I thought he just fell. He looked up at the ref after and he may have felt something, but I thought he simply fell on his own.
Wow. Just wow. How we didn't score 2 I can't say. Our strike force is god awful. They bring Barnes on and it changes the game. We have Nyarko and meh. Nobody on the team seems to have a sense of purpose. Wow.
Grit. Hustle. When Dave Johnson, looking for something positive to say, chose those very words near the end of the match, I wanted to cry. Even if they still make the playoffs, just like the last several years, *everyone* knows they're not doing anything once they get there.
Thanks for the pbp, everyone. Even though it wasn't good news, I still want to hear about United - win, lose, or draw.
I forgot that we were playing so I watched a taped friendly Italy vs San Marino (8-0), apparently I haven't missed much...
I also forgot we were playing and didn't tape the game since I was out listening to Sub-Radio play at Jammin Java this evening. A great young band that will be playing at much bigger venues like Firefly in the next couple of weeks. United. Not so much.
Had Buscher scored there...ugh. That was worse than Wondo. He'll be planted on the bench now. That's a shame, he has skills, but he can only blame himself. United's press affected Orlando, leading me to conclude Orlando isn't good, either, at least without Kaka. I mostly notice Sarvas and Jeffrey when they're chasing someone who got by them or making bad passes. They were probably better than that (Jeffrey had a nice shot), but that pairing is such a dead end. Sarvas is so dead legged, he can't keep up with his own first touches. It's like watching a live version of one of those dreams where you can't run or get your legs moving properly. He just can't do it anymore. Odoi-Atsem added a dimension, it was like a new section of the field opened up. If Sam could play better they might have something on that side. Looks Yedlinny to me, I want to see more.
That's it, after tonight, I'm saving up all my good intentions for Juve to lift the cup in Cardiff Saturday, hope is wasted on United. Theopisa is the lucky one tonight. First Hamid should bar the door to the locker room and post a sign Players Only. He was alone on the field with 10 bystanders. Second Birnbaum should at least get an assist on the first goal Orlando couldn't have scored without him. Our "forwards" don't know if they should $hit or go blind when they find themselves in the box with the ball and a clear view of the goal. If Casanova seduced women like these guys play soccer he'd have died a virgin. Odoi Atsem has promise Finally that looks like a very nice venue there in Orlando. Nice crowd
That's 484 minutes without a goal in the run of play, and only one dive-assisted score at all. Positive: Liked Odoi-Atsem. I want to see him and Harkes as much as possible -- get them game minutes. ... We did create a really good scoring chance and pressured ORL into coughing up a second one. ... Nice to see Nyarko back. Thought we got as much out of him as we did out of Sam and Neagle combined. ... Kamara brought some energy up front. Negative: Birnbaum -- is he regressing? I feel like he's getting worse, especially against larger forwards. ... Shake it off, Bill. ... We've got to be the worst in the league at either finding our central midfielders or having our CMs show for the ball. Overall, I wouldn't be too mad at that loss if it wasn't for the five games that came before it. R.
Exactly, when I heard those words I cringed. Of course I also cringed when I saw Simpson in that pink dress with the tire innertube belt.
As "fortunate" as we were with the pen v. Vancouver, I think you could argue we should've had 2 penalties (hand ball in the beginning, foul on Sam which was ruled offside) and a straight red (Barnes two footed studs up on Odoi-Atsem). That said, same as Vancouver still, we should've buried 3 chances (someone mentioned above, Buscher, Neagle x2). Odoi-Atsem looked fantastic, he should be the starting RB immediately. Buscher won't see the field again. Opare has been a beast this season in his limited action. They said Acosta was planned to come off at half, but I wonder really if that wasn't planned until the 40' minute after he'd been getting hacked all game. Howler from Bill but he's got one or two of those in the bank. At least it only cost us a shot at 1 point instead of losing 2 points. Fairly entertaining game score aside. Cautiously optimistic for Saturday (don't ban me) Line-up I'd like to see going forward: Hamid Odoi-Atsem Opare Birnbaum Kemp Jeffrey/DM signing Harkes/Jeffrey Acosta Sam Mullins Nyarko Also they mentioned a knee issue for Mullins - anyone know the deal there? I don't remember anything.
