I was wrong about Leo - Chivas was the game they went down to 10 men, not us. But he's still culpable for the goal. FCD was the red card Leo game.
We lost because we played like shit, not because it was cinco de mayo. GREAT atmosphere before the game by those of us who were at HDC since early afternoon. Probably one of the best pre-game crowds other than MLS Cup.
“Never good to miss a penalty kick,” Arena said. “We're probably going to have to change that. He's missed two in two games that we've lost, 1-0. Not good, so we probably need to make a change there.” “I'm not doing the job, so someone else is going to have to do it, but aside from that, we've got to play better,” Donovan said when informed of Arena's remarks. “Certainly, goals change games, and I could have made a difference and changed the game, but it happens and you have to move on.” “I don't know. Maybe I overthought it a little bit,” Donovan said. “You know, I've taken a lot of penalties in this league. Goalies know sort of my rhythm, how I take them. I've taken quite a few against Tally now. So guys know, and it's getting harder and harder, and maybe I got to change something up. ... “At the end of the day, it's not really as easy as it used to be. I think goalies are more prepared than ever, goalies move better than ever, but the reality is I've got to make them.”
That doesn't put anything in perspective. If you were as important to your company as Landon is to his club and national team, I'm sure they'd extend you some consideration (frankly, a company that would let someone go for requesting extra time off after 30 years of working overtime sounds like a pretty shitty company, if you ask me.)
I'm a press member, so I tend to tune out pre-game crowds. I even tune out everything and everybody after any result. All I focus on is the game, and writing about it. I tend to treat it like what it really is: work, rather than an event.
You obviously weren't the equivalent of Landon Donovan in your profession. I guarantee you someone was, but just not you.
There was so much suck on display last night/this morning. Unfathomable levels of suck. Unacceptable. I like our chances against the Orange Smurfs (or any other team, for that matter) any day of the week, but playing like that, we wouldn't have been able to beat Westlake's JV.
Omar played pretty well (that pass that beat him was spectacular, and sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the opponent). Cudicini wasn't bad, and AJ looked solid as a third center-mid. But north of them - my God.
This quote is so revealing about Landon's loss of confidence. Everything he says reeks of self-doubt. It's like he had decided that Tally would read his kick before he took it. I actually thought he was going to miss before he took it - he had that look of doubt and the rushing of his preshot routine that goes with the "let's get this miss over with" attitude. It's like Phil Mickelson with a one stroke lead going into the final two holes - he knows he's going to shank one and sure enough he does. And the lack of confidence is so strong it distorts his perception. Because nothing of what he says in that quote is true. No goalie today is going to save the PK's that Donovan routinely took before his recent confidence nosedive. Throughout his career he did his pre-PK ritual, psyched himself up, probably pictured the ball going into the net (most good pk takers do), stepped up, and buried the ball with power just inside either post, sometimes on the ground sometimes up higher. Didn't matter if the goalie guessed right, the pk was unsavable 90% of the time. And for the Houston poster criticizing him taking time off - he is missing the point. The main reason LD isn't finishing (or even shooting when he should) isn't because he hasn't been back in training long enough and lacks sharpness (although that is some of it) its because he isn't mentally right. I saw an interview a few days ago with him on LA Confidencial, that spanish-language show about the team, and Landon was saying the right words but his face was saying something else. He just looked depressed. Hell he played on a team that won the MLS Cup last season and he still wasn't having any fun. That is depression. And lack of confidence comes with depression. So it's entirely possible that Landon didn't take enough time off, as sad as that idea is for LA and the USNMT. I don't know what he needs. But depression is a real thing and you can't just wish it away. I don't know if he is in therapy but if he isn't it certainly might help. I also think he could start with finding a love in his life, a woman who loved him and he loved back, and maybe give him the kids he recently alluded to missing. Playing soccer and going home to his two cats just doesn't seem to be doing it for him. Hope he gets it together. And I say that not just for the teams I root for, but for the guy I root for.
Sorry posting here cuz idk how to comment via phone on your site but Andrew Driver is signed with the dynamo after loan ends. I'm 95% sure it was part of his loan deal and he's here to stay. I'll have to post you a link later
Now about the game: Cochrane - Wow. Already plays better than Duni, and this is saying a lot because I am a huge Duni fan. He has a great left foot (a real premium to have in this game), reads the game well (he reminded me of AJ a couple of times when he anticipated plays coming from the other side that he cleaned up even though they weren't even in his area) , plays with great composure already, has more speed than Duni, and certainly is better going forward than Duni. And I thought he did a great job snuffing out Houston's dangerous forward on his side (blocking on his name?). How he dropped to the last pick of the 2nd round is beyond me. Franklin - Wow. One of the two worst games of his career. To be honest Franklin as a right back has been letting forwards get crosses off on him with alarming frequency for a few games now. But last night he really stunk up the field. If he closes down his man faster Houston doesn't get that goal. And I don't know why his passing isn't improving over the years. Zardes - Guy has incredible speed both with and without the ball. Needs to learn composure as he approaches the goal and to get his head up, add feints, pass when called for. In college probably didn't need to do much of that, but if he could add 1/10th of the deception and brilliant decision making that Robbie Keane has the guy could be unstoppable. Rugg - Looked decent. Positive thinking, time will tell how good he becomes. Not a standout by any means. Villarreal - Good game as usual but Houston's defense was good enough to stop him and the rest of our team. When he is in or close to the box his ability to take a lot of touches and try to create something is an asset. But when he gets the ball in the midfield this tendency to take too many touches rather than making the simple one or two touch pass hurts us. But he is great at shielding the ball. Even when he makes a poor trap he jumps in front of the ball and earns a foul when the opponent tries to scoop up the the loose ball. He also sold the penalty well. Juni - Still forces passes up the midfield to Galaxy players who are covered and these end up being turnovers. Some nice passes as well. Sarvas also turns the ball over too often. Magee - Gave it his all, but no forward finishes 100% of the time. Gonzo - Won 98% of the battles. Showing more and more composure when working the ball out of the back. I really, really, really, really, don't want to lose him. Don't know what the 3 DP solution is because we won't be the same team if we lose any of Keane, LD, or Gonzo, but we need a midfielder like Lampard (or the equivalent) to move to the next level. Robbie Keane - Again showed his value to the team by our drop off in his absence. Loved seeing how engaged he was watching from the stands. You could see it was hurting him to see us not winning. Even Becks never had that kind of passion for the team. Houston - Congrats to them and Kinnear on a very well played game. They jammed Magee everytime he touched the ball, their defense was always organized, and they never gave up. Overall losing the game shouldn't be over-read. We were missing Keane and to an extent Donovan. We didn't give up many quality chances and created a few for ourselves against a very good defensive team. We will be fine I think.
