A nightmare--not so much in a 2-0 away loss. But, Artur down with what looks like a broken wrist in the first minute, then Crognale down with an injury while giving away a PK--also in the first half. Yikes.
depending upon how long those two are out, could be a long next few months... good thing we have all those extra wing players!
The injuries are the real killer here. Hopefully, we can get some updates soon. Steffen was great and I thought Naess was solid. Trapp moved the ball well and he seems to be returning to the 2015 version. Afful found space but his first touch and decision making was subpar. I'll be nice to Abu and say he was a hair better than Duka would have been. It's a damn fine hair mind you.
Anyone wanting to question Steffen, Higuain, or Trapp can go ******** themselves twice. I have other drunken thoughts as well, you dicks.
At least we have an excuse now. And the conspiracy theories will come out that this is due to Grouchy Points not originally having lose by two for this game...
Steffen is going to save more than a normal goalies share of PK saves. If that PK was not hit with pace, he'd have saved it, and it wasn't poorly placed. Fingers crossed for Crognale and Artur. Though I suspect Artur is out for a fair stretch.
Maybe we could get together one of those Gift Baskets for Artur...show some support..he is a long way from home..having surgery ect.
How do you know he's having surgery? Admittedly I was 45 min behind kickoff due to fatherhood, so haven't caught up with real time yet. What specifically do we know about either? Anything?
Abu and Ola were not good. Afful struggled some as well. Defense overall had some pretty bad moments, but weren't altogether horrible. Hopefully the injuries are both minor. If Artur doesn't need surgery, he shouldn't be out that long. 6-8 weeks max with surgery unless he got very unlucky. I would hope 0-4 though. He can play casted, and hopefully doesn't need surgery. That's exactly why you let yourself fall, though. Whether it's soccer, football, snowboarding, etc. you normally just let yourself fall or you're risking a wrist injury. I wear a wrist brace on my left whenever I play (including rare times I play goalie) because I have some suspected cartilage damage from prior falls and can't afford to hurt my wrist again.
Wrist fractures are highly varible. At the very least it involves one of two bones in the forearm. Most likely a distal radial fracture which there are several types. The end of the bone is broken at the wrist joint. Not a real easy thing to fix like a clean break would be. Its a plate and screw thing most likely. To have him back in August would be the very best case scenario. Again, this type of injury is so variable that if it took 6 months I would not be surprised.(hate saying that).
What happened to Crognale exactly? I was heartbroken when Artur got hurt and didnt watch anymore of the match.
Higuain was shit. I'm slightly less drunk after a 2 1/2 hour train ride home. Wanna fight, or are you in your pajamas already?
Since Manneh can play any of the top four positions apparently since we'll never find out since he's 2017's Emil Larsen last night would've been a great time to sub on Manneh for Ola. Might've been more dangerous than Adam Jahn and his trivia questions. Or Ethan Finlay must play 30 minutes no matter what or the world ends. Could've just idk subbed on Manneh instead. And Abu sucks. Were going to be a lot closer to 2016 without Artur for a while.
Does he play defensive midfield nowadays? What a G🎯AL!!! @ColumbusCrewSC loanee Marshall Hollingsworth pulls one back for @PghRiverhounds against @RichmondKickers. #RICvPGH pic.twitter.com/7Kru6JdiUj— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) April 22, 2017 If so I would start him next week with Trapp. That's how not impressed with Abu I am. That's a good "hey look at me over here Berhalter."
My mother-in-law broke *both* wrists trying to break her fall. Mrs KG had to spend most of the summer over at their house taking care of her a few years back. Not fun.
