In response to this article: http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/rapids/article/0,1299,DRMN_51_2384592,00.html which contains this exerpt: "I feel I'm the victim of very rash calls," Mastroeni said. "I think now the officials are giving me yellow cards the second I say anything. I feel I've hurt my team (by missing several matches). What can we do as players to voice our opinions?" My response: I have 2 issues with this. Unless you are wearing the armband, voice your opinions to the guy that is. He is your representative on the field. Going off half-cocked on a ref is not gonna get you what you want. hell, even if you are wearing the armband the ref is not gonna change his mind aobut the call. I see a lot of this bitching to the ref about a bad call but the ref never changes his mind and it just ends up getting you called for dissent. they aren't calling you for dissent for the one infraction, they are calling you for dissent because you keep bitching at them all the time. second of all, i call bulls(h)it on the whole thing! you keep your mouth shut when you're playing with the nats, and you play the same, and get called for fouls the same. but since you keep your mouth shut and leave it up to reyna (or the captain of the day) you don't have problems. perhaps you have built up a reputation for being an ass(h)ole to the MLS refs. you certainly have among your fans. you have turned from a great defensice midfielder into a liability. who wants to be a man down because you're being a bitch to the ref? instead of complaining that the refs have it out for you try behaving instead. sure the refs are gonna make bad calls. and they aren't gonna overturn them because you bitch about it. get over yourself.
As far as the armband goes, it doesn't give a player anymore influence with the referee. It indicates the player that is the team leader and should keep his/her players under control.
Did the Rapids decline from Midseason til now begin with Mastroeni being inserted back in the line-up and then proceeding to flux in and out due to suspensions??? Stat Boy??? Anyone??? I think it has... I think if Maestro can keep it under control for the playoffs it may have a calming effect to our little 6 game skid... I still start Powell & Beckerman... Let Powell do all the impressing and let Beckerman go workmanlike with small flashes...
Thats what I was gonna say. If your gonna quote the first part you should at least quote the second as well. That said, I still agree with Pablo, that he has hurt the team in some shape but I don't think he is to blame for our lack of winning. This is where a manager should have stepped up and took control of the problem. Hell we all knew about it mid way through the season, what's Hankinson's excuse. I've always liked Pablo, even when he was with Miami and actually feel bad that he thinks his European aspirations were "false dreams". Either way I hope he gets things straight and decides to sign on for 3 more years.
Pablo is a Problo As a coach, the first thing I always try to instill in my players is sportsmanship and respect for the refs. You don't have to like their calls, but it is THEIR call. I'll be the first to admit the MLS refs really suck, but they're still the ones calling the shots on the field and frankly, you couldn't pay me enough to do their job. It's hard. It never hurts to stroke them the right way. Not kiss up to them but just show some basic respect. Voice your disagreement, but do it politely. You can always properly call them a dumba$$ and throw a tantrum later, on the sidelines, in front of your coach and teammates. Taking up game time to get in their face and yell just makes it worse. Some players just don't seem to get it. Never have, never will. So as a comparrison... On my last team (U-12 girls) I had a gal on defense who was a phenomenal soccer player for her age but constantly got called on fouls because she was bigger, faster, stonger, and more aggressive than a lot of other kids. A lot of the calls were legit and a lot were crap. But regardless, everytime she'd go off half cocked on the ref; and sure enough, everytime the yellow card would come out. (Which of course meant, being a 12 year old girl, everytime she'd start crying.) The refs knew her and were tired of her attitude. But no matter how many times I talked to her about it, she JUST DIDN'T GET IT. She always had to argue. She thought she knew more than the refs. Fortunately, she's got time to grow out of it and hopefully she will, but in the mean time, it really hurt the team. But Pablo's not in the 6th grade, so what's his excuse???? If he doesn't want fans comparing him to hormonal, whiny, cry baby adolescent girls, maybe he should quit acting like one. The best thing I've seen him do this year is admit he hurts the team. He's a great player but his ego gets in the way.
Pablo always looks so angry when he steps onto the field with the Rapids. He definitly doesn't have any fun when he's wearing club colors. When he goes with the nats you can almost see a sense of calm and composure in his face. I wonder why there is such a difference for him. Maybe he is disgruntled about coming to the conclusion that the chance of him playing in europe is slimming. Crap, even the ultra-intense Spencer will flash a smile or two when the time is right. Spencer even looks like he's having fun when he is downright pissed off (kinda like he enjoys it). By the way, I am probably being ultra-sensitive about anything regarding hankinson but the whole "we've got to better channel his intensity into his play" kind of got on my nerves. Whatcha gonna do hanki, have him lay on your couch and have him tell you about how he was afraid of his mother in early childhood? Changes to Mastro's attitude have to come from within Mastro. Yeah..................I am being too sensitive about anything with hanki.
