At the 70th minute? A tired one, surely. [/cheap shot] Actually, he's been playing full games lately and looks a bit fitter. Good to see What I'm wondering about for today is who will start at right midfield. We could see Griffin again, or maybe even Jaqua if he's recovered, but I doubt it will be John. Hope we find an answer to that position sometime soon... Can't bloody wait!
It seems like he should be... I'd been wondering why he hadn't gotten any minutes so far this year. Some injury I missed? Was he that bad in reserves? I thought maybe he was having a hard time transitioning to the level of physicality or something, because I was expecting him to compete for the starting spot by mid-season, dependant upon Thorrington's showing up...
From the mlsnet site, 10 minutes to matchtime: 24 - Zach Thornton (GK) 2 - C.J. Brown 5 - Jim Curtin 8 - Lubos Reiter 12 - Logan Pause 15 - Jesse Marsch 16 - Will John 17 - Chris Rolfe 21 - Justin Mapp 22 - Scott Buete 25 - Gonzalo Segares
Columbus * 88 - Jonny Walker (GK) * 6 - Chris Wingert * 7 - Simon Elliott * 10 - Kyle Martino * 13 - Mark Schulte * 14 - Chad Marshall * 17 - Danny Szetela * 19 - Chris Henderson * 23 - David Testo * 29 - Knox Cameron * 30 - Eric Vasquez Where's the offense? No Buddle or Wolyniec on the roster tonight, and Glen is on the bench. Rodriguez also on the bench. Cameron up top doesn't really scare me. Vasquez is making his debut as Fraser is suspended.
I dont know that Id go that far. Rolfe had the three best scoring chances in the field of play out of everyone and made the GK make quality saves on each. Header off the throw early, shot on goal towards end, and header on goal near injury time. I thought he had a couple bad touches here or there but otherwise looked quite alive and almost had an assist in the latter parts on the thread ball to Herron(?). Also drew a cpl free kicks in the offensive third. Hes been in a small goal scoring drought, but I dont think you can critique the balls on goal. Walker was just on his game. The Fire still play way way too passive on counter attacks. This lack of quality transition game hurts them against teams they should probably put away. All things considered with Jaqua and Thiago out -- two of the handful of guys along with Mapp and Rolfe who play direct -- I dont think anything we saw was unexpected. The real question is, why are we having to doublecheck the boxscore every time Lubos Reiter plays in order to verify that we actually did see him on the field. I thought Wynalda took a few too many shots at Will John. John struggled a bit but towards the end he was finding a better go of it. Wynalda was acting like John was a 10yr vet of MLS and slowing the train down. The kid is still in diapers and has hardly played and he was ragging all over him. Wynalda needs to just shut his pie hole after a while because he ends up saying something stupid. Like when Rolfe and Schulte were fighting for the ball at the touch line and the ball went over the line by about an ENTIRE ball length and both eased up completely certain anybody with eyeballs was gonna issue a throw. The whistle never blew and both guys had to scurry for the ball again. I dont think it occurred to Wynalda the ball was so far out even a play-to-the-whistle player would have wondered what in the heck was going on. I didnt even know what in the heck was going on and I was sitting in my living room. Speaking of commentators, what is Brandi Chastain doing with a microphone in her hand. Shes been a pretty questionable hire. I think ever since she got those invisible braces or whatever shes gone downhill too. Maybe coincidence, maybe not, Im just throwing it out there. I cringe every time they throw the signal to her though. She needs to stick to her life with Jerry Smith and SCU coaching. Zach is looking a little better and getting back some form of late.
I like Bob Warzycha, so I may be biased, but I loved his response to her first question: "What the hell are you talking about, bitch?"
Woly has the flu. Buddle has a serious achilles probelm and should have had some rest weeks ago but "The Last Guy" (it is forbidden to speak his name) kept playing him because he was desperate for a result.
The match report said Rolfe drew the foul that set up Mapp's FK goal, but it looked to me like it was Johnson. I've been confused like that before. When he first entered the game it seemed the cows had plenty of room in the center of the park, but as the minutes went by he came into the game more. A solid debut for Johnson, he was better than John on the day.
Zach was solid in the first half. The cows goal was well struck, but we were right in line behind the shot & Zach wasn't in the same area code a la Henry Ring. It looked like he should have gotten a touch to it.
It was Will john not will johnson that played and who was fouled giving mapp the FK opportunity. Considering all the players we had missing I can't get too upset about a draw. World class free kick by mapp. Nice blast by columbus on their goal, too bad no fire defender was near the guy when he took the shot. My question is what did dave and Peter see in reiter to spend an allocation on him?
The Fire continued this year's "Winning Ugly" theme today only without the "winning" part. What an ugly boring game that was. I know it was 94 degrees and all but I didn't expect everyone to look like the game was being shown in slow motion. At least our C team didn't manage to lose the game to Columbus's B team. Oh, and Reiter officially sucks. He may do a few good off the ball things each game but my dog has more finishing ability so far. For the next game Dave should bench Reiter and start Barrett. Once again Chris Rolfe looked ten times more dangerous than Reiter. Chris's snap header forced the save of the week from Jonny Walker. If Chris could ever get over his case of Nate Jaqua Syndrome and refind the ability to stay on his feet for more than 3 minutes at a time, he'd be great. Anyone know how bad Segares' injury is?
