During the game last night, I was with Jeffries when he subbed in Cerritos for Johnson to go for the win. I got caught up in the euphoria of the comeback. It seemed like it was going to happen. Today, I find myself thinking that maybe he should have subbed one of the defenders to protect the 2-2 draw. By bringing in Suarez or Morrow for one of the rookies late, Dallas probably would have escaped with a point. Jeffries always goes for the win. It is his style. Sometimes it would be wiser for him to play for the draw. La locura rojinegra.
I would have liked to have seen the Burn start the game with more experience on the backline -- say Suarez-Bonseu-Morrison-Behncke. Sure, it might have hurt our chances in the Open Cup game a bit, but at least it would have given us a realistic shot at winning the Colorado game. While all in all the rookies seemed to do a pretty good job (Stone and Morrison in particular), you've got to expect them to make more than their share of defensive lapses, and starting a backline of Bussey-Bonseu-Morrison-Olivares was a little like playing Russian roulette -- you can do alright for a while, but eventually the odds'll catch up to you.
I'd like to see the Burn concentrate their efforts toward winning Thursday's match. While reaching the Open Cup finals would be nice, the Burn's top priority should be to maximize their chances to reach the MLS Cup. With a win Thursday vs. the MetroStars, the Burn would have a pretty good shot at finishing 1st, or more likely 3rd, in the standings and would be in excellent position for the playoffs With a loss or tie on Thursday, though, Dallas will most likely end up 4th seed for the playoffs and on the fast track for ouster in the 2nd round of the postseason. To give us our best chance for a win on Thursday, I'd like to see some of the regular starters rested again for the LA match. For LA, I'd like to see: ..................Vallow........................ Bussey....Bonseu....Morrison....Broome/Olivares Vaca......Deering.....Stone.......Chivas .............Cerritos......EJ................. And for the NY/NJ game: ...............Jordan.......................... Zarco......Suarez.....Morrow....Behncke O'Brien.....Deering....Pareja.....Broome .............Kreis.......Rhine...............
Maybe. But you'd think Jeffries would at least be able to think on his feet a bit. You know: Beat Colorado, execute Plan A and go for the Open Cup win. Lose to Colorado, execute Plan B and go for the win vs. NY/NJ. But, noooo. I guess it's not fair to ask our coach to think more than one game in advance.
vw, you are just wrong about this. The fact is that Jeffries thought long and hard about this situation... starting reserves for the Colorado game WAS the right decision and almost paid off. What you dont seem to understand is that the reason the USOC game IS important is because the winning players will receive on average about $5K. For many players that is a considerable percentage of their yearly salary. I bet that Jeffries will start a full lineup on Tuesday night, and probably something not to different on Thursday night. Dallas has the easiest remaining schedule of the teams that matter for the #1 spot.
It's $100,000 for the winner, right? Isn't there also a guaranteed payout for the second place finisher? How much is that?
Hitman, I think the Burn's first priority should be to win the MLS Cup. And to maximize their chances to of doing so, they need to play their regular starters Thursday night and have them relatively fresh for the game. The Open Cup is nice and all, but it's small potatoes in the bigger picture. How many Burn fans can name one Open Cup winner of the past (other than of course the Burn in what was it -- 1997?) For Kreis, Deering, etc, the Open Cup money would certainly be nice but an extra $5k when you're making $200k/yr isn't that much of a bonus. Obviously the same doesn't hold for Suarez, Bussey, and some of the other young players. But hopefully these guys haven't been taking on debts with the assumption that they'll able to pay them off with their US Open Cup bonus.
Why does everyone keep bringing up money? Hell I'd wanna win the Open Cup just for the love of the game and because it's a great acomplishment. I'm one Burn Fan that can name all the winners of the Open Cup since 1996.... 1996- D.C. United 1997- Us of course 1998- Shitcago Goons (right?) 1999- Rochester Rhinos 2000- Shitcago Goons 2001- L.A. Gals 2002- Dallas Burn (woops, got ahead of myself) Jefferies almost pulled off an amazing result last night. Just think pull out an AWAY WIN with your RESERVES, put you in 1st place and then almost a sure win on Thursday to a WEAK Metrostars. But thats what you get when you play a rookie back line to veteran forwards (and Queerieri). So we lost, it'll be ok, I think the guys will be pumped and ready for a great game tommorow, I for one can't wait to see it. Then come Thursday I think we'll definetly get the job done and TAKE #1 slot (yea it'll only be for a few days but who knows, maybe San Jose will lose at home and L.A. will lose to those cool guys in Chicago)
Excellent, burning247. Now off the top of your head, who was the Open Cup winnner in 1995? P.S.: In case you're like me and didn't even know about the Open Cup until recently, here's a link with all the Cup winners since 1914: http://www.jump.net/~netminder/quitameehu/opencup/cup-winners.html
haha sorry. Didn't know about it back then and I forgot who it was since the last time I've looked at the history of the cup.
