You know, as Detroit Tigers fan, I have some experience with this. Losing is like flea infestation. Sometimes, you have to bomb (not literally) the whole place to get rid of it.
I completely agree about Martino. He has been horrible for the past few games. It's time for him to take a seat and have Chacon or Walsh step in for the next game. Akwari gets the start in the middle as Williams has to sit out for his yellows. What a great find he was! He's absolute crap. Busch had a couple of nice reaction saves or we could have easily lost this one. How is it possible with DC missing half there team and a goalkeeper that was aquired less than 24 hrs ago that we can't even muster any offense. There is absolutely no excuse for it. Time to clean house at the end of the year. The old guard needs to be shown the door. Clark, Mais, Cunningham, West and Presthus should not have a place on the team come next year. The insistance on including Clark, Mais and West in the starting 11 is really bringing down the quality of play. Clark and Mais are past their playing days and West has never done anything except be fast and that doesn't cut it at this level. Hopefully Andrulis is axed as soon as possible because I'd hate to see what "leader" he brings in with the "you suck" allocation.
Everyone notice here that we all dislike Greg as a coach but like him as a person? Maybe that's the fcuking problem. Maybe he's too nice.
Just back from the game. 1st 30 we looked great - winning balls, being aggressive, good movement OFF the ball, Tough D, and then....after the goal we dropped back into the "Don't make a mistake mode" and pissed the game away. DC stalled as soon as they got the PK (Etchunburry diving over a Frankie already down in the box - Frankie should never have been down against a much slower itchenhairy anyhow). Kmart was invisible, after his assist, except for giveawaysand was 30 yds behind most of the offensive breakouts plus playing toepoke D on whoever was within 5 yds. Perhaps Greg has told him to hang back, but he never got into any offense except if the ball had been in the offensive end for 2-3mins when Westie, or one of the forwards brought it down. He seems to be moving into a D-mid position and was even caught flatfooted when a ball was played out front for him to transition (lost it right in front of the goal!). Westie, Frankie, McBride, Buddle, Paule, Denton, Mais, Clarkie left it all out there, but the team shape was miserable after the goal. Time and time again guys were on the sides and had to dribble out as nobody moved to a supporting back or central position. The subs looked good and Freddy for Mais with Paule moving to D-mid had some creativity, but Paule had already run about 80mins on the right wing. IF.....IF the last subs ( APC for Martino, Freddy for Mais, JC for Clark) had been done with 20 f#%*&ing minutes to go we would have ROLLED this team up and spit them out. Westie was matched against Ivanov and Stoich (no contest to Westie) and Freddy would have added some left ball movement to APC who was actually recieving the ball and switching it around to JC, Westie, and McB. I swear to God it looked like we were playing for the tie until OT. I'm sorry, but either KMart is not a MLS starting midfielder or he's being told to hang back or (probably) BOTH. We have NO central distribution except McBride or Buddle. We need to play wider because we can't play down the middle of a Freeway at 3AM. Buddle was nursing a Hammy and was just OK, but JC (who looked fit) didn't get in until way too late. I don't know the final shots, but only 2-3 SOG would have looked right - and we made no offensive subs until the 80th(?). Brilliant... The fans were loyal, but this was NOT a game you'd want to witness again. When EVERYONE in the stands (including my wife) knows the tactics and subs are piss poor why bother coming to the game. I felt sorry for the players...this is NOT their problem - for the most part. We were outcoached again and it just sucks to pay to see how badly we were outcoached - again. Greg is clueless and can't get out of his own way right now.
As bad as we are, I'd rather us be the worst team in the league but play with some class over being a three-time champion and being classless sacks of s##t. Here's to DC getting their asses handed to them in the playoffs. C14
No, he has a Goalkeeper coach mentality - if nobody scores we must win so you just gotta keep that D support paramount. That was his reputation in college and he has dropped back into that mentality. Wright State was known for a boring D first style of play and he still doesn't get tactical subs OR listen to BOB now. This is a stubborness issue that he can't resolve for himself, IMO.
DC played it smart and didn't bunker - they made us chase in our end and wasted time every chance they got. They had...tactics.
Westie and McB get my vote for MOM. Westie was all over the field on both sides of the ball because he is finally healthy. Westie drove DC crazy and they never could matchup with him. KMart MUST have pictures of Greg with Hillary - it's the only explanation for APC and Walsh on the bench and him still starting in the middle.
You were right, as usual, DGA: Crew 10 "shots" ONE SOG DC 15 shots and 6 SOG ( and they were playing possession in the last 30 mins.) We did not bring on our first sub until the 81st - 11 minutes after DC put Hristo in to ice the game and only added the last 2 subs in the 87th and OT.
