PBP: 2018 DCU: No layoff; Playoffs - 1) vs Crew

Discussion in 'D.C. United' started by fatbastard, Oct 30, 2018.

  1. GumbyG

    GumbyG Member+

    DC United
    Mar 22, 2007
    Chesapeake, VA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Chapman's standard for advantage seemed to be "Did the team retain possession?" It's one thing to let 'em play, but I didn't like the example this referee set. His refereeing style _on the night_ favored Columbus, and that was a conscious decision he made before the match, knowing both teams.

    Still, we needed to adapt and couldn't. I thought he was mostly fair otherwise. He just swallowed his whistle far too often.
     
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  2. GumbyG

    GumbyG Member+

    DC United
    Mar 22, 2007
    Chesapeake, VA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm not sure he has to be in the doghouse. Segura and Asad just had a good run of form for a while, and were on the downslope. They're tired, beat up, and teams have started to adapt to them. Mixing it up and making the other team figure you out is underrated as a coaching tactic. The Spanish Inquisition got that much right. If the season had been two games longer, we probably would have seen Stieber get a chance to start.

    Starting Arriola in defense showed Olsen's mindset going into this game. He was determined not to lose. It was a conservative coaching display, and that meant dancing with the ones what brought ya. You could also probably say Segura's a better defender on the right, and Asad wasn't going to sit in anything other than a cast.

    I don't think we would have lost anything in starting Stieber and Arriola in midfield this game. Frankly, we were one-dimensional, and too often on the back foot. That would have at least opened up the game - for better or worse.
     
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  3. NicktheGreek

    NicktheGreek Member+

    Feb 15, 2001
    ??????
    Which area(s) of his game management do you feel he excels at?
     
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  4. PSURoss

    PSURoss Member+

    Sep 30, 2002
    DC Burbs
    I think the fouling and compact midfield from Columbus really slowed us down. We hardly played down the left wing at all and even Arriola was limited on the right where I felt like he should have gotten forward more.

    Asad looked out of sorta all game long. Segura and Moreno seemed very anonymous too. Zoltan just never seemed to fit into the Acosta/Asad/Segura/Arriola midfield once Rooney showed up. Even with Arriola moving back, it seemed the last few weeks that Moreno had passed him in the pecking order. Perhaps it recognition that he's not coming back on $1M in salary as a bench player.

    Lets be honest, we saw plan B the whole first half of the season. If the Rooney/Acosta connection is shut down, I am not sure what else we have. The wingers whipping crosses into the box? How many crosses do you think Fisher had all season? I don't know the number, but is a pretty good sized number and I know he only had 1 assist for the year and that was right before he blew out his knee.

    I thought the first half was very even, but the 2nd, seemed to be very much one way traffic until the last 5-7 minutes, but overall, it was fairly close in number of quality chances as most people note. The lack of officiating on the cynical midfield play is will hold the league back until they decide to do something about it. A vastly superior team is usually going to over come that kind tactic, but more evenly matched teams will continue to favor the fouling team and that's killed us in the first round the last 2 times we've made the playoffs as a hot 2nd half team riding a hot scorer whether it was Mullins 2 years ago or Rooney this year.
     
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  5. Hedbal

    Hedbal Member+

    Jul 31, 2000
    DC
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I, too, am puzzled by Ben's reluctance to give Stieber playing time late in the season. Early on he was almost a regular starter. I know, Segura scored against Columbus earlier this year, but aside from being more physical I don't see him adding much. Stieber has a wonderfully accurate left foot and can ping in crosses from either wing, If you want menace in a wide spot it is Arriola or Stieber IMO. That said, he is pricey, and probably wants to find a home where he can play. I think there are plenty of teams (abroad) who wouldn't find his price tag objectionable.
     
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  6. Heist

    Heist Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Steiber is the new Boskovic.
     
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  7. John L

    John L Member+

    Sep 20, 2003
    Alexandria, VA
    and for something more light-hearted -

    1058168191057346566 is not a valid tweet id
     
  8. Adler

    Adler Member+

    Aug 20, 2003
    das Schloss Adler
    Club:
    DC United
    Heck, he's got the requisite ultra-cool Euro-name . . .
     
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  9. fairfax4dc

    fairfax4dc Member+

    Dec 5, 2008
    Fairfax, Va
    Just a quick plug for the "golden goal" method. Last night's game would have been fairly (if unhappily) decided if Columbus had won with their overtime goal. Instead, as happens not infrequently, the requirement to play all 30 minutes produced what everyone least wants - a decision by PK shootout.
     
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  10. tallguy

    tallguy Member+

    Sep 15, 2004
    MoCoLand, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree with this post, generally. I may be really talking out of my butt (as I do almost all of the time on Big Soccer), but for all the world this game reminded me of our 2003 playoff game against Chicago. Berhalter dumbed the game down by playing rough and cutting off our intent to play the beautiful game by swamping Rooney & Acosta. It was a brilliant strategy but radioactive if you think about it.

