I'm dissapointed to say in the least. The first half, I thought the Metrostars played SMART. DC had one or two chances, but they had very little possesion, and the metrostars in general dictated play. Similar reality in the second half. We played smart soccer, played it wide, back in, stretching DC. If FSWorld had a possesion meter it was probably 60 40 or 65-35 in favor of the Metros. A couple of people who should be mentioned are Clark, Parke, and Amado's efforts. I saw a lot of those players. But not withstanding that reality, scoring is what matters. Again, we weren't pressing DC as we should have. A couple of times in the second half 0-0 I thought come on move it. DC got lucky on the first goal with Stewart (he's missed those all season long, and he was probably off-sides). The guy just got lucky, and I was pissed of it was him. The Alecko goal was just a brilliant strike, and you have to tip your hat off to him. Parke was all over the guy up close, and he just fired a bullet, absolute ripper of a shot in the lower right corner of Walker's goal. A couple of other thoughts. I thought Bradley came out with the right strategy. We were waiting for our chances, controlling possesion. I thought we were going to come out with a 1-0 win here. Instead it's a 2-0 loss. We deserved at least a goal here, no less. Final thougths. Wolyniec again had an on and off game here. First 30 minutes, and I"m thinking where is this guy. In the second half he missed the equaliser. He should have finished that ball. He should have been pulled off, instead of Glen for sure. Vaca was an interesting substitue, so was Lisi. I didn't mind either. Next game I roll out this lineup. ---------------SGR-----------Glen----------------- -Brenes-------------Gueverra-----------Gaven----------- ------------Clark--------------Lisi---------------------- --------Leitch-------Pope---------Regan------------- ---------------------Walker--------------------- It almost seemed like it was a 3-5-2 with Regan playing pretty high up usually, and switching off with Leitch who was also pretty high up. Clark was wonderful in the midfield. He made numerous tackles and was very good on the dribble. I thought Gaven was alright tonight. Again, I think he should play on a wing and stick with it, namely on Petke's side. Amado needs to just stop talking at the ref. He's right most of the time, but it just gives others something to rip him on. No reason to just talk. Woly....gotta finish that.
Absolute garbage, I'm still baffled that Woly starts and plays the full 90 game in and game out. And watching Regan play is just as painful, another dissapointing season down the tubes, unless we pull a Boston like comeback.
Nah no comebacks for this team. If results throughout the year have shown this team doesnt have the heart to dig in deep and pull one off like that. Its basically DC's to lose. Im frigging pissed I put down my money for the road trip BEFORE the game.
Walker and the boys are still showing why they were the league's worst defense...next season's changes have to start there. This is the playoffs, no more 3-2 games so the Metros are in trouble as shown today.
Well, disappointing, yes but not totally unexpected. After all, we're just not quite as good as DC. We play defense as an afterthought and just look at the forwards: Glen could hardly stay on his feet. I think Bradley/Nick must have set a record for the number of new internationals that ended up being busts. Certainly DCs dedication and organized defense had SOMETHING to do with that, but we made it easier for them. And if Walker doesn't make that stop on the breakaway it might have gotten worse. Doesn't mean we COULDN'T have gotten a 0-0, 0-1 or (with a lot of luck) 1-0 result. But I certainly can't say we shouldn't have seen this coming. Why should this game be any different than those we played the last couple of months? Not being a wise guy, just how I feel. =NLK=
wtf!!!! we controled the whole game and yet the scum come out with a 2-0 win how the hell did this happen, somethings wrong here...cuz it seemed like we never really created anything dangerous aside from the close freekicks, and that one glen semi-breakaway we created nothing , there wasn't one built up where we conected on a few passes and actually had a clear chance at goal, im so disappointed, we need a new team here, somethings wrong unless we can pull a sox, i c DC winning this Cup again.
