The ref was told before the match to fvck us so we can have the excuse after next week's loss to sign Frederick the Great. Garber's master plan is working to perfection.
Oh, i do agree that at times, the midfield is porous. that's why, if i had my druthers, i wouldn't have Eliseo in the starting lineup next year either, nor Marco. You go in with a midfield that loves to run in Convey, Adu, Stewart, Dema, Olsen (a combination of 4 out of those 5). I actually like Martins, and maybe if Quaranta gets healthy, you play him up top with Martins OR keep Stewart up top and drop Quaranta into a midfield role as well. But still, I'm gonna stick with my guns on the backline. We have to hope that REYES comes back healthy because he will seriously help our backline and athleticism, and maybe we will have a coach who actually sees the benefit of playing a guy like Stokes (who kicked butt in the US open cup and apparently in the u-23 games). the addition of those 2 guys along with the other possible changes makes this a totally different, and better, team.
Holy Jebus! I missed the previous Sunday game and this one - the NFL is my first love. However, I assumed United would be anxious and excited to get in the playofs and take care of business. Silly me, what was I thinking? From the comments, I gather we played half-assed, uninspired ball during the match and gave it up in the OT period. Somehow, I'm not surprised. United, I'm ready to send in my playoff ticket request but you have to give SOME sign of life...any sign at all.
I love football too, but dude, you have to come out to the games when we are at home. DC needs more people in the stands cheering. at least come out when the Skins aren't at home!! do what i saw several people do ............. bring your headphones!
Agreed. That was a pure Brazilian two-legged lock & rip maneuver, purely designed to snap someone's leg. 100% of those should be mandatory red cards, and I hope he gets a retro-active red for that eggregious tackle. IMHO, Diego Walsh's actions were far worse than the double yellow that got Esky tossed. Unfortunately, I'd have to say that the ref had little or no effect on the game. While the later PK obviously affected the game more, Hristo's PK was less deserving of a PK than West's. Let's face it, the Crew stunk tonight ... United just stunk worse. We deserved to lose. -Digital
Re: I remember... I'll bet you also remember when United used to move off the ball. In the second half both my wife and I noticed that Columbus was constantly in motion (not to mention way too often stepping in front of a United pass while the United player stood waiting for it) while United players weren't. It may have not been apparent on TV, but it was sure obvious at the stadium where the whole field was in view. United players also were stripped of the ball because they held it too long. The way Columbus was playing required a one-touch game more often than United was able to deliver it. I even heard people in the stands using the phrase that you too often hear from parents at kid's games: "Talk to each other!!" I have never experienced such a sudden silence as happened after the Columbus goal. We all just silently walked out of the stadium as United walked silently off the field (led by Ray...he sure didn't stick around). Funerals have more energy than that stadium had as we left.
LOL yeah, i know how you are feeling about Quaranta, but the guy is 18. I think he deserves one more chance to make good here. If not, hey, we should ship him out.
Until DirectTV starts narrowcasting NFL Direct Ticket to RFK, I just can't pass up the Sunday Football (American) orgy. BTW - I'm a Dallas fan...I despise the 'Skins and revel in the misfortunes of Synder and Spurrier.
One more chance my ass. As soon as he gets healthy he's trade bait. And dema won't be d-mid for us next season. We'll either have Colosimo or someone else, but that is not Dema's natural position and he hasn't done well there that season (as in the actual position, not effectiveness). Dema needs to be on the wing or in an attacking role, not holding back and trying to hold down the fort.
Actually, I doubt this is the lineup next year, because I expect a coaching change. Any new coach is going to cull the roster and bring in players loyal to him. Assuming it's Ellinger (granted, that's a huge assumption), here's one purely speculative lineup. -----------Cerritos------Eddie Johnson----------- ------------------Stewart----------------------- Convey----------------------------------Santino ------------------Senior Int'l------------------- Carroll-------Petke-------Stokes----------Reyes Gone: Etcheverry, Nelsen, Olsen, Prideaux, Martins, Alegria, Stoichkov, Kovalenko, Ivanov Some of those "gone" guys will be traded, possibly Nelsen goes to Europe, but expect a major cull. I certainly wouldn't be certain about Cerritos and Stewart either, but I'd suspect that they'll stay. Olsen leaves because Ellinger's guys include Santino (right winger), Barclay (right winger), Convey (left winger/central creative midfielder), Carroll (left back/left winger/Dmid) who all play the wing midfielder/attacking fullback roles. -Digital
Sad sad sad. this is playoff time man!! this is only week 7 of the NFL. anyway, truth be told, i'm not from this area originally, so i couldn't care less about the Skins either. I DOOOOO hate Dallas though. Hope that you join the rest of us idiots in the crowd for the game on Saturday night though. despite the loss, i actually thought the game today was a good one. i brought a friend to the game as his FIRST MLS game, and he walked away quite impressed with the "quality of play" (goal scoring chances).
