Official D.C. United vs. Chicago Fire Eastern Conference Semi-final Leg 1 Post-Match Thread[R]

I seemed to recall quite a few situations this season when a lot of firepower was missing from our lineup yet we managed to get results.

3-0 at New England (missing Fred, Gomez and Jaime)

1-0 at Toronto (missing Emilio and Jaime but managed to take a first half lead with Dyachenko and Kpene starting).

Soehn didn't abandon the formation then and shouldn't have abandoned it on Thursday.

My solution would have been to run out Dyachenko and Kpene up top and drop Brian Carroll and go from there.

It's all hindsight now of course. I'm just dissapointed our coach decided to go to an ultra defensive formation with a forward who couldn't score in a brothel with a fistfull of cash.

We basically told the Chicago Fire that we weren't interested in scoring.

 

Man oh man oh man oh man. Obviously, the 4-5-1 formation had something to do with it, but the fact of the matter is that Chicago created 4 or 5 dangerous scoring opportunities while we created -- hmm, what . . . zippo? The fast break where Gomez shanked a pass to Olsen inside the box might have been our most dangerous moment. We had possession all over those guys,especially in the second half. But, if you don't do anything with it, possession doesn't count.

The fact of the matter is that we're darn lucky that we aren't down 2-nil, 3-nil or 4-nil right now. It would be cruel beyond belief to go out in the first round, but we're going to have to prove that we deserve to win to get the win this Thursday.

 

I was in Chicago and had some time with Rob Stone and Julie Faudy pre-game. When they told me that Kpene up top was the only forward, I told them I thought this was the perfect time to be trying a new line-up, which got a decent laugh.
Gomez up top does not work.
Forget about the goal we gave up for a moment.
No one wins games with zero goals. And by all accounts we were playing to win. But the offense was completely anemic, even after Jaime came on.
Our creativity was limited to crosses into the box, which were usually cleared easily. If Fred, Ben, Gomez, and Simms can't successfully beat a player every now and again, we're screwed. Regardless of whether Vanney, McTavish, Burch or even Boswell makes a mistake.
We need to be menacing from the first whistle, and not let down, for 90 minutes. Come on UNITED!

 

Indeed.

 

It reminds me of the corner-kick goal scoring drought of this year.

 

I'd like to point out that the two top seeds in the the league are now down a goal and a game on aggregate.

Yay MLS playoff structure! If they both get eliminated, what does that say about it?

Also, interestingly, both were missing their top two scorers, making the top ten league-wide down 4 total. Yet I don't think anyone here in SoCal is referring to the traditional playoff "curse" between Chivas and Kansas.

 

Are you sure it's not our density?

 

In the unlikely scenario that seeds #5,#6,#7 and #8 advance, it will be a disaster as far as MLS is concerned. Then and only then will they take a closer look at giving teams who finish high in the table the real home field advantage.

 

Apart from going back to the original best of three format, I don't really know what they can do to really give a true home field advantage to the higher seed apart from going to the Mexican system where the higher seed only needs to tie on aggregate to advance or going to a six team playoff where the regular season conference winners get an automatic bye into the semifinals.

 

I think the bye would be a far more palatable idea.

 

I'm in favor of this for a lot of reasons. Or adjust the 8-team playoff so each stage is an elimination game for the higher seed. Why does a team who limps into 8th place deserve a home game anyway?

 

But you forget that Dyachenko was also injured with a bad back and had very little mobility (even over his regular relative slowness )

It is rare these words are spoken without a slick coating of sarcasm



So, other than the Metro's always reliable Playoff Futility, all the "top seed/home field advantage" teams are down 1-0 - how is this an "advantage" again?
If you have a disciplined defense, it seems to me there is NO disadvantage to finish in the bottom half of the playoff table.
*cough*chicago*cough*new england*cough*

There are 3 good possession, fluid, fun-to-watch, attacking teams in the playoffs, they are all trailing at "half time".

 

Then he should go and try out for the mexican dive team, and quit soccer.

 

It's all about money, right? Earning the extra revenue for a home playoff game is important to those who invest in our teams. I'd love to see bye implemented.

At the very least, I'd like to see the first-round series go to one game and the second-round series (Conference championship) be home and away. It just makes more sense to me that way.

 

The number one thing for me is that MLS keeps it at eight teams making the playoffs even as they expand up through 16 by 2010 or whatever the plan is. At least at that point a team like Chicago who is playing better than their seed because of the Blanco addition will probably miss the playoffs entirely. It will also add a lot more meaning to each regular season game if only eight of 16 teams make it in.

Byes and single elimination through the postseason would just be the icing on the cake.

 

The two last teams to qualify for this year's playoffs were Chicago and KC, both of which have floated between conferences over the course of their existences. What would really be weird is if a team like the Revs ended up winning the Western Conference someday.

 

Even then, the Atlanta Braves won the NL West 5 times before they finally switched.

 

Actually, I'd like an even more draconian system. In a 16-team league w/ conferences, only the top three teams in each conference would get into the playoff. The top seeds would get a bye into a two-game Conference Championship, and the next two seeds would play a single play-in game.

That way the regular season would really reward the teams that finished well and there'd be a significant reward for finishing at the top of the conference.

 

FYP.

 

Well, there is the Acapulco cliff-diving competition on Wide World of Sports.

 

Why is this even still open?

This game was so last week.

This week ..... we have a game in a few days, and we need to get ready to bring it loud in the stands. Or in front of our TVs if we're more than 6 hours away

Please, for the love of science, give us a pre-game thread.

We only get two more after this one before February or March

 

I already started a pre-game thread.

I think we need to unsticky this negative looking backwards post-game thread and sticky the positive looking forward pre-game thread I started earlier today.

Who's with me?

 

I thought so, I figured maybe I was insane, I even posted in the dang thing - but I'm on a slow dial-up and this one is all I saw ......... - there are too damn many things stickied and this has no business being one of them