Andrulis- "we certainly did enough to get fired"

If AA has taught us anything, its that the first step to getting better is admitting that you have a problem.

However, in our case, I still think we're fvcked since we have this guy "leading" the team.

 

So it was injuries last year? I'll put money on it that he will use the excuse of call-ups for 2004. With WCQ and the Olympics there will be a lot of people in and out of the lineup and a perfect excuse for Greg.

 

Nice to have job security, isn't it?

 

No mention of the Williams crap, yet.

I'm kinda drinking right now but other than say "we did enough to get fired" did he go into detail (yet) as to what that "enough" was?

Not making the playoffs?

Or how about:
- Making poor tactical substitutions late in games
- Not motivating players to step up

?

 

Agreed. He needs to do some more apologizing and taking responsibility for every fck up that he made this past season. Long list, I know.

 

What an absolutely disgusting pile of two-faced wholesale hogwash.

He knows that it is the "manly" thing to say that he "accepts responsibility" for the disastrous season. So he says "WE certainly did enough to get fired,...Certainly, WE'RE culpable and responsible for the season...

(Note his choice of pronouns; since when is a head coach a "WE"?? A real leader doesn't try and spread blame around his staff. Taking responsibility means standing up and saying "I did enough to get fired" and "I am culpable and responsible". He just can't say it, no matter how many opportunities he gets. What a weasel)

But then he spends the remainder of the piece explaining how it wasn't his fault. There's not one mention, NOT ONE WORD about what he himself could or should have done differently.

We only get:

"...there are some things that you just can't control."

and

"For us, it started with Jeff Cunningham getting injured during the preseason."

and

"...then Edson Buddle goes down in the third game"

and

"It got to a point where we had so many guys out that we were barely able to compete on a realistic level"

Shane helpfully adds that "Andrulis can't blame the entire season on injuries". OK, fair enough. The what CAN he blame the season on? Incredibly, the answer is:

"The key injury for us was Jon Busch"

Of course!!!! Why didn't we see this???? It's not Andrulis - it's Tommy Presthus!!!!!

Just in case you didn't get the point, he spells it out for you:

He says "I'm not saying that Tom Presthus is not a good goalkeeper" and then goes on to break down how rotten the team was with Tom Presthus in the goal. No Greg, you're not saying that TP is "not a good goalkeeper" - you're saying he's a horrible goalkeeper and blaming him for not making the playoffs.

(Attention everyone: this is your first notice, officially, that Tom is no longer with the team. Who says that the Crew is not forthcoming with personnel decisions?)

Then, after his powerpoint presentation on what a complete loser Presthus is, he concludes by saying that, in the ten game stretch with him in the goal, Columbus scored just ten goals!!

Apparently this is somehow connected.

But finally, after 17 paragraphs of saying that the team failed due to injuries, Greg concludes by saying "I'm not going to use injuries as an excuse"

Gee Greg, thanks for clearing THAT up.

Then what went wrong? Well, he begins hopefully:

This goes all the way back to the draft and the players that we picked

So is this it then? Is this where Greg admits he screwed the pooch? The reader leaps to the next line:

We thought we were going to have great depth,

Yes we did, Greg; so then the problems was a) your selections or b) your handling of these guys? Which is it? OH NO!!! I forgot to add choice c):

not enough guys got the job done

ARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! We were so close.

But is this just a sidebar? Is Greg really headed toward self doubt? Self recrimination?

There's some hope. Shane mentions ths obvious - that OTHER teams lost players and overcame. So then, Greg, if San Jose and Chicago both were able to get past the injuries, and Columbus was not, then surely the coaching had something to do with it.

The signs are there - here at last Greg will come clean. The reader holds his breath, and then reads this:

...not enough guys got the job done.... We have to get guys who are going to get the job done...Quite frankly, not enough guys stepped up

OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT LOUD BANGING NOISE?? WAIT - IT'S THE READER FRANTICALLY BANGING HIS HEAD ON THE FLOOR WHILE BARKING LIKE A DOG.

