Hamid wins us more games than he loses us, but he picked a bad night to be mediocre. That first goal was rough, and he gets beaten rather easily at the near post for the first in extra time. Boateng provided nothing and got caught holding the ball forever and a day in the midfield for the second extra time goal. After that, you're pushing everyone forward, and losing by four is the same as losing by two anyway. Everything else goes into the post-season thread now.
Oh, sure there can. Anything you can possibly think of that would make no sense to you for the organization to do, they can find an excuse to do it. And there are even some excuses that would make sense. Here's one, for example: "it doesn't help to dismiss Ben Olsen if there's nobody better available; and nobody that was any better was crazy enough to take the job and work for our festering, bloody pus-oozing sore of a team."
Coaching decisions may have been dubious in the Cincy game, but the coaches did not lose this game. DCU came out with a decent plan for a road game. They came to defend and try to take advantage of any opportunities that came their way. They gave up a soft goal, but still got enough clear cut chances to win the game. Two of their DPs had clear scoring chances, but they did not take those chances. This was on the players. The coaches can not kick the ball in to the goal. The only bad coaching decision I saw tonight was the timing of the Jara sub. I am not sure of the rules, but I thought that they are given the additional sub at extra time. If so, the Jara sub should have been made then to restore balance to the D line and keep Canouse at d-mid. I am not overly concerned by the scoreline. The English commentators on Univsion said that it would have been better if DCU didn't score had had lost in regulation. I strongly disagree. I give the team credit for not hanging their heads and for finding a way to score the equalizing goal, even when it was clearly not the team's best night. This is the pride and fight that I expect from a DCU team. As for the goals in extra time, it has been proven that our defense is very porous if we do not play with disciplined defensive shape. The defense was disorganized in extra time when we had attacking players trying to play out of position, after the subs. We cannot expect success with Titi at L back, Rooney defending at d mid, and Boateng trying to distribute from deep positions. While it is easy to feel down right now, I don't think the house is burning. The core of this team is still solid. Obviously, some changes need to be made. Let's see who we sign to replace Rooney (and likely Lucho). If they make a coaching change, they had better do it early in the off season.
Well that was disappointing...... Olsen will be back because the ownership -- Levien, Kaplan, et al. have ********ed up every other franchise they have been associated with. They couldn't recognize coaching or playing talent if it took them hostage. After 10 years, Olsen has no clues, his squad tonight was more talented than Toronto's. Toronto was missing Altidore and Gonzalez, Vanney so disregarded Mullins that he used Pozuelo as a false 9. (Remember when Mullins was supposed to be the savior of DCU?) Face it, Vanney outcoached Olsen and had his team better prepared to deal with Bennyball. They fought harder for 50/50's and moved decisively in the final third. That's coaching. As McT noted in the 85th minute, why is Arriola still protected defensively on the flank. In a 1-0 game, you've lost unless you score, if you lose 2-0 or 3-0, what does it matter. Olsen has coached the imagination out of this entire squad, time for him and the buzzcut Hamburglar to go. They can keep Kasper to be in charge of the latrines.
Ouch. Unfortunately, I can't completely disagree with that perspective. My expectations have definitely declined over the years. At this point, if DCU is a competitive, entertaining product, then I am pretty satisfied. This is admittedly a lower bar, when compared to decades past.
Today I had the best idea. I decided to tape the DCU instead than watching it live, and I went to Segra Field for the last Loundoun Utd game, against NYRB II. The game was meaningless, LUFC couldn't clinch the playoffs in any case, while NYRB II already clinched them weeks ago, although they are coming from an unexplicable long negative stretch (4 points in the last 8 games). Well, LUFC trashed them 7-3, and NYRB also failed two penalties, at least it was a FUN evening. Now I have the taped DCU game on, I altready know the score, I am not really going to add anything, I just hope De Leon's goals is the final nail in Olsen's coffin (figurative, of course). If he had a crumb of dignity left, he would put on the table his resignation letter tomorrow morning.
How have my thoughts been inconstant? I blame the FO and have from the start of this slide. GM, Owners. I have admitted that while Olsen has flaws I think he is a solid coach. Where have I wavered. Truth be told I had to look that one up.
He's solidly mediocre. As long as he's coach, this team won't win anything. And before you mention the USOC we won when he was coach, I'll point out this team also had it's worst record ever -- and literally one of the worst of any team in MLS history -- with Olsen at the helm.
He didn't celebrate the one he scored here. I have no issues with him celebrating a playoff goal against his former team. Especially a strike like that.
I think the NDL goal encapsulates the problems with Olsen as a coach. Vanney has gotten more from NDL this season than Olsen ever got, except for NDL's first season before Olsen "coached" NDL's mediocrity. Here's the difference I see between Vanney and Olsen. Start with the premise that most players in MLS are flawed, this is a fact in a salary capped and roster capped league. Vanney understands this, but still coaches his players to play to their strengths and understands that their flaws will cause WTF moments. Witness Toronto's now 11 game unbeaten streak that had only one clean sheet. Vanney understands that if his players attempt to execute offensively, they will give up goals. He just believes his team is offensively talented enough to overcome that problem. Olsen's problem is that he sees the flaws and works overtime to minimize them. This leads to the Bennyball tactics of stay compact, don't allow space for attackers and limit the number of players going forward. Does it work? Well those tactics got 5 consecutive clean sheets, but also couldn't score against a 9 man team with the worst defense in league history. Go to tonight and it was obvious the only way DCU would score would be off a set piece. Once Olsen had thrown his offensive subs into the match, he had no Plan B to maximize their strengths, he just hoped they could Bennyball away as if Acost and Segura are interchangeable parts. This is the difference between Vanney and Olsen in a nutshell. Olsen has a one track mind -- play conservatively to hide the flaws -- Vanney will accept the flaws and got 5 goals from a squad missing Altidore. So long as Olsen is here, DCU is a 5th through 7th place team -- if everything goes right. So long as Olsen is here, a Wooden Spoon is more likely than MLS Cup.
This year they managed to be competitive but not entertaining, so I guess they are halfway there. Olsen will remain head coach because ownership can see the competitive (we made the playoffs) but can't see that the entertainment isn't there (we play shit soccer).
For me we’ve reached the cap of our ability which is 44-48 points, a basic low level entrance to the playoffs and an early exit. None of that is hard considering the league is a joke so I wouldn’t call it competitive, it’s more being on life support.