Alright, I think it is safe to say that we are a little bit dissapointed in Spiteri...of course so's his mother. I was very encouraged by the play of several guys in the first (and a few in the second). Bolanos looks like he could be an amzing addition to the team with potential all-star abilities. His vision and apparent shooting strength looked very impressive. He did not appear fit, even in the first half, and sometimes slowed forward movement. His defense was poor (ok, he was playing up front) at times, but he did pick it up later in the first half and the second as well. This guy should be fun to watch next season. Futagaki has got heart...and some skill to boot. He gave it his all and left a lot on the field. He didn't impress me with overall skill, but he looks to have potential and could make an impact in the next season or two if he sticks around and gets some game time. Jaqua looked pretty decent. Would have been nice to see him score, but overall an ok performance. Not Curtin's best game, but not his worst. The defense seemed to kind of give up when the Crew tied it up at 2. They just really seemed to get lazy and not care as much. Curtin had fire and was not happy with some of the resulting goals, but he played a part in at least 1 that I can remember. Brown and Gray looked off. Neither one had a stellar performance and I just wonder if there was a lack of leadership in the back without Thorton and Boca in the lineup. Marsh wasn't half bad. Gave his usual hard effort and performed alright. Pause, didn't see or hear much from him. Williams showed flashes of brilliance and played relatively well. He held the ball a few seconds too long on several occasions, but his vision is quite impressive. I hope to see him on the team next season, but his job is far from secure (i.e we find a real sharp SI who would be able to contribute more). Dipsy had a good game, really kind of dissapeared in the second half, but once the downward spiral started there weren't a great deal of offensive chances. Capano has potential, but this is based on what I have seen in the past, because he really had little impact in this game. Razov came in around the 75th minute, got a header on goal and made a few runs...wish he could have gotten that goal, but there are better things in one's career than the 'golden boot...' like an MLS Cup and the Treble. Spiteri: words escape.
dipsy and bolanos both looked pretty damn good... not entirely fit for 90, but pretty damn good nonetheless should be great for next year i wasn't exactly impressed with capano or futagaki.... another thing... has capano grown a couple of inches since the beginning of the year? he looks a lot older... it's gotta suck to be a pro and still going through puberty
CHICAGO FIRE FORWARD DIPSY "NUKE" SELOLWANE On scoring his first MLS goal: "It's a big relief for me to get a goal in the League, but it was a tough day for us as a team. The final score spoils everything. But I think we put in a good effort and I just tried to do my part." He forgot to thank God.
I was pretty surprised to see Spiteri in Fire strip yesterday. He wasn't very good with the Timbers and I wonder how he ended up with Chicago? There has to be better goalkeepers available out there, but then again I'm not privy to what goes on within MLS and the A-League. The Timbers improved when SJ loaned Josh Saunders to them and Spiteri hit the pine. Luckily for the Fire tough, durable Zach Thornton is not likely to be injured during the playoffs (Golly, I hope I didn't put the hex on him!).
That was the Bobby Fuller Four, who recorded it first. Bolanos impressed me. His passing was excellent and his disallowed goal was awesome. Can anyone tell me why Dave stuck Ante in? One malicious kick and we'd be in deep doo doo. Should've started him, let him have the chance to bang in one or two and then take him out. As for the rest of it, glad Fado's opened the mezzanine for us so we could watch away from the public eye.
Most likely because Ante is a hell of a competitor and really wanted the 'Golden Boot.' Might not have really been worth it, but the Crew were too busy putting balls in the back of the net to accept the bribe money from DC to hack Ante.
I think the same goes for Shiteri. IMHO, if he had played the first half, he wouldn't have given up so many goals. Seems kind of rough to give a guy his first MLS minutes after essentially no warm up with a defense he's barely practiced with, against an opponent that's two goals down and desperate to win at least one game as a symbol that their season wasn't a complete failure. I thought his performance was pitiful, and I hold him more or less responsible for pretty much all the goals in the second half, but he wasn't exactly given a fair bite at the apple. Probably would have been better for him to start the game, and get taken out after giving up a couple goals.
game I didn't expect anymore from this team yesterday. I was really impressed along with some other posters with Ryan F. as he was making Frankie Heydude look stupid along the line yesterday, even to go as far as Frankie taking exception at one point and pushing him for nothin. I loved every sec. of that. Adding to that Nate Jaqua got to showcase some of his skills yesterday as well, dribbling right around people was nice to see.
