Official DC United vs Columbus Crew PRE Match Thread DC United vs Columbus Crew • Saturday, October 4, 7:30 EST • • Live on HDNet, CSN and Shootout. • DCUnited.com Match Preview - Including TV, Radio and Webcast Information • MLSNet Match Notes • English Webcast - WMET • Other Webcasts • PBP Chat Information • Note • I'm not 100% sure about the TV information. MLSNet hasn't posted their weekly schedule yet. But it looks like it is on Shootout at the least. This post will be updated later in the week for corrections and additions. Items in gray will be updated once available or confirmed. No Flames • No Trolls
An important fact about this match: If United wins, they clinch at least a tie with Columbus for fourth place....and a playoff spot.
I remember the days when Columbus was the Tina to our Ike. Here's hoping we can make that happen again. Sachin
What, the one who went on to be successful while the latter became a disjointed mess and slipped into obscurity .... heehee ... I too miss the days we used to beat them like a redheaded stepchild, like NJ. Man, I hope we somehow find the fortitude to go up there and tough this out for a win. As many games as we've played, and with the players we're missing, I may be happy with a tie. ... We all laugh at a yellow football team.....
My daughters and I sing this in our mini-van whenever I put The Yellow Submarine. DC United-2 Columbus-1 DC United needs to bounce bad from a heart-breaking US Open Cup loss, in which quite frankly it did not look too good.
So if DC wins they in effectivley clinch a playoff spot? YEEESSSS! Who will televise the playoffs, or will it be like the season, w/ several carriers? Thanx to whoever answers this.
With Dema, Petke, and possibly Ivanov out due to yellow card accumulation, this could be a tough one. That said, I think DC United will pull through and win 2-1.
Earlier in the week MLS Net listed Ivanov as a suspended player. Today only Petke and Kovalenko are suspended. While Galin hasn't been the best defender, it's nice to have him available given the other suspensions and injuries. This is not going to be an easy game for DC. Rimando and Olsen were big parts of the team's recent success. So are Kovalenko and Petke. After a bitter home tie and a loss in the Open Cup semifinals, it's time to find out how tough this team really is.
Now that we are out of the Open Cup its time to concentrate on the MLS playoffs. A win in Columbus would be huge for us. Can Dema play this weekend? I thought I read that he has accumulated too many points. With so many people hurt and all the points handed out against the metroscum can we field a team? Glad to see Stoitchkov is ready to play some again. Say what you want about the old warrior but he still has game. Bobby has been playing like crap recently, anybody else wish We had Olsen and not Convey? I think we can take them but someone tell Ivanov to stay on his mark especially if it is Bundel or McBride - both can kill you in a heart beat. Excited about this game because it means so much and I won't have to watch any scum. -The Far Side
This never fails to crack me up. I'd feel a lot better about this game if it was at home. We never seem to do well in Columbus.
I'd have to assume that Chino gets the start at D-mid and Namoff starts at outside back. Namoff has had a great season but doesn't surge down the flanks on attack and Alegria is a liability with the ball (on Richie Williams sprays more passes to the other team from that spot). I suspect (given the injury situation, the personnel likely to start, on the road, Hudson's tendencies this year on the road) that this team will try to keep it's defensive shape and seek to counter. My preference would be Stewart at A-mid with Thiago Martins and Cerritos up top. If Etcheverry starts, I don't think he'll have the legs (or the support) to be successful in that kind of scheme.
This is gonna be a tough game to win what with all the players out. You would think that opur lineup would be something like this: ---------------Warren Ivanov---Nelsen---Prideaux---Namoff --------------Alegria Quintanilla----------------Convey ------------Etcheverry -----Stewart--------Cerritos However, as Joe reminds us above, Hudson often puts out more of a defensive team on the road. Given that Alegria at d-mid does not send out positive vibes, I wonder what Ray might do. Here are some possibilities: 1) Bench Etch, move Stewart to a-mid, insert Martins. Overall more defense with Stewart not really playing the a-mid role. Rather he'll acr like he did @ SJ. 2) Same initial lineuup but with Namoff more of a d-mid and Q2 and Convey more defensive: a defensive 352. 3) Insert Stokes in defense, move Namoff to d-mid next to Chino, and remove either Etch or Cerritos. My guess is that Etch will play, but our offense will be poor due to the defensive lineup. We hope for one goal.
Maybe I'm missing something but I don't think that's true. If DC wins we'll have 40 points and the Crew will have 31. The Crew have three games left after this so the most they could get is 40 points. So if we lose all our remaining games the Crew will be level with us at 40. The first tie-breaker is head to head. Right now we're tied at head to head - each team with one home win by a score of 3-0. If we win we'll obviously pull ahead of the Crew in the head to head competition BUT there's still one more game. The Crew would have to win it AND make up for their OVERALL goal differential deficit but theoretically it's possible. So I don't actually think we can clinch with a win. But maybe I'm missing something. The MLS tie-breaking procedures always did confuse me ... Here they are, by the way - about halfway down: http://www.mlsnet.com/about/regulations/
You're right. I didn't bother to look at all the tie-breaking scenarios. But in terms of the standings and point totals, we would clinch a tie.
Not exactly. Our 'Magic Number' to clinch a playoff berth is 7. That's a combination of points gained by DC United and lost by Columbus. ( A Win this weekend is 3 points for a United win AND 3 points that Columbus did not get...for 6 points against the magic number).
Prideaux will need to be careful because he has picked up cards in his last two games. If he picks up one against Columbus he will miss the game against NE for having yellows in three consecutive games. Also, Ivanov needs one more to go over 21 Caution Points.
The television information has been confirmed by Soccer America Confidential. "GAMES ON TELEVISION (all times ET unless noted) SATURDAY, Oct. 4 MLS SHOOTOUT PACKAGE MLS COLUMBUS-D.C. UNITED (live) 7:30 pm. DirecTV: 794 Dish Net: 457 CHICAGO-LOS ANGELES (live) 8:30 pm DirecTV: 796 Dish Net: 461 DALLAS-NEW ENGLAND (live) 10:00 pm. DirecTV: 797 Dish Net: 460 HDNET MLS COLUMBUS-D.C. UNITED (live) 7:30 pm. FOX SPORTS WORLD MLS CHICAGO-LOS ANGELES (live), 8:30 pm."
I like the sentiment but already we won't have Nelsen for the Revs match; there's a good chance we won't have Prideaux too. Losing Ivanov would be bad in this case. If that happened then we'd just have two defenders in Petke and Namoff. No, I don't count the lepers, er rookies Stokes or Carroll as defenders. Obviously they aren't good enough for MLS yet. Ray says so.