Good day Wiz fans. I was at the game in Toronto and was shocked at the amount of verbal expletives Lopez directed at his team mates. He was always yelling that he should have been passed, criticizing runs made by team mates, etc. At one point he gave Espinoza (sp?) a 30 second tongue lashing!!! To be honest, I found this quite amusing, but couldn't help wondering if this is what be brings to the pitch every game. I was hoping some Wiz fans could give me their 2 cents of what they have seen from him thus far. Does he get along with teammates? From what I saw Saturday, I don't see how anyone could respect the guy...but that was just one game. So, how do you guys rate him, etc? I'll come back in a day or two to read your responses. Thanks!
He's getting pissed at the way the rest of the team is playing, and honestly I can't blame him after the Columbus game.
I think a lot of that comes from being frustrated at the lack of service he's getting or the lack of effort he's seeing from other guys on the field. Off the field, he seems to be a decent, easy-going guy who is incredibly competitive on the field and wants everybody to put forth the same effort he is. But I could be wrong.
Good for him, I'm glad someone is getting in our players' faces. We've been so embarrassing, I wouldn't be surprised if he elects to play in the Argentine Segunda next season instead of MLS. He's tyring to light a fire under their asses, since nothing else seems to have done that.
Was it in English or Spanish? Hopefully the guys he was yelling at could understand him....maybe they will learn something.
Alright fine, I'll be that guy. WHY ARE YOU GUYS DEFENDING LOPEZ!? He DESERVES just as much of the blame for the Wizards poor performance as the rest of the squad. PV and CO brought him in here to be a tactful, skillful, goal producing set up man and to nurture (I guess cursing at the college kids for 30 seconds is kinda nurturing) the young players and show them what being a true professional is all about. Instead all I see is complaining, poor first touches, and at points he seems invisible for 5+ minutes at at time. And don't say "it's because everyone else sucks and can't get him the ball" or "he's been coming back to the midfield to receive balls so where's your argument" because I know that both of those are legitimate arguments (just not part of my side of the argument). I EXPECT MORE FROM LOPEZ! If Jose Guillen can lead the Royals to 7-1 in their last 8 (while batting over .400 mind you) then Lopez can help turn this club around. Time to play up to your DP value Mr. Lopez.
You can't say people can't use legitimate arguments just because they're not part of your side of the argument. That said, yes Lopez does need to start taking some of the blame as well he is a DP, and his adjustment period should be over, he should be used to the team and understand the style of play in the league. As for him "cursing at the college kids for 30 seconds", I give you our technical director. Frustrated veterans tend to yell at rookies when they make rookie mistakes.
Yelling at your teammates when they make mistakes is normal. It's called passion. I would be worried if our veterans werent ripping the younger players for making mistakes. Its a big part of development. Lopez is the most experienced player on the field and has a leadership role to fulfill. I am not saying that Lopez has been playing perfectly but he has a work rate that only Arnaud and Conrad seem to be able to keep up with. If other players arent going to give as much as him, he has every right to rip their ass.
Oops, forget it's so easy to take things word-for-word literally in forums. I'll word that better next time. Is PV available for the next match? I didn't see him on the injury report recently.
That doesn't even make sense in comparison to what I posted. I was making a comparison. Veterans regularly get on rookies, see Felixx's post, I remember Vermes screaming at Garcia and Prideaux during the 2000 season. It happens, do you want the veterans coddling the rookies?
That's cause I was joking around. So maybe And so it's not misinterpreted, I never said yelling at young kids for 30 seconds was a bad thing, as long as it's constructive anyway. I know screaming happens at all levels of the game, U-9s and up. But nobody likes a class(less) bully. (Which Lopez is not. I'm just saying it as a general statement... IMO)
Placing blame on Lopez is like placing blame with a goalie when the defense doesn't show up. Lopez can't do his job because the majority of the team is not doing thier's. What is he supposed to do without decent service and something other than long balls being booted up the field? I find it hard to place blame on a creative player when he has no one to combine with, rarely gets the ball in space, and rarely recieves a ball played to him in such a way that he can do something with it. Lopez is one of the few players (Kevin and Jimmy being the other two) that I have found few instances where I can place blame solely on them this season.
Eddie Johnson scored 15 goals and had six assists in 24 games last year with basically the same supporting cast that Lopez has this year.
You're right, its not just Lopez, but I don't think he's as dangerous as a dp should be. I don't think the other team is worried at all when he has the ball, and I don't think he has given them any reason to be worried.
