There are three players who should not be on the field for DC United: 1)Bobby Convey 2)Dema Kovalenko 3)Mike Petke These three have no clue what a team is! I think it is time we start Stoi. Bring in Stokes.
I think the highlight for me was Rongen's hello to the Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava, noting they are a bit "critical." Ed
Final Insult Kevin Stott's blowing the whistle before Convey's game-ending kick could even land was a final insult to the game of soccer. He thereby rewarded the very bad behavior that the direct free kick was designed to punish. Is this where MLS' dictum to call the overtime periods tightly leads? The mighty dollar trumps fundamental fairness. steve@cybersoccernews.com
just wondering why people would refer to D.C. United as "the United" that sounds wrong. I heard this on the colorado webcast.
1st half what a cracker by the Maestro Echty Rimando: He was shaky-He was bad coming out for crosses and gave up a PK. Zi Zi: He is killing the backline with his speed , heading & athletism. Stokes must play now...He played against veterans(he can play now) in that tournament in Portugal and was a rock. United's Centerbacks are slow & not athletic. :Quaranta , Olsen , and Echty are combining well and creating some havoc on that right-side. Convey was quite. --------------------------------------------- 2nd half Bobby C. was active. I agree w/ the commentator..If the game is not coming to you...you need to take the game. Same goes for Tino too. Stewart was nullified. Petki: he lost the air-war , & his passes were off. Pireaux: Zi Zi ate him up but got better when the game rolled on Nelson was solid. Olsen had some lapses on D , but overall-a decent game. Stoitchkov: brought some tonic upfront , he was causing havoc. A great sub to have. Man of the match Dema had some good offensive moments( 2 good shots on goal and some good passing) but was below averige in defending Rimando was better in the 2nd half. A great game and crowd(over 20,000)
Re: Final Insult True, but Convey should have taken the kick immediately, instead of pissing around like he had all day.
We were the better team and should have won. Playing Olsen on the defensive line directly resulted in the goal. Almost resulted in another when Spencer had a close-to-the-goal unchallenged cross early in the game on Olsen's side. Why we play midfielders (Convey, Olsen, Alegria) who aren't great at defense on our must stop line-when are we going to learn
much more fluid game tonight, more fun to watch than last week. much better possession and more creative flair to the attack. rimando was very strong, a couple of very classy saves. i was also heartened to see him get after the defense and holler at the ref a bit also. prideaux, nelsen and petke i thought were all ok, though petke about gave the game away with a weak ball that chino had to foul and get carded to stop a break away. i thought prideaux was especially strong. i thought chino had the best game i have ever seen him play for united. he played hard, was effective and never got exposed. convey was nasty the first half but seemed to come on in the second half. he made some very nice runs and seemed much more offensive minded. ben was really strong in the first half. he was pushed back a lot in the second half, although he did make a very nice play right toward the end of time. marco had a nice goal on a very nice series where several guys all made touches to set up the goal. i hope he isn't hurt seriously, we can't afford another injury plus i'd hate to see him get in cycle of nagging injuries again. dema didn't have a great game and wasted a nice scoring opportunity. he had some good moments but wasn't real effective. i though tino played well, very nicely composed on his assist. he made some nice flanks runs as well. earnie had some nice touches and won some balls up front. he did a lot of strong running that helped us keep some shape that allowed our midfield to hold possession. he seems to be clicking with guys a bit better. hristo had a strong impact on the game. he had two nice chances to finish but missed one and drove the ball into the keeper's chest. elieso was alright in replacement of marco. he missed on a try on goal that came off a nice feed. namoff was solid, he even mad a couple of nice passes. i was glad to see a more offensive and aggressive posture. we played smart, attractive football. we made many more chances i thought than in both our first to games combined. makes me hopeful.
