Terrific save by Johnson on Alan Gordon. More from Christopher Sullivan: "Gordon scores on that shot 10 out of 10 times." Uh, no, he did not score.
We need to kill this goddamn game off now. Buddle's decision making is awful. A yellow card for Johnson for being fouled.
INFORMAL POLL: who is homering us harder? the ref crew? or the announcing crew? We need to learn how to possess for the sake of possessing. It will calm my nerves. We were up 3 - 0. Pass the ball around. Not even necc. towards goal. Just pass it around.
Fire WIN Final insult from Dunseth: "LA Galaxy falling to Chicago 3-2" NO, it was Chicago beating LA 3-2"
Quick thoughts: Johnson as first-team goalie. No contest. Let's never turtle like that again. Ever. The referee sucked. Good gracious.
We have a new keeper. I like the kid. He got hazed hard by the ref but pulled through. We had0 possession the entire second half and I think the substitutions were odd at best.
I shit you not LA might have had 90% possession in the 2nd half. Why the ******** do crawl into our shells in such pathetic fashion??? ******** just pass the ball around between the centerbacks if you have to, just keep the ball for more than 10 ********ing seconds! The Dema tackle on Krol was a straight red, it doesn't get more clear than that you dumb blind or biased POS ref. The 2nd penalty was laughable. They are saying it was a Krol handball.
We made the Galaxy look like Spain. I thought ljungberg sucked, but everybody looked bad (except Johnson) by the time he came on. I'm happy with the points, but that was really really ugly.
So predictable. Taking off Pappa and Nyarko, the only two Fire players capable of relieving pressure from the defense, and then spending the last 20 minutes defending desperately. Every time I looked, there were 20 to 30 yards of open space for LA midfielders to carry the ball toward goal. If you're going to play an attacking style, you can't take all your attackers off every time you get a lead. But, 3 points, so that's good.
That was about as straight a red card as I've ever seen. Studs up into Krol's shin. That, combined with the nonsensical 2nd penalty, make me wonder how much MLS wants LA to stroll to the title with poster-boy Donovan. Let's watch the playoffs and see how LA and NY get all the calls all the way.
Player ratings: Johnson: 7.5, man of the match. Gave up 2 penalties and (may have) handled outside the box, but a great first MLS start, against the best team (and one of the worst officials) in the league. A couple of terrific saves: on Buddle in the first 5 minutes and the save of the week against Gordon. Dasan: 4, burned badly. Probably committed the foul that led to the second penalty (although it was a crap call, whether it was the foul or an elbow ball by Krol). May be injured, he could not run at all. CJ: 6, quiet, but no major mistakes. Conde: 6.5, bailed out the Fire several times. Krol: 6, pretty good game, took a shitty kick from Dema, but came back into the game. Pappa: 7, scored a goal, some good passes, great shot leading to Banner's goal. Curiously subbed for Freddie. Husidic: 5.5, not bad, not good, not a starter any longer. Great pass on Pappa's goal. Pause: 5.5, pretty good game, had a forward pass. Nyarko: 6.5, the Fire went south after he came out. Banner: 7, very good game for Banner. John: 7.5, excellent game overall. Tracked back quite a bit late in the game. Subs: Freddie: 5, very few touches, but it is way too early to think anything about him. Umanzor: 5, also had few touches, but managed to break up a few plays. Kinney: incomplete
Good lord . . . Petrescu did everything he could to try to get the Galaxy a result. The 1st PK was a little soft, but I'm ok with the call. The 2nd PK was a bad call. I assume they called the handball, but Krol's arm was not far from his body and there was nothing he could do to get it out of the way. Then the handball call on Johnson at the end. That was such an inconsequential play and it was soooo iffy on whether or not it was outside the box. Good start to the game obviously, but lack of possession (and pretty much every 50/50 call going LA's way) let the Galaxy control the game from about the 25 minute mark. Johnson was spectacular (aside from scuffing a few goal kicks). He made all the saves he should have made, plus a few more. The 2 goals were no fault of his. The substitutions were suspect. I'd have taken off either Husidic or Banner instead of Pappa. Then, if Christian Miles is to be believed, they accidentally subbed out Nyarko based on a miscommunication (completely Nyarko's fault if he really wasn't injured). Then Kinney for Husidic. I assume Kinney was ready to come in anyway for Robinson and the Husidic injury forced an alternate change, but this sub put us even more on the back foot. I'll take the win, but it was frustrating to have a 3-0 game turn into a nail-biter when it didn't have to.
yeah, given what we were up against, this was a great game in my opinion. 3 points out of LA is a great result, and yes, we went into a shell in the 2nd half but it worked, and were it not for some ridiculous one-sided refereeing it would've been a comfortable 3-1 (or even 3-0). overall good result. Freddie didn't have much chance to contribute, but the whole team looks hungry now. very excited for what should be a sweet matchup next sunday, and for the rest of the season. we have desire to win with games in hand... could be a great 2nd half to watch
Pappa may have been subbed out because he picked up a knock, as soon as he was subbed out they put ice on his left thigh.
How many defenders did we have out there at the end? I counted 7, we had exactly 3 offensive minded players on the field at the end, you can't possess if you do that. Poor sub decisions by CDLC. Great first half, great energy from the team, we looked like the team I thought we were meant to look like from the beginning of the year in the 1st 20 minutes, but I don't get why we decided to just defend when we easily could have scored 1 or 2 more with how forward LA was getting. Sean Johnson won the starting GK position for now. The D played well, Freddie has quality, but it was tough to tell when we were in a shell. I'm glad Krol doesn't have a broken leg. John maybe gets on a roll now, he played well, Pappa scored again and without Nyarko we lose this game.