Tired legs was not the problem tonight. It was stupidity. Birnbaum & Opare unwilling to push the ball forward, losing it for no reason. Fisher always make runs down the flank when not necessary. He needs to pick & choose when to make the runs. He also needs to wait to read the cross before charging into the penalty area. Twice, Arriola sent it too wide but if Fisher waited to read the cross, perhaps he would not have to chase it down. The first goal started with him being too far up and allowing Philly to start the counter. The second goal, Birnbaum kept backing up instead of closing space. Worse is our inability to shoot. Players not trying the first touch and taking too many dribbles. Who did Rooney set up perfectly in the second half just to see the idiot pass it off instead of shooting? Players need to look around the pitch and know where their teammates are. Why pass it back on the same flank for a five yard pass? It just frustrating and a change of coaches is not going to make any difference with these deficiencies. There are too many mediocre players. Speaking of which, the same for the referee. Odd calls and non-calls but what ticked me off was the time he wasted on every free kick. Put away the shaving cream and let the players get the ball back into play.
I gave up at the half. Shit station. After Rooney hit the post and then we get denied a penalty on a clear handball, I knew this game was going to end badly. It did. Nice little run we had though.
First off our center backs have a bad habit. When they get between the penalty spot and the six yard box they back off. It happened again last night, same as in the Portland game, and it cost us the second goal. BTW @roadkit it was not a handball. Arm was in a natural position, ball to hand. It was the right call. I think where the tired legs came into this match was in the poor shooting. When your legs are tired your mechanics regress and you get shots wide or off the post. With our still weak roster Olsen has little in the way of viable choices for player rotation. Do you want Jeffery? Kelly? Atsem? Would they have been able to beat Philly? Now I would have liked to seen Harkes, Vytas and Durkin rotated in. They would have held up fine. Maybe start Mattocks. But none of those guys are wide players.
It really stings to see an unaccomplished, untalented individual like Lalas get attention wherever he goes and the true centers of the universe like you and me go unnoticed. Life just ain't fair
United's legs were done for by early in the second half. We haven't the depth for an A and B team; more like a B+ and D team. Most passes were underweight and not really threatening, and we were beat to nearly every second ball, and couldn't step up to pressure consistently...probably due to energy conservation. A few times in the second half, with Arriola right in front of our seats, he made an underweighted pass that got intercepted, and he couldn't re-engage fast enough to defend against the counter. As for the handball, I was at 98% should be called. Yes, it was ball to hand and the ball was played from close in, but the hand made him bigger and how many times have we seen defenders play that defense with their hand behind their back because they don't want to get called for the handball in the box? You can almost always make the "natural position" argument, even at a full stretch (say, falling down and bracing for ground impact, on a challenge or on a push, et cetera) so how does the line get drawn? I'm on the side of "if an advantage is gained from the ball to hand contact, and the hand was away from the body" it should be called. The LotG tried to get away from the CR from trying to gauge "intent" in such instances, so that's a pretty clear indicator that they got an advantage...It just wouldn't warrant a card.
As a ref I use the natural position guide all the time. In the replay I saw his arm was not far enough away from his body to "make him bigger". So I agree with the no call. It is however a judgement call.
Yeah, it's entirely subjective, which is why it's problematic. Was there space between his hand and his body? Yes, thus his "presented face" was larger than it would have been had it been against his body. That extra size prevented a play of the ball using a surface that is unplayable, and he gained a competitive advantage on the play as a result. It's too ambiguous. Since the same rationale can be applied to sliding blocks (which have been called handballs,) headers (which have been called handballs,) and even reflex actions to protect one's face from a driven ball (which have been called handballs), the line has to be drawn somewhere. Gaining competitive advantage provides a clear delineation inside the box.
I think Olsen had options, he just chose, incorrectly, not to use them. Durkin could have started in place of an obviously tired Canouse. I would like to see Vytas play simply to see if he has more pace than Mora who is constantly beaten by speedier flank players. Harkes - meh. I thought Segura did fine in his 45 minutes, although that sub apparently was due to Fisher picking up a hamstring knock. That "forced" Arriola back to RB, because the only outside back Olsen had in the 18 was Vytas. The larger fault was Curtin outcoaching Olsen by making Birnbaum and Opare beat you with passing and ball movement - something they cannot do. With Rooney on the field and no Mattocks, DCU has no one to stretch the field to force the backline to worry about a ball over the top. Instead, DCU must rely on quick passes and off the ball movement. Something tired legs in heat and humidity simply cannot do. While the DCU roster isn't optimal by any means, the failure last night was Olsen's -- he had players that might have made a difference and certainly would have given some tired legs needed rest. He chose not to do that, paid the price and will probably get compound interest on his "investment" Sunday against Atlanta. That will be 0 out of 9 points and that is unacceptable when 2 of those matches are home games. Not. Good. Enough.
And despite being a labeled "Olsen Apologist" I will admit while his options were not great he did have some options which he did not choose to use.
And your interpretation is valid, I don't see it that way. I taught my players as a coach who was also a ref that if your arm is within two fists of your body you were just fine. His arm was within the distance I tend to feel ok with. But I do see your point and it is valid but as both of us admit it is a judgement call. There is clear ambiguity in the laws.
Remember my Grandmother passed away I am trying to turn over a new leaf................we will see if it lasts. Lol
Birnbaum had a typically frustrating game. He's OK defensively 1v1, and he can out leap forwards frequently enough to head the ball away from that forward. Unfortunately, those headers ALWAYS go to the opposing team and the attack continues stronger than before. Our back line is sub-par. We won other games because the opposing mid-fields were overwhelmed by ours and couldn't support their offenses. But when our mid-field gets over-worked because Ben Olsen refuses to develop depth and then use it effectively, our sub-par defense is exposed. Opare is OK, but Birnbaum is consistently sub-par, Fisher has speed but little else, and Mora is a fill-in at best.
Wouldn't surprise me if Birnbaum played the game with a concussion. He took a hit fairly early in the game and dropped straight down. I honestly wonder how many collisions he has left.
This was the game that Durkin and Mattocks should have been starting. It was a better matchup for those players than Sunday will be. If we try to compensate for our tired legs by playing them against Atlanta now, we won't get the best out of them. Durkin has been rotting on the bench of late and won't be ready for such an extremely high powered team, and Mattocks is not the type of player to be checking into the midfield to held win balls against a team maintaining 60% possession against us. I hope I am wrong, as we will probably have to do it anyway.
That tank ran dry long ago. He's at the point where the only hope is being poster boy for the wear rugby headgear industry. Sounds harsh but he's playing with matches inside the dynamite bunker. Maybe his doctor thinks differently