Vasquez and Sutton are the real deals, while Storey is a raw nuggett. What an exciting game. The Crowd was really into the game again and It was a blast. Games like this are why I buy Season tickets - MM. The mutts looked like they had played 120mins. at the end of the game. We ran their asses off and finished the game with the fastest 2 guys on the team fresh and destroying the mutts D. Great Coaching - a real tactical plan that was well executed. Anyone think Vasquez ain't ready for Prime Time now?
I think you guys have some very interesting options in attack that have been collecting dust. Storey is Brian West-fast. Sutton looks a decent finisher (six goals in reserves, i believe), Knox Cameron impressed me with his collection and body control. And Shizznit, Vasquez is one of my favorite players in the league. Peruvian-American from Miami. Smart, technically gifted, bomb of a shot, close control, great playing balls forward at pace, uses his body, energetic, looks like an Arena-type deep-lying middie with an intuition for the game's rhythm.
I find it very enlightening that the two people who combined for the goal were rarely played under nie. The players were obviously part of the problem, and Bob has enough ability to analyze who should be on the field and who shouldn't. The results are obvious.
Even though there were only 10K and some change , the crowd sounded quite passionate, and when calls didn't go the Crew's way, good plays and chances on goal, or whenever Razov touched the ball there was a nice din in the Crowd. I sat and felt like an old geezer, reflecting on the good times in the North End from the early days of CCS. Q. What's the deal with players tossing the BELOVED colors of the team on the ground when they got subbed?? Sounds like diaper material. Due to those subs, the team ended up winning.
I couldn't agree more. The kid has Nats chances. He looks physically tough too. Doesn't get pushed around much. Lapper is on the bench now. Bob has some good assistants.
Cornell Glen was very unhappy about being subbed. That probably accounted for the jersey tossing. Martino threw his into the crowd. Bradley spent practically the entire game whining about the officiating. I have no idea why. Look at the foul stats (21-12 I believe). They got far more calls than we did.
Yeah, there seems to be a learning curve about being subbed out. These guys don't like, or get, that everyone has a role and it takes 14 real players to win a game.
I AM SO HAPPY!!! We played hard and won. I felt like the team actually wanted to be out there together and were just aching for a win. We needed this so badly. The crowd just went nuts - it was so awesome to be there. i'm just glowing. happy, happy, joy, joy.
I'm not completely convinced. Loco has his definite strengths but he also is horrible at finishing, crossing and making that final pass, IMHO. I personally like Testo instead. I think he's a little more diverse offensively.
Loco appears to be a better defender. I'm not sure Loco is 100% Testo has to stop the wild slides as a defensive tactic.
Testo took a great deal of stick from the crowd (or at least our section) tonight, and looked anything but diverse offensively. At the end of the game I think he was playing LB in a more or less 4 man line. (Of course, as I've often said before, WTF do I know). Long stretches of the second half were, as a guy behind me said, pedestrian, and at about the 65 minute mark my 11 year-old turns to me and says "This has nil-nil written all over it". But that finish!!! Me happy!! I agree Vasquez looks great. Wingert was really solid in the tackle. The CR was an abomination. Fun game.
Did anyone hear what the guy behind the Metros bench kept yelling at Razov after he got subbed? It clearly got to him.
I just FF'd the DVR to see the end of the game -- when it's all over the MSG camera's stayed on Sutton a long time. He looks like a 6 year-old having his birthday on Christmas, finding a Golden Ticket to Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory and finding out that his divorced parents have fallen in love with each other all over again and are getting married. And buying puppies.
Same look on Vasquez after he scored his goal last week. These kids, who are finally being given a chance on the first-team, are showing just how much fun they are having. Something a lot of us have not seen from some of the regulars in quite a long time.
In the old days (like 03-04) people used to argue with me that Cunningham should come in from off the bench at around 75' and just have a go at the other team's tired defenders. I used to think that was foolhearty, and I still do since JC was our most viable attacking option and could create things out of thin air whether in minute 80 or minute 8, but with Storey and Sutton you really have the perfect jolts of energy for the last 15 minutes. They're too young yet to play the full 90' but they really got us going at the end. Vasquez looks good, Martino had what I thought was an excellent game (from him), Glen put his heart and soul into his game and Wingert played his new role in the middle back competently. I absolutely love the move Bob made putting Martino on the right wing and Glen on the left; together with Henderson we were really looking dangerous from the flanks. I believe Loco still needs to start, barring injury. He has greater talent than Testo. Anyway it was just a refreshing game. We got the win we deserved and in high-excitement fashion. Crew Pride is Back in Style. See you all in 137 on Sat.
