Pre-match: LAFChivas v. D.C. United

DCU were totally outplayed in the first half. The second half was about even - not good when playing against 10 men. Lucky to get a point.

 

At the end of the day I don't dislike Mattocks, certainly he's not a top scorer but he does score, he's always present in the middle of the action, he always fights and last but not least he has a lot of character, something that we certainly can not say for most of his teammates

 

I raised the coaching last week. We played like we had a plan and we executed it.

This week we often looked as organized as a pickup game. In particular, I was distressed at how often teammates got in the way of teammates.

 

@Theopisa

For years and years, DC has undermined its roster two ways. First, the worst scouting of and management of foreign players imaginable. Second and more subtly, we had the slowest team or nearly so every year. We are always surprised at how effective mediocre fast players are with DC. That’s because the value of a Mattocks on a slow team is much greater than his value on an average speed team. If everyone is slow or average, it’s easy for the opponent to compress the field. One fast player makes a big difference. Even aside from Mattocks I don’t know when we’ve had a roster this fast.

 

Missed this game. Any reason why Dunkin was taken out early besides the yellow card?

 

There were three clear and obvious handballs by LA in the box on the night. THREE! The LA announcing crew (who are great BTW) admitted as much. Two were not reviewed at all and one was reviewed and the ref came to the conclusion that there was a foul several hours beforehand on Mattocks (or something.) And then he called the penalty on Stieber.

Let's just say that, judging by the sounds coming from my house, I wouldn't have been mad at the neighbors for calling the police.

VAR sucks.

 

I only got to see the highlights, but I'm happy to see Ousted being vocal and talking to his center backs. We were lacking leadership in the back the first few weeks when Ousted and Clark were still battling for the spot. Keeping the opponent at one goal on the road is perhaps signs of progress.

Also happy to see Arriola getting an assist. The move to the middle keeps paying off.

Also I continue to eat crow over my criticism of the Mattocks signing. Also my criticism of Kasper. While Kasper's failures are many, it must be admitted that he has been able to squeeze something positive out of the MLS recycling bin on a fairly consistent basis.

The one factor that I think could push this team to the next level is finishing off some set pieces. Great chances for Birnbaum and Brillant at the end of each half. We're doing an OK job getting goals from the run of play. We just need a little more from set pieces. Maybe earn some PKs. Earn some fouls near the box because I think Stieber can bury a direct free kick.

 

VAR saved us last night. We would have been getting out of there with zero points, wasn't it for VAR. I am happy MLS has it, it helps a little bit the mediocrity of its refs

 

VAR sucks.

Yes, it saved our bacon in one case. It also failed to save our bacon with the clear and obvious correct call THREE times tonight. And there are innumerable cases where it ********ed other teams this weekend with unfair/corrupt/inconsistent calls. It has and will continue to disproportionately screw poor teams like DC. So just because we got one call retracted doesn't mean we should roll out a ********ing parade.

VAR sucks.

 

The bar is low my friend.

 

Also, he'd picked up a yellow card, and it looked like he was trending reckless. No need to even the odds and get him sat for the next game in the bargain.

 

[QU

Durkin is still a kid with under 1000 minutes at the "top" division total. Vela was an over match and would have been one for any of our others in the back too. Durkin did well to contain him as much as he did

 

The Moreno for Durkin sub was 100% needed. Props to Olsen for making it. The attack looked a bit better with Moreno in there, too, and LAFC didn't seem quite as dangerous, either.