There is no emoticon to describe my pain... I can take a loss, God knows that all RSL fans can take a loss, sure. But I am getting very sick of the lack of production from our lineup. We have a good team......what's the excuse now? Holy fvcking sh!t man.
Certainly not wanting to troll, but just wanted to give props to Tarley. The dude can flat out play. A bunch of us were arguing that DC should grab him after he had the 4 goals in the open cup against Inter Co, and I hope his arrival brings some success to RSL. Cause, as the other DCU fan stated, there is talent on the field. Cant argue with that. I guess its more about putting it together. Good luck with the Revs. Someone break Reis' legs.
Query. Whats up with Jaime Watson and Dante Washington? I remember reading something a while back about Watson and he seemed, from the article, to have some fight in him. I also remember him getting into the action very soon after making his appearance. Does he not fit into Ellinger's plans? As far as Dante is concerned, I know he is getting up there in age but has he played at all? Thanks for the 411. Edit to say that I wonder if it might be time to get some of the younger guys like Watson in some senior games soon. Couldn't hurt to get real game experience.
Watson is out on a Red. He has had tons of playing time, but does not always keep the coolest of heads. He tends to wear his emotions on his sleeve, which can be good, but also bad (as the Red would suggest...) Dante is not constistent in my opinion, but can be effective if the planets align.
I think it's high time Ellinger admits he has screwed up by stocking the roster with the Bradenton B-List and that it ain't workin' out too well. D-mid is arguably the most important position in MLS and Kenny Cutler just ain't good enough to get the job done. The goal by Adu was pretty much indicative of the lack of pressure RSL is getting from that spot. I mean, I went back and counted on Tivo, and Adu had the ball for six seconds and waltzed from midfield to about the 18 with NO pressure. What kind of D-mid lets a guy like Adu have the ball that long and not get stuck in? One that's petrified of being faked out of his jock, that's who, and that's a sign of a D-mid who ain't very good at this job. I'm sure Cutler is a nice kid and all, but there's a reason he wasn't a full time starter at Clemson, a reason he wasn't picked in the draft at all last year and a reason no other MLS team thought about adding him. And then there's the bench. Today's bench was all the Bradenton alumnin club: Countess, Trembly, Gregorio, Watson and Cila. Aside from the fact that Ellinger failed to use them all - like Watson couldn't use the experience - the fact that they are all his ex-players pretty much sums up the root of the team's problem, too much of a reliance on people he coached before.
Wow! Painful loss there guys. The standing around and ball-watching was absolutely unbelievable. It looked like RSL was in awe of DCU, why I cannot even guess. Has Mathis lost it all now? Sure, he had a FEW decent feeds to nobody in particular, but the majority of the match saw him just walking around like he had better things to do off the field (kegs, snacks, baywatch reruns). Tarley looked pretty good, but he has to get used to the pace of MLS as he lost the ball quite a bit because he thought he had more time. When he did beat DC defenders he had great crosses and very real scoring opportunities. I was rooting for Tarley, by the way. If he can adapt, he will be a great player indeed! Hopefully he breaks the curse the rest of the team suffers from and doesn't get the curse himself.
Watson was on the bench tonight as a sub so not understanding the "watson isout on a red"..He's a rookie and he still has the emotion of wanting to win the game.. Perhaps more of the veterans need this attitude.. Seems like we just had no energy on the field again..that's why we needed Watson and even Cila.
Sure his suspension was over, I was just letting voyager know where Jamie had been for the last while........
Well at least Watson got the plane ride over Cila. So Ellinger must not think that bad of Watson. As for the match, I guess this is what happens when you have 3-4 new starters in 6 weeks time. No wonder the team ain't gellin'. We still have 8 more games and 24 possible points. Don't give up yet. When Craps beat SJ 5-0 or Chivas USA wins 3 in a row, then give up.
IMO, Ellinger and Watson have a good relationship..Ellinger is just hoping that his more experienced veterans can get the team into the play offs.. but of course we haven't seen the veterans step up..I still say play the younger guys who have the desire to win and will give it everything they have..atleast they have more engergy than the ones on the field now (of course there are some expections).. just a thought
It didn't show in the scoreline, but you guys have a good one there in Nolly. He kept it from being much, much worse.
