This from Doyle at MLS.com regarding the game and tactics. Really exposes the difference between Fraser and Olsen. Colorado really started pressing at about the 80-minute mark, then took the shackles off at roughly the 85th minute and just smothered D.C. They never let the hosts even cross midfield in possession, won the ball back in United's half five times in four minutes, and not once did they settle for long-balls. They tried to build every single time and methodically got numbers into the box, including on the match-winner (above). You can bag on D.C.'s defenders for not doing better there – and obviously they should have – but those guys were isolated and exhausted. And Colorado's first goal? Naturally that came off a recycled set piece (look at this ball from Jack Price). It might've taken all of one week for the Rapids to take my "yeah last year was nice but it's probably not going to last" preview and put it in the trash. "Our players are so dialed in on set pieces," head coach Robin Fraser explained. "Working on them, they're really, really meticulous. [Assistant coach/goalkeeper coach] Chris Sharpe does a great job in putting them together and giving them some good schemes, and then Jack Price's delivery has been phenomenal last year and this year." Just because a quote is boring doesn't mean it's not a good quote. Fraser has a team that's committed to killing you on set pieces. In Price they have one of the best set piece providers in the league currently, and in Kei Kamara they have one of the best headers of the ball in the league, ever. I still don't think they're going to score 17 dead ball goals this year, but they might come close. And if you're not ready for them, Kamara will dunk on your damn head. D.C. battled hard on restarts (their only goal came off a corner), but from open play they struggled. That is to be expected when you're trying to play through central midfield but have the wrong guy there. Julian Gressel is not a No. 10: Green arrows are completed passes and red marks incomplete. This looks like the storyboard from a slasher flick. The good news is there's an easy fix. Just move Gressel back to his natural winger spot and put Edison Flores in as the No. 10. I'm not entirely sure that flipping them – Flores played on the right wing – was a one-game experiment, but it should be.
Doyle's analysis also provides some context to Olsen's quote about not making subs because he was scared of set pieces. If Colorado's entire scheme is designed to kill you on set pieces, I guess being worried about those at the end of a 1-1 game isn't crazy talk... Not saying I still wouldn't have made a sub and gone for the win at home, but if you were scratching your head at Olsen's quote about why he didn't use subs, it might just be that he's more tactically aware than you're giving him credit for...
Apparently Big Soccer doesn't have a negative rep button. I've apparently been on BigSoccer since October 18, 2002 - I think I even paid some sort of premium at one point for "member access" or something when BigSoccer had bandwidth issues. Ashton's only been around since 2007. https://www.dcunited.com/coaches/chad-ashton I hope I'm here long after he's gone. EDIT: So I just read Ashton's bio on the website. I knew he had been a college coach before he came here, but: "Ashton was a very accomplished player in the college ranks. As a midfielder at the University of North Carolina, he was selected to the All-ACC team three times. He finished his collegiate career in 1989 as the Tarheels’ all-time leader in assists with 43, a record he still holds. Ashton also helped UNC to two NCAA tournament appearances, including a berth in the 1987 Final Four. In high school, he was selected as the Colorado High School Player of the Year in 1986." Really? I mean, really?
If Quiet Side didn't know Chad Ashton's bio he clearly is not Chad Ashton (unless it's a clever bit of misdirection to throw us off the scent. Nice work, Chad!)
Misdirection is a key part of Chad’s soccer philosophy: “You can’t score without first making a back pass.”
I wouldn't say the season is lost, I've just seen this movie before. They'll grind out enough results to stay in the middle of the pack because Bennyball is hard to play against. They'll have a decent spell in the summer, maybe a month or a month and a half where everything clicks. Then they'll squeak into the playoffs, where they'll be immediately dispatched because Ben is a one-trick pony and the easiest coach in the league to game plan against. Rinse and repeat.
Ben executed his subs for a strategy HE described: to not give up height on a set piece. Yet, they scored off a set piece. Strategy failure. Period. And, why is another team better prepared than we are (again) after pre-season? That too is on the coach. BTW, Ben did have a taller player available: Sorga is tall, fit, and on the bench. He can defend set pieces and be an additional scoring threat.
In my youth I was 5'9 1/2 and thought I was, umm, "mid-level," until I walked onto the the practice field for my first workout with my college football team. But yes, Sorga is among our taller players. We are somewhat Lilliputian.
In the last decade or more we’ve perfected the art of elevating middling at best players to hypothetical game changers. Sorga is one of these non factors
If Ben's stated goal was height, Sorga at 5'9 is the same height as Martins, Mora or Moreno. When you're going for a win - and keeping the ball in the attacking half - that's a substitution I think most coaches would make.
We just added another short and slight defensive midfielder. I think Ben is trying to field the first all d mid team ever played.