Might as well start it now... For the love of all that is good and holy, cut Dykstra now and get a real goalkeeper. He's a butterfingers who can't hold onto the ball, he never talks to the players in front of him, his positioning SUCKS, he does the Henry Ring statue thing, and his distribution is poor. "Keeper of the present and the future" MY HAIRY ASS. Hey, Frankie, just admit that you f-ed royally and get us a real keeper. Oh, and get rid of McBride and John now while you're at it because they're AWFUL. And tell DLC to tell Conde if he gives up any more goals like the ones he did tonight, he's gone too.
i don't know much but i think dyk should have gone to meet those two crapids dudes or at least even tried to go to the ball instead of just stand there like a statute on the last goal! is it all his fault though? why couldn't our guys play possession?! very much a loss
the first goal was Krol's fault? i thought he slipped? was that conde? get better spikes or better ground crew!
Both goals were partly Conde's fault. If he gives away another goal like he did tonight, time to think about a trade. Conde has been absolute crap since we hosted the Euroclubs. At the same time, on both goals Dykstra was poorly positioned and he just stood there like Henry Ring at his worst. The second goal he most definitely should have come out and gotten that ball. But then he'd have had to actually CALL FOR IT and we know he never talks to his defenders so they have to guess what to do all the time.
Dykstra's what 6'3 or 6'4, why the ******** did he stay on his line. Come out and take Casey head off on that play, he must of watched Busch to much. That save Pickens had on (I think it was Nyarko), Dykstra would of NEVER made that save. We need a ********ING goalie that know's what the ******** he's doing out there.
I wasn't sure from my seat, but I didn't think there was much Dykstra could have done about the first goal. I did think that maybe he should have come out for the cross on the 2nd one, but again, it was tough to tell. I'm not happy with the way Dystra's played this year, but I don't see much of the Henry Ring "statue" thing that a lot of you are talking about. Ring seemed to assume too often that a shot was going out or that he couldn't possibly reach the ball, so he would just stand there. I don't remember seeing Dykstra do much (if any) of that. Not coming off his line when he should is a different issue entirely.
He is an average MLS goalkeeper that is lacking in the "Command in the Box" and "Confidence of his Defenders" departments.
It started when Conde slipped, losing possession of the ball. And Conde wasn't the only one slipping, at least on the north side of the field.
I can't stand to watch Dystrak in goal. The Fire have made some silly personnel decisions before, but this one is right up there at the top. We need a goalie who can hold onto the ball, communicate with his defenders, and know what the hell he is doing.
He could of came out and took off Casey head on the second goal. He just stayed on his line and did NOTHING the ball was headed in form 6 yards out.
No way...that was just a perfect cross...just over Conde and right to casey's watermelon sized head, and far enough from goal that no keeper would attack that especially with Conde marking up...Andrew could have come out, but the result would have been the same...unless he drew a pistol and shot him.
When I watched it live I didn't put any blame on Dykstra. So I went back and watched the replay, and now I'm convinced that he was not to blame. Watch the replay angle from behind the goal. The cross was coming in far post, from where Dykstra was it would have been impossible for any keeper to get out there in time to do anything. Great cross, no pressure on the guy, and Conde lost his man. Dykstra is not without his issues and faults, but this was clearly not on him.
Dykstra was NOT at fault on either goal yesterday... anyone who says otherwise doesn't understand the game. Like others have said, he hasn't come in and taken charge of his box well enough, but the goals have not been his fault at all. The real problem -- as addressed by CDLC -- is the team's lack of full concentration for the entire game. How on earth can a defender of high regard (Conde) completely lose his man in the 90+ minute of the game on a cross? That's completely unacceptable. As to this perceived lack of any communication from Dykstra -- it seems like the popular, easy thing to say. It's similarly untrue. Next time any of you are at a game (bc it's nearly impossible to see from the camera angles on TV), just watch Dykstra, his mouth, his gesturing and pointing directions. He's very vocal setting up the defense on corners and when attacks come in. That's not the issue. If you're suggesting that he should be telling Conde or any other fullback "STAY ON YOUR MAN" or "DON'T FALL ASLEEP AND LET YOUR MAN SNEAK TO THE BACK POST AND SCORE", that type of direction doesn't happen. Players are supposed to be accountable for their man once marked up. The goalie can say "YOU, MARK THIS GUY. YOU, MARK THAT GUY" when people are unmarked, but once locked in your mark, that's the defender's responsibility. This isn't U-11 youth ball. While we're all free to voice our opinions on here, to start a blog on Dykstra's "Career Deathwatch" is pretty unfair. Dykstra has not been the reason our team has let up late goals and left points on the table. Lack of focus and piss-poor marking/defense has been. Ratdog, why don't you start a blog about our incredibly overpaid and underperforming strikers? There are a lot of other issues that our team needs to address like finding a striker who can (1) score; (2) create space for others; (3) hold the ball as a target.
