Sigi had good things to say about Robbie before tonight's game. Sounds like he hasn't found his form since coming back from U-20, i.e. hasn't produced in Reserve matches. As for Andy...well, Chris Sullivan mentioned Pete Vagenas as a candidate for coming to the Crew. Not sure how that helps us, but with Szetela gone...
Well, they are raving over his performance tonight over the Rapids. Who's to say Sigi will still be here though.
damn, i brought 10 people to tonights game. we got absolutely poured on and still stayed to the end. the Fire did nothing but sit back and counter and we play the same lame ass 4-5-1. I understand the Ezra for Rusty sub, but Virtuoso for Schelloto? I thought we were playing with a target for GBS. why insert a left wing and keep the same formation especially when we needed to win the game??? Dunc could have played wing, Gaven could have moved up top but no we stuck with 1 forward and had zero offense the entire second half. Neither Dunc nor DOR can shoot from outside the box and trying to cross the ball into the shortest target forward is a wasted effort. I cannot for the life of me understand why we stick with this weak tactical formation. Play Grabs before Thomas at least he tries and has scored for us. Put Herron up top with Moreno or better yet Herron and Kei up top so we have speed to get behind the defense. The rub is we traded our #1 draft pick for a forward that didn't dress tonight in one of the biggest games of the year and who has played very little this season. Put a fork in us we are done. Fire Sigi.
and after seeing the tons of mexican fans who attended the worst weather game i have ever witnessed i recommend that the Crew bring in a top mexican forward to increase attendance next year. If they come out in droves to watch Blanco i've got to believe they will come out to watch Borgetti or someone like that.
Pete Vagenas will help us how?? PV was the goat of the Galaxies Superliga final with an own goal and missed PK (although that makes him sound like a Crew player if there ever was one) We already have 2 def mids in Dunc and DOR. We need a center back with some wheels to cover for Marshall's loss. Ezra is a million years old and Pierce isn't a center back (he is a back up defender at best) AND get a forward who can put away his chances. PV isn't either of those.
Sigi is a walking personification of femal genitalia and should be fired. As we have discussed at length elsewhere, he refused to use all his subs in crucial games, yet says he's happy with the roster (apparently except for Herron, the guy he traded the #2 pick for). Anyway, tonight, down 1-0, at home, late in the game, he cannot muster the intestinal fortitude to take off a defender (or a d-mid) for an offensive player. Yes, he finally made all three subs, but he refused to alter his tactics to a more aggressive formation (gasp, two forwards!), in a game we needed to win, while down a goal. He's gutless (isn't that ironic?). I officially recant my earlier position. The only chance this club has to make the playoffs lies with Warzycha. I think we also need an new GM, and possibly new ownership as well. Good news, Colorado got plastered, so we're only 1 PT out, still. With no Hejduk and Schelotto next week, we're down to 13 senior roster players. Relax, Sigi feels good about the roster (except Herron, and Rogers, and Grabavoy, and Zayner, and the midfield, and .....). McCuller's at least, is already backtracking off his supremely stupid fantasy comment. Face it, as an organization, Chicago deserves to make the playoffs more than we do. Laugh at Lalas all you want, at least he's trying. RSL gets three Argentines. Denilson to Dallas. Our front office is pathetic.
Well, after coming back from the soak-fest that was the Fire match, I just came over to the dark side. Sigi needs to go. Simply making the playoffs at this point wouldn't be enough. This team just played two home matches against the teams they are battling for a playoff spot, and they pissed away a lead in the final minutes of one match and got shut out of the other. Not good enough. We may have been hard done by on the offside goal, and we were unlucky not to score on the scramble where we hit the post. Still not good enough. It was difficult to lose Schelotto in the first ten minutes. Pierce wasn't as big of a loss, as Ezra was able to come on. But it crippled our ability to make tactical substitutions. Still not good enough. We need better players, better coaching, and better decision-makers. Bottom line. There's no argument to be made the other way anymore.
Here, Here. God forbid we should actually play players who like to shoot. Granted, Gaven is actually starting to look for goals more lately, but overall it's pathetic how weak we are in the goal scoring department. I like to feel that I give Sigi the benefit of the doubt, but... THOMAS STARTING over Herron and Rogers, are you fukcing kidding me. I don't care how fast the guy is, if he has no touch, no accuracy, and no ability to read the players around him, what good is he? I'm so sick of this "fantasy" talk also. The big difference between fantasy and reality is having the balls to go out and get it. we need to throw everything we have at Villareal and get Riquelme on loan, if he's really that big of a Boca fan then the idea of playing with Schelotto would have to mean something to him. For the love of God let's at least not go down this season without a fight.
What was that quote from Sigi about points in hand being better than games in hand? Now we have neither.