Odoi-Atsem looked pretty good, as did Opare. I was disappointed to see that Boswell was injured - I hoped he wasn't playing simply because he is not good enough. Don't write off Buescher - when he was subbed out, Ben looked like he was actually pretty happy with him. As a former referee, I was shocked at the performance of last night's ref. I just can't believe that the referees are actually that bad; I'm convinced that MLS is telling them to not call fouls (unless there is no contact at all, in which case, yellow card ). I think MLS wants to be an "action" league rather than a "skill" league (maybe they figure Americans are too stupid to recognize or appreciate skilled play?). Whatever. I had already decided that I'm done buying season tix after this year, and last night did nothing to change my mind. It just isn't worth the price of admission to watch minor league soccer, no matter where they are playing.
It's a league-wide problem. Teams bring in skilled players (or bring them up from their academy in Dallas' case) and they get season-ending injuries before the playoffs. Just look at Dallas last year. MLS Cup contender then star player injured in last game of the season by Seattle. Then Seattle beats them in the first round of the playoffs. Previously, Dallas lost their star from their MLS Cup finalist run in 2010 one third of the way through the 2011 season and struggled to even make the playoffs that year. Seattle was looking like a contender in 2013(?) before they lost Steve Zakuani to a broken leg on a horrible challenge. He had to retire due to the injury. Most recently, the league has a serious problem with Acosta. DC United went from stopping the bleeding from the 2013 season by playing a counter-attacking style to trying to play a more attractive style in 2016 and now 2017. However, in the 2016 playoffs, Montreal just fouled the crap out of Acosta, Nyarko, and Sam because they just kept dribbling through the Montreal midfield like it was swiss cheese. Referee Jair Maruffo never issued a card for tactical fouling or persistent infringement. It was the first time anyone figured out how to neutralize the new-look 4-5-1 United. It took a cynical team to try to see if the referee could be their useful idiot and it worked. Fast forward to 2017 and every other team has since realized that the referee will always be the useful idiot. Just hack the guys on United who can dribble and then the attack gets toothless. They've already put Nyarko on the shelf. They're working on Acosta. Philadelphia showed that the center back can put his studs into Acosta's hamstring and not even get a foul called. Orlando's midfield is pretty average without Kaka so they hacked Acosta rather than trying to defend him. The MLS referees don't see any issue with it. I also came up the referee ranks. You're taught to protect stars and punish enforcers. Somehow the MLS refs never learned that concept or are too chicken to actually apply it.
Well said. Unlike two decades ago the games are broadcast on TV and generally don't cost anything beyond a basic cable HD subscription. So why buy and invest both time and money? I switched to Fargo last night with 10 minutes left on the clock and flipped back to check the score at the commercial break. United gave up a second goal and the final whistle was blown, and all considered I didn't miss a thing. I watch between 20 and 50% of every game before I get bored, insulted or disgusted with the play and surf away The refs with due respect, are getting worse everywhere top to bottom. Their incompetence lends a bit of excitement to an otherwise dull match, but that crew last night should go back to taking tickets and selling hot dogs. IMHO, the league has outgrown all the available soccer talent necessary to give us a quality product consistently. I disagree about underestimating the sophistication of the American fan, they really screwed that up with the countdown clock and shootouts early on and learned something in 20 years.
