As usual, no flames - no trolls.. It's halftime right now and United are flat out terrible.. San Jose is up 1-0 on a Troy Dayak near post header off of a terrible soft foul (and subsequent yellow) on Convey.. No life from United whatsoever.. Moreno and Prideaux in particular are simply awful.. They haven't yet quite figured out that we are wearing the white uniforms today.. No pressure at all from the forward pairing (Adu and Moreno) and it is allowing SJ to lauch balls into Brian Ching who is winning every battle and it's a matter of time before he either scores or sets up goal.... I'm not looking forward to the second half as it seems we have no energy and aren't willing to put forth our usual high pressure.. If we lose this game it will be 3 in a row and not a lot of happy United campers on this board.. We will though still have 3 home matches in a row to straighten the ship out but we aren't were we should be at this point of the season and that could get into the minds of the players pretty quickly.. It looks as though it already has to me..
Would just like to take a moment during halftime and register the fact that Prideaux has looked awful all game. No idea why he got the start over Petke.
Cweed- I think you were being a little harsh there. United had patches were they were OK. Bottom line 1-0 was not insurmountable (deficit) and the later tie score indicates. Horrible is when you are down 3-0 at half, etc. Young Fred is getting better, making more runs. Twice SJ takes him down in very dangerous situations...had that not, who knows?
Well, I'll take a point after being down in the first half AT San Jose. Nice gutsy performace by Jaime, going 90. Tracking back on defense most of the game as well. He was clearly gased, but stuck with it. Convey was my MOTM. I thought he carried his effort from Wednesday's match with the Nats over quite well to today (unlike Donovan who seemed to get lost for long portions of the match). Convey continues to impress after returning from national team duty. Solid match and an assist to show for his effort. Good finish by Kovalenko. Otherwise our attack was stymied by some bad first touches by a myriad of players (Adu, Olsen, Stewart) on nice services. And of course, the corner kick drought goes on! Now we're going to see what this team is made of. We've gotten five points from five matches against what are arguably the four best teams in the league. We're back at home for three matches against greatly reduced competition, time to take the full points.
good game ill take the tie anytime especially in san jose. i thought our defense was good i liked the clean tackles and the quick passes. up front i would have liked to have seen moreno get more touches and maybe take some shots from outside the box im glad he got his 90 minutes. good game dc united you made us proud today keep it up.
I can't underscore how massive getting both that goal and the point was today.. If we had lost this game, it could have been a good long time until we could have mentally straightened ourselves out but thankfully the team came to play in the second half.. It's damn good to see the Nicky Rimando of old out there today.. He looked confident in going for crosses and made a number of key saves.. I though Brian Carroll by far was the worst player out there today for United.. Terrible touches and constantly giving the ball away.. Let's hope next week is a solid improvement.. Couldn't get much worse than that though.. He'll be OK.. I thought Moreno had a subpar game as well but looked better in the second half but he still looks gassed by the 70th minute of matches.. Freddy dissapeared for long stretches but damn is he going to be a handful when he finally gets the experience and know how of the pro game.. Prideaux was butt awful for most of the match and then came up aces towards the end of the game with some damn good defending in one-v-one situations.. Nelsen and Namoff as usual were rock solid.. I thought Convey had a good game and imposed himself on the game in the second half.. Great pass for the assist on the goal.. Dema with a clinical finish.. Very nice to see that from any United player.. Olsen, as usual, busted his ass all game long.. Stewart was a little quiet for my tastes today.. He'll bounce back... Great to come out of this match with a point when it was looking pretty hopeless at the half..
Adu was decent. Better of the two forwards out there by far. Moreno just disappeared. Only time I've heard his name are the two times he was offsides. Hardly touched the ball and when he did, did nothing with it. Took too much time. Interesting Adu came off. Would have like to have seen him with Alecko. Moreno got more touches once Adu came off but didn't do much. Adu also looked like it was still fresh and still going strong. Definitly gained more confidence as the game wore on. Too bad his shot got blocked. That left a mark on Mulrooney's back. Not sure why Petke wasn't out there. Shoulda been I think. Convey did great for having played a full game against Mexico Wed. Earnie Stewart, what can I say. Poor shots on goal. They were all high. I think DC should be looking for someone else to take the corners and free kicks. He's not getting the job done. Still has good passing vision but has lost his finishing touch. Best 2nd half I've seen DC play this year. They looked good. Better than the 1st half even. Good job to come away with a draw.
