Well I'm torn on Gbandi. I'll have to watch the game again but it seems to me that he has improved somewhat. However he is usually making those long runs back to cover for the fact that he is always out of position. Maybe that's a result of our offense being so impotent that CC has told him to push forward too much but he has pretty much done that since his first game. The bigger problem though is obviously who to play alongside Simo. My guess is that CC just thought that Nunez wasn't ready to start, has realised that Davis isn't going to make it in the middle and just wondered whether Talley could handle it. Unfortunately he was wrong. So if Davis is really done in the middle then I think the time has come when it is acceptable to start Oscar. You start him and you bring in Nunez late and start grooming the kid. I know it looks pretty bad right now and we'll probably take another loss in NY but even then I'm not too pessimistic. It all depends on the self-confidence of this bunch but I think the talent is not too bad. We certainly need another striker but other than that we are not as bad as it may seem.
Let's not panic yet. Despite how ugly Saturday's game was, we're still in exactly the same place we were in last week. Colorado, San Jose, and Kansas City all lost, too. I think starting Talley had more to do with getting Quill off the field that get gettting Davis out of the center of midfield. I suprised I'm saying this, but we really missed Bobby Rhine's energy out there. I think the ideal midfield would be: Davis ROB Rhine Simo Was Saturday's midfield an attempt at a box? It sure didnt' look like it.
You are exactly right. At least the everyone else in the west lost (except LA) so we really didnt lose that much ground. I'll put it this way, Right now we can still see daylight out of the hole we are in.
Gbandi may have gotten foward - but I don't remember anything productive coming from it. And I thought he was about as effective as a traffic cone on the left side of the defense. LA was raining crosses in from our left / their right side. Gbandi would stick his leg out - but I think he may have only prevented 2 crosses from getting into the box. No goals came out of it - but it was so frigging predictable as to be ridiculous. Why do people criticize Simo for not being creative? He's a defensive mid. His job is to win balls and then get it to people who can be productive. And he's good at it. I agree with Jonno - for some reason I still feel this team has talent. We need someone who can create in the middle - like a Guevera and someone who can score goals up top - like a Fabian Taylor. The 4 goals we gave up: A horrendous back pass by Gibbs - but a fluke. 2 Own goals by Jolley. One was going in but the other may not have. A generous PK call. The kind Dallas hasn't got this year. Maybe 1 you can put on Garlick - but this team is not losing because of Scott Garlick. It is losing because it can't score and if not for a singular tour de force by Ronnie O - we would have been blanked.
Look at it this way: Albright makes the same runs but is never caught out of position. It's not because Albright is faster than Gbandi; it's because the guy playing in front of Albright (Jones) actually plays some defense. Gbandi has done a real nice job of picking and choosing the past couple of weeks, but just doesn't get any help from the midfield. (I do agree with you that he pushed forward far too recklessly last year. A good coach would have corrected that problem, though). I don't want to sound as if I'm unfairly criticizing Davis, who I think is a great talent. But there's a reason DMB and Convey, guys who aren't as skilled as Brad, are ahead of him on the national team depth chart. Way ahead. As for your midfield situation I'm surprised you guys haven't just decided to go flat-4 across the pitch a la Liverpool. Everything else about how you play screams "Reds", so why not that as well? Asking Carey Talley to create was never going to work and though Simo is pretty good, asking him to play as a solo d-mid covering for both Davis and O'Brien is too much. If Clark were more interested in keeping possession in the mifield - which he should be, given the players you guys have - Pareja would be the easy answer for 60 minutes or however long he holds up. But if Clark's determined to play direct, putting Pareja on the field doesn't make much sense. I'd seriously consider a 3-5-2. Jolley - Gibbs - Behncke Talley - Simo - Gbandi JOB - Davis Johnson - Kreis JOB would play the "free" role he obviously loves so much. Gbandi and Talley would be primarily defensive, but have more license to roam forward because they'd have three defenders and Simo holding down the fort. Davis would be free to roam and create and wouldn't be asked to play much defense at all, other than to perhaps clog a passing lane or two. Substitute Salyer/Reyes/Nhlecko/Nunez et al as needed.
I don't think Davis refuses to play defense, he's just slow. He gets really exposed when he's up against fast right sided players like Cobi and Albright. This is the exact opposite of Quill, who's plenty fast but sometimes refuses to play D.
