I think about this far too much, but I gotta vent. Our trouble is that no one on the Utd team shoots from outside the 18. We work it into the six for a first look and forego the rockets from 16-20. Why does this happen? A couple of reasons, in my opinion. First, our attack is a painfully slow thing to see develop. As Diablo dictates the tempo of the match (slow), the ball moves at a snail's pace into the attacking third, allowing defenses to fall in behind the ball and re-establish defensive marking and spacing responsibilities that a fast attack would not allow for. Second, we have Jaime and Marco, who appear to be afraid to face the net and have a go unless they can hear the 'keeper's breathing. We've always had a pretty slow attack, and our players have long been reluctant to fire from distance (since 96, unfortunately), so we've developed a team psychology of "work it closer, work it closer" rather than an explosive give/go attack that looks to goal at 30 yards and fires early. So I recommend: Bench Etcheverry, and... Play this way: .....Quinty......Tino ............Jaime Olsen....Convey....Chino .......Lazo/Namoff (yes I know) Reyes...Prideaux...Pope ...........Rimando
I've been saying this for a solid two years now. The team must make keepers earn their shutouts. Geoff Aunger was one of my favorite players for his willingness to unload a powerful shot from distance (and his willingness to distribute justice on the field). Even if many of the shots were off target, it forced the defense to loosen up and step to the ball, opening spaces for other players.
Part of the problem is that Albright, Wood and few others would take those shots and end up hitting seat behind La Norte. For all the things he did wrong Talley at least got those shots on net. Armstrong could also put the shots on net. Now we get shots from Williams, ungh.
I think Talley was the last of the outside shooters, although Q2 did unleash a medium range missile in his debut.
Never forget Eric Denton's mazy run, finished with 25 yard missle against SJ at the beginning of last season.
Re: Re: A thought on our attacking woes I believe you're spot on here. Opposing teams don't feel threatened by us when we've got the ball 20 yards out, so they tighten up closer in and snuff out the attack when we try to walk the ball into the net. If we're shooting often from outside, at some point the defense has to come out which opens up the space near the goal, which opens up better scoring chances.
We traded Perez, who also unleashed a few cannons in his short stint. And, even if they miss the mark, the long shots still show the defense that we're varying the attack - not just looking to play the ball into the box. It forces the defense to spread out a bit, thus creating the passing lanes. Dave
But some of these shots were so poor that the defense chuckled at them, I saw the grin's on their face from my seat behind the goal. They would taunt and tell them to keep giving them that shot.
Doesn't matter. You don't think they also grin when watching Lassiter mis-time a jump for one of Bobby's crosses? Dave
Yeah, that's true it happens. Presumably though, at some point a few of them do hit the target, and hopefully the defenders are still giggling from the last one as the ball narrowly misses their head and settles into the back of the net...
Not to mention Tino's 30 yard blast earlier this season that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE got to see because the game in Dallas wasn't televised.
Face it, we haven't had a consistent (4-5 shots per game, 2 on net) decent long-range shooter since Harkes, with Williams providing the laughers. Talley, Denton, Armstrong, Aunger and Tino (who seems to only shoot from outside) have all had their moments but they didn't do it often enough to make any defense think they're a threat. Dave
I saw it. MLSNet had a few replays of it from some amateur cameramen. See it here: Baltimore Blast. But I agree with your point CHICO.
Bring Aunger back, he had one hell of a shot. He'd also appease those angry Canadians that have boycotted the team after the Mark Watson experiment didn't pan out.
Ah, Talley truly one of the last of the V-8's... Sure, DC United rarely has players that shoot from the outside. Shooting hard shots from the perimeter is one way to feed your poacher who lurks at the 6yrd box because shots are parried rather than held or bounce of the crossbar/uprights or richochet of defenders. United doesn't take these shots nor do they launch crosses from the side. However, the recent problem with the "dribble" into the net approach, that DC United uses, is that everyone needs an extra touch or two on the ball instead of popping off the shot first time. The problem is not speed of players but speed of thought! No one is reacting first or making the quick pass or shot to unbalance the defense. Every player on the team seems to need about three touches to "get comfortable" before doing something with it!
Quickly Linking the Defense to the Offense Sweet! Thanks for the link Lowe! I agree about taking shots from distance and about faster play through midfield. In fact this thread highlights that same philosophy: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=4994 -Tron
This is absolutely true. I wish I had a nickel for every time I screamed "SHOOT IT!!!" at the top of my lungs while watching one of our guys receive the ball in/near the box and then stop to have a think about maybe fixin' to score at some point in time....
We also have the tendency to wind things back to the defense before pushing forward, thus getting the opposition defense time to regroup and pack it in against us. Better that we just charge forward. Remember what Wayne Gretsky's dad told The Great One: you can't score if you don't shoot.
Villegas used to shoot from distance at times with the Metros, has he stopped since going to DC? JMac
It doesn't really matter much if a shot from medium to long range is on target. It just needs to threaten the goal. Now if this is done early and often, the defense must respect the potential shot while covering their players, thus opening up more passing room. And the keeper must stay mentally sharp expecting a shot from at least 35 yards away, and stay on his line. As it is now, with the DC United unwritten rule where the team must have 35 touches in the area before a shot on goal is taken, the teams just play against the pass. Villegas takes one shot per game from outside the area. The team needs 5 or 6 in the first 20-30 minutes. You don't score on %100 of the shots you don't take.