Post-match: Crew-LA Post Game [R]

Can someone run rate the players on how they played for some of us who did not get to see a lot of the match. thanks

 

Glad I stayed up for this one! L.A. is fun to watch and a joy to hate, and the losses by NE and Chi make this a very worthwhile day.

And, yes, whoever said it first, last year's team would have folded like a a pasteboard hurricane shelter. The comeback showed some emotional grit.

 

Good result. If our defense hadn't fallen asleep twice it could have been 3 points. The way I see it the final score was:

3 - Crew's Offense
3 - Crew's Defense (by way of dumb mistakes)

As much as their penalty was questionable, if our defense had done its job for the full 90 minutes it wouldn't have mattered.

After our second equalizer I was happy to get out with a point. The team, however, looked like they were going for the win. Good on them. We showed some great character to get back even on the scoreboard.

We looked very good tonight. We moved the ball well. You could just feel that we'd get some in the 'ol onion bag.

Work on focus. Come home and defend our turf.

Massive

 

im feckin drunk at this point.

 

Adapted and overcame. And the cheater's justice prevailed.

 

The fans in LA have to feel like that one is a loss for them after feeling pretty secure in their 2-0 lead.

Both sides blew some chances that most of us would have finished at age 12.

Heads up the Crew are going to get fined for not following MLS rules to let LA take a win away on this one.

If you listen carefully you hear Alexi whining and moaning and groaning to the MLS commisioners that the Crew didnt let MLS precious little golden kids take this one away with a win.

 

Who said soccer was predictable... We desperately need an AM to link to on transition. 2-1 possession on time and some decent poise with the ball in the final 3rd. We actually took it back and changed points of attack vs. blowing the ball into the stands...

Is Ricky Bobby really ready for Prime time? Pretty erratic...

This team is fun to watch when they commit players to the box.

I'll take a point - since we GAVE them 2 goals

 

ugly as sin....I'll take the point. Still think Becks dove though

 

I will probably have my ratings (fwiw) up tomorrow. Site is in the sig.

 

To add to that...

Someone else needs to take corner kicks for the Crew..they are terrible.

Is it time to start the Hammer for a game?

 

and...

 

Random thoughts:

Hesmer worries me more and more each week. See: goal #1, his late second half dribbling forray around Alan Gordon.

Our defense was far from stellar.

Hooray GBS can take a PK. Too bad he can't do anything productive with any other type of free kick.

Is there something wrong with this team that they are fundamentally unable to play possession soccer for 90 minutes in a row?

Nico ********ing Hernandez?!

Beckham pulled a Ruiz on their PK. What a dive.

A draw is probably a fair result for this game. We played like absolute crap for so long. LA could have put us away multiple times.

 

That has got to be the game of the freakin' MLS season. Wow just wow.

Fella's we have a very special team here.

 

Crew had more shots, more shots on goal, more corner kicks and dominated possession in the final 20 minutes.

This was a pretty exciting game. If Moreno had been a bit sharper on some of the half-chances (such as on the Marshall knock-down ... not really blaming him ... just that kind of game) the game could have had a different result.

The key to beating LA is to stop sending crosses into the box and instead run at Xavier ... especially in the second half. Pires and Randolph tend to wear out and Franklin (very good) cannot cover for everybody. LA just is not a very mobile defensive team.

Full credit to the Crew for failing to permit Donovan and Beckham to control tempo and possession in the second half (though to be fair to Landycakes ... he might have been a bit blown after his lay-off the last few).

Eastern Conference (pretty much) owns the west. When RSL can get into 2nd place and Toronto, Columbus and Co. can beat the #1 team in their house ... it says something about the balance of this league.

Star for the Crew ... Robbie Rogers was extremely dangerous throughout the game ... full credit to him.

Star for the Galaxy ... Edson Buddle is showing how much talent he has. Now if he gets into shape, he might show what he could have been had he been in the right situation and made the most of the ability he showed even in his early years with the Crew. He is 2x better than Twellman or Cooper at creating his own shot. His footwork borders on magnificent. If he dropped 10 lbs and worked on his first step and aerobic fitness (he gets blown) he could score 25 goals with the kind of service and space he gets on this team.