And Shane, please, stop drinking the Koolaid, will you? You helpfully start the next para: "With not enough players stepping up..."

And as a finale, the piece de resistance of this little "Greg's OK, it's the team that blows" article, Shane gives Greg the chance to finally explain the dumbest quote of the year, as quoted by CrewBoy Craig in the Columbus Dispatch:

"If we don't make a ton of changes, we'll be a very good team right away,"

Shane reports that Andrulis "chuckled" which is I suppose better than the up-chucking the fans did when he said it.

But wait - turns out the problem is that HE DIDN'T REALLY SAY IT; as Andrulis reports:

"My response was that we don't have to make wholesale changes to be a good team"

Pick up your feed, ladies - the weasels are running loose:

Greg is claiming that he was misquoted.

See, Greggie, baby, nobody believes that CrewBoy got it wrong. We believe that you were told that what you said sounded really, really stupid and were told to straigten it out.

I'm not sure lying about it was what they had in mind though.


So Greg's insincere mealy-mouthing about how "we did enough to get fired" and how he's "culpable" (two of the strangest word and phrase choices imaginable) amount to blaming everything except Greg.

It's the injuries. Well, it's not ALL the injuries, it's mostly Tom Presthus's fault. Well, of course Tommy is a good keeper, it's just that we lost all our games with him. Of course the real problem was that when Tom was in the goal we didn't score. Of course, that's not his fault, it's because the players really suck. Well, not suck exactly, it's just that I put them out there and we lost because they didn't "step up". But we don't need to make a lot of changes, because we have a good nucleus, except that we have a bunch of new players coming in which is good because maybe those guys will "step up" unlike the guys we have now who don't "step up" which you need when you have all the injuries we had this year, not that I'm blaming injuries because Tom Presthus....

Unbelieveable.

 

I find it hilarious that TheCrew.com banned Fred for postings like this. He had the temerity to challenge Shane on this very topic, and got chucked off.

Either Smith told them to get him off of there or leesmith did it to try and suck up to Smith and Murphy.

Either way, it's just another demonstration of how far they're willing to go to try and silence legitimate criticism.

This gutless organization has rotted from the top down, and it's a pity that a guy like Shane, who has respect among the fans (or used to), gets tarnished in the bargain.

 

This makes me sick. I hope this guy winds up unemployed in a bread line in Russia. He's a joke. I just love this part though....

I'm glad that we work for an owner and a management group that looked at the big picture and was not short-sighted."

And you continue to patronize the fans, don't you *#*#*#*#*#*#*#? Evereyone from New York to Dallas to San Jo*#*#*#*#inse knows you should have been fired. You admited it as well just two sentances before. And now you continue to kiss the ass of the owners group that kept you on board because they were too lazy and cowardly to fire you. It had nothing to do with a big or small picture. It was that they couldn't imagine going through the work of finding two new coaches in one off season.

You are a miserable failure Greg, and you always will be remembered as that. Long after people forget that Tom Presthus even played for this team your name will be passed down over generations as the new defintion of failure.

I can't believe we have to put up with this *#*#*#*# for another year. I don't even know if I have it in me to read part two next week.

 

You guys need to make banners with those quotes and have them on full display for every home game. Make many, because you just know the gutless wonders will have them pulled. However, the biggest statement has to be at the box office. Season ticket sales ought to be miserable.

And to be honest, I blame HSG for this debacle. They are blind or don't care. Either way, that makes this incompetent to run this sporting franchise. I pray that some high roller in C-bus buys this team and shows a little local pride. *#*#*#*# HSG. *#*#*#*# Smith. *#*#*#*# Andrulis.

LONG LIVE THE CREW!!!

 

We have to remember that this is part one of a two part article so the tone, outlook and information could change; or not...

re: not enough players stepped up
Who can we say stepped up?

Did
West
At least most of us could agree that he tried to improve himself to the point of changing some opinions.

