Saw the highlight of this goal a couple times. I think the ball was past Higuain, then he turned to see where it ended up.
Is it that unheard of? Not really. In the last two games coming into tonight the Crew had 42 crosses, only 7 found another Crew player in the box. 16% of our crosses were accurate. To be fair to our "maestro" Pipa, he had a success rate of 20% on DEAD BALL SET PIECES last game 20%. I'm glad we won the crosses battle. The team isn't creating chances. Period. If we are clamoring on about chances we should worry why DC had 41% possession and had as many shots as us, and one more shot on goal. Who is doing more with their possession? Please.
Rooney could literally only go to the far post. Half the dam team, along with a couple DC players were in the wall. Steffen somehow got beat to the only place Rooney could put it. I put the blame on Steffen.
Nah, that ship has sailed. These are professional athletes, their job is to win. They don't care if they win in Austin or Columbus or Des Moines, their success is judged by wins, ties and losses. This team has not shown the ability to be successful.
Of course we had a metric tonne of crosses. DC was happy to let us cross all night because they owned the air in the box and we couldn't find the head of a Crew player to save our lives. Some of our most dangerous moments were quick interchanges on the ground going into the box. But we barely did those and relied instead on our law firm of Hoofit, Cross, & Hope to bail us out.
I hope this comment doesn't have any typos because my eyes have rolled out of my head. This whole team looks like they're waiting out their time before their contracts with Charleston Battery kick in. Which is bad news for the Charleston Battery.
From Major League Soccer Soccer Dot Com.... Columbus crossed the ball 44 times on the night, the second-highest total of any team this season. Somewhere around cross No. 25 they should've come up with a different idea. If only we had a veteran leader #10. Someone who has been in the league and played high level matches for a long time. Someone who the team can look to in order to create something when "plan a" isn't working. Someone to pick up the team and urge them forward. Someone to show a sense of urgency and belief instead of drowsiness and sleepwalking. Some super hardcore fans (or cultists) might refer to such a player as a "maestro." If only we had a highly paid player on our roster to perform in situations such as these. (Or really at any point in the past 4-5 games).
Posts like this are why your other trolling posts are so frustrating. You can have great insight if you stop trying to get a rise out or others for your own enjoyment. Pipa was invisible last night until the final 10 or so. Too often our offense is “get the ball to Pipa and let him figure something out.” And his fancy backheels aren’t going to cut it in this league any more. He doesn’t seem to have that ability anymore. Last year you saw it every few games, this year it hasn’t shown up at all. Sad, but this team needs a new QB/engine more than anything.
Caleb Porter's first comments postgame tonight: "I don't know that I've been a part of a game in all my years of coaching where I've been coaching a game and we've had as much sustained pressure on a team and not get the goal." #Crew96— Jacob Myers (@_jcmyers) April 25, 2019 Oh dear. This is some Andrulis level shit. I mean, we've been in a redux of "The Goals Will Come Era" for a while now, but this sort of quote is taking it to the next level. Here's hoping we get an appearance from "The Soccer Gods" to help us out soon. Given that Porter is watching a completely different game than everyone else I think The Soccer Gods are our only hope for some success later this season.
I never claimed to be perfect. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I just try to be better today than the day before. We know this team has many problems. The wing play needs improved (though Santos has been far and away our most consistent and dangerous attacker this season). Zardes needs to be better. Given how dreadful our attack is, it's borderline moronic to play with 2 d-mids, but we continue to do it because of a complete lack of imagination from our coach. But the biggest problem is we are getting absolutely nothing out of our number 10. A wise sage described this current iteration of the Columbus Crew to me this way, "All filler, no killer." With that being the case you just need something different in midfield. You need someone or something (formation change/game-plan change) to give this team some semblance of a personality and ability to impose the game. Games like these last few versus Montreal, Portland, and DC expose what we all knew. Teams can get that 1 goal or a lead against the Crew and just sit back and absorb the pressure. This team lacks the personality and skill to break down compact defenses. The people most responsible for this failing are our #10 from an on field perspective, and our coach for being unable to implement any changes to break down these defenses.
Here's your West Ham Sandwich Good/Bad/Ugly Presented by BigStern (No rewatch but did read the thread): Good: Nothing. Bad: The attack in absolutely every phase. Individual effort is lacking. The gameplan is quizzical. We launch cross after cross at one target that is marked four times over and act frustrated like it should be working. If we're not crossing, we're driving the ball into double & triple teams and if by the grace of Crew Cat we don't get dispossessed, we make an extra pass to an area of the field where a shoot is impossible. Zardes isn't dynamic enough to make a difference when the gameplan is being snuffed out this easily. Josh Williams is slow. I don't know why the third sub wasn't used especially since we are in the middle of a three game week. Same goes for Meram staying in for an extra 15 (although that was when he was looking his most dangerous). Mullins over JJ is not something I would do based on their game time. Porter's "just one of those games" attitude is the worst. Teams know how to eliminate Zardes from the attack and know 1 goal is probably good enough for a W. Can't keep blaming it on the breaks of the game. Ugly: There was nothing extremely ugly which I guess could put in the good column. It was just a bad game but one that is all too familiar from this team this early in the season. If I had to pick, one particular ugly moment was Santos getting caught between a cross and a shot and placing the ball to the far side touchline for a throw-in when he was, at best, in the center of the pitch. Yeesh. Table Finish Prediction based on Match 9 Performance: 7th through 9th. Leaving it the same as I could have just left Sunday's review up. I'm not sure where points are going come from until 5/18. At this point, I'd be happy with 4 points out of the next four matches. Hell, just put the ball in the net and I'll find the happiness despite the W/L.
