2-1 win. A golden goal from Igor in the last moments of the first overtime. Not without some controversy ofcourse and the fact that Kevin Stot changed his mind after he saw the video replay on the Jumbotron. Finally a call that went our way at home. Much props to the dead fish. Maybe our new good luckk charm.
I admit I'm a Wizards fan, but the winning goal seemed clearly on sides to me. Both Klein and Simutenkov were beyond all the LA players but the goalie when the pass was made. Max Bretos should be embarrassed that he called it wrong. He seemed to think that both the passer and the receiver were off sides when the pass was made.
That happened right in front of us. After Igor scored his goal, and the blown call was made, he was pretty upset, got into the refs face and used what little english he knew to tell him what he thought of that call.
The Wizards go wooooooooooooooo!!! I was surprised that they would look at the replay to overturn the call. For those of you in the Cauldron, right next to where the big conversation took place, did they use that replay to review the call? Either way, I was very pleased that they got the call right, and despite the howling taking place in other parts of BS, the play was not offside at any point in the sequence, and the goal definitely should have been allowed. Overall, I thought we played well...we really forced Hartman to work hard, and he made several great saves (as did Meola, come to think of it). Our spacing was good...we didn't bunch up on one side of the field most of the time. Our backline was still exposed a bit, and Gutierrez in particular had a couple of bad moments, including committing the foul that led to the PK. Tactically, I thought we were playing for a draw with the Talley for Gomez substitution, and I still don't see the logic in that switch, but the other substitutions seemed like reasonably good ideas. As far as the postseason goes, we managed to guarantee ourselves at least 3rd, so we know that we get Colorado in the first round and San Jose gets LA. Although it really doesn't matter much in this playoff structure whether we finish 2nd or 3rd, we have a decent chance of reaching second, which I think would be a worthwhile aim. Colorado is at Chicago on the 18th and at Dallas on the 25th while we host Dallas on the 18th and visit D.C. on the 25th. If we can win both of our matches (which is certainly possible), I think we have a solid chance of slipping into 2nd place, which would be a nice finish heading to the playoffs. This is so much more fun than that 0-7-2 stretch, isn't it?
To me it didn't look like either ref even glanced at either junbotron. All of the players were pointing at them and urging them to do so, but it looked like they just talked and called it. I'll stand up for Guti. Guti against Ruiz always should be a mismatch so there are probably some other errors that contributed to the pk. He also had a few stellar tackles to cancel LA runs as well. He's not normally in central defense so I'll take he plays on both ends of the spectrum last night. I also liked Talley for Gomez. Gomez had little positive to do with either end. He was neutral at best. BG hardly ever makes subs :60 in unless a player is having problems melding into the flow. Klein with 9 points in the last 3 games. Let's hope that continues. KC goes as far as Klein can take his own game. Preki will be there regardless. Quill wasn't bad either. He made plays on his own goal line in the corner and forward. Much better effort than his norm of the last month or so. Bad look on the buzz cut. It'll grow back. The good is 9 points, a streak, and 8 goals from 3 games. The bad is no shutouts in those same 3, two of the wins were discountable close wins vs a short and struggling LA team. Fish in a noose and an OT winner on the same night. See what you get for driving in from StL, Ben.
What is it with me, missing LA games, and golden goal victories? Oh well, we won, see you all next weekend.
'Twas an exciting match, a real nail-biter to the end, lots of scoring opportunites for the Wizards. I felt we should have won it in regulation, 3-0. There were a couple of missed opportunities where we didn't take shots as cleanly as we should have, and Hartman came up big on several plays as well. Looking forward to next Saturday!
If I had to venture a guess I would say some very choice four letter words, and maybe some in Russian as well.
From reading Igor's lips it looked like the one word that usually draws a card...the one that McGInty likes to substitute with "feking" and begining with you mother. there was no way to hear him because it seemed like everyone in the Cauldron serged down to the last two rows to scream at the idiot linesman (should point out that he made two or three idiotic calls before that play). Exciting game, we needed the points, and we actually played a pretty atractive game, and no one was glaringly bad, even Quill (whipping boy has stepped it up several notches in the past few games, wonder if he reads these boards.) Of course, they should look that good against the scrubs that LA was playing. Cauldron was loud, rocking and pretty full...I think it was the best I've seen in a couple months. Props the the fish, the beer poncho (anyone ever find out why we had to take it down) Kevin's chili, Mike from StL for coming down and the free tix, Alex for the additional drumming, and, well, myself for the new flag. Also props to the two English guys (one West Ham supporter , the other was just wearing an England cap.) They were joining in on all the chants and seemed to enjoy themselves. At least one of them bought a scarf, so I hope they can spread the word of MLS to their friends.
props to mad bishop props to you bishop. the flag looked great from the view i had at the far end of the pitch. nice work!!!!
And believe me, I was using that word alot. I couldn't believe it when that flag went up, especially where he was on the field. I'm sure Igor can communicate fairly well in English. Is it me or is the piped in sounds and music getting worse?
I hesitate to say something now, because we sounded really damn good last night. (Note: I started typing, and a book later, I decided that a new thread was better suited for this.) But yeah. It's been getting worse.
Funny how the Bob haters have cooled off a bit, still want him fired? Many or you had good reasons but to do it in the middle of the season would have been disastrous. Speaking of Bob some of his new moves have been very rewarding. Guti as a center back seems to work well, however this is the second game where he has misplayed a ball and then clearly fouled a player from behind in the box. If he keeps doing that he may have to be replaced.
I think Bretos is a cool announcer but your right he does need to start acting a little more professional by being more objective while doing the games.
I started a thread hammering the fire-bob crowd. Nothing like a 3-game winning streak to fire up the name-calling!
I was admittedly skewing toward finding a new coach when we were mired in a record winless streak. That said, I knew nothing would happen during the season, so we'd all have to adjust our perspective at season's end. Bob is doing well to keep the firing squad at bay. However, Diego as a center back is probably not the best move to hold up as a testament to Danger Bob's genius. Diego is not a center back and he regularly is beaten. It's nice to have his offensive vision out of the back, but a defenders defining attribute should be to defend. Now, letting Klein loose to play offense rather than spend 70% of his energy tracking back -- that was a good thought.
I have to concure...it's not as terrible a situation as it was three weeks ago, but two wins against a hapless and depleted LA, and barely pulling off the win against a nearly equally depleted Rapids hardly changes anything. Bob himself said that he basically didn't know what to do and that all the success rests with the players figuring out what to do (maybe reading into it more it's that the players learned not to look to Bob for leadership.) Whatever lineup changes that have been "working out" arn't because of the genius of Bob Gansler, it's out of pure desperation. CJ, pLease fire Bob at the end of the season. The only way I will stop calling for his head is if he wins us another cup, and that will a fluke.
well, since the "official fire bob" thread is no longer accessible, it's a nice time to pull this out. lots of people wanted him gone in the middle of that losing streak. I have to assume this post is a joke.