Kudos to Carrol, Rogers and Gaven for playing three complete games in one week and getting three wins.
Just posted this in the PBP but I figured I would post it here too since that one will probably get closed soon. Prus was a big pile of poop. He was so inconsistent the entire game. I loved finally being able to go to a game this year. No one really played that great in my eyes, a lot of good performances though. I thought Gaven, Garey, Schelotto, Marshall, Iro, and Renteria all had good contributions. I think Lenhart might be back to being a super sub for a while (except for USOC) because he brings so much energy when he comes into the game. Other than that, great game. Kind of sad only 14,000 were there. But I was able to pick up a bar scarf and a Crew Union shirt and it was all together a great experience.
Like in Trophymanager game, once the parking lots are finished, we'll get more numbers. I heard three seperate complaints from parents of kids getting a run on some pregame clinic and even Sodexho workers. All three was complaining about the parking lot slugs who were telling them where they could or couldn't go. This made people late to whatever function. To top it off, whoever the suit was working the gate showed an immense lack of empathy skills, his give a damn was busted. Besides that, this game was about us beating the Chicagoons and continuing our pace with regards to the Supporter's Shield. The Ragin Cajun's goal celebration is top notch Pure passion!
Attendance was down tonight because almost all of the communities in Columbus had their 4th of July festivities on Saturday.
Maybe it's just me, but Robert is a complete fool for not starting Rentaria. The entire complexion of the game changes when he is playing. We saw it against DC when he started, and we saw it tonight. He pressures the ball better than any person I've ever seen wearing yellow and black, he always plays balls-to-the-wall, and doesn't half-ass his runs, as some other more deified players tend to do.
He is also a moose. Between him and Lenhart, it is close to basketball where defenders who have been posted up all game are exhausted.
Good game for the most part. Frankie wasn't very good. I thought the F*re would target Iro but they targeted Frankie as the weak point in our defense. Prus seems to have a personal dislike for Guille. Maybe it was the uncalled handball from last week but Conde was mugging Schelotto without any calls. I hope Prus doesn't work any of our playoff games. It was great to see so may fireworks displays after the game. From my seat on the upper West side, I could see 8 displays on the horizon. Two to the south (Bexley, Whitehall?), 2 to the SE (Gahanna,Reynoldsburg?), 1 to the NE (New Albany?), and 3 to the North (Worthington, Westerville, and Clintonville?). Then from the concourse I saw two more, 1 straight west, probably Upper Arlington, and 1 to the SW, maybe Hilliard.
I noticed that, too, and it was really the only weakness in the officiating. Had Conde began hitting players with a 2x4, he MIGHT have drawn a card, but it would have only been a yellow. Garey and Moffat getting such key confidence builders may pay big dividends in the coming weeks. I agree that Renteria changes the whole complexion of the game, but having earned the result last night, Bobby looks pretty sharp for preserving Lenny, Ekpo, Danny O and Renteria for Tuesday night. The Battery are not to be taken lightly.
First off Moffat still sucks. Good finish though, really a clinical strike on that goal for him yesterday. In all serious though, he proves what we coaches all tell our players...dont give up on a play. That can happen. Carrol is turning into a walking turnover. His distribution is really really shaky. Good to see O'Rouke back. He looked good too. Can he play RB? Renteria is a beast. As much as I want to see him start when he comes off the bench 70min into a game you know the other team is saying to themselves "Oh Sh*t". Is Ekpo dead? When was the last time that guy got MLS minutes? Gaven is our best player. Hes dangerous, consistent and creative. Love watching that guy do what he does now. Rogers is predictable. Kick the ball and run to the line and hope we get a corner out of it. Not once yesterday did he cut to the inside. Not once. And we all know thats when hes most dangerous. Apparently he doesnt want to be. Guille. Eh, not bad. Still waiting for a free kick goal that doesnt come off someones head. Havent had one since 2008. However, last night he was great with his flick ons when people actually made runs (Rogers, not talking about you) Garey, great finish son. Great finish. Hesmer, just as I was saying he should get some National Team minutes in the next four years he goes and completely mishandles the ball. Thanks for making me sound like a fool. Had no chance against Frankies excellent strike. Hejduk. Great finish. Awesome strike, upper 90 far post. Will never saw that coming. Gino, Love him. Argentina could have used him on D yesterday. Chad, Andy. Solid. Only mistake I saw was Andy's freekick at the end that just went straight OB. Everyone was looking at him saying "What the F*ck dude?" Crowd. Very very disappointed. I know communities had fireworks last night, but where was the Nordecke? Not even sold out for Chicago? Wow. Still loud though. All in all a great night, of course it could have been raining cow sh*t and it still would have been great since we beat the Flamers and scored three goals doing it. Well two, but whatever.