 

You could really tell that one of the reasons why the Crew started out like a house on fire was because they would win possesion so often, and when that started happening, we started scoring goals.

All in all, a good point, I'm really glad we got the point under the circumstances that New England lost, and we have two games in hand on them as well.

 

Against a lesser team (SJ) we took it 3-2 with a second half explosion. LA is a decent team so the result seems fair enough. Except for the fact that it took one of the most obvious sham calls I have ever seen in this league.

 

I think it is between this one and the Chivas game from April. Special things happen when the Crew play California teams.

 

I don't know if I can rate them, but I will say that Junge and O'Rourke were not good. Junge looked like he had never seen an overlap before. O'Rourke was beaten like a rented mule by Buddle, and then nearly gifted Beckham a chance.

It's hard to decide how I feel about this result. On one hand, it's points on the road at one of the teams in the top half of the table. On the other, we gave up two absolutely ridiculous goals. Of course, for most of the game the field was tilted toward the LA goal. And that third goal looked pretty clearly like a dive in the box to me.

So, were we lucky to get a result given the schoolboy defending? Were we robbed by a phantom foul in the box? Did we gut out a draw, fighting back from behind twice. None of the above? All of the above?

I don't get the people who are saying we were outplayed by LA. We dominated in virtually every statistical category. We had more opportunities, and for the most part their star players were uninvolved (who forgot Donovan was even on the field after the 4th minute?). We. Were. Better. A little less sloppy in the back, and we win.

 

None the less the Crew are putting on some shall I say Massive performances and have been entertaining to watch someway or another.

Reminds me of good ol Turkey in the UEROs...always doing it that hard way.

 

it's saturday.


******** you LA. ******** you Donovan. ******** you Beckham. ******** You Ruud. ******** You Xavier. ******** You, Ron Burgandy. ******** You.

 

... um ... it was actually a crunching knee-to-knee tackle. He made the most of a hashed play, I thought. He probably should have gotten their a split second sooner, but it was a tough play and (not for the first time) O'Rourke sort of screwed up by playing casually on a ball that a forward could play. Even if the keeper should or has called for the ball ... a defender should keep himself between a forward and the ball (as long as he is moving towards the ball they will never call obstruction).

I thought Marshall played very well. The fullbacks were weaker (too much time given to the wings, though Hejduk worked hard both ways). The central midfielders began to assert themselves well later in the game. Scheletto was in no sense the talisman tonight. If anything he was pretty wasteful. Hernandez had a few neat touches and had great interplay with Hejduk, but he was one-paced. Moreno did the dirty work, but had the touch (finishing) of a blocking tight-end. Not Sharpe.

Robbie Rodgers is some kind of player. Absolutely fearless with the ball at his feet. He reminds me a bit of Pavel Nedved the way he can get his knees going different directions to confuse defenders about where his momentum is carrying him. He absolutely flummoxed Chris Klein several times ... and Klein usually positions himself reasonably well. There are only a handful of centerbacks in the league who can deal with Rodgers when he is in full flight and turns the corner.

 

It's been a while since I've been this excited about a tie. Yeah, we gifted them a pair, but on the other hand, each of their golden boys blew a sitter, which just amuses me to no end.

GBS had some passion, as he showed last week. What troubled me, apart from the free kick issue we like to beat to death, is that he got the ball into a great position on several occasions, only to make a lackluster pass in situations where we're used to seeing assists.

Yeah, Hesmer makes me nervous, but he's come so far and done so well at times, there's no way you change anything.

Oh yeah, and the LA announcers were actually worse that that guy in "Victory" who screams "No goal! No goal!". Just awful. At one point, when St. Becks and another LA player simultaneously elbow Guillermo, the guy says, "Retaliation, maybe?" The guy also pulled a TFC by going crazy over a non-goal. What a tool.

And what a pleasant tie.

 

To quote our favorite Analyst turned coach turned whatever...

"We footballed them to death."

 

My ratings after you wade through a Beckham rant, I'm kind of pissed about that:
http://crewonespot.blogspot.com/2008/06/beckham-nice-classless-dive-there-buddy.html