Official DC United vs New England POST Match Thread [R]

[doctorjim]

Crusader has it right. Hudson doesn't have a clue. No one should feel threatened by a central midfield composed of Marco, Williams, and McKinley. None of them is a threat to go forward, much less score. You can complain all you want about not finishing, but against DC it's just too easy to double or triple team the forwards because you know that no one will attack from the central midfield.

In the bigger picture, the current situation was predictable at the beginning of the season. DC had no reason to expect to do well. Too many aging, unfit, overpaid veterans and too many inexperienced, but promising players. Intelligent management would have installed a stable system and stuck with it and given yonger players as much chance to play as possible, regardless of the wins and losses.

Every minute McKinley has played has been wasted. Has DC won any more games this year because he has been in the game? Absolutely not. Give those minutes to younger players and you might not have won any more games, but, at the end of the season, the younger players would no longer be inexperienced. In the worst case, you would know that some of the kids will never make it. Best case, you would have filled some of the obvious gaps in the lineup.

If DC management had a brain, it would have fired Hudson the minute he started to bad mouth players in the press. No organization can be successful if its leader does not demonstrate loyalty to others and accepts some responsibility for the enterprise. The fact is that Hudson's understanding of soccer is also horrible, but you don't have to go there. Hudson's treatment of the players would doom any team.

[shawn12011]

Originally posted by Cweedchop
We can't even get a simple PK call from Valenzuela on 1 of about 3 handballs that I saw all the way from the mezzanine.. With our luck, we would have missed the PK anyway..


News from behind the North Goal. There was another handball missed as well. Jay Heaps trapped a ball with his arm, in the penalty box......then proceeded to score.

Originally posted by doctorjim
Crusader has it right. Hudson doesn't have a clue. No one should feel threatened by a central midfield composed of Marco, Williams, and McKinley. None of them is a threat to go forward, much less score. You can complain all you want about not finishing, but against DC it's just too easy to double or triple team the forwards because you know that no one will attack from the central midfield.

In the bigger picture, the current situation was predictable at the beginning of the season. DC had no reason to expect to do well. Too many aging, unfit, overpaid veterans and too many inexperienced, but promising players. Intelligent management would have installed a stable system and stuck with it and given yonger players as much chance to play as possible, regardless of the wins and losses.

Every minute McKinley has played has been wasted. Has DC won any more games this year because he has been in the game? Absolutely not. Give those minutes to younger players and you might not have won any more games, but, at the end of the season, the younger players would no longer be inexperienced. In the worst case, you would know that some of the kids will never make it. Best case, you would have filled some of the obvious gaps in the lineup.

If DC management had a brain, it would have fired Hudson the minute he started to bad mouth players in the press. No organization can be successful if its leader does not demonstrate loyalty to others and accepts some responsibility for the enterprise. The fact is that Hudson's understanding of soccer is also horrible, but you don't have to go there. Hudson's treatment of the players would doom any team.

Can we please stop the Ray bashing. This is not chicken we out there, it is chicken sh**. Therefore to expect chicken soup to be made from chicken sh** is unrealistic. Call it excuses if you want but this team has not been at full strength at any point this season. Do you people really want the "Floundering Dutchman" back? Bruce and Dave are not going anywhere right now so Ray is the current best option.

Frome the Boston Globe: New England defender Jay Heaps tallied the winner in the 16th minute off a corner set. Midfielder Steve Ralston played the ball into the box, where it deflected off forward Ian Fuller's head. Heaps settled the ball with his body and fired a 10-yard top-shelf goal that nicked D.C.'s Ivan McKinley on its way into the net.

''It was a lucky one,'' Heaps said. ''I got a fortunate deflection off McKinley and it went in.''

It must be tough to be able to fib, with a straight face, huh Jay??????? Settled with his body, true but at bit lacking in infomation.

[Darryl]

Originally posted by Hal
...This was the best soccer they have played all season, period!

...Well done, DC United. I'm looking forward to squeaking into the play-offs and then making a statement.

Hal, I agree with much of what you said to a point. That point is----it doesn't matter how well you play if you can't finish any of your chances. This is soccer not figure skating. You decide the game on goals, not style points.

Your post reminded me of Marion Barry saying that DC would have had a low crime rate "if you didn't count the murders".

[Cweedchop]

Originally posted by FlashMan
Don't know how they could hvae given Ralston an assist - McKinley headed his cross right to Heaps.





It's MLS and there braindead statasticians..