That was purely a tactical move by Nowak and one I agree with in principal.. Though Brandon didn't play well for most of the game (mostly with his horrific passing out of the back, not so much for his positioning) he does have the speed to stay with guys like Donovan and Mullan while Petke doesn't quite match up that well.. Besides, it's nice to know that we can go to the bench for tactical moves when needed..
Looks like the right weekend to add Kovolenko in MFLS. Ryan Nelsen is the most underrated and valuable player in MLS.
And in San Jose, that's a packed house. That stadium is so small that the 25 (players + refs) ON the field seems like the Tokyo subway.
You're right about Ryan Nelsen. Doesn't get near the props that he should. He's very consistent which is a great thing to have.
i thought earnie had good handling with the ball he even looked like moreno with his trick passes. i though nellie was getting all the services from the corners it seemed to preditable. anyway carroll seemed lost in the game i didnt see him make an impact at all in the field.
Yes a very well done job by the Quakes to barely piss pass the MLS average on a beautiful day in which the youngest athlete in professional sports in 125 years makes his first career start. What an absolutely ********ing pathetically dissapointing market. A complete disgrace to the league and any long term considerations of a team there should be long thrown out the window. For crying out loud, they've won 2 of the last 3 cups to boot and they still can't sniff 20k for a once in a season event.
I would just like to say that Brian Mullan is a diving little punk!! Even Wynalda saw it. We did look disjointed today but had flashes of good soccer. A big positive was the team's resolve to see out the match and not pack it in. If the ref hadn't of bought Mullan's chicanery, DC probably pulls out a win on the road. I also didn't think Prideaux had all that bad a match. Atleast he tracks back to defend in the box instead of watching his man score like Petke. Namoff is silently becoming a very solid defender. Nelsen is just a rock. Moreno goes the full 90 and Kovalenko scores a great goal from a great Convey cross. There are many positives to take from this game. Even though DC didn't look its best we weren't being handled by the defending champs in their home. A more cynical ref and a little more concentration infront of goal and DC goes home winners.
It was great to come away with a point onthe road at San Jose after trailing 1-0. This is definitely something to build upon now that United has three home matches in a row against beatable teams. The team busted its collective tail out there. Hats off to both Convey and Olsen for very strong efforts. Nice finish by Dema. Step by step United is growing as a team.
Well, it IS California.....so laid back, it apathetic. It's a strange market, they have some good die hard fans, but I bet that a sizable number of people are scared off by the stadium and it's locale. RFK is a garden spot compared to Spartan Stadium. And the Sharks had a playoff game at nearly the same time. Probably not a huge dent in their attendance numbers, but it's a tough choice for a casual fan.
DC's got to figure out their set pieces problem. They had two direct free kicks near the top of the box and squandered both. Still can't do anything off the corners.
Earnie, Earnie, Earnie..How many 1v1s or breakaway is he going to screw up? In the first half we 2 disposessions on the SJ defence, nothing. ES another 2v2...holds the ball too long gets disposessed. Nowak needs to deepen his bench. Waiting 80 minutes plus for subs almost gave me a heart attack. Convey has energy up the wazzoo. Moreno surprisingly went 90. I wonder if Adu gets the start against Columbus. Even though this will be our first time facing the Cowlumbus Doo. Maybe Earnie should rejoin the striking pair. Get used to shooting at goal. I think He'd play off Moreno well and then we could also move some people around in Midfield.
Just want to add that when freddy shoots on goal the ball is dangerous - even when it hits a defender. He gets the shot off so quickly its amazing. Compare that to Earnie who can't seem to stop aiming for the birds. james