First half was nice. They weren't as clinical as I'd like, but it's MLS, so shrug. I'm hoping the team can move past the second half and build off the first. Signs point to no, but that's my hope.
The Good: Best 45 minutes of the season for me in that first half. The homegrown signing looked really good for a 17-year old. The Bad: We are neither built nor coached to defend a man down -- we don't hold possession well enough. The Ugly: Najar's injury (get well soon!) and -- still -- Pines' technical skill.
Lots to think about from this game. Agree the first half was the best of the year. good first impression of Hopkins and Taxi. this should give us an opening to tell Flores his time here is done and if he wants to get playing time before the World Cup he should find a team that’s interested in him. it seems like Gressel has been gassed by the 60th minute in almost every game this year. Losada or whoever it is on his staff who is drawing up these set plays on the corner kicks is frankly a world-class genius. I bet we’ve scored a half dozen or more goals off these over the last year. I’ve watched a lot of soccer over the past 35 years and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team with more corner kick set piece plays that work. It’s a real threat… with that said, as much as Kamara’s boneheaded send off cost us this game Losada really messed up with the subs. Both Hopkins and Gressel were on dead legs by the 75th minute at the latest. Not getting them off by the 80th minute probably cost us the game as much as anything else.
I would seriously consider cutting Kamara. Belichik would, to send a message to the rest of the team. This team needs a message. Plus, Kamara is 90% useless if he isn’t shooting…in my opinion he cost us a likely goal when he had no awareness of Robertha and defended him. I mean, the man scored two goals and still sucked, because he likely cost us one, and had one of the dumbest send offs imaginable. Hopkins plays like a veteran. Me likey.
I don't know that cutting basically the only guy who scores goals makes a lot of sense. But why all clubs don't have a policy that a caution for taking your shirt off is going to get you a seat on the bench I don't understand. It doesn't seem that hard to keep your f-in' shirt on. Or a massive fine or something. It's just so idiotic and undisciplined. Make it clear to the players that they just can't do it. And if they still do it, then have well-defined consequences. I hope he was begging forgiveness from everyone at the very least after the game.
Just processing after coming back from last night. Pines for once looked actually a bit poised, he even had one great knowledgeable attacking pass, with some vision. something I have NEVER seen him do in a game. The whole Kamara thing is just a cluster-f, wont rehash what has already been said, but I am also dumbified that why was it that our striker who was somehow in a position to try and stop a guy in the back line? WTF is he doing defending in that situation? seriously.. the new kid was good, but he's new so I am not exactly expecting much out of him, and that includes competence... but he did well. I would say the same for any other new rookie coming in, but signs are very positive from what I saw of his play last night. Taxi brought in earlier which was no surprise, and our defenders were dropping like flies. Just a nightmare to let that all go...
Now you've got me wondering what our record was in the good old days of the Corner Kick Goal Thread...
This is an excellent counter argument, so let me counter your counter. Yes, Kamara scores goals, and in the big offseason argument here on Ola, I was a “keep him” guy. I acknowledged his limitations, but wrote that if I were GM he wouldn’t be untouchable, but I would need a really good deal to trade or sell him. He’s MLS useful. But now we have Taxi. the point of sports is to win championships. In the short run, cutting him reduces our chance to win hardware from 2 degrees Kelvin to 1 degree Kelvin. The reason I would strongly consider cutting him is that a team has to have standards, and there have to be consequences for not meeting them. My strong belief is that cutting him gives DC a better chance to build a championship culture. Superficially, we have a similar roster and similar budget to the last 2 Shield winners. And obviously the playoffs are a crap shoot, albeit with weighted dice. There is something missing in terms of intangibles with this club. We don’t have Atlanta’s or Seattle’s budget, but we’re not the Quakes either. With smart acquisitions and a better team culture, we can be great. Let’s put it this way…which is more likely to make Flores a solid player for us, keeping Kamara or cutting him? Which would you rather have for Hopkins as the main memory from his first game, that they blew a 2-0 lead, or that a player scored a brace, got two stupid yellows, and then was cut?
You really have to wonder about the term "professional" as a player. Our NVSL team players wouldn't pull this; they know better. And the refs calls on him were absolutely correct. The Red was entirely self inflicted and just plain dumb.
But we didn't. In the first half. Bone head plays. Self inflicted losses. An inability of forwards to actually look up to pass to an open man. Shooting widly with zero calmness on the ball. In the second half. Our defensive back three lost concentration. They couldn't track runs behind them. Hamid continued his downward form. Our midfield (without our DP Flores) actually played well but up front and in the back that was a different story.
