D.C. United - San Jose (Saturday, 9/13) postgame thread [R]

Goal Keeper [R]

Goal keeper change in the off season is required. The 2nd goal Pat gave up last week against Colorado can be stopped if he has quicker reflexes. Today both goals can be stopped by better goalkeepers. The first goal he gave up today are usually saved by Joe Cannon. Although the header goes fast, it is right next to him. He just couldn't react quick enough. The second goal is also stoppable. He just doesn't have enough legs. We win 1-0 today if we have a better goalkeeper.

 

Nice ball movement and ubiquitous pressure from DC. As expected, the Stewart-Cerritos (or should it be Cerritos-Stewart?) connection was effective. Nice to see Cerritos regaining his form. Of course, the soccer connoisseurs of this board, if they have any consistency, will have to condemn DC for (gasp) "corner-flagging" (not to mention some gratuitous rolling around on the turf).

I thought the Quakes played well, the credit goes to DC for outplaying our boys. Robinson and Onstad had stellar first halves. Walker makes his late appearance on the field count. Second half was kind of flat, it missed something to spice it up, like maybe a few Quake goals.

 

Fish! Fishin' fish fish! I go and get my team's logo (well part of it) permanently tattooed to my body today and this is what they give me?!!

I haven't seen the game. Should I bother watching the tape?

 

I'm all for consistency. I thought the rolling around was ridiculous. I wish something could be done about that.

I have this rule of thumb: if they're moving around, they're all right. It's when they're still that you need to worry.

Anyway, DC came out fast and San Jose slow. That made a big difference. I saw the 2nd DC goal, but I can't say whether or not Onstad should have had that. I only saw it once live. I'll have to wait until mlsnet puts it online. Of course, some are saying your goal was offside. I didn't think so, but maybe we'll see later.

We're 1-2 against y'all for the regular season. Hope to see you again in the playoffs (because that will mean that we got that far.) Good luck!

 

Re: Goal Keeper [R]

I think you're being harsh on the first goal. The first goal you can't blame on Onstad-point blank shots like the goal are the defenders' fault. It took DC four point blank shots to score, amazing that Onstad stopped three. The second goal was definitely Onstad's mistake. Not a good one to give up, especially in the 80th minute of a tied game.

But at the same time, without Onstad's stellar play up to that point, the game is 3-1.

Honestly, I agree with the other comments in this thread-full credit to DC.

And it's great to see Cerritos playing so well.

 

I'd say it's worth watching, an exciting first half with some of the best football DC has played all year and moments of brilliance from the Quakes. However the Quakes were crap to give up the second goal, it's not just Onstad at fault there...

Not that it matters, but i wonder if Cerritos wasn't offsides leading up to the first DC goal, you can't tell from the tape as it dosen't really show Cerritos when Marco plays the ball but it sure looks like it was close.

 

The second goal was Roner's fault. Olsen spun him so bad that he was 6 yards away when he got the shot off. You simply can't let a national team attacker tee the ball up wide open from 22-24 yards out and not expect him to score. It would have been nice to see Onstad (who I agree is very slow) get that one, but the shot never should have happened.

Overall, we deserved to lose. At least the game was entertaining. Keep in mind DC has waaaayyyyy more talent than us.

 

This is one of the most moronic threads I have seen in awhile on BigSoccer.

Our TEAM played like *@#*@#*@#*@# today.

Did nobody else notice the non-hustle from Corrales, Donovan, DeRosario, and Ekelund?

How in the hell can you think that DC has more "talent" than us?!?! A few of their guys had career nights tonight. We'll see how far DC goes come playoff time (If they can manage to stay in). Show me one position other than the right back and left midfield that they can better us on?

Grades:

Onstad (B+) - If it wasn't for his brilliance in the first 15 minutes of the game, DC is beating us 3-0 going into the break. He was a little slow on the 2nd goal, but a sh!t came from the defence

Waibel (C) - I was suprised he controlled half the balls played to him, but the guy should NEVER be within 30 feet of the goal during the run of play. No vision nor finesse on the ball. Give him credit he did have the best chance of the 1st half.

Agoos (B+) - Not many mistakes from the Captain. Nice job setting the town and keeping DC honest. Typical Goose game

Robinson (A) - Best player on the field tonight. Countless times he saved our ass and some nice tackles to disposses DC players.

