Saturday was the first match in a while where I thought they played well enough.to get points. Problem was, it was Colorado. And they're trash. Crew is bad. I have come to terms with bad. I want to see the team improve to meh by the end of the season.
How do you know this current situation will not be an outlier? The ingredients are here for a turnaround. A coach that has won championships and a new investor/operator group that seems to be willing to spend $$. Sigi was ready to quit and probably close to getting fired in 2006/2007. Your disdain for Porter seems to be personal, and your opinions about him may be wrong. There were many people calling for Sigi's removal way back in those nostalgic days you referenced. Are you really giving up on this coach and Bez 5 months after they took over precourt's mess? This is still, for the most part, the team that they inherited, with a couple of unfortunate long-term injuries to key players to make matters worse. Like you, I am unhappy with the performance so far this season, it has been painful to watch. Let's see what develops with this club over the next year. It will take that long for Porter and Bez to build their team.
Given that this time last season, I wasn't expecting to be watching *any* domestic soccer *this* year--and certainly not the Crew, I'll take it . For now.
Now hold on just one damn minute here pal. Hang "may be wrong"? What sort of nonsense is that? His animus towards Porter "seems personal"? How dare you sir. And for Gods sake will you quit all this insane talk about how Porter may need some time to.turn a terrible team into a champion? The man has had a good 3+ months now How goddam long do.we have to.wait? The sports world is littered with coaches who have turned crappy teams with marginal, aging players into legendary winners in the blink of an eye. Like....well, for example....look, I haven't got the time to do your research for you. And please, stop pointing out that Sigi started off slowly. Hang has issued several demands that people stop using that entirely relevant and germane example to make their sillyassed mewling ignorant point. Just stop it. No more Sigi talk or hang will be forced to pound out another multi paragraph diatribe on the subject. And.nobody wants that. The Crew should have a hard and fast rule from now on: a coach can have 15 games to turn a gawdawful team into a reasonable facsimile of Barcelona. If they dont, bang, out.on their ass.
Bill, I'm sorry that your cat pissed in your raisin bran this morning. I hope your day gets better from here. I'll attempt to answer some of White Heart Shame's more measured points than Bill's rehashing of Bill rehashing himself. I'm not sure that the current situation is an outlier or not. And I don't deny that I have faith in Bez as someone who can turn this around. I've stated I don't think Porter is the man to do it. He had extremely good resources in Portland and in addition to winning the cup managed to miss the playoffs 2 out of 5 seasons. He didn't win a single playoff match in Portland after defeating Columbus in the final. The team that he inherited (with the unfortunate long term injuries) was a playoff team. Right now, they look AWFUL. Let me ask you this, outside of Pedro Santos can you name a Columbus Crew player that is playing better now than last season? Maybe Sauro? Can we even name a player who has improved since the season started? My point is that you can look at the performance on the field and see it is dreck and identify that the coach is in part responsible. And as captain cbus stated he has shown little ability to adjust, no new ideas, and really nothing but excuses in the post game presser. As far as whether it's personal. All sports fandom is personal on some level. You form a bond with complete strangers that you feel are representing you. When I see the complete strangers embarrassing themselves on a weekly basis, when I see Pipa going through the motions game in and game out for a second season straight I find it offensive. When I see no accountability for continued poor play and blaming of the weather for results, I find it appalling. I get that some people are content with the "we didn't expect to have to have a team this year, so all this is gravy." And maybe it's easier to have this mindset if you are at the stadium week in and week out and seeing old friends and there is a ritual to it. I concede that was the case for me in some lean Phillies years, post Charlie Manuel, but I still was disgusted seeing Ryne Sandberg managed teams trip over themselves day after day. Short of that ritual of seeing friends at a stadium I see a team full of players where most have regressed under this current coach from the year prior, 1-2 have improved, very few have shown improvement since game one of this season, and a coach who is spewing forth bullshit and excuses week after week. It's not good enough. Period.
Players may have "regressed" under the new management/coaches. This management and coaching group did not select these players. Of course there is going to be personality and chemistry issues when you throw a new system and coaching philosophy at a group of players. Add to that the chaos that was swirling around the club since December in rebuilding and organizing a new FO and you get the current season we are experiencing. Is this season going worse than any of us could have expected? Most of us would probably say yes. Porter and Bez deserve at least one year to create their club, with their players, and their system.
Part of that is undoubtedly the bowl games. The playoff games (and the TV $$) is the goal. Whereas Purdue or Indiana might be content with a fifth-place bowl, to OSU, that's a garbage bowl. Then, of course, it's to the point where a team can win four or five games all year and be close to a bowl (Mapfre Bowl between the MAC and TBD?) , but that's beside the point. OSU is the European team which demands UCL placement every season...the upside and downside to being consistently good. What was it...three or four times in the last 20 years when they haven't made a bowl and twice was due to ineligibility? On the soccer front, compare the small-marketness of Columbus to other cities in the league... It's great to be king, but the "birthright feeling" that comes with it isn't fun when you lose. OSU loses one game and it's like a kick to the zone.
