Post-match: DC v NE Sat 4/14

Great result.

Defensive organization was terrible. Losing Dudar can't be such a problem; they have got to work on that.

Salihi is clearly in his own head.

 

Top five reasons to hate the Revs:

1. Matt Reis has never apologized for the injury that ultimately ruined Eskandarian's career.

2. They're the dirtiest team in the league and have been so for years.

3. From the way they play to their stadium experience, they are the most boring team in the league by a mile and have been so for years.

4. Their MLS Cup record shows what flat track bullies they are.

5. Jay Heaps.

 

Finally. We beat (in league play) the Revolting for the first time since 2008 and the first time at NE since 2007. ******** yeah, Pontius!

 

Huge win.

The Revs have always been a thorn in United's side but this time the good guys won and deserved the win.

I agree Hamdi is pressing a bit too much but I wouldn't yank him just yet. He's going to be going up against two pretty poor defenses (not that the Revs were AC Milan today) in Montreal and Red Bull and he just might break thru. If not, it will be time to start being concerned.

Defensively very loose today and for those of you who still want McDonald to play, his lax marking just drives me crazy. He simply didn't hustle to get back and get in position to defend the cross for the goal. Granted, great cross and great finish, but if McD is in between those two players, it's an easy headed clearance.

McDonald too often gets caught up field and doesn't recover well enough. The beauty of what I've seen so far from Dudar is that he essentially plays a sweeper in the back and most likely would have already been in position to make that play.

Oh well. No better time than Wednesday to break the 86-game back-to-back skid for the boys.

don't take them too lightly.

 

And the Caps round out the, "Suck it, Boston" weekend.

 

Both ending in 2-1

 

I. Can't. ********ing. Breathe.

 

Even DCU's website doesn't use our CSN's from the studio broadcast.

 

Being 2-2-2 feels dramatically better than 1-3-2 would have.

That was a really, really important win. If we can beat Montreal on Wednesday we'll be over .500 for the first time since...well, I don't know. Been a long time, though!

 

Very entertaining match. Great result. Watchu talkin' 'bout, Willis???

 

“[Nick DeLeon] did well to flick the ball in,” Pontius told MLSsoccer.com.

That header was no flick. That was a well deserved assist for DeLeon. He had another very good game. Cruz also worked his butt off after the goal and had a couple of very good shots earlier on. Normally I'd be clamoring for Najar to get back on the field, but its hard to see the need. He will likely get some time in one of the next two games.
I wonder how much squad rotation we'll get for Montreal?

 

Didn't get to see the game because I was trying to watch on Cox... Interesting to note though that it sounds like Pontius is being tested as a possible forward for the time being (worked very well for the very short time before he broke his leg in LA last year):

Can't wait to see what Wednesday's line-up is going to look like. For the first time in a loooong time, it might actually be based on match-ups, instead of just pure 'well, he's automatically the starter when he's fit'.

 

I see that Santos scored. How did he play overall? Did DeRo play and how did he look?

 

Whoa ... lax marking from McD??? McD was exactly where he needed to be on that play. McD was the left side CB, which means he needed to be on the left side of the center forward to defend a potential high cross. Jakovic needed to be just to the right of the center forward to defend the low cross, and of course he wasn't because he was out wide trying to stop the cross from coming in.

Why was Jakovic so far out of position when if he would of been in position he could of cleared that play easily? The answer is because Russell was about 20 yards upfield in no man's land. Jakovic had no choice but to leave his post with Sene coming down the flank unmarked. If you want to blame someone, blame Russell.

Even besides that play I totally disagree on your assessment of McD. He played a great game IMO. He was the glue that held what at this point is a makeshift defense. As much as I like Jakovic, at this point my 1st choice is Dudar - McD.

 

I thought he did OK. Generally the poorest part of our attack was the front line, but Santos seemed the better of the two.

What I like from him is that he roams all over the field to find the game and get touches. He goes up top, out wide, deep ... basically anywhere. What I don't like is that when he gets the ball he takes too many touches and takes too long to do anything. I know he's labeled as the guy that "holds up play", but sometimes I think he could mix it up and try the one touch pass. I know Salihi is starving for a good early ball.

