I was inspired, so I made this: It's meant in fun (see Hristo with the champagne), so nobody get excited.
Not true. Yes, his back was to the Nest and Barra, but he did wave in acknowledgement. Had a great time. The boys worked hard for it tonight and things went their way becuase of it. Hell, after those two goalmouth scrambles, they had to knock at least one in.
Like doesn't describe it man. Nice meeting you too, Chris. Thanks to BarbDett for the ticket and a good time up in the Mezz with herself, Chris, and Randy from The Soccer Show. I'll post more on the game later, but it was great to see United control the game from the get-go. We were able to hold possession for extended periods of time and this is exactly what Ray wants. To everyone who complains about a back or a square pass, isn't that a hell of a lot better than forcing it up the middle and losing it? I sure think so. Good effort by the crowd tonight, looks like Rob's comments have the Barra fired up again. The DVD's will be coming soon as Doug (another person with whom it was nice to meet tonight) is helping me by converting the copy I have to a more compatible version for my computer. And Funkfoot, would you care to explain?
Ah, thank you. Just as a reminder, I'd like to remind everyone that Colorado had won 6 straight in all competitions leading up to this game. A very solid performance by United.
CLASSIC! Hristo is HOT too. I think Ms. Hristo may have to make an appearence in Chico's personal forum... p.s. Eric watch your leg at the next home match! hehehe
at times I was jealous of COlorado's offensive foray's..nice one touch passes, dummy runs to an open man. Their attack was just smooth and effecient..you can see why they have been on a hot streak..you can also tell why we have been on our own hot streak, our defense again rose to every occasion and even the posts twice..and Rimando with a big save in the first half. For those of you praising marco's "fitness" please take a look at our counter attacks where the ball is passed to the forwards and there is a big hole in the center of the field where Marco SHOULD be running to support them. Notice marco is still down with the defenders sucking wind. The clubs biggest problem is the transition from defense to offense, no midfield support to our forwards who receive a long ball from the defense that bypasses the midfield. Also lets mention the predictability of our runs and passes....square..back..square..forward..back..square...back...our offense and team is very predicatble and we need players that are going to make some runs! Unfortunately I don't know how to solve this problem...especially now with Convey gone.
That was my chant - I get to take credit for something! Actually, I thought Lanky's creation - "Hey Hoddle, lock up your girls" - was better. It was a good night in the sections...even the early-2nd-half doldrums were minimized...
I agree w/the Q2 praise of late. I'll be writing something up on him for later today, with quotes from Ben, Ray and Q2 himself, and will also have something on Bobby's leaving D.C. For now here's this: http://onthesidelines.org/united081303.htm Who'd have thought that this team would take until June to win a league match, and then be just 3 pts. out of first now?
Congratulations. You fans have really stuck through it and only the true fans can now celebrate, those who bailed on DC cannot. Now I wish the Crew could follow in your footsteps. In the words of Ray Hudson. "See you in the playoffs" except with the Crew we will only see you on tv. I know DC is supposbly a Crew rival, but DC is a team I respect this season because I feel they are getting the job done fairly where as other teams like Metrostars or Chicago are not as professional like.
Re: MARCO! You've got to be ************ing kidding me. How have we done since Nelsen became captain, and Etch got motivated? Guess you can finally wear that got milk? DC United shirt you caught now that we have a winning record
I share the euphoria of the past few games, but with some caution. We won the last two in large part because of the post and the cross-bar. If Twellman's had gone in last Saturday, and if Spencer's had gone in last night, we'd have a very different result and a very different situation. True, these are precisely the kinds of breaks we were not getting early in the season, so we are due for a few. But they are hardly things we can count on. Put differently, without the post, we could have two losses instead of two wins. No time to relax or feel particularly confident.
He does pretty well at creating right place, right time situations for team mates. I've been impressed for a long time with what his distribution says about his ability to read the game. Eastern Bear--superb. And thanks for the sig! Damn, we've got some intelligent folks as United fans...
I too would like to sing Q2's praises. For all the reasons that everyone else has (the goal, the vision, the hustle, the defense), but also for something that has so far gone unnoticed. His ability to get his head onto the ball. He's barely taller than Spencer, but I think he headed the ball inside Colorado's penalty area more than any other player for us last night. I think if we end our corner kick frustrations anytime soon it'll be Q2 getting his head on the end of it. Also, I thought Barclay had a bad haircut; anybody see Beckerman's? Scary. Cherno
I'm not sure this was a game we deserved to win. We were basically 4 inches away from losing the game with 2 Spencer shots hitting woodwork. The one that hit the crossbar was so fiercely struck I thought he had pushed the goal back off the line. Q2 had a great goal, but other than that there wasn't much. Sometimes watching DC play is like watching that episode of the Simpsons a few years ago where they made fun of soccer "Midfielder passes to a midfielder back to a midfielder. . ." and no one is moving around just standing in the same spot. Once again there was more offense in the last 10 minutes of the game than the rest of the game put together. Am I glad they won? Sure, but ugliness like this still doesn't get Hudson a reprieve in my book.
Baby Steps My Friend... Baby Steps: We are winning games now. I am happy with that. Next step would be to win games and actually deserve to win. Then we can graduate to winning, playing well and deserving those wins. We don't have Real Madrid's roster, you know?
Another ugly win, aided in no small part by the goalposts. A win is a win, but we still look like crap. I decided to watch Earnie as much as I could, both on the ball and off. It appeared that Alecko just didn't see him when he made his runs, or Alecko would just try and take on three defenders from 40 yards out and ignore Earnie altogether. Earnie is not a striker, and I don't know why Ray insists on putting him in that role. Did anyone else notice Hristo dancing around the field with the ball during the Bobby Convey tribute? It kind of struck me as disrespectful.
I think Dema was missing from the attack. Which is neither here nor there. If Dema pushes up we become even more dangerous. But that leaves Etch and the Back four. Hudson may have to go back to the 3-5-2 in order to reintergrate Kovalenko. I think Nelsen in the back four was ok. Namhoff did great. But now Petke is going down again. I'll be damned if Ivanov starts again.
Per my bet with Jose L. Cuervo: Rapids suck donkey dong and DC United are the kings of all that is good and holy in the world.
Watched it on Comcast: 1) That was a HUGE step up from the win on Saturday. There was a nice rhythm to the play. We didn't hold possession enough in the second, but overall the passes were crisper and the play MUCH more decisive and positive. 2) I liked the subs, altho I would've brought Hristo on in the 60 min. block. There was one moment, I'm sure you all remember, when someone played him a long ball and it was 1 v. 5... He lulled the defense and than shot towards the top of the 18 and fired a shot which Borchers deflected for a corner. Missed the post by 1 foot. Classic Hristo. 3) Ok, where in Hades has THAT Q2 been? Seriously. We've all gushed about the kid, let's look at it from the more cynical side... Head up the butt syndrome seems rampant at DCU over the past 3 years and apparently Eliseo came under that dereliction of play illness, too. He almost salted the game in the 85-86th minute. He was making FULL FIELD RUNS up into injury time. He was losing and then WINNING BACK balls from tough guys like Fraser into injury time. I mean, that was pretty unbelievable. And I mean that. Unbelievable given past precedence. I sure hope this is some kind of "I'm ready to show the world how good I am" thing. Not a "I'll show them with a body/energy sapping, one time only" kinda thing.