K-Mart His pass to set up the goal was great, but he disappeared for much of the game. What happened to the player we saw with the national team in France this summer? I think he will come around.
The Draft... At least we should get a pretty good draft pick next year. How does that work anyway? It would be nice for the Crew to find somebody like Clark, Dunivant or Ralph next year.
I'm wondering-why is it that it looks like it's 2 on 6 when you finally get a ball to the forwards? It was like you guys were playing for the tie! I don't get it. I suppose neither do a lot of you, either. Don't blame the crowd for booing after that one!
It looks that way because it IS that way. On Paule's goal, the attacking third was full of black shirts and the defense couldn't get it sorted out quickly enough, and when Martino played a very early ball in, Ross got a good enough look and made the shot. You know, kinda like how soccer works. Soccer. You may have heard of it. But when else did that happen all game? How many balls into the box for BMB did we have. I cannot recall a single one. We played down the right side with Frankie and Paule, but there was no left side attack at all, West hustled and worked hard, a lot of the guys did, but he did not deliver one, single solitary pass to McBride or Buddle inside the 18. Not one. Finally, we saw what the idiots just don't understand: McBride coming back upfield to get the ball. Virtually the whole second half attack consisted of him 35-45 yards out, receiving the ball with his back to the gooal to shield it from four defenders as he tried to find Buddle upfield as our midfielders stood around the halfway scared to death to commit in case DC scored. THIS is exactly what the President at Everton meant when he said that Crew "don't know how to use him". Did Arena have the guy playing midfield? Did Moyes? If you don't have the guy in the box as you launch the ball at him, then just sit him down. You're better off with Cunningham. Speaking of whom, once again the substitutions were brilliant. Martino disappears into nothingness after the assist and the team has absolutely no offensive push whatever, and we see APC take his place just in time for the second overtime. Good pickup with Williams, too. Spent the whole game out of position, getting beat when the ball got past him and watching Busch save his ass or else hacking the guy down because he's too slow to catch anybody. In the four games before he got here we were 3 - 0 -1. Since he's been in the lineup we're 0 - 2 - 1. Tremendous pickup. A disgrace. A team with a shot at the playoffs, at home, against our biggest rivals, plays like they just don't give a damn. So maybe Hunt Sports can tell me why I should give a crap when neither they nor the team l;ook like they do.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but let me summarize the game this way: Desperate for points to make the playoffs, playing at home against a weak team which is playing their fourth game in 11 days and is missing four key starters as well as their backup keeper so they're using some 20 year old guy named Baumstark (whom even the coach admits he never heard of before) in the goal, the Crew, a team that supposedly has talent out the wazoo, all of which is healthy and on the field, cannot manage ONE SINGLE SHOT ON GOAL IN THE LAST 81 MINUTES OF THE GAME. Pathetic.
Re: K-Mart I think he's still in France. Not to make excuses for the guy, but I still believe Martino hasn't fully recovered from getting hacked down against Cameroon. Not that he hasn't recovered physically, just ever since coming back he really hasn't been the same.
That and most of the fans froze their ass off watching their team circle the drain. When I saw West assigned to Stewart, from minute one I knew that side of the field wouldn't see much action until late in the game. So everything came down the right side. Just some random thoughts: Not only did the Crew look lifeless, etc. there were a lot of desperate slide tackles. Some were legit, cardable offenses. Others (like Cerritos, Itchyhairy) were poor judgement that any diver is going to make a meal of. Desperation has started to worm its way in and it doesn't look like it is helping matters. Why in the hell wasn't Itchyhairy tossed? Three blatant, deliberate acts of time wasting without a (2nd) caution not time added? Sorry, but that is bull*#*#*#*#*#. Not only wast Martino invisible, Maissoneuve was also non-existent. Not much you can do when your midfield is a lame duck, with only Paule and occasionally, West having any potency. Instead of going for the jugular, the Crew blow it. Just fcuking sad.
If you already have a yellow, and keep on doing the same illegal thing over and over, it SHOULD be a yellow for "persistent infringement." Sadly, most, if not all MLS refs don't have the balls to show the second yellow. Especially when that second yellow is for persisten infringement. There was one time this season when one of our players was called for persistent infringement, even though it was his first time with the foul because the team kept repeatedly fouling. In this case, sadly, the ref will think "why give him a yellow when it's his first time stalling?" These refs suck beyond belief. As for the attendance, it looked OK. It seemed more spaced out than usual. Normally, most of the fans will tend to congregate near midfield, tapering off towards the corner flags. I didn't notice that last night. There was some promotion for a upper sideline ticket, so there were more people up there than normal. Weather was 55 degrees, although that should probably be disputed. And this game interfered with the horse show at the fairgrounds, so people had to deal with all the trailers. More likely than not, that lead to parking lot confusion for many people. Attendance was listed at 17,995.