Hamid did not look that good to me. Sarvas looked crappy as usual -- I wish he showed the sort of emotion he had after the PK half the time. He's collecting a check, and if Olsen thinks he's the most important player on the field, then his coaching genius is lost on me. Credit for coming back to tie a team that has a history of blowing leads -- but this was a game we should've won.
It's the 'if' game with this team. If Nyarko buries that chance that was harder to miss than make, United takes all three points. United outplayed them, but who cares. At this point, gotta get results.
I mean in that case if the ground didn't consume the ball then BWP would have put away 2 more as well
22 shots to 12, 8 to 4 on frame. Actually out possessed them. Doubled them up on crosses. United outplayed them. The ground swallowing up balls is out of players control, but missing tap ins from a headed is. I don't know what you're trying to say, but I probably disagree with it.
We can keep going back and forth with the ifs... But, DC United did tie the game after being two down and with some lackluster play from quite a few players. And, DC United is still in a playoff position...
Any way you slice it, this is a very mediocre team. They barely came up with some points at home, now we get to the harder part of the schedule and that is away. I just don't see this team making the playoffs. There just isn't enough quality to seriously compete with the big boys. And when you see Atlanta come in we will have what I suspect is another big spending club to contend with in 2017. This is just not the MLS power United team I remember from what is becoming a distant memory.
Hey, there I am in the crowd shot, with dark hair and playing the cowbell. Time flies... Today's match was kinda sorta alright. Still, 4 home games in a row and only got 6 points out of it.
Well it was entertaining. Before the rains came, DCU had two good chances and were beating RB like a rented mule. I agree that Nyarko had at least one "gimme" that he missed, but finishing never has been his strong suit. Hamid looked average today, when watching the highlights, Twellman said his positioning on Felipe's goal was poor, you really can't disagree. He's not been the usual Hamid this season, the knee may not be 100%, or it may never be 100%. NDL put one in the troposphere again when he had a good look -- can't beat consistency. Jeffrey was getting treatment after he was subbed out, maybe he took a knock earlier. That was a real chippy game that Elfath really didn't control well at all. Mullins got the garbage goal, the type that gets you points. At the end, Kemp just missed on a laser that had Robles beat. This is a much more entertaining team to watch. The finishing is getting better, but it's not good enough yet.
Today's match showed the shortcomings of a 4-3-3 from DCU. It's funny that they season we finally dump Pontius, we actually commit to a formation that would suit him. The wingers in a 4-3-3 are the most important players on the field. They need to be fast, fast, fast with some very good finishing skills. They need to be able to consistently win 1 on 1 situations. Our guys are OK, but not top 20% in the league. Nyarko and the others proved that they are actually just average wingers (at best today).
I'm concentrating on the good stuff: We outshot them, outcrossed them, outpossesed them. But we didn't win, because of defensive mistakes (and good finishing from them). Mullins impresses me. He's very good at slip-heading the ball to channels for teammates to run onto when he has his back to the goal.
Meh ... I don't feel like I can take anything away from this game. It's really bad luck to have such a torrential downpour that totally destroyed the field. We're supposedly the most advanced country in the world and we still haven't figured out field drainage. In England or Germany you can play in a monsoon and the field still looks like a billiard table. The conditions really hurt Acosta, Sam, Nyarko and Mullins in particular. Those guys all want to play the ball on the ground and today ended up being a lot of direct long balls out of the back. At this point of the season it doesn't do any good to get stuck analyzing this game. It's basically a throwaway game. Focus on the positives ... three straight games with set piece goals and Mullins has 2 goals in 4 games. Apply those positives against Montreal because that's a 6 pointer. We're due a road win sooner or later.
I agree that this team integrates wings better, but I disagree that Pontius would be any better than the wings we have. He has a good cut move but that was about it. The problem is - as with the current team's finishing - we don't seem to have coaches with the ability to help our players improve. The only way Pontius was going to improve was to leave. The finishing today was a catastrophe.
You know how they say a tie is like kissing your sister? This was like ********ing your sister, if a) your sister's boyfriend cheated with your girlfriend, and b) your sister has the clap. In other words, it's a close run thing whether my schadenfreude is greater than or less than my disgust.
On the plus side, the RBNY fans who made the trip had to ride a bus all the way back to the Toxic Swamplands knowing they blew a two goal lead. Also, Elfath and the bench-side AR were terrible.
Acosta was off. Speaking of, United was off side 10 times today. It's good to be attacking enough to draw ten offsides, bad to get caught off that often.
DC rightly was trying to play lots of through balls given the conditions. Other than Franklin's horrible play, I thought we dealt with the conditions far better. NY does have better finishers though.
RFK probably hasn't invested and $ in that infrastucture in years. Check out what mid-90s EPL pitches looked like when it rained heavily. Plenty of newer MLS stadiums do just fine with rain. Even non-turf ones.
According to the broadcast team, we were playing a 4-1-4-1. In that lineup, Sarvas and Mullins were the "1"s. Not sure if there's a meaningful difference there or if the players actually knew they were supposed to be in that formation...
That's not what you said. You said: You seemed to be talking about two games here, that was my issue.
No argument here. We have to be realistic with what we have, which is a team that will barely make the playoffs. Once there anything can happen. Hopefully some day that will change for the better.