I expected him to wait to bring the subs on until the 70-80 minute range . . . too late for them to be able to do much. Glad to be proven wrong. They clearly made the difference tonight. Does anyone know the reasoning behind resting Blanco and Pappa other than they both played Saturday and Wednesday? I assume that Hamlett decided to rest them against a weak opponent. Have to say, the first half reminded me very much of our 2007 pre-Blanco team, albeit with more speed up top and less at the back. There was so little creativity from the midfield. From the stands, Lowry seemed bad, Banner wasn't much better, and Woolard picked up where he left off from the NE game getting torched several times early in the game. Considering the starting lineup and the way the team looked once Blanco and Pappa entered the game, I'm not surprised by the first half performance. I can't wait to have Segares, Conde, and Pause back in the starting lineup (not to mention Blanco and Pappa). Edit: Forgot to mention that Conde's positioning tonight was strange . . . he seemed to be playing in the midfield. I couldn't figure out what he was doing near SJ's penalty box shortly before he assised on Blanco's goal.
glad to get the win. blanco and pappa and then conde were the spark. why on earth was the 'B' team play so lacksidasical before blanco and pappa? They have it all to prove they should've played hard! i didn't get that at all, and it was pissing me off.
Evidently, Pappa and Blanco needed that extra 20 minutes of rest before entering the game. Seriously, I'm amazed at the fact that this seems like a team that has no tactical direction; meaning that every player should be striving for the same end on the field, and not simply relying on their own devices, that's what I saw in the first half tonight.
The first half was crap. Then Blanco came in the second and took over. Beautiful pass on the first goal and great patience and place on the second.
Great chip, one of the best I've ever seen; the first half was crap, but we both know that the flaws in any of those players games has to be evident on the training pitch, and either need to be corrected or............ As limiting as the salary cap is in terms of acquiring positional substitutions, it still is a simple game, and if you're not a rocket scientist you shouldn't pretend to be.
I just couldn't get over how lethargic they were when they came out in the first half. I know that if you don't play games it's hard to stay sharp... but they were just so slow and direct with everything. For players whose professional career is hanging more or less by a thread.. i would've thought there'd be more urgency and bite... of course Busch hopelessly booting the ball directly to the opposing keeper didn't help..
He was in midfield. He came on for Mapp to ice the game. I presume that Hamlett didn't want to create confusion in the backline by subbing in a new center back.
I've never liked JB's distribution, but his shot stopping abilities are first class, and he's as fearless as any keeper I've ever seen, so I can forgive that shortcoming. I have to believe that the players are as confused as I am as to whom sits were in the pecking order on this team. BTW, for my money, Soumare's best game of the season, he covered massive amounts of ground in the back tonight.
Just returned from the game and am currently rewatching the game. Good win in an ugly game. Player Ratings: Busch: 7, made some great saves in the second half to keep the game scoreless. Distribution left much to be desired. Ward: 6, had to push forward way too often in the second half. Bakary: 6, good game, no major mistakes, one poor challenge in 17th minute. Robinson: 6, also a good game, quiet but effective. Woolard; 4, how he has a job is beyond me. Doran (25th or so minute): "A guy glad to be out on the field." Enough said. Thorrington: 5, great cross in the 14th minute, played defensive midfielder as well as he can. Lucky not to be carded or sent off in the 85ish minute for a series of rash challenges Banner: 4, one good effort (on Thorrington's cross), other than that, not much. Mapp: 3, one of the worst, most listless efforts I have ever seen. Mapp was an offensive liability tonight. Ward had to push forward to cover for Mapp offensively. Really one of the poorest displays I have ever seen. One thing, it was a penalty that was not called in the 33rd minutes. More on Mapp below. Rolfe: 5, not the best game he has played. Definitely should be playing up front. Tried hard, especially after Blanco and Pappa entered the game. Nyarko: 5, not sure where he should be playing. He does not think fast enough to be a forward, but does not have the ball handling skills to be a midfielder. Subs: Blanco: 8, clearly MOTM. Terrific energy and the play instantly picked up when he and Pappa entered the field. Pappa: 7, was all over the place in his blue shoes. Conde: 6.5, was an offensive improvement in replacing Mapp. Played a sort of floating attacking midfielder. Coaching: 7, easily the highest I have ever rated Denis (when I rate the players, I don't normally bother). I liked the fact that he threw a young team (not sure about Lowry and Woolard, though the Fire really did not have any other defenders on the squad, with Segares away and CJ out). I can imagine his pre-game talk, "Okay, boys. This is our third game in a week. We are playing a weak team. Here is what I want you to do. DON'T SCREW UP" and keep the game scoreless. The young players kept the game tied and waited for the first teamers to come in and clean up. Putting Blanco and Pappa at the same time, for Lowry and Banner was terrific (possibly the greatest upgrade in substitutions ever). Mapp: This sounds harsh, but I hope that Mapp has some undiagnosed or illness. It is sad to see a player with as much talent as Mapp simply not give a crap. I was not sitting in my normal seats and was sitting to the left of Section 8. I watched Mapp the entire second half (until he was substituted). I have never seen a player hustle as little. Ward routinely had to cover offensively for Mapp. It was terribly frustrating. There was a play around the 70th minute which was passed by Mapp, maybe 5 yards from him and never even made an effort to get to the ball. Mapp needs a change of scenery as much as anyone ever.
