What are the FIRE about? Flares and other stadium atmosphere that is the selling point for the Club with respect to tickets? They used to be about domination. They used to be about opponents peeing their panties at the thought of playing in Chicago. They used to be about 90 minutes of energetic, somewhat attractive (for US standards) soccer. I'm not exactly sure what the Club is about now, and I'm not sure that they are, either. But one thing I will not do is continue to send them $ today in the present and the future as a reward for past accomplishments. People who withhold their money as a protest sign of what is going on are all about the FIRE, too. I hope folks understand that. After the disaster of '04, Wilt wrote a letter to the fans apologizing for the disappointment. I think Andy, Javier, Greeley, Frank, Denise, and all the players need to do the same. Write it up, sign the damned thing, and mail it to all the seasont ticket holders of 2008 and 2009. The "Year of No Excuses," right?
I think the FO will get the message from folks just like you Loco. I for one think we'll see a response from Frank and even Andrew. Like I said, next year's team will be very different than 08/09, and in many ways that can only be a good thing. This was a frustrating 2 years with a team loaded with enough talent to win trophies, the fact that we couldn't means a different course is needed. We just started that course today. I'm not happy by any stretch with where we were as of the final PK, but I'm excited about the changes that must be made to move this team forward (including our FO).
Your defensive midfielder held the opponent to a shutout in 120 minutes and covered the third most ground of anyone on the team. OK, so he missed his shootout attempt, but I don't think that warrants a drop to a 3, especially since we're all in agreement that he probably even shouldn't have been the seventh shooter.
I hope so. I agree that this rebuilding phase is an excellent opportunity. I just do not have faith with some of the folks in charge of the rebuild. I hate to say this, but I would have given Denise an extension had he won the MLS Cup.
RSL wasn't held scoreless because of Pause, RSL was held scoreless because Busch made two or three great saves and Yura Movsisyan pulled a Chad Barrett. They had 17 shots and 8 shots on goal 4 of them were by Yura Movsisyan, just because you cover the most ground dosen't mean you had a good defensive game.
Unbelievably, I went to more Chivas USA games than Galaxy games this year, and I've been a Galaxy supporter since '96. Why?!? Well, the Beckham to Milan loan for half the season really threw me in a loop, but why pay a ridiculous amount of money for a ticket when you can watch the game on TV for free? Sometimes the hardcore supporters forgot that it's the club that works for the fans first and foremost, and that the dedication fans have with their club comes from that understanding. To an extent, I'm still disgusted with the corporate atmosphere that's taken over the Home Depot Center the past two seasons, but what else am I going to do? Giving my money to Jorge Vergara doesn't make me feel any more righteous.
"Our defense, including Pause" and "RSL channeled Barrett" are not mutually exclusive factors. In fact, I'll add a third factor which is also not incompatible with the first two: Like Denis, Kreis told his team to go out there and play not to lose instead of playing to win. At least Kreis had the "playing away" excuse, as much as I think that excuse is overplayed and is a crutch for poor coaching or crappy execution 90% of the time (while acknowledging that it can occasionally be a valid reason if the opponent's stadium has some sufficiently unusual physical characteristic).
I disagree, I thought RSL was playing as offensive as they could, they're not a possession team and do most of the damage on counters, it was hard to counter on us last night but RSL still managed to put 8 shots on goal and take 17 shots, they had much better opportunities then we did.
Every single one of your PK shooters put the ball on frame. Rimando made the saves, but at least y'all made him do it. RSL's misses were misses, Bush didn't have to make a play. When we skied the first one over the crossbar, I figured it was over. I had forgotten that Rimando has extraordinary PK stopping skills. That was the difference, Rimando's ability to stop PKs was greater than our inability to hit PKs. I'm not sure Bush nor your PK takers had much to do with the outcome. They all did their job, Rimando is just more amazing.
Yeah, but all the ones that were on frame were low where Rimando had a chance to save. If they put them higher he wouldn't of had a harder time to save them and we probably would of won. Good luck in Seattle and I hope you guys beat the shit out of LA.
Compared to what they did against the Crew, RSL played very conservatively last night. RSL had a whopping 2 more shots than we did and 5 fewer corners than us and we all pretty much agree Denis went "defense first". IMO, the fact that RSL created better chances than us says more about Denis's poor attacking strategy and McBride's futility than about Kreis's strategy. Both teams were playing to not make a mistake. LA must be salivating at the thought of whupping on RSL next week.
Two of our first five were a gnat hair from smacking the cross bar. We were lucky that they landed just inside the line. It's easy to say, "hit it high" and not quite so easy to do. I'm with Balance. The whole thing is a crap shoot, but you have to put it on frame. You can't hit it under the goal but you can sure as hell put it over. Just ask Espindola, Morales or hell, ask roberto Baggio. People keep ragging on CJ (not sure why since he buried his) Prideaux and Pause, but they all had a better chance of scoring than the magnificent pony tail in WC 94.
