Acosta looked injured. He also was completely mentally taken out of the game by Montreal's tactics. He spent more time yelling at the referee than anything. I love him. But he needs some sessions with a sports psychologist. Getting him and his negative body language off the field was the right move. We looked tight from the start. Certainly didn't expect such big mistakes from Boswell or Birnbaum.
Only got to see the condensed game, but ... oy. That was just shit. Giving up a set piece goal in the first five minutes is a sign of a team not mentally ready to start the game -- hell, we gave the ball away on our half of the field in literally the first 15 seconds. It was too easy getting crosses in -- a little bit of NDL's inexperience at outside back showing? Boswell just gets beat on the third (I think). Sorry Bobby, but centerback is definitely a bold-face entry on our off-season shopping list. On the extended highlight, we just looked oddly out of it. No fighting for balls, giving too much space, not coordinated on the backline ... just shitting the bed, essentially.
It's maybe not fair to point fingers when nearly everyone played bad, but I'll do it anyway. NDL was directly involved in the first two goals. The first goal was caused by his flick header trying to defend a corner. No way Vincent could adjust to the last second change of direction that put the ball at Ciman's feet. On the second Piatti just passed the ball past him - no fancy fake, just side footed it past Nick. The other defenders couldn't anticipate that Nick would put up no resistance. At game time I wasn't complaining about NDL starting, but our manager Ben is paid to make decisions and he decided to play Franklin 90 minutes in his designated throwaway game on Sunday in favor of NDL playing tonight.
Franklin's not exactly the greatest defender either, even when he's 100% healthy. If Boswell hadn't needlessly given away that corner, the goal wouldn't have happened. It looked like Bill was telling him to let it go.
It looked like a team of seasoned pros going to work on the reserves. What a weird end to the season. Coming up so small after getting a whiff of respect. Boswell, good lord, what a horrible game. He froze, and he's the captain! Fuuuuuuck.
I remember the "ceremonial kick". Boswell was thrown the ball to hand the ball to the kicker and completely dropped it. Thought to myself, "that seems odd... he seems really distracted". Ugh. A sad way to end a season that had some real moments.
Our entire back line was suspect, and if not for the efforts of NDL, it could well have been 5 or 6 to 2. Boswell and Birnbaum were turning over an unacceptable number of balls, and Vincent looked to have trouble making any connections on a forward pass. NDL was really the only one with sufficient pace to track their runners. MTL's gameplan was clearly high pressure everywhere, with doubles on Acosta, and high physicality. Had that jackass Marrufo known what the hell PI is, not to mention yellows for flagrant time wasting and FK encroachment, some of that could have been arrested. When a MTL trainer ran on the field to tend to their player, and Marrufo didn't signal for the player to leave the field, I thought I'd seen it all....Then the FK encroachment happened, which is textbook yellow. And it wasn't until Vincent had to deal with blood did we start getting a better balance of calls...even then, Marrufo waved Vincent back on while he was still being tended to. So terrible. I really feel like, after Toledo's card-happy performance in the TOR/PHI game, Marrufo was told to hold off on cards unless absolutely necessary. Is playoff yellow accumulation a thing? I can't keep track anymore. Yeah, United played a lot of shitty soccer tonight, but they did much of it against 12 players. I hope RBNY crushes them mercilessly (and then they themselves are crushed mercilessly by Toronto, of course.) TFC 2016 baby!
...and the SKC/SEA match had a crap ref, too...Valid SKC goal ruled offside, and a clear offside SEA goal was allowed to stand and put Seattle through....Apparently some cards were swallowed in that game, too. So, overall, I guess we weren't as badly screwed as SKC, because at least they were managing their defensive responsibilities properly...
What an atrocious way to end the season. We go from playing some of our most spirited and gelling grooving ways to that complete amount of ineptitude. That was easily the worst game I saw all year. Adding to that misery was Maruffos and linsemans blindness that the feeling in the crowd was one that was seriously ugly. By the time the 4th goal was scored it felt like there was going to be a near riot practically. I was passing by the security guy as a few odd people were just chucking their beers just for the f of it and he just muttered under his bit lip, I am ready to get this on right now.. Really not a good sign... We were in complete shambles particularly our D. Just disgraceful..
I don't remember much about last night. I've got bruises on my knees and my butthole is swollen. What happened?
Whatever it was, it sounds like it was better than the United match...because then you'd also have a funny taste in your mouth and be missing a kidney.
