1-0 Wiz Crew still looking for a win at home and still looking for two straight games of any decent offensive output. Very difficult result to deal with after giving up the goal in the 89th minute.
That's two straight games where Palmer has given up a goal right at the very end. I should've known we'd get 0 goals this week, to balance out the 2 we got last week. We'll be back up to our regular 1 goal next weekend.
We do have a home win over Colorado. Jeez we were horrible tonight. We played worse than vs DC but KC kept missing open nets while we didn't come close to scoring a goal. Sigi ripped the team in the press conference, saying they lacked professionalism. He thinks they concentrate better when on the road and have fewer distractions. The only good thing about tonight was that it wasn't televised for the rest of the league to see. Gansler's team was much better prepared and organized.
For any of you that were at the game, how did Will look in goal? This was his first MLS game, and we didn't even get to see him play. Any critique of his performance?
Hesmer gave an excellent performance. Great diving save on Ngwenya's shot near the end of the second half and excellent control of the box. The Crew looked very good in the fist half. Sigi had an interview leaving the field at half and said we needed to work on possession and patience in the second half - he was right but the team coudn't get patient and wound up with way too many give aways and passes into dead end positions. Seb was in the middle and moved the ball from side to side well, but KC did a good job of forcing our wide attacks out to the lines and limiting reversals. We had 4-6 headers go Over the bar. If we had a backboard we could have had some rebounds, but we were rarely a threat on low crosses (forgot them this game) or longer shots (ex. Ngewnya's scorcher on which Will made a great save). It appeared Palmer was riding on the edge of disaster all night. He didn't make any progress controlling the box on crosses and KC had that weakness figured out - lots of crosses like the one they finally scored on. A very entertaining game - ex the score, but we all had a feeling tha KC would punch one through at the end. We had no patience in the final 3rd.
Now, I thought Palmer looked good. Although he came out to challenge a bit much for me, he had some really good saves. Honestly there was nothing he could have done about that goal. The match was depressing. I wish Seb had started. But Ngwenya got hurt right before the half and I think he thought it would be ok but when the second half started he wasn't. So Seb came in. All in all, I'm most dissappointed in Garey. The man didn't win most of his 50/50s, and he displays a lack of hustle most of the night. Seb hustles, so I don't see how Sigi thinks that he can't play their "speed game". The big problem is, the game needs a bit of finesse. Without Seb it just wasn't there. I think we just had some unlucky breaks. I bet Ngwenya will be ok, my inside source didn't have any info in the Stadium Club. I tried to listen to the press conference, but the sound was crap in the Club because of the hubbub of the peeps waiting for autographs...
Compared to Palmer, your guy looked like Schmeichel in his prime. Palmer spent the evening flirting with disaster. Arnaud let him off the hook by missing an absolutely unmissable open net in the third minute. Palmer spent the night flopping like a freshly boated mackerel. At one point Lefty asked if I was sure that Palmer had started at Maryland, since he was sure that Maryland mostly got players with actual talent and it was clear Palmer didn't have any. The highlight tonight was the Crewzers. Looking hot, ladies. You have to give a lot of credit to the KC defense. Nice job. But they didn't need as much help as we gave them all night long. We had almost no offense at all until Rozy finally came in and gave us some quality in the middle. Until then we simply blew. Jason Garey is a long ways from ready for prime time. Did he have a single quality touch all night? Why is Chris Leitch out there? Why does he evn have a uniform? Worthless. Someone should tell the Crew that there's a guy named Gaven out there, normally on the left side, and if they got him the damn ball once in a while he might, you know, do good stuff with it. Ngwenya got eaten for lunch. Good effort, accomplished nothing. Marshall and Gonzalez looked pretty strong, and Retiz is a pleasure to watch. Not much of anyone else was worth the trip. But please, please, please Mr Sigi: could we have our uniforms back? That yellow kit was important to us, and I am tired of this stupid new look of yours. I want the all yellow unis, Sigi, and I want them now. There are some things that you don't seem to understand and should leave the hell alone.
Simon Says was the best part of the night. The game was pure dreck. Agree with the previous comments re: Garey - he is without a doubt the least dangerous striker in the league. KC outplayed us and deserved full points.
Didn't Andrulis send Leitch packing? If Andrulis didn't want him and Sigi apparently does, there's something not quite right with that picture. I'm thinking LA had the yellow tops, green shorts and yellow socks. I can't believe it's a Sigi thing. I echo those comments. We need 100% yellow back!
