Not losing to NJ is always good. Credit where credit is due: I was pleased that DC United did not come out playing for a draw, which I suspected they would do with Acosta out. I also don't mind having Rob Vincent on this team. I don't want him to start, but in terms of a back-up, I like having him because he brings something a little different. Not just the long range shooting, but he seems to show up in good attacking spaces where Jeffrey and DeLeon don't. I don't know that he generally plays as well, box-to-box, as those other two, but the last few games that he has played, he hasn't been invisible the way a lot of DC's back-up players, particularly in the middle of the field, tend to be. The bad stuff: We knew this team was going to be worse without Acosta, but that was really bad. Yes, I want the team to hang on to Acosta, but they also need to find a back up who can pull the strings, because it ain't DeLeon and DC can't just give up any game where Acosta doesn't start. Both Sam and Nyarko regressed to mean this game. They played like guys with good athletic ability, but no soccer skills or knowledge. I really don't like our outside backs anymore. It's not that they don't contribute, but both Kemp and Franklin seem to me to be not picking up marks, particularly on counters, and the central defenders get pulled way out of position. I think it's starting to be a huge and obvious liability. I thought the team fell apart completely somewhere around the 60th minute and reverted to a pick-up game offense, which I guess got them a point when the Metros collapsed, but I certainly didn't think they were going to score.
Besides the game-tie-ing goal, I would really like to thank Neagle for knocking the shit out of the dirty Filipe toward the end of the game - that was very enjoyable. I love seeing him wriggle around on the field, especially on the odd chance he's not just faking contact to get a foul called. Sucks that he was able to stand back up again without crutches, but I'll take it.
Lotta tread on those tires. I think he's GOT to be one of the players left unprotected. Lloyd Sam is a system player in MLS. We play a similar system (4-4-1-1/4-2-3-1 that feeds a lone striker). Big difference is the BWP has great off the ball movement, whereas Mullins gets by more with grit and passion than brains. But then, there's a reason RBNY decided he wasn't a starter anymore for them. Sometimes veterans lose it gradually, sometimes they lose it all at once. Maybe he's the latter. I liked the trade when we made it, but he hasn't been playing well. But, yeah, we drew, ******** them Jersey ********ers.
Yep. I hadn't even thought of the expansion draft much yet, but yeah, we can leave him unprotected and be pretty sure no one will take him. If they do, great. If they don't, we got to protect another younger and better guy. We have a slightly deeper roster, so we could easily lose someone good like Worra or Buescher. I think an expansion team could easily take Worra and look at him as a starter while they groom someone younger. He's not great, but he's proven himself as an adequate starter in MLS.
I think Mullins moves well off the ball. As did Sam, actually. The trouble is, there weren't nobody who would think to play to those runs out there, opting for more direct 1v2 or 1v3 situations or the dreaded backpass instead of playing it into space or the good runs. I was getting angrier and angrier at people not passing to the overlapping runs or not playing the give and go. Acosta can't REALLY be the only guy who thinks about those options. NDL can do it well in the middle third, but I still don't know what his final third fog is a result of.
I agree that Mullins moves well off the ball. Acosta (and Rolfe, sniff) would expect it, see it, and reward it. Their backups, not so much.
That's pretty prescient, I think. Worra will no doubt be exposed and he no doubt will be gone. It's hard to believe that we won't protect Buescher. Rob Vincent, Jared Jeffrey or Lloyd Sam ought to be desirable. Maybe, DeLeon if he's exposed.
I think we did come out playing for a draw (or don't let them score and forget offense unless we get a really lucky break). Going into the hole made us break out and credit to the players for grinding it out. james
LIES! No, I'm sorry. I got overly excited. I didn't see that. At least, not at first. I thought the first half hour or so, I thought it looked like DC came out to play the same more possession-oriented offense that they've shifted to lately, but it rapidly became apparent that it wasn't remotely working without Acosta and DC United couldn't adapt, which meant DeLeon got stuck with the ball because he didn't find his options in time or, alternately, Nyarko, Sam, and Mullins were too far apart and DeLeon wasn't in the right spot to provide an outlet.
Perhaps. I only saw from the 22nd minute and though we were trying to park the double-decker bus and leave Mullins stranded on Ben Olsen's island of misfit offense. james
I watched with disgust for 85 minutes and decided to switch over to football rather than see the game out. I turned back over to ESPN a few minutes later feeling guilty about not watching till the end and know and lo and behold, we've scored two ******* goals. Why does this team insist on trolling me?
Agree. They weren't playing for a draw, they were just sucking. Maybe Neagle worked his way back into the starting lineup? He is our leading scorer, and Sam didn't look so great today
Seems to me that NDL is not passing you the ball unless he can see your face (which might explain all the backpassing as well). It drives me crazy how our players turn away from being dangerous to stop and face the guy with the ball instead - but guys like NDL won't pass the ball to a runner he's only seeing the back of, so you stop, be less dangerous, and face him. He can see the GK's face, no explaining why he won't shoot properly
Similar for me - I was coming back from WV during the game. Not driving, so I watched the 1st half on my phone. Had to drive from my drop-off point back to my house during the second half, so I had actually found the game on the radio. Sounded like a wave for RB and the feed was choppy, so I put music on. Checked the score right before I got home, was 2-0 in the 88'. Got home, and just started watching football without giving it a second though. Didn't even mean to check the score again, I found out it happened hours after the fact while looking at the post about our talks for Acosta on r/MLS. This is probably the first and last time I don't follow through with a match.
"Whoa" "They could be exposing themselves! " "And you don't want them exposing themselves!" (adapted from Ghostbusters II)
I agree. We played pretty well in the first 30 or so minutes. Twellman and the other commentator seemed to agree. I know most people disagree with anything he says, but I agree with that assessment more or less. I think that's when Sam missed the pretty easy chance, so it could have been a deserved 1-0 lead. It is true that it didn't work well enough and then RB seemed to figure us out.
I thought he was a really good player and is a good commentator. He says some things that are inane, but what commenter doesn't. I just know tons of people throw out anything he says for some reason.
Agreed. I love Twellman the commentator. The East is so wackadoodle right now. RB just can't hold a lead. Manchester USA alternates between passably decent and laughably terrible. United are Spartan warriors on the road and Persian kittys at home. TFC is TFC. I don't even know what's going on up in Boston; they're the best team in the league on paper. Sadly for them the game is played on astroturf with garish football lines. Montreal has Dominic Oduro. Every team is deeply flawed in some significant way.
My brother and I were watching the game at home, and my exact words to him after going down 2-0 were: "It doesn't matter because we'll find a way to tie the game up since we already did it a few weeks ago." Lo and behold, I was less than shocked when it actually happened; I wasn't happy or excited, but kinda apathetic since I expected it to happen. We give this team a lot of flak, but over the past month or so, they find ways to hang in games and scrap for draws. Not the hallmark of a great team, but at least they stay competitive even when they're dead to rights.