals elimination match. He benched Buddle and Cunningham, our 2 leading scorers to play a 3-6-1 with Dante Washington up top. Our tactics were to serve the ball to Dante as we used to do with McBride. Dante was to knock the ball down for a teammate to run on. NE cleverly (I'm sarcastic) responded by bracketing Dante with Shalrie Joseph in front and Joey Franchino behind. This pretty much stopped our offense since we had pulled the rest of the team back. The Revs defensive weakness last year was team speed not size but instead of Martino and Cunningham running into the box from the flanks, Martino was pulled to left wing and Cunny was on the bench til Dante got hurt.

Andrulis is a poor organizer. PKs are an obvious example. Last year's playoff match could have come down to PKs but the team didn't have a rotation setup in advance. We had made 20 straight going into that match. Paule was our first choice taker. He missed the first kick. He declined to take the second but we didn't have a set order so there was a debate which ended with Tony Sanneh grabbing the ball and then hitting one of the weakest PKs in MLS history. This year we are 1 of 4. Martino took the first and missed. Cornell Glen took the second and made it. Chris Henderson took the 3rd and missed. Last night Mario Rodriguez missed. Today Steven Armstrong took 1 in a reserve match and, you guessed it, missed as well. Greg leaves it to the players on the field to decide who takes the kick. I'm still waiting for the camera shot showing the players drawing straws or playing rock paper scissors. Somehow I don't think Arena, Ferguson, Wenger, etc leave it to the players to decide. Apparently our midfielders outvote the forwards as to who gets the ball.

Andrulis blames the players for lack of results but never his strategic choices. He bemoans poor finishing by the forwards but never attributes a Crew shutout to the opponents poor finishing. He plays for the tie too often especially on the road. He could be audibly heard in the 0-0 matches at Dallas and Colorado late in the game telling the team to run out the clock. Most teams that aren't winning would try to score but not the Crew. I watched the end of the Revs match with John Wagner and pointed out how NE was still pressing the attack in the 89th minute with a 3-1 lead while the Crew would have been in the bunker long ago.

I'm sure other could add multiple examples of poor leadership by Andrulis. BTW we've traded 2 forwards off the team this year who have scored more combined goals than our whole team.

[TheImposter]

Read and learn

Fire Andrulis I (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61709&highlight=fire+andrulis)

Fire Andrulis II (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118616&page=1&pp=15&highlight=fire+andrulis)

Fire Andrulis III (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167668&highlight=fire+Andrulis)

Fire Andrulis IV (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=209541)
Wow. Over two years and, as of right now, 2,141 posts -- and counting.

[ZipSix]

I look forward to viewing BlockODavid's photo journalism of these events.

[DoctorD]

The "No Greg" banner was clearly visible during the DC telecast. Also prominent booing during that stretch where DC strung together 20 or so passes.

[crewzer1308]

so whats the game plan for 7/9/05??!

[TheImposter]

so whats the game plan for 7/9/05??!
Prominent booing for the periods when SJ strings together 20-30 passes.