Had fun at the game last night. Girl in the row in front of me was pretty talkative and great conversation to an away fan. Lady next to me picked up on me being a DC fan and kept trying to goad me into responding to her. I ignored her completely, but my 10 year old niece picked up on her crass language within 5 minutes. Pretty shameful, as even Atlanta fans had more class than that. Other takeaways from the game: - Odoi-Atsem is a beast. I already knew that, but I wanted to see the proof. He should be the starter, which means Franklin or DeLeon should be trade fodder. - Buescher is slow. In thought, in movement, in responding to the situation. He is not an AM, and I really don't want to see him there again. - Neagle may move like a forward, but he isn't a forward in our current lineup. I'd have rather seen Letoux up top for the second half, and Neagle on the wing. -Sarvas is a red card waiting to happen. We really, really need to upgrade at DM so that Sarvas is a third option. Why he kept trying to dribble out of double pressure is beyond me, but he coughed up the ball way too much and in his own half. -Jeffrey is a good spot-starter, but partnering him with Sarvas was always going to be an issue. They just don't complement each other at all. -Rain was bad and kept alternating between a light drizzle and a downpour. I felt bad for Hamid on the second goal (he really should have punched it away), but figured either goalkeeper would have a gaffe of some kind due to the weather. - We complain about DC's backpassing, but holy shit was Orlando just as bad. Even the home fans recognized it, and I knew they would turn the ball over at least once and gift us an opportunity. That Neagle's shot on goal was blocked by Spector's arm is probably some form of cosmic justice for the pk call last week, but he really should have done better overall with the chance. - There is definitely room for improvement on this team, and July can't get here soon enough. How the team manages until then will decide if we're still in the running for the playoffs or if we start evaluating the roster for next season.
Good points but keep in mind Bruce Arena and that dwarf Richie Williams set the standard for misconduct in the season 1 playoffs by consistently fouling Carlos Valderrama to the point he lashed out and was red carded. Had the ref done his job that first Star would be on some other team's logo.
I believe I've been saying that from the first time I saw him play - in person - in Los Angeles. He seemed more than two steps behind in every facet of the game. He hasn't improved since. We are two players in search of a team. Everything else seems like aftermarket low end replacement parts, or auto salvage. We have literally no style, substance, or tactics that I can see and yet there are few bright spots every game. Not sure how that happens. At this point we need to start Odoi-Atsem (and yes he will start sucking and then get better as that is what young players do). If I were putting together a list of people we need to keep from our starting 11 it would just be Acosta and Hamid. If you replaced the other 9 with randos from the league bench I don't think I would notice. Something needs to be done and soon. We suck. that is all.
Anyone can walk into home depot and buy some wood, fasteners and paint. It's what happens to the raw materials during the creative process that matters. A skillful individual will hand you a well made birdhouse, Now picture Ben Olsen's birdhouse. He needs to go first and foremost
Essentially said the same thing on the BR&U site. The Kool-Aid drinkers are giving me metric tons of shit.
I was actually fairly pleased with last night's play, all things considered, and about 65 minutes of it gave me hope. That howler from Hamid didn't help things, looked like he was gonna do one of those typical goalkeeper-showing-off tricks and the backspin was too much to pop it back up into is hands. Or it could have just been the weather. Opare had a decent game, as he usually does against bigger stronger forwards. If Boswell was 8 years younger and could be the constant guy in the center I'd start Birnbaum against quick/dynamic forwards/teams and Opare against bigger stronger hold-up forwards/teams. They don't seem to work all that well together though which is a big problem. Other midfielders are going to have to start helping Acosta by giving him outlets, they just expect him to dribble through 3 guys every time by himself. I mean it 's cool that he often can but when they hack him and/or push him off the ball and he has no help behind him then we're screwed. Oh, and if not could a defender or someone in the crowd help him out by telling him when an opposing player is coming up behind him ? Was nice to see Kamara, or really anyone playing like a forward, at least for a little while.
Ugh. I really don't know why I keep watching these games. I too was excited about Odoi-Atsem. He has speed on the outside that can make a difference. He is several steps faster than anyone else on the team. I'd like to see us attack with him on the outside/overlap and have a winger on his side that draws in and supports/covers. That would suit our personnel a lot better as well. I see Neagle doing well in this sort of a role as well as Nyarko. With the style of play that Ben wants we need speed and athleticism on the wings. I sure hope that quality midfielders are on the menu this transfer season. Acosta has no support and the backline has few options to cycle the ball upfield without a deep sitting midfielder who can hold the ball and move it into the attack (a classic water carrier is desperately needed). Now that Mullins is toast I don't know what to think about striker... Our roster is a joke.
So as fans were back to hyping up a young guy or two as 'at least being the future core of the team' like we used to when things were utterly and completely dire? So is Odoi or Buescher the new Brettschneider?