The best thing about tonight's game: the field... it took a ton of water tonight and still held up tremendously... What else... hmmm... i can't really get too upset about tonight's loss... one of the following is true (in my opinion) about this team: Either... A) There is simply not enough talent on this team... or... B) The coaching staff cannot do enough with the players... It's one or the other (or maybe both)... either way, it's not very good... This is a team that cannot take the game to ANYONE... it's not like they played Houston and DC the last two weeks... they played Colorado and Chicago in back to back must win games at home... in neither game did this team look capable of (or willing to) impose themselves on either opponent... there was no pushing numbers forward, no taking risks, no commitment to attacking and putting the opponents on their heels... i can't listen to talk about going to get a point on the road when this team does nothing to actively pursue THREE POINTS at home... There is plenty of blame to go around here... MLS is not perfect by an stretch of the imagination... but there are multiple ways to put together a good team if a club really wants to... for some reason, this organization has not found a way to do so in 7-8 years... and there's really no excuse... Other teams are finding players in Costa Rica, in Australia, in the nobody teams in Argentina... good players... other teams find players in the draft and they end up contributing to their cause and improving... the Crew still relies on players that no other MLS team really wanted (Pierce, Ezra, Miglioranzi, Moreno)... they find players in the draft that are either not very good or they make the environment of the team such that it is not conducive to these players improving to the point where they can contribute to the team... Other teams find managers who have played PROFESSIONAL soccer at some higher level... managers who have been exposed to different ideas, to different training regimens, to different approaches to the game... managers who have been in a PROFESSIONAL locker room and understand the difference between how you treat a 18 year old who thinks he's the second coming of VanBasten and a 30 year old who's played in truly big games and needs to feed his family with the ability in his legs... the Crew has left the management role to one college coach after another for the last 10 years... the teams in MLS have gone beyond the college coach... This is not a fire Sigi or fire McCullers post... this is not a go get this guy or that guy post... this isn't even an attack on current players or game tactics... i think it a pretty "matter of fact" post... until this organization makes a concerted effort into putting together a PROFESSIONAL SOCCER team, this team will continue to lag behind the better teams in MLS... find a way to identify PLAYERS (current professional players and youth/college players) who can play well in MLS... find a way to create an environment where players can get better as individuals and where the team can improve (in whatever style they want to play) to compete at the elite level in MLS... i don't what it takes to accomplish those two tasks... perhaps the team needs someone to help the GM in a player scouting capacity... perhaps we do need a different manager... perhaps we have some players right now... whatever it takes to accomplish those two tasks, put the appropriate resources into accomplishing them... then we can begin to debate the details like tactics, player selection for games, substitutions, etc....
Dams. That was just full of suck, from the drive over to the drive back. The game in between was pretty sucky too. And wow, some of those Mexican fans were hardcore! They really stuck through the rain.
Except for the big chunk that Hesmer dug up when he tried to change direction on the goal and was left sitting on his ass, absolutely.
It's just not this player or that player - it's that they simply don't execute. And please, for the love of God, if I have to listen to Mark McCullers tell us again that getting a forward is "a priority" I will need serious drugs to keep from killing myself. We haven't had a serviceable forward for how many years now, and for how many years now has be been telling us that finding a decent forward was "a priority" We almost got this guy, we almost got that guy, we're looking at a guy, we're talking to a guy, blah, blah, blah. Bullshit. Bull-fucking-shit. All we've done is a) Use the #3 pick in 2006 on a forward who never got off the bench last night and the #2 pick in 2007 for a forward who wasn't even wearing a uniform last night and trade a fast guy who is now off scoring goals for a slow guy who isn't. (Actually, we had TWO first round picks in 2006 - the other one (Jed Zayner) has played 20 minutes so far this season) The Fat Man has had plenty of time - PLENTY of time - to find at least one goddam forward. Don't give me this "It's a priority" garbage. Unless your definition of "priority" is different from mine, then "priority" means something you work on to the exclusion of anything else, not something you talk about for three years. Hell, they've been trying to find a forward for three years and can't, but that idiot Jason Kreis, who's been on the job since May and who has exactly NO "overseas contacts" just brought in three Argies who are scoring goals and going wild. Kreis doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground and Sigi is supposed to be this genius. Right. Jesus Christ, this outfit is pathetic. Embarrassing. Ridiculous. If this is the best the people running this thing can do then screw it - send the damn team to Philadelphia and maybe they can come up with somebody halfway competent to run the thing.
