Assuming that teams meet each other an equal number of time, but that can't happen with a 30 game schedule.
Watched the game on TV. The crowd rawked; it even sounded like a Korean crowd at one stretch. What was even cooler was that Hudson jumped into the stands after Petke's goal and kissed people.
So do I understand this correctly that we have no first or second round draft choices? Somebody please tell me have someone else's first or second round picks from some other trade? Otherwise we will have mortgaged the future for a team that, at best, sneaks into the playoffs by the skin of its teeth. Great!
Correct. Number 1 to Dallas Number 2 to Chicago We also sent a 2005 conditional pick to SJ for Barclay so the fun isn't over yet.
In defense of Warren ... Late last night I watched the game again on tape. I know. A dumb thing to do but I'm in this partly for the misery. I'm not going to delve into my second viewing thoughts too much. Suffice it to say we played even worse than I thought we did. I didn't agree with Hudson initially when he said some stretches of the match were the worst we played all year. But after that second viewing - Ray's right. That was rock bottom. But I was actually surprised by Warren. I don't fault him on the PK. I don't even fault him on the last goal. The first - sure - he's partly, maybe even mostly, to blame. However, it was a rookie mistake and one that can be easily corrected. Still, I was pretty impressed by his play overall. As much as some blame him for the loss - at least in part - he also kept us in the game quite a bit. He made some very good saves and if not for those saves the Crew wouldn't have need a PK and an OT goal to be up 3 goals. He's got the tools. He could use more experience and some better coaching. I still think he's gonna end up our first choice starting keeper.
I don't think the ref screwed DC United, he was just simply horrible. That's not fair to either teams. I do think he happened to make a higher number of poorer calls against DCU, but that's the way the ball bounces, pardon the pun. The best ref is the one you don't remember after the game is over. I respectfully submit this one we won't forget for a while.
Biggest dc collapse maybe. It's not even close on a league scale. Just one collapse of recent note was SJ's being 12? points up on LA late in the season only to lose the division title in the last game. SJ lost to Columbus in Round 1 and LA went on to abuse the home field avantage to great effect in going on to win the MLS Cup.
Hmm Chicago-Fire.com says that DC will be facing the Fire in the Eastern Semi-Finals. They are already selling tickets to the matches. Someone help me out.
I'm assuming that you've heard about Law 12 and some of the fouls that result in direct kicks. One of them is tackling. It doesn't say that it's OK to tackle "if the player shot the ball and it went wide". It says that tackling, even by a goalkeeper, is considered a direct kick and obviously, inside the 18, a PK. Also, the Laws of the Game are interpreted by referees through "Instructions to Referees" and historical perspectives. See the following quotes from anothes web site that discusses these laws: That's where the "historical perspective" comes into play. The GK is exposed and therefore protected more than a field player. You can see that in almost every match played on the planet. This is what I was referring to. If the GK gets a hand on the ball, it indicates to the ref that he was playing the ball and contact afterwards is considered incidental as it is to any other 50-50 situation on the field. But running into a player after taking TWO extra steps will get you the whistle - even by Kevin Stott and the incompetent guy from yesterday. Now, if you want to argue Walsh's miracle escape from a red card, that's another issue.
Actually, last season the Metrostars only needed one point out of their last three matches and got none and were eliminated.. To make matters worse, their two best players, Tim Howard and Clint Mathis were both red carded against United on the second to last game of the season leaving Paul "Pants" Grafer to man the nets to save their playoff lives.. This collapse would be equal to that but the Mutts didn't nearly have the ridiculous key injuries hit them like United has the past month (Rimando, Olsen and now Stewart) to deal with...
Does anyone feel as if this might have been good for us long term? I was very excited at the possibility of actually seeing a game this year once they made the playoffs (I was on camping trips for their other televised games and was at a sports bar watching the Redskins implode last night. I live in the bay area.), but at the same time I can't help but feel that enough is enough with our GM and with Hudson. The past four years have been such a thorough nightmare, and Hudson's only seeming success was in getting the team to play hard despite injuries this year. The problem is they've been a pretty poor team during his tenure, they've also been a horrendously ugly team to watch, and the team hasn't done much to rebuild with it's last few drafts. Indeed he (and the GM) may have hurt us more than helped us in terms of rebuilding the team via his trades and draft day decision making. I just wish we could have brought in a new coach to open this season, rather than next season, there were some damn fine prospects around last year. Any good options this year?
my bad. i thought that he was referring back to players. after reading his quote again, you are right ........ he was talking about coaches. Anyway, i did hear that there was an A-League coach that was leaving in order to pursue opportunities in MLS. Apparently he has done very well for himself at the lower level.
