didn't see "broken nose" as being the likely first injury rather than the more typical DCU Hammy or hernia
Referee lets us waste the last minute in the corner. That was ... odd. Not the overwhelming, convincing win we would have liked, but it's three points. Would *really* like to see Clark get a game at some point. Heartened by Opare's performance -- he and Birnbaum are my starting pair at CB. Loved 46-60th or so with Rooney, Acosta and the rest of the midfield connecting beautifully.
Sad to see how far Howard has fallen. Embarrassing. Great win though -- even if the Crapids away game win percentage over the history of the team is only something like 29%, LOL
I so hope we sign Adi. There were so many times we got the ball in great positions in and around the box, but there is no center forward to feed. Rooney is going to have to adjust the way he plays and just stop dropping deep all the time. Sometimes Rooney just needs to think like a poacher and play off that last defender. Or if we do insist on Rooney dropping deep like a false #9, we need the likes of Asad and Acosta to be more decisive and accurate with the long range shooting. Today it seemed like the only way we were going to score was by walking the ball into the net. Every long range shot went to row X.
Good on Capt. Rooney. Celebrates the armband and the goal with blood and nary a wimper. Not pretty, but it's 3.
Perfect Captain moment. Playing in the back on a set piece and taking a shot to the head, walks off, gets fixed up, walks back on. That's how it is done. james
Howard has been done for at least the past two seasons. C9 has been mostly empty every game. That always stands out to me. I always promoted black seats exactly for the reasons that it is so easy to pick out empty red seats and even some grey seats.
Canouse played like a boss tonight. I'm afraid that Durkin goes to the bench for good, but Canouse was better tonight than Durkin has been all year. Canouse behind Arriola and Acosta should make a difference going forward. Opara is, perhaps, a little more aggressive in defense than Brilliant, but he's a wreck with the ball at his feet. I still don't know what's going on with Brilliant. Could we not try Harkes or anyone else there? Durkin might be able to slip into the CB spot where Brilliant/Opara are. I hate how Olsen forces his fullbacks to play so deep. Very few runs up the sideline from either fullback. Mora did make a few and was very dangerous each time. I saw several opportunities where he stayed back. That allowed the wide defender to stay narrow and snuff out some attacking opportunities for us.
Just back from the game. The water taxi from Alexandria was great -- but it's just too expensive for every game use. The positives: Canouse and Moreno bossed the midfield. Moreno just keeps it simple and cleans things up. Canouse is just a monster, he gets dug in, wins 50/50 balls, maintains possession. If you play against him he will leave marks on you. Boehm's writeup on MLS.com shows Canouse's passing chart 40 or 46 and most of them positive. I though Acosta was more involved and impactful in this match than others. He showed for the ball and was looking for passes to open up Colorado. Rooney played well, but he just has no pace. He's a "false 9" at this stage of his career and as mentioned earlier, with a real poacher partnered with him teams could be in trouble. The bad: Opare is a better physical defender. He is a train wreck with the ball. My wife counted 3 forward passes Opare made all night. Everything else was back to Ousted. A better team than Colorado would press the shit out of him and eat his lunch. He is not the replacement for Brillant. That player is TBD. The play that led to Colorado's goal involved both Fisher and Opare. The whole team was moving forward expecting Fisher's free kick to go upfield. Instead, he passed back to a very confused Opare who promptly lost the ball which set in motion Acosta's then tieing goal. Just a low soccer IQ play all around. Neither of those guys should be starting, they are depth and rotation players at best. The other howler was Mattocks at the end. He gets played in but his leaden touch takes him wide of Howard, the goal is open, one Colorado player is retreating to cover the goal. Asad and Segura are onside, in front of an empty net. So, Mattcoks tries to shoot the ball through Howard's body. Asad threw his hands up and started screaming at Mattocks. That tap in would have made it 3-1 and put the game to bed. These types of brain dead plays can cost you points, points DCU has none to spare. Other players not mentioned were "fine" -- nothing awful but nothing spectacular either. Colorado, however, is one of the worst teams in the league. They were playing 99 year old Giles Barnes up top and, other than Acosta, do not have anyone that would give a coach nightmares when preparing to face the team. Oh, Howard is done -- it's a shame, but it happens to all players. Better to go out remembered as the guy who stood on his head against Belgium and not the guy nutmegged by Rooney.
Thanks for that breakdown -- we didn't get to see it on TV (a replay overlapped with live action -- by the time they came back live, CO was on the ball).
Clark had his games. There's no shortage of guys in the back who are a heartbeat away from giving up a goal without adding more opportunities for the other team to score
Attendance pegged around (edit) 18,900. So roughly 1,000 MIA. That counts as 100% attendance at any DC High School. So far I'd say Audi is kicking RFK's ass. I'm not sure many are coming just to see Rooney either.