Akwari
Got his chance at defense, stepped in, filled that role then pretty much lost his spot to Mark Williams (now who's fault was that, Greg? You picked him and started him and continued to start him even in the face of overwhelming evidence that he shouldn't be starting in this league)

Ross Paule
Fifteen points in 25 games, at least he is contributing

Who didn't
Williams
What a septic nugget he was. Not only was he unable to hang in MLS, Greg continued to start him after a reasonable evaluation period (over Akwari) when any sensible coach on top of his game would have realized "this ain't working or going to work out".

Presthus
Could fault the defense, too - the keeper can't do everything, but there were one too many instances where a professional keeper should have, but didn't control his box and make the save.

Torres
Actually quit, what a complete bust this butt sausage was

Hejduk
Probably will get flak over this but did Frankie really do anything but run around and give 100% effort - while letting NY/NJ win a match and DC to tie by stabbing at Itchyhairy in the box? Ended up with less points than Denton (yes, Eric the dead).

Oughton
Continues his slide down in the statistics.

Maissoneuve
Also slipped in personal statistics and is visibly starting to look too old for the job, compared to last season where he contributed frequently and had six more assists (zero this season, yes zero).

Martino
Given the torch as JW Perez disappeared without a care and Harkes was ushered off into retirement. Many will say that his injury in competition outside of MLS was the catalyst to his undercontribution. I think it's a combination of that and maybe he wasn't ready to take the torch just yet - not with this team and with that coach running things.

Held their ground
Clark
as always, nothing spectacular but held on

Denton
nothing spectacular, but outplayed all other D/M and D's on the points scale - unfortunately you have to give him credit for that

Busch
held his ground but is he MLS calibur going forward for the next couple of years, or after that?

Universal blame
The defense
for letting in one too many goals
The offense
for not scoring enough goals

Question marks
Chacon
Matteo
Walsh
Garcia
Perea

Didn't get a chance
Ritch
Got a whole 21 minutes in 3 games this season (gee Greg did he get a chance to step up?).

Traeger
Even fewer minutes but still managed an assist in the Chicago blow-out ...


From the above list (I know some were left out) there are at least three clear cut examples of poor decision making from Anclueless. If you want players to step up, they must be given the chance and if they aren't cut out for it yet then realize your mistake and adjust.

 

Also, this is thecrew.com - it's not like they can come out and say Anclueless is a flaming butt nugget, a skid mark on the soiled Depends of this organization...

At least questions were asked.

Although we really have no idea if Shane was sitting there like Homer Simpson gleefully nodding his wide-eyed head agreeing with everything Greg said; or forcing back angry twitches and flatulence during the interview before returning to his laptop to write something that would simply let Greg hang himself while keeping journalisting integrity...

 

Absolutely, and perhaps I should have been clearer on this point: except for repeating the meaningless "stepping up" line which seemingly buys in to the Andrulis "everybody failed me" mantra, Shane was simply reflecting the comments of Mr Culpable.

The Crew has every right, and indeed every expectation, of using it's website to disseminate it's own point of view, which in this case involves having the coach, who has virtually no credibility with the fans, attempt to explain his side of the story in depth.

It was not my intent to criticize the writer (excepting one instance) but rather to point out that Greg has still not come any closer to admitting that he himself bears a large amount of the blame here.

While he says "WE" did enough to be fired, without ever identifying who "we" is exactly or what "WE" did.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but previous comments, combined with Smith's comments combined with team actions so far indicate that, far from Greg being responsible, that it is entirely the fault of players not performing and injuries:

The litany:

- Greg spent too much time with the goalkeepers, to the detriment of the field players.
A plausible theory I suppose, but there are two glaring problems with this:

First, since the interview blames Tom Presthus for underperforming and causing us to lose, then Greg did a pretty bad job, didn't he?

Second, if Greg was with the keepers, presumably Robert was running the practices. If so, then why aren't we firing Robert? This theory asks us to believe that the problem was not Greg doing BAD coaching, but rather that Greg didn't do ENOUGH coaching. Something to keep in mind next April when they fire Coach Stupid and put Robert in charge.

"It goes back to the draft"

An intrigueing statement that he never fully explains.

