For the Railhawks...that was the worst collection of 18-30 yard shots I've ever seen a so-called professional team amass in one match. The fundamentals were for shit. I'd be disturbed if my U-7s were leaning back THAT FAR THAT OFTEN. Pathetic.
Just watched the game on DVR because I couldn't make it last night... I love the SAS atmosphere - the crowd looked really good on tv and the field looked great. The two FSC announcers were actually pretty good too. They told a lot of side stories about players that actually related to the game instead of the stupid human interest stories DOB likes to tell during MLS games. They also seemed really knowledgeable about all the players, the league, and the North Carolina area soccer scene (knew alot about State/UNC/Duke history, mentioned CASL). Alot of good press for Carolina though, the announcers would not stop talking about how good the first year has gone. As for the game, we had a lot of good possession, but like mentioned above, the shooting was absolutely horrible, Worthen especially. Our defense had a couple of breakdowns and sloppy passes, we're lucky it wasn't 3-0.
Well, that would be because Dean Linke, the voice of the RailHawks was one of the two announcers on FSC last night. I thought he did a good job too, but probably could have slowed down a little bit...he's too used to talking for radio.
Regarding Steele - I think he certainly has more "flair" than most of the players... he and Edozien are the most exciting attacking players. He also seems to have the best dead-ball delivery on the team. His defensive game looked a bit better last night. I find it odd that he's been playing on the right side of midfield - he seems to be the best left-footed crosser, and every time he wants to cross the ball from the right, he stops it, and takes time to re-orient himself to put it on his left. This, often, allows the defense to turn and face out, lowering the danger of the balls he puts in, which, last night, were lofted in-swingers, as opposed to driven crosses curling away from the goalkeeper. In consequence, the offensive threat he poses seems a bit watered-down on that side of the field. On last night's game - The team looked rusty, sloppy, and unfocussed again. There were some good moments in the first half - it seemed there was a concentrated effort to put crosses in, and some of the offensive players appeared, to me, to be running into different positions than they have in the past, pointing to some directed practicing? Unfortunately, this resulted in only one really dangerous opportunity - Edozien's header that was tipped over. There were more bad touches and passing than usual... Frankie, Caleb, and Stokes all had sub-par games. Maher might have won half of his headers... but many of his flicks trickled tamely toward the keeper rather than moving laterally to create dangerous opportunities for onrushing offensive players. Worthen had several fantastic looks at goal as the Sounders d seemed content to let him cut inside, unpressured, 25 yards out... unfortunately, 3/4 efforts were well off-target, and the one on target shot skipped tamely directly into the keeper's hands. The 'Hawks did put a lot of effort in over the last 15, and finishing the game with two absolutely terrible errors by sub Long, and then a mis-kick from McClellan, was a sad way to end the evening. Regarding the crowd last night - I thought the atmosphere in 204 was pretty good. The rest of the stadium seemed fairly quiet, though. I would also like to point out that some of the people in 204 need to learn when NOT to bang on things - people had to be told to be quiet during the national anthem, as well as during the African choir performance... nobody bothered to say anything during the dance team, though. I'd like to see the section be a little more respectful to the non-game performances in the stadium.
Agreed. I will try to be more vigilant and quell it if I hear it. I was proud of 204 for carrying the National Anthem though when the singer's microphone started cutting out. One other thing I did do last night was teach a couple of kids a few lessons in supporters etiquette: a) Never throw stuff (streamers, ice, whatever) on your OWN goalkeeper's net/penalty area b) Never blow a whistle in the stands when your team is on defense, lest our defenders hear it and pull up, even for a half a second.
I would say don't blow a whistle, period. I know the kid was 10, 12 years old, max, but I'm surprised his parents let him take that thing in with him. I also wish they had caught it at the gate, since it was around his neck for all to see.
Whistles in the stands at soccer games are pretty common, not like in most other sports where you can pretty much get tossed for such behavior. It's funny how that works.