Dunivant (C) - Something was lacking from his game today. His passes were off and he didn't have that slippery dribbling going. Unimpressed.

Mullan (C) - Normal game for Mullan. Hustled and did what he had to do with the ball. Nothing special and nothing bad.

Mulrooney (C-) - Looked weak on the field today. Wasn't winning midfield balls, but looked like the only player to have his touch on.

Ekelund (C-) - Lack of hustle, but should have finished the give-n-go give-n-go. If scored that would have to be a candiate for GOTY. But he didn't, and it isnt. Not much else from the Dane.
Corrales (D) - This guy sucks. His shot is always wide and high and he loses the ball continuously. Pulled twice a Scott Bower and flat-out missed traps.

Donovan (D) - Did absolutely nothing except for a shot straight to Rimando. I thought this guy was supposed to be one of the best players on the pitch every night. All im seeing is some goals that Carlos Llamosa would finish and a bunch of whining and playing on his ass half the game. Tonight he showed why he is one of the most overrated players in the game.

DeRosario (C) - The guy ran for parts of the game, but he has to PUT HIS F"N HEAD UP AND NOT TRY TO BEST GEORGE BEST'S GOAL. He needs to look around and find his teamates once in awhile. He is good 1v1 but 1v2 is a different story. He should have finished the Waibel setup in the 45+.

Subs (Not much to comment on):
Lagos (D+)
Roner (C) - Semi-at-fault for the 2nd goal but also was dangerous in the late 80's. Set up Walker and then Dunivant and they both whiffed perfect shots that should have knotted the game at 2.
Walker (B+)

In my opinion, the X-factor of this team is definatly Ching. Without him things seem to fall apart. Where the hell is this Faria character?! He hasn't sutied up for us yet and I already hate the player because of his BS.

 

I agree with bleeder. We sucked big time, it wasn't worth watching at all. Donovan couldn't get anything going because they were crowding him as soon as he touched the ball. Get rid of Corrales and put Alvarez and Walker together. We are in the playoffs and it would be good to give the young guys a chance. Walker can finish when given the chance, I bet if anyone else had the shot he had, they would have booted it over the net or something.
Why are we crossing the ball in the box when we have short players like Landon? We better fine tune ourselves or we aren't getting far into the playoffs playing like we did today.
Go Quakes!!

 

Tale of 2 games.

United peppered Onstad with a flurry of shots from the get go and then it paid off with the goal from Dutch Stewart from Cerritos, who got a chance to burn his old team. After that, they just had to hold on to the lead.

Jamil Walker was the first hope for at least a point with the equaliser, but it was all for naught when Benny Boy scored the game winner on a goal that was helped a lot by the wet pitch and maybe Onstad being caught off guard.

I would have to think that if the surface was dry, or alluding to Fah Que if Onstad was better coordinated he would have stopped the goal. Still, United looked like a determined team. The Quakes didn't look like themselves until they tied the game but then they couldn't hold on to the tie.

The Quakes need not worry, except for the Western Conference title. However, United needed the points a lot more and they played as if they wanted this game more. With a playoff spot already locked up the lads did look a bit complacent for the most part, but then with everything that has transpired I'm not going to worry.

I would be concerned about KC though--since they are tumbling down a bit and given they are in the same conference I would try to steal points from them instead of DC. At least, we don't have to see United again unless it's the final.

And Convey playing for United instead of Tottenham didn't look right on the telly. Cheers!

 

I don't want to talk about the game. Let's talk about your tattoo. Post a pic.

 

I ended up getting the game on Shootout after all. We played too slow. That was the deciding factor. Teal, I don't think you can single out one or two players (Corrales and Donovan) with such low scores and not do so with everybody. Everybody was playing too slow. The only one who attempted one touch passes was Donovan; De Ro couldn't do one to save his life. Ther'es no way he rates higher than LD. De Ro lost the ball 20 times more than Donovan. Best man on the pitch was Robinson, far and away. The thing I really don't like is Onstad screaming at his defenders like that. I wonder, did they scream at him when he let in the soft goal at the end? He should just shut up and play.

