Official Kansas Wizards @ DC United POST Match Thread [R]

My only issue with this is that he may get an Ali Curtis or Deam Kovalenko-like desire to dribble into too many 1 on 3 situations.

Yep, retalliation. But smart retalliation. Get up take note of the bastard's number and keep an eye out for him later, he'll know it, you'll know it, the coaches will know it, but the ref won't.

Midget refs suck.

Goff had an article earlier in the week. Where it was mentioned that Guppy will play the Rhinos this week, and could see league action soon.

I thought he returned to form last night and had several very nice crosses. But Dema and other midfielders didn't make far post runs. But many of Gros's crosses were reachable. But one game does not make a trend, and his crosses so far this year have been of low quality.

 

Right. Because winning games is more important than the health of Esky's brain.

 

It's very difficult as an attacking player to know when or where to make these runs when you have absolutely no clue as to what kind of service you're going to receive from Gros.


This to me is the fatal flaw in Josh' game right now is that he makes great runs to get into position, but when it's time to seal the deal (via pass or shot) he comes up short on too many occasions.

 

Missing Esky isn't our problem. A concussion can be a dangerous thing.

He was, however, wearing a very snazzy outfit yesterday. He looked like a professional poker player. It was his birthday, after all.

On ESPN2's coverage they said he'd be returning soon. Let's hope he returns as the guy from the second half of last year.

 

Andy, nice highlights of the pics to come.

There is no one I know here in DC, except for a friend of mine also from Sacramento, that hates Sasha as much as I do! I played against that guy in high school, he was a punk then and he's still a punk. The only way that guy scores is on luck. That said I'll stop ranting on him.

It was overall not a bad performance by DC. We just were unlucky, Carroll screwed up (sorry B.C. but this has to be the worst I've seen you play). But the team lacked flow on the field. We had some great runs ala Freddy and Nana, but otherwise Gomez just wasn't "in the game". I actually thought Dema looked pretty good, he wasn't as fired up as usual but I think the armband made him a little more cautious than usual.

I'm looking forward to Olsen and Tino coming back. Thoughts for Friday based on yesterday's result, Carroll needs to sit, start Nana. Adjust accordingly.

 

I talked to Eski after the game. He said he is close. Still having sporadic headaches but, it is getting better. He was very nice and genuine at the Youth Fan Club autograph session.
All the guys were great - nice job by DCU to keep the kids interested and entertained.

 

That being said, Eskadarian's health is the most important thing. Whether, he's out for another couple of games, the season or forever, we -- and Esky -- have to deal with it. I just hope that we find a forward besides Jaime who can finish until we Quaranta get back.

I had a dreadful feeling about this game. I was at the Columbus game last weekend and the last thing we needed right now was to play another defensively-oriented team. Last week, the fates (helped along by a couple of brilliant Nicky Rimando saves) were our side. This week, they were not. I worked until around 6:30 yesterday, then watched the closing minutes of the first half and went to the pool. My sense of impending doom was such that I didn't want to watch the tape until I knew the final score.

Well, one more thing. I wouldn't hold K.C.'s style of play against them necessarily although I much prefer our "latin sting" offensive punch style. Anywho, IMO, a good coach simply does what it takes to win with the bunch of players he's got. Arsene Wenger went with a 4-5-1 formation in this year's F.A. Cup Final and, well, he took out van Nistelrooy & Rooney with it -- and that's one reason why Wenger is a winner. Sasha Victorine's goal last night was outstanding and the Wizards did well enough to deserve the win. Enough said.

Well, I'll be at the San Jose match this Friday. Let's hope that we figure out how to finish by then.

 

Good point.

Regardless, Dema shouldn't be at the midfield stripe when the team is attacking. It really wasn't a matter of players making the wrong run, or mistiming runs, some runs just weren't made.

 

The team needs to address head injuries/concussions the same way that the NHL does. Light workouts at best until the headaches go away for a week. Then you can assume that your brain has healed and you can move on. The way that Eski has kept moving forward, regardless of headaches, has me worried about his future. He needs to go see one of the brain specialists and get himself sqaured away as to what to do next time, because it seems like there will be a next time.

 

Josh Gros has several poor crosses per half, regardless of which foot he's using.

If he's going to keep hitting substandard balls over and wide of his attackers, he might as well just try to shoot near post every time. Maybe one of those will go in.

 

Hear! Hear!

 

Actually I completely missed Freddy getting Guttierez back. Good for him.

That was so blatant when he threw that 'bow.

 

I thought Kennedy did a surprisingly good job, especially for what I was expecting based on his usual performances.

If you knew one of the top 5 players in MLS was going to be out with a minor injury before the game, would you want to give your hand and let Gansler and the Wizards know about that advantage beforehand? Might as well try to surprise them with something they weren't prepared for in the speed of Walker.