You did alot better than me, though. My recall was like: 1996 ? 1997 Dallas 1998 Chicago (the Fire win the double) 1999 Rhinos (or did they just make the final?) 2000 ? 2001 Galaxy (who can forget Lalas' silly goal-scoring jaunt)
because whether you like it or not, money IS an issue for these guys... I promise you there are more making less than $40K a year on this team than there is making more than that. In fact I can think of several (more than five) that are making less than $30K... I agree that playing the game for the love of it would be ideal, but this is the real world.
Anyone know if MLS pays bonus money to teams for making it to the MLS Cup? Certainly most pro sports leagues give bonus money to teams making it to the championship game (and often players will get bonuses just for making the playoffs), but I haven't heard of MLS doing so.
No second guessing for me. One game had to be mostly reserves. The next two will still be hard but there was no guarantee of a win with the starters minus Oscar in Denver. If they had done it that way and lost what would the mood be now? The way it happened should make them angry that they didn't get out of Colorado with at least one point and hopefully they will take it out on LA. Then Thursday they have to fight through it for a full three and would have no matter how they did the personel for the first two games. If you are mad be mad at the schedule makers who could have done this differently but of course ask yourself which of the four remaining teams has no owner and the question is answered.
We need more than just ONE big thing to win every year. As fans let's support the Open Cup to help it become more and more important. The teams just need the schedulers to treat Open Cup and MLS games as both being important. They need to schedule the Open cup games sooner so MLS can schedule around them better. Or, MLS needd to have a couple of dates with at least 3 days before and after with no MLS games scheduled. The open cup would then agree to use those days.
Pegasus is right. I am mad at the schedulers and the Open Cup in general, though I'm not sure whether it's them or MLS to blame for this mess. I don't blame the players at all for wanting to go for the money. But as a fan, the Open Cup has ruined the most exciting and critical part of our regular season. It's too bad because the Open Cup should be a cause for excitement, but it's turned out to be a real drag.
I am not second guessing the decision of going with the reserves in the Colorado game. I was just second guessing bringing in Cerritos instead of a defender late in the game after they fought so hard to overcome a two goal deficit. The team's desire for pulling the double plus the Pareja suspension made the decision academic as to which game he was going to empty the bench. La locura rojinegra.
I have no problem with the lineup or the subs during the Rapids game. It was always going to be tougher to beat the Rapids in Denver than the Metros in Dallas. So, why not go for broke and rest your players and better your Thursday night odds. And then when Jefferies saw the chance to get 3 points at the Rapids - he went for it. It didn't work - no problem - we have won games with this mentality before. You live by the sword and you die by the sword. Now we have rested players for tonight and we have a better chance of getting 3 points on Thursday. I can live with that. What else is he supposed to do for 3 games in 5 days on these tiny rosters. He has to gamble somewhere.
What else? Sorry Northside, but I see it another way. If Denver's the toughest game, don't wait to go for it after 2/3 of the game is over, go with your your starters at the begining of the game. If you want a win start out to win. And when the scheduler's decide to give us a screwed up two days rest for an Open Cup game, that's when you say the odds are aginst me, give it your best shot but leave out the players that you need to win the Thursday game. Take the results of all three knowing you gave it your best shot under the circumstances. I would'nt sacrifices the hard work this team has put in to be where we're at right now because of a bad schedule. Has anyone thought what an MLS Championship could do towards getting a stadium deal done?
No doubt that it would have a very positive impact. However, keep in mind the MLS championship is not being played on Thursday. La locura rojinegra
I guess I should have said it this way: If you have 3 games in 5 days, something has to give. I would give it in the away game and save something for the Open Cup game and the home game against the Metros. 3 points is 3 points home or away, Eastern conf or Western. Not to mention Pareja could not play - that is a negative factor right from the get go, no matter the situation.
We've basically been screwed by the order of the games as much as the number. The obvious solution to a stretch like this is to bring out the bench in the middle game so you can have relatively fresh starters for the most possible games. You sacrifice one game to give yourself the best possible chance in the others. The problem is that we've decided that the Open Cup game is the most important of the three, and it's at the worst possible time, in between. As a result we wind up probably sacrificing two games to have the best possible chance in one. Hopefully it won't turn out that way, but that's the risk we're taking.
True, who know's what the future holds. All I know is we did'nt get any points Sunday and I don't think Thurday's game is a gimmy with Chivas out with a red card and most of the starters playing tonight in the Open Cup!!!