I know they shouldn’t give up but how can they not get discouraged. No one want to play shit soccer. This isn’t Vancouver or San Jose bad. They held fast for 85 minutes. The offensive plans aren’t there. It is the equivalent of a Hail Mary every time the cross midfield.
The kids played. They played well overall but the coaching to connect defense to midfield to offense isn’t there. It isn’t.
How, exactly? Granted, we’re not losing by a touchdown every game, but surely that’s damnation by faint praise. Devon and Dave are really straining to find anything positive to say, and that’s what they’re paid to do. Yes, and then I opened my mouth to trash talk NE, upon which they suddenly became marginally proficient. My bad, sorry!
Yep, I deserved that one. By-the-by, you know we’re only losing the wooden spoon to San Jose on goal difference, right? Thanks to them losing back-to-back-to-back 4+ goal howlers.
If there is even a minimum hope that losing all the remaining games would finally force the issue on Olsen, I really hope we do.
I am genuinely rooting for the team to fail so we can try something new. I have little confidence the organization has the competence to make a good hire though.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/09/26/dc-united-ben-olsen-hot-seat/ Not sure if this was already posted before, but just in case
What can you say? Another wretched performance. This team has absolutely no idea how to attack and that failure is now compromising its defense. The only silver lining is that, maybe, this is the last season of Olsen/Ashton and Kasper. Of course it would be early Christmas if both Levien and Kaplan announced the sale to someone or something with actual liquidity.
Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station! I promise in the future to only use this power in the service of good. Or something ...
I have to agree with the above. It's just too easy to put the onus on the players without levying some (maybe a lot) of criticism on the coach(es) and the system. It's just so obvious that when we have the ball in the attacking third there's no system and everything is improvisational. In contrast, our opponents almost always seem to have something in mind when they get anywhere near our goal.
Right, because all these professional players JUST started to play the game in the last year or two and have had nothing but joy-stick house/rec coaching on how to attack before getting here. No doubt formation, line-ups, subs, adjustments - or lack thereof - is all on Ben Ashton. But come on, all of these guys know the what and the how of what is "supposed" to happen. They also know they have the discretion to change Chad Olsen's tactics on the fly as circumstances dictate. This ain't their first rodeo. Its mostly on them and only slightly less on the coaches for not getting better out of these guys.
You are certainly correct - in part. But wasn't it interesting how the insertion of an experienced "field general" ,e.g. Rooney, perks up the attack? I keep hoping Higuain could be that player, but he comes in too late to make much of a difference. Nonetheless, I take your point about the players, being pros, should know how it's done, even if it is improvisational.
He should do really well here considering that Shalke sold off all their valuable players over the last 2 years and threw together a bunch of unproven players over the last season and change. And he kept Huddersfield up with one of the lowest budgets in the EPL, 2 ys ago. No one should be surprised at the outcomes. Wagner is a serviceable 2nd tier and low to mid-table top tier coach. That's all he's proven in Germany & England. At least the time at Dortmund II shows he knows a little something about developing younger players. How does that translate to MLS and is he willing to come here? He's probably a guy with some ambitions so even if he comes and succeeds, he'll be looking to trade up sooner than later. Assuming of course he's willing to come and take a chance of failing in a lower level league than he's been in.
As a double bass and Tenor Sax player I have to agree. When improvising on Sax it was primarily during solos and within the structure of the key, time, etc. On bass - you still have to drive the beat while improvising and moving everything else along.