The injury excuse loses some air when I look at KC and their major injuries. You might argue a hot start, but I'm inclined to look at an experienced coach like Gansler, who brings an effective (if ugly) system to the table and gets his players to buy into it. They've actually played some nice attacking football this year without Preki or Igor. Nowak on the other hand, is inexperienced and has not developed his philosophy to the extent of Gansler (how could he?). His rigidity may be the result of his inexperience. I believe he has not always been a consistent evaluator of talent this year. Given an off season and money to work with (someone mentioned Nelson, Stewart, Convey slots) we might see a team formed with his hands that plays more consistently and is every game. In the end we need defensive help and we need a striker like Arnaud, Ching, etc... that puts fear into opposing teams and scores despite being closely marked. Is Tino or Thiago the guy, who knows. But that judgement will be part and parcel of what makes or breaks Piotr this offseason.
I said, about 5 weeks ago, that DC United needs to play the youngsters. The problem I had with Ray Hudsen is that he sacrificed the future of this team for a mediocre present. Is sneaking into the playoffs, only to be knocked out early, the highest goal that Nowak is aiming for? I think you just chalk this season up to 'rebuilding,' and hope that our new young guns can be ready for next season. Bench the veterans.
Uhm - what youngsters are you going to play? Here is the list of players born '81 and later: Gros - already playing Adu - already playing Perkins - already playing Eski - playing when not hurt Carroll - playing but has hit the wall Q1 - hurt Q2 - hurt Thompson - hurt Stokes - defensive liability when our defense is already in shatters Kuffour - ? So I think your argument is bunk - of the 10 guys 23 and under 4/5 are starters, 3 are hurt, 1 is horrible, and 1 is a question mark. So other than Kuffour who do you want to start?
For the record, MLS' injury report (needs updating, last updated Sept 2 last Thursday): http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/stats/injuries.jsp
Ahhh - Kevin Ara - how easy to forget him I believe you are referring to Kevin Hudson (although you wouldn't know it since MLSNet.com has not archived the stinking draft yet). As for his whereabouts - best I can offer was that he was not on the roster when the season opened - so never signed or was cut in the pre-season are my bets.
[click, click, click...] There's no place like home... There's no place like home... There's no place like home.
this thought is based on the fundamental misconception that if given enough time, they would get it right....
I believe that Hudson was never in pre-season camp as he took a job with the public accounting firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers. I guess that I figured that he could make more $ in the business world as opposed to having a MLS developmental contract.
I was at the game and was very disapointed. At times in the first half I though they looked good. And other times I was considering taking up drinking at a hobby. It was not a good night. I also didn't realise how important Esky was to the line up. It was nice however that Nelson was back in the line up. But what really irrated me was the retaliation by Adu. It was just a stupid foul. I think that he's going to do that one too many times and someone is going to level him.
Here here. Nomination on the floor for song to be added to the chant list before each home game: "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." Can I get a 2nd, or at least an AMEN!! ? As to the road record thing, our captain's core of Nelson, Stewart and Olsen need to take motivational classes on how to help dispell the road funk we undoubtably suffer from. Once again, we fans face the proposition of having to will the playoffs into existance for our club. No doubt the desire will be there, and RFK will rock and resonate with the effort. Taking a moment given the recent result, wouldn't it be great to see the most decorated club in MLS get to the finish line with their old swagger? *paging Mr.'s Moreno, Etcheverry, Harkes- please visit the United lockerroom with history in tow-STAT!!!! United's glory is once again in danger of flatlining. Help!!! Vamos United, Vamonos.
I actually think KC disproves your argument. Here's why... 1. KC, in theory, lost tremendous talent with Simukentov and Preki went down in preseason. What happened though was something they didn't have when those 2 were on the field: 10 field players all on the same page, all working hard, all winning balls, all playing strong positionally. With Preki, it's 9 piano movers and one guy free-lancing and playing all over the field--but not playing defense. I think there's a possible argument to be made that--when Klein was healthy--KC was stronger without Preki than with him. We'll never really know now that Preki is also gone for the season. 2. KC lost 2 big guns early in the season. And like all teams, they've had guys go down (Meola at one point, Burciaga and so on). But look at the core of their team: Klein, Arnaud, Wolff, Zavignan--those guys have been out there consistently. In fact, Wolff is healthy this year (as opposed to last year). And KC was pretty much humming along outplaying everyone else until Klein went down. They were pretty much able to play through the season to this point without losing any key players (other than the two I mentioned earlier) until Klein went down. 3. If there is a lesson you'd get from Gansler and KC this year, it would be one that Nowak has probably followed: --adopt a system and stick to it; --it's more important to have "your players" and get them indoctrinated into the system and familiar with each other than it is to bring in lots of new players. Thus, when the roster is thin or guys get hurt (even if they are big guns for your side--like Preki) don't attempt to upgrade or replace them. Just go with what you've got. --you don't need a true A-mid or team quarterback. --if you play good defense, outwork everyone else, aren't sloppy, and stick to your system than the goals will come and so will the wins. All of that sounds pretty much how Nowak has tried to approach this season--except that he's pushed possession and early pressure as opposed to being compact on defense and defending first.
Man this is an awesome idea. If Kevin Payne had a brain in his head, he'd get them AND Aunger to go in that lockerroom and kick a little ass.
Good call. I'm bored tonight and decided to go back thru some old threads just to see the what the mood of the fans were at the point where we started to make our turnaround to MLS Cup champs.. I think this match is where the vaunted post-game heart to heart was held by the team and we only lost one of our remaining 10 matches..
I used to say that soccer will officially be as popular as the NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL in the United States, not when mainstream sports talk radio shows cover soccer, but when you can turn on those radio shows and hear callers make the same sort of completely off-base comments about soccer as you currently hear them make about football/basketball/baseball/hockey. Years of being a hardcore college basketball fan and attempting to predict the NCAA tournament has convinced me that no matter how hard and how long I've tried, I still don't know a damned thing about it. I'm sure the same is true of soccer, too.