Jose, I think you are absolutely wrong with all due respect. Mike Petke only had one real mistake which was that gifted pass to Chung (?), Dema Kovalenko worked very hard in midfield and got into the attack several times very effectively, although his finishing was not good, though he's not alone there. And Bobby Convey didn't have a very good first half but he had a great second half IMO, he set off on some nice runs and caused trouble for that defense. I don't think you can lay these three players down as the reason the team didn't look cohesive. Most of us agreed that it would be a slow start to the season, so this result does not suprise me. If you told me this would be the result before I saw the game, I'd be satisfied, but after what I just saw, I'm not. My final moan is that the official absolutely gifted them that PK. Other notes: - One hell of a game from Chino and Benny when it comes to work ethic. Absolutely inspirational. Olsen for captain! - Rimando has picked himself up considerably since the opening game and is now back to the Nicky we know. - Convey continues to show improvement. - I hope Ray runs the boys through a long series of finishing drills because it was atrocious tonight.
Our best game this year, and one of the better games to watch this MLS season. A huge change from last week and a well earned point (although it would have been nice to have three). Our goal was first class. Olsen --> Etch --> Stewart --> Olsen --> Quaranta --> Etch --> back o' the net. Convey was a non-factor in the first half, but played much better in the second half (apparently after RH had "harsh words" for him at halftime). Hristo made a huge impact off the bench. We actually seemed to have "menace" for a change with him in the game. The defense did reasonably well considering how little the midfield seemed to close down the Rapids attack in the first half. However, there were too many nervous moments and Roberts revealed our lack of speed in the back. Nelsen was a rock, especially late in the game, and Olsen was tireless. Chino and Kovalenko were ???s. Etch looked like he twisted his knee and hurt something.
Let's see. The United back line includes Nelsen. Slow, not talented and not athletic aren't adjectives I'd use to describe him. Nice generalization...wrong, but nice. If your generalization was related to through balls to runners who had broken past our back line, there's another question to ask...why was it relatively easy to get those through balls off? Timed runs aren't nearly as dangerous when there's no service.
Chino made a believer out of me. I now understand why Ray is so enamored of him. Convey came on strong in the second half (apparently after being blistered by Hudson). Earnie worked hard but didn't get particularly good service. Hristo either didn't see him wide open at the far post or ignored him - could have been a potential game winner. Nellie got beaten a few times, as all defenders will now and then, but he saved our bacon more than once. Prideaux, despite always looking awkward to me, was solid and dependable. Pretke made some glaring errors, but didn't totally break down. Ben played up and back, up and back. Marco had the goal, so it is hard to criticize him, but when Hristo is in I would sit him down. Convey can take the corners and Hriso the free kicks. Ray shouldn't think that he has to sub out a forward just to find a place for Stoichkov. Take out Marco and bring Q1 or Earnie back in a withdrawn position. Finally, I would prefer to see Kovalenko playing up more. I guess we have to wait for the return of Ivanov, when presumably Nellie would be our D-Mid, but I think Dema is primarily an offensive threat playing out of position strictly because of his work rate. If it were up to me, I would bench Etch, keep Dema in the lineup and use Namoff as D-Mid until Ivanov is healthy and Nellie can be moved. (Frankly, having not seen Ivanov play, I'm not sure I want to move our rock, Nelson, out of the back line unless I can be convinced that we don't weaken ourselves).
I agree w/ the commentator on Bobby. If the game is not coming to you..you have to take the game. Same thing goes for Tino too
We went on the road and tied Inter Milan! Except this Inter featured big name stars like Scott Vallow, Wes Hart, Jeff Stewart, Matt Crawford, Casey Schmidt and Zizi Roberts. A tie on the road isn't too satisfying against this Colorado team but at least it's a result. What did that graphic they put on the screen in the 2nd half say: we're 5-6-34 on the road the past 2 years? I don't think Benny has found his new position at right fullback. Our goal was beautiful. The final sequence reminded me of McBride's goal against Mexico in the World Cup. Did anyone get a good view of Rimando's foul against ZZ Roberts? They only showed one camera angle but I was wondering if Nick was called for fouling him with his feet or legs after he flailed at the ball. If so, it would have been a recklessly bad play in an otherwise solid performance. The team still seems like it hasn't figured how best to use Earnie. He was involved in the goal but most of the time looked busy, but neglected, while making horizontal and diagonal runs through the Rapids' back line. At least he probably preoccupied a couple of defenders. Whatever provoked mild-mannered Earnie's outburst at the end of the 1st OT (angry at Stoich?) - it seemed to motivate him and the rest of the offense to mesh better for the final 5 minutes. Stoichkov was the most dangerous player out there as soon as he stepped on the field. I like him as our dangerous second half offensive sub off the bench. But then what about Curtis? I'm still mad and hyped about Olsen's cross in the last 30 seconds that went right through Stoich and Rapids defender. And the fact that the ref blew the final whistle while Convey's freekick was heading into the penalty area. Our shooting may have been weak but it was better than last week when it was absolutely anemic. I'll be optimistic, take the away result and consider our performance to be better than last week.
