I love and miss Kubik. It broke my heart when he was traded to the Burn. I would have baked him kolaches daily if it were needed to keep him around until he retired from play.
I think Baggio had his best ever game for the Fire but I don't think he's ready to start. I would have pulled him instead of Pappa with the game on the line like that. He looks more comfortable but still makes some bonehead plays like his "dummy" pass that went right back to Chivas. We won and looked pretty good in that weather. I was perplexed by the subs but just wish Denis was more willing or approached more often to talk about his tactics and choices. The woolard sub made absolutely zero sense to me, and frankly neither did having zero wingers out there. Does that mean Denis sucks? No, but I wish we had some reporters willing to dig around for the info. That quote from before the game about pressuring in the midfield was a great example. We should have those coming every week and both before and after games. Without that insight potentially good decisions end up looking like random stupidity.
Denis could be a little more helpful with that too though. You know, like going to the "coach's corner" after the game a few months ago, or maybe going to the Oct. 8th birthday party. We've tried to get him on a few times and haven't met with much success.
I'd be more convinced if Bob Bradley had been able to get anything more out of him. I mean, yeah, Sarachan was awful and Hamlett is not a great head coach. I'm right there with ya on that, brother. At the same time, there have been a few games this season where Justin did play and the game was tailor-made for him to stamp his authoritah on it but he conspicuously didn't. At some point, he has to step up and shine. Rolfe has done that several times this year despite being wasted in midfield. Banner has similarly done it also despite Hamlett. Lowry has stepped up and contributed more than his share given in his limited minutes. And of course, Blanco can impose his will on games despite Denis's "strategies". I'm sorry, but unless Justin has a radical change of personality during this off season, I suspect we could have SAF as our head coach with Wenger, Klinsmann, Lippi and Mourinho as assistants all designing the team around Mapp and it wouldn't matter much if he doesn't want it. I'd love to see it next year because man are we gonna need it...
There's a raging discussion of the subs in the Frank Klopas thread where milicz is stating what you've said here and Chris M. and SixKick are vigorously disputing it. I actually side with Chris M./SixKick on this. We need Pappa for the play-offs and he'd been putting in a ton of effort during the game. Also, Blanco is a wing player, not a CAM and especially not a d-mid. If you put in Blanco and take out Husidic, who slots into the 2nd d-mid position? The Woolard sub was fine too. With 7 minutes left and Chris dropping back into midfield anyway, it's OK to close up shop. It's not like Chivas had spent the game looking all that dangerous anyway and all we needed was a tie. Now if Denis had reverted to making that sub in the 65th minute and trying to bunker for half an hour, I'd have been enraged.
Yes, this was not a good game for Nyarko, but it looked to me that he was fouled twice in the box. Hence we should have had at least 1 penalty kick, but the ref wasn't going to give the game to penalty kicks. Yes, there were some handalls that went uncalled. Overall, I thought we played well. The defense was solid, and we seemed to be in the attacking mode for a lot of the game. It was fun to watch in spite of the terrible weather.
Wow! He didn't show up at the party. That's surprising, given how long he's been with the organization. But given the nature of some of the posts on S8C forums and here, he may have been afraid of a lynch mob.
We prefer the 'tar and feather' method...and there's a train track right next to the stadium he can ride out on...
"If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen." Seriously though, all coaches have to be willing to accept criticism. Anyway, here is a transcription of comments Chris Armas made to media following his Ring of Fire induction ceremony. I know you couldn't be there but you can at least read some of it here: http://www.section8chicago.com/jm3/...ckq&catid=1:general-supporter-news&Itemid=158
I'd be happy to have him back as an assistant coach. From all reports, he was really good at that. Being head coach is different, though. I just think he's in over his head. Sarachan's not doing too bad as an assistant in LA LA land.
He'd look kinda funny with no hands. Luckily, he coaches soccer so I don't think he need hands to coach. Maybe if he was goalkeeper coach, he'd need hands...
True, but Justin was starting to play his best ball of the season, and his reward was sitting the last two games. That I don't get. I mean, did Denis sit Mapp all year to light a fire under his ass and then not use that?? I don't get it.
Hasn't he done same thing with Lowry?? The kid scores two goals in one game and hasn't seen the field since? It just seems like DH doesn't make consistent coaching decisions. I am guessing that Husidic is perhaps a little stronger defensively than Peter so in keeping with his defensive tendencies, DH has leaned that way. Justin probably doesn't fit DH's mold for a stronger defensive effort so he is sitting. That is why I am not sure DH knows how to handle his players and how to reward them for good efforts.
The offensive side: We've only had 2 players that have played in every game, Nyarko and Pappa...Nyarko had 22 starts, and Pappa had 28 starts (the most starts of any player) Nyarko ended up with 4 goals and 2 assists...Pappa with 5 goals and 4 assists... Our top 2 goal scorers are McBride and Rolfe...McBride started in all 22 games he played in...scoring 7 goals and adding 2 assists...Rolfe started in 20 games, scoring 6 goals and 1 assist. Our top point gatherer was Blanco...starting in only 15 games this year, he has 5 goals and 8 assists. The biggest surprise this year was Banner, he played in 22 games, but only started 8 of those games...with 2 goals and 3 assists. We had 2 defenders with 3 assists...Pause and Ward...Pause starting every game he could (26), and Tim started every game before his injury (19). Conde started 18 of his 19 games adding 2 goals and 2 assists. Mapp started 11 games with 1 goal and 3 assists. Thorrington played and started 19 games before his injury, but only added 1 assist. Sega had 12 games adding 1 goal and 1 assist. Baggio started 5 games with 1 assist. There's one more goal...hmmm...oh yeah, Dasan had a goal...he started 9 games this year. Prideaux and Soumare started 16 games, and each had an assist...Brandon came off the bench 3x to give him 19 games played. Woolard and Washington had 4 starts each for 0 and 0. CJ started 17 games with 0 and 0... and finally, Dimitrov started 1 game, had 7 appearances, for 0 and 0...and Carr had 0 starts, 10 games played for 0 and 0. These are the offensive stats... is anyone else offended?
Jesus, I know people hate the fat SOB (which he is) but he's brought the goods since he joined our team, more or less. At least points wise, he has grabbed a lot of pks but even then............he mades made the most out of them. Unlike Mcbride vs DC.........i still don't know what he was thinking there..he needed the panenka the ******** out of that pk.
We are just talking about two different types of apples. Offensively, before the Fire took the lead, Rolfe and the rest of the attack was stagnant. Besides his nice dribbling and pass to Nyarko (where he then made a great run yet Nyarko failed to notice) I don't think Rolfe had an impact offensively. Defensively, sure he did his job but I did say that had to do more with tactics and formation after the goal than anything else. (smiley face and pat on the butt emoticon)