OK, I thought the team played far better tonite than it has all season, however..... McVeigh needs to be benched. She may be a good defender down the road, but shes a rookie making rookie mistakes. Tonites first goal for Carolina by Prinz, McVeigh allowed Prinz to get superior position on her inside shoulder, and it was off to the races. Prinz ripped a good shot and scored ( Although Prinz's shot should have been stopped by Moore, it skipped through her five hole on the wet turf.) McVeigh makes 2 or 3 rookie mistakes every game that ends up costing the team. The midfield played better without Makinen in the lineup- I hope Coach K took notice and keeps her on the bench too. My player of the game (besides Pichon) was Emily Burt. She played her #$%@# off. Her, Hoffman and Pichon worked pretty well together. All in all I thought they played well, even in the rain, and if they can use tonite to springboard their season, all is not lost. KSP
I saw that Emily got a full 90 in today! Thats awesome that she is getting her chance because the 5 or 6 minutes Tom Stone was giving her wasn't enough! I am glad she played well- I figured her and Pichon would probably be a good pair together. Hopefully Emily can get some goals and Philly can win some more games-- except against Atlanta(he he he sorry!)
But they're on life support, KS, and the fact McVeigh wasn't benched to start the second half (Borisjuk was warming up after Carolina tied it, so I thought it would lead to her entering the second half) sent a message to the team that her defense was acceptable to the coaching staff. That's more demoralizing than Fotop once more killing a team with her superior play in the 6-yard box. McVeigh is the Jon Harris of the WUSA draft. I'm sorry, but Coach K needs to be taken to task on what he saw in her to draft her at least two rounds higher than she more than likely would have gone. Burt kicked butt. Hoffmann less so. Crowd was 4,100, considering the deluges we had there tonight, should be called a moral victory. Carolina played better in the second half and we had no answer for Slaton or Fotop. We coughed up the lead twice, and a championship-caliber team simply does not do that week after week. April Heinrichs was there tonight again, shooting the breeze with Tim Murphy, who looked like a kid who had just been told there was no Santa Claus when I floated a trial balloon by him about maybe playing a 3-5-2 against Carolina, just like the Pax game last July. He never answered the question and walked away. I have no idea why... Paul
Well, what can we say? Another rainy game. Some more points lost. The Courage couldn't buy a shot for most of this game. Only four shots in the whole game. Two were goals. The others came within a minute of both goals. Most of the time, the Courage were passing too hard on the ground. Our defense did pretty well in organization. Less scrambling in this match. The Charge were having too many balls in the air. Too many high balls for Pichon to head forward to no one or a Courage defender or Luckenbill. In fact, the offense is still too Pichon driven or tries to be. There were moments of goodness in the offense when Pichon was a winger with Hoffmann in the middle and Misaki on the other side. This is something I would like to see more of. However, Hoffmann in the first half was a really deep lying forward. In fact, she was a midfielder. Fair had a good game once again as a scrambler and with some good passes. Hoffmann and Moore both were unhappy with their play tonight. However, Moore was able to bounce back from the first goal. Pichon had too many offsides. In fact, she and the Charge set a team record for most offside in this game. Most of them were good calls. Both of her goals were fine efforts. We did nothing on the corners but that's not unusual. Well, this was a good and bad game. Good and bad things can be seen in this game for the Charge.
The mistake, really, is in playing her. Sometimes, addition by subtraction is the way to go. How much did Melissa stink up the joint? Good thing you weren't decked . . . . .
