http://www.1460thefan.com/tf.php?story=dispatch/news/sports02/oct02/1518960.html Article on the scrap heap rejects ERRR Crew defenders (Dunseth, Denton, McCarty).
I'd like to rubbish your comments out Andy. Denton has had a fine season, as has Dunseth. I defy anyone, especially in the case of Denton to say anything to the contrary. Denton has been a revelation on the left, and Dunseth has chipped in with some scrapy play. Both are subject to mistakes of course, but on the whole I think they've done beautifully. McCarty I truly believe that we've not seen the best from him yet. Give it time, he's off an injury plagued season last year, and is only now getting his feet back under him. From what I understand he has incredible work ethic, I hope he has a monster offseason.
I agree Dunseth has had a very good season and has easily been our most consistent defender. As for Denton, he filled in at midfield when needed, which isn't his natural posistion, and if he keeps up the good work in the back on the left Torres may be moved to a central defender role. (Speaking of Torres, isn't it funny ghow in the beginning of the year we had the highest hopes for him, now you don't hear a word about him). But I'm really not suprised at Andy's initial post up there, this is the guy who went over to the Quakes forum and told them they deserved to win, all in an effort to make his first friend.
we probably shouldn't take the piss out of andy too much, the last thing I need today is a lecture. Even though he really has made a clear error in judgement.
I don't care too much about this sAndy stuff... However, I did get chills when I read that article. In particular: "When I first got here I saw this team had a strong base to win a championship,'' Dunseth said. "Now we're two wins away from playing for it.'' Now we're two wins away from playing for it....
In my opinion, in the grand scheme of things, the Crew backline as a "whole", and that INCLUDES the 3 mentioned in the article, is a definite drop off from what we had last year. All this year, it has been stated time and time again, that the Crew's weakness has always been defense this year. Bill Archer has even stated that while the rest of the league got better this year after the disperal draft and such, we ended up scraping the bottom of the barrel to get Dunseth, McCarty, and Denton. Zak, Chad McCarty is a walking YELLOW CARD. Was that way when he was with the Mutiny (R.I.P.) and he is still a hack. hang, I clearly stated the Quakes deserved BETTER, not necessarily to WIN. Who knows what would have happened if the Crew ended up being down 2-0 at the half? We have seen the Crew come back from similar deficits before.
I stick with my assesment, we've not seen the best from Chad yet, and he's no more a yellow card risk than Dunc, I don't see anyone so quick to criticize him for it.
Andy, you are a clown. You can't ever admit when you may be wrong, its sad. Oughton has proven his worth to this team is much more than that of a walking yellow card, And McCarty had perhaps his two best games of the year in the San Jose series. But instead of saying that they are rising to the occasion, you decide to take cheap shots. Unreal.
I can live with the back four we have, and Leitch. Just keep Torres off the field...now there's a walking yellow card if I've seen one.
Funny how I didn't say that Oughton wasn't proving his worth to the team. Those were YOUR words, not mine. Duncan has been a great addition to the team, with his aggressive play in the D-mid spot, not to mention he's one of the VERY FEW Crew players willing to take a shot from beyond the 18 yard box. With that said, his youthful aggression sometimes does get the better of him. In game #2 of the SJ-CLB match, I saw at least 2 occasions where the ref could have shown him yellow and I would have silently agreed with the call. I will take Duncan Oughton on my team, ANY day of the week, when it comes down to it. Yes, McCarty did have a good series against San Jose, considering Yallop was trying to get Lagos AWAY from Chad in game #2. I'm speaking of his overall play this season, in which his lack of speed and his "ability" to commit rather heinous fouls in bad spots has hurt the team.
so I have to agree on Torres. What a disappointment. He is too slow to keep the quicker forwards from turning the corner on him, and he responds by grabbing the guy and pulling him down. We thought he'd be aq force, instead of a liability. There are some serious discussions to be had here after 10/24 to be sure. And absolutely, Andy, I DID say that, but it's a statement of fact; Denton and Dunseth were in fact taken at the end of the draft when everybody else was passing. McCarty wasn't even picked THEN, but in a special waiver draft two days later for guys who were so bad nobody wanted them for free. But the addition of Leitch, and the emergence of Busch, has put some bite into our defense, and Oughton's increasingly pivotal role in the midfield has played a factor as well. Maybe the biggest change though has been tactical. Remeber "in the second half we decided to let them have as much posession as they wanted"? Remember getting a goal up at 55 minutes and sending in three more back line players to "hold the lead" for 45 minutes or so? No more of that crap. No more of asking the back line to be perfect under a 40 minute barrage of opponents simply teeing off. Now we go a goal up and you're likely to see more OFFENSE put on the field. So the defensive task has changed considerably. Opponents are running counters at us, but they are seldom getting the chance to set up their midfield accross the field and make runs into the box. Additionally, guys like West and Buddle are coming back with the wingers, so the quick-cross guys like Beasley just disappear(Ain't gonna outrun either one of them - Mr Ralston, meet Mr West) and Oughton is playing less like a stopper and more like a libero. (A def/mid or "stopper" is responsible for the first attacker downfield, usually but not always a forward, but a libero goes to the ball. Actually, I'm sorry I brought this up because some of you will kick my ass for that definition.Ah well) It's all change, it's all good, it's mostly growth as opposed to plugging in this guy or that. And, frankly, Andrulis gets the lions' share of the credit. Whole new ball game.
Clark on the reference to the midwestern attitude McCarthy has ...nose to the grindstone, linesman attitude, piano carrier.....too clasic.
I couldn't agree more, Bill. Isn't it nice to see a team play to it's strength (offense) instead of trying to put more duct tape on the crack and letting the pressure build. These guys have come along as the year progressed. McCarty is rapidly becoming one of my favorites to watch on D. He and Clark add a little edge to the others -- who now play with the same tough guy attitude. Greg has developed the players and team as the year progressed AND evolved his own strategies for late game. You didn't see him making the same mistakes against SJ as last year. Kudos