All you have to do is to declare that all of the unsold seats were Club Seats. Shit. I should go into modern sports management.
Hey it's hard to walk away from a team that reached down and managed to lose at home, to our avowed rivals, in the last match in a grand old stadium to clinch last place by a clear -7 goals against tie breaker. This is a team for the ages, New LaLa will take 3 decades to sink this low
Well Clark isn’t the answer, so add a GK to the list, along with a striker, a centerback and someone capable of pushing/subbing for Stieber or Arriola. 5 or 6 pieces away from a playoff team at this point. Harkes, Canouse, Arriola, Stieber, Acosta, NDL and Mullins are set. Opare and Robinson are on the bubble — Robinson was responsible for the first goal today, he just wandered into no-man’s land. OA needs a run out. Korb and Kemp are deck chairs. Franklin, Sarvas, Jeffrey, Vincent and Worra are or should be gone. Nyarko probably is done from concussions. Sam would be OK, if re-signed at a lower price.
Minor quibble - Robinson was trying to mark two or three guys while Harkes and Sarvas whiffed and Opare kept backing up. I thought the same as you until I watched the replay a couple of times. Robinson made an effort, I don't know what Opare was doing.
pretty sure ben's tactics weren't to have acosta sent off (yet again) let me clarify, i still haven't seen what happened. as far as i saw, he skied a volley to the upper deck and 5 seconds later saws straight red. regardless, anyone would find themselves in deep shit having your alleged star sent off (yet again) and trying to make it work with a last place team. if you say he should goes, so be it, but i don't think it should be based on what happened today. EDIT: I posted this before catching up on the match thread. if acosta really didn't deserve to be sent off (or carded at all), then i apologize for my harshness to him. regardless of that though, he was removed from the field and i stand by my points above.
For me, he could be a great coach, I don't know, but it's not working here. I hope the team is much improved next year, but I doubt it. At some point I just want to see a different approach if the losses keep piling up.
i've been on the olsen train but i don't know what i think anymore. i just think that whatever decisions shouldn't focus on tonight's result given the red to Acosta
Not as a direct comparison of skill levels, but Juve was down 1-0, then 2-1, has Mario Mandžukić ejected before the break and comes back to win 6-2. There are teams that win and teams that can't.Maybe they should just throw in the towel and head for the showers when things don't go their way. It looked like that yesterday
You're right that the defense was a cluster******** on that play. However, Robinson made the cardinal sin of leaving his place and running out to defend -- something? Left the lane for the Red Bull to keep moving unmarked to goal.
IMO, Korb didn't peel off #10 to cover the two open players on his side of the box as soon as he should, which would have been the signal to Opare to step up. Honestly, Steiber should take some of the blame here. He walked back toward the goal ball-watching while two guys got behind Korb. By the time Korb saw them and dropped off, #10 had the ball again with Opare already having backed off in anticipation of having to run one of them down in support. Robinson saw neither Korb nor Opare were in a position to step-to when the ball was returned to #10 and at least made an effort to get in front of him. That was a universally blown play, or good movement by RB, however you look at it. Robinson might have been successful trying to stay with his man, but then #10 would have had an uncontested shot from the top of the box. Easy to fault him, but I'm not sure it sticks. My bigger complaint is that Robinson was playing shy. On each of the goals, his efforts were speculative. On the second, he could (should?) have slid through and cleared (but at the risk of an own goal), and his approach caused Clark to hesitate cutting out the ball, which he could have gotten to. That's on Clark - he communicated or he didn't but he had to commit and trust. However, safety first. Boswell clears that. Then there was the penalty kick chicken wing. He's still young, and he has a lot to prove, but he's got the bones of a good CB. But I have to say, aside from that 2nd goal hesitation, not a bad game from Clark. The penalty kick wasn't perfection, but Clark didn't step until after the ball was kicked. That was a perfectly textbook legal save, which is insane, frankly. I'm in agreement that Clark is a 2nd stringer in MLS, but better to start the 23rd best keeper in the league than the 44th. He'll get better once he's had an offseason to work with what is hopefully a stable back line. If he's starting next year and he's the worst of our problems, I'll be happy. It's probably too much to hope that Vincent returns, but I'd like to see if he could continue to improve and provide stability in a supporting CM/DM role. Smart, dedicated player there.
I hope that if Ben does stay on we have an assistant coach refresh - can we get the Crapids to take Chad Ashton? Perhaps if this is a contract renewal year Ben can get the team to perform well but my fear is that just making the playoffs will be enough to get him a 3 year renewal. We shall see. As far as off-season needs - here are my roster options: Keep at all costs: Arriola Steiber Try to keep: Opare Canouse NDL (he cares - that matters) Nice to have with other changes: Acosta (not sure his head is in the team and if BO is still coach I don't see a path to growth and maturity) - trade him to Atlanta for garberbucks so he can perform for his Argentine compatriot. Young players to bring around with playing time: Harkes Robinson Miranda (yes Miranda) Free to go (or come back as subs): Korb Birnbaum Franklin Sarvas Jeffrey Sam Nyarko Kemp Vincent Brown Mullins Rolfe Clark If Acosta can mature that leaves us with Acosta, Steiber, Canouse, Arriola, NDL, Opare as starters and Harkes, Robinson, and Miranda as subs. We would need to field a good starting 11: Goalkeeper 1 Centerback 2 Outside backs(NDL is a midfielder) 1 Striker (Speed and Touch) If Clark stays (and that is likely at this point) that leaves 4 players we need to upgrade to have a chance at the playoffs. The defense needs to be locked in place prior to pre-season training to really get to know each other and the goalkeeper. We will also need a striker before the season starts. james