Alright, here's my breakdown: The good: Maloney is good enough to be our backup right back. Let jimenez and his $150,000 or whatever it is salary go, and put it towards a TAM level signing. Artur is the truth. Abubakar is super solid, as is crognale. Martinez's tricks and flicks and flair were impressive. He's still raw, but he earned something like 4 free kicks, all on the edge of the penalty area. There is real potential there, and why GB is letting him waste away i have no idea, especially when finlay is so terrible, and duka before that. It just boggles the mind. 3-4-3 is a GREAT formation for us defensively. Great great great... The bad: However, the 3-4-3 is still a work in progress offensively. To be more blunt, its crap. Left back, and right back as well, is an issue. Francis was much better offensively than raitala, but raitala was much better defensively. I love francis, but he's regressed, and raitala just isnt good enough. And Afful has fallen off as well. We need two starting full backs this winter. At least one at TAM level IMO for the 3-4-3 to work. The ugly: Mensah sucks. Sell or release him immediately. Finlay sucks. Trade or sell him immediately. Manneh sucks. He's leaving at the end of the season anyway, so whatever.
Why Martinez does not play and why Hector plays..the reason I would like to see a new Coach. He makes bad decisions on a regular basis..it is so obvious. Can we get a summer transfer coach?
And thus concludes our annual Christian Martinez and Brad Stuver fan club match. Stay tuned for periodic references through numerous Big Soccer threads the remainder of the season to learn how Martinez can be the man to save our season, and references to Stuver saves from two years ago.
Martinez is no savior, but he was good. Far superior to pretty much all our other attackers last night (for what its worth).
He is better offensively than Jimenez but defensively they are both trash. Maloney has potential at least
This is what I learned from the game, courtesy of the guy sitting behind me last night. I think he was drunk but maybe you can help me figure it out. Here is what he said. 1) You can bet on summer friendlies. And the odds where 3 - 2 that Eintracht would win. 2) The Crew are going to be sold when Rock on the Range ends because that is the only way they make money. The Crew are going to be sold to Austin or Beckham. And MLS will give Columbus a USL team. 3) Wayne Rooney is way better than Messi and Ronaldo. He will make Everton a top 3 team. 4) The US goal keeper Guzman is no good. He is the reason we lost in the Gold Cup. 5) Brad Friedel is really English but played for the Crew for 4 years until he was good enough to go back. Also I am beginning to suspect that the seat in front of me (first row) removes all energy and ability to cheer from the occupants. Last night had a mom and her Bieber boy sitting there this time. Bieber boy was instagram-ing pictures of himself sleeping with the subject Z-Z-Z-Z. For the life of me I don't know why people pay for front row seats if they don't enjoy the game.
You have kids? Pure speculation, of course, but it sounds a lot like a parent trying to engage with a technology addicted (or just emotionally distant) teen by taking him out to a Crew game. To which the kid responded by acting disinterested in order to passively aggressively stick it to to his mom. Because parenting is often an exhausting, thankless (and expensive) endeavor.
Oh I get it the why the mom did it. And I get the kid acting the way he did. Good luck to her because it is hard road to get back if you are trying at 13. And if you know her I would suggest maybe talking to the kid. They exchanged three words the whole game. "Going to pee." I don't get paying for front row center. You can get do that anywhere in the stadium. And as I said it seems that these two seats attract the most disinterested pair of people in the stadium. It is not just this time but really every time except once there was a very nice couple who bought the tickets from Colorado. But even the STH who have the seats, I have seen cheer for one goal in 4 years. They consistently check NASCAR in the middle of the match. It is like those two seats are a black hole of caring about the Crew.
Mrs KG and I were not able to have children. May have been a blessing in disguise as we both are CF carriers....
That's par for the course in the BL these days (less German players). That was many/most of their regular players, BTW. It's preseason for them--the season doesn't start for another month for them. Frankfurt was a middle of the table side last season.
"Kicker" said that he played well. But what do they know? http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/...cht_columbus-crew_eintracht-frankfurt-32.html There are pics and a highlight video....
Article from Frankfurt's Website--with photos http://www.eintracht.de/news/artikel/knappes-01-in-columbus-60984/ Interestingly (and perhaps ironically), press reports in Germany noted that Chandler will likely be Frankfurt's only German starter this season.
For fvcks sake, no one is saying martinez is a savior like some did with manneh. Martinez has got talent, and right now, with finlay being so crap, and higuain having no backup, why cant he get some minutes? EDIT: Guess i wasnt the only one who thought martinez had a good game.
Martinez looked good at times. But there were plenty of instances where he received the ball without much pressure and lost it due to a bad first touch (Finlay-esque). He had a couple very poor short passes as well where he kicked the ball either directly to an opponent or out of bounds (Manneh-esque). He struggles from box to box just like Finlay/Manneh. I'm fine with him earning some minutes off the bench, and that's why we picked up the international roster spot from DC.
If I'm looking for a scouting report on a player the first place I look is internet Man of the Match polling for an un-televised match. That's the goods.
Ola is slowwwww. He was played in behind the D at least a couple times and had both the better angle and shorter path yet was beaten to the ball by a defender. Martinez and Artur both had nice games. Stiver did well and had two great saves including stopping a 1 v 1 that should have resulted in a goal.