This team is poor. Opposing teams have no fear of coming to Columbus and playing in front of a 3/4 empty stadium. This season sorta sucks.
Until official news breaks this is a lost season. It’s a season in limbo and no one can get behind that. The second STC is a reality we have sell outs. But yes as for the team, a mess might be too extreme but dropping points over last month is very disheartening. We need another quality piece on offense. Imagine if Zardes gets injured.
I would have repped this for the NE Supporters, but that first goal was the result of Gyasi's turnover - or that was what was in my sleep deprived mind watching from my seat. Have not seen the replay because I forgot to record it.
That started it, but our defense had plenty of chances to stop the chance. Also, Pipa had some absolute top plays last night, along with some stretches of complete casualness that turned the ball over or slowed play by not noticing the best pass. This is Pipa in a nutshell. Sometimes you get intense Pipa who is one of the best in the league. Sometimes you get casual Pipa who seems to half-ass some plays or try to be so fancy it borders on laziness and results in a turnover. Sometimes you get both in the same game. Last night was one of those. He had some poor touches and passes during the game mixed in with our best plays as a team. If we are going to play to our potential, he needs to be more consistent.
I suspect you weren't at the game. The lower sections looked mostly full and it I thought it was a pretty damned passionate bunch. The Nordecke was rocking. This is not a poor team - although I will grant you that we looked even worse than poor against Chicago. My opinion notes from last night - Pipa had a good game. Hansen showed very well. I like Milton. Worthy of a nickname. Artur has been disappointing to me this season. Perhaps I was expecting too much. My apologies, but after hopefully waiting for more development, I'm now settling in on my opinion Trapp is only an average player. He is usually very solid defensively, but seldom able to contribute offensively by creating space or separating from defenders. I concede that a degree of this is his position and what he is being asked to do. Gyasi would be excellent backup striker for us.........his goal last night was his best of the year. I like him, just not on the hype train. Pedro is really creating some great things. I just wish he had the finishing we were hoping for. Overall though, I'm very pleased with his positive progression. He is adjusting to the league.
On the goal, I'll have to go back and look, but my sense was that turnover left us out numbered and then, naturally, disorganized defensively. On Pipa, I didn't see the lazy thing last night. Some of his mistakes (and others on the team suffer from this as well) are a result of attempting to play a very aggressive, one-touch game. There are necessarily going to be turnovers that look awful. But I will take it. When it works, its just so darn fun to watch.
How often does it need to work for us to stick with it? The last few matches it hasn't been working enough for me.
Disagree. He should have scored and takes too many touches before he crosses. Him and Afful made the same run a few times. Was there a deflection on NE's first goal?
It wasnt bad defending on Mensah IMHO. He started out goal side. The player dashed to the near post and was always going to get to the spot first. Mensah looked to be in good position about as tight as he could be. Didnt foul, didnt lunge, held his ground. It was a nice shot with some luck ti squirt through. I think its 80/20 on Steffen. He probably couldnt see the shot till it was on top of him though.
Adidas did--Earth Day. I have a feeling the stuff they used could not take a dye. Supposedly old plastic bottles and the like that were floating around in the ocean. If you believe the hype.
Am I the only one who thinks Steffen usually would have stopped both those goals? Especially the first one. It seems like he is in his own head right now.
Nah, that was a really good shot. He made a couple other good saves. Look, sometimes the other guy is good. I had no problem with the result. It was a good, enjoyable game.
I felt he should have stopped the second goal. He was probably thinking about Kahiki. Do you blame him?
Taking the lead twice at home and not winning is a major disappointment. It was nice to get a couple goals after the goal drought the last couple outings, but not winning again at home sucked. I thought Higuain had a sub par game. Way too many one touch flicks to nobody. Look for another draw next week so we can get symmetrical at 3-3-3.
I had a question about their second goal, as I did not tape the game. It looked like the NE player had controlled the ball with a high kick very close to our defenders face. Was this the case or was it really not that close??
He’s shown it before but I don’t fault him. Sometimes the other team makes a play. Good example of the benefit of hitting a ball first time. Maybe with a touch Steffen can settle and anticipate the shot better but on a first time volley the advantage is the attacker if it’s on frame.
I managed to look at the replay on the Crew's site. Not super clear, but it did not look as close to the face as it did from my spot in 124. Just a good play by the other guys I'd guess.
This team has held the lead for a grand total of 8 minutes in April over 3 games. During that time they handed a first league win to Chicago and a terrible DC United team. They dropped points at home against a very average New England team. It's been an exceptionally poor month.