No, no, SoccerTim's eyes did not deceive him. Twice in a relatively short span Cunningham was open with only the keeper to beat and passed rather than shooting. It was quite a spectacle, as it came in the middle of a stretch when Jeff insisted on shooting from impossible angles through four defenders rather than make an open pass to the wing. "More selfishness" is probably not the answer, as everyone else points out. Better decisionmaking is more like it.
At least then I could live with the result. The problem was that our boys busted their collective butts out there. Only by the grace of God (I think Allah, God, Buddha, Confucious, etc. all had a hand in it) did we not score. Whereas the Open Cup match was frustrating because our boys were playing like sh!t, last night was frustrating because our boys were playing excellently -- just not hitting the back of the net...
The one that really got me was early in the second (I think) when Jeff got the ball at the top of the box with his back to the goal and a defender in his pants. BMB was absolutely unmarked to his left, somebody (Mais?) equally alone to his right, so of course JC tries to do a 180 and shoot. Goes about four furlongs right. The best strikers in the world don't try that: even the average Brazilian would be embarassed that he tried.
I haven't seen much of the Crew this year, so my wording of Cunningham "needing to be more selfish" may be inappropriate (or, wildly inappropriate). I will stick with the rest of the post. There have been two or three times each game where Cunningham gets past a defender inside the box at a decent angle and instead of shooting he passes the ball into the middle (which is too crowded for anything good to happen). We have players who will pass up shots in the box, but not our leading scorer.
I normally don't get too fired up about Cunningham because, as with all players, you take the supposed good with the supposed bad. But this play, as Bill described, really frustrated me. There were so many simpler options but for some reason Cunningham decided to shoot. Oh well, I guess that's the way it goes. Have I mentioned yet that last night's match was frustrating? Or frazzling? By the way, the Crew's record in MLS playoff semifinals: 2-7-1. Take that for what you will.
It was obvious Greg told everyone...everyone to send big balls into Brian. Stupid. why can't we work the ground....and he dropped Cunningham back a little for Dante up...cunningham did not look pleased with this set up. And it was a mistake...Dante doesn't have the touch for some of the balls he got. Maise...what was that performance anyway? Martino should hae been in for him first half. for being up a man, and down a goal..our mid did not push...I was hoping we would have everybody up. Our attacking three at most was not going to do it. It looked like we waited until ten minutes left to really go forward in mass. ???? Sat. should be interesting. Glad it's TV this time...watching it twice was torture.