    As I recall, when Sean Connery in the role of James Bond reacted to Auric Goldfinger's plan to blow up Fort Knox, during the moment when Goldfinger informed him of his evil plan while they were talking in Goldfinger's Kentucky lair, he said something like, "Brilliant. By blowing up Fort Knox with an atomic bomb, the entire gold supply of the United States will become radioactive for 90,0000 years and you will become the richest man in the world."

    That was Berhalter's strategy. By blowing up the Rooney-Acosta golden combination taken together with Olsen's decision to take Arriola out of the offense by playing him at fullback, he turned the game into a stalemate. As Berhalter understood, anything can happen in penalty kicks. It was a brilliant but destructive gameplan than was thoroughly enabled by the referee's decision to judge the game as a mouse rather than as a man. Another piece of brilliant destruction was Higuain who proved himself to be the strong man among opponents who were mere girly men.

    That's was I think. Perhaps, I have not drunk enough beer tonight.
     
  11. roadkit

    roadkit Greetings from the Fringe of Obscurity

    Jul 2, 2003
    Fornax Cluster
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Assuming he knew what it was. Did they publish it in the presser? Beerholder outcoached and trolled the shit out of this team. It was genius.
     
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  12. roadkit

    roadkit Greetings from the Fringe of Obscurity

    Jul 2, 2003
    Fornax Cluster
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is typically characterized as shitty coaching.

    Which it was.
     
  13. stangspritzring

    stangspritzring Member+

    Apr 3, 2006
    NorMD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    So Berhalter is the GOP of MLS coaches, shitting all over the field and declaring victory? Not a good long-term strategy, in other words, but gets results? :D
     
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  14. scarshins

    scarshins Member

    Jun 13, 2000
    fcva
    I agree with everything everybody said... which is kind of unbelievable.
    Arriola is a midfielder not a back. We need his speed. Asad was horrendous for 70 minutes, and Segura was bad. Why not Stieber? We were better with him on the field. Mattocks should have gotten minutes in various games leading up to this. And Berhalter did a good job coaching, even if the point was to foul, destroy, and clog.
    See ya next year.
     
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  15. Theopisa

    Theopisa Member+

    Pisa Sporting Club
    Italy
    Oct 7, 2008
    Venezia
    Club:
    Pisa Calcio
    Nat'l Team:
    Italy
  16. Eben

    Eben Member

    Sep 16, 1999
    Fairfax, VA
    How bad is the egress after a game?
     
  17. John L

    John L Member+

    Sep 20, 2003
    Alexandria, VA
    Stinks on ice.


    Once outside, it depends on how you got to the game. If you used parking lots to the west closer to Waterside Metro, maybe leaving that way is OK. Otherwise traffic is horrid. But if you used Metro, getting on the Circulator Bus is great.
     
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  18. Petworth Posse

    Feb 24, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    We can argue all day about decisions and play in the 120 minutes. But this game came down to PKs and United lost because of coaching decisions required by PKs. We missed three of five. Completely unacceptable and on the coach to train players, know their strengths, and recognize who has a history of choking under pressure and avoid using them.
     
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  19. John L

    John L Member+

    Sep 20, 2003
    Alexandria, VA
    Our two best players missed theirs. That’s on them, NOT the coach.
     
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  20. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    This is NicktheGreek-level posting. You should be ashamed.
     
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  21. Petworth Posse

    Feb 24, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    I agree that Rooney's miss is on him - any coach would have selected him as one of five given his history at the spot - but am not sure about Acosta without seeing more from him that a coach would see. I had a coach who would have each player take one and only one PK after each practice. He'd keep track of how we did. A good coach creates the pressure situation. The "best players" are not necessarily the best players to take PKs. I recall Brian Carroll always burying PKs but was a good but not "best" player. PKs are to a coach the way selecting a VP is to a candidate for President. It's all on them to make the right pick given the political winds. I refuse to believe that NDL is better at PKs under pressure than Mattocks, Segura, Canouse, or maybe even Bill Hamid. NDL has a history of choking. And while he scores big goals in big games, they are three years apart so not very often at all.
     
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  22. Hedbal

    Hedbal Member+

    Jul 31, 2000
    DC
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    My oldest son's MD select squad had a player who wasn't good enough to play more than a minute of a match, but was always inserted just before penalty kicks. He never missed one.
     
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  23. Funkfoot

    Funkfoot Member+

    May 18, 2002
    New Orleans, LA
    He must have had a lot of fun being on that team.
     
  24. shawn12011

    shawn12011 Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Reisterstown, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And you would be wrong. A good coach would have seen the miss in NDL's eyes. I would have seen it.
     
  25. Heist

    Heist Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    How could you know. I thought you had obstructed view seats...
    None of us were in the huddle.
    Hey on ben for the actual mistakes he made with subbing... not for putting a player with fresh legs in the shootout.
     

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