He had to go slowly for the old guys on our team. But, some of them now qualify for the senior discount at Denny's!
Actually, they were trying to time the moment of silence and singing of God Bless America for when they came out of a commercial break. So, they had to stall a little bit.
Give Blame Where Blame is Due Watch the Fire players (and Bradley) whine about the referee in this Sun-Times article. http://www.suntimes.com/output/fire/cst-spt-fire08.html Pathetic. This is like the kid who got busted for pulling the fire alarm complaining that the police weren't nice. Just shut up, take your medicine, and quit diving like Luis Hernandez, will ya? And yes, I am a Fire fan. But I wouldn't defend my own brother if he behaved like Kovalenko.
Almost forgot to ask in all the excitement-Hristo got a yellow the other night. Does he miss Saturday v. Columbus with accumulated points?
The FIRE are just not the FIRE. Last year I made the 200+ mile road trip every home game and never felt disappointed or said I drove all the way for that. When the FIRE rarely lost last year I still felt good about seeing them. Sat. I left like they gave up and just did not have it. Last year I always felt like we would win like we could always come back. The guys just don't have the drive and confidence like last year. I am sure some of is all the injuries, pitch, and the player we put on the pitch are not the same quality as last year. But the last 65 min was just BAD!! I saw Dema play a lot at Indiana and I just want him to play at least as good as he did there. It is getting bad. The defense was just bad at the end. DMB has not done it yet this year. How can people really think he can handle Soccer in Europe? I know better days are ahead and the FIRE will be back to the very high level we expect them to play at. We are FIRE fan and we will always be there. Hopefully see you all in MLS CUP 2002? I am still holding out hope.
Another gripe of mine, although I don't think it's all DMB's fault. When the Fire was playing well on Saturday (i.e. the first 30 minutes), DMB was playing forward, and the Fire kept trying to spring him 1 v. 1. Second half, DMB is laying back and we couldn't get anything going on that side. Keep DMB on the attack, stick with what is working!
On Big Soccer, no one can criticize The Establishment. Someone always says you are whining. It helps protect the system.
Just to play devil's advocate, do you think that maybe the Fire sputtered towards the end of this particular match because of the psychological effects of hitting the woodwork so much? At some point, you have to start second-guessing whether even your best shot will go in. I think this happens with Dema much quicker than, say, Ante. As a result, Dema may have been out of the match before he was actually out of the match. Yeah, this doesn't take into account the trend of giving up late goals, but I still wonder if the team psyche got broken this time out. And I'm not saying that's an excuse, just another post-mortem cause of death. I'm pretty much sold on the lack of defensive intensity in the midfield as the root cause of our problems. Later, COZ
Armas. It's obvious he is far more important than everyone thought. If you add up all the injuries, it's astounding. This team has not played together all year. Let's hope Nowak can pull it all together 'cause after all, "he's the captain".
I'm usually an unapologetic pessimist but in this case I lean the other way. With everything that has afflicted this team this season, its a miracle we're not below DC in the table and playing for pride. What other team in the league could lose two national team starters for essentially the whole season and still be in the playoff picture let alone be in contention for a division title? All is not perfect but at the same time the sky isn't falling. So we hit 4 posts, at least we created 4 solid chances (better than certain games earlier this year). We'll back into the playoffs but once we're there, we'll make someone's life hell.
Actually, I think a lot of us already knew how crucial he is to the Fire. Armas is the best defensive midfielder on planet earth. The Fire was great at generating scoring opportunities on counter attacks. Where do those begin? With a quick touch from a guy like Armas. The national team was able to alter its style somewhat to compensate for the absence of #14, and they did pretty well in Korea. The Fire hasn't adjusted to this problem, probably because there is no one on the team as good as Mastroeni to replace Armas. Our attack is based on speed, and speed is most effective with quick transitions. Armas was able to switch the Fire from defense to offense with one touch. Somewhere someone else commented on all the shots Zach has faced this year and pointed out Armas' role in keeping those opportunities from developing. His offensive role is also sorely missed.
Re: Re: Gm #26: Chicago v LA - 7 September, 7:30 PM CDT [R] Although, to be fair, his offensive role can be described most succinctly as "pass it to Peter as soon as possible." Not that there's anything wrong with that. Later, COZ
Re: Re: Re: Gm #26: Chicago v LA - 7 September, 7:30 PM CDT [R] And with the National team, it was pass the ball to Claudio as soon as possible. Not that there's anything wrong with that, either. Simple isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I seem to remember him making some rather accurate long passes to spring some attacking chances as well. He's the quiet, non-flashy player that you don't neccesarily miss until he's not there.
I'm not arguing whether he is or isn't, but based on that clip you can't tell. I would love to agree with you but if you think you can tell from that clip your mistaken.
That's good enough for me. What happened on the Dema Dive? Just curious. I really thought he at least got clipped but it was opposite end from section 8.