I agree that Fred needs to take people on more often. What I was trying to say that was even when he doesn't take people on, his first touch still goes forward more often than not and puts the defense on their heels. If he makes the square pass 10 or 15 yards up the field, at least he's 10 or 15 yards further up the field.
Liked McTavish out there. He's still learning the position, but has the skills to be a really good back. Every chance he got, Simms passed the ball to a blue shirt. We couldn't figure out if Moose was told to back pass in the first half or it was his own decision. He's quick and a good dribbler, so we were mystified at his lack of aggression. Many nice saves by Perkins. Still could work on distribution, but this was the Perkins of last year. Agreed. I always wonder if they're all imitating Moreno in practice sessions and forget the direct approach.
Nice win to pay back a Colorado team that really made us look bad in the opener. It didn't hurt that it was 62 degrees warmer than that game in Commerce City. That was one of the better officiated games I can recall in a long, long time.
Kpene--Just before he was subbed, I asked someone behind me what was wrong with him. He seemed very slow and tentative. I hadn't noticed what happened in the 6th minute, but it was clear that he wasn't right. Addlery--Didn't impress me at first, but as the game went on it was clear he just needed some time to get into the flow. Very nice. Much more dangerous than I would have expected, even without the great header. Gomez--Nice to see the committment and the fight. Hopefully he'll shoot with more accuracy next game. Emilio--Did a lot of hard work with his back to goal, IMHO. Deserved the goal he'd worked for. Makes the other team expend a lot of energy and attention, which gets rewarded when our guys quit screwing around with cute passes and SHOOT. Moose--Still a work in progress, but proved himself over 90 minutes. Carroll--Not his best game. Not terrible, but the BC of the previous two seasons didn't play that way. Fred--Was a fan favorite over in 137/138, that's for sure. Dude has skills, and he played with real fire tonight. He has been, as a matter of fact. A richly deserved goal, and seemed to take a step towards putting his stamp on this team. Gros--Worked hard, played some good defense, and made some dangerous runs. At this point, however, "Gros makes dangerous cross into the box" would be the "Man bites dog" story of MLS. Simms--Did some good stuff defensively. As noted above, seemed to win every header. Also as noted above, needs to REALLY work on passing to the guys in DC jerseys. But Simms has played several different positions for this team, and it's nice to see that he can be at least serviceable at Center Back. Erpen--OK, OK, I'm a big fan of the guy and I tend to accentuate the positive while forgiving the Erpfu excesses, but I doubt anyone can have too much to complain about last night's performance. Very solid, very poised, and still goes for the creative long pass. McTavish--Well done. He just might be able to play this position. I don't know if he's All-Star material, but I sensed that he knows what he's supposed to do, and will get better. We desperately need depth in Defense, and he may have taken a big step towards addressing that. Perkins--Last weekend Vs. RSL we saw why Nolly should not be a starter. Last night Vs. CO, we saw why that will not be an issue. A very solid and capable performance. Burch--Only saw five minutes, but managed to get into the attack and made a couple of nice moves. The attempted lob pass into the box after the nice flick was good to see, considering we were up 4-1 and had the momentum. Dyachenko--Holy crap, only on the field for a few minutes and I still thought "That guy doesn't look good." When you only have a few minutes of playing time, you should probably play with more energy than the guys who've gone the distance. That said, five minutes isn't enough time for some guys to click and get into the rhythm--it took Addlery a lot longer than that before he seemed to get into the flow of the game.
Excellent point. He is a very positive player, and I like him a lot. In fairness, his holding allows for numbers to advance offensively, and that is a good thing. Absolutely One nit, though, is that in the first half a lot of balls were played to him that he needed to step to collect--and he didn't. It's the old adage about moving toward to ball. I recognize that in some cases he was playing position against a close defender. But there were a lot of lost passes toward him that needed more activity from him. I meant to post this earlier under my "Bad" heading. I thought he was pretty solid. I find the whole Vanney report to be unfathomable (and ironic, given his performance). Good call. He was solid in the tackle and pretty reliable with his outlet passing. I don't remember shuddering when he had possession (read: Simms, Carroll).
Referee Prus did a really good job with this one I thought. Very rarely do refs have the balls to play advantage and then call a penalty. Also the yellow cards to Gros and whoever it was that almost tore Fred's jersey were given after the play had stopped or advantage has been lost, he didn't blow the whistle right away (although i thought maybe he should have for the one where Fred was making a run and got held up). Despite the slaughter it was a pretty low key game, colorado wasn't losing their cool but I think the ref could've handled it.
