I've been saying all season that Ching is a terrible soccer player, and he showed it tonight. I don't want to hear that we wouldn't have been in this position ( below .500, barely making the playoffs??) if it wasn't for his goals. The best comparison I can come up with is a baseball player who hits a lot of home runs, has a terrible average, and plays terrible defense. What the hell does John Shrader look at when he calls the games? He said one of the most unbelievable things I have ever heard tonight. He said Ching "rarely goes down". He is on the ground at least 5-10 times per game, and most of the time it isn't because he was knocked down by another player. That's like Greg Papa saying if the Raiders get called for a penalty, "that's unusual, the Raiders never get called for penalties." Didn't anyone watch the playoffs last year??? We won the cup with Walker and DeRo up front, and Donovan, Ekelund, Mulrooney, Mullan in the midfield. This (barring injuries and national team commitments) should have been our lineup all season. Ching and Corrales should be coming in off the bench, if at all. We made our playoff run last year after Corrales went down in the first LA game, and without Ching. Kinnear doesn't have a clue. His substitutions have been ridiculous all season, and taking out DeRosario for Russell tonight made no sense at all.
Re: MVP! MVP! (told you so...) so your saying that Walker would have scored the 12 goals and 4 assists Ching did? I think not...
Re: MVP! MVP! (told you so...) every player has their off games.. how many off games has ching had this year? unfortunatly it happened at a horrible time, remember Roner last year during the MLS Cup?
Re: MVP! MVP! (told you so...) Brian used to look as though he was out of gas somewhere around the 80th minute. The last few games, he hasn't even put his foot to the pedal. I commented at the beginning of the game that he didn't look very with it. He had a bunch of chances tonight, and somehow didn't seem to have the energy or will to capitalize. P.S. I don't suppose tonight's goal gets added to his overall tally?
At halftime he said something along the lines of: "Both teams should be happy about the 1-0 score, having reached towards their part of the objective." I didn't know whether I should have laughed or cried. Let's all just be happy.
Agree. Not one of Sharder's better games. He missed several calls for both teams. Did get the one on Donovan correct... I could tell within the first 10 minutes of the game we were in trouble. By the second half, I turned to my wife and said we going to lose in regulation. So, I guess blame me for not believing....
Ching was about an inch away from being the big hero tonight. He's an excellent target forward. He doesn't have to be great all game, he just has to turn a great play or two. He hasn't performed well since coming back from his most recent injury. Maybe that's why he looked winded, TiffanySue. Ching's play this year was one of my favorite parts of the entire season, along with Waibel's emergence as a dependable force (and enforcer) in the back. Isn't that strange? On a team with Donovan, Ekelund, DeRosario and Mulroony, the hightlights of the year (for me at least) were two of the less polished players, but two with huge heart.
I know what Ching's problem is, and I haven't said anything until now. After the Dallas game, as the players were coming out of the locker room, my 3 daughters asked to take pictures with them. ALL were accomodating and very cheery about it...except Chingy. "No pictures, just autographs." Say what??!! Well, Craig Waibel joked around with the girls and took a great picture, (he's a new favorite in our house) said Ching was a jerk (he was kidding!!) and said he'd ink his face in the bus. The next game you'll notice Waibel scored a goal! Ching did not - and didnt' perform particularly well in either playoff game. So you see, had he posed for a picture like a good boy, he'd have gotten a little of our magic rubbed off on him, as Craig Waibel did. I rest my case.
that reminds me of my first MLS game.. it was wayyyy back in the Meadowlands and we kept screaming for Tony Meola but he was driving past on a golf cart and had his arms crossed staring at the ground like a little pansy man i hate him
More like about three feet - the average distance of the ball from his foot after his (incredibly poor) first touch... To me, that's what it's all about. If Ching had anything other than one of the worst first touches among starting MLS forwards, he would have had at least 25 goals this year.
first of all ching is like grazianni. Not a team player.Look how great we did that year? Landon is a great player but Ching? Ching is a sitter waiting to happen. No defence, bad dribbling skills and very one dimensional. How many times do you see Ching make something out of nothing, or running to a flank to cross in a ball, or maybe take a defender on one on one? And as for the injury last game? It seems to me he played out the injury because he fu..k up a major goal scoring oppurtunity. He looked mighty fine last night on that foot. It seems to me every time Ching is off his game he ends up on the injury list one way or another. I kept reading on the boards, the whole season that Ching was a strong player, but what I see is a sack of potatoes hitting the ground one third of his play. Kinnear should not have a job next year. How do you justify taken out Dero in the first game when he was hot and left in the Chinger when he was not? If we could have scored two more goals in the first game we would not be even close to this situation. Nice one Kinnear. Dero seems to be the easy scapegoat for subs. Dero should have been a starter for our team. Look at Dero's points to game time ratio, not to mention he got 2 goals taken away. Guys like Corrales should not have seen more than 200 min of playing time this year. And as for most of you posting on these boards, You can't blame Kinnear for nothing, because he put out the same starting line-ups most of you posted on the boards . No soccer brains. By the way when is Dero's contract up? If it ended last night do you think he would come back? PROBABLY, F**CKIN not. This whole season was re god damn diculous to say the least. - Kinnear is not a coach? Fire him! -Landon is not as effective in striker than in midfield(It took Kennear all season to realize this). - Agoos has to retire(the amount of times he passes the ball to the other team is pretty sad). -Coralles is not a starter(who knows what the hell he is doing half the time). -Dero should have started all season(He was the only one trying on the pitch the first few games of the season, and that lands him a position on the bench Plus he runs both flanks and puts in a ton of hard work ethic. ). -Ching should have been the first player subbed out in many games.(This guy never helps out on the flanks, all he wants to do is run up the middle and score a sitter. Let your team do all the work.) -Our defence as a team, sucked all year. Oh I F**ckin pissed off
did you not realize I was being sarcastic? otherwise, I don't know how that would portray me as a moron?
Ching is a good player. He has some weaknesses to his game he needs to address but overall over the season he played well...he just laid a big egg last night and the team defense was the chicken.
well put, no matter how the final game played out he is still a great candidate for comeback player of the year