Well Red Stars fans, we have reached the midpoint of the season and our Stars are in 5th place. It is time to put it in next gear and start winning games. We have not won a game since April 25th. That's almost 2 months ago. With LA Sol all but rapping up the 1st place spot, there will be a huge battle for the other playoff spots and tying a bunch of games is not an option. The fight to win a playoff spot starts this wednesday against Sky Blue FC. We will be missing Karen Carney because of the red card she recieved against the Freedom. My guess at lineup: Christiane Tarpley Rapinoe Klein Loyd Igwe Ostberg Spilger Oakes Dalmy Jonsson Although, I would like to see Adams up front and Tarpley in instead of Igwe.
Re: Game 11: Red Stars vs Boston Breakers 6/21/09 Shouldn't we first talk about the game this Wednesday 6/17 against sky blue fc? http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/chicago/schedule/2009-schedule.aspx
Re: Game 11: Red Stars vs Boston Breakers 6/21/09 Damn, you're right. I forgot about the midweek game. So that would be game 11 and sunday's game 12. Well everything I said about sunday's game apply it to wednesday's. My bad. All right, fixed it. Thanks Fanaddict. I guess I was looking forward to the car show before the game on sunday.
Ouch. Loyd is a detriment and Igwe looked very weak in DC. I'd also go with Adams up front and Tarpley taking Igwe's place. I'd almost take a flier on Vandenbergh over Loyd. Lydia could possibly be even worse than Carli but that would take some effort. If she doesn't work out in the first half, I suppose we could resign ourselves to seeing Loyd in the 2nd half.
You're right, I know Loyd is just coming back from injury, but she is still struggling out there. Igwe, IMO is doing nothing out there but falling all the time, like a miniture Wambach. Klein is still the champion in midfield, IMO. The little things she does, she does them so quick and so unselfishly and she works so hard for every ball that she doesn't get the credit, but she should. Everyone else is trying to do the impossible or the fancy while Klein just goes about her business quietly, collecting and distributing the ball almost flawlessly. Christiane does the step-over 50 times a game whether she needs to or not or the rolling of the ball under her feet, Loyd takes shots from midfield hoping to get lucky, Rapinoe is trying to dribble through 3 people, and so on. Although I do think Rapinoe has been playing a lot better lately. Another one that has been playing her butt off is Spilger. She was on Wambach like white on rice last saturday. I think her and Oakes have really stepped up for the Red Stars. Spilger has definately earned her spot on the defense.
Dieke is not listed on the injury/roster report, so I assume she is at full strength. Do Chicago fans not think she's get the start, then? I agree w/ many here that Lloyd has yet to show up for WPS play and I'd sit her. If Dieke starts does anyone think Hayes would pair her w/ Spigler and then push Oakes into the dmid w/ either Klein or Tarp as amid (the other at right mid) and sit Lloyd? Of course, I doubt Hayes will ever sit her, barring injury. Of course, the only allocated player a coach has sat down was (iirc) Kai and Sawyers was canned (though not for that). For the SkyBlue, Branam is probable, Dowling & Rosana are questionable, and Walsh is out. I'd think SkyBlue would miss Dowling the most if she does not play. Her absence would, I think, allow Rapinoe more time/space to operate on the left wing.
Did not see the Washington game but totally disagree with you about starting Lloyd or Tarpley just because they are allocated players. If they are not producing then why should they play? I also disagree with you about Igwe. She has added a lot to the midfield. Left back was definitely not her position, but prior to having her in the midfield, there was no "d" in defense. she has plugged a huge hole at defensive mid and helped stop the attack up the middle of the field. Klein and she played together at SCU and have combined well on this team as well.
Just what I've seen so far. I know they played at Santa Clara. A program and coach that I have a lot of respect for. I will take a closer look at Igwe this sunday at Toyota Park. Klein is awesome. My favorite player on the Red Stars at this point.
