Deferring on the side of caution and better information, I'll withhold goal predictions til we get a word or two about practice this week, and instead focus on what seems to be the hot topic thus far- how do we squeeze offense from our line-up? And definitely a good idea to avoid looking to far down the road for the team's sake- much better right now 1 game at a time. To answer the scoring question, first we must have a line-up, and decide on formation. Don't think Ray will resort to the Etch-less 4-4-2 we saw at NY, given Etch plays at home, so it's the safe bet we'll see Etch either in 3-5-2 or maybe even a 4-5-1 with Martins,Cerritos or even Stoich up top.So- given the format- who do we plug in? My one hope is that Earnie renews his efforts this week taking corners getting back to what we saw in NY, and takes back the role from Marco. With Nelson and Petke finally reunited at the back, on the pitch hopefully with Martins, we should be able to fly on set-pieces IF we can get it together this week.I love having both Earnie and Marco standing over Freekicks though from 30-40 yards out. Though not nearly a probability, much less a possibility, how great to go 3-0 and get Petke, Nelson, Martins each off a corner/set-piece? I can dream, can't I? oh, never mind that green smoke from behind the curtain....
Throwing caution to the wind, I predict a full-on goalfest on Sunday. 1-0 United (ok, maybe not a goalfest, but it's all relative, right?).
alright, but I started posting about the time that Convey came back, and he was supposed to be dangerous too. And can't you just here the waiter, "Bitter, party of 1?" The goaless stretch (other than PK's) has me bent outta shape. Apologies all over the place.
We have taken 164 corners in MLS League play and scored (wait for it) 0 goals from said corners. Since DC United has scored twice from corners in US Open Cup play, I guess it is theoretical that the team could score from a corner against the Crew. I guess the team really is trying to make a record that NO ONE in MLS will EVER take...
That's more corner kicks, by the way, than any other MLS team. It really is shameful that we've yet to score off even one in league play.
I said it before and I'll say it again, the stat is pathetic. I mean just by sheer dumb *#*#*#*#ing luck and/or Acts of God one should've gone in. Though after watching the hopeless execution of said set piece during the Revs match, I guess I'm really not that shocked.
Does anyone know the percentage of goals scored on corners in the league this season? I would like to know how we are doing in comparison to the over teams.
Several of us noted that corner kicks were a particular problem for DC United earlier in the season. I started a thread about this (https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58952) I was looking for ideas for how DC United could get some goals. For a team that scores as rarely as DC, it seems to be an obvious chance to grab a few goals by improving this one opportunity that DC gets more than anyone.
i believe somebody posted that marco would shank a pk...well you see marco actually makes them...you must be thinking of moreno from last year
Just look at it this way. If we had scored on only 5% of our corners this year, we'd have 8 more goals on the year. In other words, an extra goal every 3 games or so.
It's not a dive when Paule falls into him and Hejduk makes a stupid mistake by taking out his ankles when he doesn't have the ball. True, Etch played the ball into a place he had no chance getting it. Doesn't matter though, because Hejduk lunged in and fouled him. I don't understand how we can be this bad at set pieces. Nelsen, Petke, Ivanov, and now Martins, and we can't even just bundle something awful in? Hell, if you hit 160-some corners into the box with just Nelsen there against a full team of defenders, he'd eventually get one. I have had a long-standing hatred of the short corner, but really...at least we'd keep the ball doing that. Our normal corner is just a ball to the keeper, or cleared with ease by a defender. Occasionally we throw in the ball that lands completely on the other side of the box. I can't even believe I'm saying this, but it's better than what we have going on. *** We need to start aggressively against Columbus, and isolate their defenders. Not just for the fact that, individually, none of them are particularly strong, but also to force Hejduk to stay home. If we let him come up the line, we could be overrun in midfield. I think the quicker play up front when we use Cerritos and Stewart will be key there. We can bring Martins on depending on the circumstances, but I think our best bet is Cerritos with Stewart. I wonder about the lineup. Playing a 352 means that Convey will be put under a lot of pressure with fairly little assistance. I'd rather see a 442: --------- Cerritos - Stewart ------------- Etcheverry Convey -- Kovalenko -- Quintanilla Prideaux - Petke - Nelsen - Namoff ------------ Warren Stoichkov for Etcheverry at 60 minutes. When we make that sub, move Convey to central midfield alongside Kovalenko and let Stoitchkov be a left winger, since that's where he always ends up. Stewart can come back and help with his defensive duties.
