Pre-match: DCU vs. the Scum of the F'N Earth

I see Asad has Neymar disease with that blatant flop.

 

Tradition

 

Rooney. THAT'S WHY (or at least one of the reasons why) YOU'RE HERE. DO BETTER.

 

Pathetic performance. I’ve seen U15 girls do better.

 

Rooney may not scored for us this year.. that is a possibility

 

Serious question, I've logged in here after months to ask.

Has Ben Olsen been asked why he doesnt play Mattocks and Rooney together? Saw the Atlanta game live, and watched the Red Bulls game on ESPN+ tonight and it seems somewhat obvious to me that Rooney leading the line isn't a great idea.

Why not play him directly under Mattocks? Let Mattocks use his speed to creat space that Rooney can exploit, and also use his passing ability to open up the attack?

 

In preseason I recommended picking up free agent Alan Gordon for exactly these situations. Or at least someone similar. In the last 15 minutes when you're chasing a goal, the opposition is just going to defend in a low block. You need a big body in there to unsettle the center backs. You can't tiki taka your way into a box that has 9 defenders in it. Something is wrong with Ben and his distaste of pure strikers. If I think back to the 8 years since 2010, I would think that about 75% of the time we had no pure #9 on the squad.

 

My son and I left at halftime because of the Metro stopping service shortly after 11. (Time out for a rant about the cow town transit this place has. 35 years ago when I lived in South Jersey in the Philly suburbs, the PATCO High Speed Line ran 24/7 from Center City to the far suburbs. The trains may have run every 40 minutes or so around 3:00 AM, but you knew if you staggered into the station, sooner or later a train would come to take you home. Apparently that is impossible in the "Capital of the Free World". End of rant.) When you elect to start games at 8, there is no margin for error. Tonight was unavoidable, but even a 20-30 delay will result in many fans leaving the stadium before the end of the match. (Of course the FO really doesn't give two shits about that because those fans already purchased tickets and probably consumed some concessions by then anyway.) But it makes for a real minor league feel to the match.

I just got home and I clearly didn't miss anything. Neither Brillant nor Ousted should see the pitch except for the bubonic plague sidelining their replacements. That goal by BWP was just a pathetic performance by Brillant and Ousted. Of course the whole team looked like most Olsen coached teams -- no direction, no cohesion, no ideas about what to do. RBNY in comparison moved, played triangles, made incisive passes and basically made the DCU "defense" look like 4 OTC. If this were a real FO with any accountability, Olsen would be fired and Brillant waived after tonight's performances. Of course that won't happen. Marsch leaves and Armas takes over and RBNY doesn't skip a beat. DCU looks like 11 guys from a pickup game in a beer league. It takes more, Tradition and We Win Wednesdays.

 

You need to know how to coach to come up with a plan like that. Next question.

 

Is our attack supposed to go through Fischer so often?

 

Teams game plan to force the ball his way. I guarantee it. If you watch their high press you can see the only lane they leave open is Fischer.

 

What a shitshow.

And I might be mistaken, but wasn't Ousted supposed to be good?

The entire team played like shit.

The good news is the turnout was much higher than I expected for a Wednesday night game with rain forecast, SG atmosphere was excellent, and the field drainage is excellent.

 

And can we please stop lumping the ball forward to no one. It just comes right back down our throat.

 

The field drained beautifully and the ball rolled nicely rarely running out of steam early. (easily observed because so many passes were full zipcodes off the mark and rolled forever} The 2 D's (not Dumb and Dumber, Dave and Devon) tried to use everything except the choice of mustard for the weenies as an excuse for overall suckiness, but it was just whining and sniveling as usual from the booth. The camera crews had the tilt on their apparatus pinned in the down position I never noticed the obligatory crowd shots suitable for estimating attendance.
Reps to those who braved the elements, and sat for so long with nothing to see, and I'm talking about the match, not the rain delay

 

The high vantage point behind the goal really allows one to see the holes in the Swiss cheese defense.

I agree that Ousted seems to have taken a step backwards. Is it because the defense is so bad he panics? So many bad punches, might as well just try to catch it.

DC were lucky NJ didn't manage to score a couple of those easy shots. Mattocks is offside too much for a guy who's fast.

Maybe Rooney can force a coaching change. That would make him worth his big contract

 

That's why you play a low block, the ball comes back so fast, the defense has no time move upfield. See, it's all part of the "strategy."

 

watched the replay this morning.

The foul on Rooney looked like a PK in the stadium and it looked like a PK on TV even more so. Even the Red Bulls announcer were shocked it wasn't given. Isn't that reviewable by VAR? How the hell didn't he not have to go take another look at that.

But more than being pissed about the uncalled PK, I'm pissed at Acosta.

I can't stand watching him play anymore. He has such talent. We've handed him the #10 shirt and want him to be the man. When he is touching the ball, more often than not dangerous things are happening. And yet, he spends half the f*ing game sulking around the field like a little two year old throwing a temper tantrum. Stop quitting. Stop hiding out on the wings. Go make yourself available and get the damn ball.