Don't go there.. I admire her for falling on the sword and taking one for McV afterward on the Prinz goal, but McVeigh has to put up SOME resistance. Once Prinz flicked her off like an ash from a cigarette, I knew that was going to end badly, and neither Melissa nor Hope would have stopped that one. ?? The only reason why I even brought up the 3-5-2 was because of how Prinz and Fotop were shut down that day because of that formation. It had nothing to do with E-I or anything like that. Maybe he thought I was dissing the team for the Iverson thing. I wasn't. This was in the Inquirer today: "Welcome to June. Tear May off your calendar and start the clock running. "Starting today, there can't be any more talk about how early it is. "It's only April" becomes "it's only May," but there is no "it's only June." When this month ends, (they) will either be contenders or they'll be an official disappointment. It will be time to praise them for sticking with the team they put together with a bold off-season or reasonable to demand some accountability." Yes, the above was written by Phil Sheridan in talking about the Phillies, but read that and see if you don't think that shouldn't apply to the Charge as well. Here's the paper's writeup on the one that got away: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/5989097.htm Paul
[RANT] Guys, I'm sorry. I know it's the nature of Philadelphia sports fans to feel this way. CUT IT OUT. With the Flyers, with the Sixers, with the Phillies, with the Charge, with bloody everyone. 21 playoff appearances the last four years. A baseball team which is YOUNG and therefore UNPROVEN and therefore SHOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO WIN THE WORLD SERIES SIMPLY BY HAVING JIM THOME DROP HIS HAT ON HOME PLATE. The Charge have been decimated by injuries. And I would bet that were they to win the Founders Cup this year they would get as much publicity as the Kixx or Wings, not any of the 'big four teams.' Why don't you ask the DC United fans how they feel about their team right now? I bet they are more pissed off than you. Because here's the simple truth. Except for the 1991 Super Bowl, it's been 20 years in Washington, too. Does one measley championship make that much of a difference? Ask Wizards, Capitals, and Senators (yes, Senators) fans how they feel right now having respectively had Michael Jordan, Jaromir Jagr, and NO BASEBALL FOR OVER 30 YEARS, with as many promises of championships as you all have had. There is a reason why the Wizards and Capitals were the "forgotten teams" of the NBA and NHL until Jordan showed up. Oh yeah, I forgot, it's Philadelphia. I'll stop now and remember how I'm supposed to think if I want to be accepted as an outsider. [/rant]
I had a chance to talk to the Courage's goalkeeping coach and I mentioned that some people(you all) said that Moore was more hesistant on going out for high balls than Solo(both agreed that Beene was the biggest risk taker of them all and I had not seen the goal from yesterday yet). But also she impressed us in the game on her aggresiveness in the air. She jumped up for the balls and took those risks in this game and she didn't allow the unfortunate goal to get her down.
Her play probably kept the Charge from losing the game. And those punts; the Eagles could use her now that they let their punter go She was booming them last night. Even if she thought she didn't do good, the goal to tie it 1-1 wasn't all her doing. She got benched for two games. Now let's see if there's a single standard and McVeigh is riding the pine Saturday in SD. Paul
OK, my match comments: 1) carolina was playing a ton of long ball to fotopolous as a target player, who was trying to flick balls to prinz who was playing almost a withdrawn slot... the charge defended this very well all night...mcveigh won many head balls here.. 2) the prinz first goal, prinz was dropping real deep to receive the ball, because they were having NO luck winning anything in the air... Fair, Mcveigh and Tietjen need huge credit for negating carolina who played 90% of the match in the air.. 3) never let prinz get on her right foot...hoffmann knew it and hacked her down once...later fair knew it and again hacked her down...the earlier post talked about mcveigh letting prinz get onto her right foot...mcveigh and prinz were running together abotu 35 yards about, with a pass into space, prinz, shouldered mcveigh, ENTIRELY LEGALLY to create a bit of separation, yo unleash her shot on goal. the ball one skipped about 15 feet in front of moore. Usually a ball would hop about head high on a dry field. Instead it skidded and Moore got nutmegged....sure it wasn't good, but the ball was really loaded, and Moore was at the mercy of a knuclilng ball which skidded instead of taking a bigger hop 4) 2nd carolina goal, again prinz whacks a longish shot. which gets deflected out front causing Moore to charge directions and make a great save. the rebound went directly to fotopolous...not much anyone could do... 5) Moore made a brilliant save right as the 1st half was ending, off a header labelled to he far side. I would say, Moore was coming off her line far more than in the earlier parts of the season... next post will be about the charge play
