Maybe he doesn't like the club he's at and he played out his contract, figuring he would get a better offer.
I learned four things from the Atlanta game. If Durkin doesn't get the ball taken off his feet at least three times a game, we aren't using him enough. If you're dribbling towards one of your players in the center of midfield, you probably should have already passed the ball to them. Wayne Rooney isn't a traditional 9. Saddling him with those responsibilities takes him out of the game. <soapbox>The powers that be at MLS headquarters have no respect for the integrity of the game, and anyone who's interested in working with or for them is tainted by that. I'm talking here of the blatant Martinez headbutt in Seattle. No punishment in game, no DISCO suspension, no explanation from PRO, and no reporters talking about any of those things. The only player on the field who scored against us shouldn't have been there, period. We were defeated by Don Garber, as far as I can tell. If, as a league, we're going to accept that sort of thing, we ought to at least dress up in ridiculous uniforms, compose elaborate skits - probably involving Hypeman - and hit each other with chairs.</soapbox>
Now there's the most original excuse I've ever seen for why United got their asses kicked. Or for that matter for any circumstance ever.
Well considering the fact that he committed a foul by slamming into Ousted on the first goal that seems to be his MO.
To be clear, I'm not making excuses. I picked DC to lose by 2. They did not disappoint me. Er.. I'm saying there are supposed to be consequences for violent conduct on the field. Those consequences are there because they have the possibility of affecting your record and the records of your opponents. When you apply those consequences inconsistently, you're picking winners and losers. The league should have no part in doing that. Atlanta probably still would have won, but they'd have had a harder time of it without the league's runaway golden boot nominee dropping a hat-trick on us. We are poorly equipped to deal with a forward like Martinez, in particular, and it would have completely changed the complexion of the game. I thought it was initiated as a fair challenge for a free ball..? Ultimately it was the contact that resulted in the goal, but I can't say Martinez wasn't going for the ball. You could claim recklessness, I guess. I haven't watched the replay. I just think it was a matter of Martinez being in a position to go in stronger. Props to Ousted for recognizing that he had to step to that and putting himself in front of the train. He very nearly pulled it off.
That was no foul in my book, that's a free ball in space where both Martinez and Ousted are allowed to contend for it. The difference was Martinez was not afraid and wanted it more, while Ousted was too passive. I swear, most rec league goalies I've seen would have seen that as a free shot to clean his clock and make anyone think twice about getting in there tight on crosses. Weak sauce from Ousted.
To my trained ref eye it was a foul. His actions were reckless even if he was going for the ball legally. He endangered an opponent, however that is a judgement call that everyone will see differently.
I know it is repeating, but why start Rooney here, in a game you know you are going to be out possessed? I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but Brilliant is a ********ing deck chair. Some would say he was unlucky on that last goal, but nah thats poor positioning and lazy defending. Birmbaum has been below par for a while now. So with both our CB's being garbage that basically limits what our fullbacks can do as well.
I might be a whole solar system off but maybe they were hoping that Rooney would be an attraction, helping spread some hype which has been pretty underwhelming in comparison to the likes of Beckham, Zlatan, and Freddy the phony It wouldn't be the first time that a player was used to fill the seats instead of the back of the net
Why not do that for the first home game, if thats the case? TBH, unless I see or read otherwise, Im going to assume it was a tactical decision from Ben Olsen.
Martinez would not have tried that on Hamid. I think even Clark would have gone full bore at Martinez -- Clark's game has many deficiencies, but passivity isn't one of them.
Three games in a week. Your best chance in Atlanta would be to have him start and get used to the turf rather than close and not get a feel for it. (Unless he never gets the feel for it, that is) He has to probably start next Saturday to sell tix, so expect a cameo Wednesday against the metros. Thx, Jay!
Tactical and Olsen don't exactly fit together like Apple and Pie but I see your point. I'll have to wait for his book to know for sure
I dunno that guy has an eye for the scoreline and I doubt if he thinks about anything, he just strikes. My guess is he'd even try it on Chilavert. Painful lesson but I think he'd go for it
Keepers have had those calls go against them for the last few years, that said I was rooting for for Ousted to clean him out and was rather disappointed to see him take the "Lets not get hurt in a rout" approach to defending that breakaway. Still my starter over Clark who is too prone to a howler. Hamid doesn't save that many of what will be run at 70 against (Minnesota's MLS record for GA) with this defense in front of him. All 4 are awful and running low on pride at this point. Not having at least 2 backline buys lined up at the start of the window will be an epic strategic error that is on the FO. I think we all agree that perhaps Jalen Robinson should be out there, but that still leaves 3 weak links starting every game.
I think Birnbaum could be fine if paired with a good-to-great CB. I don't think he can be fine when he's supposed to be the good-to-great CB.
I think he's had too many concussions, and is not going to go into challenges the way he used to. He is definitely not as aggressive as he used to be, and since Brillant is not too aggressive either, DC's been leaking goals. If Opare is healthy, I would definitely swap out Brillant for Opare. If Opare is not healthy yet, I would be tempted to start Robinson in Brillant's place.
Disaster because neither can organize a defense. The problem here is the defense is a shambles and to paraphrase @shawn12011, moving players in and out is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. Given that the FO clearly isn't interested in bringing in defensive reinforcements that will affect this season, we are just fecked.
Wayne Rooney named DC United captain. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-three-matches-in-mls/?utm_term=.b17bbd36cdc9
I'll cosign this. I'd add I think he needs to have 100% confidence in the keeper behind him (that's generally true, but I suspect knowing he had Hamid behind him for years allowed him to focus on what was in front of him).