I have been a supporter of Sigi since day one but these last few weeks have me questioning if he really knows how to utilize the great talent he has. He has been referring to this formation as a 4-3-3 all season but when I look at it week in and week out playing 4 in the back with 2 defensive middies and 1 guy up top, thats not going to get us many goals. Danny O really pisses me off when he turns the ball over left and right but we need him out there because he is great at playing defense and marking but neither he nor Duncs can send a through ball in from that point of the field. I understand we have Migz and Frankie running up more often than most other wing backs in the league but we are still playing 6 pretty far back in our area, this entire season it has shown we don't get many goals from the formation but its still what Sigi goes with. And there is only 1 guy up top and nobody seems to be moving around enough to open it up for somebody else. By the time Moreno does get possession it has allowed any offensive opportunity we had to close up because the defense has already reset. Thats the problem when are lone striker is slow. I think Moreno would be a great sub if we were WINNING and he came on in the 60+ minute because he slows down the game, wins possession and draws fouls. But when we are down and we need points, he alone up top is not the answer. Kamara has great speed, size and I think some of the best heading abilities on the team. For the type of game we play we need a striker with speed so he can get ahead of the defense. Kamara should be our lone striker with this damn formation and his play for the reserve squad should be reason enough to give him an opportunity to start. I really have a hard time believing McCullers and HSG really give a sh*t if Columbus ever has a winning team. The fact that other teams can find great talent at this point of the year and we have to sign another one year bench warmer like Becerra, Bisaku, or Rozental really pisses me off (im not criticizing the Pacheco signing, sometimes they work out sometimes they don't but it wasn't the big name we needed right now). I was saying the same thing after the game last night that Bill mentioned earlier, the crew's front office is probably making arrangements to pull a Baltimore Colts type move and move our team to Philly at the end of the year. Bigger market, bigger city and a fresh start. My optimism is wearing extremely thin with our recent play but we aren't that far out from the playoffs, especially with the win from LA last night. Sigi, please wake the hell up for the players, the fans and the city of columbus. We need your best right now and you are simply giving us your worse. Mr. McCullers, we deserve better and if you aren't interested in making this a better team than get the hell out now because we are all fed up with your lack of involvement in making this a complete team. Black and Gold for Life!!!
I think you make a good point about formation, although I have never been one of those guys who wants to argue for hours about the virtues of a 4-4-2 vs. a 4-4-1-1 vs. a 4-3-3 vs. whatever. This is soccer, and it's supposed to be a fluid game. These guys aren't divided into linemen and cornerbacks, with inviolable areas of responsibility, this is soccer and you take the lanes and the lines and the space that the defense gives you regardless of what position your trading card says you play. That said though, Jacob Thomas is not a forward. He does not have the skill and agility to receive or turn on a ball in the box, or to possess it while other guys run off of him or the vision and skill to connect on the ground with guys coming into the box behind him. He just doesn't. He's a bull-rush guy, a hell-bent-for-leather katie-bar-the-door problem for defenders when he's running the touchline, but not even close to the guy you want in the box one-touching it past the keeper. It's simply not his game and if Sigi thinks it is then he's just flat insane. Bottom line, we DO, as the poster suggests, play with one hitter up front; whether Moreno is the guy for that job - and it's not his pace but his inability in the air that I think disqualifies him - he needs someone next to him, not coming up behind him. SOmeone who can take some of the defensive pressure off of the guy. As it is he's simply swarmed, just like McBride was in his last two years here. Sigi sent him out there as the frontrunner, with no lateral support and he just got killed. We need someone next to Moreno; he can't do it by himself and Thomas isn't the guy. The biggest problem this team has, in my opinion, besides it's signal inability to find or identify talent, is Sigi's bull-headed stubbornness. When things don't work he can't or won't change anything; maybe he'll swap this player for that player, but overall he decides how it's going to go, how we're going to play and that's that. I've seen no flexibility, no ability to change tactics on the fly, adjust to the defense or take what they give us. Rather, it's Sigi's way or nothing. And mostly it's nothing. One other thing, and I'm sorry to ramble but I'm so pissed off today I can't help it: Early in the season, the Crew was a scrappy team that didn't necessarily win but that - as several writers observed - nobody wanted to play. They were impossible to score on and conversely they would score just enough to keep you from winning. Then we hit mid-summer and they actually started to win and look good ding it. They actually dominated a couple games with possession and style and, as one writer observed, the Crew had evolved into a ver dangerous opponent.. Come late summer, it's all collapsed. The defense can be had, they can't score to save their lives and everybody in the league - including some lousy teams - would LOVE to play us. Even at our place, doesn't matter. What happened? How did we go from feisty and tough to strong and dominent to pretty much awful all in one season?
So then we'd be the San Jose Earthquakes all over again? That's a horrible thought, and I don't know if I could ever support MLS if that happens.
This is all a vast conspiracy to make the "black out" game against Los Angeles have true playoff implications. It's way more exciting to have your team battling its way into the playoffs than battling for better playoff positioning, right? Right!?!? Then again, that could be fantasy thinking on my part...