Made the trip last night, last minute decision. Glad I did. But, it may be the first-ever Crew loss I've seen live. I'm sure there's been another, but I cannot remember when. As with every other Crew game, the team has absolutely no depth and no real attack. Sure, possession is great and they can do that all game long, but that doesn't help when you cannot score goals. The crosses last night was a strange tactic. Hamid in goal and Pines at CB, no Crew player was truly going to win anything in the box. Pines rarely loses any aerial battles. I'm sure Porter is really wanting to make some personnel changes. When will that happen? No idea. I was never sold on Zardes as a main attacking option. And, there's no one to truly pair him with to free up opportunities for Zardes. Overall, the match wasn't THAT bad. I brought a couple of friends with me who've never been and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience (stadium included).
Oh I disagree. I think this team would kick ass in the USL. Of course we don't play in the USL, so there's that. I never felt we were going to score last night. These thread the needle scrums in front of the opponent's goal; it's as though, from the run of play, we can only score: - Through some miraculous, multi-pass combination that allows for a relatively easy tap-in; - A weird bounce or misplayed ball by an opponent, that happens to fall to a Crew player in a perfect position to score. Am I missing anything? We have virtually no capacity to score from more than, what, about 10-15 yards out? The idea that we might threaten an opponent from outside of the penalty area is laughable; no one on the team can shoot from any distance whatsoever. Cross after cross to Zardes, surrounded by 3-4 defenders, I mean, what's the point? And so we're left with relying on a ludicrously low percentage, 12 perfect passes required to possibly generate a shot "strategy." Dumb luck. Or some sort of set piece. I did like the general ball movement last night. But we're so lacking in talent and depth in a few offensive positions that assuming this team will somehow find its form and start scoring goals is an act of self-delusion. Porter needs to get his head out of his ass and address our obvious roster deficiencies. Trouble is, by his public statements, he doesn't seem to see them clearly yet. His post-match comment about never witnessing this kind of performance, where a club applies pressure, controls the ball, yet fails to score leads me to believe that he didn't review any film of this club from last season. I also can't really comprehend his Berhalter-esque roster rotation and substitution strategies. If you're a young player in this roster, good luck ever getting a shot at playing time; often even making the bench. Highlights of the match for me last night were: - The Nordecke was in nice form; - I saw Robert Warzycha.
I have tried and will continue to try to give CB9K the benefit of the doubt. I've never been a huge fan, but this is not a team of his choosing and the wheels were starting to fall off before he got here. So I'm not down on the guy. However, if he starts in with the vintage Greg Andrulis nonsense - "We played great,way better than the other guys, but we somehow lost anyway I just don't understand it the soccer gods didn't smile on us" - I will lead the march to MAPFRE with torches and pitchforks. No, you did not play well, f*ck the possession and the crosses and the corners and the rest. We have eyes. We're not stupid. We know when a team stinks. We're not idiots. A few weeks ago when the team was winning games, more than a few of us said "Yes, but...." and the stuff we said then is exactly what we're seeing. And it's OK, we know you need to do some serious rebuilding. We get it and we're fine with it. Just stop pissing in our ears and telling us it's rain.
I learned a lot about soccer last night. I didn't know that a big part of the game was passing the ball to the other team and then scurrying around like crazy trying to get it back. I didn't know that the best plan was to keep doing the same thing again and again until it works (even if it takes all season and the next one too). This is a real learning season for me. These are tactics that I didn't know.
I wasn't sure where to post this but I guess this thread will work. I watched the Manchester game and part of the Crew game with my 86 year old Dad yesterday and these were his observations. In the Manchester game, players jump on their teammates when there is a lack of effort or poor play. Sterling doesn't cut off a passing lane, Pep and Fernandinho are in his ear immediately. Meram loses the ball, drops his head and starts walking and no one said a word. It's just part of the game. No intensity or accountability. Second was the ball movement. Most Crew players stop the ball when they receive it. Not sure if that's the talent level or if it's coaching but the only two players we have that don't constantly stop the ball are Pipa and Trapp. It's much easier to defend when you are given three seconds after each pass. Third was our attack. We have one plan which is cross to Zardes. Why we won't pass through lanes or shoot from 20 is beyond me but if Pops knows how to stop the Crew attack most MLS managers can figure it out.
It's easy to get pissed after the last two games but this season isn't about the play on the field. Playoffs would be a bonus and we knew this when the season started. This season is about rebuilding the FO, getting businesses on board, cleaning up the stadium, rebuilding the youth teams, etc. I expect nothing from 2019 but an excuse for me to try new recipes and cocktails. Yesterday's stuffed tomatoes with spinach, sausage and ricotta were top notch. Yesterday's wing play was not. Make the best of it because this year is a write off.