better than last week "Better than last week" is very, very faint praise. Why can't we put more shots on goal?
Re: Johnny's comment about our "slow, untalented, and unathletic" back line surely can't refer to Nelson. When Earnie Stewart was interviewed after his first several weeks of practice with DCU, he talked about the "great athleticism" of two of his new teammates: Nelson and Carrol." And how about Hristo? Was that menace or what?
No..not Nelson , he is good Hristo was the bomb. He was running , passing , shooting. Very aggressive. Man of the match
Re: better than last week As is "one of the better games to watch this MLS season." Given how bad we've been for the last three years, it's worth it to stop and focus on the small victories.
Digital's Player Rankings Santino: 5.5 Great pass to Etch for the goal, decent running off the ball, decent defending, nice combinations. Good game. Stewart: 4.5 He had some flashes and made some nice off the ball runs, but was invisible for most of the game. Etch: 6 Good but not great game. Goal raises his score. He played the ball quicker this game and that helped out the rest of the attack quite a bit. Hope he's not seriously injured. It looked like a bruise or cramp. Olsen: 5 Good in spots offensively, but weak game for him defensively. Convey: 6 Good first half and very good second half. Honestly, I think some fans were influenced by Hudson's comments that he laid into Convey at half time. IMHO, the difference in Convey's play in the second half was that he was allowed to play more in the middle, and there, he greatly affected the game. Would have been nice to put the header on frame though. Dema: 4 Offensively he was given more freedom tonight, but unfortunately, his game was off. His passes were consistently behind the recipient and he--like always--prefers to dribble than pass. His defense which was so strong in the first two games was very poor this game. Alegria: 4.5 Chino did well offensively, and committed a very quick thinking foul to save a sure breakaway, but defensively he was often out of position or too slow to recover and left large spaces open. Those spaces were routinely exploited. Poor game defensively. Petke: 5.5 He actually played a very good game except for the one horrendous pass that Chino had to foul to stop. He was clearly the only United player capable of guarding Roberts. Nelsen: 4.5 Beaten like a drum by Roberts, Schmidt, and basically any other fast player through the center. This is exactly why he's better off in midfield for a 352 rather than center back. Zizi targeted Nelsen and torched him all night. Only when Petke started marking Roberts all over the field did United start containing Roberts. Prideaux: 5.5 Much less action on his side tonight, but he did a solid job defensively. He added nothing offensively. Did his job and played his role well. Rimando: 6 Welcome back St. Nick. Hristo: 7 MOTM in my eyes. He simply understands the game better than the other forwards. His long passes were things of beauty, his aggressiveness when the keeper or defenders have the ball is wonderful, and his speed and shot strength are sorely missed. Eliseo: 4 Did some good things last game, but tonight simply wasn't up to the task. Too slow, too nervous and repeatedly missed seeing the open man. Namoff: 6 He did defensively what Alegria and Dema could not do. He used his strength, aggressiveness, positioning, dribbling and passing skills correctly. We should have won, but a tie isn't all that surprising. Our offense looked better than the previous games. But, Colorado has one of the worst defenses in MLS, probably the worst. Once Ivanov returns I think we'll have a decent squad. -Digital