0-0 tie. Cunningham hits post in last seconds of sudden death. Burgess on radio call lambasting what he calls "boneheaded" decision making by the Crew tonight. On the plus side, over 24K were in the stands. No doubleheader needed in Columbus to draw a decent crowd
Pretty entertaing game no matter what the score. Adin Brown just stuffed JC on two breakaways to keep the tie. He tipped the last one onto the far post with 10 sec. left in OT. Perez came in and really added an offensive spark, but the question was why not bring Martino out (gassed) instead of McB? McB was pretty ineffective IMO. I'm not sure why, just never really was a threat as he seeemed on qa different page on his runs. He did make some nice runs, but alway was going nearside to a far side service.
So I missed the game being 4 hours away (goddamsonofabitch), and I'm left wondering why Jeff can't convert golden chances? I wonder why Greg waited so long to sub in Buddle. I will say that I am pleased with the subs that took place in regulation. Not sure about the Dante move. God I wanted 3 points tonight so bad. I suppose I can blame myself for forgetting my lucky soccer boxers at my parents house last week (sh!tfacedcumsucker!). I'll take my late night, angry rantings elsewhere now. I hope nobody else is posting because they're all getting piss drunk and looting downtown Columbus.
There was little entertaining about last night's match....frankly, last night's performance and coaching strategy ranks among the dullest in Crew history. I got fed up and left when Andrulis - after waiting nearly 80 minutes to make a substitution, pulls McBride instead of Jeff "I still can't finish on a breakway" Cunningham. I am not surprised that Jeffy hit the post on the last-minute chance. Next match, sit Jeffy and start Buddle.
I can't remember one goddam service to Bake all night. Not one. None. About the only time he even TOUCHED the ball was when he went up and flicked on a ball to Cunniningham for a one-on-one with Brown. Of course, Jeff was lind enough to dribble it straight into a keeper lying on the ground with a wide open goal 10 feet away. Have all of you "Waaah, waaah, Andrulis is stupid, Jeff has to start" people seen enough yet? Busch is incredible. The intensity is phenominal and the motor runs on high for 90 minutes. And he now has the best stats in MLS. Everybody wanted to tell ol' Fred he was loco when he said two weeks ago that Presthus is history around these parts. Anybody want to keep telling me I'm wrong? And to all of you who assured me that the High School games wouldn't screw up the pitch: The pitch was shit last night. Mostly, we let a golden opportunity to grab three points and put a serious headlock on the division slip away. The midfield was simply ineffective (Mais finally looked pretty good, but Oughton and Martino mostly disappeared) Perez got in the match very late, and then proceeded to play like your grandmother. What a pile of dung. Did Greg suppose that putting in Dante with three minutes left was going to alter the match somehow. Yank that useless turd Cunningham at 60 minutes when it's clear he's playing like crap. We've got forwards out the ass. Why sit there watching that embarassing display when you've got Buddle and Dante sitting next to you? 24,000 people. Judging by the comments I heard, a LOT of first timers. (Lefty spent half the match explaining what was going on to the black guys in front of us.) Almost everybody stayed 100 minutes. Jim Smith must be kicking his dog and yelling at his kids this morning. A bad failure.
if you look on the crew.com and these boards, i had posts where I disagreed with mcbride over buddle. and look what happened.
we need buddle. now. i wonder what those first timers thought of the final score. it would have been better if it had been a good crew win, but hopefully those guys will come back. i'm thinking it was because of the pre-game concert. and once again, fred is right. i couldn't have said those words better.
For the most part it was the worst Socer I've ever seen played by professionals. Lots of poor passing, miss oppurtunities, lack of real chances on goal. There was no build up to the play and if it was for a great save from Busch we would have lost. The only way I could consider this entertaining is for the fact that the game went back and forth and that's due to both teams being completely useless and giving the ball away. Martino showed some good plays but he had some bad mistakes too but he's young and you expect that. This was a game to forget about.
