I agree. You really have to wonder what the coaching staff is doing if it is sending a message to players that some games really don't count, that its ok just to go through the motions. These guys are supposedly professionals. Some are paid significant money, maybe not to the level you can make in Europe but still decent. What ever happened to the idea that EVERY game during the season needs to count. That MLS has too many meaningless games because all you have to do is make the playoffs. Hell if thats the case what's the point of season tickets or following the team until a few weeks before the playoffs start. Go tell Kevin Payne and the DCU Front Office not to bother us until they get serious. In the mean time I've got better things to do with my time and money. As you said, teams with serious ambitions for winning do not entertain this type of mentality at all. They can't.
Is it the consensus here that the regular season doesn't matter? Does Beckham and the Galaxy think the regular season is meaningless? I for one think that there are enough decent teams in this league that it's not going to be a cakewalk to get in the playoffs. for certain, if we play like this .......... well, I don't even want to think about it. This team is going to win some games big, but they are also going to have to scrap out some gritty wins along the way. The idea that the regular season means nothing could be a very dangerous way of thinking.
I had this game as a loss when I reviewed the schedule before the season started. While I'm not thrilled with the scoreline, Soehn's lineup tonight showed me he was phoning it in and I'd be more upset if our first choice XI got stomped like that. As far as I'm concerned, the Supporters' Shield is a joke and I'm sick and tired of United burning themselves out to win it at the expense of a solid MLS Cup playoff run. Remember, those four stars on the jersey don't stand for our four Supporters' Shield wins. Besides, with the expanded CONCACAF Champions' League, winning the Supporters' Shield is much less important now anyway.
Publius, your avatar & tag line rule. Ben Olsen was hurt, right? Why no Gallardo? Was he hurt or suspended? It's hard to control the ball on our crappy recycled tire field located at 4500 feet of altitude; but Gallardo could have made a difference. Moreno was your best player. Is there a picture of him somewhere getting old and slow? The Barra Brava in the corner was cool. I saw a couple wearing DCU shirts. They had 2 adorable daughters who played with my daughter in the bouncy house. Hopefully, no one hassled them.
-Emillio is not in form -Why did they play the scabs -When is Benny comin back -god damn turf -Rimando is good -Why did Rongen compare Peralta with Vanney
in the pre-game thread, i said i was hoping to see the 3 man back line cause it looked good against pachuca. that assumed that martinez would have actually played in it though. what i don't get is why mediate started back there - has he ever played left back before? especially when you've got burch on the field but not back there. if you're going to give martinez a rest, the defense should have been namoff, peralta, mctavish, and burch and mediate in the midfield if he's out there at all. people have been giving peralta a lot of praise (up till tonight anyways) but i have thought martinez has been our most solid defender so far this season. i'm fine with the decision to give gallardo some rest, given that field. that is the last time we'll ever have to see a game there, right?
Wow! A lot of negative energy tonight. I understand that the game was poor but what did people expect? DC rose it's game to a level that it had not done before on Wednesday night. When you have a team that is still inconsistent, you know what is coming next. When you add to the equation that they are the one, single team in the league that is hurt the most by astroturf (RSL play like an astroturf team with route 1 ball Bootsy, New York does not) and that RSL is a lot better than they were before, this isn't the most unpredictable score in the world. People always think that you are better than you really are after a win and they think that you are worse than you really are after a loss. I am just a little surprised by the level of negativity. Games like this are the tuition for playing in the CCC. I would think that more people would be used to it by now. I'm not saying that it was a great game, but from the way some people are describing it, we can't even have a winning season this year and we need to get rid of Soehn who, by the way, coached the game of his life on Wednesday. Some losses you need to let go. This is one of them.