Losing 4 in a row and having New England up next is not good. We are in 13 of 14 teams in the East for a reason and that is obvious on the field.
Don't get me started on the "roof". I gave up my season tickets after 23 years over lies about the completion and what I was told about the roof in covering the season tickets I had. After the third direct lie in multiple years I said I can't trust this Front Office. And it in no way compares and is not in the same "League" as the Front Office in the early years. They use the name DC United but that's about all the current leadership has in common.
Also note that we start a 17 year old homegrown playing his first D1 game over a DP. Hamid and the bad 3 in the second half were really bad.
Agree we looked good in first 45 but boy did we waste chances and as others have said Robertha may have played himself off the team with his inability to combine with others. Agree that both the new kid Hopkins and Taxi played well and seem to have excellent potential. It's also telling that Flores remains on the bench. Can we get those set plays over to the USMNT. The effort by Hopkins and Gressel was immense but like you said they paid the price by that 70 minute mark.
Flores is just not that great a midfielder from what I have seen over the last 2 and a half years. He should have gone in at the end of last year. If you DP can't start and make an impact on this team in 2 years he isn't going to magically change in the 3rd and 4th year. Kamara is much less the goalscorer than at first glace. Many of his goals come from Penalties and not from open play. And considering the team is built to give him lots of service with Gressel and Smith he really is poor at converting his chances. I've got to confirm this but I thought his Goals to Expected Goals ratio is very poor.
Shitshow broadcast still happening. Nothing recorded at 7pm to learn about the delay durning the pregame. Then at 730 when game was scheduled to start DirecTV actually bumped the recording to start at 8, so I missed all that. No replay on our called back goal. Camera panned around for the two minutes aimlessly. Later on they were showing replays saves while play was restarted and things going on. They’ve got to get a producer to remove/reposition the mics when you’ve got screamers near them. Too many times there was a guy shouting his (mostly wrong) opinions into one, and a high-pitched screamer in another. Game sucked as well. Why Losada waited until after the second goal to sub is baffling. After the first it should have been lock-down defense. At this point the “FO” might want to start vetting potential Losada replacements. Not sure he’ll want to stay after missing the playoffs two years running. And still thinking he’s going back to Europe this summer. He’s shown he can coach and MLS isn't going to be his final destination. Having Chad Ashton running things into the fall won’t be pleasant. Thx, Jay!
And F the Washington Post. Prints Goff’s postgame article with no quotes from anyone. Online article contains it all and is majorly different. Don’t know why I subscribe. Goff: “Losada moved Najar from right-sided center back to left wing back to get him more involved in the attack. It worked.” No Steve, it didn’t work. Najar ran himself into an injury and probably a few weeks out where we’ll most likely lose without his presence. Thx, Jay!
I'd have to wait and see if Taxi is going to score goals first. How many forwards has this club (and all MLS clubs) brought in with high hopes who never panned out?
Yeah, our press and attack finally clicked in the first half, but we sacrificed a lot in the back to get those chances and were truly lucky to be up 2-0. According to MLSsoccer.com XG, there were three chances in the half that should have been goals: The Roberta chance that Kamara helped him scuff; Hamid's giveaway to Fagundez that Fagundez somehow put over the bar; and Austin's Cascante hitting the bar from two yards out at 45'. Expected Goals at the end of the first half were 1.3 - 1.3. Good on Kamara for two great shots, but we weren't dominant, at home, against a 2nd year team missing it's best player that hadn't won a road game in more than a year. The second half collapse didn't sit well with me overnight. I've watched enough soccer to know that playing a man down for a half creates tactical difficulties and means everyone has to work a little harder, but it's hardly justification for throwing in the towel, which is what we did. Christ, I watched expansion Cincinnati play with nine men against us for an entire half and not give up a goal and not looked totally gassed at 70. San Jose just last month played 60 minutes down a man and two goals against Columbus and actually scored two late goals for a draw. We're soft. To bring up XGoals again, in the 2nd half it was 2.1 to 0.0. In terms of tactics and fitness, we're a mess, and in terms of attitude and fortitude, the players now seem to give about as many fukhs as the FO.
Yes, but even with the missed chances that first half was the best exhibition of attacking soccer we've seen from this club. And that with recently-arrived Durkin and just-out-of high-school Hopkins as starters. And let's not forget just-out-of-college Djeffel, who started the previous two matches. Yes, I see the glass as half full. OK, maybe a little less than half full. But still....