I am not so confident !! Here is my point : There is allways a trade in !! We cannot have a very "good" and agresive defense without yellow cards or suspenssions !! The better and talented a defense the better the "yellow card situation" !! We have allready to many "yellows" !! The problem with having too many yellows is that at the end of the season when we needed the best defense, we are gonna by forced to play with the reserves of the reserves. The injury situation makes things much worse than it looks !! Now, every single game from now on is crucial for every team involved in the playoff race, most likely, the "yellow" card situation will become much worse. Here is the paradox : We are gonna fight hard for a playoff spot but, by the time we get there we will be forced to play it with a reserve defense !! How about that scenario as a horror movie !! WE all laugh at a YELLOW ....card !!! Ha,ha,ha !!!!
Good points all sornum. The truth is that even though the defense is good and talented they are going to get some yellows. I attribute some of the over-abundance of yellows to some card happy fellows. The other aspect of it is that this is the end of the season when the accumulation finally catches up (believe it or not I seem to recall a worse yellow card situation last year earlier in the season). The other side of the coin is that other teams will also be faced with losing key players during crunch time. So it all balances out. There are only 4 more games so the "yellow situation" will not get out of hand, e.g. Petke will not be suspended again (unless of course he receives a red card in one of the following games). The most important truth concerning the playoffs is that the league is forgiven for all the extra-curricullar activity and starts the playoffs with a clean slate (All yellow card negative points are forgiven). I am glad to see that you have lightened-up a bit and used some humor! Perhaps the bouncy side can use your chant with the referees!
I just don't understand how Sormun only see the negative. He's got some valid points, but in a rush to be pessimistic, he ignores the positive: 1. Keeper: If we're to believe what we hear, Warren could be a starting keeper on half the teams out there. I don't mind that replacement. And let's be honest: for as many athletic, out of his skin saves Rimando has made, he has the unnerving tendency to F up in some tight spots. (LA two weeks ago, in case you've forgotten.) 2. Defense: Sure, we're missing Petke, but Namoff, Ivanov, Prideaux and Stokes isn't a bad back 4. Sure, I'd rather have Petke, but, as I've said before, if you want to be a physical team, you have to deal with the suspensions. We play aggressive, tight D all year long, and now we have to adjust to the consequences. I have confidence that we will as the defense has been our lynchpin all season long. 3. Midfield: We've got Stewart, Convey, Etch and Q2- on paper that's a solid midfield. Sure, Convey's not been clicking since the Spurs nightmare, but he looked good in the Meadowlands last week and I have confidence that he's turned the corner. Q2 has been playing better than I've seen since he arrived last season. Stewart's finally shown up as the player we thought we signed... and more. He's been the MVP the past month and that should continue. As for Etch? He's been sublime some gamedays, absolutely forgettable in others. I hope this will be the former. As for the Crew midfield running us off the field, don't bet on it. Convey and Stewart have pace and endurance. I see us matching up well in midfield. 3. Strikers: So, Martins and Cerritos need help scoring? Really? Well, I think they'll get it from the likes of Etch, Convey and Stewart. Cerritos and Earnie have struck up a good partnership so far and what evidence do we have that it will suddenly fall apart in Crew Stadium? None that I can think of. 4. Crew are Fired up!? Oh, really? Well, they just dropped 2 valuable points in consecutive weeks- one's that they can scarcely afford to throw away. You don't think that disheartening? That's not exactly the play of a fired up team, though I may be wrong. Again, I don't altogether disagree with the points Sormun makes, but it's unbelievable the refusal to look at the plusses we have going. I hope we go out looking for 3 points and be content with the draw. (Though let's not bunker down for 100 minutes looking for 1, please.)