Goff's story is page one. Love it. Not even the home opener was page one I think. Two choices: a) this is our new forum tagline, b) title a new thread and sticky it Anyway, I'll be in the minority I guess. Although, those most heated about a result are also those most likely to comment quickly so perhaps the less motivated will turn out later. I'm not really upset about this game. I turned it on a few minutes before the second goal, and perhaps that tempers my expectations a bit from the start, but upon gathering information on our starters and formation and other tactical decisions, it seemed clear to me that we didn't particularly care about this game. I mean, seriously, we approached it like a preseason game didn't we? New keeper, new defensive setup, with a questionable choice in Mediate (who would be a questionable choice anywhere to start IMO, but only GK and center defender would be more questionable than this), new front line organization, an experiment on the wing with Burch, and we literally started only 6 players from our assumed optimal best 11. Players who did not start: Olsen Gallardo Wells Martinez Quaranta (in place of Burch in midfield, not Olsen) To think we can start half our first team, away, on turf, with a new keeper, new defensive setup, against anyone, at this point in the season, and WIN the game is ridiculous. We don't even have chemistry for our best 11 yet, so I'm not sure how this rag-tag group is to be expected to do well. If you want to have a problem with Soehn for his decisions for this game, that's fine by me. I'm personally going to wait and see on balance what happens before I'm upset about it. Now, should we expect them to get embarassed? No. Our offense should have created more chances. I cannot discount the turf field interrupting our style of attack and making it difficult to get into a good rhythm, but I would have expected at least 1 goal from that group of players. That's disappointing. However, even then, I honestly believe it was a tactical decision to play our game despite the field conditions. Look at RSL's style of play. How many times did players just mindlessly boot the ball upfield? It led to goals twice. They know we aren't used to the surface and the wanted to make sure we always had to deal with bouncing and skipping balls. It worked. We decided not to play that way. We decided to play our game. Which, IMO, this early in the season is the right decision-- in particular because this is hopefully the last game we'll ever play on that type of surface. These early games are important for building your system and cohesion, and especially for the reserves they need to get used to play WITH the starters, not just hoofing the ball. All of that said, we were depending on good performances from Peralta, Namoff, and Carvallo to keep things together. Carvallo blew the save on the second goal (out of position, poor decision not to cut angle) which really blew the game open. Peralta handed them the "header" goal (not used to the bounce) and didn't seem very interested throughout. And Namoff failed to adjust his marking and positioning to cover for Peralta on the first goal. If any one of those players makes the right play, and the offense produces at least one goal, we lose 3-1 and it's not all that bad really. Thursday will be interesting and will answer many of our questions from this game. I would be upset if we had lost to a "clearly inferior team". However, look at the players we put on the field, where we put them, and the instructions we gave them. Like the KC game, you're going in for a draw, and will chuckle with glee for a win. Taking a loss is no big deal. You'd just hope to take a better one than that. Moving on.
A vendor was telling me about a new server they're installing for a service we use. He called it a "sitruc sytems server." My first thought was "damn, is there anything this guy can't do!" I was disappointed to find out it was a Citrix Systems server. But not as disappointed as I was in our passing in the final third. Oh well, last year we spotted the league 9 points to start the season. And we never do well in SLC or ColoColoRado. Sachin
Nobletea, alot of your points are right. The lose last night did hurt but you have to look at it in different angles. They just got done with a tough Pachuca team in DC. Then they fly over to Salt Lake and the elevation. Then they have to deal with the turf ( which you could tell was giving united all sort of problems during the game). The play against a revamped Columbus team on thursday. I would rather have united fresh on thursday then use starters last night. Nobody was planning on losing 4-0 last night but all we can do learn from it and when rsl come to town later this month we will have to beat the **** out of them. It is way to early in the season to be freaking out about the result. So just pack your bags and move on.
Even though it was horribly frustrating to watch that game, I am with Nobletea. I'm sure a night's rest was the difference. Otherwise, I am with everyone else.
Colorado started it's opener with 6 starters out and rolled the Galaxy. New England started this past Wednesday's match at KC missing Twellman, Ralston and Albright and still managed a 3-1 away win. We did lose to a clearly inferior team. The rest of the MLS season will bore that out. What got exposed today was a lack of tactical thinking combined with an effort from many players that was way below par. Going into this match attempting to play the same offensive formation as against Pachuca was insane considering the changes made to the team. Again, I think we can all accept a loss on a terrible field, but how is it that many other MLS teams roll into Salt Lake and beat the crap out of them? Why is it so different for them yet we continue to be completely baffled by it? And seriously, what is with all the excuses from the team about the surface? You should be able to beat them playing on ice. The bottom line here is that this team mentally checked out before they got off the plane. Soehn incorrectly assumed that he could put out any hodge podge lineup and still get a result. How many losses will it take in Salt Lake for Soehn to realize this? When you don't play to win, performances like this tend to happen. Now, with that being said, getting drilled 4-0 simply doesn't happen to this franchise very often. I suppose it was inevitable, you just never expect it to happen in Salt Lake. Houston or Dallas maybe, not Salt Lake and that is ultimately the hardest part to swallow.
Basically, what this game establishes is that we've got no depth. This team sort of reminds me of the good Ravens teams of several years back -- a very few outstanding star players, a few very good role players and a bunch of scrubs. You really have to wonder how many more chances (if any) some of last night's starters are going to get in critical game situations or at the positions at which they played. No need to name names -- we all know who they are, they know who they are and the brain trust certainly knows who they are. One further lesson to draw from this disaster is that the league is going to be strong this year from top to -- well, I suppose that we can leave Toronto and San Jose out of this. In my opinion, Salt Lake is vastly improved and, crap field or not, really took it to us. Beckerman is a monster -- he certainly can play for my team anytime he wants -- and they've got a couple of dangerous speedy forwards. Dema got some measure of revenge -- we could sure use his spit and vinegar . . . One final thought -- it's time to see if one of the scrubs can step up and make a contribution. Mister Stratford, Mister Neill and Mister Kirk, are you out there? Man, I sure wish that we still had Nicky as our backup goalie.