Come on...I was first team all-state. I can put the ball anywhere you want. I'll make it rain out here.
The entire backline looked unsure when they had the ball. You could tell fairly early that part of Colorado's strategy was based on the belief that our backline couldn't comfortably move the ball up, and to use high pressure to force longballs out of our backline which would usually result in a change of possession. In several cases where we had throw-ins near our endline, I saw their players run up (sometimes after being yelled at to do so) and zone, then swarm whoever took the throw-in. It worked, too: the recipient typically booted the ball upfield, and Colorado took possession near the midfield stripe.
Got to disagree; I loved their green jerseys. They were attractive and distinctive; so of course they canned them and went to yet another unremarkable variation of red and blue. Bleah!
HD Broadcast Question Did anyone else record the game in HD? I get mine from DirecTV and I had a purple stripe down the right side of my picture. It's really evident in the first half when the screen goes grey for a second or two. But it's there throughout the broadcast. Just want to make sure it's not a problem on my end. The sound is great. The crowd noise completely drowns out the announcers. Thx, Jay!
Re: HD Broadcast Question Couldn't string a pass together in the first half which was extremely frustrating to watch, especially the passing from defense to midfield. Second half was great, especially after the Lightning Break. Lucky that the Crapids didn't score another early in the piece when they had all their chances but thats footy! RayWhitney, Fred doesn't take players on. He will usually pass before he dribbles. And if there is noone to pass to he will run with the ball but not at the player and waits for support. What was wrong with Kpene? He went down straight away.
The heat and humidity at the start of the game, and throughout a huge part of the game, was incredible. It was funny to see after it started to drizzle how the play picked up as it must have dropped at least 15 degrees in about 5 minutes, and the players seemed energized. I sadly had to leave just as the rain delay was about to be lifted (bringing newbies to games where there is a high chance of rain is a bad idea), but liked what I saw as the guys began to gel around the time of Gomez' PK.
Re: HD Broadcast Question Kpene pulled a hammy in the 6th minute. Thanks for the info on Fred. In a wing role, I think he needs to take players on to be effective. It is helpful to know that this is not a typical component of his game.
This game was amazing! i cant believe how fast those last three goals came. and i have to thank the rain because if it wasnt for that 30 min break we prolly wouldnt have gotten those last three goals but anyway...jesus loves you too fred!!! and so do I lol GO FACUNDO ERPEN! GO DC UNITED!
Re: Official post-match Thread - DC v Colo [r] BOIS CHERI, Mauritius (Reuters) - The remains of a dodo found in a cave beneath bamboo and tea plantations in Mauritius offer the best chance yet to learn about the extinct flightless bird, a scientist said on Friday. The discovery was made earlier this month in the Mauritian highlands but the location was kept secret until the recovery of the skeleton, nicknamed "Fred," was completed on Friday. Four men guarded the site overnight.
No, really, I'm reading it in multiple places now, dude is gone, traded to the same Colorado for Greg Vanney. Steven Goff talked about the trade on his blog (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2007/06/vanney_deal_is_done.html), which only makes sense as a this-year-only move, kinda like the Eagles picking up Terrell Owens for '04 and only '04 so they could get to the Super Bowl. Irony all over the place: Owens got injured and missed all the playoffs and the Eagles got to the Bowl anyway, and while Erpen's bad defense gifted Jacob Peterson his goal, Vanney's handball gifted Gomez the equalizer. But Vanney is probably more consistent than Erpen was, and he will be a better fit with McTavish now and possibly Boswell upon his return. Now we just need to lock down the side defender position with a little more speed.. Tell you what, what we saw last night was a team whose depth is evolving and learning how to use its emerging speed of possession and wide play in the absence of Moreno, who adds ball skills but slows the game down because he can't run like he used to anymore. The next four games will be against the best teams in the league, with three of four on the road, but our young guys will get extended minutes to continue to develop and I think we may end up with a new style by the All Star break, one that uses the width of the field and moves the ball faster than before. If the defense gets stronger (and Namoff's return/Vanney's presence will likely guarantee that), we will enter the second half of the season and sneak up on a lot of people a la the '04 champtionship run. We will take some lumps in the next few weeks, but the longer term payoff could be enormous.
Yah, and I was thinking today that perhaps a long-term injury to Petke might mess up the trade for Vanney, but it seems that's not the case. I'll go to the other thread to elaborate on the move. Good decent game from an A- team. Can't really complain too much, myself.