Pre-match: D.C. United v. Salt Lake Royals

We need 1.7 ppg from here out to make the playoffs.... if three teams around the redline no longer earn a single point.

 

As if we needed more proof that Sarvas gets paid half a million dollars a year to play shit football. Can we just call up some no-name from the Richmond Kickers?

 

Our home record now is 3 wins, 6 losses and 3 draws. So only 3 wins out of 12 home matches. This is the way Olsen, Kasper and Levien decided to say goodbye to RFK. All the history and pride is being shit on week after week.

 

So far, very, very early I know, but Shammy is right! Thanks, United!

They played well, but NDL, Acosta, and Arriola are not goal dangerous, at least consistently. Desperately need better wide service and cool customers in the box.
Marcelo and Jeffrey (and Buescher based on this match) shouldn't be on the team next year, so I won't bash them. I will, however, bash the coach who continues to play guys with not only no future, but who actively lose games for the team here and now.

 

I thought Mullins played well... No one else attacked.

 

Boo. Just boo. They look like a pickup team that's just met. Christos would have beaten our "first team" tonight.

Putting in Savas, Jeffrey, Franklin and NDL there is zero way we'd score. We had, what, 2 shots by central defenders? The team plays with the sophistication of 8 year olds. But more cautious. At least typical 8 year olds are fearless.

They had almost 24 hours to design a play for the opening corner. They out it to nobody. There is no evidence of any coaching - at all.

Truly horrible. About 1500 in the stands tonight, and that was 1500 more than that effort deserved

 

Good call on the opening corner. A perfect opportunity to get creative and have some fun with it, but they treat it as a throwaway.
Is there a plan, a philosophy beyond grit? I don't see it. Seems to me it's get the ball to Acosta (a good start)+ ? = goal? Piss poor.

 

Why keep Franklin in and take OA off? Why out Marcelo or Jeffrey in? Why not play guys who might - might - help us next year versus guys we are certain won't be on the team?

 

Büscher wasn't terribly fast before, but it seems to me he's slowed down since whatever injury he had. He was being beat to every 50/50 ball, and his passes weren't connecting with our team, either. He used to be better than that.

 

I've seen better team performances from my son's ODSL teams in the past. This is on the shitty players, and the coaches who play them.

If Ben doesn't play all the new guys, plus all of the young kids who are healthy next match, he deserves to be shit-canned immediately.

So what if they look like a pickup team? They look like a pickup team now!!!

 

When Olsen pulled Jeffrey after going down a goal, I thought, FINALLY, he gets it. Take off the redundant player and get another attacker on. But no, he screwed that up by putting Nick there instead.
Forget that! You need to win (I mean, you've been saying so for weeks), and you need multiple goals to do it. Lose a DM, you ignoramus! Did it create more chances? No. Did it earn more possession? No. Did it even slow down RSL? No!

 

Büscher was terribad from the moment he came in.

Why Olsen went with him and not Canouse when he made that sub is beyond me.

 

Here's the bright (or at least brighter) side:
1. Buscher will have to leave the team when Stieber arrives, or so I am told, because otherwise we will have too many internationals'
2. Miranda looked very good in his few minutes, so good to me that I would forget sending him to Richmond for playing time and send Brown instead, who has looked lost.
3. Arriola is very good, and he would have done more tonight if his teammates had only looked his way and seen him calling for the ball because he wasn't being marked.
4. Mullins, Arriola, Acosta, and Miranda (based on only a few minutes) have good soccer sense and put themselves in good positions. That's more than you can say for most of the others, although NDL has his moments. Stieber should raise the soccer skills/intelligence level even more when he slips into the lineup. Canouse too, perhaps.

 

Let me know when we need 3.0 ppg I'll throw the rest of my pennies down the well

 

We need a guy like Wondo (mls wondo and not usmnt wondo), someone who constantly looks like they want to score, desperately. Someone who will do anything to put it in the net.

 

Anyone sitting on the fence about buying those $175.00 club seats should be looking for the video of the match in their inboxes by tomorrow. If anything would motivate you to bring your business associates out for a night of quality sports entertainment here it is.
This is so bad even FIFA is cutting a check refunding United's dues

 

When I see De Leon playing on the field, I think I am dreaming. Then I remember who the coach is and I realize it's the sad reality. De Leon is for the field what Olsen is for the bench, they complement each other, it's the old that advances.

 

I like DeLeon, and will defend him. He can dribble, he's strong on the ball, he combines well with teammates, and he's full of selfless running.
But it's DM or fullback for him because he can't score, just what it is.

 

It's looking like they'll need to splash that cash for a striker. Mullins seems more Pat Noonan than Taylor Twellman, and Brown may be the typical Jamaican striker who's a handful but ultimately wasteful.

 

We must be talking about two different players. The one I'm talking about is done, and has been done for a while.

 

Be thankful the Redskins haven't scheduled a farewell to RFK game against Dallas. Half the newsies in the area would say "The DC United" also played here when the Nats weren't using the stadium.

 

Every trainer knows the biscuit is a game killer.

 

Hah!
Are you sure that won't happen anyway?
We'll be lucky to get any kind of local coverage besides Goff.