Wow. I missed last week's game, the first we hadn't been to all year, because my kids had a tournament, and felt bad about not being there. Yesterday I missed because I had the chance to go to Ann Arbor and see my alma mater play live and in person for the first time in 25 years (turned out to be one of the great days of my life, but that's another story). Haven't watched the DVR of the game yet, and it sounds like maybe I don't want to. I agree with BA that this is an organizational problem. The problem isn't just the players, or the coach, or the lack of goal scoring or any of the myriad elements in which we are lacking. It starts at the very top, with the lack of a professional attitude toward building a winning club. I don't know if local ownership is the answer or what. But for the first time I actually find myself wondering if I really want to go back. I'll be there for the next game, though.
I have changed my outlook and am going with the positive. And, really, why shouldn't I? We have six games remaining, and I feel really good about the schedule. Two home games: One against Los Angeles in front of a large crowd when we never falter, and one against FC Dallas who only has twice as many wins as we have. Our other four matches are away. Sure, we're 1-5-5 away from home this season have been outscored 12-19, but that's just this team hustling the rest of the league. Fear not, fellow Crew fans. It's all shaping up as planned! We, the unwashed masses, were too busy with fantasy thinking to realize it, however.
I just don't think he's much of player... that this is one of the "finds" of the Crew's scouting process underscores one of the major problems with this organization... Is it still "bull-headed stubbornness" when you just don't know what else to do??? i mean, i agree that this team has a difficult time adjusting, changing, adapting during the course of a game... but it's one thing to stick to a certain way of playing because you believe you are right (even if you might be wrong)... it's a completely different thing to not have the ability to match wits with men who know the game on another level... and it's not really about gameday... it's really much more about what you do from Sunday through Friday... and i don't believe this team is doing what needs to be done from Sunday through Friday to compete at a high level in today's MLS... I would argue that this team has not looked good in quite a few years... but that's just a matter of perception... some people loved the 1994 Norway World Cup team (with the immortal Jostein "The Lighthouse" Flo as the lone forward)... i couldn't stand watching them... some people would argue the 2004 Greece team played well winning the European Championship... i would disagree... but i digress... i think one of the more interesting dynamics within a team is when the players stop believing in the direction being given them by their manager... none of us would know if this has occurred... interviews with players (even talking with them on the side) would not reveal this... there is, after all, a public side to the team where appearances must be kept up... but players KNOW when they are outclassed before they step on the field... players KNOW when there are players (teammates) on the field who really don't belong... players KNOW when the "plan" set before them won't really work... i think the answer to your questions is that this team might have reached this point (or is fast approaching it)...
I guess the question is why is Robbie not producing?-he was. Why is Herron not producing?-he did. Garey-same question. Somethings amok.
I've said this before and I'll say this again: The 4-3-3 formation is effective when used by a talented team to beat the snot out of less talented teams. Beyond that, it is worthless. The only reason a less talented team should use a 4-3-3 is to showcase players in that system in the hopes the teams with actual talent buy one of your players so you can make the payroll next year. Our opponents must laugh at us.
Marshall is the guy who should be traded, I think he is overrated and the Crew should take advantage. (Whatever we get in return would have to assume that he fully recovers from his concussions, of course.) Ditto for Schelotto. (Perhaps Chivas would be interested.) The Crew might also get something of value in return for Gonzalez. I think it would be unwise to trade Hendrickson because they would not likely get anything of value and he has been mister versatility for the Crew. Apparently Archer was spot-on when he said Herron won't play for Sigi the rest of the season because he talked to McCullers. As I said before, this seems ridiculous to me, but it could be true. If so, it would be quite disturbing to me. The alternatives are 1) that he is expected to be involved in a trade because he either really is a crap player and the Crew are taking advantage or are just dumping him or the Crew think they are getting a lot in return for what they still believe is a decent player. But if it is the latter, one would think the Crew would get a much better return if he showed something on the field this year 2) he picked up some type of injury (hard to believe, I know). Andy Herron for Pete Vagenas? Wow. That trade would rank right up there with allocation for Sanneh for Razov for Wolyniec (although, dang, maybe we could use John Wolyniec right now). Does Sigi Schmid have any OTHER sources than his former Galaxy players and the Puerto Rico Islanders? Are you talking about that team that won one of its first eleven and in the last five of those gave up 14 goals? That team who's only game-winning goal came from Ezra Hendrickson on a rebound in the box? That team that only had two corner kicks and three shots on goal the entire game? However, this Chicago game was one of the few in which the Crew clearly dominated, or at least outplayed, their opponent. Yet there have only been two mildly positive comments in this entire thread.