YES THEY KNOW. "After the goal, we bunkered in, which is always a bad way to play," O'Brien said. FC Dallas manager Colin Clarke noted that just last weekend the same teams played a cracker of a contest, a 4-3 Houston win on a relatively cool night in Houston. "That was definitely a better advertisement for our sport than what we had today," Clarke said. "Today, it was hot. It was slow. ... Thank goodness we don't have any more of these." Read the whole article though. It's pretty candid.
Not in the least. Those are just the two most prominent examples. And I'm just suggesting that maybe people consider the positives and negatives of being so harsh on the coaching staffs. Maybe England play so conservatively because they are afraid of being roasted in the public eye if they take a chance and lose. Personally, I think there is a lot to that. And in FC Dallas' current situation, maybe there is more to the team being tired than you guys are giving them credit for.
Who was tired going into the game? You evaluate players in practice and you determine who needs a break. This is supposed to be the deepest team in the league, right? So, bring in the guys off the bench if players need a rest. Play the freaking 4-4-2 so that you can actually utilize your bench. AA hasn't played in a while, put him in there for O'Brien; give Pitch a run out if Simo needs a break. This fascination with a 4-3-3/4-5-1 is killing us not only from a watchability standpoint, but from utilizing the depth on the team. We are healthy and good enough 2-deep in the 4-4-2 that there is no excuse for playing guys who can't put their best effort on the field.
I think you would have a big argument from an Italian or an Argentine on whether England's national team is more scrutinized than theirs. And whoever is the most is neither here nor there. I was just speaking to your orignal argument that heavy media scrutiny has caused England to underperform. It hasn't affected Brazil (as you said), Italy, Argentina, or Germany. My argument is simply that perhaps England has underperformed for other reasons, not the amount of pressure they have from the media. Just so I understand correctly, since you mentioned England's woes as attributable to media/fan scrutiny, are you implying that FCD hasn't played well at times because of media scrutiny and Bigsoccer fan pressure placed on CC?
I thought that was what he was doing with resting Cooper in Houston and Mina on Saturday. Of course, I could be wrong. And you didn't seriously suggest resting Ronnie, did you?
No - I'm suggesting it might not be a bad idea to nip this silly hypercriticism in the bud now before it gets to the point where it might.
But mostly, Saturday's lethargy was about the sun and temperatures in the high 80s. Quality-wise, this game and last year's afternoon ESPN2 contest against Real Salt Lake were easily the worst at Pizza Hut Park so far. Obviously whoever planned this schedule didn't buy this:
If players need to be rested, rest them. And if you play a 4-4-2, ROB goes to the outside with Mulrooney and Simo in the middle, so YES, you can rest Ronnie and play AA if he is not ready to go.
This is getting them out of the way? 1)June - Chivas 5pm (still in the hottest part of the day) 2) July 4 - DCU 5pm (Why so early? It will still be light when the game ends for the fireworks.). Pity the East Standers. They will be little frying sausages.
Are those ESPN games? Did the league schedule those start times? 5PM is the hottest part of the day - the heat at that time in June and July will be scary ...
Because they can't just throw a soccer game and a coupla fireworks out there and say "OK, there's your Frisco Freedom Fest." The locals would be, to put it mildly, incensed. I would suspect there will be a concert and/or similar entertainment during the 7ish-9ish timeslot between the game and the fireworks show...the Click Five's triumphant return, perhaps?
Yeah, remember - we sent them Hoops to wear and the league forced some Crew shirts on them. They're big Dallas sports guys.