Oh, he's got faith in Bez. Just Bez' decision to hire this coach. Unless one is to believe that the ownership group hired the coach before they hired the president who would oversee the coach.
Chelsey, if you have any desire to discuss the actual product on the field maybe you can answer any of the questions posed in the above posts.... Has any player outside of Santos improved under Porter this season over last? Has any player seen their quality improve over the course of the season? Is it not true that we have seen most players regress in their form this season compared to before? I know it's been difficult for you to view this season objectively. You've stated from jump that Porter's hiring was personal fort you. I'm just wondering if you have any actual opinions about the product on the field so far this season.
1) To say Santos improved, well I suppose he has done better than his previous season and a half. But he had such a low bar initially. Even blind squirrels, you know. 2) Sure. Crew look like garbage. We knew Crew would look this way. My pitchfork will remain in the closet for the time being. Unsure if not wanting to talk about a hot pile of poop shows a lack of desire. Good decision-making, if you ask me. Not that you would. 3) I admit that you are correct that I am having a hard time finding objectivity when it comes to Porter. We knew that as well. It is rather odd for me. I will continue to try. I made the disclaimer months ago. Years, really.
I know by "total teardown" you're referring to the roster. But I'd argue that the 2019 Crew are in about as total teardown a mode as a team in this league can have without (1) folding or (2) being a USL side preparing for "promotion" to MLS. Nearly the entire organization from bottom to top is being turned over and restructured. And that project was begun 8 weeks before the beginning of a new season based on a previous structure that wasn't merely inadequate (it certainly was that), hadn't merely been left without basic maintenance (that certainly was the case), parts of the structure were purposefully mismanaged, designed to be dysfunctional.
We didn't get much of an offseason but that mainly affected marketing. We didn't lose anyone of consequence from last year's team. We brought in a player who has gotten a fair amount of time this year. I'm not opposed to any of the player moves the team has made but let's not pretend that last year's team was as poor as this years with the same players. Has the team ever had a stretch as poor as 3 points in 9 games? If you want to say we can't count on Zardes having an even better season after his career year in 2018, fine. But he was made a DP by Bez. Personally, I don't buy the claim that if we had Valenzuela and Afful, we'd have 5 more wins.
You sort of lost me with that first sentence. Marketing? Sure, I guess. But what about: All manner of sales, including corporate sales and partnerships. TV and radio deals that had to be thrown together in a few weeks. The rebuilding of much of the FO, including lots of senior positions. Oh, and hiring an entire coaching staff, including scouts. Sounds like a lot more than marketing to me. We signed one player in the off season; a lower division Brazilian midfielder, identified by the previous coaching staff. He's gotten some playing time, but he was hardly an impact signing. The new guys brought in Francis when Valenzuela was lost for the year, then those new acquisitions at the tail end of the transfer window. We were not a bad team last year, no. But we were hardly world beaters: 5th in the East and 10th overall, with a -2 goal differential. We scored 43 goals, tied with Orlando. Only Colorado (36) scored fewer. We squeaked into the playoffs due to a strong defense. We went into 2019 with basically the same roster, plus Robinho. We signed Valenzuela to a DP contract, then immediately lost him for the year to injury. As I've said, I'm surprised at how the wheels have fallen off for us this year, but I never expected us to be good, because we weren't good last year. Even good/great teams have to honestly reassess their rosters every off season in this league. The Crew needed a talent influx this past off season. That simply wasn't possible, and we're seeing the affects of that lack of activity now. That doesn't mean Porter has handled the situation well, by the way (I don't think he has), just that it wasn't entirely of his making.
Yes, but again we had all of our significant contributors from last year back. We added Robinho and lost Valenzuela. Other teams also have injuries. SKC is riddled with injuries but still playing better than us. The short offseason isn't the issue here. As you noted the main effects were off the field.
First, they aren't 2 of the best outside backs in the league. Francis is an adequate replacement for Valenzuela. Both (and Afful) are offensive minded and not especially good at defense. Second, losing our outside backs isn't why we're so much worse this year. They were good at serving crosses into the box but we've had plenty of that this season. What we're missing is better finishing from our forward and midfielders.
IMHO the team lost the edge of being the underdog. The team losing its fans in the city many of them loved. The league didn’t care, the owner didn’t care and the rest of the teams didn’t care. It was them against the world. This is a very useful mentality for a coach and team to believe. There is a lot of research to back up how the underdog mentality can help improve performance. Again, it’s my opinion that the team has lost this mentality. They have been saved. They are no longer the underdog. It shows on the field.
Some of you guys have MUCH higher expectations of the ticketing and marketing staff that I do. I mean, I think that they can do wonders for the game day experience. But, I fail to see how Joey from sales can help this team to attack with any sort of impetus. I tend to subscribe to the philosophy that this sort of instruction usually comes from the coaching staff and the players themselves, and probably not a social media consultant. Your mileage may vary....