This appears to be a case of the Student outcoaching the Teacher. There were some puzzling decions made by Bradley in my opinion : Why elect to go with a 3-5-2 formation when you've played a 4-4-2 the entire season? Parke clearly struggled on the left and Kovalenko had at least 3 easy chances that he blew. Why bring in Galvan Rey over Fabian Taylor? It seemed like the Metros scoring chances came to a screeching halt once he came in. Why bring in Mark Lisi, when he hasn't played a real game in 4 months? In a physical game like this, even for just 15 minutes, did anyone really think he could contribute? With Magee out, why not start another scoring threat at midfield like Vaca or Gilberto? Down 1-0, why did Bradley play as if the Metros needed a win? A loss would not have been devastating. By playing as if they desperately needed a goal, he has put his team in a situation where they not only must win by two goals next week, but they must ALSO score an added goal in the 30 minute overtime period. In essence, the Metros have to win 3-0 next week on the road. Puzzling decisons to say the least.
Are you friggin serious? We had a total of 3 chances ALL game, and you want to blame it on ONE of the guys who came on with 15 mins left? Lisi and Vaca also came on late, no blame there? Jesus, some people will harbor prejudices forever. Maybe our lack of scoring chances had more to do with Glen trying to dribble the entire DC midfield AND defense, and flopping if he felt a hair touch him.
I was totally confused by the tactics. We start Regan as a defender and he was playing higher than the forwards much of the game. If that were the case, why not start someone who can give them some offense.
Well, it looks as if we are not going to make it to the second round of the playoffs again. Unless we can make a huge comeback. I don't know about anyone else but this is getting frustrating. Enough is enough we need to win an MLS championship. The worst part is that every year we field a seemingly talented team that has the capability of going all the way and somewhere along the season the whole thing just falls apart with no rhyme or reason.
They played a brilliant match the boys did. Rimando did eveything he could to stop us from scoring. I am so angry at the officiating. This would have been 1-0 Metro if that dumb arse near side assistant raised his flag. Stewart was clearly in an off-sides position. How far off-sides do you have to be to get that flag to go up? I guess by a hair a couple of times, but 10 yards and it stays down? HELL NO! Last season I will say that against New England they lost it on their own. This time we were robbed by this officiating Crew. Why in the hell couldn't Stott overrule this assistant or have a chat to make sure he got the right call? Is he missing something inbetween his legs? I say he is. We were robbed Stewart was clearly in an off-sides position.
Yeah, but officiating or not, you can't lose a home game 2-0 in the playoffs. This team has the talent to be playing better soccer, and just aren't. Yes, Rimando had a blinder, but Walker made a number of good saves too, and if we were unlucky to not be tied at 2, they could have had 2 more goals as well. We just need to play better soccer. New England is a pretty sh!t team, and they managed to beat Columbus, a team that hadn't lost in their last 17 or something. We just didn't play well enough. Too many mindless highcrosses that got eaten up by Nelsen and Petke, too many pointless turnovers in midfield, and as always, two defensive lapses that caught up with us. I think somewhere in the middle of the first half Stott got upset at Glen for diving, and just stopped calling fouls in the offensive 3rd. Glen did spend a lot of time on the ground, and we were basically playing Guevara at D-mid, he was so far back (not intentionally so, it just happened that way). It's almost like a pharmaceutical experiment. Let's see how long they can go watching this team, without seeking medication.
Speaking as a DC fan watching on TV, he looked offside to us too. However, the story running around is that one or two NY/NJ players were carelessly back on the opposite side of the pitch and allowed him to start a move well behind his man marker while still onside. I haven't seen this, so I dunno whether it's true or not. But I have a question for you folks: where were you tonight? I'm not talking about your team. I'm talking about you. The Meadowlands looked empty; and when the TV folks found some fans in the stands to zoom in upon, they almost always were DC fans. Maybe that's some sort of Comcast Sports Net homer thing, and the view from MSG TV was different. But still, your team has been solidly in it for most of this season, and it's not like you had no chance tonight (as evidenced by the first 50 minutes of play or so). So where was everyone? I mean, I'm a DC fan, so it's not like I want your team to get tons of support buoying them through to the Cup. But I'm also an MLS fan and a soccer-in-the-U.S. fan, and I want MLS to be popular there just as I want it to be popular elsewhere in the U.S. When I bump into someone from NY, I want the opportunity to get on each others' nerves arguing soccer. It's the biggest city in the U.S. Where was everyone?
