What was dispiriting about that game was that it wasn't one game; it was that one game's continuity with quite a lot of games. People can deal with losses to better teams. But it's hard to deal with recurrent problems going uncorrected.
I can't understand why we don't have a separate post game and pre game threads. I find this to be lackadaisical without attention to the details from the mods - therefore, I blame Kevin Payne. The player that impressed me was Espinoza. KC must have put hot peppers on his hemorrhoids, because he played like his ass was on fire.
https://twitter.com/#!/OptaJack 17 - Colorado Rapids and SKC both had 17 attempts on goal in their first MLS match of 2012; the most by any team so far. Relentless. 10 - Roger Espinoza and Graham Zusi combined to create 10 chances in Sporting's 1-0 win over DC United. Pioneers 65% - DC United completed just 65% of its passes in their 1-0 loss to Sporting KC; the worst by any team so far. Shoddy.
NOMAS BigSoccer Newbie Join Date: Mar 2012 Club: DC United Something doesn't click here. How can you be new here and still know what was posted for the past 3 years? Curious....
I understand the 'be patient' argument but, honestly, SKC came out ready for the start of the season and DC was unprepared. That's a failure from the start. In better news, the fans were definitely prepared. One of the better Lot 8 experiences and one for memory bank.
I'm pretty sure if you go to Wapo you can get the post match comments. Not everybody gets their news from BS
I can understand this attitude. it sucks to pay all that money and spend all that time going to see a game at RFK and not be rewarded with seeing the home team win. however, I don't think the coaching or the players are to blame for United's awful home record. it's the stadium. this is a possession team that plays on a crap field. it's like how my high school groundskeeper used to keep the grass long so the faster teams in our conference couldn't play a speed game, except our field favors the opposition. I was wincing when Andy was taking that corner and he had to pick up a microphone and move it out of the way. then he had to take two steps over gravel and a microphone cord. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but they won't be competitive at home until they get a new stadium.
The MLS web page lists the stats, but without a stat key they're meaningless to me. While I generally understand what those stats mean, an actual definition of "open play cross" "duals won" and even "pass" would be helpful. Otherwise, it's all gobbledygook.
I think it's the front office. On a better field, teams that are faster and more skillful will have a bigger advantage than KC had last night. Olsen is just the guy getting the blame - SAF couldn't get anything out of these guys either. And how do you get DC gov't to kick in for a loser outfit like this?
Note that he said "Onalfo or Olsen" -- he's talking about the post-match comments made by the coach. You don't have to be a Big Soccer member to read the post-match comments pages on dcunited.com.
Was sorry to see the loss in extra time. Thought they had battled enough to hold on to a point deserved or not. There was only one team on the field last night. We just weren't ready to go against a team that was cohesive from the previous year. Other notes, with the exception of Kitchen our midfield was slow to defend. Too many times they just assumed the backline would pick up their man after giving up the ball. While we had many TO's Woolard was a complete turnover machine whether with the ball in play or a throw in and got beat on the goal. Expecting more going forward. Glass is still half full for me as I felt we just weren't ready.
Nor do you have to be a member here to read the posts here. I lurked for a year on bs before creating a joining.
Interesting, I didn't realize we were playing with a midfield last night. Weren't the four guys between the back line and strikers just some sort of obstacle to boot the ball over in hopes of finding a striker?
I thought Kitchen was fantastic in the first half and Pontius was OK too. The second half they both were terrible. I never understood this board's obsession over one half of one game against the reserves of the worst team in MLS, but Boskovic reminded me why I distrust his ability to succeed in MLS. I have no complaints about Najar trying to dribble past the entire defense every once in a while. It keeps me awake.
OMG one game and the "DC is finished", "Payne and Kasper are evil" posts are just gushing out. And a week ago everyone was praising the FO for the hard work this offseason, new lease with RFK, renewed stadium talks etc ... I'm not worried about the players. They will raise their levels. We actually have quality at every position (except Woolard), and even the guys coming off the bench bring something to the table. We easily forget the horrible preseason we had. We just couldn't get guys on the field to gel. The vets were nursing small injuries, the young guys were off with the Olympic team, our DP was dealing with Visa issues etc ... And finally when we got the group together our last preseason game gets cancelled. So out of the starting 11 only our back 4 worked together enough to get some chemistry going, and they didn't look terrible last night. The front 6 hasn't had that chance yet so let's not judge yet. And also let's not forget who we're playing against. So while I give our players a pass, I can't do the same for Olsen. His job isn't physical, it's mental and I have some big questions about what I saw last night. My biggest irritation is why was De Ro kept up top the whole game. OK I understand starting the game, but when you see it's not working you have to adapt. KC was playing 3 real strong guys in the middle against our 2 guys who haven't ever played together before. Our midfield was being overrun and outnumbered. We needed another body in there just to hold possession. Sure with Salihi alone up top maybe we wouldn't of scored anyway, but dammit there comes a time when you just need to try to hold the ball an extra pass or two to release some pressure. Basically with De Ro and Salihi up top the game turned into an 8 versus 8 eliminating the influence of our 2 highest paid players. Really Boskovic should of been subbed for a holding midfielder, not a 3rd striker when it was obvious the forwards were useless without a midfield. If we would of gone to a midfield of Kitchen, Saragosa and De Ro after Bosko left we would have evened the play.
Welcome to the board. Unlike some boards this one can provide some thoughtful analysis of the game. The other characteristic that has developed is that there is much less in the way of personal criticism than there used to be several years back -it may be that people are learning web etiquette or they were just ignored and left. As to United's play my concern is that United has a brutal opening 5 games that could seriously put United at 0-5 if they don't get much better fast. Next week its away at LA; then away at Vancouver (who is much improved over last year); FC Dallas at home and the Seattle Sounders at home.
A lot of people follow without joining in a conversation. You don't have to be a member of BS to follow along online. I did it for a year before I opened an account. I've had a twitter account since near the start of twitter and I've tweeted less than 20 times. I follow DC United, Chelsea, DC police and fire, public transit issues, etc.
because we give them the ball? I'd say United is about as close to a possession team as you'll find in MLS. maybe I should have said "a team that tries to be a possession team." what is the identity of this team then? help me out.
At a minimum, I would not be surprised to see us coming home at 0-3. Those two home games will be pretty big for me. We can't have RFK be a place that teams come to and think they've got a chance at three points, like it was last season. R.
Are we just recycling early season threads from 2010 & 2011? There's a certain ground hog day vibe here.
I keep reading this, but I'm not sure where it comes from. We replaced Davies (outgoing--French League 1) with Salahi (incoming--Austrian Bundesliga); we replaced Simms (re-entry draft) with Robbie Russell (almost re-entry draft)--otherwise, it was last year's model plus lots of but-this-year-he's-in-shapes and but-this-year-he's-more-experienceds. Other teams have made more apparent upgrades, and other teams seem to have been more willing to hedge their bets with older/persistently injured players. Which isn't to say our team won't gel and start winning, just that I don't buy all these excuses for another craptastic performance at home. [Dallas-NY Spoiler]: FWIW, Andrew Jacobsen looked like a stud today in central defense for Dallas vs. NY. And their brand new Colombian striker looked completely in synch with his teammates--he had two assists.