5/10 Fire v. Earthquakes POST Game [R]

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I think the OT's should have been skipped due to weather.

[ducking]
Onstad is MOTM in my opinion. 6 legitimate saves.
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Game played mostly in midfield. Both defensive lines were great.
CJ was hit in nuts on purpose by Corrales. It looked incidental probably but the replay seemed to indicate otherwise like his hand swung that way on purpose. Ref was looking that direction.
We are still miscommunicating in the forward end in the passing. We still need a right sided player. Runs up RS tend to gravitate to mid then pass to left who crosses back to ?no one? or the defense. Very irritating. Sarachan, please take note of this and run some proper drills until they can do it right in their sleep!
Those are just a few quick observations.

Hope everyone got home or to bar safely from match. Pretty funny when Section 8 had to be yelled at from stadium announcer to LEAVE. Hmm, guess fans are valued more than players?

 

Listened to the game on WBIG via the internet.

Hardly held our attention. Did I miss it, or did we still essentially play with only one forward for most of the match? It is going to be hard to score goals this year if that is our long-term plan.

Still looking for Beasley to put some in. For all of his obvious talent, and all of the buzz around him, he ought to have more impact on games either by scoring, or setting up some goals for others.

I wonder if Sarachan is waiting for a larger field before he opens up the offense.

Forgettable match. Between the scoreless tie and the weather, I think I'm actually glad I missed this one.

Next match please!

 

I heard that one TV, why was he telling section 8 to leave? Because of the weather?

 

that earthquake's goalkeeper didn't know how to kick the ball but knew well how to deflect it. the fire should have won at least 2-0. my first appearance at cardinal stadium ended 0-0 draw and thunderstorm. sigh.

 

I can't quite figure out if draws speak highly of our defensive capabilities or poorly of our offensive capabilities. The boys need to start putting some into the back of the net. I am all for not losing, but not winning is getting a bit old.

 

Well, we hit a post and their keeper made some good saves. I mean we did control a lot of the second half, the goals just werent there. If there is one thing I can say is that Im really confident with our defense. Too bad we cant play against Meola every game.

Glad the weather held off for the most part. Didnt know they were actually telling people to leave.....hehe

 

hoping to see a lot from landon donovan. but it didn't happen today. they told us to go inside at the very end of the game

 

i didn't see the fire hit the post because i was sitting on the other side but the fire definately played better during the second half and defense was solid except no.20. i liked no.5

 

20: Orlando Perez
05: Jim Curtin

 

yeah peres. i remembered his name when i was watching the game but now drinking beer i'm forgetting everything. maybe tommorow morning, i won't even know my name

 

Yeah, we played with one forward most of the match. Razov. Playing him alone is as silly / misguided as playing Faria alone. On the other hand, we had a lot of control, particiularly in the second half, and a lot of great chances.

Armas ballwatched a couple that he should have at least attempted to control, if not shoot, and Razov had some very close calls just wide, just high, etc, classic Ante.

Apparently you weren't at UIC last Saturday. Beasley has a role on this team, but I think the real deal is Logan Pause. That kid has definitely got it. A lot of the younger players get into MLS and a lot of their promise disappears, but he seems to be really settling in. He's making good runs from deep, and I think he's going to contribute well to our attack this year.

Pause did come out for Faria in the second half, but I wonder if maybe Faria should have come in for Andy or DaMarcus instead.

The offense was really pouring it on in the second half. You should have come down, this was a great game, one of the best 0-0s I've seen, and it certainly wasn't anything like the DC games. In certain ways, we were just unlucky, in others circumstances were conspiring against us (apparently Faria's dad is very sick, and this is part of the reason that he didn't start, after having returned to SA recently).

When we have Faria and Ante together on the field, it's just a matter of time before they start hitting, because MLS defenses just can't control them both at once.

We couldn't hear anything from the announcer. We generally can't. He can yell all he wants, and we still won't hear him. Any attempt to shepherd section 8 out, even for our own protection, in the 99th minute of a game isn't going to be received very well though, I'll say that for the record. It's fricking raining, there's lightening, the forecast says to expect large hail, and the team is fighting the final moments of a draw, finally pouring it on, you must be nuts to think we'd walk away from that.

 

that's what i thought too

 

Beasley looked like he played forward to me.

 

http://www.thefirealarm.com/tfadefault.cfm?page=ARTICLE&show=144

Onstad was my vote for MOTM. He made three big saves in the 2nd half that kept his club in the match. Considering that San Jose was flat for most of the 2nd half, those saves are just that much bigger.

Bill Q.

www.thefirealarm.com

 

Beasley hit the post on a shot in the first half. Once again it is shown how much this offense misses nowak, a guy who could make a charge up the middle. There is no point in feeding razov the ball far away from goal he caouldn't dribble around my grandmother.
I agree MOTM was Onstad made some great saves, especially on Williams.

