I'm not going to lie, I was still worried at 1-0 because I feel like DC has given away points in that position before, but they closed it out with verve. I am worried about how tired they looked and unenthusiastic for most of the match. I had just sent a message to a friend saying that Sam was done and needed a sub. Precisely 11 seconds later, he scored. So, I'm an idiot. But they did sub him immediately after, so I'm not entirely wrong. For all the Olsen is supposed to motivate the players, I only saw a couple guys who looked motivated for the entire match (*cough* Nyarkoviolateslawsofthermodynamics *cough*). I'm worried about what Toronto game will look like on Saturday. But, yeah, I second what UnitedBorn said. Pay for Lucho. Style, skill, passion, and he's the engine of a high scoring offense, something DC hasn't had in years. No, he can't go it alone, but he's a "franchise player" if you let him be.
Sam's goal was a thing of beauty. What a way to go out, your last touch is in the net. In about 15 minutes, Neagle had 1 goal and 1 assist. Nice pass from Buescher to Neagle, let the defenders come to him, hit Neagle in stride and Clark was toast. First half was disappointing -- no real connections and C-bus kept getting corners - of course they couldn't do anything with them. From MLS Cup finalist to no playoffs, hard to imagine, but that is a woeful team right now. I think this is the first time this season DCU has won back to back games. Good time for it.
Kamara has been quality until this point. Boswell kept him in check, no goals for the 15 goal scorer. But Acosta had a good match, and I won't even say its because thgthge Crew defense lacks quality.
I'm worried about United still playing 'rope-a-dope' for the first 70 minutes of a game, and then coming on to score goals near the end. The scoring has definitely gotten better, but it won't take much for that strategy to go the other way against a solid defense, and fast. DC was lucky the Crew couldn't hit the water, if they threw their hats out of a boat.
It's by design. United presses with both wings in addition to both Jeffrey and Acosta. When then press is broken, there is a ton of space. United is gambling the potential for giveaways from pressing out weighs the space conceded. Asking a lot of the backs, they held up today.
There's really nothing to criticize about this game. Columbus has played well lately, and they know how to keep possession. Sarvas out probably didn't help. They played their game for the first thirty minutes and then we played ours. We've won our last two games by three goals each and have only lost once in the last 11 games.
The bad news about not having that designated player, that stand-out striker, is that in a tense situation it's harder to get that one moment of brilliance that delivers a 1-0 or 2-1 win. (With Acosta, you may get the pass, but he definitely isn't the finisher.) The good news? Deeper bench. If we were paying big money for one or two big names, would we be able to make two of our three subs for players of equal talent (Neagle and Saborio)? One of the reasons that Olsen's high-press, run-them-down style works against lesser lights like Columbus seems to be that, as long as we're winning or tied by the 60th minute, we can bring on equals with fresh legs, while other teams take a dip in talent level (or run tired legs into the ground). That's great for the regular season. Pessimist me is worried about what it means in a two-game series against a really talented team. Optimist me knows that this squad is the first in a while that's been worth watching. R.
Really good point about the deeper bench. Neagle for Sam has to drive other coaches nuts. Both have pace and of the two, Neagle is the better finisher, so now you are dealing with equivalent speed going against tired legs and a more "shoot first" type of player. These last two games have been really good for Buescher. On Saturday, he didn't have time to get nervous because he was an emergency sub. He played well then. Last night, he looked like someone who just "fit in" and his pass to Neagle was smart, crisp and clean -- not the usual play from a rookie with just a few games under his belt. Nice to see Sabo again, and nice finish for the goal.
A team that had pretty easily won their last two games. They aren't a horrible team by any stretch. It does seem like MLS has overall figured out how to gameplan for them though.
After all that, it didn't start to rain until we were walking out of the stadium. Both teams looked tired, as you would expect on a Wednesday. Nyarko really had an off night, I was hoping that was who Neagle would come in for. Otherwise, pretty happy. Surprised JJ was able to go 90 minutes. Hamid not really tested. Acosta is the guy most worth paying money to see, they really need to keep him.
I was at the game. CBS had chances, but they didn't finish. Hamid made some nice saves. It could easily have been a much different game. That said, we finally have some offense. Wow. I agree -- we need to show we can play with a real quality team. That said, we're missing a lot of folks that would otherwise be starting and getting nice results. Not clear if we're turning a corner or just running over teams we need to be able to beat, but beating them still beats the crap out of the other options...
We did basically play with (and outplay for 82 min or something) NYCFC, the only "quality team" we've played recently. One could argue though that Columbus is quality. They won 2 straight and looked pretty good doing it. We didn't play well vs. the Red Bulls, but we did end up with a result there. In August we drew Philly, NY, and Montreal. Not great results, but not horrible either. At least now we're playing a bit better. There are only so many "real quality teams" around MLS. Toronto is probably one of them, even if they didn't look too great last night.
In our last two games we have taken 23 shots, and 13 were on goal, almost 60%. That's very, very good.
One note - when high pressing in the first half we need to keep the team compact and bring the defense up. We weren't doing that so the Crew were able to pass straight through us and start an attack. That seemed to be the only real negative take away from the game. james