charge played 4-4-2 with pichon and hoffmann at forwards tullock at a-mid, misaki on right winf burt on left wing, fair as d mid, with benson mcveigh toetjen-prozzo and mitts and moore... field conditions were slick.. no rain for two hours, then for the match 10 minutes rain, then 10 minutes no rain for the entire match... charge were trying to play balls behind the carolina defense for pichon to run onto...mixed with moore pinting long trying to have hoffmann win balls for pichon to run onto.. 95% of the time pichon plays on the left, seems to be developing a good relationship with Burt on that side...first goal, pichon switched to the right, got behind the carolina defense, lickenbill made the 1st save, but pichon netted the rebound...pichon takes of her jersey..and I assume #8 SMITH was on it, since, we were on the NORTH side, I couldn't tell. Charge must have been called off-sides 10 times in the 1st half, Boyd did a good job stepping up, as carolina trapped fairly well...interestingly when Boyd sat and Slaton cae on at half, the Charge had only a couple of off-sides.. for the 1st half, play was fairly equal with neither team seizing control... 2nd half ..control was about equal early on, the the charge got into a good rythym, with tullock, burt and pichon playing some nice posession stuff, having carolina chase them...this lasted for about 10 minutes and resulted in the 2nd pichon goal, again balld through the defense with pichon running onto the space as luckenbill raced out and pichon calmly slotting the goal. great composure...no one in wusa finishes these type goals any better... on the whole, some very positive signs from the match... be interesting to see where fair ends up playing, she was a monster defensively, winning a lot of head balls... would NOT be surpised to see FAir stay in her role, have Tullock return to the left side..and have Makinen pushed forward..the question would be whether Hoffmann or Makinen would be the forward.. Makinen would appear to offer better target skills.. Hoffmann has better mobility and play making skills, so putting hoffmann in the a-mid slot might maximize the talent... one time Hoffmann hacked down prinz, walked away without saying anything to her.... really tough professional foul....fair did the same thing too later on...
best sequence of the match, was when Mitts was making a long overlapping run from about 10 meters on her side of midfield, and tullock slotted a perfectly placed pass, and luckenbill comes racing out of her box and beats mitts by inches to clear the ball into the stands.... wouldn't have wanted to see a collision there, but it was a great sequence.. later mitts got pancaked by prinz.
And now, a BigSoccer alumnus' POV.... http://www.cybersoccernews.com/wusa/philadelphia/030602phl-car.shtml Paul
Huh?? Look at this scoring summary from the link from the previous post: it has Makinen listed as a starter, who was playing for Finland, Emily Burt listed as a sub (she played the entire game), Racheal Kruz & Masa de Moya never entered the game (Kruz wore herself out warming up the entire second half, and Masa de Moya never left the bench. What kind of reporting is that? Scoring Summary: 1 2 F Philadelphia 1 1 2 Carolina 1 1 2 PHI--Pichon (Hoffmann) 13 CAR--Prinz (Overbeck) 44 PHI--Pichon (Tullock) 76 CAR--Fotopoulos (Lehn) 84 Philadelphia Hope Solo, Jennifer Tietjen-Prozzo, Mary McVeigh, Heather Mitts, Jenny Benson, Stacey Tullock, Anne Makinen, Erin Misaki (Rachel Kruze 73), Lorrie Fair (Emily Burt 68), Melanie Hoffman (Trina Maso de Moya 68), Marinette Pichon. Carolina Kristin Luckenbill, Erin Baxter, Breanna Boyd (Danielle Slaton 46), Staci Burt, Nel Fettig, Venus James, Unni Lehn, Carla Overbeck (Brooke O'Hanley 46), Tiffany Roberts, Danielle Fotopoulos, Birgit Prinz.
Re: Huh?? Glenn's not too happy with it, either. Got an email from him just now. It was the editor who not only messed up on the subs, but quoted Luckenbill with something Pichon said. Should be corrected pretty soon Paul