the team looked ruthlessly balanced yesterday. Despite the two goals yielded (let's not let that happen again men please) they knew they could come back and win the match .. and they ground it out - worked the ball around - took their chances - and stuck three in the net. now teams have to wonder who do we focus on - Espindola, Saborio, NDL, or Rolfe .. and to back them up Kitchen and Arnaud playing clean up .... a very balanced squad and with experience .. we just need to keep them healthy.
If I were an opposing coach it'd be NDL 100 times out of 100. But yes, Saborio will score, but what is more important is what he does. He will hopefully actually be what the team wanted EJ to be.
This forum is schizophrenic. 2 weeks ago posters were ready to jump off tall buildings and now it seems we are Supporters Shield bound.
Welcome to Big Soccer, home of the largest collective or short-term memory loss sufferers on the web.
One of Sabo's biggest contributions is he forces teams to double team him. This allows Espindola and NDL to make runs into open spaces. If the run draws a defender, it gives Sabo more space. It keeps the defense honest. This was pretty evident in Sunday's game. I was surprised at how well Sabo fit into the team so quickly, but Sabo is a pretty typical #9 that you could slot into most teams.
3 goals in the run of play go a long way in relieving that frustration. I think if Espy and Saborio can stay healthy the rest of the season we have a chance to stop being so embarrassingly negative. Those two will find ways to score goals even if the rest of the midfield isn't particularly dangerous and creative. With those two you can just lob hopeful long balls into the box and the chances of something good happening are much better than if it was Rolfe/Arrieta ...
Twellman was suggesting that the key to DC's continued success this year could be the return of a healthy Chris Pontius.
Does Twellman have more incisive comments when he works games that DC United is not playing? When I hear him I wonder why he has a job.
The day after a bad loss or a big win should be ignored in any analysis of the forum Though lately it had been getting itself back to the (somewhat typical) severe pessimism of the off-season so it's nice to see it rebound a little
Twellman mentioned this a few times on the broadcast. Amazingly, he was absolutely right. A #9 is easy to slot in. The nice thing here is we'll have a few weeks to get him used to his teammates where we just have 1 game per week.
It felt like the team's issues were being exposed and they might finally regress to what they are during the first half. I was almost disappointed United won.
He's thinking of the old Pontius. If we could get Pontius circa 2011, we'd be a Shield contender. Since we won't get him back in that form we'll have to get better in other ways or just play better to contend for it.
I am sure that Twellman really meant the return of the original Chris Pontius, but that's unlikely to happen, even if he finally gets over his latest knock.
That little 4 pass sequence with Espindola made me stand up and spill my beer all over the coffee table. Also loved that cutback and low hard shot that led to the Espindola goal. My favorite contribution was his involvement in the Kemp goal. He finds a little pocket of space on the right and doesn't even pick his head up and just lofts a perfect cross field pass into Rolfe's stride. He just has a very well rounded skill set. He had a nice early stinging shot from distance in the first half. He might get some criticism for not finishing that header, but he did well to drift into the center back's blind spot to make himself available for that in the first place … That's just intelligent center forward positioning. He also got himself open during Rolfe's first goal. If Rolfe decides not to take that shot he had an option of a wide open Saborio from 6 yards out. I'm not going to read into this too much … he was playing against RSL's backup center backs, but even some of the better center backs in the league will have to work hard to shut him down
Saborio also does what Eddie Johnson did (even when he wasn't scoring): draw dedicated attention from defenders simply by being in the right place and making good runs. For all Espindola can do for United, he simply doesn't command that sort of attention.