And what position was it that Ward was playing? I never figured it out. When I saw him on the byline I figured Sigi had finally come to his senses and was getting that slow clumsy oak Leitch and his elephantine touch the hell out of there. Instead, he replaced Grabavoy and spent the last 30 minutes of the half trying to figure out what he was supposed to be doing. I think Ward is a solid young defender but he misses the mark as an attacking midfielder. And the only time the offense even looked like it had a pulse was after Rozental came on. Screw his lack of "explosiveness", the guy moves the rock around like nobody else we've got. Speed is nice, but Ngwenya was invisible, Garey might as well have been standing in the north end and the whole team simply ignored Gaven. Hell, during one stretch in the second half he was over by the left touchline with the closest defender maybe 50 yards away, jumping up and down and waving both arms trying to get someone's attention to pass him the ball. Pathetic. Put Simon in, get Leitch out, find a goddam keeper and let's give Keimara another shot up front.
One of the more depressing nights I've ever spent at Crew stadium, apart from the weather, which was a pleasant surprise given what it had been like in Dayton all day. Never once did I get the feeling we might score. Where was Thomas? Where was anybody?
The Crew have now scored 10 goals in 11 games. Recent comments about the attacking combination of Garey, Ngwenya, Thomas, and Gaven being able to score a lot of goals seem overly optimistic. Garey is a rookie with 1 goal so far this year. Ngwenya has a few goals this year, but last year did not score any goals with LA. Thomas is solid power midfielder, but not really a goal scorer. The only proven goal scorer of the group is Gaven, who had 15 goals and 11 assists over the last 2 years with NY. And it seems like Gaven’s talents are not being used effectively on the flank - Gaven is more effective attacking centrally, either as a withdrawn forward or center mid. The Crew may be the only team in MLS without a proven goal scorer at forward. Garey and Kamara are young players with potential but are probably not the answer at forward at this point in their careers. Ngwenya can score a goal once in a while but overall is sloppy with the ball and physically soft. These guys are all pretty much straight ahead runners – not very skilled on the ball or effective at holding the ball under pressure and bringing other players into the game. Bottom Line: Is the forward pairing of Garey and Ngwenya going to scare anybody? I did not see the game but it sounds like Ward came in for Gravaboy in central midfield – is that correct? If so, I believe Ward has played on the outside most of his career, while Gaven has played centrally most of his career – it seems like both Ward and Gaven were being played in the wrong positions. Ward is certainly a better option at outside back than Lietch. And the team needs and experienced goalkeeper. On the bright side, the Crew are a very young team that should get better, with more experience and quality needed at forward and goalkeeping.
The effects mikes were picking up some booing during the last few minutes (before the goal.) Anybody know what that was about? Commentary did not give an impression of a good performance, although things seemed to pick up after Rozental came on.
Truer words cannot be spoken. Every dangerous opportunity we had after Rozental came in went through him in some form. And if he wasn't involved, Gaven sure as hell was. And a brief personal note to the idiot woman down the row from me. "RUN" is not a good strategy as you think it is. When we have a counter opportunity near the midfield stripe, and it's like 3 on 6, you don't run. Just because you play once a week in a 30 and over Sunday rec league doesn't mean you know what the hell you're talking about. And that goes for your friends too.
The Crew line-up looked like a good selection from the roster but everyone was used in the wrong role, and it seemed that way from kickoff. Kansas City missed at least five open nets on break-aways in the first hour of the game. By the way the Crew battled to retain second place they deserved a 4-0 loss. What would be a good guess of what the atttdance was for this game, about 9,000? Keep Garey, He is my expected Crew goals leader for the season, Kamara will score more no than three this year.
I'm convinced that Sigi is prepared to lose a game to make a point as part of the rebuilding process. It sounds like this might have been one of those games.
I have nothing good to say about this sorry excuse for a match. It looked like a f*****cking Rec game. Someone please let our boys know that people actually pay to see them play soccer... Or whatever they call what they put forth on the pitch last night.
Here's the Dispatch story on the match. http://www.dispatch.com/crew/crew.php?story=dispatch/2006/06/11/20060611-D1-00.html Hilariously, in the paper version, the photo identifies the KC keeper Hesmer as Bo.
Ngwenya got pushed around like a 9 year old girl. He needs to be a teeny bit more physical. Palmer was lucky it wasn't 6 goals, with all the perfect chances and near misses KC simply failed to capitalize on. He just does not have control of his own goal mouth. We just did not threaten Kansas City all night. The game wasn't nearly as close as the score. The weather during the game was great, if a bit cool, but earlier in the day (when people are making up their minds if they want to go) it was rotten. Nevertheless, there should have been more butts on the bleachers than that. This team is having an attendance crisis, after 10 years of doing much better than could be expected given it's failure to win hardware and presence in a small market.
Alright, after pumping up the Crew soccer balls that we got as a freebie, I take back my previous statement. Those balls are pretty nice. Why only to under 18, though? (Or those who look under 18 )