I also remember that asshat Unkel reaching for the back pocket and then changing his "mind." This goes with my earlier comment that once Unkel merely called a foul on Shipp whacking the back of Acosta's legs, anything and everything would go. He let the game get chippy and Acosta and Nyarko paid a price. Oh to have the Baby Faced Assassin or Ivan McKinley back for a game or two against those guys. The closest DCU has is Sarvas who is more chippy than "hard man."
Yeah, it was clear that Unkel's "warnings" just made the players believe they could get away with anything. For the physical abuse Acosta absorbs, he's also not afraid to dish it out. I think that's part of why I like him so much. With regard to shooting, I think he just doesn't or can't generate much power. But then tries to overhit things. He's never going to be a goalscorer. But some of those passes he was making last night were astoundingly good. If we can get some players around him who can shoot it will make a huge difference. When the pass is going to NDL there's a less than 1% of anything good happening. It's been the DC United disease for 20 years that we try to dribble the ball into the goal 90% of the time. Why shoot when I can make one more pass? Did Sarvas really break Drogba's nose? I don't remember that, but I was way at one end of the field so may not have seen it. That might explain the shenanigans at the end.
All Told, United played one of their better games, and were most unfortunate not to come out with three points. NDL actually had a good game (no dumb turnovers, positive play, shot on goal, caused chaos on MTL's left.) The more he trusts his instincts the better he plays. Even his crosses were dangerous. Acosta...well, we can see why he's not a forward. He spent much of the game making MTL's midfield look like amateurs, but he is definitely not a shooter. Maybe if the coaches tell him "act like you're putting a through-ball to a player in the goal" it will work out better. As Griffin said, Unkel is practically worthless. If Marcelo gets a yellow for his minor foul early in the game, MTL should have been down to about 6 men by the middle of the second half, due to yellow accumulations alone. I have never seen a ref mark a player for committing a cautionable foul while calling advantage, and as soon as that advantage is lost, not even giving the player a talking to. Both MTL 30 and 33 were chippy all night, with their average foul decidedly more severe than Marcelo's caution, and only after 33 commits, what, 5 or 6 does he get a caution. As for the Ciman handball, remember that the hand doesn't even have to touch the ball in that circumstance, but if a player makes his body bigger through the use of his hands and prevents either a ball getting to the attacker OR forces the attacker to alter his play to get the ball because of the hands, then it's callable. However, the replay sure looked like it hit his hand in a decidedly unnatural, non-close-to-the-body position. I'd have to see a better replay on Acosta's takedown in the box, but considering how they were tripping Acosta every chance they got, it wouldn't surprise me if a better angle showed sufficient contact. It was a shitty night, but for the most part the team represented well. If they could play like that with some consistency, it might average out in our favour. Oh, as an aside, I take personal responsibility for MTL's late goal. Before the corner, I said "Well, at least we should have enough people to mark everyone." Clearly I was mistaken, because Acosta had to deal with three.
No, it was in the 50/50 challenge where Sarvas had position and had his arms wide...It didn't look like Sarvas had his arms go above neck-height on Drogba, but he went down like he was shot. There may have been some contact, but there was no real force behind Sarvas' arm motion, so the reaction was decidedly in excess of what contact there was. That and the later red on Drogba were probably the only correct calls Unkel made all night.
Maybe it's just me, but I can't help but wonder how Jason Kries or Caleb Porter would have reacted to this kind of loss. I think that their attitude would be something along the lines of it just being unacceptable for the opposing team to push our guys around without retaliation. There's no excuse for getting bossed in your own home stadium.
Acosta can do a lot of things with the ball, but shoot isn't one of them. Nick played fine. He had a fantastic shot to the near upper 90 in the second half that was met with an equally fantastic save. He was also in position for the clincher and should've had it passed to him by Acosta who instead decided to meekly shoot it out of bounds.
Of course. He was wide open. Acosta can't shoot to save his life. Awful, awful decision/play, one of many by the team which left us open to an equalizer.