Ed Morgan's latest article is up at dcunited.com; http://dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=main&cont_id=209415 Here's a quote from the article: "Even with a backup goalkeeper and a Ben Olsen and Marco Etcheverry-less midfield, Sunday should be the day United comes out with "bad intentions," as Hudson would put it." Is it true that our midfield will be Marco-less on Sunday? If so, why? Cherno
U23s in Florida For those of you who were still wondering about which players were called up for the friendly: 1. U.S. SOCCER: Myernick calls up 18 players for U.S.-Haiti U-23 friendly U.S. under-23 coach Glenn Myernick called up 18 players -- 16 from MLS and one each from the A-League and college ranks -- for the friendly against Haiti Wednesday in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The game is a tuneup for the second-round series in Olympic qualifying Nov. 15 and Nov. 19 against St. Kitts & Nevis. Missing are U-23 candidates from the Chicago Fire and MetroStars, who meet Wednesday in the U.S. Open Cup final at Giants Stadium. Haiti clinched a spot in the second round of qualifying in the CONCACAF region with a 1-0 victory the Dominican Republic Sunday at Miami's Orange Bowl. U.S. U-23 ROSTER: Goalkeepers -- D. J. Countess (Dallas Burn), Josh Saunders (San Jose Earthquakes). Defenders -- Nelson Akwari (Columbus Crew), Nat Borchers (Colorado Rapids), Ricky Lewis (Los Angeles Galaxy), David Stokes (D.C. United), Chris Wingert (St. John's Univ.). Midfielders -- Kyle Beckerman (Colorado Rapids), Brian Carroll (D.C. United), Kyle Martino (Columbus Crew), Jordan Stone (Dallas Burn), David Testo (Richmond Kickers), Seth Trembly M Colorado Rapids). Forwards -- Edson Buddle (Columbus Crew), Landon Donovan (San Jose Earthquakes), Alecko Eskandarian (D.C. United), Eddie Johnson (Dallas Burn), Casey Schmidt (Colorado Rapids). They should all be back Thursday.
I didn't see it but heard that he made something of a scene after the pk at new england. Would that have anything to do w/ marco-less midfield?
Said I was gonna wait for practice info before speculating on a line-up or formation- no cigar for Ed Morgan as his statement fails the journalistic 6 point mantra that we see too often disregarded or at least fall short of these days.(Who,What, Where, When, Why and How). Backup we figure Warren, Olsen's injury- ok, so how'd we get Etch-less, given we play aggressive 3-5-2's for the majority at home? Oh, yeah, and Etch starts nearly every game this year at home, except for the blip in turning over the captaincy to Nelly? Gimme a break already. If you're gonna tell us something, for the Soccer God's sake- tell us something!!! As to set-pieces, said before I hope Earnie bears down and shows us improvement of his corners from NY, and our MLS O-fer should be a thing of the past. His corners of late, as Etch's all season have a habit of floating, giving the defenders a chance to break up any attempted volley. In NY, we saw Earnie drive balls that defenders had less time to react to. And - come to think of it, Olsen's rebound of Petke's volley that game- his goal doesn't count in the set-piece column?
This isn't journalism,, it is a story on a team website ....... there are no editorial or journalistic constraints on any internet stories you read. That being said, it sure would be nice to see why he feels that way. Ed, Steven Goff, and Diceson peruse these threads from time to time, maybe they'll expound on it. I was watching during the NE game and saw one corner that went into the box to find ... one DCU player and 5 NE players within 12 yards of the goal - I know why we didn't score on that particular set piece. Since Petke's header rebounded off the crossbar/post, the next touch is considered to be "unassisted" - one of the weirdest/stupidest things I see in stat generation. I guess it doesn't count as a shot on goal either, also silly. Near as I can tell, if it doesn't go into the net or isn't caught by the goalie, it isn't a shot on goal. Personallly, if it misses by less than a foot or hits the wood (fiberglass?) I would consider it a shot on goal, but that's just me. The sunrise this morning was beautiful, it was reflecting a deep, dark red off of big black clouds - I figured the black and red had to be a good omen for the game this weekend - I can therefor promise a victory ;-)
I predict this game could very well finish off whatever interest I have left in this season--which, thankfully, is almost over. I hope to be proven wrong, and it would be nice to see DCU win it. As long as SOMEBODY scores, I'll be happy. As for seeing a great game, well, I'm not going to get my hopes up.