*Photos* of last night @columbus_crew vs @ChiFireSoccer game are up on @massivereport http://bit.ly/crewpotf Enjoy and Be Massive
This was a quality win against a side who really is on the downside in a rebuilidng year. Crew defensively just shut them down in the second half and they were alomst as good in the first half despite Hejduk's howler. I thought the Crew eased up a little bit offensively in the second half when they knew the Fire couldn't organize any attack. Someone said the Fire was going to be in second place this year in the East. I disagree despite the fact that except for the Crew the rest of the East is just bad. I will not complain as much about the Crew lack of finsihing after this game. Beautiful attacking goals with the run of play as opposed to the Fire whose strikers, particulary Nyarko were just awful. The Fire were rarely dangerous and when they were, the finishing was just terrible. Ripping on Hejduk might be easy but McBride looks like he is approaching the end of the line. Just wasn't involved. With that said, the Crew's backline was phenomenal. Padula, Marshall and Iro were solid disrupting any attack and turning it up field. I do not fault RW for playing Renteria limited minutes, especially when they are playing five games in two weeks. They got three wins so far in that time and I suspect there might be some conditioning issues with Renteria. Don't think he can go a ful 90 at this time and we better hope the game on Tuesday does not go extra time.
13 games 27 points We've got 17 games left to pick up 13 points to get to the typical 40-point playoff cutoff. I think we're gonna make the playoffs this year.
Crew did not let up in the second half. Look at Bobby's subs. Just when Chi coach thought he might have some success against bunker, Bob put Renteria in.. who would obviously punish any push-up tactic on the Fire's part. THEN he put in Stevie... Talk about screwing up a 'come from behind' game plan. MoM: Coach, no, MANAGER Robert Warzycha!!!! Can we do that? And I'm onna those guys who think Chi STILL could end up second in east even though I believe NYRB are really for real this season
Good game last night. Good to see Hejduk and O'Rourke return to MLS action, though Frankie wasn't at his sharpest, obviously. While I've been carping for Renteria to start, Garey played a good game. Beautiful goal and unlucky to hit the post earlier. Almost every other player on this team would have tried to take a touch there, but Garey just hit it first time on the turn. Good striker play there, unlucky to hit the post. Gaven was great. Marshall, Gino, and GBS were all solid. Iro good for the most part (save missing a golden opportunity for a goal, and one sequence where he failed to clear two headers in a row). Frankie was a bit rusty, and I still feel the Carroll/Moffat CM tandem is completely inadequate against really good teams. They both have a lot of heart, but lack the quality to match their industry. Don't mind having one guy like that in CM, but two is trouble (as RSL showed us last year). I love our record (8-3-2, 27 points from 13 games), but I'm worried that we just can't seem to put anyone to the sword (like LA and RSL do).
Garey and Guille were the top performers last night. Garey hit the post, took the shot that Moffatt finished and had a clinical finish on the game winner. He also was much more active making runs and showing for the ball than I remember him doing in the past. Guille started the plays for both goals and the Garey shot that hit the post. He also had the corner kick that somehow Iro managed to miss. Above average performances from Padula, Iro and Chad on defense, and Gaven in midfield, and Danny as a sub. The trio in the back closed down Pappa and Padula quickly recovered the one time he went through. Nothing of danger came from that side except for the cross that Hejduk finished for them. Gaven was good on defense, drew a few fouls, and a precise cross that took the life out of the Fire. Danny closed down the right side after he came on. Average performances by Hesmer, Rogers and Carroll, and by Lenhart and Renteria off the bench. Hesmer had little to do in goal, Rogers needs to learn to anticipate instead of reacting, Carroll was great at winning the ball and showing, horrible in distributing. Lenhart and Renteria brought some energy but had no big impact in holding the Fire back at the end. Below par performances by Scottie and the Captain. Hejduk was the link consistently getting exposed by the Fire. Great own goal but seriously missed about three of his patented studs up tackles in midfield that allowed crosses (granted, they were horrible crosses by the Fire) into the box. Moffatt followed a shot and was rewarded. Otherwise he contributed nothing the rest of the game. A waste of space on the field. Warzycha was poor yesterday. He started his defensive-minded lineup against a pretty bad Fire team. Why not Gaven in the middle paired with Carroll and Renteria or Ekpo out wide? What's his love affair with Moffatt? His subs were better but they were like Bradley's subs against Ghana, better by default. Still, his first sub was Renteria for Garey. Garey was one of the few bright spots for us last night. Why not for Moffatt with Gaven moving central? Danny for Hejduk improved the defense and Lennie for Guille saved Pruss from getting punched by a very frustrated Argentinian. Pruss was horrible last night. Actually, that's being mean to the term "horrible". Guille gets slammed to the ground - nothing. Rogers breathes on a Fire player near the corner - whistle blows. Conde kept hammering on Guille - nothing. Iro and Chad couldn't get near a player without getting called.