 

Also, like someone else pointed out. I don't know why the game plan is to work the wings and cross it in. We're not giants in there. I much prefer quick passes between players and just crowding the box and shooting - at least it's more exciting. Teal, I also don't know what you're talking about singling out the players for lack of hustle. I didn't see that at all. I saw players trying to get something done, work some plays, figure out how to get the ball past a packed in back line that was playing very well. Donovan was way back in midfield trying to get things rolling, made good passes (and a few off ones as well) and then kept his run going in hopes of getting the ball back, but of course it never came back. As far as I could see, there was no lack of hustle. We just played too slow against a team playing very well. And yet, we were still in the game until the end. One subpar performance is no reason to come down on the players so hard.

 

From an opposing fan's perspective, here's my take...

1. Onstad kept you in the game in the first half. He made some very nice saves at the start or you'd have been in a very deep hole. And keep in mind, neither of these team's defenses gives up 2-3-4 goals very often. So if we'd have been up by 2 goals in the first 15 minutes, that would have been the match. As for the second goal, I attribute that to wet turf in a humid stadium. Usually's RFK's pitch is fine. This year (for a bunch of reasons--season issues, lots of rain early, some destructive concerts and terrible stadium operations), the field has been a mess and very irregular--bad bounces, the ball skidding, uneven turf. It's not fun for keepers at all.

2. I thought Walker's goal was offsides.

3. I think part of Yallop's tactic to send wingers/mids down the sidelines was a response to Hudson's tactic to have DCU's outside mids (Olsen and Quintanilla) pinch in. So your guys were going where there was open turf rather than the congested area. As for crosses--well, you're right--Petke and Nelsen (and even the outside backs of Ivanov and Prideaux) are pretty solid in the air.

4. I think part of the "slowness" factor that some SJ fans cite may be that (a) DCU got out of the gates very quickly and owned the first 15 minutes, then (b) once DCU got a lead, they were intent on retaining shape and denying SJ space (which then tends to lead to a slower game). Related to that, DCU was very conscious at either denying LD the ball, forcing him further back into midfield to get the ball, or forcing him to get rid of it quickly once he had it. And it's no secret that LD with the ball can make plays and setup teammates. So when he doesn't have it (or doesn't have the opportunity to create in dangerious positions), your attack is likely to slow down.

Anyway, that's just my take on how it developed last night. Having dropped the first 2, it's at least nice to get one back.

 

How about we stop playing games during the week that aren't scheduled by MLS. I'm not using this as an excuse, but I think it would be better if we used the time during the week preparing for the next MLS game and not using energy in games that don't matter. I didn't like them playing that Canadian team, and they should cancel the games against the Chivas and El Salvador.

 

Thanks for the analysis.

 

Where have you been?

 

And one more reason why I can't come down hard on the boys. In past games that we've won, the other team's fans always remarked that, well, yeah, you won, but it's because we played bad, etc., etc., not giving props to the fact that maybe they played bad because we made them play bad and that the Earthquakes were just better. We played a little slow and out of sync just maybe because DC had a game plan, executed it well, and just beat us. They were better than we were yesterday. No sense in berating our players' performances.

 

I think some of us are too hard on Onstad. He might be part of the reason we lost 2-1 but he was also the reason we didn't loss 4-1. That's his 2nd mistake of the season and considering the way he played after his first mistake he has earned the benefit of the doubt from us fans and his teammates.

Was I the only one who thought Landon was playing sweeper at the end of the game. I seem to remember him back at mid-field while three of our defenders were up in the box.

 

Onstad had a pretty good game. I was at the game and the Cerritos to Stewart goal was a tough one for any keeper to beat. He made a number of good saves over the course of the game. Recall the Convey break-away that he shot right into Onstad's chest. Poor finish by Convey, but Onstad made a nice move towards him that forced his hand. The Olsen shot was kinda funny. I had a pretty good angle on the shot and it skipped maybe 10 feet in front of Onstad. It also appeared that the ball had some funny motion on it. IMHO it's not fair to say that this was a blatant error.

 

I thought it was one of the more entertaining games to watch in MLS this season.

The thing that concerns me is opposing coaches are figuring out how to hold a lead against San Jose. Just drop the defense wa-a-a-y back to the top of the penalty area and pack everybody in. Nobody want to take long shots in that situation, and we don't have the height to score on crosses.

Another concerning thing is how poorly we were picking up runners out of midfield.

Yes, we HAVE to do something about a second forward. Since Ching went down we haven't had any good forward combination.

 

The replay showed very clearly that Walker was onsides becase of a DC defender on the other side that was totally uninvolved with the play.