Review: “When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.” - 2020 in-season discussion thread.

If height in our back four is a major concern, why haven't we seen more of Pines (who is 6'5")?

 

And plays like he's 6'12"...

 

Here is a great pre-@MLS mid90s "Soccer95" clip featuring @ricklawes @davejsports & @SoccerInsider Dave & Steve might have an idea of what the DC team will be called at the end of the clip 😉 pic.twitter.com/xC0Y295tBM

— Lee 🇺🇦 (@DCUTV) August 14, 2020

Nothing special and slightly off-topic, but thought this was interesting

 

I am not saying I love the move. But we did need a 4th CB option. By the way would an attacking player who sets up and scores goals not be a fish out of water on this United squad?

 

In addition to his height, I think Pines may perhaps be our fastest player once he is in stride. Like most very tall guys, he isn't that quick off the mark, but once he gets going he can motor.(I went to college with 6'3" Dave Sime, so I know something about tall, fast guys.)

That said, I don't know that I (or Benny) would start him over our current incumbents.

 

These are not the only games that will be played, each team will play - if I remember correctly - 16 games plus possible playoffs. But the rest of the schedule hasn't been announced yet (maybe they want to see if it's doable for real without 20 players per team getting Covid)

 

I know they plan on playing more games but they arent on any normal time table. Scheduling 6 games in 3 weeks for everyobe is stupid in a normal schedule. Its even dumber now.

 

Only a matter of time. Its tough to judge anyone under the circumstances of that tournament, but sooner or later, Freddy is suddenly going to be old and hard to watch.

 

Yesterday, the USSF officially announced that #USOC2020 has been cancelled & the 2021 Open Division qualifying tournament has also been canceled. Open Division teams that qualified for 2020 will be entered into #USOC2021

FULL STORY: https://t.co/iDfwaQKuZt pic.twitter.com/QkPGXu9PcG

— TheCup.us (@usopencup) August 18, 2020

 

Olsen says #DCU has picked up a couple of new injuries in the build-up to the game. Didn't want to reveal who might be out/limited, but did earlier say they've been unable to play 11v11 at training

— Jason Anderson (@JasonDCsoccer) August 19, 2020

 

Ben already setting the stage for excuses after we lose to FCC.

 

Not gonna fly with me.

Well FCC got a $100M cash injection late last season, I doubt our owners all combined have that much money in total net worth.

 

What does this translate to in GAM/TAM?

 

Hmmm DK failing, who would have thought that possible.......................

 

I'm Ok with having 24 guys, if they're all guys good enough that we don't mind actually playing them. Historically, though, we've gone out of our way to not use the bench, which tells me this is not the case. Loudoun should also gives us some theoretical flexibility there. Again, my trust factor is low.

Especially looking at a combined DCU/Loudoun roster, given a limited amount of cash, I'd rather have 42 truly promising players under contract and another half-dozen academy players rotating in than 60 players under contract of lower average quality. More $-per-player for better players and more minutes-per-player for better development. That would be smart. I'm not sure we're smart.

 

Trust factor is zero. We rarely have 11 starting grade players on the roster. I don't think the number has ever been more than 14 or 15 guys who I wanted to see play. We have some exciting young kids, but they need to be getting games, which they aren't currently, in order to find out if they're worth a damn, More often than not the last 5 years, our exciting young guys are not far from being out of the league. We really do fill roster spots 12-24 with crap most of the time.

 

Here's a comprehensive list of deals that all teams are working on. Pretty much 26 teams running around a track with their eyes on the finish line and two teams (Vancouver; DC) running in place. Anybody catch Vancouver's passive, no-attack game against Toronto last night?

Saddest sentence: "Before the league was suspended, [DC] were close to signing defender Bakaye Dibassy (who has since signed for Minnesota United)."
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020...ry-move-report-and-rumor-through-deadline-day

Looks like ownership has given up on 2020, but other teams are wheeling and dealing and not using Covid as an excuse to fire the sales staff and tank the team. With most season ticket holder locked in for 2021 and a cut-rate TV deal locked up, it's hard to see things improving next year.

What's the over-under on Ola K. being among the newly injured?

 

This is what Doyle wrote about DCU on the MLS website. Sums it up pretty well and is depressing as hell:

You know, and I know, and the whole league knows what D.C. are going to do: Sit deep in a 4-2-3-1, maybe play an extra d-mid somewhere out there, absorb everything and make the game ugly, rely upon Bill Hamid for a few big saves, and then see what happens on counterattacks and set pieces.

With just a few exceptions (most of 2014, as well as the second half of the 2016 & 2018 seasons) this is the way they've been playing since about 2008. There is nothing fancy or unexpected about it, it's just a question of whether they can execute it better than you can execute whatever you're trying to do.

 

On the high side, we didn't sign Bobby Wood who was going to be too expensive and probably not sufficiently impactful.

 

I can’t wait to watch them tomorrow.



Ok, I lied.

 

Will they come out with more or less enthusiasm than did the Caps in the last week?

 

I find it hard to blame anyone who makes their living playing sports for being less than enthusiastic about their job performance right now.