And insanity ensues . . . even from "1/2 Full" it looks like people are ready to stick the gun in their mouth while jumping from the Washington Monument. Are you kidding me? What year hasn't DCUnited embarassed itself with a total flop of a game? That being, I've got to agree with Onefineesq and Bootsy that the league is much better. Having seen all the MLS games, other than Toronto, who will be everyone's bitch until Carver and Mo Johnston are replaced by Ritchie Williams/John Harkes and friends (call that a "nugget" to suck on), every team in the league, including San Jose are better. So, why doesn't this game matter? There are two strategies to each season. The first is to be the best team. A team capable of earning enough points to feel confident that it will be in the Supporters' Shield race at the end of the regular season. With the CCC Champions' League and SuperLigua on the horizon, taking up valuable chunks of time and energy, realistically DCUnited isn't going to have the team to go after the SS. Let's face it liteally 1/2 of the team is new this season! We don't even know if some of the rookies are capable of playing in the Reserve League let alone regular season. The second strategy is winning MLS Cup. Win four games at the end of the season when there are no other distractions. It might be that your team needs to have a good run in the final 10 regular season games to simple get to play-offs. That certainly might be the case with DCUnited this year, but I think the team is good enough to get 45 points without much worry. RSL was a 3 point game. Toronto was a 6 point game. Remember the playoff format, assuming it doesn't change. The top three teams in each conference are seeded, then the next best two. Any game against Eastern Conference opponents automatically takes on a double significance. So logically, if DCUnited considers the international games to be important - and I think it is now an ego thing for the braintrust, no matter what the competition is - and the team isn't likely to be competitive in the SS race, then when you play Western Conference opponents, you play with your lineup, formations, and all that other crap.
I am dissapointed with Comcast. They let Direct Kick show the game live starting at 9:00, at the very least they should have blacked-out the entire game.
Let it also be stated on the record that DC United ALWAYS has a horrible game after getting eliminated from the CCC. In this case, they also played without their attacking midfielder (who also happens to be their designated player), one of their starting defenders and their starting goalie.
No team in MLS has depth. Especially those teams that use up a large part of their salary cap on DPs. The "middle-men" of MLS have been squeezed out. That's the Noonan's, Goodson's, Jaqua's and yes Perkins' of the league who've gone abroad to get paid. So the team that'll do the best is generally the one that drafts the best. Then you've created depth from nowhere. For example NE drafting Wells Thompson and Adam Christman last year, who they could pay nothing but contributed greatly. Then they snag a couple of Gambian U-20's who they're paying 17k a year to light up the league. We're a team of veterans that we pay quite a bit, but we're paper thin after that. Our drafting skills aren't that bad. We draft Luis Robles and he goes to Kaiserslautern instead. (By the way, he may be 2nd on Kaiserslautern's depth chart next season. He's doing very well) OK fair enough. We draft Jacobsen and he goes to League UHHHHHHH instead. OK fair enough. I think we're still going to win the supporter's shield, though. I'll take our "A" team against any other in the league. If those veteran starters go down injured or get tired come playoff time though, we're thru. Hell, if Emilio gets hurt where are the goals going to come from? Franco Niell? I don't think so.
i think this was bound to happen after the month we had. i was not expecting 4 naught but hey it happens sometimes----- that field (if we can so dignify it by calling it a field) is utterly obscene- im glad gallardo did not play - if it was up to me we would have put the reserves out there. you get your leg caught in that ************ turf and snap your knee you can end your career. i would bet gallardo said, im not playig on that, and rightly so. we never have to play there again EVER thank god. and we have never won there...i think it is obvious why we have never won there... the big bounce game bwahahahah pathetic it is a style of football for 5 year olds in an indoor rink --- we play possseion style quick crisp one two stylistic football -- hard to do on that crappy obscene surface my friends--- it is better for it to have happened now and not later--- let it go folks---- good to get it out of our system-- we play them at home on the 26th of this month so we will fillet their flesh and eat their brains out of there head while they are still alive with our bare hands. not to worry. utterly ************ result. but hey, it happens sometimes lads. im not to worried about it. further more it is behind us, and we need to be ready thursday for the crew. we had a crazy month travelled more than any european team in the champions leage would have and basically in the preseaon, so hey, we are just getting going for this year... we have got good players and we should be fine. in the end it is amazing that we can compete toe to toe with all these teams in the concacaf region considering the timing of the competitions, and the size of our club.. man we will get there again, im sure of it. but now the season is in full swing and we need results. more importantly we need the boys to gel.