 

I'm glad we won, but the overall quality of play is still not there. I give big kudos to the guys for the hustle and fight to get the win, but I would like to see the soccer "skill" portion of the game shine through for DC.

There were some obviously good moments, as well as combinations of skill & hustle (DeLeon to Pontius for the finish, comes to mind). But there is still way too much kick and chase on offense, and blindly boot (or head) the ball away (mostly to the other team!) on defense.

If they really had the skill, NE should not have even been in the vicinity of the ball for the last 5 - 10 minutes of the match. United should have run them ragged, making them chase the ball. Instead, it was "clear/NE re-load/attack/cross/shoot," time after time. Willis really saved the team's bacon again and again.

If Ben and the other coaches aren't teaching the players to let the air out of the match, there's something very wrong. And if they have been working on that, how long does it take for the players to learn that? They should already know that, IMHO. They're supposed to be professionals.

DC was very fortunate not to have given up the tying goal in the closing moments. I think I was in some kind of cardiac arrest from Pontius' goal until the final whistle blew. I hope we win a lot more games, but I hope to live longer by not being so tense for all of them!

 

Thanks for the info. I'm not surprised by that holding the ball too long but I am surprised if it's on plays where Salihi has run into the space created by Santos' back tracking to collect a pass: he usually looks for that runner on those plays In fact, holding the ball for too many touches is a problem with De Ro when he's pressing and trying to make something happen and not moving the ball quickly enough

 

The above post is a bit unfair I think. NE is an improved team from last year. Sene, Moreno and Nguyen are a handful and Tierney/Alston is one of the best fullback combos in MLS. Also a good central core with Joseph/Feilhaber.

They attacked us from the opening whistle and were challenging well every 50/50 ball in midfield. They definitely came out to attack and score. Credit DC for not being intimidated and matching that attacking mentality and basically beating them at their own game.

You can point to some errant passes/shots or whatever, but the game was being played at a high tempo and that will happen at the MLS level. Bottom line is that winning on the road in this league is tough no matter who you play.

 

I'm not ready to get down on salihi yet. I know he has the talent. Once he gets calm, I think he will start impressing.

Dero had great moments.
the reason why they scored..... Jakovic shouldn't have been forced to defend that cross, he should have been near center. Russell was out of position.
Cruz and deleon fought hard but I missed najars precision at times. I think he could have gotten salihi on a couple of those runs.
Willis had another great game but he has some work to do on free kicks especially.

Sloppy at times but it's a hard place to look good. Happy for the three points.

 

While I agree that Dudar - MacDonald is my first choice defense, I sort of disagree with both you and Cweed - Jakovic and MacDonald both did a poor job on that play. They both have a single guy in the box and they're both 2-3 yards away. Yes, great cross and finish, but with that much space there was plenty of margin for error. I can't disagree with the analysis of Russell's positioning, but MacDonald shouldn't be letting a guy run off his back like that and Jakovic can see that MacDonald doesn't have Moreno, but still didn't manage to pressure him from behind. That was a defensive f--- up on a lot of levels. But I sort of expected it from those two - for whatever reason, they don't seem to be on the same page when defending together. Jakovic and MacDonald just don't seem to make a good defensive tandem; they honestly appear to magnify each other's weaknesses.

 

Gota disagree there and support Chris. For me the Number 1 pairing by a mile is Jackovic and Dudar. McDonald just isn't at the same level. His positioning is terrible and his lack of touch on the ball is alarming.

 

I agree that Santos was okay. His goal was a nice finish and he made a few other good plays or passes. I really loved one play where he tracked back to near our 18 to win a ball. In terms of playing an early ball, Salihi could also learn to play a better one. He had the ball on the wing and waited and waited until there wasn't room to get a nice cross into a teammate's path. I've been underwhelmed by him thusfar. I'd like to get someone else starting in at least one of the next two games. Maybe see how he works off the bench instead? He hasn't been horrible overall (although his shooting was horrible yesterday), but I think he may need more time to acclimate for whatever reason. We have the depth that we can afford to not start him every game.