Absolutely, as much stick as I give NDL, if you are Acosta, NDL is in a scoring position, the coach has him on the field, pass him the damn ball. Once a field player starts "not passing" to someone because he thinks they suck, other teams will notice that and adjust and the lockerroom just started to fracture.
Do you think that's the real reason, or you're just responding sort of to kirch? I'm 100% Acosta just had the shot in his mind, regardless of who was open on his right.
With Neagle, Sam, and Kamara unavailable I think the lineup Ben cobbled together played as well as any other group of starters. It's refreshing to have a forward who is always, well, forward. Nicky played like his starting job depended on it (let's hope it does), and Jeffrey played like someone who had been told that he shouldn't think of himself as a defensive midfielder. A return to health by the injured and refinement in Acosta's decision-making, and a continuation of a more attack-minded game plan and we should be competitive in most matches.
Just responding. In real time I think he just took the shot figuring he had a reasonable chance. On almost every play, you can analyze the "tape" and find alternative choices for the player shooting/passing. The most common example are players not trying to switch the point of attack. I can see the space from the stands, but at ground level with people in your face, that's a much harder task. That is why types like Acosta are rare, a guy who "sees" more the field than most other players. Last night, he might not have "seen" NDL, or just decided to go with himself. I'm fine with either choice, in fact, given DCU's predilections, I favor players who will shoot first.
Deleon, Acosta and Iggy each had an open shot from around the penalty spot and none of them could even get it on goal.
Since I've already given up on the playoffs (or at least on advancing past the first round) the dropped points don't mean much to me. It was a good shot through traffic. It happens. Certainly payback for that game we stole in Montreal with only one shot on goal. Every player worked hard. I'm a little worried about how down everyone looked after the equalizer. The amount of effort these players have to put forth to overcome the talent gap against most teams they play means they have to buy in to what Ben is asking, and dropping points like this might make it harder to make those extra runs next week. We'll see. I was entertained. We created chances. NDL with some of his rookie year dribbling moves. Acosta was moving all around, bossing the midfield, getting physical when needed. He has clearly been told to be the glue in the middle and not drift away. We switched fields rapidly, only going backwards to reset things. Every time Kemp put a cross into the box there were 2 or 3 actual targets. Loved it when Birnbaum stupidly gave the ball away to Piatti and he hit the post, Hamid put his arm around Steve and encouraged him - very mature. Mullins' mobility made a big difference. I thought Acosta was fouled in the box. He was past the defender and got hip-checked. Not sure why he would dive there one-on-one with the keeper from a couple yards out, though maybe the pass was too far in front of him (not a good replay angle) and he knew he wasn't going to reach it so he went down from the contact? I was okay with the yellow on Bekker since he hit Nyarko with his shin rather than his cleats, but the leg was high enough for a red. I couldn't tell if Ciman's hand touched the ball but if it didn't then that was a terrible header by Mullins. Acosta's shooting is worrying. Up until now his lack of scoring was fine since he rarely got the ball in the box, but he had a few good chances and wasn't even close. My bigger concern here is that I worry Olsen is a bit to blame for the bad decisions on offense. The entire time Olsen has been coach, I've never been able to discern an offensive strategy. It's always seemed to be improvised. Seeing Pontius thriving with a clear role in Philadelphia adds fuel to my concerns. Obviously I have no idea what goes on in practice but the offense has never looked like a well-oiled machine under Olsen (personnel obviously being a major caveat). Hopefully, Nyarko stays healthy and NDL or Sam is consistent on the other side so that some sort of familiarity with Acosta can form during this stretch. Igbo looked how I remember him from Chicago. Lots of movement and energy and a little skill but sort of lost. I don't think this is a new team issue for him. The shooting was frustrating, but there was enough skill and hard work on display that I could watch that each week and be engaged.