Courtesy of Shootout, I've seen a lot of Rapids games this year--I think Pablo's attitude is partially due to his feeling of responsibility and leadership on the team. Someone touched upon it before--with the nats, he has the comfort of not having to be "the guy", but rather can let Reyna et. al. do the arguing. In other words, he feels he CAN'T play relaxed or have fun because he's not only playing his game but he's got to fight for those around him and drag the whole team along, as well (which is obviously not the case, but seems to be how he feels).
Admitting you have a problem is only the start of it. You have to do something about it. Blaming the refs is not going to win you an favors or prevent you getting any cards. The refs had little choice when Pablo threw the ball away to slow up play earlier in the season, and when he kicked a ball into the stands well after the whistle in another game. And they sure as hell had no choice when he called one of them a "phucking b!tch" in another. Pablo says that he doesn't want to lose his intensity. Well, Spencer and Chung and Hendo are some of the most intense players I've seen play or train and you don't see them getting cards every other game for stupid dissent. The intensity thing is just a cop-out as far as I'm concerned. Pablo needs to check his ego at the door and get over himself. He was so humble before he went to the world cup last year and came back a dick. Not off the field, but on it. He wonders why his window to Europe is shrinking, well, all he has to do is look in the mirror. What team, besides Arsenal, would want a guy that gets that many cards? BTW, I said it in a column but I still wonder about how Spennie felt about Pablo ruining his chance at winning the USOC by getting that stupid red. Perfect example of how he hurt his team. Recognizing that means nothing if he isn't willing to change his game, at least a little, to prevent stupid a$$ cards.
I wouldn't take him not being all cheery as an indication of not having fun with his club. I think he lives for soccer and what your seeing is the "intensity" and the focus he puts into the game. Sure Spencer has that same intensity and smiles on occasion but they aren't the same people so that really isn't an argument. Like I said, I think he is one of the top players on the team and I'm hoping he signs for another 3 years. Also I agree, Hanki's endless supply of cliches gets under my skin.
I really don't think he's having any fun. I think it's like work for him, and right now he's not enjoying his work. Some players thrive on being intense and that's what makes it fun for them. But, to me, he doesn't look intense, he looks constantly aggravated by the fact that he has to wear a Rapids jersey. Of course, it could just be that he has to play for hankinson. And, of course, it's all just speculation. Edit/addition: I take concentration as being a large part of being intense. If he gets booked for yapping at referees, he's not concentrating on the game, but on how he just got screwed by the ref. That's why I don't see it as intensity, so much.
Well your speculation is wrong my friend!! I see what you mean though, I just kinda like that bad*ss, "I'm hear to care care of business" look on a players face. I really don't want to see players out there having a good 'ol time, unless of course they just scored a goal. I guess only he really knows if he's happy. Maybe some Psychologizing on Hanki's couch is what he needs.
I think intensity and fun go hand in hand. Look at Spencer, you can tell that guy's having fun, and he's probably the most intense guy on the field too. Soccer players should be having fun, otherwise, they are carrying weight and worry that will get in the way of their game. We all learn the game because it's fun and in its purest form, we play the game for fun. Even professionals should have a healthy balance of professionalism and business to their game, but if their not having fun, their probably not performing at their best. That pretty much applies to any job, not just sports, part of it has to be enjoyable. I can't really say whether Mastro has or has not enjoyed putting on a Rapids jersey this season, but I can't imagine it's been fun getting yellows pretty much every match and sitting out more than he should. I just wonder if all the yellows have affected his play to the point where he's no longer playing his game (hunting dog, strong solid defensive midfielder). Part of his position means that he's going to get into tangles (he also got his fair share of yellows during WC '02, if the US beat Germany, he would have sat out the semifinal) and be a target for yellow cards. It would just be nice to see him play through a couple of games in a row with a clean sheet. Yapping at the refs generally doesn't help your case, fouls that were marginal yellows become yellows when you are a pain in the ass. Obviously, it hasn't stopped him from racking up the cards, but has he really been asked to be a leader on this team? Despite his national teamer status, he's still fairly young and there are other guys (Chung, Spencer and Hendo) with more experience who seem to fill that leader/mentor/on-field general role better.
I'm surprised the article says that Pablo is about to extend his contract with MLS. His attitude since the WC suggested to me that he felt MLS was beneath him and that he was biding his time until he gets to Europe, where he has said he wants to play. The irony is that, as joeyclams suggests, his pooly disciplined play over here will probably result in fewer teams being interested in him. Still, with a solid performance at the world's biggest soccer stage last year, I would think there would be several teams in Europe willing to take a chance on him with a free transfer. And, as much as I don't want to see a player of his talent leave the Rapids, with the way he has been playing this year, perhaps it would be better for all parties if he did go to Europe.