1. Flat, Flat, Flat. Bottom line, we came out flat across the board and got punished for it. Some blame the manager - "he's got to have the team ready to play" - while others blame the players - "how can they not be ready to go in such a big game". I have no idea who to blame and will just say I find it mind-boggling. One other possibility, I wonder if we didn't read our own press and think this game was going to be a cakewalk. Lots of commentators out there talking about DC United as the darkhorse team no one wanted to face in the playoffs. Reminded me of my kids who look at the other youth soccer teams record and think, oh, this will be an easy game. As I try to tell them every week, you are capable of beating this team or losing to this team. You've got to show up and play... And, in this instance, when it's the playoffs, you have to be ready to raise your game to another level. 2. Acosta. I love watching Acosta play and I love how enjoyable the team was to watch once we switched formations and gave him the freedom he needed to be successful. That said, he struggled last night and it was evident very early that he was a little off. I think part of it was that this might have been a unique experience for him - the MLS playoffs - and he wasn't ready for the uptick in intensity. Then there was Montreal's physicality, which he clearly got frustrated with. I've said this before but Acosta I think is very difficult for a referee because of his size. When he goes down, refs tend to think he just got outmuscled and when he tries to fight through it they never give him the call. This is something he's going to need to deal with and he's 21 and I hope he figures it out effectively. The team, I believe, can help him by making it clear he is a star and he deserves "star" treatment. We should give him the #10 for next year (indicating to everyone he is our star) and Olsen's going to need to take some fines in the beginning of the year bitching about refs not treating him fairly because he's small. I'd also love for an enforcer type to emerge on this team and protect him some but those days may be gone in MLS. Final thought on Acosta, he struggled through the first half (as did the whole team), but was working hard to find the game in the second half and get more of the ball. There was one point relatively early in the second half where he played a 1-2 with several players and was moving the ball (more across the field then up but there was some momentum building) and for the third pass he gave it to Kemp and then moved and asked for the ball back and Kemp held it for a while and then passed up field to someone. It felt like the wind went out of Acosta's sails right then. With all of that said, I still wouldn't have subbed him, which leads to... 3. Olsen. For a number of years I've been in the "I can't really say I love what Olsen is doing with this team but he has so much goodwill built up I'm willing to give him a chance" camp. But this year, with the formation change he engineered and then going out to get the players that better fit it, I don't think he's gotten nearly enough credit for the run of play we had in the second half of the year. To me, he figured out a new system that maximized his star player (Acosta) and went out and got players who would fit the system. As for last night, down 0-2 and just having laid a stinker of a half, I would have really like to have seen Neagle come on at half time. I would have subbed Nyarko off instead of Sam because I think Sam did a little bit more in the first half (his terrible corner kicks aside). Marcelo coming on I wasn't in love with. I complained earlier in the year that when Marcelo is the 1 in the 4-1-4-1 he dribbles too much as opposed to moving the ball and last night was another great example. He slowed us down way too much by holding the ball way too long. I was very impressed with him in the first half of the season when we were playing the 4-4-2. I was equally unimpressed with him in the 4-1-4-1. The Acosta sub seemed like we were throwing in the towel. My subs would have been Neagle for Nyarko at half. Buescher for Jeffrey at about the 55th minute and then Saborio for Boswell at about the 65th... 4. One final thought, I said from the very first game of the year that I was high on Buescher and I still am. I would LOVE to see Buescher/Acosta be our main pairing in the middle of the 4 next year. Does Buescher have enough bad-ass German in him to become a little bit of an enforcer for Acosta? And then have Jeffrey/Vincent/Marcelo/someone else be the 1 behind them...
Boswell = Brooks Laich All I see recently is him jabbering about how no one wants to play us, we aren't scared of anyone, blah, blah, blah. Then he goes out and is the worst player on the field. Shut up. All talk, just like Laich. I think we all saw that mugging coming Acosta's way. No way they were going to let him get going. United's response was to feel sorry for themselves. Not kill them on set pieces, not play tighter and quicker, not use Lucho as a decoy to open space for others, not to dole out heavy recriminations on their gem, Piatti. Nothing. Pathetic.
I'm not a psychologist, but watching the players before kickoff it sure looked like they were fired up and ready to go - but maybe that was just nerves? A bad give away and Hamid forced to make a save after less than 20 seconds? That was a bad sign. We just laid an egg, especially on defense. I don't know whether we got out coached - I think Olsen is smarter than a lot of people give him credit for - but it looked like Montreal spent the last week and a half coming up with a game plan to stop our attack. I can't say I really saw a plan for our side, but the way the players stunk it up, who could tell? I hope they can figure out a way to get Acosta and Buescher on the field at the same time. You just need more dangerous attacking players out there, so the other team can't focus on just shutting down the one guy. Also, Buescher is good enough to start and Acosta should not be routinely subbed out early. Vincent and Jeffrey are OK for what they are, but they aren't going to put a lot of fear into the other team or force them to stop double teaming Acosta.
United needs someone like Roman Torres. A center back who imposes his will, because he's stronger and meaner than you. VanDamme is another good one. United needs to find a player like these guys.
I like the idea of a Buescher/Acosta pairing, once we get a faster center back. Relying on our faster wing backs got us burned at least twice last night, because they're so far forward that if a counterattacking team like MTL launches one well enough, our centers can't keep up, and Vincent/Jeffrey don't seem to read those very well.
They took their foot off the gas Sunday, and then couldn't get the car started again on Thursday. It's fairly common in sports, and it's why if I were a coach, I would never just play the 2nd string like they did on Sunday. Rest one or two guys with niggling injuries, sure. But don't put out a reserve team! One reason Peyton Manning's Colts had such a poor record in the playoffs is that they often wrapped up their division with 2 weeks to go and their coaches started playing the scrubs. The starters turned it off mentally. They weren't even at regular season intensity during the first playoff game, let alone playoff intensity. I guess it's OK to ease up in a best-of-7 sport like hockey or basketball. In soccer or the NFL, it's a recipe for disaster. Ben strikes me as a coach whose ratio of clever-to-smart is terrible. He's almost all cleverness and almost zero smartness. Every once in a while, he makes a good decision based on smarts. (The 4-1-4-1, for instance.) But usually, when he has to rely on brains, he fails.
I never understood it myself, but even pros are humans, and humans need leaders when going into battle.
Somehow little guy Giovinco gets the refs to call all of his dives as fouls. So I don't think it's necessarily a size thing. But maybe he needs to "earn more respect" somehow? I can't recall if Giovinco has always gotten all of the calls or if it only happened after a while. Acosta is essentially his own enforcer. Which is both good and bad. Bad because he's too obvious and gets dumb cautions. Good that he's tough and doesn't let himself get pushed around. I'm guessing that's a mechanism that's been honed over years of being the smallest kid on the team.