We have seen these kinds of collapses before from the Crew. To my eyes, the Crew is a psychologically fragile team. One or two things go wrong in a match and they loose concentration, focus, and confidence. Opponents have noticed this and most opponents open with high pressure on the Crew. Against Dallas, we did it to ourselves. Sauro’s injury was a bad break. Higuain for some reason went back to his failing “stutter step” penalty kick. I thought he had learned better. Pick your shot, kick it hard and decisively. Change your mind second guessing and, well, we saw what happens - his penalty shot wasn’t even on goal. Does the Crew have a team psychologist?
I am thankful that my two year old son does not know how bad Crew lost in the match he witnessed last night.
I wouldn't go that far. Ethan was A threat to score several times. He just didn't do a very good job. Trapp was trying desperately to shoot towards the end, but the shots were blocked. Same with Tchani. JackMac on the other hand was useless. As was Speas. And Pipa was hanging back or running backwards. My hat goes off the FC Dallas defensive game plan. They executed the bunker defense perfectly.
McInerney was very disappointing; it's obvious why he didn't stay it at his previous clubs. Pipa was playing so poorly, I actually expected him to miss that PK when he took it. The telecast gave his career PK statistic, I think it was his 6th miss out of about 17 attempts (sorry, I can't fact check that). However, I do believe he should have missed it on purpose, FWIW, since the penalty seemed to me to be a horrible call. Finlay was curiously absent until the end of the game. Speas was not so curiously absent his entire game. Tchani played well overall, but he played a big part in two of the goals. He should moved to cover Harris on the first goal. His lazy pass to Saied turned the ball over to Dallas on the third goal. Clark was not good. In years past, the better Crew keepers have often stepped up to make big saves, whether it was Busch, Hesmer, Gruenebaum, or Friedel. Clark hardly ever seems to step up to make the big save. On the first goal, Clark stays near the center of the goal despite the ball being headed toward a very acute angle. I don't blame Clark too much for the second goal, yet somehow he didn't come close to blocking the ball despite being only yards from the attacker. Most keepers would have saved Texeira's shot had it been taken from the penalty spot. Yet Clark couldn't stop it from 20 yards out. He is still getting his feet set as the ball is dribbling past him one yard away. Wahl's run at the tail end of the second goal, directly toward Barrios, Parkhurst, and Clark, as has already been mentioned, is quite baffling. Had he continued on toward goal in a cover position, there is a very good chance he could have blocked the ensuing weak shot. Overall, I think the Wahl plays much better than he is given credit, I don't understand why he is constantly bashed on these boards, but that certainly an odd decision by him. On the plus side, the Crew were able to get many crosses into the penalty area. As has far too often been the case this season, hardly any of these crosses came anywhere near a Crew attacker. I mostly blame the cross takers for this. At one point Saied hit what could have been a very good cross, landing about eight yards in front of goal, but no Crew player was near. Despite his having eyes, he seemed mystified. Higuain was at least energetic enough to threaten to make the dangerous pass, there were several times he had a chance to make one, yet he somehow didn't see it. Tchani, in particular, was open for several passes in very dangerous positions but didn't get the ball. I would like to see Trapp take more of the free kicks. I don't know how good his accuracy is, but he can at least hit the ball well. Jimenez is a poor defender, but does OK on attack. Could Finlay, Jimenez or Saied have been moved to the left, with Saied playing wing back? The Crew definitely need to find a replacement for Higuain as PK taker. The 3-0 result for Dallas was very flattering, they did not play well.
That was a game the Crew should have won, even with all our absences. Dallas played 5 young homegrowns, most of whom had little experience. They also had a few journeymen out there like the famous goon Atiba Harris. But the Crew were tactically inept. Our set piece defending continues to be bad. We missed a PK. We served a lot of crosses with nobody going to the back post. We subbed in a D-mid. How about Schoenfeld for Speas to get someone in the box who might be able to knock down a cross and hope for a lucky bounce?