You can't compare EJ to El Piojo. EJ's game is built around his speed and picking up rebounds...which fits perfectly with the way the Wizards boot long balls out of the back and take low percentage shots. Lopez is a creative player, one that plays best when combining with others and making quick short runs. Thus, EJ gets 15 goals last year and Lopez yells at the team for not posessing the ball and playing intelligently this year.
Here are the two incidents that I recall from the Columbus game when Lopez was visibily frustrated with Sealy (the first shows it, the second does not): http://mls.gotuit.com/?c=2008&p=216927&s=3036381&i=310912 http://mls.gotuit.com/?c=2008&p=216927&s=3036444&i=310915
That's true. They do play very different styles. I think it's ridiculous to blame Lopez. Should we blame Conrad and Hartman too? We have 3-4 (when you throw the healthy Arnaud in the mix) who are actually doing much to help the team. Yeah, there are others who are doing fine, but only those 4 are really doing well and working hard. No matter how well 4 players perform, you need all 11 to contribute. We need a concerted team effort, as one. Lopez hustles, works very hard, sends good crosses, excellent through balls, and gets in good positions to be dangerous. However, each and every one of those things requires effort and skill from teammates to actually produce. The times anyone around him has done anything, a goal resulted. When Pore saw him making his run and actually sent a well-timed, accurate long ball over the top of the defense for him to run onto and score. When Jewsbury made a good run towards the box in Chicago, Lopez picked him out, perfectly. When Victorine did that little give and go to send him a good pass in a good position, Lopez beat his defender and launched a shot to the far post in LA. Those are all the times he has produced a goal via goal or assist (besides a penalty kick, which he's 1/1 in, so there's no complaining there). Therefore, his style of play (as with a lot of Argentinians) requires effort and skill from teammates. As for him chewing out teammates, how else are they going to learn? If you quietly/gently tell them what they should've done, it doesn't leave an impression. By yelling, it sticks with them. They, hopefully, will remember the next time. Besides, I'm sure he's very frustrated with the team. Most of us fans are pretty frustrated ourselves. After all, he's a 2-time World Cup veteran with one of the top international teams in the world. He also knows that the team is capable of doing what they should, so I'm sure he kind of expects them to. Besides, as mentioned before, he's calm and collected of the field, so I'm sure there aren't any issues in the locker-room. I don't think it's logical or reasonable to try to blame one of our only hopes of winning any games. We just need the other 7+ (the plus is for subs) other players to get motivated and link up with teammates. Maybe they should start listening to Lopez when he yells at them. By the way, I've only noticed him chewing a teammate out one other time. That was late in the Columbus game of late when he sent a perfect through ball in, and Sealy just stared at it. I don't blame him for that. He was frustrated, and that was their chance to take something positive from the game. Sealy should've known better, but since he apparently didn't, Lopez let him know (hopefully, in a way he'd remember). I think he might've remembered too, because he did play a little bit better against Toronto. Sorry for the long post, but I just think it's absurd to try to blame one of our few well performing players. He's doing his job and doing it well, and I appreciate it.
The second one is the one I remembered him getting mad a Sealy because he chewed him out pretty good as they were going back up field for the goal kick. However, I think both of those clips also show how hard he's working and the quality he's producing. They pretty clearly show if he had some teammates doing anything worth while, his numbers would be up. No one's sending him the ball when he's in his good positions, so his goals are down. His assists are down because, as shown in those videos, his teammates aren't finishing off the chances he produces.
