Collin had a thuggie game - writhing on the ground faking fouls while twice late in the second half just mawling Birnbaum with no call. The ref was intimidated by him, pure and simple. It will be popular to blame the defense for this loss, and that's certainly deserved. The first goal may qualify as the weakest corner kick goal of the year. It was a pop-up that any decent defender would have won. The second goal was... well you saw it. But the offense is to be blamed as well. There needs to be more direct play and less concern for style points. Two examples - late in the first half someone made a nice pass to Sam in the top corner of the penalty area. He elected to try a back heal to the passer which was easily interecepted.. That's a pass that connects 10% of the time, and if connected probably leads to a scoring chance 10% of the time. So instead of turning to goal and making ther defense react he tried a pretty but a low-percentage pass. Then Acosta's inexplicable decison not to pass to Sam when we had numbers up front. As bad as the defense was, if we had scored one goal in the first 70 minutes it could have been a very different game.
Meram's Columbus corner kick goal may compete for weakest, but at last the pop-up wasn't headed directly to goal.
Hard to judge when watching on TV, but the midfield play for DCU was poor. Jeffrey simply could not provide any consistent linkage going forward. His passes were either weak, overhit or intercepted. Acosta was OK, the failure to pass to Sam was inexplicable however. Harkes also was OK, but he just seems to cut his passes a bit too fine. Sometimes they work, sometimes they just don't get there and are picked off. Up top, Ortiz is a backup or change of pace, he's not Mullins by any stretch. I would rather see Ben run Neagle or LeToux up top next week. Of course, if Birnbaum is out for any stretch, we're just ********ed.
Very poor showing, bad enough to make me want to watch Hockey, if it's true that with Birnbaum out we're ####ed, I contend we were ###ed going in
I really don't get Ben's personnel decisions sometimes. Ortiz would be better used in a two forward formation. He's good at heading balls, and cleaning up other folks' garbage. Think of him as a poor man's Raul Diaz Arce. As a single striker, he's not going to out-muscle, or out jump 2-3 defenders for the ball, and when United tried to fast-break, he showed his lack of speed. If we were going to defend and counter, it would have been better to play Alhaji Kamara, who at least has some speed that might have been useful on the break.
100% agree. Ortiz is essentially a poacher. He needs a power forward to play off of. If we had someone like Kenwyne Jones to keep Collin busy, Ortiz could show up in those little spaces underneath and get possession facing the goal. What Ben is asking him to do now with posting up on the likes of Collin by himself is never going to work. He was just getting dominated physically. Not sure how Ben expected that we'd score enough goals this year. My theory is that he has no idea how to generate goals consistently. We'll have players occasionally get hot, but since 2010 we've never had a striker score more than 13 in a season. We desperately need that elite level goal production. If you look at most other teams in MLS, they have that guy that can do it for several seasons in a row. Look at BWP, Villa, Altidore, Larin, Ola Kamara, Adi, Wondolowski, Dwyer etc ... There's still a chance that Mullins comes back this year and becomes that guy. But it's hard to be optimistic after 7 years of striker inconsistency.
Update: Birnbaum is okay after sustaining a head injury. Taken to the hospital, as a precautionary measure, for further evaluation.#DCU https://t.co/fYaYyEQlaV— D.C. United (@dcunited) April 16, 2017 ...so there's that, at least. I'd still be surprised if he got through the concussion protocol this week, myself. In re: the game -- Olsen seems to HATE doing more than one thing at a time. We're going to play the 4-1-4-1 until we full-stop change to something else. He does not seem to even think about looking at the players available and saying, "we need to run a second forward this week." I hate Collin, but it was interesting to see a defender who could pick up the ball and pass it to a midfield er showing for the ball under pressure. We are still bad playing out the back, which means our defense is under consistent pressure. Ugh. Shake it off, Bill. I'd start LeToux next match up top. He seems to play off of others marginally better. But we're going to need Mullins to put up 15+ goals to even be a mediocre offensive team. Anyone want to take that bet?
I'm not even mad. If you can't score, you don't deserve anything. There is no faction of the team that is playing satisfactory. The attack isn't threatening, the midfield is always second best and the defense is woeful on set pieces. Not sure how or when it all improves. My biggest frustration stems from something other teams take for granted: where is the passing? Why is it such a struggle? Stop wishing and fix it already. Alright, I lied, I am mad.
Well that blew big green donkey dicks. Lots of random kicking the ball upfield and players trying to do too much alone. Lots thuggery on the part of the Cows. And if the best Dave Johnson can do is "And there's so-and-so in the Dax McCarty role..." FFS. He said it 3 or 4 times. WTF ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY DAVE? Ugh.
With the exception of the equipment crew (packed the right kit for everyone) no one did anything close to a first flight professional job last night. United looked more like a semi pro crew hoping to play way over their heads in an open cup match. This was supposed to be a meeting of two long time rivals not DC bringing a poodle to a rottweiler breeding session.
That was shockingly poor last night. NJ did not really play that well, I don't think, but DC made them look great by comparison. The inability to string together more than 2 or 3 passes is really frustrating. I wonder if Kamara is ever going to get a chance.
DCU had no idea last night and this team is exactly where it has been under 85% of Olsen's run. Unable to string together passes. Playing a formation without the horses needed. Our only 3 chances in the first 70 mins were from Birnbaum. This offense requires stud wingers and a striker that can create for himself. So little movement off the ball because the guys are gassed from playing so much defense. It makes me sick to watch other teams because we are really bad. Lightening in a bottle the 2nd half of last season. *** add - I am sick and tired of soft, slow rolling passes that DCU makes. If our players can't receive the ball, get new ones.
Didn't have TV coverage where Inam right now, but I did watch Orlando vs LA Gals. Another poorly played game. Excifting because of constant attacking. But poor passing, bad defending, lack of simple finishing, etc made it an example of where MLS really is.
I watched that too. Orlando is not a pretty team. But one thing that they have that we don't have is athleticism spread out across the roster. Big keeper, speed out wide, high work rate in the middle and Larin is just a monster in the box. Athleticism can make up for some tactical/technical shortcomings. DC really only has 2-3 top athletes in the lineup at any point. Hamid obviously, maybe Birnbaum/Boswell is the size and strength category. And De Leon in the stamina category. Nyarko and Sam were maybe fast in their day, but not so much any more. I've been preaching this for years. If our FO refuses to invest in quality, we should at least make sure we can compete physically. Our team speed in particular has been embarrassing for years
It doesn't help (for me) that the other team I watch is Tottenham. After watching how they play (usually) any MLS match looks like shit. But last night was especially shitty.