This team: is not that good. And can we please send Marcelo back to whatever team was smart enough to unload him? I can't believe we're paying him DP money. Ugh.
Grab an early lead, hold it for what seems forever, get the most dangerous player on the other side red carded, then a man up, give up the tying goal. Luckily Hamid stopped the winner a minute later You just can't coach that kind of stuff. If this is what you get from a players only meeting the entire organization should take a vow of silence
It's hard for me not to see this game as a firing offense. Sgi the Hutt is available. Just pay whatever it takes to hire the Hutt and just fire the entire coaching staff before midnight.
What the ******** do you want the coach to do? United had about 10 gilt edged chances, they are just completely and utterly inept. Players have to be better than sub college level when it comes to finishing. No offense tallguy, I'm just pissed. I can't believe Olsen has to eat shit after that horror show.
From my view in the mezzanine tonight ..... I begin with the unsurprising conclusion that Ted Unkel is an asshat. He missed what looked like a PK takedown of Acosta in the box and on the play Mullins was injured, the defender had his hands on Mullins' shoulders, which is a foul in most leagues and for good measure as he pulled Mullins down, the ball bounced off his hands. However, Unkel's most egregious error was failing to card Shipp for whacking Acosta in the back of the leg early in the first half. That was a reckless challenge that could have injured him. Once Shipp got away with that, Montreal simply clipped and tripped Acosta and Nyarko for the rest of the night and drew only one yellow for their troubles. Nice to see Drogba channel his inner Jermaine Jones. What a whining bitch he is. Now for the game.... I thought Mullins looked fine. He's mobile, he was creating space and communicating with Acosta. Nice goal, he will be useful. Igbo was a "meh", but the guy had one day of practice with his team, so I'm giving him a pass. What was interesting tonight was Olsen using Jeffrey almost as a withdrawn forward. He was in the box a number of times, clearly by design, and was trying to link with players for that final shot. Which brings me to..... DCU had at least two golden chances in the second half at my end. Early in the second half, NDL, Nyarko and Acosta had carved Montreal apart and couldn't capitalize. Later, Acosta was set up and shot over the bar. Saborio almost had a golazo, it was really close, he hit the 90 and it pinged off. NDL also muffed a beautiful set up in the first half. If any of those go in, Montreal is down 2 and has shown nothing -- they probably fold. Which brings me to the mystifying part. NDL is like negative infinity bad. He runs, he can dribble, but he has no offensive sense at all. The closer to goal, the more confused he looks. 0 goals and 0 assists are numbers that goalkeepers have, not midfielders. The second mystifying sub was Rob Vincent. I'm sure he's nice to his family and pets dogs in the park, but he's a USL level player. He's slow, he really can't hold possession and he lacks vision. Perfect for a central midfielder. Has Buescher pissed in Olsen's cornflakes or something? Neagle not in the 18 -- another move before the window closes? I see Sam is hurt. The crack training staff is hard at work. Mullins went down with what I hope were cramps. If I were Igbo, I would be very, very nervous about a: (1) hamstring injury or (2) sports hernia. It's tradition. Seriously, when you see the season Pontius is having in Philly, you have to point to the training staff and physicians who handle this shit show. They are inadequate, there really can be no other conclusion. I actually thought they played as well as they can tonight. If you can't finish you don't win. No playoffs for us this season.
I'm usually as negative as anyone, but I thought the team played pretty well. This was clearly Acosta's best game and he was the best player on the field. Once Nyarko gets back to full match fitness that will help a lot. And as much as I hate NDL, he wasn't terrible tonight. He throws in one of these games every 10 or 15 that allows him to keep his place and slack off for the next one. Mullins had a nice goal and played pretty well, but this formation doesn't do any favors to the lone forward. Drogba did nothing (except kick Marcelo while he was sitting on the ground). Other than Franklin's usually terrible blunders the defense was relatively solid. Not sure I understand the Vincent sub. If Sabo's shot had been half an inch further to the left we come out with the 3 points. Still not a great team. And still not playoff material yet. Montreal are a bunch of whiny babies.
It's frustrating result but I can't really be critical. The team played very well, it just didn't get the second goal that would have iced it. But of course that's often the difference between a mediocre and a good team - scoring the second goal. NDL played great tonight, surprisingly.