Also, he was a gametime decision. The injury happened on Thursday reportadly and while Goff could have written about it on Friday or Saturday, Nowak & Co. probably kept mum on the subject since they didn't know if he would be ready or not.

Ah, I see that you beat me to this revelation. Like I said in another thread, Steve Guppy will be worth every penny of his $120,000/year salary if he can teach Josh Gros to cross. Gros is superb at creating the space to cross a ball, but he almost routinely hits the absolute wrong ball for the given situation like he has no clue what he's doing in that position.

If he could cross well, like Olsen in his first three or so years in the league or a Ralston now (not necessarily as good, but closer) United could average another goal per game at least.

Agreed, but don't forget about Arnaud. He goes down easier than Dempsey and almost as badly as Ruiz.

Also, and this isn't regarding Hal's good series of points I just don't want to make another post for it, Dema may have gone down fairly easily (read: he didn't try his hardest to stay up) on Garcia's challenge in the first half, but if you look at Andy's photos posted in this thread, Nick clearly gets Kovalenko's leg enough to bring him down. Not saying it should have been a penalty since Garcia clearly got ball first, but I've seen some complaining about his diving but frankly if there's contact in the box and you aren't going to get the shot off afterwards, you go down.

 

Brian Carroll made a bad pass that KC scored soon after.

But that's not what lost the game people. DC's lack of ability to take shots, and score goals lost the game. Our playmaker, Christian Gomez's lack of effort and quality lost the game. Nowak starting Walker lost the game. Freddy not tucking his shot in at the end of a GREAT run lost the game. ALL of these things lost the game. Not one bad pass.

Carroll made a horrible pass at the worst time, but until that point played a great game with his passing, defense, and all out hustle. That's why Nowak plays him.

But i guess no one is going to say anything bad about Gomez's laziness that led to KC running downfield with the ball that led to Carroll's play. Gomez and Walker both should've been off at HT.

Jeff

 

If you're going to criticize Walker and Gomez for offensive woes, you must also criticize BC for his ablity to break up a United attack just as well as he can break up a KC attack. BC great hustle, and defense I agree with, but when he tries to make a pass upfield, 9 times out of ten, he turns it over.

Starting Walker was a mistake? Are you advocating Jason Thompson? Nickell? Or Kuffour? With injuries and callups, Nowak was kind of limited. And I think everyone saw that Walker brought more to the game against Columbus than Kuffour did. Did Waker dissappoint? Yes, but I don't know how you could really predict otherwise before the game.

 

That fancy crap helped him beat two defenders 1v1 and put him in an excellent position to score. Now he just needs to learn to finish.

I'm not going to criticize Adu for pulling all the tricks out of his bag to move the ball towards the goal and taking a few low percentage shots on (or near) goal. Very few on DCU seemed to be doing it.

 

The more I think about this game, the more I think it was a "must win" for us. I don't normally buy into the whole "must win" mentality for midseason games, but here's why I think it applies here:

There is no reason to lose this game. If you can't beat a team that is very 'beatable' and in your home stadium to boot, you're in trouble. Yeah, it would have been great to have Jaime, Quaranta, and Olsen play, but frankly, the team on the field should have been able to put this one away - I saw a lot of players without the needed intensity, and Gomez looked gassed at the 60' mark!

WTF is going on?

 

I am approaching full-blown panic mode.

Since last season played out where we went on a tear at the end and won the cup, I think we have been more than patient with the current team and roster. Many of us here thought that with Jamie, Gomez, and Eskidarian, we would be fine up front. Our big concern was supposedly with the defense.

This is not the case. We are defensively 'good enough.' We give up a goal every once in a while due to a Nicky/Boz/Stokes/Carroll mistake. That's fine. We just can't seem to score.

We didn't turn it on last season until August, when we tied three times in a row and then climbed the table. That happened when we added an Argentinian attacker. This year we plan on adding an Argentinian defender.

I hope that defender can score a lot of goals, because otherwise I can't see where they're going to come from.

 

The frustrating part about the match was that it seemed like we were dominating the majority of it. KC didn't look dangerous very often, their goal seemed to come from nowhere.

The last pass was definitely an issue last night. Walker seemed very tentative, Nana was an improvement in that regard in the second half. Freddy did well, but he couldn't finish either. I thought for sure he had one in the first half after dancing around two defenders. We're sure missing those goals Esky brought last year.

It's getting tough to watch these points slipping away...

 

A couiple of stray thoughts: Lots of comments about Freddie missing his chances, but he made some AWESOME passes during the game. I still think he's an attacking mid and not a striker.

I sear I saw Gomez give Freddie a high five in the box lat ein the game. Just a quick flash on the screen. Anyone else see that. It looked sincere enough to me.

