Thanks Shawn. Nice to see Milton is beginning to work towards his return. As hard working, and motivated a player as he is, I bet it's early August, if not sooner. Mark
I'm glad that Barclay's injury isn't as bad as it could be. But it is nice to have one player (and a reserve at that) continually getting injured, as opposed to 8 guys randomly getting injured.
Another GREAT report. Thanks Diceson! Thanks for the link shawn12011. "when the rest of the team took a water break, Coach Hudson came over to check up on the young player. After a couple of seconds of quietly reassuring the player, Hudson tapped Barclay on his non-injured shoulder, AND HE WAS HEALED - the shoulder popped into place." Ray is now doing miracles! Less miracles, more WINS!
Interesting stuff. I've been wanting to see Barclay play for us for a while, because I really do like him. I think I rate him higher as a player than most do on these boards, but we'll have to see when he's fit and playing.
The unfortunate thing is that they are continually doing this during practice. It translates to jack [expletive deleted] in the actual games! Just like Albright could score in any game against non-MLS competition, DC United's current crop of players seem to excel in practice and don't bother to show up for the games.
Do comments like this bug anyone other than me? As revelation basically said, we're simply not scoring goals during games. Whining about bad calls and hoping for lucky breaks is no substitute for good coaching. Crying about it will only perpetuate those problems anyway (if they really do exist). While I am not in the camp that is calling for Ray's head or major roster changes, let's at least not blame refs or lady luck. Bottom line for me is, it's not breaks or calls or good fortune we've lacked, it's quality shots on goal. Thanks for the report, Diceson.
As in previous years DCU has always performed well in practice. It's a shame the same things do not happen on matchday. In practice DCU spends time on taking shots from outside the 18, on matchday we are lucky to see two shots at goal per match. In practice DCU has drills on switching the point of attack quickly, on matchday we rarely see this. Then there are the aimless crosses into the box to no one in particular. We rarely win headballs in the box anyway, what's the point. It is no coincidence that the last goal DCU scored from the run of play (if I can remember that far back) was from short crisp passing, with runners penetrating the box and the ball kept on the ground with a nice finish from Marco. Hopefully, sometime this season when DCU gets over its scoring slump, one unfortunate MLS team will get the hammering it deserves preferably the Metros, but hopefully we will not have to wait that long. <end of rant> Great report Dice, keep up the good work. Cheers, GQ
separation anxiety This is a small point, but Barclay's injury would not have been a "separation", but a dislocation. Big difference in recovery time. John
here here and thank you. that's kinda been bugging me too. while there's no doubt we've gotten some bad calls, I don't think there's any invisible power causing earnie to head perfect crosses wide of the goal, and lady luck doesn't force backpassing the length of the field. good teams deal with bad breaks cuz they're part of the game -- look at san jose's injuries, and they haven't been crying about anything (okay, not a great example). I just think believing you're 'cursed' or whatever only makes things worse. I'd much rather hear a coach explaining how he'll fix things and taking some responsibility than whining about bad luck. I'm not saying ray is totally whining, but the 'bad breaks' mantra does get old. don't cry about it, just fix it.
Re: separation anxiety Umm...a complete dislocation can take months of rehab and potentially surgery. A seperation of the shoulder is an injury to the Acromian process that takes much less time to heal. Tyronne Lue of the Washington Wizards had one of these over the winter and was playing basketball (obviously a much more shoulder/upper body oriented sport) within 2 weeks.
Ryan Actually Ryan was at Dulles Airport last night. I was waiting to board a plane that I was already on, but had mechanical problems, then got off, waited, got back on went to a hotel left in the am. But, back to Nelsen. He was waiting for a flight to Frankfurt and I talked to him for a bit. He signed my Away jersey. He seemed a bit embarassed about the lack of scoring. I told him what I believe, that it will come, and if it doesn't he will do it himself like last season. Anyway, He is the nicest guy. james
Re: Re: separation anxiety A separation is an injury to the acromio-clavicular ligament and can take the form of 3 degrees of severity. First degree is minor, second may take 6 weeks in a sling to heal and third may require surgery. Obviously there are many types of subluxations and dislocations. If they are recurrent or result in lots of soft tissue injury surgery may be required as well. The pain of a separation doesn't go away with manipulation, and the statement that he was not anticipating being out long, led me to surmise that the dislocation was not severe. John
AzAz (Level 7/2), but he was fighting jet lag. Of the DCUnited regulars, Olsen and Petke went out around Level 9 (both seemed to be struggling with leg strains), Rimando and Warren soon after.
I am stunt, it seems to me there are two possibillities to translate Ray's comment. Either he is totally "out of touch "with the reality of DCU team or he is a master of deceiving the people who are lisening to him. It is inconceivable to me to hear for him things like "there is nothing wrong with our strategy,effort, technique,etc....it is just a lack of breaks... bla,bla,bla" !! It is outright outrageous what this coach is saying about the team's performance. A little patience and the team will have a "snowball" performance !!! Is this stupid or what ?? Either he is totally out of touch or he wants to convince us the " succes" is just around the corner. I am totaly puzzled by this kind of talk !! Can any of you believe this team will be able to " turn the corner" without bringing real strikers ?? Do you ?? I tell you right now !! There is no hope for us !! Either the coach is out of touch with what's going on or he is an outright crook trying to fool us about the team's prospectives !! Eitherway, I think we are screwed. The "result" against KC was fair, we could have won with a little luck....bla, bla,bla. I cannot believe this, we were so lucky for them not to score one of those 7,8 clear occassions they had !! This was real "luck" not "bad luck" he wants us to believe. I tell you, it is not gonna happen again, an oponent team to have clear 7,8 shots on our goal without any scorring !! With such mentality we are not gonna go too far !! I am wainting to see what he has to say after the next stright 4 loosing games !! Ya will agree with me than !!!
none of us have any idea what it's like inside the locker room. has anyone thought that maybe Ray just says the same old crap to the press, but likely says what he really needs to say to the players? What else is he going to say during these practice reports? "We stink." "We can't score." at least he's trying to be positive. maybe he's not being real, but it's not that bad. we don't need to slam him for it. if we continue to play poorly, he'll be gone. simple as that.
I expect Ray to say: "It was sad. Last night we were all out at Good Guys and I was passing out fistfulls of dollars. The boys kept dropping them on the floor. They couldn't even buy a lap dance..."
Thanks Dice! Confused that you said AzAz dropped out first, but I don't recall seeing mention of him being at the practice - what's he all about?