5 games, three points, three goals, last place. I would say that Punky may want to start calling all the bitches down in Lauderdale to see if they have room in their schedule for him 'cause at this rate, Punky's gonna be sniffin' butts and pissing on fire hydrants pretty damn soon. I mean, if this doesn't change by the time they come back from Dallas two games from now, Punky's going to be getting walks on South Beach in the beginning of June.
Gosh, maybe the changes that should have been made in the off season were to get rid of Hudson and Trask and not trade away Pope, Williams, Moreno, Mapp and fire his staff that had been part of the earlier success of the organization. So far this season, we have no wins, 3 goals, and 2 legs broken by opponents from players Hudson could not live without! I do not know about you, but that does not seem to be the way to 'right a ship', or the type of players that an organization can be proud of having represent them in the community
Look at the bright side. We have three goals and two broken legs to our credit so far. It doesn't look as if we will score again this season, but with Hristo, Dema and some of their scrappier teammates we have a chance of being the first team in MLS to break as many legs as we score goals.
I agree with Fah. Somebody shoot me. I'd ask for a United player to shoot me, but lawd knows they couldn't hit me.
Trask is an excellent defensive coach. Hudson is an excellent motivator. Unfortunately, they're not getting that third element that they need, someone to concentrate on the attack. We constantly play the ball slowly through midfield and always have to face a set defense with numbers behind the ball. Much of our offensive problems can be attributed to this, as almost any MLS team (possibly excepting Colorado), can stifle goal chances when they have 10 behind the ball. In soccer, there are really only about 5 different good opportunities to score: 1. Attack an unsettled defense - counter, long ball, switching field, overlapping runs, etc. 2. Set pieces - headers off corners, free kicks, PK's, etc. 3. Shots from distance - outside the box rockets, leading attacker dropping the ball back for trailing player, etc. 4. Maintaining space away from defenders - getting rebounds, ricochets, stealing passes, etc. 5. Forcing defensive switches - overlapping backs, cycling midfielders, beating the first defender 1v1, etc. Otherwise, you are forced to break down a defense, and very few teams are successful at that in MLS these days. Look at the goals that are being scored in MLS, most of them fall into one of those categories. Sure, there are occasional times where a good pass can thread the needle by 2 or 3 defenders, or the time when an individual effort by Twellman to turn his man and shoot result in goals, but most of the time its when the defense isn't settled, someone takes a shot from distance, someone heads in a corner kick, or someone draws a foul in or near the box. We don't do any of those. 1. Attacking an unsettled defense - we slow the ball down by playing into Marco, or make an early negative pass to slow things up. 2. Set Pieces - our corners are the worst in the league IMHO 3. Shots from distance - we traded Denton, Armstron, Perez, but we still have Santino, Hristo and Esky. Let's start letting them shoot. 4. Maintaining space - our attackers are content to stand still in the box or jog next to defenders, pitiful. 5. Forcing defensive switches - this is Miami Fusion futbol, why can't we do this one at least? -Digital
Hudson should be arrested for impersonating a coach. I was at the game in my black & white jersey tonight, and I was appaled by what I saw. I knew we were having trouble but only 3 chances at goal?
When you watch other MLS games, you see just how bad DC is in the attack. It's not just one problem. We play too slow, and our runs don't create space, and we can't finish, and we don't play "with" each other. My opinion of the housecleaning has not changed. It was nuts to keep Etcheverry and force Convey to the outside. I honestly think that would solve many, many problems. Most prominently, it would immediately increase the speed and variety of the attack. One last comment...the DC roster is very, very poorly constructed. First of all, too many hotheads. Second of all, too many attacking mids. And if you're going to assemble a squad like this, play to its strengths. Go 4-2-3-1, or the 4-1-3-1-1 that they listed Reading as playing in the playoff match today.
I don't understand why we the fans have been able to see this for three years now, but no one on the coaching staff can: playing the ball through Etcheverry hurts our attack. It's impossible to play the kind of speedy, one-touch, quick-counterattacking football that DC should be playing when every time they get the ball, the player with the ball, stops, looks for Etch, and works the ball to him. Sit him. DC has played better the past few years without him anyway.
Sack Hudson and staff Hudson and Trask are both absolutely dreadful coaches......word is that there practices are "dated" an unimaginative. Being that Hudson had no "real" coaching experience before Miami (except for some small college and high school) it really is not surprising that he is out of his element. Trask is merely a college coach...plain and simple. Etch. is about 100 years old now..and it shows..time to retire... I read an article in 90 minutes magazine about this young American (Bill Morveck? spelling) who coached with Southampton in England and now coaches with Jamaica's National squad....it says he is from Washington.....this man (or someone with similar experience) should be brought in to manage this team. Any thoughts??
