This FRICKEN game is going to be the death of me. I would suggest to some of the players especially Beasley as one of the few that has dribbling skill to just once try to dribble around the goalkeeper on breakaways especially when you don't have a hard shot. Dema Dema Dema put the damn ball in the net please. To have the only two 0-0 games in the league at home against dc of all teams is aggravating as hell. Will someone please explain to me why Vauderill was brought in for Walsh instead of Gray? I could understand if we were up a goal.
bad officiating but it went both ways (the foul on Etcheverry was in the box but it should have never continued as the ball was outta bounds) beasely and dema should have put away their chances, no question about that hate to say it but the most entertaining part of the night was seeing that mom try to play the drum in section 8. i dont know what her problem was. anyone else see that?
I want to say that Gus St. Silva always seems to be horrible for us, but then I think I'm confusing him every other ref we have who is always horrible for us as well. I think the only guy that I can almost tolerate is Richard Heron. Screw the geography clause, let Rich Grady call some of ours. The foul against Etch was a classic "it was a foul, but not enough of a foul to warrant a PK, so I'll say it was outside of the box to cover my ass because I went and blew the whistle when I shouldn't have" play. You could sorta make the case that the shirt-tugging started outside the box, but the fall was inside. Not that anyone could see a replay. I will say that St. Silva is a disgrace, and if MLS folds in four years, it's all his fault. Later, COZ
I have nothing to add to that, except for "Bang those whatever the hell those things are" Or whatever you said.
Neither team really made an indisputable claim to victory although the Fire did slightly outplay DCU for most of the game. As happens so often, the Fire created many great chances but couldn't find the back of the net from the run of play with a GPS. So a 0-0 draw was probably a deserved result. That said, NotAbbott is right. St. Silva was a disgrace to the game of soccer. I just hope he didn't get a rip in the DCU t-shirt he was wearing under his ref kit. He let DCU beat up Beasley and Marsch all night and then when CJ barely touches Etch, out comes a yellow card. And the Fire should have had at leaast two PKs but (surprise!) no whistle. I'd say it weas unbelievable but we've seen it all before with MLS's shitty refs. Oh well, at least the Metros lost last night. Oh, and Fanaddict: for the ten minutes before he was subbed out, Walsh was just walking around and moving like a slug. He was clearly done for the night.
We really need Peter Nowak back to win games like the last one. It seems that we couldn't win with DCU this year without Peter Nowak. I am disappointed that Stoitchkov does not help in constructing unconventional attacks anymore. His long passes are less and less accurate.
Vaudreil & Razov The only positive Vaudreil has done is the OT winner a few weeks back, but since, he's been a thorn in our side and he plays FOR us. He would have been given an assist had DC scored after he played the ball back toward the box to CJ, hint, when in trouble, play it wide! And Razov, yeah, I know all about the Huebner column, he's right on, Razov isn't is as great as people make him out to be. Sure he's the Fire leading scorer, but he seems to play when HE wants to, if he doesn't, he's useless. I don't think I have yet to see him hustle (or atleast show SOME effort) for a full 90 min. If he did, he probably would have made the MNT. And yeah, I read about his goal/assist ratio, but you know, some coaches look for hustle and motivation. Simple example, if he had atleast jogged back after DC was awarded a goal kick he would have surely had a one-v-one with Rimando (sp?) when the ball was headed in to space for him. Ultra's right, Novak will do wonders when he gets back, soon I hope. Gray is a great weapon and I would have liked him to have relieved Walsh, would have given Hristo a heading target in the box. Hristo will be back to his normal self when he (hopefully) gains fitness.
That game was like pulling teeth, and since our attack was toothless...I'm confused. Anyway, after last saturdays game when they interview people on the field Nowak said he hoped to be back in 3-4 weeks, so we will see how that goes. He also said he hopes he has a spot on the team! Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggghhht Peter, hes our machine
Oh. Well, that's because Bob Bradley almost always opts for experience over youth and potential - hence Billy Walsh in a Fire kit. You erally can't argue wit the historical results of this policy, though.
