Welcome to big soccer. That's quite first post. A small tip..Put a few paragraphs in that block of text.
On the Adu/ Stokes sub. During the press onference, Nawak said that with both Freddy and Gomez in the middle, the crew was getting through too easily, so he move Dema to center and had stokes out wide. MAn that win was almost as ugly and GA. Almost... IMHO - Rimando was MOTM. He was on his game today with the PK save, came out to pull the ball in off of Woly's head and made a great early save on a surprise shot. Gomez was great too. That last 5 minutes of keep-away was classic. I thought I heard a few Ole's. Then the crew fans start booing thier team. LOL!!!!! Also, did you see that poor A$$ marking on DCU during the last 5 minutes. That was a clinic. Harkes counted 20+ passes in a row... WITH stokes on the field. As for Adu, I think he's had the "fearlessness" that you see in Nana coached out of him. He's Afraid to take anyone on or make a mistake. Otherwise we holds the ball well and passes pretty well. He just doesn't make much happen. He did have a great pass to Gross early on.
Christ sakes people anyone playing goal keeper tonight would have caught that PK - that was the worst taken PK - The whole team looked terrible tonight. We play the worst team in MLS and only get an own goal. No one on own team deserves MOTM - we stunk just as bad as Columbus - Yes we won but could not but anything together on offense. The defense looked ok, but really were not challenged. DC needs to get things together and fast if they want to move up. And yes I was at the game.
No, I got the "add some defense" part of it. What I didn't get was the "Freddy" part of it. Nana was worse. His touch was pretty terrible.
Might as well put in my Freddy opinion too. I certainly would have picked Freddy to stay in over Nana, but hey... Thought Freddy was slow to play the ball and not sure of what he was going to do with it, tentative on runs, a little out of sorts. Just like everyone else on the field tonight (at least, just like Jaime, Christian, and Dema). Except maybe for Kuffour, who was nothing if not decisive...he just decisively gave the ball up a lot. That said, the tactical switch worked perfectly. Henderson owned the right side in the first half and was absent most of the 2nd. By the end of the game he was playing centrally as a forward....
Hey, fellow DC United fans -- be happy! We won on the road for only the second time all year! Happy, happy, joy, joy! Some of these posts are just so negative. We won ugly, but we won!
I don't get it either. We get decent shots on goal, dominate possession on the road, win at Crew Stadium for the first time in six years (!), and people still find room to complain. We're now tied for third after coming off a midweek game and a stretch of road games. I'll take 9 out of 12 points against conference teams any day of the week. Some of you need to lighten up. Things could always be worse (see the Crew and the Metro's "superclub" signings). Winning ugly is far better than not winning at all.
I was glad to see Nana get some quality minutes. I think he's going to develop into a great player for us! Yeah, for the first time in a long time, David Stokes didn't do anything in the back that terrified me. Was it just me or did anybody else feel sorry for Wolyniec? That guy just plain works hard & to see him shipped to the Cows, eh? ugh! Kyle Martino now looks just like G.I. Joe... Win SUPER FUGULY if that's what it takes - go boys!!!
There was a point at the end of the game, maybe 2:15 into 2nd half stoppage time, when the Crew won a throw-in near their own box. One of their players actually waited for another guy to come over and take the throw rather than throwing it in himself. The only possible explanation to me for an inexplicable action like that is that the Crew players have flat-out quit.
Say what? I thought Stokes had a pretty good game. Freed from pure defensive responsibilities, he did an decent job covering the entire right side. He made the runs, took on people (albeit slowly), held the ball, and made saving tackles in our penalty area. I recall just one terrible pass (on a square ball from the sideline.) I like him much better as a midfielder than a defender for now. He's not going to move anyone out of a starting spot, but he's a good option to have. For unimpressive, look up pictures of Adu, Carroll, and Kuffour.