Sure it is. Think of all the games when he was injured or suspended where United actually looked like a real team with a flowing offense. As if, when the other players realize Etcheverry's not on the field, they step up and take on more offensive responsibility, rather than sitting back and letting everything go through him. I don't know about their actual record in games with Etch vs. games without him, but certainly to me, when Etch doesn't play, the weakness of United's game with him is exposed.
Wasn't there a lot of talk from Hudson in the preseason about two things? 1) The team will succeed or fail on the back of Marco 2) Ray was prepared to make some hard decisions (like which big name to bench) when the time comes. In my view Marco played well in the first few matches but has not the past two weeks. I think you have to trust Ray to make the call when the time comes. But if current form continues and no change is made, then you have cause for concern. How long you are willing to wait is up to you.
Edited for accuracy Matt's weekly post...we have 4 midfielders with the talent and ability to play one way, 1 who plays a whole different game
Theoretically, that third person would be our other assistant coach - one of the best attackers in the world over the past 15 years. As far as the Hudson-as-motivator concept goes, did you see anyone on the field wearing white last night who looked motivated? In a game against our biggest rivals? Where did he get this tag as a motivator, because he says funny things? You want to see motivation, put on your copy of Our Way and get chiils when Bruce says "If you need me to carry you off the field, I'll do it." Then compare that to Ray's comments about our collective circle jerk of a team that he put together. That was a load of crap as well. He doesn't even have the guts to bench the guy when he's injured.
In the end if Marco is injured and not playing well, then the coaches need to sit him down till he is healthy. That is there responsability, and to this point they have not shown what it takes to make that decision. No player is going to volunteer to take himself off the field. This is much like last year, when they rushed Moreno back from surgery, Having been cleared medically to train and then had him train for a week, then through him out on the field to flounder. He did not perform well, becuase he was never given the time to get fit to play in a game. Yet they kept him on the field despite his below standard play and then used to papers to blast him about this and that. But in the end it is the coaches responsability to sit the player if he is not in form, and these folks have thus far failed at that. In fact, DC has not had a coach with those qualities since the last of Arena's charges(Sarachan) left. Kinda funny how that sort of coinsides with the fall of the organization.
Last season I was willing to go along with the idea that it's not Hudson's team so it's not totally his fault. But this season it's clearly Hudson's team from top to bottom. We should be able to put on a respectable performance no matter who's injured or unavailable. There are reasons, however, that prevent this from happening. Back in Arena's days we could rotate people in and out of the lineup as times demanded because there was a positional system in place and people could learn their roles. If someone wasn't available it didn't require a wholesale rethinking of our game plan. It just meant having the number two guy in that position instead of the number one guy. Hudson has not implemented that sort of system. His teams are based on personalities rather than positions and roles. Two things result from this. First, his teams are a crapshoot. If the personalities mesh (as they did in Miami) then all is splendid. If they don't then it is wretched because there is no team concept. That's what we got last night. Second, there's absolutely no flexibility in the lineup. You can replicate postional roles but not personalities. There's nothing that Ray can do to improve this situation. He doesn't have the right players and he's not coach enough to run a team as Arena did. Barring some sort of miracle this season is a lost cause.
wow 1. Dema makes a pretty big difference in the Richie Williams role. Convey seems to be more of a flank player anyway. 2. I'm glad the Quaranta as wide mid thing only lasted 1/2 the game. Stewart looked a lot more comfortable out there. 3. If Etch is going to be effective and have free reign of the field, then everybody else needs to be more positionally anchored then they are at the moment - how could Etch possibly find anyone quickly when guys are never in the same place twice? 4. Esko or Ekso or whatever - that guy was the #1 pick? Let him learn the trade in Richmond this year and see if he gets better (I particularly liked the non-look when he shot from the top of the D w/ Stewart? overlapping unnoticed and unmarked 3v1) 5. Wrongen was losing worse with a heck of a lot more talent. All those guys start and star for other teams (see Brian Kamler of all people). So Hudson's still and improvement (of course a ham sandwich might be a bigger improvement, particularly if the ham sandwich would bench Chino Alegria) 6. Is Chino Alegria the worst player ever to be paid as a professional athlete in any sport? He couldn't make the Terps but he plays for DCU. Plus he looks like a poof. 7. Famous Amos Magee is still available and he (in contrast to DC's current forwards) has scored a goal on American soil during the past month. Yeah, he's ancient, but he's younger than Stoitch and hasn't participated in any felonious assaults lately either.