I thought Carroll and Moffat looked GREAT the first 30 minutes of the match. We were pinging the ball around for much of that period. They did get rather sloppy and revert back to their regular form where they give the ball away a bit too much and don't look sharp. And I'm all for starting Ekpo or Renteria over Robbie. Robbie has had enough time this year to prove that he can be a consistent performer but he has yet to do it. He doesn't really look dangerous enough. He seems to get caught up in the lull of the game. The only reason I wouldn't start Renteria for him is because I want Renteria playing striker. His hold-up play is second to none and I loved when Warzycha subbed him in, even though Garey had a VERY good game.
It seems like 2010 Brian Carroll is consistently doing half of what's asked: he's still winning a lot of midfield battles, cutting out passes, and just mucking up the middle. But, man, his distribution after winning the ball has been off for the majority of the season. I tried to pay special attention to it last night, and it seems that oftentimes Carroll gets the ball and very few outlets present themselves aside from knocking it back to a defender. It looks like our midfield has stretches where they don't show quickly enough, putting players like Carroll and Moffat in tough situations. I think that's one significant difference from 2008 to 2009 and 2010: Brad Evans served as a pretty consistent link between the ball winners and Schelotto. With two fairly defensive-minded midfielders, combined with Schelotto playing much higher, that link seems missing for long stretches. Personally, I think that's why the offense looks more consistently dangerous when Gaven's in the middle: he gives us that possession link, that outlet, that allows us to transition to attack as opposed to knocking the ball back to defenders every time.
Great game from The Crew and a well deserved 3 points. The defense (Iro, Brunner, Padula)was very sharp all night. Frankie looked slow and awkward. His own goal, many bad passes, and missed tackles concern me. Maybe it's time to let Zayner have a full time starting role. The ref was very inconsistent all night. How did Conde walk out of the stadium without a yellow card? It was clear that no matter what was done to GBS he was not going to take it seriously. Robbie went back into that "take it down the wing to the outside of the defender" mode. The problem with this is he just gets himself trapped along the sideline. Half the time it goes off Roobie for a throw in to the other team, half the time we get one.... Renteria is a great sub off the bench...he brings a different type of energy and aggression to our team. Moffat and Garey's goals were awesome for different reasons. Moffat showed a scrappy, never give up attitude. Garey made the right run, put himself in the right place, and turned a great cross into a goal. Gaven had a good match. Have we ever had this many points (27) at this point in the season?
DGA: In one of the last PbP thread posts: You're right. We apparently did watch a different game. I was watching a match between two first division clubs where the Home manager was determined to NOT allow an early goal. But kept the pressure on via counter and through the midfield, only lobbing enough to keep the opponent honest. McBride was nullified. - Was it because he's too old? Or is it for the same reason he wasnt effective in the last years with the Crew? No one could get the ball to him then, either. And in your ratings, there were some things you missed: For instance, somewhere around 37', I saw IRO screw up big time when he went out to slide-tackle a free ball and gifted it 5 yards to the foot of a Fire midfielder. We obviously dodged that bullet. Frankie had some lapses.. he ALWAYS has some lapses. But he is on his first games back and he really couldnt make up for them via side-runs. I may critique him harder in a few games. But overall I thought he covered the area well, and seldom did anyone get inside him. BAD example > result was the OG. The point is not to say you're all wrong, it's to say there's more than one way to use tactic to win. And to look at a game like that one.
Bolded part is about the only part I agree with in this. I'm not sure where the Garey love is coming from (in general, not just this post). I saw a good, right place-right time, finish for the goal by Garey, but little else to help the team. Renteria looked more dangerous with less help from his teammates. I suppose I also agree with the praise to the D, except I didn't think Danny did well when he came on. But both him and Hejduk were playing their first game back from injury, so i'm not too down on either one. I'm certainly not going to complain about Warzycha last night. Three 2-goal games and three wins in 8 days. Both were from the run of play last night too.
Technically all three were in the run of play. Seriously the first goal was crap keeping and nothing else. Good lead up but the goal was due to their error not our buildup. Second goal was the best goal weve scored this year.