Ditto on the lack of goals from the run of play - I was thinking the same thing. It's been over two games now. Between us and the Revolution, Arena has got to be on his hands and knees, just begging for a goalscorer to step up and be counted. Brian Ching's chances of going to Germany get better and better each day. And another thing... Gbandi gets a red, and we have over 20 minutes to get a goal playing against 10 men, and I saw more hopeful long balls played from the back to the top through the air, than I did the first 70 minutes. Fer cryin' out loud, when the other team is a man down, that's when you start stringing your passes together, making them run and wear themselves out chasing the ball, and look for a clear opening! Everytime we just booted it up in the air, praying and hoping that one of our ineffective forwards would pull it out of the air a la McBride, I groaned in frustration.
according to my Wizards magnetic schedule from last year, yes. http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20050709&content_id=35948&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp
Yeah I agree an inform EJ buries that break away. Overall it was dissapointing the way we lost going from such happiness after the goal to being pissed that we gave away such a stupid goal. If Wolff and EJ start clicking and break out of this funk we're going to score a lot of goals. Right now we look impotent for long periods of the game then all the sudden we score a goal. You can see flashes but the final ball is just a bit off or the shot wide, I think it's coming.
A few thoughts on the game... 1. Bo killed us today. The first goal, he needed to get to the 1st cross. He might not have been able to hold it, but he could have got a touch to it and put it over for a corner. I mean, it was not a driven ball at all. Then when he went for it when the ball came back across again, he has to punch it out of there and not slap at it. Another thing is that our communication between him and our backs is horrible. There were at least 5 times when he was coming for a ball only to have one of our defenders steal it away from him. I don't know if he was in fact calling for it and they just didn't listen but that needs to improve. The second goal was a blast, but a great keeper makes that save (I know there were about three screw ups before that by other players). It looked like the ball just went right through him. 2. It looks like our guys who are being considered for the National team (especially our forwards) are playing like they don't want to get hurt. I understand why but it is killing us. I think we have a great team, but we need to consider getting a better keeper because I think he is going to cost us a bunch of points along the way.
i hope we never have another espn2 game. we're absolutely no fun to watch, whatever the reason. jose jose jose... how do you not get to that ball? thumbs up their asses... thumbs up their asses.
Re: KC @ FC Dallas in game banter [R] There was 50 Chicago supporters that came down for the game earlier in the season, I think there was 7 KC people...not that we'll get anymore than that up to KC and the guys that came down were good sh!ts...I'm just sayin.
Try as I might, the only thing I can take away from this game is that we lost to a goal by Aaron mother********ing Pitchkolan. Which sucks.
There were 8 of us there. Miguel joined us. There were actually quite a few Wizards fans around the stadium. Ok, so just got home.... what a frustrating game. I am still pissed at the ending. 1-1 would have been about right I think. Last goal not Bo's fault at all. First goal - well, i taped the game so I'll have to look but form the other end of the field there looked like there could have been a foul or 2 called. And now off to bed
We had a great time anyways, and much thanks to Alan, who did the entire drive from Dallas to KC after a whole day of traveling and partying. Once again I have no voice, and though there weren't many of us, I thought we did great. Cone came over and thanked us for coming. The rest of the team was pretty oblivious to us, but since they were asleep for the entire trip, not really surprising. The last goal was totally the fault of the backline, and the first can be put on about 6 people.
Bo is only one of our problems. Jacks' corners are inconsistent to say the least. Half the time he hits them so far past the far post that someone has to track it down just to keep it in bounds. Understanding that set pieces are only going to get you so far lets look at our all star forwards. So far in this early part of the season Davy is the only one of them that looks like he came to play. We have Josh friggin Wolff and Eddie G***amn Johnson and neither one of them can finish a run. If they want to stay healthy for the Cup then maybe Bob should sit their sorry a**** down and see what Sealy and Davy can string together. And can anyone tell me how three forwards have more runs against eleven men than five attackers get against ten? The game was starting to pick up for us with solid break aways and good runs on goal until Gbandi got tossed. Instead of fundamental soccer, after the red our guys played the game in a panic, wild passes from the back all the way forward instead of stringing together passes and wearing them down. WTF!?
Can the brother get an Amen? AMEN!! Whooo!! Sealey looked a bit hungry. Josh & Eddie are playing like Steve Bono did with the Chiefs. Coming off the bench you get it done but once your starting, protect that paycheck and curl up in the fetal position with the slightest bit of contact. I wish Arena would call out his players a bit. It's like do you think McBride is not going up for headers now in the EPL? Apparently they think they're locks, unfortunately most people would look at their current run of results and call them bubble for Germany.
I think it's time for Sealy to get a start... clearly there's nothing happening between Wolff & EJ right now. Which one do I sit? Josh would probably be my first choice, but you could flip a coin and I'd be OK w/ that.
While they've been inconsistent, they're better then the corners we had last year. I mean before this season the last time we scored on a corner was C-bus in 04.
*grumbles about the complex mowing the lawn early in the morning* The entire drive back is a testament to Mt. Dew and Red Bull. We also got to talk to Bo's wife after the game and she thanked us for comin' down too. She's a sports nut and she reads BigSoccer... she's also quite good-lookin'. Let's just say that Bo knows women. Seriously, though, I think Bo's a lucky guy. Not only does she love sports, but she's also a really nice person to talk to.
