It's no secret Ben Olsen is a horrible coach. It's almost like he doesn't even believe he's a coach, which is why he shows up to nationally televised playoff games wearing a pajama top or whatever he was wearing last night. This wasn't the sexy, attacking possession based football that the media tells you Berhalter brings. DC had the possession advantage. They had more completed passes in the attacking half. More in the attacking third. But they just couldn't find a way to unlock the door. I've expressed my frustration on numerous occasions about how the center of our midfield has offered nothing offensively. Trapp and Artur are almost attacking non-entities, and Pipa can go weeks without showing any end product. Pipa came through last night with two fortunate goals, but it was more than that. If all three work as hard defensively as they did last night, we have a chance against anyone. They busted their asses and were wonderful. Even Santos was doing great work tracking back before the injury. We all sorta rolled our eyes in the past at the "America's Hardest Working Team" moniker of the Crew in the MLS 1.0 era. It was cheesy. It never really fit. Last night Gregg's tactics required everyone to buy in 1000% and be willing to out work and out smart DC everywhere on the field. They did it. They all deserve credit. DC is probably the better team. They were out coached and out worked last night. And for someone who sat through too many games when we've been on the other side of that equation, this felt especially great. Especially against DC.
Our defensive has been our strength all season. Both of their goals came off sloppy set piece defending but in the run of play they didn’t create much for 120 mins. In years past it was can our defense be good enough for us to win. This year it’s can our offense score enough. Guess we are about to find out.
I will say that while both their goals were sloppy, both ours sorta were as well. The first was off a scrum that Higuain put in. The second, didn't it come off his collarbone (some of last night is a blur). But again those things tend to happen when you are more engaged in all phases of the game like Pipa was last night. We do need Gyasi to get it going though. I was seriously bummed when he missed the pk. Last year Ola never really got going and our attack was very much neutralized. We need a confident Gyasi to beat NYRB.
Yes, shortly after I posted that. But I raced home to bed to get 3 hours sleep before work today, so no follow up post. Mea culpa. It does help a little more when you think that (as you state later) we nuetralized Rooney, and also that we stuffed both Rooney and Acosta on PKs, and they their game-tying goal scorer pulled a Bradley. So, I'll say it makes up for 1997, but we've got two more dishes of revenge yet to serve. Excellent analysis.[/QUOTE]
Good stuff tends to happen when everybody crashes the goal. But WTF is up with our corners? We must have had 50 and a good half of them never made it as far as the penalty area. And it didn't seemlike they were the dreaded short corners, it just looked like they were terrible kicks. What possible strategy are you attempting when you deliver a rocket shot about waist high to anybody, let alone a teammate who's not even in front of the goal. Put some air under it and see if Sauro, Mensah or Gyassi can get a head on the damn thing. Cut out the cutie pie crap. Gyassi was the one guy last night who never looked like he was in sync with everybody else. Whenever he did get the ball he was around the halfway and he'd dribble madly down the sideline until he felt some pressure and then launch a zero-hope ball in the direction of the stands. And several times he had 2 or 3 teammates in front of the goal, with space. He just wasn't bothering to look. And Meram, Jesus. I wish he'd score a goal so maybe he would stop pressuring himself so badly. He takes some stupid shots and you can see the frustration. He needs to let the game come to him.
@Flyer Fan suggested in a text last night that we didn't get Meram back from Orlando, that maybe he got mixed up in some sort of Freaky Friday shenanigans. That made me think of with whom might he have switched bodies? My immediate answer was Santos. Meram is playing like a past it Portuguese piece of shit and Santos is playing like a psyche shattered Orlando reject that regrets every decision he's made in the last 13 months.
I recall many many moons ago reading a book about coaching/playing (I think it was hockey) where the comment was made that when you are in a scoring drought, don't look to score but to find your teammates with passes for a time--and then let a shot or two go.
The story of the season has been lack of production from our wide players. With only 5 games left to play we need some sort of quality from them. This team only has 1 real goal scorer maybe 2 if Higuain is engaged. We only go as far as the form of Meram and Santos/Hansen so that should be a worry.
Hey guys I have an idea to burn through this workday. Lets go on the flight tracker and look for that PK ball.
Has there been any official word on Pedro's injury? EDIT - My bet was bone bruise or break in his calf. That looked pretty solid. It was a disgrace that Asad writhed around about half the night for imagined contact, and when he actually injures another player, he wanders around pleading his innocence. Douche deserves to be sitting at home for the rest of the playoffs.
Disagree with Bill on Zardes, he was darn good saved for that poor clearing header. Lots of times when he was wide we had no one in the box for him to cross it to. The 1 v3 70 yard run to won a corner was great. The corners need work. When you try near post every time it gets easy to defend. Valenzuela needs to take the keft footed ones if Santos is out.
I'm kinda afraid to make one, @110toyourleft. Like, what if your threads are good luck? What if I'm the baddie?
I love it when you guys win, because it's bound to make Garber a little nauseous. Who knew the DC fans were such enormous douchebags, booing and jeering a genuinely injured player is toxic douchebaggery indeed.