Wait, you mean that my back-to-back weekly wins in my fantasy MLS league isn't the only prerequisite for my US Soccer PRO License? Wtf, man?
I listened to the guy on the radio whose name I never caught for about a half earlier this season and I thought he was way better than Dwight has been in recent years. And Sika is terrible
@Jim Bach, You have me convinced that Porter knows way more about soccer than I will ever know, but I am pretty sure I know more about customer relations than whoever it was in the Crew FO that green lit the Fan Score idea and that person had a steady career in the industry and resources at his disposal, and I don't work in customer relations. Sometimes even the experts are flat wrong.
I took my wife to the game last night and, like KCbus said, it seemed that a goal was about to come for us but it never did. I think this team deserved to lose games earlier in the season that they ended up winning, and they sure as hell didn't deserve to lose the last three. They are playing better without the results. Artur has stopped playing the ball back on every touch. They're starting to turn upfield instead of passing back. Even Meram had a much better game (although his defensive ignorance almost cost us an early goal against on DC's first shot). In the last three matches we've lost on Montreal's only chance of the match and a Rooney free kick sandwiching a game where we dominated Portland for thirty, conceded on a free kick and then fell asleep defensively to allow a second. We had balls cleared off the line in each game so I trust that the season won't be completely lost but, again, for me they have a free pass this year.
Did you watch the game on Saturday? We certainly did not play well in that one. I’ll agree about last night, we played a lot better than the score line showed but our team is simply not creative in front of goal.
Agreed. I almost cut that part off of your post because my response was directed at the latter part. Oh well. Fine enough that I was too lazy to do so.
We had several long stretches of dull turgid soccer and the team not showing any personality during Berhalter's 5 years here. Berhalter knew to get out when the getting was good. He also shares responsibility for this shipwreck of a roster.
No, he doesnt share shit; he's 100% responsible for this roster. Youre essentially right about the timing, except that I would turn that equation around: If the US job hadnt been waiting for him, then he would have started changing some parts. He surely knew that the team he put together had shot its wad and he wouldnt have let himself go into 2019 with what Porter has now But he knew he was gone so he let it ride, figuring it was the next guys problem, not his.
I should add, in all fairness, that even if Berhalter had been so inclined, reworking the roster last year woild likely have been impossible. That kind of thing requires a committed front office and he had nobody to handle contractual stuff.
Well. I was leaving space for those who feel the need to place every shortcoming of this team past, present, and future at the feet of Precourt because I don't have the energy to fight them today. But yes, Gregg Berhalter is a sentient being with free will that even with the constraints of MLS rules and a shitty traitorous front office could have left a better roster in place than he did.
I've opined about this before, but personally I doubt Gregg would be USMNT coach if Steffen hadn't made the past two seasons look like glowing successes for this club. We'd likely have missed he playoffs completely last year without Steffen's heroics. We'd certainly have been bounced out of the 2017 playoffs in Atlanta without him. And even if we'd squeaked into the 2018 playoffs, would have lost in DC in that first match with another keeper. I like Berhalter, and think he's a good coach. Maybe he'll step up to the next level with the national team. He certainly accomplished some things here, and of course had to manage the team under some pretty difficult conditions during his last year+ in the job. But he was no miracle worker. And, yeah, we played some pretty dismal soccer from time to time under his watch. I have no idea how well he'd have done with committed ownership in charge of the team. I will note, though, that PSV never seemed to get in his way on the soccer side of things, and was willing to spend cash on players at a greater level than HSG did (a low bar, I'll admit). But there's more to building a roster than spending a few million on players. PSV would never had built a new training facility or set up a Crew 2 USL team; both things that new ownership will be getting done.
And these three things remain; faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. I live to love.
Or, to look at it another way, a girl can marry more money in five minutes than she can make in a lifetime.
This is pretty much what the AR saw on that non-call on Artur a few minutes ago. Maybe I don't know what a foul is...#Crew96 pic.twitter.com/36Tg1q9R0C— Matt Bernhardt (@bernhardtsoccer) April 25, 2019 In what world is this not a foul?
That was definitely the most egregious call/no-call in the match. Especially since Higuain got tagged for doing the same exact thing earlier in the match and Pipa didn't have a tag team partner coming in from the ropes for the sandwich collusion.