0-0 tie at the home opener... Another fruitless final effort from our offense; Mendoza, Ekpo and crew cannot put one past a makeshift RedBull line-up and relative newcomer in goal for the visitors.
1st point of the season, fellas. NYRB feels like they came out with a win. as they should, considering it sounds like we dominated this game. we forfeited our cutting edge, though, when we subbed out Rogers and Gaven. pathetic performance managerially. decisions that don't make any sense coupled with keeping players on the field who weren't contributing anything (Mendoza, Burns). feels like a loss.
Why is Mendoza a DP? The guy had how many chances, including one from the penalty spot area, and refused to shoot unless it was wide open. If I were Cunningham I would just leave the team now because if he can't get into a game like this Robert won't ever play him again. Team is just a disaster and are far and away the worst squad in the league.
This team is worthless in the final third - period. They couldn't score in a whore house with a thousand dollars cash in their hands. We have our answer this team is going to lose a lot more games than they are going to win. And has Jeff already been buried at the end of the bench?
Where to begin.... Hesmer - MotM for one play when his moment of truth came which is more than anything anybody really did with their's. That Left Glove is literally worth one MLS League Point. Lindpere - Must be French for "Put my arm through the back of your head". It seemed like everytime he closed in on somebody with the ball, his hand or forearm was going for their head. That dude should be called for fouls a lot more than he did tonight. Robbie Rogers - I give the kid a lot of stick (a lot) but he did really good tonight and I have no idea why he was subbed out. My only "tin-foil hat" explanation is that they ran him out there to show other teams that his performance last week was not a fluke and pulled him before he injured himself which would totally ruin his trade value. I have no other explanation. Which brings us to... Subs - Most times, I can understand RW's subs even if only tangentially. Today, I am at a complete loss. Rusmir is pulled but Burns stays? tRR and Gaven, two of our more effective offensive attackers were pulled while Mendoza stayed on the field. And RW used all three subs early and left us with no option when Mendoza cramped up (must have been that time...). There's more... but I'll hold off for now...
Mendoza's do-rag makes him look like a skunk, which I suppose is appropriate given his performance. Glad I didn't waste gas money on a trip down.
Just made it back. Julius James with a very encouraging performance tonight, MOtM for me. Assured in possession and not sure he lost a single challenge.
I'm seeing now why James is starting over Iro. He has a huge advantage in comfort with the ball. Iro always looks like he's panicking, while James had patience and poise.
I'm confident in saying that Andres Mendoza has been, and will be, the worst DP this league will ever see. It's been my understanding that the DP moniker is reserved for the "game-changer" kind of player (i.e Guille). Mendoza seems utterly incapable of influencing a game whatsoever.
Emmanuel Ekpo needs to be utilized as a winger. Kevin Burns and Dejan Rusmir aren't MLS-quality starters. Not even really serviceable backups. I'd rather see us play with 2 center mids who can attack (Duka and Gaven) than see that again. Andy Iro is still better than Julius James. Balchan is fast, but hes not very good with the ball. Heinemann should've started up top with Mendoza with Renteria out of the lineup. Someone needs to turn the temperature up for this weekend.
We started after Mendoza sat on his ass for 10 minutes after he failed to take a shot. We also did it after the game while the teams were shaking hands.
Pulling Rogers totally killed the attack. That was the strangest sub I have ever seen in my life. Rather than trade Robbie I would do something else. Word on the street is he would loves Columbus and would prefer to stay there but for someone we all know who obviously does not like him. Observations: Neither Duka or Anor come close to Rogers. Lenhart is much better than Mendoza as is Mr. H. I would have brought Cunningham in. The thought that the team gave up GBS still gives me shudders. Hope they sign him for the end of season when his current team is done for the year. Ekpo ran out of gas again at the normal time. He should have been subbed. I thought he had a pretty good game though alhough his final touch failed him. Gaven was okay, not great. I would not have subbed him out either. Burns struggled. He is obviously not game fit. Defense-was decent tonight. Balchin does not have a final touch but played well. Miranda played very well on the left with Robbie. James I thought had a good night ( I still want to know whats up with Iro). Chad played more like himself and Hesmer made a big stop. Very dissapointing crowd. Kudos to those diehards that actually went to the game (including Robbie's sister). I want to remind everyone that 18,000 hearty souls showed up in pouring rain (3 inches to be exact) to watch the Chivas the other night, something is clearly wrong.
Not in a million years. The kid kept losing the ball at key times. His defense was pretty good but he is suppose to play offense and be dangerous with the ball. He could be a good stuck in type of dm maybe or even a back.
With you, perhaps. Stop trolling. And that's probably Chivas' biggest crowd ever. Color me unimpressed.
Braved the cold with our 8 month old...he probably would've finished as well as Mendoza today. That's about the best thing I can say about Mendoza. Thought Robbie played well today, was surprised he was subbed out. Duka had some nice moments. Anor and Caveman (or The Brown-haired Lenhart) showed flashes of promise. Two points lost today, disappointing. I'm holding out hope that this team will be much more cohesive in the final third as the season goes on... Edit: Also gotta give some credit to the FO for signing Miranda, he's impressed me.