A few observations. If you were not in attendance and had trouble finding a way to watch just take any 10 minute segment and repeat nine times. 15k attendance...nice to know Sean Spicer finally landed a new job. Looked like 15k empty seats. Does the Union motto translate to, "If it is not working, keep trying the same thing over and over"? Inconsistent reffing is almost worse than bad reffing. Called a balanced game, just crappy throughout. Cheese curds are not worth $11.
The Good: Defense was fairly solid The Bad: Final Third, couldn't crack Columbus' Defense at all (which was solid btw). The Ugly: The guy behind me all game long who couldn't say anything w/o dropping an F Bomb. Get creative at least, sheesh.
Hello fellow soccer fans. I just wanted to stop by and say thank you for the class and support shown to #SaveTheCrew today with the TIFO and banners for the traveling away supporters. Know that if you or any fanbase should ever be similarly threatened, we will not forget and we will be there for you. Words cannot express how much all this means to us. Since our own league is against us fans, we must stick together. As much as we'd love to repay the efforts in kind, we hope we never have to. Rivals on the field, bretheran off. That is all. I now return you to your regularly scheduled evisceration of your team's performance today; just as we are doing in our corner of the Innerwebz.
I really didn't notice anything to do with St Patrick's Day except for the 3 x 3oz Irish Beer flights for $12 dollars... I passed.
1- Attendance was 7500 max in my estimation 2- Good Tifo 3- River End was lively 4- I really can't imagine what the team has been doing for two weeks. They played like 11 strangers. What a mess. Accam futilely taking on three defenders, CJ on an island, Dockal trying to get involved but not close to on the same page with anyone, Haris squandering dangerous free kicks. Herbers...Herbers-ing, Burke had ideas but no support.....at all. PAsses behind players all day, losing 50/50 balls, getting beat to every ball. Just bad . Games like this really highlight JIm's shortcomings. Everyone knew two weeks ago what the Crew would do, we didn't have any plan to break them down and made no adjustments in game. Obviously the Crew get some credit here, they were compact and disciplined. 5- Defensively solid although the Crew the better of the chances. Austin was so hot and cold, was wandering waaay upfield and a few times put us in a bad spot by being out of position. Keegan played well I thought, no complaints 6- Lots of bad body language out there from many players. Dockal is going to be amusing to watch 7- Stub Hub is a great thing 8- There is still plenty of free street parking available despite the signs. Just park where there aren't any signs.
Yes. Thank you. I see my comrades have already paid their respects. Thank you to all who were responsible for the #SaveTheCrew support.
The defense was pretty good. I was totally wrong about them... So there’s that... The offense was anemic and uninterested.... both teams seemed like they were sleep walking through the game... it was pretty terrible. Dockal first impressions: his touches were good, but nothing indicates he is the savior everyone advertised him as.
Did anyone hear how bad Fabinhio’s leg is? Will Real crack the lineup once he’s back with the youth national team?
Hopefully. My thoughts about the game. Due to my work schedule last season I made it to about 3 games total. So this was literally my first Union game I attended in person in the better part of a year. And MAN, what a shit game to see. - I'm hoping Real gets the nod to start when he's back from the baby Nats. Gaddis is many things and a LB is certainly not one of them. I was legit worried that he'd get burned by Columbus and I do remember attackers getting by him more than once. - As others have said, what in the hell was this team working on for two weeks? That was one of the most listless offensive performances I've seen from this team. I was honestly BORED for most of the match. - You know for a team that supposedly has a lot of speed on the wings the Union absolutely SUCK at playing on the break. Seriously, I thought Accam was supposed to be this dude with blazing speed and he never once burned a Columbus player. Hell, I remember on what could have been an opportunity to have a go at goal he got beat to the ball by a Columbus CB. - Going back to the previous thought, why in the hell do the Union suck at breakaways? Like literally through most of their history. How in the hell is the concept of, "If we get a turnover, three or four guys need to be hauling ass down the field to create opportunities," SEVERAL times during the match the Union would get the ball and promptly trot down the field with it allowing Columbus' entire team to reset. When the Union did manage to get by a defender, literally there was only Accam or Sapong in the box with any other player WELL out of the play. It got to the point that pretty much everyone in my section was screaming for guys to get up the field. - Trusty looked pretty solid to me, I feel like he and Elliott may be pretty good CBs in this league. - Dockal showed some clear frustration with his team mates. I remember he made a pass and there wasn't a Union player to receive it and I saw him throw his hands up in frustration/anger. It was the type of passion that was sorely lacking from most of the team today. - Yeah, there was no way there was 15,000 people in that Stadium.
I forgot about the game. But I did buy a nice Stanley travel mug. From what I've seen about the game I had the more productive day. Edit: And I'm sure it's partially due to living out of market and no longer being a STH. But it's amazing how often since last season I straight up forget about games until I get a text from someone or get a push notification on my phone. All joking aside it genuinely bums me out knowing how apathetic I've become towards the team.
So it’s a bad sign when I’m missing Ilsinho. The final third was clearly the issue for the Union. The Crew clogged the middle and we never adjusted our approach to better attack from the wings. Elliot and Trusty seem to be gelling nicely but Rosenberry still looks lost to me (hopefully just rust for the lost season). First game but Dockal looked ordinary. As stated above, he is the early leader for most likely to murder a fellow teammate this season.
I’ll say this about Dockal, if his RW has more of a clue than Herbie did, he will look good. He was looking for overlapping runs and Herbers just sucked. Dockal was throwing his hands in the air by the 25’ mark. He’s in for a treat.
I am envisioning conversation between Dockal and Vince Nogueira a year from, after Dockal's loan expires and he's back in Europe: Dockal: "How long did it take for you to realize you'd made a horrible mistake in going to the Union? It took about 10 minutes into my first match." Nogs: "Sounds about right. Crazy story, in this one game a guy dribbled the ball straight out of bounds with no one near him. No, seriously, it actually happened. Google it."
Barnetta: “hey wassup, that place was crazy. They were all proud of this kid getting signed, hyped him for like two years, he comes in as a sub an elbows a dude in the face and red carded in like 15 seconds. Think he’s coaching high school or some shizzle.” Soumare: “Chester Park bro.” Honestly, the “former good players alumni reunion fake conversation “ deserves its own thread. I can see Carlos Ruiz jumping offside in the buffet line and sulking back to his table.
Yeah my dad and I were talking about how he would’ve been a pretty solid MLS player like 5 years ago. He’s like Danny Cruz but with a better touch.
After two games, this has been a real problem on both sides of the field. In fact, the CBs have gotten grief for booting the ball into the corners in both games. Aren't those also indications that the midfielders aren't looking for a quick counter - or aren't fast enough to get there?
Guys, can we get over this? They announce paid attendance. They've always announced paid attendance. It's time to start looking around and asking why people are buying tickets and staying home.
One thing I couldn't help but notice. They bring in a #10, a centrally-located playmaker. And yet, they still seemed to be content with running up the wings for most of the game and sending in crosses. When my 7-yo tells me he can read UNION in the seats on the opposite side of the stadium, you know attendance is sparse. I saw him on the concourse at halftime in street clothes.
i was more commenting on my perceived estimation of the crowd size. I don't care what they annouce, in fact I hope they are reporting that inflated number to MLS also. Yeah this is a bit disconcerting, hopefully just a product of guys not having much time together yet.It took a bit for Barnetta to be comfortable too. I do like that Dockal was looking far more lively and active than Alberg ever did.
he was on the field post game. had a fairly large brace on this right arm and was walking with a limp