I just watched both plays on the MLS Live highlights reel and I disagree. On the Acosta non-pk even though the angle the TV shows (which is pretty much the same angle the ref had) is not great, the Montreal player clearly has his arm in front of Acosta and pulls him back. Maybe Acosta goes down easily but that to me is 100% a penalty. A player is past you, going in on goal, and you reach forward and put your arm on his chest and he goes down. Even more, I think there would be a legitimate argument for a red card in that situation for the denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Acosta is past everyone, in on goal, and pulled down from behind. I'm not sure that the denial of the obvious goal scoring situation applies in a situation that's crowded like that in front of the goal, but he's passed everyone and in on goal so it seems to me it should. At a minimum it's a yellow for the cynical, professional foul of pulling the player down... As for the foul on Nyarko, that to me is a straight red as well. Largely because he comes in high, from behind with enough force to cause Nyarko to essentially do the splits. That's got leg breaker written all over it and I wouldn't be surprised (wait, actually I'd be very surprised) if the league didn't step in and upgrade it to a red to protect player safety. The ref's initial instinct was that it was a red and he wimped out. The only out I'll give him is that Nyarko is turning right as the player comes at him so might not have been from behind except for Nyarko turning. The fact that he went over and talked to the AR and 4th official and they apparently didn't make any strong argument that it should have been a red is probably worth something as well. As for the handball, that wasn't in the highlights package so I haven't seen a good look at it yet. I think Acosta is very difficult for the referees. His the classic "little guy" playing on the big guy field and he either gets every call or none of them (as the ref tries to make sure he's not just giving calls to the guy because he's little). Right now, Acosta isn't getting calls. Ben was harping on the refs all night about it. He should do so publicly like Jesse Marsch did and take the fine. We need Acosta to be getting superstar treatment...
I think Acosta needs to battle through it, and he does. You can see the frustration bubbling under the surface. He's learning to control his emotions and starting to become confident in MLS. A really impressive thing about Acosta is he's not a diver. Not to say he's never done it, but that his instinct is to stay on his feet. It would be a shame if he turns because it's the only way to get the call. I don't think he will though, by next season he will have the respect and trust of the referees.
Hugely mixed feelings about this game. Giving up a goal to a 10-man side who just had one of their stars red carded is not good, even if it was an excellent strike with a generous helping of fortune. On the other hand, I thought DC looked like they had a much better idea of what they were doing in the attack and against a Montreal team that is really pretty good. Obviously, the finishing was poor. I also think DC is still operating too slowly. There's a thing that soccer teams do, there's probably a word for it, but I don't know it, where an attacking player will pretty much run across the shoes of his teammate with the ball, momentarily freezing the defenders because they don't know which attacking player is coming away with the ball - whatever that is called, DC did it a few times this game. I'm pleased that there is some tactical creativity, it never actually worked for DC because it happened so slowly that the defenders were always able to recover without any difficulty, and that's not good. It was symptomatic, I thought. DC actually looked like they had played with one another before, but all the chemistry still isn't there and there isn't a lot of confidence. In general, I think there still isn't much of a cutting edge to the team, but unlike a number of games this season, it did seem like there was actually a blade? Does that work as a metaphor? Whatever, I actually saw team play that could be built upon for a change and that gives me some hope. I mean, I'm not holding out much hope for the playoffs, but if DC can actually improve steadily from here and another team stumbles. . . P.S. Can Saborio teach Mullins or someone else to think like him, because he and Acosta are clearly on the same page, and if Acosta can link up with a younger or more confident striker the way he does with Saborio . . .
I think you mean a "stepover"? That's what we always called them anyway. And I had to laugh when you said we did them slowly as they're only effective when done quickly to freeze the defender (or pull him away depending on the situation) and gain a little space for the guy with the ball. And yes, we'd have quite a legitimate threat at forward if we had a combination of Saborio's experience and former effectiveness, Mullins' brains and determination and Kamara's speed and physical tools. Now that would be quite a player. Kind of a Drogba lite if you will.
Not sure if we're thinking about the same thing. I think of a stepover as a 1-on-1 move. But your description of the intended result sounds about right.