I had a mole in the Fire locker room before the game and at half time. He told me Dave's instructions to the players before and during the game: "Rule #1: Don't get hurt. Rule #2: Don't pick up a card. Rule #3: See rules #1 & 2!" So yeah, I'd rather the Fire had won or at least not lost in such a ludicrous fashion, but making it into the play-offs healthy is a VERY welcome change for us. Columbus can go home happy they're better than our bench and a really crappy keeper. They must be so proud. I'm sure Spiteri is a really wonderful human being and a nice guy to have a beer with and all but... We'd have been better off if the FireWorks For Kids had raffled off the keeper position in the second half to the fans. At least some kids would have benefitted from the extra donations. I'm setting up a perpetual prayer service for Zach's good health until MLS Cup or until we sign a comptent back up. All that said, we're still healthy going into the play-offs and if any team *coughstoichkovkovalenkocough* messes with Zach, we send Whitfield out with a tire iron to take out THEIR star players and end their chances.
"Hi, i'm Curtis Spiteri. Maybe you remember me from such games as "Chicago 2 - Columbus 6" Seriously though, the focus on, and blaming of Spiteri is over the top. Yes, it was a bad performance, indeed, crap. But the guy, who has spent virtually no time with the team was the sacrificial lamb to allow Zach to stay healthy. Strategically, knowing they had a novice like that in the net, the team should have defended better - they let some 10 shots on goal in the second half. Probably not the guy to have in the net if your plan is to coast to a 2-0 win from the half. The defending in the second half was half hearted and sloppy. Check out Cunningham's goal and cringe at the build up! (it's on line at mlsnet if you care to relive the pain). Another one (i can't remember which - it's kind of a blur), a Crew player made it through no less than three PAIRS of Fire players like a skier running slalom gates. And while the 2nd half defending was lame so was the attacking. 5 shots with 2 on goal - both by Razov, the first only 1 min. after coming on. By that time he was probably the only player on the team with a reason to want to play (goal scoring race). Once again the Fire played with little spark against a team that really wanted to win, and again for the seconded time in a season we suffer out 'worst lost in team history'. (jees, almost 30% of out goals-against came from two games!). Meanwhile the Crew get their most ever SOG in 8 years of playing, and where 2 shots shy of their team record 31 shots in a game (against Dallas). It's totally fair to criticize the goalkeeping, but only in proportion to how relevant the rest of the team valued this game. BTW, what were the odds that the one day Ring would have had a chance to really play, he'd be injured? If he'd been healthy i wonder if Zach would have played at all?
If the Fire had made wholesale changes to their field players at half-time, your points would be stronger. However, the following formula appears to apply: Fire B team + Zach = 0-2 win Fire B team + Spiteri = 6-0 loss This is true unless you're willing to concede at least one of the following: Jesse Marsch = Zinedine Zidane Andrulis = tactical genius of Einsteinian proportions If there is any defense for Spiteri, it's that Zach has been such a fixture in the back that our defenders can play a bit loose because they know unconsciously exactly where Zach will be at any given time and did not adjust their game to compensate for a new keeper. Still, it's the keeper's job to communicate to his defenders and to make correct decisions and Spiteri failed those tests with putrid colors. I feel sorry for young Curtis, I really really do. I hate to see a guy's hopes and dreams so decisively shattered like that. Cold, uncaring reality, however, says that Wynalda was right - as bad as our midfield and defenders were (remember, CJ Brown is still playing his way into full match fitness), most of the goals were from plays where Zach would have made the right decision and shut the attack down or he'd have been much better positioned and stopped the shot. With Zach in the nets and with the disallowed Fire goal correctly allowed to stand, the game is at worst a 3-3 draw. And that's no exaggeration. Henry Ring: Goalkeeping's answer to Josh Wolff. Seriously, though, I feel sorry for Henry. The guy just can't buy a break. ------------------ Oh, that's right. They traded Ali Curtis to Dallas. My bad.
while I largely agree with this prediction, I still think it's unfair to judge Spiteri's performance based on he and Zach playing behind essentially the same team. As poorly as the Crew played in the first half, the Fire played far worse in the second. Zach is obviously a far superior keeper to Spiteri, but the Fire played far better in front of him than in front of the A-league callup. As the previous poster noted, the defending was consistently atrocious, the offense was nonexistent, and frankly, the Fire played the second half as if they'd already won the match, which, given the Crew's first half walking dead impersonation, wasn't surprising. Ultimately, instead of focusing on the fact that Spiteri probably should have stopped 3 or 4 of the second half goals, we should acknowledge that the Fire's second half performance was a 45 minute song titled "we don't care." Even the ref didn't care, disallowing Bolano's goal in a bizarre bit of sympathy for the Crews pathetic first half effort, and then adding less than a minute of stoppage time in a second half that saw 6 goals and 3 substitutions. And lets not forget that 6 or 7 of the guys that played the entire match were nowhere near 90 minutes match fitness. My only hope is that this display doesn't have a hangover effect when we travel to DC... m
I prefer to hope that this was part of Dave's and Peter's master plan to con the Crew's GM into keeping Andrulis as coach by making the Crew look really good.