Two terrible teams out there today, though the Metro defense was either not as awful as it usually is, or DC's attack was completely flaccid. Last minute defensive lapses are a particularly specialty of the '02 Metros. Seriously, this game could have gone either way. I'm starting to think that Hudson and Zambrano are nearly identical, 'tactically' (word used loosely): turning loose a bunch of adequate attacking players with no instruction, and making no adjustments, ever. The first team to sack their coach of these two will be the better team for two or more years.
These are the things that must be said about this game and this season: 1st this DCU team just isnt very good. We have players who can play, but most of them are either injured or fighting injuries (moreno, olsen, pope, Quaranta), inexperienced (Q2 specifically for his too important role), or aging (Etcheverry, McKinley, Williams). Next, the bench is just plain pitiful. Lassiter is just washed up. His weapon was once his explosiveness and now he has lost it clearly. Alavanja, as evidenced today, is just out of sync. He might have some skills but has no clue how to use them. Villegas, Alegria, and the rest are just not up to the caliber. In this game, Pope, and maybe Rimando, were the only players to stand out. Everyone else left a lot to be desired. McKinley prior to his injury seemed to be backing up Williams, rather than actually adding anything. The flank play also did not exist with Olsen pushed too far inside and Convey being forced into bad situations. When all the balls are being pushed repeatedly to the left, the defense catches on, and Convey just plain sucked when trying to take on Ziadie. Next, Pope was all over the place but had to cover for every other guy on the defensive end of the field. Reyes got beat all day but Diallo, but Diallo simply blew all his chances. I mean even Faria turned Reyes with ease. He is terrible as a marking back, and needs to be freed up to go up the flank in order to be effective. Do not confuse desperate last ditch, albeit successful, tackles from behind as good play. He got really lucky. Prideaux and Nelsen were okay. Etcheverry, though, has shown that he cannot succeed anymore at this level. I hate to say it but he looked like Valderama out there without the deft touches. Old and slow, hard-working yet ineffective. He just cant pull the strings anymore, though realistically no one else on this team can either. Olsen plays hard, but is still recovering, and needs to find his way back out to the wing. As a forward, he is totally out of his element. This season is gone, but with some tough offseason decisions, DCU can bounce back. There is a core of young guys that can build the backbone, but the aging big salary guys have to go to make that happen.
Boy, ya know I've been trying to say this most emphatically to some or our learned posters over the last 7 days but all I got was "Moreno can't make a PK - Moreno can't finish with an empty net"... Let me ask you something fellow United supporters.. Would you rather have the opportunity to make PK's or miss open nets or would you rather have displays like todays on a regular basis? That is what we have seen in the past two months when Moreno has been out of the lineup.. While I most definitely agree that Moreno is far below par regarding his finishing ability, he at least opens up our offense and creates problems for other teams.. It's not always about who is the fastest or who has the most skill, it's about setting up and finishing opportunities and with nearly every United supporter wanting to ship Moreno out of town, we better get used to results like we saw today.. This team is completely anemic when Moreno is out of the lineup.. Granted, they weren't much better on some occasions with him in the lineup but to my recollection, this was the first game this season where we only had one shot on goal.. We really do miss Quaranta and Moreno.. Remember the last time those two started together? 4-2 United over the Metros...
THAT should be the prize for the best match record between us! Forget a cup, whoever wins the most games this season gets to have their coach fired!
it just occurred to me that we now have sucked almost as long as we were good. 4 years of victory, 3 years of stinking up the joint. bring back sarachan.
The ironic thing about Pope's header was that he did the right thing in heading towards the upper corner.. Howard, for some inexplicable reason, was not centrally positioned and was thus in perfect position to knock the header over the top of the goal.. If Pope had simply headed straight ahead, it would have gone in with Howard no where near the ball.. Watch the replay and see how far Howard is towards the back post... That's how it goes when teams are low on confidence and can't score goals..
The game, apparently. Has Roy done anything for us at all this year? Besides get caught offsides a whole bunch?
