Very encouraging that we were able to pick up three points from a team we haven't beaten in awhile, while down three guys right down the center--Boz, Olsen, Jaime. The latter two, by all reports are doing ok as well with their respective teams. Nice to see our offense produce like we know they can. We should never have expected a shutout with a backline like that...but as long as we can outscore the opposition, we'll be ok. As for Vanney, count me on the "skeptical" side. If we wanted age, we should have convinced Pope to retire with us instead of that black hole of soccer he currently plays for.
A 4-1 win last night after going a goal down in the first half. Hmm, sounds familiar. If the rumors are true, glad to see Vanney was able to help his new team last night. Glad to see Fred score his first. I think Ryan Suarez was the first in MLS to do his shirt trick in his Dallas days. Addlery atoned nicely for his first half ghastly miss, by scoring the winner. Good recovery from Saturday's debacle.
What I liked was that other attacking players joined the attack with urgency. Sure Jamie has slowed the attack down at times, but a vast majority of those times, Jamie is looking at a 3 on 8 'break'. With no help, he's forced to wait for support to get into the play. But then it's likely a chicken vs egg argument, players don't jump into the play because they know Jamie will slow it down. Last night, Moose, and Fred from Midfield, and even Gros and Simms from the backline provided quick support to the attack.
Closer game than the score indicates. A very makeshift backline that will be more makeshift on July 4th now that Erpen is gone. The positives were Moose and Addlery. Last year I thought Moose would get the Nick Van Sicklen memorial participation award, but he is progressing each game. I wish he was 8 inches taller (but so do I ), but he has an engine and actually won at least 2 balls in the air. Addlery looked like a zero at the beginning, but he grew into the flow. I think his perfomance last night pushed him ahead of a healthy Kpene and a healthy Dyachenko. Good for him and good for United.
I'm really interested in this development. Watching the 3 of them vie for time is going to be interesting. Can't wait for the goals they will (hopefully) bring with it.
Also I thought Moose played really well. I'm starting to think that we need to get Emilio, Addlery, Moose, Fred and Gomez all in as our attacking players, which means two of the normal starters sit. I hate to say it but Addlery and Kpene have both looked better then Jaime. It might be nearing the end for him. Maybe something like this..... -----Emilio----Addlery---- ---------Gomez---------- --Moose-----------Fred-- ----------Olsen---------- --Gros-----------Namoff- -----Boswell----Erpen---- ---------Perkins--------- I honestly think these 11 are our best 11. At any rate, I think we're a fairly deep and talented team. This would have Jaime and Carroll on the bench. Even Simms looked OK today.[/quote] Has everyone forgotten what Moreno is capeable of? Come on experience is needed in clutch times. Confidence, skill, leadership...The troops need someone to follow into battle. The guy takes care of some international buisness and your ready to have him retire? It makes me ILL!
very pleased with McTavish's performance. And pleased with goals in general. watched the game in the Virginian in Charlottesville, across the street from UVA. at the end of the first half i was depressed. at the end of the match i was thrilled (and smashed). Just throwing this out there, do we have the depth to handle other competitions (superliga, USOC,) without losing steam in the league? I sez yes, and hope Kpene 's injury isnt too severe.
To be fair to him, he was being played in a vastly different position than the one to which he is accustomed.
Come on Matt, if I take all the facts into consideration it greatly limits my ability to make snarky comments.
Fair enough. I thought your original comment was funny, but I have to stand up for Clyde a bit. I actually think he could develop into a useful outside defender in a four-back line (more so than Josh) mostly because he tends to be more of a stay-at-home type. Having Namoff pick up an injury in warmups had the effect of throwing Simms into the fire with no preparation. I certainly think he could do better with practice, but I have a feeling we might see him play on the back line in the Open Cup. It never hurts to develop flexible defensive talent.
Agreed. He's got solid technical skills and good size for the backline. I also don't think he'd be terrible in the center with some training there. To be fair to Simms, he definitely looked a lot better than the first 10 minutes of the Galaxy game where they had to retool the entire formation on the fly to get him off of the backline.
That's something I like about Clyde. He's got a good feel for the game and can essentially play anywhere behind the attacking midfield role. When you consider that he can play 7 to 8 positions on the field, he's quite the bargain.
I thought that considering the hot and muggy conditions the game was played at a pretty high pace. McTavish played much better in the center then on the wing. Not quite sure why Soehn started Simms in the center. It also looked, in the first half that the backline wasn't communicating very well. I thought Moose looked much better and comfortable in this game. He's finally starting to show the promise people saw in him to draft him where they did. Addlery is a beast and should start with Emilio even when Moreno comes back.
I agree with you. For these mid-season games Simms isn't bad to have on the team, he works well with the line up we have playing. However, during more fast-paced, critical games that we are gonna have later in the season I don't think he'll be able to keep with it when our best starting 11 turn it up. Gotta disagree with you there, Addlery looks to be missing the finishing touch on most occasions. Granted he scored the header, Boswell could have easily done the same (which he has). I think the role he plays now is good, maybe sub him in a little earlier since it looks like he needs time to really pick up steam.
Clyde was terrible at center defense, he lost marks and headers, basically any time the ball was in the air. Having said that, he was great on the wing, the exact opposite. he simply boxed people out of plays and forced bad passes. He can play there any time.