http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5032-2003Apr10.html The last line kinda scares me, no defensive substitutes. I hope no onw goes down or gets tired. Good news is that Hudson finally sees that Stewart should be in the midfield.
I like hudson less and less.. I hope the trade with the revs goes through.. or at least SOMETHING goes through.. I quote chris "put hudson in a room with 3 english national team defenders and a sweaty alcoholic bulgarian, you know he would pick the bulgarian"
I think we now come to what I see as Hudson's geatest weakness- defining the starting lineup, particularly when injuries and/or callups are happening. Invariably Ray plays a player out of position; he also goes too conservative. So we see now that for KC we once again get that 4-5-1 formation that proved time and again last year that it couldn't generate a credible attack. To this we see Chino on the back line. What's the over/under for the number of times our boy falls for Preki's move? The number of times Klein blows right past him? Nellie and petke will be under extreme pressure from their flanks though of course having Dema as a de facto d-mid creates a highway up the middle too. I like Stewart in the midfield; I've always been impressed about how aware he is of the flow of play. He's probably the best of the team in this regard (and still the best on the Nats too.) But I find it curious that Goff contiinues to write in Etcheverry as filling the hole right behind the forward. This may indeed happen in practice but in actual game situations, Etcheverry will always drop back- to te center of the field if our offense is flowing well, or to right in front of the defense if the other team has the initiative. Why does this happen? Because he no longer has the legs to move up and down the field fluidly. So the reality is that most of the time we'll be seeing Stewart and Dema in front of Etch. (Probably it would be better to say that most of the time Dema and Earnie will be playing all around Etch as they are so much more mobile that he.) I think that we will be lucky to score in this game unless we are able to get some fast break opportunities. Obviously Tino will be overmatched by himself. but Convey and Olsen won't be able to freely pinch in because KC has good wingers as well and that really hurts our attack. My hope is that sometime in the game we'll see a couple of substitutes: Q2 and either Ali or Alecko for Etcheverry and Alegria. Only then will we give Kansas a contest.
What's this about a trade with the Revulsion? What are you talking about? I've gone through all the recent threads and can find no mention of this...Is this a Bergin rumor? --Catch
Just had a scary thought. What if the Under-20 World Cup scheduled for March25-April 16 in the United Arab Emirates hadn't been postponed. Would we even be able to feild a team with all of our injuries?
Is anyone else scared that our defense contains Alegria? Stokes must be struggling if he can't start over Chino.
different position I thought that Stokes is primarily a central defender in a 4-4-2, or a right or central defender in a 3 man backline. Chino, I believe, is set to play left wingback. I'm still nervous about this, though. Might we be better off with Convey dropping to left back, and Quintanilla at left wing?? Though with Chino and Namoff on the back line we at least have a little more ball skill in the defense, which could help our transition game (especially if they don't just pass every ball to Etch to have him slow it down). Quaranta alone up top, however, seems hopeless.
Re: different position I'm with you on this one. I can't figure out why, but this bothers me more than our defensive situation.
I predict that Chino will be torn to shreads by Klein. Chino's only hope is that we pack it in and that he never is exposed in open field with Klein. In protecting Chino, Bobby will become a defacto fifth back. Marco will drift over where Bobby was and it will be a bloody massacre down the center. This is going to be one ugly game. Very disappointing omens with that starting line-up and the silly 9 - 1 formation. Tim
To be fair though Skip, most of those matches last season with the 4-5-1 involved Villegas, Alavanja, Williams and Quintanilla.. I'd dare say that Olsen, Stewart, Tino and Dema are a considerable upgrade over that quartet and are quite capable of creating scoring chances.... I'm not a big fan of the 4-5-1 either, but considering our defense injury situation and the simple fact that Marco can not be left alone in a 4 man midfield, this is the best course of action on the road.. If we see this lineup next week, I'd be worried, unless United shocks the world and wins like 3-1 or something, which won't happen of course... Anyone who didn't think the early days of this season wouldn't be a struggle, even with our full X1, isn't being very objective.... This team will struggle out of the gate.. The only question that remains is how long until the collective " here we go again" mentality starts to sink in.... That more than anything is what this team needs to overcome this season...
Why didn't Hudson sign Matt McKeon? McKeon is very versatile and would have been a big help in your defensive midfield or could also have stepped into the center back role.
Good points Chris. I just see that with our current players we don't have 1) a ball winner like Wee One is and 2) our normal advantage of having Convey and Olsen on the wings is now negated with Namoff and Alegria behind them making our two wingers always worried if their backs are covered. I see us falling back into a shell in this game with gaping holes occasionally opening up for KC to exploit. Your last point about the "here we go again" though is the most important big picture point and is what I'm most interested in too.
Our only hope is that the Wiz are eating food with poison in it right now. I'm more afraid that Wolff is going to go to town on our central defense with his speed if he starts.
If there's one thing Chino is good at (and Trask/Hudson love this), it's running hard through a tackle. If there's something that Josh Wolff's body can't handle, it could be a stocky Peruvian doing just that.