Official Kansas @ DC United PRE Match Thread

[Knave]

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Kansas Wiz @ DC United
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- Stuff You Need To Know -

• Date & Time :: Saturday, May 13 @ 7:30pm EDT
• Television :: Comcast and Direct Kick
• Radio :: WACA, WMET
• Audio Webcast :: DC United (http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/MLS/dcu/index.jsp)
• Broadband Video Webcast :: MLSnet (http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/MLS/sights/index.jsp?club=dcu&week=0507)
• PBP AIM Chatroom :: BigSoccerDCU :: Directions Here (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=2238175#post2238175)

- Notes and Ramblings -

• Kansas will be without Eddie Johnson, Josh Wolff and Jimmy Conrad. That's means they'll be even more boring than usual.
• No Olsen for us.
• Had I anything more to say it'd go here.
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No Flames - No Trolls
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[Bill Archer]

I prefer the Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Ray Bolger version, myself.

[sebakoole]

The lion looks like Meola on a bad hair day. No Olsen, no Simms, no matter. I say we kick Kansass 3-0.

[ursula]

Place you bets on how soon a Wiz fan posts about how we shouln't call the team Kansas.

[thecheat48]

Can we all agree that Esky shouldnt start in the midfield?

I'm guessing 2-1 for DCU.

[sch2383]

I'm guessing they come out in the daring 9-1-0 lineup.

[Cweedchop]

Ya think Bunker Bob was defensive before?

You ain't seen nothin' yet. :p


Seriously though, this is a trap game. I know United wants to put behind their pathetic display from last weekend. However, despite Kansas being down their top 3 players, I will bet that Gansler will have that team, whomever will play, ready to play.

Rumor has it that Gansler is petitioning FIFA to allow a 12th defender to come on to the field.

By the way, the Kansas boards strangely seem none too worried about this match and have them winning for the most part.

That's confidence for ya.

[MattMathai]

I'm disappointed. I thought for sure that someone would have made some comment about KC attendance by now, and that Andy would have responded a tad acerbically.

[Th4119]

Chris I don't see how this game can be classified as a "trap game". Aren't those the ones against crap teams that show up and somehow get a result? Isn't Kansas ahead of DC in the standings?

I don't think a game against a team ahead of another over a month into the season can be considered a trap.

Also, I'd expect the Kansas fans to be confident. They're in first place and they actually have depth at the positions they lost players for the World Cup. While this game might have draw written all over it, I would expect nothing else from Wiz fans than to think they would win.

[GoDC]

I say start Esky and Filomeno on the wings and Gomez up front alone. They won't be expecting that at all. Then wait until the 70th minute and bring in Freddy.

[BigKris]

Chris I don't see how this game can be classified as a "trap game". Aren't those the ones against crap teams that show up and somehow get a result? Isn't Kansas ahead of DC in the standings?

I don't think a game against a team ahead of another over a month into the season can be considered a trap.

Also, I'd expect the Kansas fans to be confident. They're in first place and they actually have depth at the positions they lost players for the World Cup. While this game might have draw written all over it, I would expect nothing else from Wiz fans than to think they would win.

OK, ok, they're ahead of DC in the rankings, but isn't that whistling past the graveyard a little bit? KC is a good team, yes, but they will be missing 3 US internationals from their starting lineup. If we're surprised that KC fans are confident it's because we think they're underestimating the importance of this, and if we're worried this is a "trap" game it's because we fear that DC will overestimate the importance of it.

[MattMathai]

I say start Esky and Filomeno on the wings and Gomez up front alone. They won't be expecting that at all. Then wait until the 70th minute and bring in Freddy.

You clearly have no grasp of strategy.

At the beginning of the game, 10 players trot out. The KC players will stand there, slack-jawed and gaping, when they see Freddy in the goal. Then, just before kickoff, the eleventh player, David Stokes, runs out as the lone forward.

Imagine how devastating a surprise that would be!


Strangely enough, they never ask for my input on strategy...

[fatbastard]

As I recall, we didn't do too bad in '98 with our American internationals missing. This is going to be a tough game. Normally, Gansler's teams are very organized and hard to break down, but other teams have been putting in goals this year and late last year against them.
We could really use the 3 points, and we are at home - but we really haven't been getting max points at home lately either.

I think it'll be a tough game with lots of scary counter attacks and at least one horrible defensive gaff resulting in an away goal - but we still come out 2-1. That's my gut, my heart says 4-1 :D

As for their "playmaker", Sasha is a girl's name :)

[MattMathai]

but we still come out 2-1. That's my gut, my heart says 4-1 :D

Which is bigger, your heart or your gut?

Just trying to figure out how to bet.

[GUTuna]

They're in first place and they actually have depth at the positions they lost players for the World Cup.

KC and United are the two deepest teams in the league and both are well coached. In the long run, both of these teams should be able to adjust and continue their winning ways. On Saturday, we could catch KC in the first game of the adjustment and exploit it. We could run into a team of hungry players trying to make a mark. Too hard to tell really.

The one thing that's certain is that we'll be playing at home and we should come out attacking. I'd like to see Freddy back in the lineup as I think his presence makes us much less predictable in our attack. He also allows Josh Gros to play more defensively on the opposite wing and pick his spots. We'll probably see Namoff again in the second D-mid role. I'm pretty comfortable with that. Even in our loss in Colorado I thought Carroll and Namoff played well, we just got killed with longballs out to the wings.

[ursula]

we just got killed with longballs out to the wings.


Which is what Kansas will do until Nowak tries to stop it. Peter was helpless last game against such crafty strategy- who would have guessed that the opposition would attack the 352 with long balls to the corners? It's never been done before in the history of the game! (yes that's sarcasm)- think he'll have a clue this time? (No, that's not sarcasm.)

[scarshins]

I think the long balls- which were especially effective late in the game- are the Rapids' strategy at home, with the altitude factor. Make the other team tired, then punish them.

[GUTuna]

Which is what Kansas will do until Nowak tries to stop it.

Two other factors exacerbated the problem in Colorado. One, Gros kept getting caught upfield. I attribute this to him having to press so much of our attack in the first half. Two, we couldn't put together any kind of possession up top. Our passing was crap and we kept getting dispossesed. I'd have to go back and look at the second Colorado goal, but I think both these factors were at play. Gros may have been the one that got the ball taken by Mastroeni who played it long down the wing.

[Bootsy Collins]

Which is bigger, your heart or your gut?

Have you seen the side of D.C. United's equipment truck?

(I know, I know, I should talk!)

[fatbastard]

Have you seen the side of D.C. United's equipment truck?Oh sure, you're just jealous because I'm famous - or at least on the side of a truck :D
Not sure that photo shows how large my gut is, but it sure shows how WHITE it is ;)
And Matt, according to my daughter, and most of the women I've been with over the years, I have no heart :cool: