Savas is playing like an old 35-year-old. This is going to be a long season if he's our playmaker. 0-0 H/T
No clue why Vincent would be coming in before Harkes. Typical Olsen substitution. Also these KC announcers are terrible.
Well not good but at least they didn't lose. A few bright spots but this isn't a deep team regardless of what the announcers say. Sarvas, Jeffrey, Vincent, Ortiz etc all just not good enough for serious MLS minutes. At least DeLeon is not a liability anymore pushed back in his defensive role. Game overall felt like two teams on the redline of the playoffs but KC seems better individually and as a team.
I was more or less entertained. I was not impressed, although KC's defense on that one attack was pretty exceptional. So I've been following this team since June of 2000. I think I can more or less tell if a player is decent or not. But is it just me, or is Sarvas shit? I thought he sucked last season, and this game he looked like an over the hill player who should only have been starting because the 1st and 2nd string players were in the hospital. Is it just me? Is there some greatness about him I'm missing? Or is this a case of "We're paying this guy half a million dollars, he's gonna play"? Undefeated so far this season! Woo!
Sarvas, woof. That's one to forget, not just the PK. Love the press, shape was good, Buscher was good, Jeffrey was good if too sloppy. But Sarvas dragged the team down. The wingers had to cover for him, which they did and that was great, but it really hurt the attack. First game and all but I'm sure he's being watched closely. Great save from Hamid, glad to have you back big guy. Ortiz should give full effort in that sub role. If that was full effort, he's too slow and won't be effective.
I told Mrs. Winoman regarding Sarvas: "So many hospital balls, so little time." And the KC GK didn't really have to save Sarvas' PK, because he knows Morse Code, and Sarvas flat-out telegraphed that kick to him. KC was the better TEAM but DC had it's moments. I was encouraged by DC's counter attacks, until they started doing their best Keystone Cops imitation near KC's goal. In the second half, DC had some really good chances, and were unlucky not to get a goal. I was right above the North End goal, and the Sporks had two great goal-line clearances by defenders, the third chance of which, was finally cleaned up by their GK. I didn't think the Center-ref was very good: he let some heavier fouls go, but called little ticky-tack shit. Also, there should have been at least two obvious corner kicks for DC that were called Goal Kicks for KC. He didn't cost DC the game, but I wish MLS would really get some good refs, or someone like Pierluigi Collina to train them.
From my observations I wondered if any of the groundskeepers scurrying around might have been professional soccer players at one time in the past. There was no beauty in either the turf or the play. Aesthetically, the camera crew would have helped greatly by forgetting to remove the lens cap tonight
Early season games, no matter how many of the starters played together the year before, often come down to set pieces or moments of magic. DC created one PK and had three good looks on one corner (or two good looks and one almost own goal). Great defense by KC on the latter -- full respect to their post players. As soon as I saw Sarvas was taking the PK, I knew we weren't going to score. And the moments of magic on this team almost universally involve Acosta. 0-0 is a bit unlucky, but not the worst result. Ortiz looked a bit lost, but I'm holding out until we see him play with Acosta. Would have loved to see Harkes rather than Vincent. Good to see Hamid looking strong. Will be interesting to see if Franklin holds up in the middle -- looked fine tonight. Thought NDL looked pretty good on the flank, overall. Just glad to have DCU back, is all.
Why in the world didn't Mullins or Sam take that PK?? We didn't have much creativity or imagination without Acosta. It made no sense to put Vincent out there for Buescher so we had 3 defensive mids and no attack. Ortiz was essentially all by himself. So, Olsen back to his old tricks. Not really a great performance by either team. But when it's that cold I think it's tough. Still, 33 more games to get things going.
Oof. That was dreadful. As others have pointed out Sarvas was a train wreck tonight. Very clumsy, missed numerous tackles, and pressing like a wild banshee that he put himself out of position with each whif. Then, the penalty... I fear we may be past Sarvas' "sell by" date and we shall see Harkes/Durkin sooner rather than later. I was glad to see that we employed the high press, but we just don't have the athletes for it. KC was sooo much better than us at the high press. They were smarter about it too. We just did it constantly instead of picking our spots. KC kept waiting until we had a plyer wrong footed, then they attacked. I swear we were wearing concrete boots out there. There was some good. I didn't see Boswell blindly thump it up field once. I think Franklin played very well against Dwyer despite the early yellow. I actually saw Hamid roll it out several times before we gave up and started playing more direct. Who ever KC's D-mid is that's the kinda guy we need. He was very smart. Never out of position and didn't have to make plays because he was always there to corral the attack towards the outside. It's scary how dependent we were on Acosta tonight (because there were very few dangerous passes out there from anyone save a great early cross from DeLeon in the first 15 mins). (Yes, I recognize that Acosta was in the seats tonight). Hoping we get better...
Nowhere near as ugly as the past few openers where the talent gap was noticeable. Lost points but certainly not one of those draws where we have to thank Hamid for being amazing or bad finishing from the other team. Of course, if this was mid-season or on a professional pitch Feilhaber probably connects on some of his through balls. I do think KC is upper half in the West so a draw isn't a bad result without Acosta. Olsen really needs to figure out an alternative strategy for when Acosta is off the field. Mullins by himself with Buscher, Sarvas, and Jeffrey as our midfield is not going to produce much possession. So many times we bypassed the midfield. There's a lot to like going up the wings but without Acosta to connect everything Nyarko's cleverness and Sam's speed are wasted. Olsen seems to be very slow to make changes, but when he does he is decisive. We saw this with Pajoy and DeRo. Olsen keeps sending out the same starters game after game even when it is obvious a player has lost "it" or isn't helping the team, but then once he makes the change there's no second guessing. I imagine that is what we will see with Sarvas. He will have to play his way off the field, but once it happens we'll hardly see him at all. None of the other Eastern teams have looked all that great today. Despite mostly negatives today I feel okay about our season going forward. Veteran leadership, dependable defense, and limiting mistakes is enough to get you close to the playoffs. Now we just need some of that Acosta magic.
Everyone keeps dogging Sarvas. However there was a United player who had a worse match IMHO. Nyarko. Did you see that give away in the final third? No creativity for a player who is expected to do that. No Nyarko had a worse match. He should have been instead of Sam. oh and Vincent instead of Harkes?? Really???
I'm pretty sure the sudden drop in temperature had a great deal to do with the footing all around the field. Grass doesn't respond well when going from 60 to 30 within a day or so.
It really looked Olsen went for the tie when Vincent came in instead of LeToux. And the sooner Harkes/Durkin for Sarvas the better
I thought Nyarko was fine. He beat his man a few times. Drew a few fouls. Earned a couple of corner kicks. And tracked back to play defense.
Nyarko spent too much time tracking back last night. If we could have held the ball more, both wingers are more effective. It all started with no Acosta and a train wreck in front of the back 4.
It's worth reminding ourselves that DC United remains undefeated in home games this season. The sky is not falling.
Just as a reminder, when you set your expectations that low, mediocrity looks great. Someone paint white stripes down the backs of the raccoons so we can take solace that at least while they look like skunks they don't smell that bad---yet