Let's put this in a different context: Butch Davis drafts 6 players for the browns. They contribute nothing to the team, which sorely needs some help.

What do we say about this? Do we say "Gee, what a damn shame none of those guys stepped up and got the job done" or do we say that Davis made lousy picks?

If you are the guy who is responsible for scouting, drafting and developing a player, and said player is unable to perform at your level, is it not fair to say that YOUO screwed up? If the crew drafts Chris Bailey and he fails to contribute to the team, do we blame Chris for not "stepping up" or do we blame the guy who picked him?

Mark Williams

Here is an example of Greg just royally screwing up. He brought in a useless dud. Period. It cannot be defined any other way.

Who is responsible? Apparently, in the world according to Anrulis, it is Williams' fault that the Crew lost out on the deal. It's an absurd contention.

I could go on and on, but I think I'll wait for the second half of the interview. Perhaps it will all become clearer then, and perhaps Greg will finally admit that it was large HIM who didn't "get the job done"

 

Blame the not-so-flashy-as-the-F50 shoes his agent makes him wear during gameday...

 

Just because I can...

...another year of ....

 

So was part two of this slumber party with Shane and Greg ever gonna be posted?

 

Just out of curiosity, and to add some statistical background, I went back to look at player stats to see if there was an easily discernable trend:

http://www.mlsnet.com/statistics/archive/2002_tmstats.html

http://www.mlsnet.com/statistics/archive/2001_tmstats.html#clb

The major shift was the dramatic decrease in midfielder scoring, which jibes with some rumors I'd heard that the middies had been told to concentrate on defense first AND the fact that Mais and KMart were not NEARLy as involved in the attack as in previous years. You might also note that ou total goals were down by 10%+ and JC dropped way down in scoring when he had little midfield support in the final 3rd of the field. All this flies in the face of Greg's BS about not stepping up and why we ONLY scored 10 goals in 10 games.

GREG, WE'RE NOT THAT STUPID! You were playing stealth bunker ball and were only allowing 2-4 players into the final 3rd without risking benching. The final third of the Chicago game was the players letting it go and showing your ignorant butt where the strength of this team was ALL SEASON. SO WHAT if Diego is a less than stellar defender - YOU HAVE TO SCORE TO WIN! When you have no central midfield control in the attacking 3rd you lose the ability to work the ball and limit your offense to 2-3 dangerous players - EVERYONE ELSE IN THE LEAGUE FIGURED THIS OUT. Saracen even got caught telling his team not to worry about our counter because we weren't commiting enough people to the attack.

Yes, you DO have to sub someone who runs the full 100 for the first 70 mins. Gee another conundrum; back to bunker so that goes away.

 

Overtime game against the Crew at CCS....the one where Damani scored the goal in the 89th minute to tie it up.

 

October 4th was the night that Columbus drew with D.C. United 1-1, effectively taking their 2003 destiny out of their own hands. Following the match, I made my way to the field, walking in front of the North End seats and actually meeting up with Andrulis right before we both entered the tunnel. A small, but VERY vocal group of fans was there, verbally berating the coach with insults I hadn't heard since my days in the Naval Submarine force.

"Hey, it took eight years for me to get a chant," Andrulis said with a laugh. "It's not the chant that I wanted, but I got one! I could sit here and tell you that it's just part of the job and you have to live with the good and the bad.

"But the fact of the matter is that I'm very thick-skinned and I believe in my abilities. It doesn't bother me because they don't know me. They don't know how strong I am."


Hey Greg you are not fooling anyone. You sure as hell looked bothered and quite frankly you looked like someone who knew they were in over there head. And as you give ambigious as hell answers throughout the interview, it becomes more and more clear you have no idea what direction you want to take this team. You are a joke.

 

Here's the thing, a one eyed monkey with diabetes could tell you our defense is not good eneough to win MLS Cup. Yet he still acts as if Clark, Denton, and Mais are either gonna have break out seasons next year or be around forever. They won't and they won't. Thats something that needs to be adressed right away.
If San Jose can find Dunivant who contributed right away, and Colorado found Borchers, why won't we find anyone?