Did we go to the same game, Bill? Yeah, the tie is frustrating, but Kante (sp?) adds a lot to their D and they've always had offense. This was a BETTER Revs. team than last game. I don't believe their wins have been flukes. They appeared much improved and confident of their D (about time). I didn't think the field looked that bad, there were a few thin places, but the ball appeared to roll well and it was a fast track. Have to agree that McBride should not have been the first sub, Martino had been playing relentless D and was absoulutely gassed. Perez came on and really added some life to the offense, but he needed to come in earlier when McB was in the game. Martino looked like he wanted out (can you raise your hand in MLS?) and Westie still appeared to have some gas in the tank. Martino wound up playing rt mid and could barely make it upfield at the end of regulation. Perez and McB work well together and a better sub would have been Pelusa for Martino around the 65th min. Oughton looked more defensive when Perez entered the game. Mais took on a more offensive role when he switched over to the left wing and the Revs went to a 3-5-2. The Crewserettes were a good halftime show and kept the nonsoccer crowd amused. Somebody PLEASE kidnap spongebuttBOB. We don't need amusement for the u-8 crowd. Brown made a terrific save on JC's shot at the end of the game. JC smoked that ball at the side netting and Brown just managed to deflect it 1-2ft onto the post. All in all a frustrating tie becuse of the opportunity lost. I thought it was a generally well played game with quite a few scoring opportunities EXCEPT our inability to get the ball to McBride in the box. I've never thought McBride and JC were a good tandem because their styles are so different. A dribble expert doesn't do anything for Brian. He's better playing to and receiving from a power player (DANTE/Buddle) or someone who can play one-touch with him. The Revs were tired after the 65th and JC would have been a perfect pace step-up for us. 3 would have been great and handed us the Conference steering wheel. IMO it was NOT a bad game, just not the desired outcome. Big diff....
did anyone see the attendance figures for saturday's games? once again, the league's smallest market leads the weekend's attendance
I don't understand when you have one of the hottest goalscorers in the league (Buddle) why you wait till the 85th minute to sub him into a 0-0 draw. But bad substitutions seem to be a theme throughout this season. It was just a really uninspired effort in our bigeest game of the season to date. I really wish I could just forget that one.
It was uninspired, that's for sure. One of the reasons was that the Revs really didn't want to do anything but sit back and play defense and hope for a few breaks, which they got. Busch did well to deny them. But it wasn't like the Revs completely blanketed the Crew. Besides Cuinningham's misses, McBride also rolled one weakly right at Brown and Maisonneuve missed a wide-open net from 12 yards early in the game. So they did have chances. And Adin Brown played just as well as Busch did, though his eyes don't seem to bug out quite as far. The Crew's lack of wing play showed up as the Revs were able to get the ball down the flank, but couldn't get the last cross in thanks to good work by the central defenders. But a lack of flank attacking and good crossing was a major reason McBride was ineffective. Sure, he can get his head on goal kicks, whoop dee doo. He needs to be getting his head on crosses inside the penalty spot, and he's not because the Crew have taken the penguin formation and squeezed in into the middle even more.
McBride didn't have a single good chance during the game - didn;t have a single good service either. Was pissed when he left the match. Martino kept pushing the ball up the left side where we have no one to provide a decent cross. Torres came up on quite a few runs that quickly fizzled out. I think this has more to do with NE neutralizing the right side to prevent Westie from creating anything - it worked. Left side is a big problem for this team. Need to teach the team that if they don't have an opportunity on the left, or they aren't physically capable of making a cross from the left, WORK FOR A CORNER. It's not like we have only the best target man in MLS or anything. Despite the aforementioned left side syndrome, Martino has great vision. Perez provided some good posession in the offensive end when he came on late. Probably shoulda come on sooner. Oughton was a pest. The defense played really well. The only opprtunities the Revs had were shots from the edge of the box. Leitch and the rest of the defense / midfield had some really poor giveaways. Looking at Cunningham's chances, Adin Brown beat him, he didn't miss the chances. Adin Brown was sensational. Cunningham did score a goal that was called back. Edson Buddle is a horse. Buddle / Cunni combo could be the most effective combination ever. I look forward to the playoffs. Andrulis inserted three offensive substitutes, Perez, Buddle, and Washington. Is this a paradigm shift to a more attack - win oriented scheme? Washinton - yeah he played. His two touches of the ball the entire match were a poorly handled pass and a giveaway leading to a NE breakaway. I mean, c'mon here champ, let's get to it!! Why is it that every time I come to a Crew game, there are exactly zero goals scored? BWG Richmond, VA
If you're talking about that one in the 88th minute or so, he was offside by a mile, according to someone who was talking with me.
Per Dwight Burgess, he thought the ball was deflected OFF a defensive player, therefore making Cunningham ONSIDE. Or has God ERRR Burgess misinterpreted the offsides rule?
I think Dwight is incorrect on this one. Had Maisonneuve's shot gone in the goal would have counted because although Cunningham was in an offside position he was not involved in the active play and did not gain an advantage from being in that position. However, once Maisonneuve's shot deflected off the defender to Cunningham, Cunningham did gain an advantage from being in the offside position. At least that's how I think the situation works. Perhaps one of our referees on the boards can confirm or correct.