But they did go in didn't they, unlike the three low ones. I guess the low approach worked out last night, atleast one of them could of gone the other way. The last three misses were to the right, Rimando left, CJ went to the left and he scored All well, atleast Hamlett will be gone, if they somehow resign him I will not renew my season tickets. I guess we could use the Chicago's best slogan "Wait to next year". I just hope Klopas has a very good offseason, because if he doesn't it's goin to be a very long season next year.
Goalkeepers are often required to make a couple of great saves in a game to preserve a shutout. That doesn't negate what was done in front of htem. If you hold a countering team to no goals in 120 minutes, you deserve more than a 3, unless you slept with my sister. I don't have a sister though.
As usual, you and I see things quite differently. This was a championship game, Chris, and we were 15 minutes from pks. At that point, you keep your horses on the field regardless of how tired they may be. You will never, never convince me that McBride or Blanco were more fit or more able to complete the game than your second best scorer on the field. That is about as pollyannish as you can possibly be. Your continual defense of DH's ineptitudes is about as sickening as watching the game again. When you are in a championship game you go with the horses that got you there and both Rolfe and Pappa were two of those horses--both of whom are unquestionably the two best ball-strikers on this star-laden team. I am not a fan of firing anyone but your continual efforts to side-step and excuse DH for inexplainable decisions is beyond comprehension.
I hate the way the Fire play possession soccer. We have no creative player in the center of midfield to run an attack through. When we possess the ball, we generally pass around the back until we've cornered ourselves and then lump a ball over the top towards McBride. We might have "had the ball" but we weren't going anywhere. We just have too many players who aren't comfortable with the ball and have poor field vision. We badly miss Segares and Conde who are technically far stronger than their replacements. But Pause and Thorrington are both fundamentally destroyers who aren't creative playmakers. It may not have been their preferred style, but RSL to me had much more dangerous possession than we did last night. And to me, a big part of it was their ability in central midfield. For a hard tackling, deep lying central mid, Beckerman is very comfortable with the ball at his feet and is an attacking weapon. He can win balls, and evade pressure, and distribute. Their who midfield is attack minded.
How bad is one of your central midfielders when everyone in the stadium including Rimando knows he's going to try to sidefoot pass a PK into the net? If only the net had been on the corner of the 18, then he would have been in his natural position of playing the pass six yards behind him. At least the ball was sitting still on the penalty spot, so Pause didn't have to trap it first ... still didn't help him score, though. Pause is a college-level player.
What planet is this guy living on? He took one of the most talented, well-paid, experienced, skilled squads in the league and failed to win a single trophy in 2 years. Sometimes I wonder if there isn't some backroom secret reason for some of the decisions that he makes, like maybe there is some sort of chemistry issues with the players and thats why he tries some of the lineups he does. Of course... if the simplest answer is the right one... its because he's an idiot.
Still feel like I got sucker punched last night. Waiting to get out of the ********ing parking lot just gave me too much time to dwell on it. Makes me wish I had shoved that RSL flag up the ass of the mormon moron who sat behind me.
Keep pretending that Blanco and McBride weren't average MLS performers at best over the last two years just because their names and histories indicate they should have been stars. Keep pretending Conde's attitude wasn't trash and that Mapp showed any interest in developing his fitness or his game into a more well rounded version. This "skilled squad" stuff is garbage. We're an average MLS team who will now enter a rebuilding phase. We finished tied for 5th in MLS this year and likely wouldn't have qualified for the playoffs if we were in the Western Conference. At some point, we'll begin to own up to the shortcomings of this roster but getting to the finals of the Eastern Conference by beating a well below-par NE team probably delayed that day.
Average MLS performers does not equate to without skill or talent... there are plenty of good reasons why such a quality player such as Blanco might underperform for a team. I can't think of any of those reasons right now but i'm sure if I put my thinking cap on I could come up with a few. I mean... clearly a player who RAN THE ENTIRE ********ING GAME against the USMNT in Mexico City and has run the show for Mexico throughout the Hex is past his sell by date and is no longer able to cut it on the field. I would take the time to disect the flaws regarding the rest of your horribly misguided views regarding our "average" squad but frankly, and I apologize if this seems impolite, but I doubt someone of your intelligence is going to be able to turn on a computer succesfully more than once in a year.
I would still like Denis to explain to why it's possible for Blanco to play behind 2 forwards and look like the man while playing for the Mexican national team, but he has to play forward for the Fire with only McBride ahead of him.