As much as I love to get on Albright when he's here, the guy can play. I remember the game in Dallas this season. In the second half, Chrissy was playing right in front of the Inferno, and we let him know it. After a few minutes of abuse, he gets the ball from a defensive stop, dribbles the length of the field, down the sideline, and puts in a perfect cross to pull LA level. Can any of you see Salyer or Gbandi bringing that to the offense. I don't. Hopefully Reyes can add that to the team when he gets healthy, because we certainly need it.
At least back when he used to play for DC, Reye's crosses remind me of Cobi Jones'. He's fast, better with the ball and probably 2x as likely to lead a counter a Phil, but he isn't a particulary great crosser.
In all my days, I’ve never seen 1 player surrender 2 own goals in the same game and he nearly was beaten for two additional goals off set pieces. The Gals were intentionally targeting our not so jolly center-back. It reminded me of the DC-Gal MLS cup when Robin had 2b subbed after Lassiter snapped his leg. Jolley was out of position and gave up a goal. I think they knew he was vulnerable and Gibbs, who also had a poor match, couldn’t stop the bleeding. Not since Kevin Smith was opposite of Deon Sanders has a Dallas Defensive back been victimized so much. Salyer got toasted for a goal and Gibbs had the PK piled on top of a bad back pass. Ziggi drew up the perfect game plan to counter Clarke’s extra defender In the midfield. Herzog looked like freakin Stephan Effenburg hitting direct passes over the midfield and finding Gals streaking behind out defenders. He poured on the gas late in the match by subbing in 3 speedy players to keep the Burn honest: Broom, Ngwenya, and Memo. We were caught flatfooted chasing on long counter attacks w/ dead legs. Bo was barely noticed and looked fleet of foot outrunning the Burn a couple of times. Suarez was a beast clearing out thru balls and tying up our guys. Chris Albright looked world class marking out Davis and out pacing Gbandi. Clarke’s subs came in the wrong order at the wrong time, and the wrong mix of players. Davis was getting pinned on the left touchline and finding himself dispossessed by double and triple teams. Neither Valakari nor Tally showed for the ball by filling in the void left in the middle of the field. Kreis had a poor showing for not contributing much on the offensive end. EJ needed to spend more time up top and less coming back for the ball in the midfield. I know he can dribble, but yet again, he refused to run at defenders and looked to pass 1st rather than play 2 his individual strengths. Oscar had virtually no touches. The left side vanished, spare 1 blundered shot after Quill came in. That’s 2 wks straight now that Clarke’s subbed Davis for Quill and not gotten any production. I thought Nhlecko shoulda been brought in for Kreis right b4 the Ronnie O’Brian goal. W/ only 3 in the back after the Salyer benching, the Burn left huge gaps 4 Gal long balls to find. The Burn we out-coached, out skilled, out played, and out hustled by a team that wanted it more. It’s one of there worst outings I’ve seen in a while, save for the Clash game last year.
I agree with this. There's a lot of rust on Gbandi and only now is it starting to come off. As it does, you're reminded what all the hubbub was about. He is very good going forward, makes a nice cross and is getting stronger and more confident in the tackle. He still needs to work on positioning and reading the game but that will come in time. Certainly all the physical tools are there and the longer he is from his injury, the more easily and confidently and swiftly he moves. He's still not all the way there but there's only one way that's gonna happen and that ain't by sitting or playing amateur teams with the reserves on Sunday mornings. Who knows, what we see now may be as good as Gbandi is ever gonna get but I continue to see progress and thus think that he's only starting to scratch the surface of his potential and would be willing to endure his learning pains.
As usual, I am drunk, but I am not sure what we should take from this match. El Lay beat the Burn in every facet of the game. When they attacked, they got alot of players forward. We the Burn attacked, they had alot of players in front of them. The Burn were well and truly beaten by the best team in the MLS. New York will prove a more accurate gauge. Cheers! Sir Drinxalot
After watching for the second time your midfield be pretty much dominated by the Galaxy midfield (No, I am not trying to rub it in), I do have one question... Why isn't Stone playing. I thought he was one of your few bright spots last season. It seems to me that you could have used his speed and tenacity.
I would like to see a Nunez/Oscar combination at the offensive mid spot. One starts and one subs in. We can change who starts as we go. Where is Vaca?
ummm....Vaca is in the starting line up as the number 10 for the Metroscum...Coach Bradley has been trying to steal him away for a couple of years and finally got him from us last year.
Speaking of Vaca, with Simo playing like the defensive mid this team has been looking for since Leonel's departure, a guy like Vaca now becomes much more appealing. Vaca in front of Simo would have certainly added to the team a creative facet that it is now sorely missing.