Congrats.. I was hoping to see Meola in misery, way to make it dramatic! did you guys see him eyeing up the defenders, i think he was ready to eat Goose
That's classless, Crew don't need fans like that. I hope you did your part and spoke to an usher right away. Getting fans like that ejected from CCS right away is the only outcome allowable.
Testo is really pissing me off. When he gets forward and into the attack good things happen. Problem is he doesn't get forward enough. Could someone please explain to him he's supposed to be a LM, not the LB? It just makes no sense why he would sit that far back and not get into the attack. He's not a good defender. He'll never be a good defender. Why not then go out there and play to his streangth? His was easily the worst performance on the day. Loco should definatly get the start Saturday. Yes it's frustrating watching him shank crosses off good runs, but at least he makes the runs and it only takes one good one to change the match. Other then that, I was impressed. Not exactly a finished product, but still an improvement from early season and most importantly from last week. Honestly the most complete game as a TEAM I've seen from the Crew in a long time. From front to back the Crew completely dominated the Metros. I've said it thousands of times, Martino is like my golf game. Crap for 17 holes, then on the 18th I hit a great shot and I remember why I like playing golf again. If Martino can bring that kind of intensity and skill to every match, you wouldn't hear a peep from me. Vasquez is just an amazing player and for what it's worth I don't think we've seen the best of him yet. The man of the match for me was Knox Cameron. Cameron was just everywhere tonight. Good target, good job holding things up to get the midfield involved and then getting them the ball, good job on the ball getting out of tight spaces, and good job pressuring defenders. Honestly he looked like McBride to me...well maybe not that far, but he did all the little things that don't show up on the stat sheet. He needs lots of work, expecially on positioning in the box, but it's nice watching him develop. Really I'm proud of all our young players. So far they've shown they belong in this league, something the other guy never gave them a chance to do despite blaming them for not stepping up all the time. Amazing how they step up IF you actually give them the opportunity to do so, isn't it.
I was watching on MLS.net vid, not live, but Martino looked thoroughly disgusted to me. He wan't giving the shirt to the crowd, he was throwing it out. Warzycha has called time on him, and Martino will have to produce goals to keep a spot. Best thing that could happen to KMart, either way. I"d love to know what Bobby is thinking. The Crew won by applying pressure on the ball, and I think instilling a new attitude is his first emphasis. But you can't run an offense through Simon Elliot, who I am sure had double the touches of any other Crew player, and you can't justify playing Knox Cameron at a major league level, his touch and coordination are that bad. I think Bobby has admitted the playoffs are probably beyond reach and is looking at reconstruction. And I say, bully bully! Vasquez is the most enjoyable player to watch I've seen for a while. A deserved win for the Crew. The mutts looked in trouble without their stars.
I thought the 106 crowd was a bit hard on Testo tonight. It's pretty clear to me that he's been told "defense first". Why, I don't know, but he's always played like that. And if he hasn't been told that, he shouldn't be out there. But the fact he continues to see a lot of minutes tells me they don't want him pushing forward all the time. I think he's almost scared of getting caught upfield when he needs to hang back. The way we've been able to score goals, that's probably the rigth decision. Defensively, we looked very good tonight. I can't recall too many, if ANY, real good scoring opportunities for the Mutts. I thought we kind of let up in the second half, but credit Warzycha for subs to change the dynamic of the game (isn't that refreshing to say?). I'm still a little confused why Martino came off, as I thought he was our best attacking player in the 2nd half. But what do I know, his sub set up the goal. And for the first time in a long time, it was fun to be in the stadium. A lot of excited energy, as opposed to the impending sense of doom I've had for the past couple of seasons walking into the stadium.
Everyone on the team played their asses off including Martino. Most excitement I've seen out of the crowd in a long time, including myself, god I'm glad nee is gone.