Cila was there. Funny moment: He went to the bathroom in the first half. As he got to the dugout, I yelled, "They're calling your number over there" He mouthed back, "I wish!". In the second half he went again... this time we asked him if he was getting ready for Mexico with some Montezuma's revenge. Sachin
Gregoria looked good and so to did Mathis..... Broome looks to be the only player with any heart on the back line. Aweful. And how much longer does the Cutler experiment last at DM? And Tarley played well too. At least he can set in on the backline of the defense and cause problems with his pace.
Nolly did stop alot of those shots, I am perplexed as I have him as a keeper on one of those fantasy team things, and as soon as he produces well or at least really plays he has to try and stop nearly 20 shots? He did well for what he had in front of him. Tarley made me nervous, as did Boswell....as far as scoring for RSL goes.
Can someone list the active players worldwide that have played for Ellinger in the past? And then tell me why a decent team cannot be formed from this pool??? My guess is that's not the entire problem.
Rant on... Dear Coaching staff: Sitting on your desk in your office is a neat little machine called a computer (com-pu-ter) which is connected to a wonderful source of information, the internet (in-ter-net). While on the "internet" you can go to a wonderful web-site call MLSNET.com and watch (just like tv) games of your upcoming opponent to learn their tendancies and prepare a game plan (that's when the coaching staff decides on how best to allocate their team's talents to offset the other teams' and to get a "win"). Had someone bothered to scout the DC team, one fact would have become obvious...they attack the ball in the midfield like wolves to fresh meat...vulchers to carrion...zombies to Jennifer Love Hewitt...then they take advantage of the fact that they have won the ball either deep in the middle third or in your defendsive third and go to goal...immediately...1 pass is best, dribbling a player and then passing to one of the 5 of 6 guys crashing to goal is also allowed. So RSL staff, you have to have a plan on how to get through the 5-"five"-cinco players DC has placed in the midfield whose only goal is to get the ball away from your team immediately. To solve this problem you could have 1) worked with our new fast forward on making diagonal runs to the corners and play long balls; 2) work with our other fast new winger on playing high and knocking balls to the corner; or 3) try to play the ball on the ground in the middle third to 3 aging, not very agile, and somewhat lazy players (I'm not putting Kreis is the lazy category) while only playing 4 midfielders against their 5. We all know which they chose...The good news is, when they brought in Gregario and moved him up to outside mid, our midfield was only outnumbered 5-3 (obviously Williams and Mathis had no interest at all on helping the team defensively) as opposed to the first half when it was 5-2. Personally, I think Cutler took his red because he was tired of looking bad...who, exactly, was he responsible for covering? He spent the game trying to cover the most dangerous of the 3 unmaked mids coming through, and then got to watch our center backs cover no-one...instead they chose the unique "if we stand in a straight line, maybe they will be stupid enough to run themselves offside" defense. Well, it kept Dunny and Pope from actually having to sprint, so I guess that was good. This just in boys...there is more to a trap than standing in a straight line...you must have ball pressure and you must move as a group to force the forward to have to do more than simply "j" his run by a yard. RSL coaches, I leave you with this: [Jason] "Scare 'em" [Ellinger] "huh" "Scare 'em. They're kids...that's what I'd do" [Ellinger throwing shinguards and cleats into the shower]... "You lollygag the ball around the midfield...you lollygag the ball in the offensive third...you lollygag pushing up on an offside trap...what does that make you...Jason? [Jason] "Lollygaggers?" [Ellinger] "Lollygaggers..." [Ellinger] "Our record is 5-15-4...how the he!! did we ever win 5?" [Jason] "It's a miracle?" [Ellinger] "It's a miracle..." On a serious note...Mathis was aweful last night. No help defensively and limited offensively. I hope he recognizes soon that no-one wants to spend the $$ we are paying him for a Southern, balding version of Valdarrama in 2006. His job is to create goals, but is not even interested enough to crash to goal. He floats around the middle third hoping for...well, I'm not sure what he is waiting for...other than his rather good service on dead balls (we should have scored on them twice...but Pope was not too interested in actually playing either) he gives the team absolutely nothing. The good news...our new players look pretty good... Players who were at least adequate yesterday: Scarlett, Tarley, Gregorio, Broome, Kreis, Nolly, Cutler (he was placed in an impossible situation...Davids would have looked just as bad) Players who played lazy and disinterested: Williams, Dunseth, Pope, Mathis Player who was out of position and got killed on the back door due to lack of positioning: Ackwari Persons responsible for this team have no tactical clue how to handle DC: RSL coaching staff rant off...