So far this season I have seen the following:

1) Twellman credited with a goal despite NEVER touching the ball as Dallas's Matt Jordan punched the ball into his own goal - the explanation given was that Twellman created the havoc that made Jordan punch it into his own net.. Funny that, the rest of the planet calls it an own goal...


2) Santino Quaranta credited with an assist on a Jaime Moreno goal when Tino's shot was parried away by Tim Howard to a wide open Moreno to tap into the net..

3) Numerous assists given for shots off of the crossbar and posts this season..


Please MLS, for the love of God, stop trying to "Americanize" this game we love...

[Enforcer]

Originally posted by Darryl
A few thoughts:

* Quintinilla -- I like him so far. Unlucky not to have a goal on his couple of chances. Seemed to communicate well with his new teammates. Nice to have the Salvadorans cheering for DC again.


He only has a left foot. In many cases, he should have either shot or dribbled with his right foot. The most glaring example was in the box when he could have taken a right footed shot or dribbled a little more on the right, but he elected to stop, shift the ball to his left and didn't even get the ball on goal. Granted he barely missed the mark.

What section were you sitting in last night? The Sallies near me were only cheering for Q2 and eventually started rooting for the Revs.



* Eddie Pope at forward? This just illustrates that Hudson doen't have a clue what to do with this team any more. Talk about desperation.

I agree. Hudson has run out of answers.

[Barbara]

Originally posted by sebakoole

Did you notice he was wearing colored barettes?

Yes. Yes, I did.

But I'm thinking they only looked like barettes and instead were colored pony-tail holders which is only moderately less weird.

I'm convinced that he lost a bet. There's no other explanation for that hair.


Amusing game until the last few minutes when it was clear we weren't going to score. Seeing Benny come back was the high point of the season for me.

[DCU]

I can't agree with all the negativity this time.

The United teams of 96-99 all occassionally had games where the ball just wouldn't go in the net, despite tons of golden chances.

This is the way I see this game:

United played well.

NE was crap and was gifted a goal on a terrible call.

DC created tons of chances and was robbed by the ref numerous times. Off the top of my head:

Golden chances:
1. Olsen breakaway. (wide)
2. Williams 1v1 (chested to keeper)
3. McKinley header (wide) - BEAUTIFUL cross from bobby, by the way.
4. Quintanilla wide open shot in the box (straight to Brown)

Add that to the half chances (mostly Lassiter's) and the 3, YES 3!, missed penalty calls (2 handballs and Villegas) and I don't know what more you can ask for in terms of quality buildup.

The finishing was off, but what the hell is anyone going to do about it? Just hope a new day brings better luck and that the team plays as well overall as they did today.

We're not going to suddenly find a Ruiz or Twellman...and yesterday's match just underscores the value of guys who finish half chances. Either of them would have had hat tricks playing for United last night.

[Diceson]

Post game comments from Hudson and Quintinilla:

http://unitedmania.mlsfansites.com/story.php?news_ID=200759

[mcontento]

Thanks Dyson.

I have little to add except we were pathetic. I was however most pleasantly surprised with the ES fans.

I think Webster should change the e.g of pathetic in their dictionary to DC United's 331 minute scoreless streak is pathetic.

[CHICO13]

Man, what a frustrating night. We had it all, great crowd, atmosphere, solid effort from MOST of the team (buh-bye Roy) and still we come up with a doughnut. These guys couldnt score in a womens prison with a fistful of pardons. I can only try to stay positive and think that Moreno will team up nicely with Quintanilla, but time is running out. Solid effort from Convey. He showed a lot of heart and hustle. Marco played pretty well as did Reyes. I thought Olsens play showed a little rust, but it was great to see him running around like the Ben of old. Reading todays Post, Hudson says this could mark the end of the Gazza experiment. Sad, cause I think someone like Gazza could have helped us last night. Sheesh, I need some aspirin......:(

[Enforcer]

At the last two games that I have attended,
someone in the Screaming Eagles section has
set off firecrackers. What gives? and why isn't RFK security doing a more thorough job of checking fans coming into the games?

[Gru88]

The new kid looked good, he will probably need a game or two to feel comfortable on the field. D.C. played well tonight just extremely unlucky. Well Rocket Roy had a good career, time to go. He looked terrible, give a young a guy a shot, or call up an A-League player and give him a shot. It was nice to see Olsen running around again, hopefully this is the beginning of his FULL recovery.

[eltico]

"Can you comment on Olsen and the reason for starting him in the 2nd half and not bringing him on as a sub later?
'We had to take Roy out – enough said.'"