Frick, I knew I shouldn't have checked this board... <----a brave man. Repped. Nice W tonight also! OK. Rant time. Want to know one reason why soccer isn't much more successful in this country? The list is longish and soccer is becoming what it probably should be, but the above is something nobody really mentions, so in the spirit of the boldness of this thread, I will. I know, big shock... Anyway, it's that word, "passion". Every time hear some fan say it I cringe. In one word, the overusers insult - intentionally or not - every other sport in this country, every other athelete who shows up every day (sometimes twice) and gives of his or herself in most every way possible, and most everyone who has the capability to see similarities in more than one type of setting. Every single sport out there requires eventually. Every sport, not just soccer. Today, that's even at increasingly lower levels. That word passion, in this context, is just a little insulting. The high school kid who has the discipline to drag his farm butt out of bed at 4am in Maine in winter to skate or swim before school has the same internal drive (if not vastly more) as Claudio Lopez on his best day ever. Someone wants to label Lopez' toils as passion? Fine. I'm just saying, it's everywhere and to some small degree, the usage of that word contributes to why some people can at times be irritated by soccer fans as a whole. You doubt? OK, who among us hasn't seen some spotscaster mockingly and with great sarcasm use the words "passion" or "creativity" in describing a play from a world pitch? Please raise your hand. I'm not saying soccer is lesser in any way. But why go out of your way to irritate - again, intentionally or not - people who's journalistic judgements are on every day? At some point the people paid to write opinions are simply responding to the arrogance. Their reaction may be born of ignorance in a chicken/egg kind of way, but why push it? OK, enough said. Rip away. I think that's fair. Also over 12 games other methods of communication have likely been tried and results might suggest they probably failed, so maybe yelling is what's next or what's left. That said, if I were a guy getting yelled at, I'd like it to be from someone who traps a ball a little more consistently... The response was they are different players. Fine. Don't blame Lopez. He was only ever going to be of a certain level, DP or not. This season continues as is and at some point you have to at least question bringing in Lopez in the first place, not bringing in someone to actually replace EJ, or some combo of other moves done or undone. Sure, 3 wins on the trot and a ton of goals will change the picture, but until that day, KC in '08 looks like a wasted year that might stretch into two, and might have been part of some overall plan to tread until the new stadium cures all. We can argue that all we want, but the facts are there is abundant money unspent under the Cap and an inglorious list of apparent flaws. Fault the players, fault the coach, fault the planners, fault the owners' relative or willful ignorance, something else, or a combo. Whatever, it's clear KC is an organization either isn't interested in a Cup run this season or they all fell victim to a fairly incredible level of delusion in the pre-season. Neither is very palatable. "Let's see, we're barely a playoff team, subtracted more than we added, MLS is flooded with post-Becks talent to the improvement of the entire league, and now the bar is set at top 4 at least. Yeah, that makes sense." OK All of this may be true. I'm not arguing it. Two clips in a season. The all too easy counterpoint would be a long cut of Onandi Lowe carrying multiple guys on his back while being hacked with no ref relief and still finding his target with a pass...and doing it over and over. Those clips are out there too. I have them on VHS. For that matter, I know I have two clips of Tommy Reasoner doing brilliant things... Anyway, there have been moments in just about every game where Lopez, a player of purported class simply doesn't make the seemingly simple - for a man cut of his cloth - play. Also, what of the team chemistry? A guy with 12 MLS games barking and embarassing people? To what effect? Does anyone else connect Lopez' dressing down of the kid to his later red? We can't know everything, but I know this: There are very few players of anything who play better pissed off. Very few. Our Tech. Dir. happened to be one of them. Maybe there was a conversation flow of PV to coach to DP to the kid, who knows? Either way, 2 reds in a handful of games is not helpful obviously. Just score 3 at home this weekend and this garbage fades away.
I guess it's annoying if the person is overbearing, but I usually hear passion used by soccer fans to describe fans, not players. To me the fans are more passionate. In other sports I hear it used all the time to describe great players known for their intensity. Many of them are very hard on their teammates, though I agree it can be a problem in and of itself. Meola was more conscious of his constant yelling later in his career, though having a more veteran backline probably quelled a lot of that. Kevin Garnett yelled a lot less in Boston this year than any year in Minnesota. He still had the same expectations of his teammates, but they were finally able to better meet them. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero The Passion of Kevin Garnett Granted, if Lopez was playing as well as he is generally given credit for here, he should be producing quite a few more chances even if not getting assists or goals. Lopez should be taking criticism as well as the rest of the team right now.
Rep, not rip. I've often wondered myself why soccer people espouse the "passion" of the game, as if there aren't athletes in every other sport that exhaust themselves seeking excellence because they love their sport, whatever it may be. Now I think anyone will agree that soccer fans show more passion than most other sports fans, but I don't think you can really apply that to the players. Soccer has many unique qualities to pick from but that isn't one of them. I'm not sure of that, I happen to be one of those people. In fact I'm complete (yes I'll say it) rubbish at most any sport you can name, until my opponent pisses me off. Usually it has to be my opponent though, Lopez tactics wouldn't probably work on me. Gives me a reason to concentrate and start playing intelligently, that reason being to utterly humiliate the offender. Doesn't matter the sport, actually. Works in billiards, baseball, any sport in which I possess a basic level of competence. Something about the personal stakes being higher--failure is not an option sort of thing. Yeah, it's a little juvenile.
Can you please tell me where in my post that I singled out soccer as the only sport where fans/players are passionate? That's right, I didnt. I agree that passion is overused by sportscasters. But, players are passionate about their sport whichever it may be. If they werent, sports would be boring and I wouldnt be a sports fan.