Even my young teenage boys can see this. They bought Acosta jerseys after watching him play two games. Now their bitching about what a little whiner he is and how he quits.

Dude could be a rock star in this league an he's pissing it away with a crap attitude...

 

Between that and the handball being ignored, I knew it was just gonna end up being one of those nights. Yeah, Acosta giving up and just watching after a blown play was annoying.....But by then I had also already figured it was done, so I can't really blame the guy. Why run 3/4 the length of the field for a pass that outpaces you over the endline because it was over hit, or instead went the wrong way, or instead went right to a RB player? It's gotta be frustrating.

 

The handball was not nearly as clear to me (although once they showed it Shep thought it should be a PK as well). The Red Bulls broadcast had technical difficulties and came back on while the referee was listening to his headset. They showed one replay and it wasn't slow and it was from pretty far away. It wasn't clear that the ball hit him in the hand or chest or face.

As for Acosta, this isn't a one game problem. I wrote about this same issue after watching him play in Columbus earlier this year. It's gotten worse. And I'm not talking about running out a terribly hit through ball. I'm talking about going and getting the ball and being the "straw that stirs the drink" - when he does that, we look very dynamic. When he hides out on the sideline sulking, we generally have no idea what to do with the ball.

He should be forced to watch tapes of Federico Higuain to watch a #10 in this league who works his butt off when he doesn't have the ball.

Additional thought. I counted at least 4 times yesterday when Acosta had to stop to re-tie his shoes. Once a Red Bull player went right past him with the ball at about midfield. How can a professional player be needing to re-tie his shoes so often. Coach Wooden would not be pleased...

 

As I had said in another thread. I bench Acosta and add Rooney in a 4-4-2 formation.

 

I hear ya, but also our $#!tty passing and lack of broad vision isn't a one game problem, either. It has been improving (in that now, at least, midfielders and defenders are at least seeing runs into space), but still, they can't seem to properly weigh the pass. Part of that is the fact that RBNY was playing high pressure and we weren't, but part of that is learned skill.

 

Lucho reminds me a lot of Demarcus Cousins in the NBA. so talent but bad attitude at times which is highlighted often because of how poorly our organization is run.

I'd bet if he played in a place with discipline he'd be a whole different guy.

 

The low block can work if you have very skillfull players who dribble well. Usually 3-4 who don't participate in the low block at all. One on each wing and the striker hangs out at the midfield stripe. Olsen like his wings to tackle aggressively so it's usually just Mattocks up top and that's why we just see dump and chase hockey -- soccer style.

Much like the high press, it's suicide to try and run a low block for an entire game. Usually just some stretches. Ben likes to do it the whole 90. Another thing about the low block is you usually need to be very good in the air as dropping deep allows lots of crosses. I'm pretty sure we are the shortest team in MLS. Just another example of running some semblance of a tactic out there without regard to who the players are.

 

I'd pick Asad to sit instead, but I agree.

I think I've made it pretty clear over the years that I hate formations that end in -1. disclaimer: unless that -1 is a very very special kind of player I doubt we see at DCU (or possibly MLS)

 

Our squad as a whole just has a very low footy IQ. Its just so frustrating to watch... here's what I posted on B&R:

Olsen just looks out of his depth with this squad. We actually have very good attacking pieces and should be linking better. I understand that our back 4 is poor, but our attack could ‘hide’ that problem if we actually played on the front foot. We did none of that last night.

NYRB were overly aggressive and could very easily be beaten and passed around with triangle/quick 1-2 passes. NYRB doubled and left huge gaps and over committed …and DCU panicked all night long. They shaded/forced our players to the sideline and used it as an extra man, then double-teamed… and we dribbled towards the sideline and trapped ourselves all night long. Just ridiculously low IQ footy being played. Most of the time our players made runs away from the ball looking for the long ball instead of ‘showing’ for the short easy pass- its maddening. Against an overly aggressive high press, the ball must move quickly. 1 and 2 touch passes. The ball moves faster than feet, it always does. That is schoolboy basic stuff. That’s coaching and preparation.

The 2nd half looked like we played harder and quicker, but tactically we were still making the mistakes and did not adjust to solve the NYRB high press. Which tells me Olsen is out of his depth. Frankly, the only reason why we had more success moving the ball in the 2nd half was because NYRB adjusted the high press and stepped it back to midfield, allowing us to pass it around some in our backfield. Just a terrible display by DCU, we should have lost 3-0 honestly…very lucky it was only 1-0.

DCU needs 3 things ideally:
1. New coaching staff
2. 1 new starting CB, bench Brilliant permanently, then seriously consider trying Robinson/Opare instead of Birnbaum
3. 1 new starting RB, and have serious competition for LB between everyone that is left (maybe Mora pans out after all)

If we are unwilling to do all those things, at the very least- sign ONE starting CB to bench Brilliant. I actually like the idea of benching Birnbaum and playing Durkin/Canhouse at CB to get both on the field. Segura is healthy too, is he a CB candidate maybe? Our CBs are dreadful.