I saw what you saw, griffin1108. NDL just baffles the shit out of me. He must be filling the goals during practice, because why on earth is he on the field during games that matter? And. There. Was. Didier Douchebag... WTF?!?
Jeffrey was hurt. He tweaked something in the first half (and Vincent starting warming up), tried to play through it, and then signaled the bench early in the first half that he needed to come out. I was surprised that he stayed central and DeLeon stayed wide but all in all I thought he played pretty solid. He did a good job in possession and picked his spots to go forward.
I wanted Hamid to deck Piatti after Montreal's goal. Seriously, what a complete a$$hat. Don't even get me started on Drogba. Those two achieved damn near made it to a Cuauhtemoc Blanco level of babyness tonight. Hope Drogba gets another game or two for his play.
I thought the whole game seemed to turn on two decisions - the non call on the possible pk and then two minutes later the foul on Nyarko that was only given s yellow. From my seats it looked like Acosta was literally tackled NFL style. I haven't seen a replay yet but from the stands in real time it looked like a pk... Almost immediately after that a Montreal player tackled Nyarko badly from behind right in front of our bench. The ref immediately reached for his back pocket (the red card), seemed to struggle to get it out, and then changed his mind and gave a yellow. His first instinct was clearly red and then he backed off and ultimately conferred with the AR and fourth official and left it yellow. Two big calls. Haven't seen the replays. Maybe he got them right...
There wasn't a good replay of the noin pk on TV, it only showed Acosta's back, but it didn't look like he was fouled from that angle. My problem with that whole play was it was about the tenth touch inside the 18, like about a half dozen other times in the game. These guys have tunnel vision, and the goal isn't the focal point. The tackle was red worthy and I also saw the ref reach for the back pocket. However, based on United's play when they did go up a man, they may have been worse off.
It was entertaining, while also being infuriating. That's something. But what kills is it the accompanying game long dread, knowing this won't end well.
I actually thought the ref made good no calls on the alleged takedown of Acosta in the box and the alleged red card on the Bekker foul. The most egregious mistake from the ref was not calling Ciman's 100% deliberate handball in the box on the play where Igbo gets the keeper out of position and he lofts one to the back post where Mullins was lurking. That should have been a chance at 2-0 and game over ...
To me it looked like it grazed the hand.. But for me the intent to handle the ball was so egregious that it had to be called. It was a deliberate attempt to interfere with Mullins's header with the hand. That's cheating and it should have been a card too.
Also as much as I love Acosta, I think there is something critical missing in his head. He's almost as poor in the box as NDL. For a guy that gets into so many good positions he needs to have more goals/assists ... At least with the assists he has the excuse that others aren't finishing, but he had 4 good chances tonight and he didn't even make the keeper work. This is the sort of thing that needs to be coached into him. Most young players that can't finish suffer from nerves. But with Acosta it almost looks like it's the opposite problem ... he's too casual at the moment of truth.
The Acosta conundrum! Would there even be those opportunities in the first place? There's no doubt he's a chance creator, but you're right, he is NDL bad in the box. The thing is, if this is the best he'll ever be, he's a sub DP starter on a decent team. Because he's only 21 and has played relatively few professional games (another 90 tonight, full of running until the end), I feel like its nothing that experience won't fix, he has the tools.
Frustrating! I think what changed the game was when Marcelo broke Drogba's nose just before halftime. Montreal came out the second half knowing the ref was not going to call hard challenges, so they went berserk doing hard challenges to the point that with a player down they had all of the DC United players intimidated (Hamid was the only one out there who was willing to get in the Montreal players face, but he is not a field player). So I guess Montreal tying the game should not have been a surprise. At this point I think bringing in Sigi would probably be the best option, if only to shake things up and make players fear for their jobs.
I wanted to believe we were all joking when he had his first goal and said they would coach that out of him. I expect a few Montreal players will receive suspensions after that.
As far as firing offenses for Benny and his furry/scurry crew goes his one is waaaay at the bottom of the list. Letting them go over this would be like overlooking the iceberg incident and then firing the Captain of the Titanic because the brass bell wasn't shiny.
Firing? The players perhaps, but not the coach. I thought Ben did fine in this game. What should he have done differently, other than get a uniform, get out there and shoot the ball for our guys?