After yet another dismal performance last night by EJ and Wolff, is anybody else kind of looking forward to seeing them gone for the World Cup? I mean, Davy is standing out based on straight hustle. He's making them look sorry because he's getting to the balls and actually making efforts on his runs, rather than trying to draw the foul for the PK. Sealy and Pore replace those two, and I bet we pull a few games out on pure hustle. I KNOW those three won't cut off their runs early. Sasha looked comfortable last night. He played some excellent through balls up (See: almost every breakaway we had), and he and Kerry held the midfield down fairly well. For once, I don't have a hell of a lot of complaints about our midfield. Jose played like he was playing at the end of last year: terrible. He kept playing the long ball straight to their keeper, and he never established himself well on the wing. Neither did Matt, for that matter. He was manhandled by Cooper on defense, and when they tried to play the ball to him on the wing, he seemed lost, not knowing what to do. Nick, Davy, Sasha, Kerry, and Jimmy played well last night. The straight-red better get a hefty fine attached to it. That was a straight up horse collar, and just completely uncalled for. Josh's yellow was ludicrous. He never touched him, although, if he's going to get that card, I wouldn't have minded hard kick to the stomach for the time-wasting and diving. IMO, we should've brought Sealy on at half and run a 3-3-4 to try to get the early equilizer.
Well, the last few games have finally turned me into one of those that thinks that if we want to win any hardware, we need to find a new #1 goalkeeper. Bo is fine. I have no problem with Bo staying with the team, and even playing a fair number of games. My problem is this: Bo never wins any ties or games. Teams that win hardware always have goalkeepers who steal points - who make the save that shouldn't have been made. Bo makes all the saves he's supposed to make, but he never makes that spectacular save on the 90th minute breakaway that allows us to steal a tie on the road. Never. It just doesn't happen. I've been in denial for a long time. And I've always liked Bo. In fact, I probably own as many (2) Bo Oshoniyi game worn Wizards jerseys as anybody but his mom. But we need a new keeper. No, Bo wasn't at fault in Dallas. In fact, Bo is almost never "at fault" when we drop points. But I'm struggling to think of many cases where Bo did the superlative thing that championship goalkeepers do to allow us to take points we otherwise wouldn't have gotten. The Wizards are a championship team. But we're not going to get there with Oshoniyi as our first choice keeper.
You know what the saddest part of this game was? That I didn't even realize that Dallas was playing with ten men until about an hour after the game was over. Josh Wolff is absolute shite. He's just collecting a paycheck until he goes to Germany. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt Bruce Arena has the fortitude to set him down and tell him that if he doesn't pick his act up, he'll have a great seat to watch the games with the rest of us at the 810 Zone. Eddie's in a funk. I don't know what it takes to get out of a funk for a professional athlete, having never been one. But he needs to get out of it quick. PHP is still a world-class venue, and all of the fans are class - even the little ten-year-old girls behind us who kept trying to outchant us. Utterly futile effort, but sweet nonetheless. And if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sleepwalk through the rest of my day...
Re: KC @ FC Dallas in game banter [R] My kids play Premier youth soccer and I can tell you the 12-year olds tackle a lot better than that! Of course, I am talking about the girls.
I'm going to take crap for this because people are going to assume I'm just defending Bo, but I don't get how the "last few games" have turned you into a guy who thinks we need to replace him. The "last few games" include: - Yesterday when he wasn't particularly at fault on either goal (the first was a cluster-f***... the second we could have used a big-time save on... but Bo got a hand to it, and last year he's already left his feet and doesn't have a chance.) - A clean sheet at home against a team with the likes of Twellman, Dempsey, and Noonan. - A game on the road in a hostile environment where the only goal he conceded was on a corner kick where Sasha Victorine apparently forgot that you need to mark the big Hawaiian guy.
I was on Bo last year at times, and deservedly, but this year, he has been much improved to me. In fact, right now, he's my player of the month. The only other player I'd give it to would be Davy, but 1 goal in 4 games isn't going to do it. Nick Garcia has been consistent as well. Bo's distribution has been much improved. Granted he's throwning 75% of them, but playing to your strengths is always a good strategy. I would've liked to see him get that last one, but it certainly couldn't be put on him.
As a USMNT fan who watched the match on the duece, I am somewhat surprised on how down so many of you are on both Wolff & EJ. Though neither had a "good" match, I thought both showed flashes despite minimal supporting help from teammates especially in the midfield. First as to Josh, I thought he played relatively poorly by his standards but he still created several opportunities for his teammates many of which were not rewarded. That said, though he did not get credit for the assist to Zotinca it seemed clear that he was attempting to deflect the ball out into space so a teammate could do something with it -- a good decision as it turned out. While I certainly don't think he played well (most notably on his failure to get to the great pass from EJ), its tough to say Wolff was the goat. I am even more confused by the almost unanimous criticism of EJ. Yes, he blew the 1 v. 1 that he certainly should have scored on, but I don't think anyone else in MLS is able to get in that position in the firstplace the way the play developed. He also seemed to create or be in a position to create multiple opportunites for his teammates that no one seemed to capitalize on. The header into the box as well as his run down the right side into the box in the second half are the two opportunities that stick out in my mind where no one was providing sufficient support. Certainly, Eddie does need to work on his finishing, but it seems to me he is creating a bunch for his team and I think his play will only continue to get better until Nats camp and after he returns in late June / early July. The one thing he clearly needs to get back is his finishing -- but, to me, he looked consistently dangerous with that ball and I am quite surprised that so many of you are ready to throw him out with the trash . . .
I think he throws 75% of them because he shanks 80% of his punts. All in all though I'm seeing a much improved Bo so far this season. I would still love to get someone "spectacular" in goal but who wouldn't?
Not ready to throw them out with the trash by any means. But definitely upset that they aren't playing any where near their potential. You pull this kind of crap in EPL you sit. If they continue to play like this neither of these guys is going to have to worry about the World Cup, or Europe at the end of the season.