I think it has been a dream of most quality soccer players of our generation (mid 20's) to play in Europe. I don't think it was a dig towards MLS that any of us should take offense to, just his dream. Remember, he was born in Argentina and raised on soccer by his dad so it sounds logical to me. And as he says in the article he thinks it may have been "false dreams" which is actualy kind of sad when you find out your childhood dreams may not be fullfilled. Once the league has existed thoughout the span of some kids childhood, MLS will be his dream not Europe.
One thing that we shouldn't forget is that this is not a 2003 season type of thing. He has been doing this for the two years he's been in Colorado. He led the team in cards last year and is doing it again. So I can't just chalk this up to "He's having a bad year" type of thing. Somebody who has access to the stats should look at his cards per game stats before WC 2002 and after. I'll bet it's alarmingly higher after the World Cup.
He's an enforcer, it's to be expected. He's like Armas or McKeon (albiet much mcuh more talented than Matt M). His job is to pick up cards and make professional fouls. of course, he's taken to making some dumb fouls, and I can't get over how stupid that red was...
It's not his job to piss off the refs. The problem isn't that he gets yellow cards for his aggresive play. As you said, that's to be expected in his position. But a lot of his cards don't come from his play. They come from his attitude and his mouth. He takes what would only be a simple foul and turns it into a card situation becuase he gets in the refs face as soon as the whistle blows and throws a tantrum. There's NEVER a good excuse for geting a card just because you can't keep your mouth shut.
Exactly, Pablo knows he's a target for cards already, being that he plays the enforcer role. He's going to pick up his fair share, which he should expect as the role he's been given (and it should be said, is one of the best at his role we have in the US) The team should make him play one practice with his mouth duct-taped, just to reinforce the idea that his play is what gets it done on the field, not his mouth.
Here's a snipet from an article I wrote about Pablo and cards: In the 32 games that Mastroeni has played for the Rapids since coming over from Miami in the MLS Dispersal Draft, he has accumulated 15 yellow cards and been sent off twice. Now, since Mastroeni is a defensive midfielder whose job it is to disrupt attacks, that may not sound out of line. But when looking at his contemporary, Fire midfielder Chris Armas, the difference is staggering. In 42 games, Armas has amassed seven yellow cards. That's it. Seems that Armas can do is job, and do it effectively, and not get sent off or get useless cards. Pablo can't and until he can, Armas will be considered the better player. Full article here: http://www.cybersoccernews.com/mls/rapids/030829rap-sjeadv.shtml
Last season he had 2 yellows before WC duty, and 4 yellows and a red (The red was in his first game back) after the WC.
I don't know if I'd call it alarmingly higher, but definitely an increasing trend. So what is the coach's role in all of this? Isn't it his responsibility to pull his players in line? Isn't that why Arsene Wenger is getting so much flack right now, because he can't control his players in the EPL??? Cool..... Post 1000!!!
Pablo will always be a better international player than Armas. There's no debating that. Pablo's game is better suited for Europe, the kind of tackles he's getting carded for here might just get a whistle over there. That Red after coming back from the WC was a joke, as have many of the cards the Rapids have received this year. Don't forget Chung's red, and Fraser's!! Pablo's second in New England was a joke too. I attribute a lot of this to the fact that Pablo's game is beyond the referree's in this league. This is why we've seen a lot of our veterans get uncharacteristic cards as well... Not to mention, if we did a +/- of completely crap PK calls, I'd say the Rapids were down -3 I like Pablo, think he's a great player, but he DOES need to play in Europe, or his game is going to suffer. Meanwhile he may be hurting the team by being too good. Only he can find the balance and temperment for the MLS game that will allow him to stay sharp and out of trouble... I can't blame Hankinson on this one. Now if Pablo was a striker...
The players in Europe are bigger and faster and more technically skilled. How is Pablo going to be more effective? I don't understand. 50 percent of the time he goes to ground he gets played around. This is insane. Do you think for an instant Arena would put up with dissent towards a ref by Pable during an international event. He would be on the bench so fast. Whats Hanki going to do? Sit him and play Trembly instead. Pablo needs to shut his mouth and do what he does best. Disrupt the opposition going forward and gain possession. If he gets whistled, he needs to shut, back up 10 yards, and do it again. He's too valuable a player to watch so many games because of his loud mouth.
You're not getting my point, are the players at the World Cup faster than the ones playing in Europe??? No, they're the same...He seemed to have no problem with them... His vocal actions stem from his frustrations, and Arena wouldn't put up with it, but he doesn't have to, because the international game doesn't frustrate Pablo... Yeah, they're all so much bigger and faster and more technical, that's just a crock of sh!t... What you're suggesting, is that Pablo has hit his wall as a player, that he's good enough for the MLS game and that our international players are still a step shy of being able to perform in Europe, and that the gap between MLS and Europe is astronomical...