I’m disappointed this morning to see so much moaning about the referee. There were definitely some bad calls, but I was really disheartened to see guys get fouled, and ask for something instead of getting back and defending. Those non-calls were going both ways last night, but only or at least more frequently were our guys looking at the ref instead of playing the game. Losing sucks, but losing when the team is phoning it in doesn’t sit well with me. One thing I really didn’t understand last night were all the plays designed to be headed. We are not a big team. Take out Omar, Carlo and Zardes and not a single guy on the field last night was taller than 6'. Houston on the other hand I don’t think had more than 3 guys under 6' tall, of course they were going to allow corner kicks all night long. Ugh. Completely agree with skydog on Cochrane, he is a gem. I think Dunni could find it hard to break back in to the starting eleven once his injury is healed.
My friend came up with a nickname for Zardes: Ziggy Zardes, after Ziggy Stardust cuz of the eccentric hairstyle and Zardes/Stardust sound kinda similar. The body language on most of the players just seem to give a vibe of hesitation or indecisiveness.
That's a very naive statement right there. A complete lack of understanding on what goes into being professional athlete. I'm not a professional athlete, but even I know it's a heck of a lot more than just training and games for 90 minutes.
Yeah, that "estimate" was miles off the mark. You could start with frequent travel, staying in hotels, often cross country and occasionally Canada or South America. And the team doesn't just arrive an hour before the game and leave right after. I don't know how far ahead of time they arrive for domestic games (say like in Vancouver or at New England) but I'm sure they often arrive a day at least in advance. Most teams flights are commercial and we all know what that is like, with hours spent waiting on flight delays or missed connections, on the tarmac, etc. Then the bus ride to the hotel, then bus ride to train on the field, bus ride back to hotel, blah, blah, blah. You also don't show up for training and walk onto the field for 3 hours and then get in your car and drive home. There is parking, dressing, taping up in many cases, some work with physio hours a day to treat injuries or just routinely after workouts, icing injuries, then of course showering, changing. Not to mention frequent public service appearances at hospitals, schools, etc, staying after games to sign autographs, pregame and post game meetings with coaching staff, session watching tapes of previous games. For most pro athletes playing is a full time job minimum, probably more like 50 hours+ per week. Even in elite college athletics players are spending 30 or so hours a week with sports related duties, and playing pro sports in a league with teams over 3000 miles apart is much, much more. Silly rabbit, the original poster.
Excellent player analysis, Skydog. I especially liked the synopsis of Zardes and Villarreal. I'm happy to see my original impression of Zardes, when I didn't think he was fast at all but was happy with his ball-handling skills in the box, has changed completely regarding his speed. That dude is fast, and has ball skills to go with it. It's going to be fun watching him develop. He's a gem. One thing I was surprised and happy about with LD is his confidence to take players on 1 v. 1 , even up near the box. And whenever he did, he got the space he needed. Just wish that confidence translated to the rest of his game last night, because I noticed something was definitely missing. He just didn't look right, both before and after the PK. And I'll repeat: Cochrane is awesome.
Not to mention the mental preparation that goes on - both during the week and especially game day, the ability to "get up" for it and get your mind ready to play. That's not the same as going to work and punching a time clock.
And he's a good one. Even before the goal, he was the engine through which any meaningful attacks were taking place. From the standpoint of pure speed, very few players outrun Sean Franklin usually, and he was burning Sean. As noted above, Sean was having a crappy game anyway, but even before the goal Driver was more than he could handle with comfort and I think he gave Driver too much space (too much respect?) on the goal because he was afraid of getting burned yet again. And, Driver got off one of those shots - the kind that usually goes wide of the post by two feet. My angle was perfect for seeing it swerve, and I do not put the goal on Cudicini's shoulders - once Driver gets that shot off, nothing Cudi could do. Franklin may even have compounded his "too much space" mistake by blocking Cudi's view.
We lost the game on decision making. We didn't take advantage of the opportunities given. We got beat by a great strike from an average player. Driver is nothing special he just caught it perfect. The defense was out of sorts on the counter though. My one disappointment was Zardes, the kid has wheels but not a lot of soccer IQ. With all the hype surrounding him it expected much more from him. We have seen players like him come and go from this league. Hopefully he gets better fast but at this point nothing he showed says outstanding player. IF anything he reminds me of guys like Oduro. Very fast but the soccer brain is not there so its a lot of wasted energy. I hope I am wrong though.
I agree with this. But the good thing is that there are plenty of learning opportunities for him. With players like Landon and Keane and with Bruce as coach, I'm sure that he will learn a lot and up his soccer IQ.