So I would imagine it doesn't feel that good to be SHUT OUT by a punk, does it? You could say... Seriously, you don't even know the guy. Your teenage smack (and judo, and karate and hickbilly Carolina slang) is no good here.
he had ONE touch on the ball, the rest were our shots going wide...if we were on our game Eyelander was going to eat it big time... i thought the final 20 minutes in the deopt was probably the best we have been this season....it was alot of fun jumping to ole ole ole ole for 20 whole minutes lol... Like i said, the game was dissapointing...i dont think Maher has the pace yet and he should be benched...i think Schweitzer needs to give Norkus a chance to play up front where he belongs, he was a defensive liability last night...he HANDED their strikers the ball on multiple occaisions in which Chris had to bail us out... AND FOR GODS SAKE GET THAT BALL ON NET!!!
Does he take the time to flip them off, too? He's a punk, and we got inside his head. By the way, can he even punt the ball? Seems like he had to put it down on the ground every time he wanted to kick it away. ....
I listened in on the radio from NJ guys. Although the players didn't measure up, the supporters section was excellent. I'm sad I couldn't be there to help in the debauchery. I will see you guys on the 23rd though. Charleston's going down!!!!!!
As Brandon said, we did very little to give Eyelander a chance to show if in fact he's a good goalkeeper or not. The one tip save over on the Edozien header was good. The only difference in our two teams over two games that I can see, is Le Toux taking his chances when they are handed to him and our forwards not reciprocating. I did think it a bit odd though that Eyelander felt in necessary to flip off the supporters section during the game. Seemed a bit childish (rehash the whole discussion about the RailHawks flipping off the Timbers Army if you like...I think the same thing applies in both cases).
I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't run around flipping people off or throwing punches at his enemies. In fact, I'm almost positive there's something in the Bible about that. Our goalkeeper loves the Lord, too, so I'm not sure what your point here is. I'm not one to shut up or run away with my tail between my legs just because a scoreline didn't go in our favor. And what I'm going to take away from the match is that your keeper felt the need to respond to some loudmouth yahoos in the stands instead of focusing on the happenings on the pitch in front of him. If I was a Sounders fan, that lack of concentration would not be very comforting. So as far as I'm concerned, the score is 204 Depot 1, Eylander 0
I am sure the Fighting Featherballs were not on the attack (such as it was) when you got what was coming to you from Eylander. His multi-tasking has always been top-notch. Consider yourselves plucked by a better-coached club. Allez Le Toux!
You're right. The bird flew the coop after yet another time when Eylander put the ball down on the ground to kick it away, since he is apparently incapable of punting the ball. Because I was too busy focusing on him I didn't see where the ball went, but I'm guessing there's a better than average chance he kicked it straight to a RailHawk since his distribution was about as good as Waterreus's in the Red Bulls/Wizards game last night.
I'm not sure a war over goalkeeper distribution is where you want to go with this after watching McClellan repeatedly spray balls out of play and to the opposition for the last couple of weeks.
Wow. Might want to think about, oh...I don't know...noticing your own club occasionally. Ripping the opponent does not mean you love your club more. It means you are distracted from your own guys and backing them more.
Ever stop to think that when kicking a ball, you can get much greater distance, and accuracy, when kicking the ball off the ground, as opposed to punting? And to prove my point, just take a look at gridball. The average NFL punt is approximately 40 yards from scrimmage, plus 10 for the distance behind the line the ball is kicked, whereas kickoffs average over 75 yards. You are also less likely to put the ball off the side of your foot kicking from the ground, than punting the ball. Watching the match on FSC, I saw McClellan shank at least three punts straight out of touch, and all of them were short of the midfield stripe.
And yet, after safeties, when teams have the option, they ALWAYS choose the punt. Why? Hang time. I wonder if punters could kick it 75 yards if they didn't have to worry about hangtime. Remember, on a kickoff, the kickers get 10 free yards, and a running start, so hang time is less important.