It was nice to see the Crew get a win after a depressing USA loss to Ghana. I appreciated the Coaches willingness to try something new with Moffat as a hybrid right back. I felt bad for Steve Lenhart on the pk. GBS was trying to help the kid build up his confidence and it clearly backfired. Team as a whole had an excellant second 45.
Was Lenhart trying to score, or was he trying to injure the goalkeeper? He literally kicked it so hard, the keeper didn't have a chance to get out of the way. Totally got away with a handball on the Schelotto goal. I can't believe that was missed. Take it. On Brunner's goal, it almost seemed like DC wasn't even aware the play had been restarted. I can't remember ever seeing someone THAT open on a corner kick before. There were stretches of time where DC was taking the play to us, and probably should have scored on a couple occasions. Hesmer did a good job of making himself big, maybe forcing the shooters to be not quite as comfortable. I like Renteria. If he were a ribeye steak, I'd say he needs a little more seasoning and a little more time on the grill. (Or some other ridiculous analogy.) But he brought a lot of energy last night, and some dangerous crosses. Good to see him get the start.
Our offense is pathetic. I dont know what has to happen to get better. I know we scored twice but it was a lucky handball and off a set piece. I would love to see the FO go get a solid striker. Love the Renteria though. Rogers wasnt completely useless yesterday. Thats good!
I am more concerned by the defense. There were far too many defensive lapses and good team that could finish would have put the Crew in an early hole. There were some beautiful runs by Rogers and Renteria and the set pieces were very dangeous. renteria was a bear, but you wonder if can do it for a full 90.
Pathetic? Really? We scored two goals. Yes, we were fortunate one to not have a handball called, but that was a rebound off a post where we were unfortunate not to score on the first shot. The corner kick goal -- I don't know why everyone wants to discount set piece goals all of a sudden. They're a huge part of the sport. As Alexi Lalas likes to say, "Set pieces, set pieces, set pieces." There are teams that go months on end without scoring on corner kicks. We seem to get one every other week. They're not gimmes -- someone has to serve them, and someone has to finish them. And that's after earning the restart to begin with. And frankly, we also earned a penalty that should have made it 3-0. If that kick had mattered at all, GBS would have taken in instead of the "Let's try to get Lenny on track" strategy, and it's a third goal. I'm with bergbros -- the defense concerns me more.
Valid point on the set pieces comment. They are important and we need to score on them as much as possible. However, I don't see us being dangerous enough in the normal run of play. Defensivly I think our main problems are mental lapses (Brunner) and careless turnovers (Caroll and Moffat).
Quoting Alexi Lalas isn't that much better than quoting Julie Foudy. Our offense wasn't great but its definitely been worse. I would like to see Renteria up top with Guille just to see how it works out for a full game. I think if we started Ekpo out wide with those two up top, we'd score plenty of goals. Not sure if that would work with the 3-5-2, because Ekpo would have to track back way too much for his own liking (not that Ekpo is as horrible at defense as some make it out to be, but the fact that he can't run that much in a match).
I'm shocked no one has brought up the PK and the fact Guille didn't take it and that Robert lectured him on the field for not taking it. I don't think Robert and Guille see eye to eye on much.
Slow down, trigger. Do you honestly think that if the game had been in any kind of doubt that GBS wouldn't have taken it himself? They recognized that the kick would mean nothing outside of margin of victory, and tried to use it as an opportunity to get Lenhart going a little bit. I don't have a problem with it at all. And someone else mentioned that to me last night, and they made it sound a lot less serious than a "lecture".
Oh I get why he didn't take it. In fact I agree with it. I don't agree with RW and adressing it with Guille the way he did.
i don't think this is that big of a deal. if it were 1-0, then ok, i'd be pissed. i understand where Bob was coming from though.
Renteria looked good, he should have stayed on and Garey should have gone to the bench. Robbie had a decent game. Moffat looked shakey with many bad passes. I was screened partially (like the ref?) on the GBS goal, was it clearly a handball? Did GBS tell Lenhart to take the pk? Nice gesture that backfired. Every goal counts if goal differential is used to break a tie at the end of the season. 3 points, tied for first with one game in hand.
Sorry. Link did not go through, but if you look at the MLS site, you will see a clear hand of God handball by GBS. Youn wonder why they didn't show the goal on the screen at crew Stadium. There is your reason.
That's a pretty accurate comparison, really. Hey, remember that goal that Thomas finally scored? That was awesome. I've done a lot of drinking to put those years behind me. Thoughts on Moffat in the back from those of you who were there? On the broadcast, it looked as though he played a few good balls forward, and made a few Frankiesque runs. Unfortunately, it also looked as though a few of his passes were too ambitious, and basically straight giveaways. The DC announcers actually compared the hand ball to Henry's, which was weak. It sure was a handball, but it sure didn't look intentional. How many players might have, unlike GBS, had the kind of reaction that would have led to the call being made? I like the idea of Renteria up front with Schelotto, and Ekpo wide. I'd like it even better if Ekpo and Renteria could each do a convincing 90 minutes.
but still, why wouldn't they show it? they showed the other goals. just because it appears to be the result of a bad call doesn't mean they shouldn't show it. it is not up to the Columbus Crew personnel to interpret the rules of the game for everyone as there may be cases where there are extenuating circumstances that the referee deems legal. Columbus Crew has no right to not show the goal. show one, show them all. it's not your place to make the decisions about what is and is not within the rules.
So 11 guys on the field and the entire bench can bum rush the ref & 4th to scream and yell and point at the video board? Did you really say they have "no right" not to show it? Come on now. Keep a close eye for all those replays of yellow card fouls on Crew players, too.
Since when is Crew stadium required to show the goal? I think it's smart not to show the goal so the referee doesn't call a makeup PK. It's called home field advantage. Keeping a win is more important than making sure everyone gets to see a replay. Also, it was nice to play at a home field and have calls go our way. Haven't seen that in a few weeks.
You were with the two of them when they were taking about it? Heard everything that was said? Until such time, I think I'll hold judgement on what their conversation was about...
MLSSOCCER: Fist of Guille Now... GBS is the field general. He's Patton to Bobby's Ike. Aint like he's freakin Tony Sanneh.
To me, this isn't a Guille vs. Robert issue, it's a Lenhart issue. And it's Robert's job to get more production out of Lenhart, not Guille's. I don't think whatever went on between Guille and Robert has any meaning, long-term. RW had to address a situation where the standard operating procedure was changed on the field without his approval. MLS, despite occasional appearances to the contrary, isn't a pick-up league. Lenhart looked buffoonish in taking that PK. What "might" have helped his confidence has, if anything, given him one more aspect of his game to doubt. Of course, he has no one to blame but himself; his stifled guffaws as he approached the spot made his failure to score anything but a surprise. Still, if Robert has wanted to use a situation where the Crew, say, was up a couple of goals late and happened to earn a PK, as a chance for Lenhart to notch a goal, he could have talked to Lenhart about it ahead of time, told him it would be a possibility, maybe had him do some extra PK practice. I'm backing Bobby on this one. There may be a time this season where Lenhart needs to take a PK that matters. If that time come, his feeble effort vs. DC will be what pops into his mind as he approaches the ball.
To change the subject, I have a Jaime Moreno-inspired question: can anyone name another outfield player who saw playing time in the 1994 World Cup and who's still playing professionally (at any level)? I can't think of one.
The irony of Steve's miss on the pk was that it went straight up the middle. Thats where GBS usually shoots his pks and makes them. Steve obviously copied Guille and it backfired.