Freddy certainly is a prospect as a player, but he also is a kid. That was apparent from watching him in the U-17 tournament this summer. He has a lot of growing to do. He's also going to playing against a lot of MLS thugs who will not want to be made to look silly by a 15 year old, and the only protection he will have will be MLS referees. Can you imagine how he'd fare with that clown we had on Sunday? It would be exciting to have the kid on the team, and possibly get to see a real superstar develop, but I wouldn't expect miracles.
And with his penchant for retaliation, it would be great to have him learn from Stoichkov, Etcheverry, Quaranta and Convey. You almost need Bruce Arena back to control and guide Adu's growth. Keep him away from the bad influences. Right now, maybe Bob Bradley and Frank Yallop are the only viable coaches for Adu in MLS. Hudson can't control this team, and he will either throw Adu to the wolves, or bench him until he's frustrated and worthless. Look how Magee, Gaven and Clark have responded in NY/NJ. Look how the DC trio of rooks have done. But I digress... Thx, Jay!
I think a lot of people are guilty of making some extreme generalizations about how young players develop. What works for one youngster (Nelsen) doesn't work for another (Lisi). What gets Convey to move up and become more complete as a player hasn't worked so far for Quaranta. Yallop has done great things with Dunivant. He has did nothing with Barclay. I dispise how Etcheverry and Stoichkov behave on the field--especially to refs. But Arena has also publicly praised Etcheverry's teaching skills, said he'd love to have him as a USMNT assistant when his playing career is over and Marco has always demonstrated a very strong commitment to developing young players. There were great comments coming out of training camp about Hristo taking younger players aside and offering advice and showing them technique. We tend to assume that is someone is a winning coach, that means they'd be good at developing talent (and vice versa)--that isn't the case. Rongen turned out some good youngsters. We also tend to view how a player performs or how they behave as an indicator as what kind of teacher they are. How each youngster develops is somewhat unique to that player--they aren't cookie cutters. And some of the best players are lousy teachers. Bruce Arena sounds to be like he was probably an untalented punk on the field as a player (yet look at him as a coach). And Freddy Adu has already practiced numerous times with Hudson and Etcheverry and the others on United. In short, he and his advisors and John Ellinger and Bruce Arena all know what he'd be getting in to here. Doesn't mean they'd be great coaches for him. Doesn't mean they'd be bad coaches for him. But let's not look at behavior on the field (and what we like or detest) as the indicator of whether or not a team/player/coach would develop someone. Otherwise, we could point out how Donovan whines as a comment on Yallop's teaching skills or how Mathis foolishly retaliates and doesn't work as a commentary on Bradley. And both of those would be foolish examples.
This is my number one gripe with the Hudson regime. Either it screwed up in picking Esky, Stokes and Carroll, or it screwed up on developing them.
Bravo!!! me and you are in the same camp on this one. I happen to believe that he screwed up mostly in developing them so far. as for Adu though, i don't have unreasonable expectations of him. he is a child. but the post i was referring to spoke of being a "prospect" ...... basically meaning potential. and freddy has a TON of that. whether it pans out or not is anyones guess.
If we were to keep Barclay and Tino and let more than one of {Nelsen, Olsen, Prideaux, Kovalenko} go, well, I'll be watching a lot of A League ball.
You really think so? I disagree. Tino has more "talent" than any of those players. I agree with the Barclay comment, but I don't see that Prideaux is someone we should be dying to keep. I would keep Olsen, jettison Prideaux, keep Tino, and allow Nelsen to leave if he wants to go to Europe (which is the word on the street). DC's backline is sooooooo unathletic right now, that they look bad against any team with speed uptop. columbus could have scored 5 or 6 goals if they had just been able to finish on their clear chances.