You're flat-out wrong. If the cross comes from wide, Dykstra can start at the back post, and he's got a chance. In this case, Smith is attacking from the front - he's within the width of the penalty box. Dykstra has to respect the possibility Smith will shoot. So he's correctly positioned at the near post. Smith drives the cross to the far post, so Dykstra doesn't have time to move laterally to the new point of attack where Casey is coming in. Instead, he's moving back to get near-post for the inevitable shot, which comes quickly and well. I think you can rightly criticize him a bit - for not getting more central in front of Casey in time. But Casey's header down to the goal line, clinical in that way, and close enough to the post, was apt to beat Dykstra anyway. The only real mistake here is when our midfielder allows Smith inside rather than keeping him wide. You can't get beat inside that deep in your own half. You have to usher players wide. Is that Husidic, though? If so, he's in his 92nd minute of play, and Smith in his 12th. Things like that are going to happen.
The main reason for giving up 2 late goals in the last 2 matches, has more to do with players losing focus due to fatigue...CDLC made 1 sub against philly (at the end of the game) and then started the same squad 3 days later vs colo...and putting the game on the defenders to close it out doesn't help either.
Sorry, Mrs. Dykstra, but since you never actually read my posts, you missed this from the opening post here: The rest of what you say is simply garbage and anyone who goes to Fire games knows this. About the only time Dykstra is vocally setting up his defense is on set pieces and I admit he does do a decent job of that. But you just don't see him calling for balls or letting his teammates know where he is so they keep having to guess and this uncertainly simply adds bad backpasses, unnecessary corner kicks given away and other mistakes to any mistakes they would also have made on their own. In short, Dykstra makes his defenders worse than they already are when a decent keeper helps them be better. Be that as it is, since you also probably didn't read my placing most of the blame for both goals on Conde, here it is again just for you! - Conde's errors and our tendency to bunker on a lead bear most of the blame for last night. There. Now, that said, the things I mentioned go FAR beyond just last night's game. They're true of all his games so far and he's not improving, which argues that our goalkeeper coach also needs to go and we should bring Shore back. As for the second goal, people are acting like Dykstra's only choice was to stay immobilized on his line until the ball was already on Casey's head. This is nonsense. If he'd read the play correctly come out before Casey got there, Casey may not have reached the ball or he'd have risked getting carded for fouling Dykstra as the keeper almost always gets that call. Give Casey credit, too, though - that was a well-taken header, better than anything McBride has done all season. So, as I said, Conde is mostly at fault for both goals but to say that the keeper was simply a helpless spectator on both is just not accurate. The bottom line is that there are too many ROCK BASIC goalkeeper skills (communicating with defenders, knowing when to come off your line and doing so with authority, reading plays and positioning yourself in anticipation, etc.) that Dykstra does not possess at a sufficient level of expertise to warrant being a starting MLS goalkeeper. Unless we're already treating this season as nothing but a rehearsal for next year (which would be a legitimate outlook, all things considered), he needs to go back into development. If this really is just a rehearsal, why give guys like Lowry, Banner, Dimitrov and Watson-Siriboe more time in addition to Dykstra? Sadly, I don't think this is the case and I'd just love to know what the hell Busch and shore said to Frankie or DLC that got them shitcanned so quickly and at such a horrible time for our team.
Interesting comment. Word around Toyota Park is that CDLC runs the players through incredibly long and abnormally rigorous practice/fitness sessions. While some may think that running sprints several times a week and continuous fitness work will increase player fitness, the reality (as studied many times and practiced all across the top European leagues) is that in-season training should be light (esp. for starters -- you can do more for bench players who rest on game days). Players become overly fatigued and begin breaking down if they're worked too hard. Scientifically, their blood cell counts, testosterone/adrenaline/other hormone levels are off, their muscles tire more easily and quickly and performance diminishes. Once a player hits peak fitness (a couple weeks into the season depending on the length of time of preseason), they should only work on maintenance of strength/fitness, not 3 hour full-on ass-kicking practices. Let's hope that the players take some time to recover over the next 17 days and come back stronger, faster, hungrier and more mentally focused. The good news is that, game-to-game, things couldn't have gone worse, yet the team is certainly within striking distance of a decent playoff spot if they put together a nice run.