In regards to Clark: what games are you watching? Clark has kept us in games numerous times. He seems streaky though. Some games he makes several incredivle saves and some games he can't save even shitty shots (like last night). On Wahl: mostly because he's slow and does very little, especially offensively. He only plays the ball to Trapp or Parkhurst in the middle or to his wingback. Unless Pipa or Tchani happen to call for it when they have come back within 5 yards of him. The few occasions he sends long balls, they're terrible. Pogatetz and Parkhurst actually add something to the attack with their distribution (Parkhurst isn't particularly consistent about it though) Wahl also misses his marks on set pieces frequently. On Jimenez: I thought he was better defensively last night. Mostly because I think he was terrible offensively. His crosses were garbage (not all his fault-Dallas' was bunkering). He also gave up on several balls he could have gotten to. His passes were slightly off too. I'm really glad he's been relegated to a backup role.
9 star players? Ben Swanson hasn't played a minute all season. Kevan George is a star? Trapp was back. And I thought everyone here hated Meram? MLS should do something about the scheduling, but let's not pretend that is the reason we lost. GB praises our depth until we have to watch them play. But there was no tactical adjustment with the change of personnel. How many more crosses were we planning on lobbing to their giant defenders? We're not the same team without Kei, but we tried to play the same way and it failed. In spectacular fashion. Expected more from Speas (even if he is the 5th choice at outside mid) and Jimenez (wasteful with the ball). Jack missed a sitter. And something has to be done about the Wahl/Parkhurst pairing because it hasn't worked since we beat the tire fire that is Chicago.
We were missing our wingbacks, LM (Cedrick, and meram is decent off the bench), and Kamara. We were missing 40 % of our field starters. That makes a difference. Plus, you can mention that a starter got injured in the 1st 5 minutes, even though we don't know what we have in Sauro.
That seems to be the easy answer in regards to player performance. His numbers Games Played - 49 Games Started - 15 Minutes Played - 1,550 Goals Scored - 4 Minutes Per goals - 387
If you were on the field playing 3G's system and you have Wahl playing in the back, wouldn't that be enough for you to loose confidence?
Does anyone even remember Klute went 90? I swear the guy was just standing around most of the time like he was stoned.
Welp, that happened. Lack of starters hurt, and then combined with an injury in the 3rd minute, plus a PK miss, that kind of stuff can really weigh on players' minds. Considering the players we'll have back next week though, it should be an easy game to move on from.
We have learned something: if they couldn't get on the field for this, Pogatetz and Steindorsson will be gone in the offseason.
Andrew King @AndrewKingMLS 55m55 minutes ago Gregg Berhalter isn't ready to call Gaston Sauro's injury a concussion yet. Said fractures, etc. could still be in play. #CrewSC Andrew King @AndrewKingMLS 55m55 minutes ago Sauro spent the night in the hospital for observation after the match. He'll see a neurologist today. Adam Jardy @AdamJardy 59m59 minutes ago Gaston Sauro out of the hospital and being evaluated. No timeline for return to field yet. #CrewSC ----- Adam Jardy @AdamJardy 22s22 seconds ago Gaston Sauro is out of the hospital but not out of the woods yet. Full update: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/sports/2015/09/08/0907-crew-sauro-injury.html… #CrewSC #MLS
I suspect you'll have to wait until 2016. I think we just saw his only 3 minutes of the year last night.
I wouldn't doubt it. In that case, hopefully Pogatetz gets back into the line up, although I have a feeling he might not be around next season.
To put a tactical point on why we lost, when an opponent bunkers in, you need to use the wings near the endline. Neither Jimenez nor Klute were able to take the ball to the endline and whip a cross through the box. Most of our crosses were from the top of the penalty box, which have no chance with the numbers that Dallas had back there. My other comment is about JacMac. I really did not see a lot of him at Philly or Montreal but I was expecting a poacher. You know..... not terribly fast or tremendously skilled at making his own shot, but quick to the ball and with a nose for the goal. Last night, Jack seemed ridiculously slow to react to loose balls in the box, and not being able to roll a sitter into the net makes me wonder about what we purchased exactly..... I know that getting a forward better than Schoenfeld is a low bar to be considered a success. However, why does the Crew always have to trip on the hurdle bar and land head first on the other side?
I think it's safe to say that McInerney would have looked a lot better and been a lot more open if Afful, Francis, and Cedrick/Meram would have been on the field drawing defenders out wide faster. Credit to Dallas. They played good defense.
6 Thought Box: Well, that went as expected http://www.massivereport.com/2015/9/7/9272227/6-thought-box-well-that-went-as-expected