Why I love to be a fan. The drum circle/party under the overpass in lot 8 is what makes my life complete. Jumping in a circle with my fellow nortenos, barras and eagles was the best moment of my life. If any of you didnt notice, I had tears running down my face ever since the final whistle blew. I love dc. and i love every person who came out tonight. cheers. scott
It doesn't change the fact that he was nonexistant in the second half. He had a few good balls, but had no business being out there the entire game.
For a moment there, I thought you were talking about our team. Then I looked at your profile and it made sense. I'll still watch the Crew and Fire tomorrow if only for entertainment purposes.
Ok, I asked that question earlier and answered it myself. Good news, otherwise we would be missing Hristo.
I'll go one better and say Namoff was demonstrably better in the second half as the left sided midfielder.. Convey and Nelsen moving to the middle were the key points to me.. Previous posters who said Convey did nothing tonight simply weren't watching the same game I was.. He was very active after halftime and the team in general played with more urgency.. I think it's safe to say that Quintanilla has worn out his starters status.. He was getting burned so badly, which in turn put Ivanov in a difficult position, that we were forced to take Earnie off the forward line to help stem the tide on Quill's side of the field.. Players that Hudson gushed about at the post game press conference: Namoff Nelsen Petke Convey Stoitchkov He had kind words for pretty much everyone except Q2 who obviously suffers when Olsen is not in the lineup taking the pressure off of him..
Whine to the coach not at Marco. That was a heroic effort, give him some credit. This team had a fvcking finisher we would have won easy. DC played their hearts out tonight! We tied and earned a hard fought point. Sure it could have been more glamorous to have rallied to win, but we play in a league that enjoys bull$hit gimmicks like OT so f-them... F- the Crew, and F- Garber... WE ARE PLAYOFF BOUND. Thank you Ray, THANK you MARCO (for going out as a true champion) and Thank you DC for having the balls to rise to the occasion once more! Vamos United!
Don't be suprised to see this team come out in a 3-5-2 formation next weekend against Chicago.. With the way Namoff stepped up tonight, it just might afford us the opportunity to slide Convey into the middle (where he is most comfortable) to work in tandem with Marco.. We just might see this next weekend: ------------ Warren --------------- Petke ------- Nelsen ------ Prideaux ------------ Kovalenko ------------ Stewart ---- Etch ---- Convey -- Namoff --------- Cerritos ---- Stoitchkov ------ Hudson mentioned after the game that Hristo was very upset with him because he wasn't starting and Hudson said his performance will make his decision very difficult.. I say stick with the 45 minutes.. We simply can't afford to have both Marco and Hristo on the field for 90 minutes.. It doesn't work well..
While I certainly disagree that Marco was non-existent in the second half, I have to say that he was simply horrendous in the first half.. His long range balls were horrific.. Give him credit though, along with the rest of the team, they all bounced back in the second half and came through.. I understand your loyalty to El Diablo McOwen, but to talk smack about his performance tonight to me is a backhanded compliment at best... I can only hope that the travel and troubles on his mind contributed to his first half "performance"...
I missed the first 20 miniutes of the game exchanging tickets. I guess I was lucky for that. What I saw, though, was pretty good. I like Namoff, Convey, and Stoichkov working the ball like that did. When they were working together on the left, they controlled the game, and created several good chances, including the goal. Namoff needs to be in the game. I've been saying that for the last couple of months. Ivanov is too risky for my tastes. He loves to slide tackle. He may have won them today, but there are too many games where he missed one or two, then we're in trouble. Who's bugging Etcheverry's play in the 2nd half? Were you watching? What did we need to do? We scored the tying goal, and he was a big part of our possession in the 2nd half. He even beat several players on the dribble. He controlled a few offensive attacks, and was playing pretty well. His long passes were often too short, but give me a break. He was fine today. This was the first post-England game for Convey where he has starting looking good. Hristo is the only forward we have who scores goals. He's got to get some playing time, although maybe not as a starter. Call him super-sub. Great game DC United! Welcome back to the playoffs!
Hey, just read Chico's comments in the other thread about what it actually entails to fly from Bolivia on short notice, let alone play. Of course this had something to do with his "performance" in the first half. --Look i am not a blind apologist. I am simply saying that it took TREMENDOUS balls and effort to see Marco go 90+ tonight.
I'm new here, but I remember when Bennie was the new kid on the block. While Etch was not superman tonight, my question is who would be more effective at 70 minutes? When I looked at the bench, there was no one there. Etch was here. He was not going to give the game away.
