Arena starting = Loss

Bradley had a crap decision to make. He could have played Forchetti who's played in spring training and trained with the team off and on for a couple of weeks, or Arena who's a rookie that's played in parts of two games (iirc) lifetime. It was a crap decision that was likely to turn up snakeyes either way. I don't know what the situation with Addo is, but clearly Bradley isn't going to use him unless it's an emergency. Yes, Arena looked like a rookie out there, but he was thrown into the deep end. Our offense was bad, we turned the ball over and our mid-field didn't help stop the attacks defensively. So that means extra pressure on the defense. Add Craig Ziadie playing like crap and Steve Jolley the only experienced player on the back line, and you have a receipe for disaster. Add the fact that you are playing KC, a good offensive team, on the road and what you get is a suspect D and a road loss. He didn't have a chance to succeed tonight. He could have been Tony Adams back there, it likely wouldn't have mattered.

Yes, Arena was bad, but he's very young. I don't exactly see him turning into Nesta back there, but I can't kill him tonight, even if he does deserve it. He and the rest of the defense need to communicate better, and he needs experience. Only then will we get to see what kind of player he is.

 

This is true, but did Zadie have a good game? Did Reagan play well. He did not complete more then 1 pass to a team mate the whole game.

How many times did we play the ball away from pressure? Why didn't our inside mids move the ball from one side of the field to the other.

We did not play well in this game. Not nearly well enough to win or even draw.

Flat game more like a bad game.

It happens.

More then one player is too blame for this loss.

 

Kenny wan't great, but don't blame the loss on him, it was the Regan Jolley combo which messed up the first goal. Regan looked lost most of the night

 

I thought Arena was much better the Regan tonight.

But last time I saw Regan, I thought he was pretty good.

Just a tough night to be a Metrostars fan.

I thought Arena did well against the Rapids a couple of weeks ago.

James

 

One of the reasons for all of Reagons and Zadies bad longer passes was they passed to their side ball side. No long passes to the far side of the field.

There is less defensive pressure on that side of the field. Better chance to connect on longer passes to that side of the field. Neither of our two outside backs attempted any longer passes to that side of the field.

-----------------

When I first started to learn to play the coach played a very simple game tacticly. He stressed taking on and beating your opponent because beat your defender that creates space for others.

KC beat our outside backs, and then their attack became very dangerous.

 

The only way Juan Forchetti is going to get acclimated to the league is to be on the field seeing some action. Put him out there and let's find out what his game is like. I want him starting at home next week against the Fire.

 

Arena is only on the field because of who his father is. You know the way American soccer works at all levels.

 

I thought it was because Pope was out? Seriously, the kid acquited himself well lat week, he deserved a shot.

 

This does a real disservice to both Kenny Arena and Bob Bradley.

Bradley has shown he's willing to make hard decisions and let talented players go if they don't fit his what he's looking for (see: Andy Williams, Ross Paule and Mario Rosas). He's also shown he can take guys no-one else wants (Jessie Marsch, Jim Curtin, Thorton originally was not viewed as much of a future when he was with Metro, David Vaudreil) and turn them into serviceable pros or even all-stars.

And Kenny Arena has had to take a lot of crap b/c of who his dad is. That didn't open any doors for him. Suhnholz and Gelnovatch have all talked about how Kenny was under extra scrutiny, that he had to work harder than the other guys.

Actually, what you're implying (about US Soccer being one big "old boy's network" and cozy club) ignores some of the reality. Bob Gansler led a bunch of college kids to Roma "90 and then was an outcast in US Soccer for nearly 6 years. Steve Sampson crashed and burned after France "98 and couldn't get any kind of job afterwards. There are a couple of long time MLS assistants (Ralph Perez for instance) who just can't get serious consideration for a headman job in the league b/c they've been labeled as only "assistant material" (something that dogged Dave Sarachan for a while).

Kenny Arena is a rookie. About the ONLY rookie in MLS who hasn't looked seriously out of his element for the first half-dozen games they've played this year is Ricardo Clark.

 

I was skeptical of Kenny Arena when he was drafted and when he made the squad. But now I think he is a legitimate rookie regardless of his father. Perhaps his experience in MLS will lead him to a higher level. Perhaps not.

The team looked ragged. Then again they were playing with four rookies (3 if you don't count Clark as a "rookie" rookie) against one of the stronger MLS teams.

 

Arena is out of his league at central defense. Too slow and tentative. That being said regan and Ziadie were crap. Regan has no left foot, yet is the Left Back.