Yes, ugly. Feo. Ick. Yes, we dominated, but whom? A team that quit after Nicky had a save at about the 1:30 mark. I don't know how many shots we got off of FC Phoneitin, but it wasn't many. Against a good team with a modicum of commitment we get torched if we play that "well". Having said that, according to TV that was DCU's first win in Columbus since July 7 1999. A win is a win and in buckeye land -- for mysterious reasons -- we haven't gotten one since last century. As graceful as the Barra synchronized swimming team, but I'll take the points.
Nowak said as much in his postgame news conference. There was too much space being left uncovered in midfield. Stokes was brought in to tighten that up, and Freddy was sacrificed.
I thought that PK was crap. From Goff's story: "When they were taking the PK, Wolyniec smiled and said to me, 'You got the ball,' " Wilson said. "Maybe I got him afterwards, but that's not a PK. Fortunately, Nicky came up big." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/02/AR2005070201530.html
Just watched it on my computer after playing soccer for 3 hours this afternoon. Ugly is an understatment. If Nana is going to start, he's gotta finish. He had a few good looks tonite and he has to put one in the net. And Dema's "pass" in the first half was going in the net. He shoulda stepped out of the way and let it go. When Nowak subbed Stokes in, I was a bit confused. I figured Prideaux or maybe Dema (not wanting to get a 2nd yellow) were coming out. Surprised it was Adu. I've been wanting to see Stokes playing M on the outside...and he was unimpressive. I dont think he was as bad as some people here do, but certainly not great. I wonder how to proceed with Adu. Where does he fit in on this team? Should he start ahead of Nana against KC? Pull him upfront and start Carroll and Simms? Sometimes, this team plays up against quality teams (Rev) and down against crappy teams. We saw the playing down tonite. A win is a win, and these sorta games do happen.
Just got back from Columbus. Can't really offer any detailed analysis because of all the jumping/chanting/singing we were doing. If you haven't been on a DC away trip, especially with the Barra, I highly recommend it. Great, great time. Columbus fans are seriously lame. Definition of white bread suburanite scum. The best they offered was making fun of Srdan's ponytail and punctuating our "DC UNITED" chants with "suck" at the end. It really is sad when a group of 40+ away fans are louder than 13k home fans. Thank God for Chad Marshall. I would've been seriously pissed if I drove over 10 hours just to watch a 0-0 draw. Golmito was our best player and Jaime needs to shoot more. There was a 5-10 minute stretch after POTY Martino was sent off where we couldn't get the ball off of the 10 man Columbus Crew. That worried me. I know it's sort of a cliche to say that the ref was terrible, but this ref was scary awful. I was ready to jump down onto the field and strangle the twat with my scarf. Nana should've had his second career goal today. Pumped for next week. I'll be making my 2005 RFK home debut!
Kid, U got spunk. A + in my book. Your post, while I disagree with some small parts, mainly the Coach parts, is interesting and bordering on controversial which = good conversation. Hope you post here often and if you have a chance make sure to call the Soccer show on Sundays 6 - 8 pm. at 106.7 WJFK. Be nice if you'd be one of their regulars. I always want to call, but usually agree w/most of what they say. (or am convinced I already agreed, to begin with ) p.s. if you're gonna post something that long, break it into a few paragraphs. don't have to use MLA format by any means, but that post could have been broken into 3 or 4 paragraphs, just to make it less intimidating to the eyes.
Just glad we won. I really enjoyed stringing together about 30 passes in a row and killing off 3-4 minutes. That's the Brazilian Bunker right there. Edit to note: Reports from the Crew forum say it was 41 passes in a row in about 3 minutes. Sachin
I think he learned that from Jaime in the first half. Didn't he have a similar play on a cross from Wilson or gros?
And did Martino even care that he got red carded? Why did Harkes keep going ona nd on about how he was the most dangerous guy out there? The lack of effort from he and Buddle was unbelievable.
Yes, the Druler has lost the locker room. He lost the fans in 2003. He doesn't have support from his immediate bosses either. How does he hang on? The only guy who can fire him is Lamar who is busy with other things. Thanks Lamar for not taking the 3 minutes needed to call Greg and relieve him of his responsibilities.
After seeing so many games stolen from DCU this season at the end of games it's nice to see one gifted to them. As Peter said this is the way soccer is sometimes.