Alright. Last night was a bit of a clusterfvck. Let's not all get carried away and say the team is horrible and we have the worst players in the league etc etc. All teams lose with some shit performances throughout any season. That being said.... I'll start with the good: Zach Steffen - He was excellent last night. Kept us in the game in the second half with three or four good saves. If Royer hadn't hit his penalty kick with so much power, he might have been able to save that. He still has a lot of learning to do, but just like some of the other young guys we play, mistakes and scary moments will happen. It's worth it though. Wil Trapp - Very good game from the captain, especially considering the loss of Artur after a whopping 30 seconds. Played well defensively, good passing. Showed emotion last night, he clearly cares. Justin Meram - Our most dangerous option going forward. If the man isn't an All-Star this year, something is wrong (though who really cares about shit like that, might get a nice bonus though). Nico Naess - Solid game. Last year he was good for getting caught ball-watching or losing a dual and giving up a good chance at least once per match. He seems to have improved that aspect of his game this year. Somewhere in the middle: Ola Kamara - The good: He made a lot of dangerous runs and was in good positions throughout the game. The bad: his finishing was shit. He should have had at least one goal, and if he's on his game, two. I'm not gonna blame him for the loss, but I think even he would admit he has to finish at least one of those off. I know he likes the ball at his feet, but he needs to use his head more. That cross from Raitala that went off the post was some sweet service, that required just the slightest of touches from Ola. It was the perfect height for a header, but he hesitated and stabbed at it with his foot. Not sure what happened there. Federico Higuain - He put the work in, things just weren't coming off though. IMO, he didn't get much help. Alex Crognale & Niko Hansen - Rookies, so they'll be inconsistent. Niko scored in his debut, did nothing the next appearance. Got an assist and looked dangerous his first start, second start was a bit invisible. It's ok, you'll have that. Crognale has been excellent, and was playing well this game. Obviously gave away the pen, but if his cleats don't get caught in the apparently horrible NYRB turf, maybe it turns out different. His injury is a bummer, hopefully not too bad. Harrison Afful & Jukka Raitala - Meh. Raitala had a nice cross in the second half from a free kick. Afful tried to get forward in the second half. Just meh. The bad: Mohammed Abu - Alright everyone, time to jump on. This is Kyle Crew, and I'll be your conductor today on the Mohammed Abu hate train. Seriously, what a joke of a signing. Now, before I go into full 'this guy is total garbage' mode, let me be fair and say he did play better in the last 25-30 minutes or so. It would be negligent of me not to point out though that his upturn in form directly coincided with NYRB deciding to stop their high press, and only press once the Crew reached the midfield line. He had loads more time to make his still erratic passes, but he did make passes which you'd expect of a guy in MLS, so well done. That being said, he was shit. Like, really shit. He can't dribble. His passing is erratic to put it mildly. He looks scared to even simply look forward. He can't tackle. He is lazier than Francis defensively. When you play out wide, a team can get away with it. When your laziest defender is one of your central midfielders, your gonna have issues. Trapp had to play in central midfield by himself last night on defense, and he did very well. Artur wouldn't have made him do that though. BTW, when Abu receives that ball, 90% of the time his first touch is to receive the ball while turning 180 degrees. I noticed this a lot last night. Other teams are gonna find this out very quickly. He's crap, and offers literally NOTHING offensively. Did he even enter the final third last night? Can he even dribble the ball more than 5 yards? I have yet to see him do any of that this year. Josh Williams - He wasn't good. I'd rather have Abubakar on the bench. Gregg Berhalter - With Artur out, I'd assume Trapp and Abu will be our CM pairing for a bit. If so, we're fvcked. Abu is a super lazy defensive midfielder, who I didn't see once break into a sprint last night. He jogs back every single time when on defense. I saw Trapp go to Abu's said of the field multiple times to make stops, and Abu literally jog right by him and not helping. How GB thought this guy would be a good signing I have no idea. And the tactics.... why in the fvck go back to typical GB tactics, on the road, against a team that presses every single game? It boggles the mind. Once you realize that's the game plan, it was always gonna be a loss. Of course, if Ola converts chances, it could've been different, but we had way too many turnovers to deserve anything out of the match. For all the flexibility he's shown this year, this was a giant step back, near total regression.
So #hangontour was a bit of a fiasco. What should have been a 2 hour train ride to the game turned into a 4 1/2 hour train ride due to train issues. I missed most the tailgate, but did get in some good time. As soon as Artur went down injured that was game over. We had an awful first 15 minutes or so. I guess that's bound to happen when you take out who has been arguably the team's most influential player and replace him with Abu. I'll ride on Kyle Crew's Abu hate train all day long the guy is awful. I thought we actually recovered well after the first 15 minutes and that being down 2-0 at halftime was a little harsh. But, at 2-0 there was never any hope that we were gonna come back and win the game. Ola had a few chances that he didn't convert (shocking). Meram tried his best. Trapp was good. Hansen was invisible. Steffen was actually very good. Thing I'm most worried about going forward is our pace of play. Artur did a very good job pushing us to play a higher pace. Higuain is still a bit languid, but sometimes between Artur pushing and Higuain doing his thing we had change of pace or variety in the attack. Abu looks like he just completely lacks confidence out there. This will lead to Higuain dropping back deeper to receive the ball more. Meram and Ola will be almost on their own islands. Meram will get frustrated and go on his own too often (I can't blame him, nobody else on the team goes at defenders). This has the potential to become a last year re-dux very quickly. Still a great night to spend with a good contingent of traveling Crew fans. We have a lot of really good people in our fanbase.