Waivers, Roy. Waivers.

[DCUPopeAndLillyFan]

Originally posted by Enforcer
At the last two games that I have attended,
someone in the Screaming Eagles section has
set off firecrackers. What gives? and why isn't RFK security doing a more thorough job of checking fans coming into the games?

For The Record - It was in the BARRA BRAVA Section, NOT the Screaming Eagle section! I'm not aware of the SEs EVER setting off fireworks in their sections, Barra Brava has done it numerous times. Don't try to pin something on a supporters group if you don't know what the hell is going on.

Screaming Eagle Member #16

[notebook]

Originally posted by doctorjim
In the bigger picture, the current situation was predictable at the beginning of the season. DC had no reason to expect to do well. Too many aging, unfit, overpaid veterans and too many inexperienced, but promising players. Intelligent management would have installed a stable system and stuck with it and given yonger players as much chance to play as possible, regardless of the wins and losses.

Every minute McKinley has played has been wasted. Has DC won any more games this year because he has been in the game? Absolutely not. Give those minutes to younger players and you might not have won any more games, but, at the end of the season, the younger players would no longer be inexperienced. In the worst case, you would know that some of the kids will never make it. Best case, you would have filled some of the obvious gaps in the lineup.


I agree with this. I am amazed that three years into this downward spiral, we haven't fully committed to a rebuilding process. The thing with playing or not playing someone like Mckinley is, who do you play if you don't play him? There are not good, young prospects on the roster to take his place. Even a team as relatively weak as Columbus has players like Cunningham, Buddle, and Martino coming in off the bench. I am not sure who deserves the most blame for the current situation, perhaps the General Manager.

[BudWiser]

We dominated that game yet lost. No luck, bad finishing

There were a few handballs-we should've gotten a PK

Hard to take. Olsen looked very good. Lassiter's finished-glad we got him though but his MLS career is over. Quintanilla looked good. McKinley and Williams were bad

[Sundevil9]

My thoughts on the match:

I had forgotten what a sprark plug Ben is. Wow. It was great seeing him in action again. He should be in some decent (although rusty) form in two weeks when we see him agiain.

'Nilla was good, and I think he'll only get better after he learns more about his teammates. Like, passing to a covered Convey, Etch, or dropping the ball all the way back to Reyes is a much better offensive option than giving it to an onrushing open Ritchie Williams in the area.

I've said for years, that Eddie is an excellent option up front. In desperate late minutes of games, when Eddie wants the team to score, he has been really dangerous. And under the (lack of) firepower alternatives, it was not a bad move. Another option would have been to put Eddie back on D,and have Nelson move up.

Of course the 3 man offensive front of Nelson, 'Nilla, and Pope was very interesting. And one of the more dangerous combinations we've had.

Good effort by the defense (again) got burned/screwed once.

I'm pumped about Gazza. I noticed him in the warmup, walking around getting the feel of things, sitting on the bench, taking notes, talking to the coaches, and players. The man is serious and wants to make this work, he's not here on a vacation.

[Th4119]

Hopefully one of Gazza's notes was "Never pass to Williams", and they can translate it into Spanish for Quintanilla.

[BudWiser]

Originally posted by Sundevil9
I'm pumped about Gazza. I noticed him in the warmup, walking around getting the feel of things, sitting on the bench, taking notes, talking to the coaches, and players. The man is serious and wants to make this work, he's not here on a vacation.

I'm pumped too. We better not decide not to sign him because we need forward help

That's just crazy thinking

Put Curtis in there, if nothing else. Contact sormun for info on A-league forwards ;)

Midfield of Olsen, Diablo, Convey, Gazza. That would be incredible

Quintanilla looked good. We just need a healthy Moreno, or like I said Curtis, or some junk forward from somewhere

[scarshins]

my 3 cents worth:
DC gets an A for effort. They fought hard. Reyes, Convey, Etch and Olsen had good games. Too bad Moreno was unavailable.
The move to the 3-5-2 with Mckinley a d-mid but going forward when crosses are made, was to take advantage of a short NE back line. Almost worked. I think Lassiter inspired Ray's anger by attempt at a bicycle from Etch's chip. McKinley was wide open behind Lassiter, and running onto that, almost certainly a goal (but who knows with how things are going?) I think Roy sealed his fate there.
That's why Eddie came in late- to get his head on all the hail-marys we were supposed to be launching in the last 10 minutes.
Really a high-level game after the first 15 minutes, Coach Hudson got some great effort out of the team.