 

I was at the games, and a couple of comments in nor particular order of importance.

--Onstad was superb.

--We really outplayed them I thought, espcially in the second half, and were unlucky not to win.

--CJ Brown did a tremendous job on Landon Donovan. Having him play 90 on Thursday no doubt took the edge off his game, but he is still dangerous, so give credit where credit is due.

--Ante was very rusty, with a lot of poor touches and go-nowhere dribbling sequences. Still, the boy can shoot, and he came quite close to scoring.

--I saw Beasley as the second forward. I thought he had a first rate game. I counted 4 fouls sufferred. Yes, if healthy, the kid will break the league record for FS, and no one will break it for years to come.

--I am really pleased to see a very active Andy Williams, showing for the ball, and trying to get involved. However, he doesn't often take up optimal positions to receive, dragging a mark with him instead of finding space. Moreover, I was astonished how weak and soft he is on the tackle; he really is a defensive liability in midfield. He wins very very few balls in midfield.

--Sooner or later, opponents are going to learn that long balls over the top are going to be headed away by Jim Curtin. Did Jim lose as SINGLE defensive heading battle last night?? This kid is really becoming a rock out there.

--While we miss Nowak, I am very pleased with our progress overall. Our midfiled play isn't as sharp as it could be, but we can hold possession and build incisive attacks. And our defense is clearly superb. I think we will be a force to be reckoned with.

 

Actually, I though the Curtin-Ching matchup was one of the more interesting parts of the game, as Ching isn't a small guy, and wasn't afraid to get physical. Including the first time I saw Iron Jimmy come down from one of those challenges a little dinged up.

Razov's rust on the dribble was obvious. If he continues as a lone forward, that'll have to improve. Given the spark Faria provided off the bench, I'm almost tempted to leave him there to change the feel of the attack later on, but relying too much on this 3-6-1 could be frustrating in the long run.

A lot more on the formation and tactics tomorrow on the Fire site. By and large, things are playing out in the East exactly as predicted. Columbus up top with a big, muddled mess of teams afterwards.

Later,
COZ

 

This was the best I've seen the Fire play this season. The first twenty minutes or so were unsettled but after Beasley's rocket off the post the whole team picked it up.

At times the ball movement resembled Soldier field two years ago when we always won at home.

Unlucky not to win.

 

he was. at the beginning he was feeding razov but later razov was feeding beasley

 

Yes, the fans were asked to leave the aluminum temporary stands and standing room areas by metal fences. This came as a result of lightning in the area. Terry's stoppage of play a couple minutes into overtime was apparently to discuss the weather situation. I didn't feel too comfortable sitting on the aluminum bench seats in the main stands, either.

I agree with those who suggested that abandonment of the remainder of the overtime would have been prudent considering the weather.

Immediately after the game ended, the Fire management advised fans to leave as quickly as possible because of the weather.

Game thoughts:

-- CJ Brown defended Landon Donovan completely out of the game. He would have been my Fire MOTM.

-- in the second half especially, the Fire did a good job of pressuring the ball then putting together several passes to create some attacking opportunities.

-- the midfield also did a good job finding teammates side to side especially when things got clogged on one side of the field.

-- did anyone else notice how much more dangerous the Fire offense looked when Faria and Razov played together up top in the last 15 minutes of play. They seemed to be fairly in sync and immediately some of the middies were more open. Hoping to see more of this soon.

-- my only negative was some of the long balls played forward out of the back. Some of them intended to progress an attack just didn't seem to have targets.

I agree very much Karl K's remarks about the attack and defense. With Razov back in game fitness and working with Faria, I think the attack will be fine. Give everybody another half dozen games to get completely in sync and I think they'll be abusing the onion bag with regularity.

 

I was at the game as well. The first half was terrible. I almost fell asleep. The second half was better played, but the overall game was pretty sloppy in general.

Faria did add some life when he came into the game. If he and Razov can get it together, we might have a good tandem at forward.

Does anyone know what happed to Joe Cannon? Does he play in Europe now?

Landon really didn't do much. CJ did do a good job on him, but the game on Thursday certainly had some effect.

I only hope the midfield does not keep playing like it did in the first half. San Jose controlled the game for the most part. Luckily, they weren't that impressive, either.

One thing that never changes, Jeff Agoos still sucks.

The best defender for the Fire was Manny Lagos. He helped the Fire more than he helped his team. He pretty much did more for the Fire yesterday than he did his two years here...

I was wondering about the Lagos, Whitfield altercation. Thanks to the person for clearing it up.

The game should've been called after the regulation. That wasn't camera flash I saw in the sky... I didn't want to leave my seat, either. Then again, being in those bleachers didn't make me feel too confortable. I was able to see the end of the game, so it worked out ok.

 

Yes, he plays in France for Lens.

 

Boy, you wasted no time in reviewing the match tape.