But it doesnt make you right. Seriously though, sometimes its not the lack of execution on offense, its the better execution on defense. Probably on another afternoon, Walker doesnt save at least one of those headers. Thats soccer. Theres going to be days the ball goes in and days the ball doesnt. Whats important is the number of consistent quality chances on goal. If you arent creating those, you are SOL. As long as you are finding ways to challenge the net, the law of averages usually finds itself over the course of an entire season. I see that from him and the aforementioned scorers. I think other guys need to step it up and provide some offense because just reliying on a rookie when main starters are absent in the lineup isnt completely reasonable. In Justin Mapps defense I think he deserves a gold star for really stepping up his game in recent weeks. His pace is what is needed from other guys. I agree with you though on Jaqua and Thiago being out hurting Rolfe, but I still think the more critical absense is the pace of play by the entire team. Its just way too slow and deliberate -- when it need not be. Especially on counterattacks. I dont understand why Chicago takes opportunities with man-on counters and play laterally or kick a 40yd long ball. They need to KISS it (keep it simple stupid). Use the dribble to move forward, give-and-gos, overlaps. Something to get movement forward at a quality pace. Its like for every 2 steps Chicago takes forward, they take 1.5 steps back. Im just not convinced this team can piece together "halfcourt" goals on a consistent basis, especially with the aforementioned guys on the pine and Reiter counting the way hes going to spend his fat check this week while up top. It was a fun day from my side of things though because two Dayton grads went at it man-o-e-man-o with Rolfe taking on Mark Schulte who is a big dude. I think Sannahs absence has been a blessing. Hes an old man and it shows in his pace. Armas attitude might have been missed somewhere in the midfield though.
This was not one of our better games. Will John is no Guerrerro nor Thiago. Mapp's set shot was terrific. I suppose we should be happy to have left the stadium with a come-from-behind tie. Everything would have been different if Reiter's early "goal" was not disallowed because the ball had crossed the end line. The strange thing is that When New England played today again FC Dallas, they had all their starters who were on the national team. What happened to our guys? Of course, we would still have needed Guerrerro and Thiago. The Real Madrid game showed how much further our brand of soccer needs to go.
The USMNT was in New England...it was a lot easier for them to make the trip down the hall to a different locker room than to fly back.
The fire looked extremely slow today. I saw the game at MF in the 300 level. It was a change from section 8. What I got to see was how they looked tactically. Columbus looked a lot more organized than the fire. Our MF really had no shape whatsoever and were not supporting our strikers with the exception of Mapp. Mapp's free kick would of made becks proud. Although we played poorly we should of came away with 3 points. Stewart makes curtin look fast. The real madrid-chivas game was a great game. Both teams were playing physical and Real Madrid put on a show. Zidane is incredible. Beckham played his ass off until about mid 2nd half when he sat back and played more of a defensive mid. The only dissapointments were Ronaldo and Figo. Ronaldo looked a little chubby and he was going through the motions. Figo looked a little slow and not that fit. watching them tactically was like poetry. The whole team moved together. The big difference between the fire and real madrid game was the passing and trapping. Real Madrid made very few bad passes and their first touch was always controlled. I felt chivas were outclassed and not up to their level.
Another creative midfielder would have helped. Only Mapp and Rolfe created any offensive pressure. A snorer. Real Madrid-Chivas was a lot of fun. Zidane was worth the money, but Ronaldo owes everyone $1.
Not a great game but I'm happy with the tie. Once again, our defense made mistakes. Not enough hustle, poor marking (no marking on Cbus' goal), and Segares didn't get back fast enough on defense when going forward. A few times Mapp had to drop back to cover Sega's ass which is not a good idea considering how good it is to have Mapp involved in the offense and how horrible it is to have Mapp defending. I'm also disappointed that they didn't play harder. I know it was very hot out there but they were just being lazy. I didn't see anyone cramp up so in my opinion they just didn't want it bad enough. Thornton - played well. very nice saves but needs to paddle back a little faster - he almost got burned in the first half with a shot over his head. Reiter - Sarachan I know you spent a lot of money on this guy and you don't want to embarass yourself so you keep playing him and hoping. But please do what's best for the team. Barrett deserves a start if Jaqua's still out next week. John - Needs to hit the weight room immediately. Has great potential. Rolfe - I thought he played well but why does he like the grass that much? I don't get why he's always slipping like that. Mapp - Beautiful goal. Doesn't look like he's even trying when running through defenders. If he can learn to shoot... wow. Looks like a great player in the making. Buete - I thought he did very well in the 1st half. Agressive, first to the ball, giving Cbus a hard time in the middle of the field and helping on defence... Was very surprised to see him replaced by Johnson. Did he get an injury or something?