Well another loss for the Red Stars and again no goals. Where do we go from here? Do the Red Stars need to make some trades? Is the system that Emma is using just not working? I don't know. But something needs to change for this coming Sunday. Someone needs to step up and put the ball in the net. The Red Stars occupy the cellar alone now. There's a long way to go and we still have time to turn it around but we need to do it NOW.
I know fans are first to blame the coach or the system when things are going badly but sometimes it just comes down to the fact maybe the team doesn't have the best players.
Lloyd nearly had one tonight off a mean penalty kick that hit the top post. A few other close calls for NJ. Tarply came in for Ostberg, and touched the ball once, maybe twice. hey, its only 3 points between second place and yourselves.
I agree. Not blaming. Yet. Just asking questions. Maybe we don't have the right combination of players on this team. Hey, Denis Hamlett is getting ripped for three straight losses and his system of play has been subject to criticism since he took over the team. The coaching staff of the Red Stars will have to take some brunt of criticism if this continues. Many of us who post here are real soccer fans and not just clueless soccer moms and dads. So I expect some degree of criticism when your team is underperforming. However, I'm still hopefull and as I do the Fire, will be there win or lose, rain or shine and show support.
Just got back from the game and some of the players for the red stars are not on the same page at all. This is the 2nd time in less than a week that i seen them play and i'm not impress with their progress from the last game. They have talent players who are not working together at all. The only player the stood out and worked her A** off was Rapinoe. They looked better against the Freedom than they did today. The sky blue goal happen because no one cleared the ball after the free kick which i don't know why a foul was even called. Lloyd had a hard shot that hit the post but that was the only good thing from her. No communication between the midfield and the forwards at all. Pia Sundhage at the game talking with Emma Hayes for about 1/2 hour before the game. Also Karen Carney was there among the few red stars fanss giving moral support to her teammates. Took some pictures will post them later.
Was picture 36 the goal? It looks the same as the one on the WPS site, only from a different angle. There's like six Red Star players in the vicinity, but Rosana's clear for the shot.
As far as I can tell, the Red Stars made the following mistakes: We counted on having Markgraff who then screwed us by getting knocked up. We counted on Loyd being something other than a useless waste of space. We counted on Christiane lighting up the league and she hasn't. Tarpley started out effectively but then teams learned that if they shut her down, we got nothing else to beat them with. Now Tarpley looks like she wants to play in midfield. If Emma would have learned how to play Masar correctly, we'd have had someone else to give teams something to think about but that hasn't happened. We signed fantastic wing players in Rapinoe and Carney but then didn't get a good target forward for them to cross to. When we realized that Loyd was not going to be a force in midfield, we then tried to play long ball but again with no target forward to receive those balls out of the back. Now we're a mess and unless we see a complete and drastic change ala Athletica or unless, like Athletica, we we start getting active in the transfer market, this season is pretty much a waste and we'll have to try to reboot the roster only this time with a coherent plan in place of how we want to play so we can go get the personnel to fit that system.
Agreed. But you forgot this one: that US Soccer decides to play friendlies against Canada during the season thus disrupting the chemistry of these new teams. As far as the USWNT goes, it's pretty obvious that we've been sold a false bill of goods: some of those gals just aren't that good. Seriously, if you were the head coach, how many of them would you take based purely on their WPS play? For the CRS, we need better midfielders. I'd take 3 more Brittany Kleins if that were possible. But it seems we can't control a ball and feed it to our forwards in a clean fashion. I think we're playing for 4th place and hoping for some magic in the postseason.
Klein is great. She does things without fuss. She has no problem passing the ball 2 yards to the side or infront. Not every ball she plays has to be THE ball which i think is the problem some other midfielders have like Lloyd. I'm a big fan of Lloyds actually but sometimes she frustrates me. The amount of turnovers she gives is incredible...even with the WNT. She always wants to play that incredible pass whether it was on or not where as she should take her time and pass sensibly if the option is not there. Its frustrating. I've just been watching the WNT v Canada Olympic games QF again & Lloyd was terrible in that game. I thought she should have been subed but she wasn't she was pushed up front & Hucles came back into midfield and USA never had a problem in midfield after that.It was solid if not very creative. But it stopped Canada advancing.