Well we are closing in on the end, but Brian McBride represents very well again from all accounts. There is the whistle. McBride had the winner.
Hmm. I'm just glad BS had up-to-date posts. My Mac wouldn't let me hear the game. Though, I would have liked to say a few things to a couple of those jerks in that thread. Don't disrespect the Crew, punks. Though, I still ran around when McBride scored. What a sight to see that he scored. Now all we gotta have is the game on FSW.
Absolutely thrilled to see Brian has come back to the EPL in style. Hope he gets up to match fitness soon so he can start along with Boca. Maybe I missed this being posted someplace else, but the Fulham site has a nice 7:30 minute video interview with McBride prior to the Spurs match. http://www.fulhamfc.com/Common/Audio/mcbride_29012004.ram Enjoy!
Damn, thanks for the link, but my feed keeps timing out. Anyone else experiencing that problem, or is it just my computer?
Although an Eathquakes fan by geography, I'm a HUGE Brian McBride fan... here's the match report(s) from the Fulham site: http://www.fulhamfc.com/displayContent.asp?id=46348&intAreaID=7 Also, what media player do I need to open the .ram files they use there? Thanks. Hannah
McBride is wearing # 8. And I highly recommend my good freind CoolMiki: http://www.ea545.com/detail.asp?id=651
Does CoolMiki ever have any real problem adding names and numbers? It sure would beat the $70 I was about to pay elsewhere.
Just my two cents, but two things here. One, don't be too obsessed with stats in soccer, as they can often be misleading, Brian often played well for the Crew without scoring and opened up chances for others. That being said, a player with Brian's skill set: (center forward, back to the goal, target man, good in the air, good reader of the game, who isn't going to dribble through people too often) is reliant on teammates for service and to read the game with him to open things up. He's not a 1 v. 1 player. Hence, he is better when the quality of play around him is better. It's kind of like a post player in basketball, he's reliant on the guards (midfielders) to get him the ball where he can do damage. Just my opinion, however.
Danks, Two possibilities: 1.) There was a baseball player named Bake McBride. For some reason somebody used it and it stuck. 2.) The ladies like his "buns". I'm not sure the real reason but we've been using that for a few years now.
Bill, could you do me a favor and save that picture for when I come back to the states? It would make a lovely background on my home computer...
Mike, Absolutely pleased to oblige, compadre. The answer is twofold, but it boils down to, in the words of an EPL team President: "The Crew doesn't have any idea how to use him" There are several concurrent themes here. One is, frankly, for most of his tenure with the Crew, there was not much risk in either a) marking up two or three guys on him because nobody else was likely to score and b) there's no downside to physically assaulting him because MLS referees are incompetent. Further, I've watched entire games where he was not provided one single solitary decent service of the ball. None. Zippo. Because when your primary right hand service comes from Brian West, who's very fast, or any number of completely skill-free left side players, nothing is going to happen. Now Coach Moron has watched Bruce Arena and David Moyes make the guy look like a god and said "Duh, hey, I can do that" and proceeded to look stupid trying because he built the entire attack around him. McBride is most effective when he's AN option, not THE option. Big Soccer, as you know perhaps as well or better than anyone, is full of dopes. One of the official mottos of these dopes is that McBride is a "target" forward. I'm not certain, but I'd guess Arena probably used the term once and the dopes, who know nothing whatever about soccer (see: dave, super, et al.) latched onto it like the crew of the Lusitania. So now you can't swing a dead cat around here without some idiot wanking on about how this or that guy is a target forward, or whether we need a target forward or who else could play as a target forward blah, blah, target, blah. It completely misses the point. First of all because ALL forwards are essentially targets, and the term presupposes that there are strikers out there who the rest of the team is NOT trying to serve the ball while they're standing in the box. I have never been able to figure out who these strikers are, exactly, but if your midfielders are not trying to get the ball into a forward then they need to be shot. Secondly, the term "target" invokes a picture of Brian McBride's body being nothing more than some sort of conveyance for the REALLY important part of his body, his head. Everything else is in constant danger of withering from disuse, like some kind of vestigial limb. All of this takes away from his main strength, which is actually his versatility. Now, some people want to complain that he doesn't break down people 1 v 1, which is like complaining that Alex Rodriguez can't throw a split fingered fastball to lefthanders. It's not what you need him to do. Put another way, how many shake and bake artists are as good a he is with their back to the goal? About none? The thing that McBride is that Arena and Moyes and Souness all get that Coach Retard doesn't is that, unlike most forwards, McBride is a soccer player. You don't isolate him on an island - he's lousy out there. Rather, you include him in the entire scheme, let him play the game, provide other attack options for the central defenders to worry about and THEN let him find his spots. In England, they don't part the waters when he shows up. They don't take a week off and reaarange the entire offensive scheme to revolve around him. Rather, they put him in as a soccer player, use him as a decot, as a pick, as a ball winner, as somebody the defense HAS to account for every time down the field and then - oh yeah - have someone with real skills find an opportunity or two to dump him the ball to the back side, about 8 feet off the ground.
To add on to what Bill said, he may or may not agree with me, I really feel the best year McBride ever had in a Crew kit was 2001 after Fitz left and Andrulis took over. The offense went through JWP, Mais, and Cunningham and McBride was just masterful in allowing those three to do what they do best by doing all the little things behind them. What happened to that Andrulis? The balls to wall attacking offense, using his players to the best of their abilities. I'd be proud to call that guy my coach. It's like the pressure sapped the intelligence out of his head and he decided to resort to Fitz long ball.
Coleman had an interesting comment after the game: "I don't want to get carried away but I wouldn't have brought him here if I didn't think he could perform at this level. He is very strong in the air, he reads the game well, he has a fantastic attitude, he has proved he can score goals in the Premiership and he will fit into our system." He's not being asked to pick up Fulham and carry them around the Prem. He's being asked to "fit into the system". This is, although it goes largely unnoticed, what Arena does with him as well; it's not The Brian McBirde show, it's McBride running the middle, often slightly withdrawn, allowing Donovan to pick his runs or Mathis to get his shots or whatever. It boils down to McBride filling a role, not McBride being the whole focus. This is, I think, what really got to Cunningham - not so much that BMB got the pub, but that the whole deal revolved around BMB, with Cunny as a supporting player, a second choice, a sidekick almost.
In 2001, Greg's coaching mantra was to "turn the players loose" and "let the players on the field run the show"... The result was mostly JWP and Cunningham just destroying everything in their path with Washington, McBride, Maissoneve and Harkes benefitting from that juggernaught. The problem was, later in the season, other teams started figuring out how to play against and defeat this radically changed Crew game plan. The result, in 2001 we embarrased ourselves out of the playoffs. When Greg needed to step up and coach, he couldn't and thus we were left helpless, impotent, and our three-back system was totally ineffective. What happened? In 2001 the players were running the show without the coach, but when we needed a coach Greg couldn't step up. Back to the thread, it is wonderful to see McBride contributing the game winner his first time out. You won't see any Crew fans not happy about that.