You need to direct that to the front office. Last year they had 17k for a end of season game vs New England on a rainy saturday night, and then followed that with less than half that for the playoff game the following week. It's a mystery, but it happens. Metro hosted the open cup final, and <5k people showed up for a cup final. There were, easily, 3x as many people there for the Oct 3rd DC game. Go figure. The one thing I will say is that it was very cold, and the fans at midfield that I did see were up under the mezz, staying warm.
80% of the home games in the past 3 years, in my opinion, have been "unwatchable". I made quite a few calls to get people to come along with me tonight and few were impressed by the fact that this was a playoff game. Most of them have been burned by coming to the games in the past, that have been boring as hell. A perfect example is one that was already brought up.....the DC United match two weeks ago. There were about 25K in the stands and the atmosphere was as if it was a playoff game. I don't ever recall the team getting such an ovation during the player announcements like they did that night. I was genuinely surprised. 25K, so what did the Metros do? They played perhaps the worst home game of the season. At most, there was only one legit scoring opportunity. They gave no reason for many of these fans to come back. The 11K you saw are the fans who come here to vent. I'm beginning to think that the other 14K that didn't show are right.
5,679 at New England for the revs game. They have the Red Sox games as an excuse, but neither team draws particularly well, and if you look at the all time records for MLS teams still in the league, Metro are number 8, New England are number 9. (of 9). Both teams, with a 2 year headstart, have less wins that Chicago (last time I checked, mid season).
Boy...I know there's more to game than this-Woly's lack of skills came back to haunt us on one of our best chances-but this goal...talk to me...
I don't blame the players. After all, all players were chosen by the coach. During 1st 10 games of the season, Metro won 3, tied 4, lost 3, but during the last 10 games of the season since 8/15, Metro won only 2 games, tied 2, lost 6, that tells you something: The coach from other teams figured out how to beat Metro and Bradley failed to come up with the right tactic and creativity. Metro has more talented players than DC. Nowak out played Bradley last night. Period.
Just some weakness I saw in this game on our part. You should have open space on the flank when you have the ball and play an inside game that box mid so it is there when you need it. So the box mid should give that space simply by moving the ball inside the field. Can we hold the ball in congested space when we play an inside the field game are we Brazil? We are light years from Brazil. That is one problem. ------------------------- Using our strikers moving to the flank to help our players who have the ball on that flank before they are under real pressure cuts off our flank space to play. You never should do it unless the flank player is under pressure. Flank dribbler under pressure either take on the defender or leave the flank and attack inside the field. That inside move opens up the flank again for another player to use if needed. That player should not go to the flank before the dribbler comes under pressure when he is inside the field. So you as the dribbler has width when he needs it. The strikers don't know how to play a flank position when they get into the flank space. Good player to use the flank space is the dribbler or put a ball side back into the flank space when you need to use that space on a pass. Then when the backs get into the flank space and get the ball before the pressure gets to them they move with the ball on the flank and inside the field when pressure gets to them, that should create more flank space. Best space created from movement on the flank inside is the FAR side flank space. Reverse the field, from that inside move from the flank they were on not back into the flank space you came from. How many times did we reverse our field when pressured on a flank? It went back to the same space when the ball moved inside then outside it should have moved to the far side flank space. ---- Defensively when you play an inside game and lose the ball there is a danger of a counter on the flank you opened space in. Your mids have to get they arse back outside behind the ball ball side and another inside the field. Gaven when he needed to be outside he was inside and lost. Where was he when we lost the ball immedate while in transition to defense? He was very late getting there. We don't play a good game in my view playing a box midfield. Very hard to win when you play a bad game.
As a DC United fan I'm glad F Taylor didn't have much exposure to the match. Taylor seems to rip up DC pretty good and I'm not really sure why he wasn't in the starting 11.
I didn't watch the game because of prior commitments. But I'll say what i've said before on a previous thread about the chances of this team making it to the next round. 0%. I would have said that before the match too. This team lacks a clear cut strike force. There is nothing up front and the defense is worse. Bradley needs to get it together...bottom line.