And the march toward 2002 New York Power-esque futility continues unabated. Since I did not watch the game, only the stats from the Freedom's 4-1 pasting need be posted here: Goal by Hamm, hat trick by Wambach vs. Jen Tietjen-Prozzo's second career goal. Shots: 12-11 WSH Shots on goal: 7-5 WSH Fouls: 10-7 WSH Offsides: 1 each Corners: 6-4, WSH Next Charge game, next Saturday vs. NY, and perhaps the pro debut of Solo as well. But who knows if she will fare any better than Melissa. Vent away, folks. Let it all out. Everyone on the team is now fair game. You've got a gripe, voice it here. Paul
I don't think the game was as bad for the Charge as the score makes it sound. Abby had a couple of good headers, got pulled down in the box for the PK, then scored again in garbage time. Without Iverson, you all just don't seem to have anybody to challenge her. Charge came on strong early in the second half, but Siri and our defense held them off, then things got a little sloppy toward the end. Considering all those missing on your side, it seemed like a respectable showing, despite the final score.
'Respectable' doesn't translate into three points, or even one point. There are serious issues with this team, beginning with a coach who insists on keeping Makinen and McVeigh on the field when both have proven on merit that neither deserve a spot on this team, period. He will continue to play them, no matter what anyone says. Square peg. Round hole. No wonder Gabarra got rid of the former... Paul
I thought Makinen had a good game: maintained possession, challenged for the ball, made some good runs. I wasn't looking for McVeigh, so I can't say anything about her.
Makinen was nonexistent for most of the game, but she did do a few nice things. At least she has some potential. Up until now I thought she was a zero. Monroe did just okay. She had a couple of shots. She won't ever make or break a game in my opinion, but she did seem to stay on her feet a little more. She was no where near Hamm as the pregame talk suggested. Hamm is probably twice as fast. I think that Misaki is a much,much,much better player than Fair. I couldn't believe it when he took her out. The team actually passed and controlled the ball with Fair, Smith and Pichon gone. Arrington is limited. Mc Veigh doesn't belong on this level. I know everyone loves T-P but she looked weak today.
One more offshoot of this death spiral.... The season ticketholders will hang in there no matter how bad it will get, but if the ship isn't righted soon, there will be a negative effect at the gate, read: Villanova. I saw it happen with the ABL's Philly Rage (when I was a season ticket holder for them) at the Palestra; when they went downhill in the standings, so did the attendance. Paul
Thing is, Sushi, I really feel that Coach K has to justify continuing to play McVeigh, no matter her ability, since he chose her with the 7th pick overall in the draft. Unfortunately. Paul
Okay. Just got back. Nice drive. No rain on the way home. Several things. Offense was not clicking. Not surprising. Even the goal was shaky. A couple of players were offside. Not in the play, yeah, but still. Arrington is having too much put on her. Some nice passes to her and some good shots but still too much on young shoulders. McVeigh did fine this game. Not great but no glaring errors. Makinen played quite well today, I thought. Certainly better than last week. More hustling out of her. Melanie is a good playmaker too. Moore made a nice save late in the match. Wambach and her head are rather hard to stop. Few players in the league can match her. Or should because she is not on my good side. I like to know how a player who makes a tackle from behind and takes a players' legs from out underneath her is still allow to play. Should have been a card. Should have been a red. I have a feeling she instigated the penalty. Didn't see anything wrong on it when I saw it. Moore made a nice catch for the ball. There was too much space in the middle of the midfield sometimes but it happens when you got Mia on the wings. Still moves like she's 22. Didn't see the fourth goal. Left early. But the first three goals were not Melissa's fault. Well, the penalty, yeah but she just wasn't set but still it was a nice shot. The two headers were the fault of the defenders and Tietjen should have been covering Abby on the corners. It's all about the height or the jumping ability. Misaki showed some good hustling ability there. All in all, it was a respectable performance from the Charge. The headers were tough. The penalty was cheap. But for me, the problems were on offense and there was too much on Arrington to take the shots. Hoffmann and Makinen had some good opportunities and showed some good playmaking capabilities. Monroe didn't have the best game with shots and her passes weren't the best but it was her first game back. I took it down as nerves. At the beginning of this game, I thought we'd be lucky to get away with a point. Not because of how we played before but because of who wasn't playing and the fact that they had all of their players available.
Also I remind you all that Siri made some good saves in this match. I liked the little passes to Arrington who was then able to take a shot. Those were good. She slipped too many times. Wet grass.
