This was the current (Thurs) injury report. The new one should be out tomorrow with the preview. D.C. UNITED -- OUT: MF Lance Rozeboom (L knee ACL tear); DF Daniel Woolard (concussion-like symptoms); MF Stephen King (inguinal hernia repair); FW Josh Wolff (lower back disc herniation) Thx, Jay!
That injury report is missing DeRo's knee and Sahili's contussion or whatever DCU imagines. My guess for the starting XI: Hamid Najar CB1 CB2 Korb Kitchen Saragosa DeLeon Ponti Tan Santos bench: Willis CB3 Boskovic Augusto Pajoy Chabala At Barra Tailgate: Sahili I say 3-1 the other guys only cause I've lost faith until this team can pretend to hold possession.
This would be our best lineup if the goal is to put our best players on the field in a position to play attractive football and go for a win. Still, we seem very focused on lineups that are designed to play ugly football and hopefully "not lose". Not losing is not getting it done. Most likely we will see at least two of the talents below as part of our plan to not lose once again: a) useless running round (Tan) b) useless possession without shots on frame (Pajoy) c) long ball cirque de soleil (McD) d) positional capitulation (Chabala) The fun never stops.
It's good to see that we have guys who shake their spears... comedy indeed! ps-I am not sure why I cannot rep you guys, this new BS is like Jay, Heaps of $hite!
Tuesday/Friday are the days MLS updates the injury report. I posted the one that was current as of Thursday. And evidently they haven't updated the report as of Friday because the same injuries are listed as they were the other day. MLSNet Preview: REFEREE: Fotis Bazakos. AR1 (bench): Eric Boria; AR2 (opposite): Adam Wienckowski; 4th: John McCloskey MLS Career: 8 games; FC/gm: 23.5; Y/gm: 1.6; R: 0; pens: 2 DOWNLOAD FULL GAME GUIDE (PDF) INJURY REPORT: D.C. UNITED — OUT: MF Lance Rozeboom (L knee ACL tear); DF Daniel Woolard (concussion-like symptoms); MF Stephen King (inguinal hernia repair); FW Josh Wolff (lower back disc herniation) NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION — OUT: FW Saer Sene (L knee ACL tear); QUESTIONABLE: MF Blair Gavin (L disc irritation); MF Sainey Nyassi (R adductor strain) INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none SUSPENDED: none WARNINGS: SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: DC: Dwayne De Rosario SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: DC: Emiliano Dudar, Maicon Santos, Chris Pontius, Andy Najar, Dejan Jakovic, Lionard Pajoy, Bill Hamid ; NE: Kevin Alston, Benny Feilhaber, Lee Nguyen, Chris Tierney, A.J. Soares Thx, Jay!
Yeah, the season is falling apart AGAIN, so to keep the sanity we just gotta smile and joke about it. I hope these guys can put together a good performance and beat those Foxborogh bastards!
I agree with this one. 4 healthy defenders kitchen-bosko Najar--------Deleon pajoy- Pontius Pontius was scoring at striker early in the year. Pajoy worked is a$$ off last time out, but hasn't proven to have a nose for goal. His job will be to work off the ball, and show as an outlet in withdrawn position behind Pontius. Also, apply high pressure after the ball is turned over to slow revs' counter. Santos didn't look like himself last game. Bring him in as a sub, if we are searching for a goal. Alternatively, Najar- CB-CB- Korb kitchen- bosko Deleon-------Pontius santos-Salihi. For me, Santos' fitness is a ? , and he doesn't defend as well as Pajoy. Najar often overlaps and gets involved in the attack. This may be dangerous if Boskovic is out there as one of the D-mids, as he also tends to push forward.
As an aside, a lot of people like to bash McD for his distribution. When I watch the games, I see that he often receives predictable back passes from a midfield that fails to move the ball forward. Then, I see poor movement off the ball in the midfield. No one shows for the ball in the midfield. All too often I see players standing, watching McD to see what he is going to do. There is movement by the withdrawn striker. McD then routinely attempts to distribute to the forward, bypassing the stagnant midfield. This is sometime suceeds, but is often 50/50 or a turnover. Good distribution requires hard work off the ball. It is a team activity. Obviously, the extreme example is Barca. It often seems that every player has one or two passing options, after receiving the ball.
This is a products of several players not having confidence in each other. People don't make runs because there's no confidence that McD can find them. Consequently McD has no confidence in passing the ball to the fullbacks or the defensive midfielder because they're not very effective in possession either. This is why I support a backline that includes Jakovic, Dudar and Najar at the same time ... and possibly Woolard when healthy. If those 4 play together regularly, I can see this team improving a lot in possession. I also think we expected way too much from a young inexperienced Kitchen putting him in that d-mid role. This diamond 4-4-2 leaves him alone and outnumbered so many times it's unfair. He needs Boskovic nearby as much as possible to even the playing field.
Distribution out of the back is a long way less important than defending out of the back. RSL offers a low-rent MLS analogue to Barcelona. When a defender wins the ball, they look for dreads and pass it in that direction. Almost every single time. If Beckerman is too tightly covered they send it to the wing. It's almost like an American football quarterback going through options; option 1 is Beckerman, option 2 is Johnson, and so on. They rarely just boot it upfield, unless under extreme pressure.
Nice. These are all great points, and compelling arguments. So, is this all about solid coaching? Simplify and clarify the plan for for distribution? Tying things together... it seems that if you have a simple, well-coached distribution plan (where every one understands their role in transition), you can get away with playing some players in the back line with limited passing/vision skills. Boskovic will never be Beckerman. However, it seems that the pairing Bosko with a now more seasoned Kitchen should be decent options for distribution with the proper scheme/plan. Boskovic could be MUCH more effective, if his movement off the ball were better. I haven't been able to figure out whether this is a fitness, lack of quickness, or lack of desire issue. Hopefully he'll get some PT tonight in the cooler weather.
Uhhh...what? Are we watching the same games? Bosko's routinely floating from space to space, and his numbers (when he plays) are tops on the team, according to the OPTA heatmap stats. He's almost -always- an available outlet in midfield or on the wing...the rare exceptions being when a particularly physical team is constantly mugging him. I think he, Salihi and Pontius have the best/smartest off-the-ball movement on the squad.
How anyone can talk about Bosko's movements without taking into account his solo show against Philly (saving the day) is crazy. His movement is fine. I should say that isn't the only instance where he did well, just the most obvious instance recently.
Just realized the game isn't on tv. Wish I had gone to the stadium instead LOL. Might be better that way anyway.
Our lineup is actually pretty good. I am optimistic so far. Of course not ideal in my opinion but not horrible. DCU: Hamid; Najar, McDonald, Jakovic, Korb; DeLeon, Kitchen, Boskovic, Pontius; Pajoy, Santos. Subs: Willis, Russell, Dudar, Augusto, Tan, Salihi, Neal.
I thought you used to be able to buy one match on MLS live for $5. I can't find an option to do that. Anyone have any info?
Please head here for PBP - https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/dc-united-vs-ne-revs-7-30pm-9-15.1974975/