Yes....which is why they gave that PK to Stoichkov. I know it was a rough game DCU fans, and yes the ref is horrible, but he really didn't decide the game. If anything he helped DCU, we know the West penalty was questionable. But the Hristo one was a joke, that dive was pathetic and he deserved yellow for it, hell, if you could give red for a dive that would have been deserving. But DCU is actually still in decent shape, all they need is a draw from KC and Columbus has a tough test against the Fire. Even if the Fire rest their stars the lesser players have been doing much of the damage latley. Entertaining match if nothing else, but just too many mistakes and the Esky sub was insanity. How you justify it is beyond me.
Plain and simple, United does not deserve to be in the playoffs. At the moment this is a shell of the team it could be if everyone is healthy. I don't think folks really understand how critical the loss of Olsen and Rimando was a few weeks back. This game showed which players DC should keep for next season and those that should be jettisoned. The out list includes; Eski - what a bust and what a DUMB player. If this were Arena's team you would NEVER see Eski in a DCU shirt again - remember Thor Lee. We actually passed on players like Ricardo Clark to select Eski; Ivanov - what is the point of using up a SI slot for a player who continually looks shaky in the back and seems lost going forward; Alegria - Why is this player on the team, his relative lack of speed and skills shows the league has passed him by. Both the Mad Bulgarian and Etch are mere shadows of the players they once were and need to be retired.
You're out of your mind. Olsen and Kovalenko signed extensions. They're not going anywhere. Martins will be our target forward. Nelsen is the core of our defense. Prideaux may get traded away. If not, he'll be on our backline. If Ellinger is the coach of Dallas, then I could see half of that roster. Barclay is good as gone. So is Etch and Q1. Convey may get traded. I shed no tears for Alegria, Ivanov, or Q2 if they leave.
If we had drafted Clark, he would have played 2 games for us by now and Eski would have led the league in scoring.
Record including OT: 10-11-8 = 38 pts.. Without OT: 10-6-13 = 43 pts.. That's right, we've only lost 6 games in regulation time this season and we're fighting for our playoff lives.. How pathetic is that?
I'm not so sure...here's what I think of some of these guys: Nellie may well go to Europe this winter. That Olsen and Dema signed extensions and Nellie hasn't tells me that MLS may be expecting to sell him while they still have a year of his contract left and are thus able to get something in return. Olsen, then is less likely to go to Europe. I expect him back. Same with Kovalenko. He'll be back which however still makes our central midfield kinda crowded even with Etch retired. Possibly Stewart or Convey will be gone. (Convey may still go to Europe- a non-English team- this winter. Less than a 50% chance, but possible. I doubt that he gets traded in MLS though as since his Europe intensions are well known in the league, and he may go next summer if not this winter, then his value is down.) Implied in Tron's analysis is another trade with Dallas- Stewart for Johnson and a pick? Possible. Quaranta- if Ellinger does become the coach I see him much more likely to stay. Otherwise he's probably gone. Eskandarian- I think all winter there will be rumors of a trade of him to the metros. Who knows if it will happen. Barclay- he'll probably be back if for no other reason than he's a P-40. Martins- I hope we keep him. Cerritos- He'll probably be back simply because it will be hard to trade his salary. Who would want him? If we do trade him it will be for very little in return. Prideaux and Ivanov- both may get traded. Ivanov will be a difficult trade since he's an SI. (Ivanov to KC for Armstrong?) Prideaux will get lots of interest, but we may not trade him if Nellie goes to Europe. Still , we maybe looking at our starting central defenders next year as Petke and Stokes. here's another far-fetched lineup: -----------Quaranta------Eddie Johnson----------- ------------------Convey----------------------- Armstrong------Kovalenko-------------Olsen ------------------Senior Int'l/Carroll------------------- Namoff--------------Petke-------------Reyes Subs: Martins, Cerritos, Carroll, Stokes Obviously this won't happen: too young. But i could see these guys playing big roles next year. With the right coach, this team could rock.
I've been saying this since the injury to Olsen.. I still think we'll be OK in goal but the injury to Olsen was the real killer.. Despite me bashing him earlier this season for his lack of not taking players on or attempting to stretch the defense, he had started to do all those things on top of his usual top notch defense in the last 6 games or so of his season.. Olsen is the one player on this team that is irreplacable and it's no small wonder we haven't won since he's gone out of the lineup...
Actually, what it says to me is that this team is capable of getting results under normal game conditions.. Unfortunately for United, MLS has this dopey 10 minute OT session that has killed this team this season.. Should there be adjustments made to stop losing in OT? Of course there should be, but I'd love to hear just one of them that the coaching staff and the players don't already know about already.. To me, this team is now in a mental block when it comes to OT games and are playing scared and that is what happens when you lose 3 matches in the very last minute of play..
I hope MLS gets rid of OT in the offseason, but I doubt it will happen. If the League is going to be like the rest of the world (as is their goal), then they need to let a tie be a friggin' tie. Either that or amend it: extra sub, silver goal, one 15 minute period, anything than what it is right now.