Official DC United vs Colorado Rapids PRE Match Thread [N&A]

First Reply! (I am reduced to this)

Well, they can play the rookies (or Stokes, Warren, Ara and the like...) and hope for the best, or play the vets and get more of the same. Colo is no pushover, with or without ZiZi and the Angry Scotsman. Any positive word on Martins and Quintanilla will be sorely needed. If no Olsen/Neilsen, tie is the best to hope for. Why are there only 5 defenders on the team? And who did they keep at the expense of Reyes? Prideaux? Stokes or Ara? Man, sure wish we had him and Namoff at the back...

Thx,

Jay!

 

3rd game in 8 days, on the road, mile high air, still potentially missing Convey, Olsen, and Nelsen.

 

If Nelsen, Olsen & Convey are out we should seriously consider changing to a 4-4-2 for this game.

Petke & Prideaux are easily exposed in a 3-5-2, and without enough tireless workers in the midfield that formation is inefficient.

Rimando needs to sit out a game to get his head in order, but the overall defense in the LA game was not supportive enough.

What I would like to see:

-----------------Warren--------------------

--Namoff----Petke-----Stokes-----Prideaux--

--Stewart---Carroll-----Dema-------Gros-----

----------Eski---------Moreno---------------

With Adu & Cerritos coming off the bench.

 

can anyone say when Q2 is coming back?

 

If we're all waiting for Q2 to come back and score for this team, we're screwed.

 

Can Moreno really go 3 games Full 90 in 8 Days?

I think we made need to move Namhoff into Midfield next to Carroll, and [God help us] start Stokes.

-------------Warren---------- < For Obivious Reasons!
-----Stokes---Petke----Prideaux
--------Namhoff-----Carroll-----
-Earnie-------Dema--------Gros---

-----Eskandarian-------Moreno

 

this is my favorite thread on bigsoccer right now. all i want to do is forget that game from last night.

 

I hate all this "3 games in 8 days" stuff. Jeez, they're professionals. Tough it out.

I'm guessing Adu will start. The Rapids have sold a huge number of tickets for people to see him play, and Nowak will give the people what they want. Based on that, and his goal Wednesday night, he'll probably be out there when the game begins.

AB

 

I think Adu will start, and I think that Adu will get some more respect out of his teammates (Moreno).

 

i will like to see up front Moreno and Cerritos (cerritos had a better game than esky)and sub adu for any one

 

Hey, I like it. I couldn't see much of Cerritos' game outside of the fine goal, but people were crabbin' about it. So what - keep bending them in just like that Ronald! Isn't that what a forward is all about anyway?

Young Esky, like a chimp on speed, has a great workrate & really tries hard, but just can't seem to produce much from it. Let him ride the pine for awhile.

Seriously, DC needs to string a few good results together here...

 

i like that lineup as it seems the 3-5-2 thing is not working
specially with nelsen and benny out of the line up although
id change esky with cerritos imho

 

United.com lists the start time as 9pm, not 6pm as listed here. Can anyone confirm?

 

It is 9 pm ET so 6 pm MT

K

 

Maybe your monitor is upside down.

I think the game is 9PM EDT.....which would make it 7PM in the mountains

 

I like this. There were some obvious defensive oraginzational issues against LA that could be solved with this. Maybe swap Brandon and Stokes.

I figure that Moreno could run out of gas early in this one, he was tanked by the 70th minute against LA. He toughed it out, but when you consider the altitude we may have ridden this horse a bit too much. If he can get to the 60th minute, I'd like to see Quintanilla make his 2004 debut.

 

I'd love to see that Jose, but as Sundevil said, with Stokes outside and Prdeaux inside.

 

No way United should start Moreno in this game. I was at the game last night, and Moreno was absolutely dog dead tired after 60 minutes. I would put Adu out there in a start with either Esky or Cerritos to start. Moreno can come on later as needed. This guy is gonna be dead by midseason playing as much as you guys think he should be playing, especially coming off of serious back surgery in the offseason. I actually like Jose's lineup with that one change.

 

Not a bad lineup. Looks like you are playing for a tie which is the best we can hope for without Bobbie and Bennie and thier workrate in the midfield. I might be tempted to take out Stokes and play Ara just cause I am interested in seeing what he brings to the field. Stokes just doesn't impress me - even more so with all of his back passes in the final 15 of the LA game when we are down by two goals. Needs to show some urgency.

Sure wish Martins was healthy. He could be the missing ingredient at forward as he is defintely a target forward.

One other thing - Give all of the free kicks and corner kicks to either Esky or Freddie. Stewart isn't working it in as far as those free kicks are concerned.

-The Far Side

 

Not to be nit-picky, but the MT timezone is only two hours behind the east coast, not three.

 

If DC starts Stokes, they lose. Did anyone see how pathetically bad he was last night? He was close to Rimando's level of sucktitude, and he was only on for 30 minutes or so.

If you thought the defense was crap with Namoff--Petke--Prideaux, don't even think about if Stokes is in there.

Probably the only thing Ray Hudson has ever been right about in the development of American youth is that Stoksie is a "3 or 4 year project." Now as to why they drafted him so high is a completely other question.

 

I spoke with Martins briefly after the game last night. He says he can start training again in two weeks. So I'm guessing 3-4 weeks at least 'til we see him in a game.

 

Dude, you've got Serious "Hate Stokes Vision". For someone which only 10 minutes of MLS time before that game he did ok. No, he's not moved himself up on the depth chart. Nobody was as bad as Rimando. If anybody it was Hung-Myun Bo, who got schooled by both Cerritos and Adu on their goals. I mean hell, Petke got beat by Moreno. I didn't necessarily like Stokes for Prideaux sub because Cobi Jones is an ************** and a Rookie shouldn't have to face him when the team is already down 3 and be expected to launch the attack.

I mean that's just asking too much from a "project"