Here's the difference between us and the Metros: Our first sub: Lazo Friggin Alavanja, the worst player in MLS Their first sub: Nelson Akwari, a U-23 defender Our second sub: Roy Offside Lassiter, who has had practically zero shots on goal since joining United. Their second sub: Brad Davis, who has several game winning goals and is a standout on the U-23 team. Their subs actually raised the level of play, while ours dragged us down. Hell, Steve Spurrier couldn't do shit with this offense. We had ONE shot on goal from Pope. Why? Because there was nothing out of the midfield. We need to blow this team up. EVERYONE needs to go. Goodbye Etch, go coach the Bolivian National Team. Goodbye Moreno, go pull your groin mowing your lawn. Goodbye Lazo Friggin Alavanja, go back to... ah hell, just go. Goodbye Ivan McKinley, go get your coaching liscense. Goodbye Mike Amman. I'm sorry, but we need our cap space back. Goodbye Ritchie Williams, go become Bruce's new assistant. Goodbye Roy Lassiter, go sell cars. Goodbye Peter Villegas, go get a haircut. Bobby Convey, it's your team. If you're going to be a stud mentioned in the same breath as Donovan, Beasley and Twellman, now is the time to ************ or get off the pot. You're on notice. It's your team. If we win, you get the credit, if we lose, it's your fault. Oh yeah, we want 20 assists. Santino Quaranta, you have to make it through a season. You're the man up front. We expect 15 goals next year. Elisio Quintanillia, welcome to hell. We expect 12 goals and for you to mend relations with the Salvadorans. At least you play with a smile on your face. Ben Olsen, welcome back. We expect you to provide the fire and leadership we haven't seen since you got hurt. Here's the captain's armband. Justin Mapp, you better grow up in a hurry. Oh and learn to play the left side. Pope, Nelsen, Prideaux, and Reyes, We need all four of you to be able to go 90 minutes. This means you Eddie. Nicky-Tikki-Tavi, you better be able to steal a few more games for us. Sachin
I've got to add to this. I've seen some knocks at Richie Williams lately, so I did the same thing. I started counting his touches, and what they resulted in. I must say that he did not give the ball away much. It is true that Richie often plays the safe pass, and if you only count his attacking passes, then his percentage of success goes down. That seems to be a good argument to have him pass to someone else to start the offense. Expect that no one else did any better with their offensive passes today. As to the other criticisms, Richie does not put receivers in bad spots. That is one of his strengths. He makes his mates look better because his passes are controllable ground passes to space or to feet. Richie is not the answer, but he's not the problem, either.
I saw the match. As much as it hurts, I have to question My Man Ray's thinking......Roy subs for Q2??? I may be mistaken but Q2 has been our only man to put points on the boards lately. I must also agree with most of what Sachin posted, the time for change is rapidly approaching. This match was important, and we blew it. And worst of all, to lose to the freakin Scum!!!
This man, is a FUCKING GENIUS! Somebody please make this required reading for all DC United personnel.
crap....I just knew it was coming I turned to my wife and said here it comes....but it will be ok ray will have something funny to say and make it all better
First of all whats the deal with Zambrano with the Ray Ban shades? DCU actually has a good defense IMO, but no surprise--no offense. Why put in Lassiter? I rather have Curtis in there. Convey whats the deal with the over agressive bonehead plays? The problem is the offense needs to practice the fundamentals of passing and ball possession especially in tight spaces. No shots mean not getting the ball to the box to have a OPPORTUNITY to take a shot. No midfield possession. DCU gets the ball the attack goes flat because the possession is being taken away. DCU was working most of the game trying to get to the 20 yard line. One or two passes and stolen. Most the time NY/NJ had the ball on thier side with better passing. Thats what Arena exceled at with his teams ball possession and passing in tight spaces. Hudson needs to work on it. 5 shots in a game is pathetic. On the plus side DCU has a decent defense. Lose the shades Zambrano.
Here's my question. You dumped Conteh and added Lassiter. Why? What can Roy do better then ATC? Is he that much cheaper? Anyone care to explain the benefits to that move........
Well, I just got home to Va Beach from the road trip...so here goes...My most vivid memory of this game (other than the smell, the goal, and those stupid *** fans sitting next to us) will be at or around the 80th minute mark, Ben Olsen is about fifteen feet from Hudson during a throw in...Olsen holds his hands out in disbelief and Hudson uses his hands to say stay out there....Everyone on this trip will agree Olsen was gone after 65 minutes...Anyways, we lost the game, no excuses because honestly there are none left to use.
Sorry Chris, but I would rather have a forward who has the GUTS to give his team some minutes in the most important game of the season. Good bye and good riddance Moreno.
Who, surprise, the Metros just won in a lottery. The front office should be playing power ball with as many lotteries as they win!
Well, it's a tie. Reading this thread is as painful as watching the game. Unfortunately the pain will not end until there are some changes in the DC front office. Marco's and Moreno's problems were obvious by the end of last year. Still DC signed Marco to a new contract. A big mistake. Hard to know what they were thinking about for a coach, but, after rumours of all sorts of coaches who appeared to be familar with American players, they jump at the chance to hire dancing Ray, the pool cleaner. Ray is convinced that DC was 'soft' in 2001 because it had too many young Americans and not enought grit, whatever that is. He fixes what he thinks is the problem and ba-da-bing, you get 6 wins, no playoffs, no promising new players. Ugh! The first step has to be to let Ray go back to cleaning pools. South Florida's pools have never been dirtier. They need Ray. American soccer does not. The second step is to dump all the old guys with big salaries, or as many as th league will permit. The third step is to use the draft effectively -- identify strong potential and jump on it. The draft will not fill all the holes. It might not fill any right away. Players coming out of college have not normally made an immediate impact in MLS. The final step must be to find some mid-priced veterans to fill some gaps. The sad truth is that, even is management follows this plan, next season will still be a trial. You can't rebuild over one off-season. Certainly not when you are as bad as the current DC team. And DC wasted this season in terms of developing younger players. All the promising players are not plying their trade for other teams.
Wait. What the hell was up with Mathis' redneck mustache? Man, that was a failed experiment. I thought he was going to start telling Richie to squeal like a pig. But, he didn't have to use words to tell our team that, did he?