Is like to see Segura, Harkes, or one of our extra center mids get a run at RB. The skill set is similar, it’s just getting used to being on the back line. No chance our crossing from the back gets worse anyway. Fisher is our weakest link in holding the ball. Mora has far better technical skill than Fisher who is just amazingly fast and that is about it.
The team pretty much ignored the left side on the attack. Almost all field shifts went from the center to the right side - Fisher; sometimes Arriola or Stieber. Asad and occasionally Mora were often all alone and ignored.
With our Lilliputian squad, crosses against a team with normal size or large defenders are very iffy (so even more kudos to tiny Lucho). Rooney, especially, is fond of the probing through ball, hoping that one of our quicker midfielders like Arriola or Acosta can turn a defender and get a step on him.
Lucho's goal and half of Josef Martinez tallies are proof of the opposite. We are not crossing the ball and getting beaten to 50-50s...we just aren't crossing the ball. When we do Fischer's are often at knee height and don't make it past the first CB. None of our problems with crossing the ball have to do with the height of the recipient. Heck the most unrewarded player making those runs yesterday was Rooney. He's no giant but he's no minion either.
Fisher isn’t a long term solution but his past two games have been his best of the season. The pass to Arriola was top notch and should have been a goal. He also had a couple nice crosses vs Montreal. He’s a good backup/ open cup guy.
Who do we have that's any better? Do you remember how often Nick Deleon passed the ball to the other team?
On that note, Lalas couldn't stop singing the praises of Mueller last night. I saw a guy who couldn't get past Mora even one time. Not once. (And he got outjumped by a gnome for the game-winning goal.) Mora was a rock last night
Yeah, Mueller was wholly ineffective yesterday. With all the praising of him that I saw on bigsoccer earlier in the season (I didn't watch much of the Lions early this season) I was expecting to see something more. He looked like any old player in MLS.
Do you remember where Ousted was in the last 10 seconds of the game? Hadn't it been for Rooney's run we would be now cursing over a loss.
Exciting win. All glory to Acosta and Rooney. Not sorry to say I wasn't at AF, but when my alarm rang 0500, that win wouldn't have made up for the long day ahead. Henceforth, that will be known as "The Tackle" -- assuming the spot Steve Guppy's insane tackle has held for at least 10 years.
Asad left Mora on an island many a time last night. Mora may have been a "rock" but a great deal was emergency defending using my old standby -- kick the ball out of play and regroup. He is painfully slow and as a consequence lays off attackers giving them time and space to whip in crosses. He knows what to do, his body doesn't allow him to do it.
First of all, kudos to everyone at the game last night. I'm a STH who bailed when the 6:00 forecast said 90% chance of 8:00 storm. But I'll be there Wednesday and Sunday. I'd describe it as a bad game between two bad teams, except for two brilliant Acosta goals and the beyond brilliant Rooney - Acosta play. Watching on TV the shot of the match was Rooney hugging Acosta while they waited for the VAR decision on Acosta's second goal. If there was any lingering question of Rooney's commitment to this club that settled it for me.
Before we saw him play, i think reasonable people could’ve disagreed whether Rooney had enough gas left in the tank. I never really bought the argument that Rooney was just here to collect a paycheck. There’s nothing in his history as a player that would’ve suggested that he’s someone happy to just phone it in.
What does this mean? He was merely commenting on Oniel's qualities (not suggesting we have someone better riding the bench) Kasper & Olsen shouldn't trust him to be our regular back
Also, if Ousted isn’t sent up, there’s no way Orlando goes on the attack like that, let alone have a three one one for the win.
Olsen knew correctly that a tie would not cut it anymore and until that point in the game failed to make any tactical adjustments to take advantage of the extra player. Bringing your goal keeper to a set play is essentially the same as a hail-mars in pointy-ball and probably just as statistically effective. To give Olsen credit for the win is to assume that Olsen knew that even if the goal wasn't scored that KC would be so inept as to not take advantage of the empty net and thus give a DC United player a chance to hustle and catch up, strip the ball, make a killer pass and win the match. Olsen didn't know that, couldn't know that, and didn't plan for it. Olsen doesn't get credit for that win any more than the flying spaghetti monster gets credit for the creation of the universe. james
You're leaving out a lot. Olsen should get credit for having the must win mentality. Remember, he subbed both his fullback for attackers, something I've never seen him do. I think he's a bad coach, because they don't play like a well coached team. Some amateur insight there. But he played this right, going for the win with his subs and even sending Ousted. I hope it sends the right message to the players, while being sad there is still a need for messages to be sent.