 

This is strickly BS. Give the kid a break!

IN BRADLEY WE TRUST.

 

Everyone starts getting acclimated in practice and that is where Bradley makes his decision on who starts. Arena must have shown alot more in practice.

 

If we scored more than one freakin' goal a week....c'mon, some blame has to go to the listless offense! (really....Mathis and Guevara share in the blame)

 

You know this isn't true.

He was not the problem last night. Given how Ziadie played, I'm amazed people are talking about anything else. EEWWWW.

Keep in mind, the Wizards are scoring a lot of goals this year. We would have scored more, but for Tim Howard's brilliance. Those last saves (Wollf,Preki, back-to-back) were beyond belief.

 

Time to leave him alone

It's time to leave Kenny alone, he's a professional now and results will decide when and if he plays not favoritism. I have never been a fan of Kenny's skills (or lack of them) but his teams have always won and they have always been better with him on the field than with him on the bench. No team could win with more than one Kenny out there but his physical presence makes a positive difference. Let's stop referring to him as Bruce's kid and start just evaluating his play without prejudice.

 

I saw him play in high school. He wasnt even a UVA recruit let alone an MLS player. He got the favors and breaks others wouldn't have.

 

Todd Dunivant. Logan Pause.


Anyway, Arena was NOT the reason you lost or why KC scored.

 

Actually, getting smoked repeatedly by Josh Wolff qualifies a player for a starting role in Mexico's backline. Think of how much Kenny starting for Mexico would add to the next US-El Tri game's storyline...

 

I saw him play in HS as well, plus college. I've read comments from Wolfgang Suhnholz and George Gelnovatch (his coaches with the US youth sides and college) for how they ended up selecting him. Kenny didn't take soccer very seriously until late in his teenage career. As a result, he looks awkward and rough out there. But he is soccer smart for his age, gives it his all, does the work that many soccer players refuse to do, and has consistently make his team a better team.

Maybe in showbiz or foreign tryouts, name counts for something. But here, they guy had to prove it above and beyond what someone else with the name of Jones or Smith would have had to do. If he made it on his name, that implies U.Va would have recruited him from the "git-go"--something you admit did NOT happen. The guy earned his way onto the squad.

Here's a completely different perspective from that of those who argue that Kenny is on your team b/c of his last name:
--he's dirt cheap (and that was a huge issue in some of the guys Bradley signed--b/c of money going to Mathis, Pope, Moreno, Guevara, Howard) that means a lot of guys on the squad who contribute need to be P-40, developmental or minimum salary players. Getting players who are willing to deal with the expense of living in the NYC area, play for league minimum (or below if you're a developmental player) and still contribute to the side--those players are rare finds;
--he's smart (as a person and as a soccer player) and if there's anything that Bradley's system of play demands, it's smart players who don't make a lot of dumb mistakes and learn quickly. Rookies will make mental errors--that's part of growing. But Arena (along with Clark and Magee) is relatively savvy for a rookie.
--he fits Bradley's system well. No, not b/c Bradley assisted Arena at DCU or b/c the two are good friends (so their families socialized). Bruce Arena has publicly indicated in interviews that he never pushed Kenny into soccer (and Kenny was pretty unmotivated about it) and then attended a couple of Bradley's camps. Bradley pushed him like crazy, Kenny took off as a player. As a result, Bradley (prior to the draft) had already worked with Kenny for several summers in a competitive situation, knew him well as a soccer player, knew his strengths and limitations (far better than he would from just scouting him or watching video or having him in the MLS combine) and Kenny knew Bradley's system.

That's my take on this. Kenny Arena is no PR roster spot. Bradley is too competitive and too serious about his team to give up a spot (and especially PT) to a weak link.

 

Methinks Ziadie scored some good jamaican before the game... he was a total liability out there. Definitely worst on the team. How did Regan get the "bum" this week? He was bad, but Ziadie was much worse.

 

It was a close call. In the ratings poll, Regan is a 3.5 while Ziadie is a 4.3...

http://www.metrofanatic.com/mf/other/ratings.jsp

 

And those polls are oh so scientific...

Seriously, it seems like some guys can play like total c**p and get good ratings, others get shafted no matter what.

Timmy gave up 2 that he should have stopped this week and he gets a 7+??

 

All I'm saying is that in your opinion Ziadie was crap, but in the opinion of most, Regan was a bit worse. As for Timmy playing poorly, I beg to differ.