Most of this was already said but I have to say it myself to be done with it. I am not a big ref complainer. I realize ahead of time that all of them suck and suck even worse when they are officiating a fire game. But Gus St. Silva?? Where do they dig these guys up? This guy is completely clueless. It is unbelievable to me that little Richie RicardoWilliams didn't get at least one card for hacking down DaBease and Jessie all night. Hell, same goes for Bobby Convey. What did Curtain get a card for? Moving out of the way violently. Both takedowns in the box against the Fire were obvious penalties. There can be no question about it. The first one when Beasley got knocked down Gus was standing right fricken there! What did he see that nobody else in the stadium can see (we know what he didn't see, anything!!!). The call against Etch was equally disgusting. First the ball was clearly over the line (the linesman on the side closest to Section 8 was pure crap, Wolff was offsides when he didn't even start moving until the ball was played into space and he was 4 yards onside?) but if you are going to call a foul there, then it's a penalty dammit! You can't bend the rules and march 8 yards back and spot the ball. Same goes for Lassiters flop. Can you be any more in the box then he was. Both should have been no calls anyway but if your gonna call it then they are penalties. Nuff said about that. I don't know why we can't beat DC at home. I have been at both these games and, though we don't play great, we do dominate the run of play and create very good chances. *sigh* Dema. Why can't he put the ball away? I love the guy but the two open looks he had last night and missed really gutted me out. Perez is a find. I am liking him a lot. Walsh worked hard but, to me, still seems useless. How many times did he get beat around by old crusty Etchevarry. The guy is just too uncoordinated for me. Sorry. Hristo is definately not on his game yet. He made some poor crosses. But he made some good ones too. I just think he isn't sharp from not playing. Did it seem like Beasley was playing "Nowak" ? I mean, it really seemed they were running the ball through him all night. And pretty well from what I saw. Ante needs to put the ball away. Josh, moments of brilliance. Need to see a lot more of that. Curtain gets to add another post to his collection. When this young man learns to head the ball down he will be dangerous. Overall nice work at the back. Section 8 was a lot of fun. I kinda liked the dueling chants. Probably didn't help our noise level but it was fun. Did anybody else get surveyed on the way in? I did they asked if I ever come to Naperville for anything besides the fire. How many times I'd been there. and *drum roll* would I like to see the Fire back there next year. My politically correct answer was "not if we could find something better" See ya on the 14th. Wish I could go to Dallas.
Re: Re: Vaudreil & Razov Not saying that Wolff doesn't deserve to get ripped from time to time. But I think they are different players and there are different expectations. Not a great explanation. But I think that is probably the basis of it. I'm sure others could expound on it.
benny Anyone who watched the game willing to comment on how Ben Olsen looked? [flame away for asking a DCU question...]
Re: Re: Vaudreil & Razov I think part of Wolff's problem (and Beasley's, for that matter) is that the pitch at CS is so small that it really takes away Wolff's speed game. Speed doesn't work against a pitch that encourages congestion. Ante's game is all abut poaching - being in the right place at the right time. This is good because CS is set up more for that kind of game than lightning quick slashing runs into the box that make Wolff and DMB so dangerous. I don't think it's any accident that almost all of Wolff's goals have been in away games whereas his role at CS has been more to assist Razov.
It seems that Dema needs to be criticized a bit more than i've seen on the boards. He just can't seem to find his shot this season. He has blown as many opportunities as Kluivert and squanders away a lot of the attacking efforts from his teammates. I know Dema has not always been the most consistent player, but his play this season leaves a lot to be desired, especially since we've needed him to step up while Nowak has been out. An all-star appearance?!?! Not merited, IMO.
Like I said in my earlier post, Dema is starting to get to me too. I definately think Zach deserves to be an All-Star more then Dema. But that is kind of an apples and oranges conversation.
Re: benny I thought his movement was pretty good. I couldn't help but feel like everytime he fell down that he wasn't going to get back up, but he always did. I think there is still hope for him to recover over time. Just my humble opinion.
Lets be honest.... Our whole offense needs to be flamed for the last two performances against DC United, a bottom of the table club who trots out the ageless wonder Lassiter on frequent occasion. This stuff was pathetic, pure and simple. Beasley should have put away goals in both of the scoreless draws but didn't. Wolff has honestly been invisible since returning from the WC for the most part. The Colorado, SJ, two DC, and even most of the Metro game he was ineffective. He certainly isn't scoring like most expected him to when he came back. Razov, what can you say? We know what we get with him, he is over rated, no doubt, but so are all of our strikers. Peter Nowak has the ability to make players like Jamar Beasley and even a washed up Wynalda last year look great with his runs and the attention he commands if you look only at the stats. Kovalenko hasn't been the same player since he came back from that disasterous St. Pauli trial, he has shown moments, but the consistency that we saw out of him in years past is obviously missing. I think not having Armas also hurts our offense because it is like we are playing 10 v 11 with Walsh and Marsh basically having to combine to try to do the job Armas used to do. But somehow we are still only a point behind the Metros with a game in hand over both them and Columbus. So obviously there is room for optimisim because I believe when Nowak comes back this offense changes for the better.
I agree Trevor, the fact that the Fire is mediocre at best, but yet is still within striking distance of the division shows a lot. Nowak will definitely open things up a bit, it will give Marsch and Walsh the opportunity to focus on the defensive side, because Peter will direct the offense. Marsch has done filling in as captain, although at times I think his temper gets the best of him (either that or he realized how pathetic the refereeing is in this league).
Marsch's temper probably had something to do with his and DMB's getting kicked all over the pitch with hardly any fouls called let alone yellow cards shown to their various assailants while Curtain and Brown both saw yellow for tapping DCU players. And no, I'm not exaggerating.