His distribution from the run of play tonight was better than usual, but his goal kicks were as bad as ever. I wouldn't be as frustrated by it if he didn't spend ~45 seconds setting up each goal kick, even when we're tied or losing.
I actually joked during the match "Maybe Mapp has had mono for the last 2 years and we have just been assuming he is lazy."
Yes, and ideally they should have been in the starting lineup. In context of the crowded schedule, though, it looks to me like the plan was to give them no more than 30 minutes tonight so they could some rest. I didn't like the idea of resting both of them at the same time, considering that together they provide almost 100% of the team's attacking creativity, but the team has a couple of tough road games in the next 2 weeks, so this may have been the best time to rest them (depending on how you value the SuperLiga).
I don't get this at all. Scored the game winning goal, combined with 90 minutes of hustle, creating a couple good chances including a penalty kick that wasn't called, and even made some key defensive stops near the end of the game (hustling back to play left back to cover for Woolard). If McBride scores that goal he's getting 7s and 8s from everyone on this board. Other than that, I pretty much agree with your ratings. Maybe 8.5 for Blanco and 7.5 for Pappa.
What was depressing about this game was watching Mapp, and knowing that he is getting paid the money that could have been used to keep Pappa here next year.
He's trying to give some throw away statement like "we needed our bench to step up and they did." But the best he could come up with for Lowery is that he did the best that he could. That's as damning of faint praise as it gets.
I'm not going to dump on a guy that hasn't played all year for the most part. Get these guys ready if you're going to play them or start the other guys, even if they're tired, until they can't go anymore than bring on guys like Lowry whom could probably be more effective against an opponent who just played 65 minutes, that would be conventional wisdom. He wasn't that kind to the others, either, but than the entire comment seemed to be a rationalization.
Oh I agree with what you're saying. I wasn't intending to dump on the guy. It's just not that often when you see compliments so thinly veiled.
I really didn't mean you. I think DH kind of dumped on him. It's what I was referring to in another post, Lowry certainly isn't dazzling anyone on the training pitch, I guess he just went out there on a wing and a prayer.
There was one player that stood out besides Blanco and Nyarko...he held the ball up everytime, maintained posession, found the open player, won us some corner kicks, made a crucial slide tackle on Huckleberry, won us a penalty kick that wasn't called, and sent in some dangerous crosses...of coarse, I'm talking about Mapp. Mapp rating: 8
An "8"? I agree that Mapp was not AS bad last night as everyone here seems to think but he sure wasn't an 8. Blanco was a 8 or an 8.5. Mapp was a 6.5. He did some of what you say (I'm not sld on the "dangerous crosses") AND he was lazy and killed off some of our attacks. ----------- That said, kudos to Denis for putting in his subs before the 80th minute mark. All three subs made sense (although I personally would have subbed out Mapp first and then Banner) and the game changed 180 degrees after they came on. Before the subs came on, man o man was that game fugly! It needed a paper bag over its head until the 65th minute. Our B team is clearly not ready for prime time if that's the best thery can do at home against the worst team in the league. Our collective decision-making was slow, poor and thoroughly uncreative. Rolfe may have played the first 5 minutes as a forward but he promptly sank back into midfield and had no dangerous attack until the 2nd half. Nyarko, Thorrington and Banner ran around and lot and worked hard but to little effect. Our defense held but also looked shaky at times even though we were hardly facing an attacking juggernaut. I'm shocked that SJ didn't throw all attacks at Woollard as he was clearly the weak link in our already weak backline. The positives are the quality assist and goal by Blanco/Nyarko and conde was a complete beast out there in the few minutes he played. 3 points - I'll take 'em even if they're ugly.
A home win! It took my damn birthday arriving to get these guys to grab the 3 at home. Starting lineup was puzzling, but it made Pappa, Blanco, and Conde's insertion that much sweeter. Blanco's chip on Cannon was hilarious. Goal of the week for sure. 1 point ahead of the East with a game in hand. I really hope we can start a nice big winning streak and start to pull away from these other teams that are obviously beneath us.