Picking a MOTM after that one is kinda hard...Hristo had the best game on the field, not just for the goal but also the brilliant ball he put right on the head of Cerritos (enjoy the expansion draft, Ronald). But, you've also got Earnie busting his ass with a groin strain, you've got Marco getting off a plane after what had to be an emotionally heartwrenching week and playing a full 100 minutes, and you've got Bobby finally looking like the player Hoddle saw. That's not to say there wasn't some bad stuff out there: Cerritos is just another in a long line of inadequate forwards, Q2 contributed nothing, Ivanov is going to be made to look absolutely foolish next weekend if he keeps this form. But hell, I get to watch a DC playoff match next week. And if history is any indicator, DC does well in playoff matches. RS
Hristo! Hooray for Hristo! In the final OT period, Hristo was still on fire. Everyone else was walking through the steps, and he was charging for the ball on throw-ins, and yearning to attack. What a man. I came home from St. Louis today especially to make the game. I was thrilled to see a good crowd, and see the buzz. As we played, I couldn't believe my eyes the first half. We stunk. I felt that if we didn't equalize, we didn't deserve to go the playoffs. The tide turned; we showed much heart and grit in the second half. True gut check, and we came up pretty big. However, in general, why do we: 1)...rarely cover the back post? This is fundamental soccer, and we aren't doing it. There were numerous times on a cross, our player wound up chasing the cross over his head, then kicking out, instead of being properly positioned, facing the goal, and well-situated to attack. Note that Hristo's header was from the back post. 2)...hardly ever head the ball DOWN? Two or three beautiful crosses went sailing high over the cross bar, not even a threat to Fat Tony. Only Hristo headed the ball down, and he scored. 3)...screw around wasting time on a dead ball foul outside our box? Why do our players line up 2, 3, and then grudgingly, 4 yards from a dead ball, even when it is not to our advantage to run time off the clock? We set up ridiculously close the ball. The ref comes over and argues. Our players clutch their privates, look around, then shuffle back another baby step. The sequence repeats... This is fine when we want to waste time, but when we don't? Jeez. DC belongs in the playoffs, and we made it today. We may sidle in the back door, but we're in. We deserve to be there, for sheer grit and heart, and we can knock off anyone ahead of us. As Neo might gesture with his hand in The Matrix, "C'mon...bring it on."
My throat hurts from screaming last night!! We're in!!! YEAH BABY!!!! And we're going to have to miss DC United's first playoff game since 1999. My mother-in-law just got out of the hopsital and we're going to go visit her next weekend. I really want to be at RFK, but family comes first.
A lot of fun. When hristro scored the place was unbelievible. Started the game behind la norte, those guys rock. Before the game they had the big drum and were doing the oooooooooooo united! chant/song in the passage leading into the seating, first time i heard it up close. THAT was impressive, i had to get up and go check 'em out, they were hopping up and down, but chickened out from introducing myself to anybody. Honestly w/ all that emotion you can't easily strike up conversation. It was the third home game I attended, and i loved it, love the team, love the fans, LETS GO UNITED!
I could tell from the crowd in the parking lot last night that we were going to bring it strong, thank god Hristo, Marco and Bobby took that energy in the second half and made it happen. The fans were all awesome, sometimes 132 and 133 were starting chants before 134 and 135, La Norte looked full and my daughter got to see classy players and the best fans in MLS rock like they used to before she was old enough to sit in the Nest. Other reminders of old times, the tunnel on the way to lot 8 being filled with hundreds of people singing ole' and tens of confused soccer moms and dads. I heard one dad saying I don't know what it is but they must be happy Oh yeah, how about the guy that passed out behind me
I saw the Hudson/Q1 shoving incident as well. It did seem very odd and somewhat disturbing to me. If Ivanov is on this team next year, I'm going to go beserk. Very, very bad. He'd better not start next week either.
Me too. At first I couldn't tell if Ray was trying to pump him up or was pissed. But after the push it was pretty obvious.
DC United is in the playoffs and the Yanks lost the World Series at home. Life is good! Go DC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't watch the game, so I didn't see the shoving incident, but what the heck is up with Tino? I she really that stupid that he won't warm up correctly? Does he just not care? Does he want to be a professional soccer player or not? I just don't get it. And what's up with wanting Hristo as a coach? He's way to hot-headed, and I'm not sure he would be tactically strong.
Hope you come down and join us again. Next time, take a moment and introduce yourself to me. I'm the fat guy in the black, red and white camos. Sachin
I think I might have been watching another game or something. Those praises to Marco Etcheverry are mind bogling to say the least. The guy seldom ran back, seldom ran at any attacker, seldom made a good pass. Okay maybe we don't have anybody else to put there but that does not mean he played well. HIt means the players we have to play in his position are worse than the bad who is there. He is finished. Would not have a place in any second division team in europe. Give me a break. Santino Quaranta played well? Where? The soul of the team was a 37 year old has been called stoichkov!!!! If it wasn't for him they would have played the second half like the first half, which was "lesson number one in how NOT to pass the ball". Now the fact that a 37 year old has been has to be moved in to put some life into a bunch of "what the hell are we doing here anyway" says a lot about this team, doesn't it?
I really want to say really annoying and offensive, but I'm resisting. Blind loyalty can hurt the team, though. I hope the coaches don't exhibit the same tendency.