Lot's of hope over Eski's return, but he hadn't scored before the concussion either. We need desperately to find a scorer somewhere. Hopefully this extended break has allowed all his various hurts to clear up.

 

9 times out of 10? Did you watch the game last night? It was more like 9 times out of 10 he made, not only a good pass, but the correct pass.


Easily Nana. He's got the raw ability to make something happen. Walker was a waste of space out there.

jeff

 

Taking the long view, you have to wonder how long Gomez and Kovalenko can expect to stay on the DC roster, particularly considering their relatively large salaries. Gomez is just not fit and I wonder whether he ever will be. He looked like he was cramping up at the end of the first half and played like it for the rest of the match. Dema was Dema -- a certain amount of hustle and bustle, but absolutely no feel for the game. His hospital ball late in the game almost got Stokes killed. And if leadership was missing, you have to point the finger at these two.

Tactically, DC had the better of KC. By the end of the first half, the Wizards had given up trying to work the ball through mid field and were resorting to hopeful balls over the top. Say what you want about Carroll, Symms and company, they were able to command the middle of the field for most of the game. Until the last 20 minutes or so, DC was also able to attack quickly once it gained possession.

Sadly, playing without a true scorer proved a fatal error. Walker works hard and has a decent first touch, but, after that, his skills are nil. Once Nana (and Nickell) entered the game, KC had a thousand or so players behind the ball and there was not much to be done.

At the risk of re-starting the "let's get a target forward" movement, it would help if DC had a forward taller than the average midget. Crab all you want about Gros's crosses, but who was supposed to be on the receiving end? And, as one of my companions commented, why don't we just skip the corner kicks and give the opposition an immediate goal kick. With yesterday's lineup scoring from a corner kick would require divine intervention.

As long as Freddy played up top with lots of room to roam and with limited defensive responsibilities, he was the bomb. Shavar Thomas is still wondering where he is (see pictures posted earlier). Once Nowak moved him deeper -- to make room for Nana, he was much less effective, and probably more than a little tired.

Gomez and Freddy don't "click' on the field largely because Gomez isn't comfortable playing at a fast pace and isn't the sort of attacking player who makes good runs without the ball. Christian is most likely to hang around the middle of the field waiting for someone to win the ball and pass it to him so he can turn and attack. That's fine as far as it goes, but if Freddy has the ball, he needs someone to make a good diagonal run away from the ball, not stand there waiting for service.

Despite a good level of hustle, DC did not do a consistently good job of running the field, both to fill spaces on defense and to provide additional options on offense. Too often, no midfielders came back to fill in behind a defender who was delaying the Wizard with the ball. Too often, players were standing watching Freddy or someone else make a good run, without moving forward to support. Nana had a great run up the middle and wisely pulled the ball back when he saw that four defenders were converging on him in the middle of the field, but, once he did, he had no one on the wing to pass the ball to. Dema, Josh, where were you?

Once again, attractive soccer and winning soccer proved to be different. DC now faces a dilemma similar to that at the end of the Rongen era -- how to take advantage of the obvious offensive skills of some of its youngsters and still play with enough discipline and control to win the game.

 

I must say - I have to see my doctor about some Lithium. The alternating angst and euphoria on these boards is making me bipolar.

Last night's game was simply boring. No great conclusions can be made, in my opinion, about what's going to happen the rest of the season. I think the team learned last year that they don't have to really turn it on until later, and let's hope when they decide to really turn it on it's not too late. And yes, I think this team is capable of winning MLS Cup, because when they play great they play as great as any other team in this league. And when they play poorly......

I made it a point to watch Brian Carroll closely last night. He actually played well, and the majority of his passes were excellent. And then that one boneheaded play cost us the game. That's the life of a defender. But face it - Freddy should have scored that goal. And if he had, the two best goals in MLS thus far this year would have come from almost the same spot (thinking of Ruiz and that bicycle).

Gomez didn't have his best game - maybe he was just lost, his first game without Moreno (I think). But he'll adjust, when and if he has to (and let's hope he doesn't have to).

Dema, in my opinion, is our worst starter right now. I look forward to other options on the wing, including Guppy, Quaranta, and Olsen. I have faith in Esky, and faith that Moreno will be back soon - all the better for his rest.

So, on to Friday, and breaking San Jose's unbeaten streak.

 

What about when he broke up a United 4 on 2 break by passing directly to one of two KC defenders? If you look at all of his passes a lot of them are good, and correct, since most passes from him should be short or square. His problems arise when he tries to 'push it' and thread passes. It rarely gets to a United player.

You can say that now, but Nana wasn't very productive last week against Columbus, whereas Walker was. This week the two players swiched, and Walker was unproductive and Nana had some spark. It's tough to coach/manage when your players are inconsistant.