Tell us something we don't know. Wambach showed she was a bully in the semifinal last year. From your POV, this was another exhibit to show that she's on her way to out-Hooper-ing Hooper. Maybe THAT'S why April won't put her on the NT roster, cause she knows she won't be able to pull that in an international setting without getting sent off. As for the here and now, sometimes the only way to counteract a bully is to turn the tables on them. I'd love it for a player to tackle Wambach the way she does. Wonder how she'd fare then. Probably wouldn't like it too much. Paul
another point.... You can't coach height, and when you don't have it in your starting lineup, you will pay the price. That's what helped them last August, and that's what helped the Power last weekend. Jen is 2 inches shorter than Abby, at least. Borisjuk nor Maso de Moya give up any height. It's getting to the point where 'respectable' isn't going to cut it much longer. Paul
I agree with you Paul. I think he'll play Mc Veigh no matter what. She got burned several times out there. I think Misaki looked better than Fair, but when she's healed I bet Fair plays ahead of her. Maybe our problem is the coach. I thought Hoffman looked better last week, but she looks pretty good. The grass was wet for everyone.
Abby's dive.... And that above aforementioned opinion is gaining strength in the past hour or so from those who saw it; not that it mattered on the scoreboard, but maybe we should start diving around the 6-yard box and see what happens... Paul
Jen was with Wambach on the corner but Wambach leaned forward. Jen just didn't stop her. And I wasn't with a group of Charge fans for the game. "And that above aforementioned opinion is gaining strength in the past hour or so from those who saw it; not that it mattered on the scoreboard, but maybe we should start diving around the 6-yard box and see what happens..." Will lose some fans including me if this happens. Then again I feel players should get carded if they play it in a corner to waste time late in a game. "It's getting to the point where 'respectable' isn't going to cut it much longer" I know that. I was just repeating something I agreed with. I knew you were going to say that as well. The grass was wet for everyone and yet we slipped more often and had more errant passes. So I guess Washington was better prepared as well as just playing better in this game.
Re: Abby's dive.... I'd rather the team go winless than resort to those tactics. I don't care how bad things get this year.
Re: Re: Charge-Washington [R] At the very least, it's safe to say the Mexicans didn't like it. The way they pummeled poor Sideshow seems to back up that theory. I don't have a problem with players taking the ball into the corner. At least the ball is in play and the opposing team has a chance to do something about it. It drives me nuts when keepers take forever on a goal kick or a team goes through three players to take a throw-in, especially on my own team.
Re: Re: Charge-Washington [R] You should have seen the CyberRays game three weeks ago. They were beating the cr*p out of her for 90 minutes. The PK call looked dubious to me. Didn't notice the alleged red-card-worthy violation, but I'll keep an eye out for it should I go through the tape again.
And the visitors' spin.... Coach K: "We worked very hard today and had some pretty good chances that we unfortunately didn’t finish. I’m very pleased with our group, and the great effort they put in. If we keep playing like that, and working hard, we’ll have success.... "I’m proud of our group. We went down a goal and kept fighting. Then when we were down 2-0, we probably could have packed it in, but we kept fighting and got it to 2-1. "You have to give credit to Abby. She’s a good player in the air, and a quality finisher. You give her chances and she’s going to finish them. Unfortunately, we gave her a couple that we’d like to have back." About all the starters out: "It’s tough to play against anyone when you don’t have all your players. But I think all our players came out, fought hard, and did a good job for us. We leave here 0-4, and while you never feel great about that, I feel good about our effort. "We put ourselves in some pretty good spots. But you know when things are going your way, they are going. And when things are working against you, you just have to work a little bit harder to dig yourself out of the hole." (Me: and getting deeper all the time...) On the new folks in the lineup: "We felt all along that we have a very good bench and a lot of depth, and our players showed that today. A lot of players that haven’t had the chance to play at all or that much, got a chance to play today, and I’m pleased with them. A couple bounces go one way or the other and maybe things end a little different." http://www.philadelphiacharge.com/359494.html for the rest of the recap. Paul
No one was offside on Tietjen's goal. One player was even and I was at the other end of the stadium so I thought three of them were.
That was a cheap call on the penalty. McVeigh and Wambach got tangled up. Bad call. Better yet; how did the ref see that anyway?
Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought. But still a tackle from behind, even if you get some of the ball, should be punished for the attempt. And Benson went down hard. It's in the 87th minute and listen to what Anson has to say about the play. Very interesting.