On a positive note, concessions were awesome last night, and I even found something called "Red and Black Ale" on tap. Delicious! I think it's brewed by Old Dominion. I'm not sure if its new or just new to me, but either way, it's good.
I stayed up until midnight on a week night and drove home through thunderstorms and tornados for that? YHGTBSM. This team is well on it's way to sucking.
If you get paid to play a sport for a living, how much more motivation do you need to have. I'm sittin' here at a freakin' computer eight hours a day. Perhaps I should send them a picture of my hungover fat arse and that will convince them they have the best jobs in the world and should freakin' well be acting like it.
Emilio needs to go - i don't care where, just get him the hell out of DC. he does not pass to the right, EVER. he must be blind in his right eye - several times he was holding the ball and someone came from the right side and took it. Did anyone see Emilio run last night? besides to the Fire's keeper when he had the ball? he is cooked and proves that the MLS is the retirement home for international soccer players. let him finish his career stocking shelves at Whole Foods. this team sucks and Emilio is doing his best to kill it. i have never seen someone so consistently take the ball to the inside away from space as Emilio does. i swear he wants to tee up the ball on the PK spot and do his stupid arm zing move. GET RID OF THIS ASS CLOWN NOW -Steve
It wasn't just the Pinto, but the Bobcat and Maverick had similar problems. It's just that the Pinto was the one that took the rap for it. My younger cousin thinks now that the middle name for the car is Exploding.
Apart from stinking up the field last night, Dyachenko is damn lucky he didn't get a straight red for that bullshit tackle on Thorrington late in the game. Peralta looks completely lost in a 3-back line. Quaranta is not a defender; stop playing him like one. Niell is not a target forward at 5'3", and he lacks the ball skills to slot in behind the forwards; complete waste of payroll. Burch needs to figure out how to use his right foot. Emilio....WTF??
I avoided posting here last night in the hopes that my outlook would mellow out a bit. It did not. I agree with most of the individual player critiques that have been made; that said, my two cents: 1) Dyachenko- I am sick and tired of friends and BS posters singing this guys praises. He is slow, terrible at tackling and makes poor distribution decisions. He has had two or three good games for United in the last couple of years, that is it. He might have outlasted Kpene and Addlerry on the team, but his days here are numbered. Two $#@!& 1st round draft picks for this guy too. 2) Emilio- A number of you keep pointing to his supposed talent as a reason to leave him in the starting line up. Where is it? He must have left in Brazil when he went back over the winter. His first touch has been crap and there are no touches beyond that because the ball is being taken downfield by a defender who gladly snatched it up. What service he has been getting (I'll admit to the fact that he has been left hanging by our wing play from time to time) he squanders. DP now, eh? I think the team might have been better off spending that money "boosting team morale" in Vegas. 3) SHOOT THE DAMN BALL- Our team has been a posession team. I'm used to the South American style passing. Yes, it can be frustrating but at least its pretty and led to goals. Now, with Emilio playing like he is Britney Spears at the Video Music Awards and Fred injured, there doesn't seem to be anyone willing to take a shot. The second half last night was even more painful due to our midfield/forwards's refusal to shoot. Hell, Martienez got the whole way up to the 18 yard box and took a shot! Chicago did effectively defend their box, but we didn't even try to pressure them. After our team is done running suicides as punishment for our performance, we might be well served by some one touch shooting drills. 4) Posession- A number of you have touched on this already, but our backline is being completely thrown off by the midfield's inability to hold the ball. The second our back line moves up to support the attack Dyachenko or Q or Burch loose the ball and leave the back line in a lurch. Martienez is fast enough to deal with this, Peralta and Namoff aren't. For all of Peralta's issues this season I think his problems last night were on the shoulder's of the midfield. After the team is done with those shooting drills they need to play a few hours worth of posession drills. Maybe Nowak can come back and run them... 5) Prepare the boat to the Vietnamese Third Division- I'm ready to stamp Niell's head with a "return to sender" stamp. Goff mentioned possibly unloading Emilio in his DP signing post yesterday, assuming Emilio continues to play like crap. I'm thinking he'd be a star on Đồng Tâm Long An F.C.. United already opened an affiliate in Vancouver. I'm thinking we'll have more than enough rejects soon enough for a South-East Asian affiliate. I haven't hit the panic button yet, but I definitely have the plastic cover flipped up and the fancy key in the slot. Emilio needs to watch the next game from the pine. The FO needs to find the wingers we've all been begging for since the dark ages. Finally, we need to find a way to get this team to gel. It looks like we speak 11 different languages out there. Its not time for the fire sale yet, but I really hope Payne found some new acquisition targets in Argentina for the summer.
In my disgust, I forgot about Dyachenko's tackle. I can't believe he wasn't sent off. I guess that at least proves that Vaughn isn't a biased ref, he's just a terrible one.
That's too good for him; he'll have more pho than he'd know what to do with him. I'd say send him to the Isles of Scilly, the world's smallest league. He'd only have two sets of supporters to tick off.
I actually thought Vaughn did a good job. It was a tough game to referee - trying to keep the game flowing while bodies are flying all over the place can be really difficult. He tried to play advantage as much as possible, but we really gave him no choice on the cards.
Things not said after last night's loss 1. After 2 years of peaking early and being bounced from the playoffs, let's relax a bit and try to let all the new players gel. 2. Luciano Emilio - After winning the MVP award, it is predictable that a player may let his success go to his head in the off-season... to me Luciano looks OUT OF SHAPE (this is correctable, Tom Soehn?) 3. Tiny players now handicapped in pro soccer. Look at how big players are now in the premiership, Franco Neil will have to be that much more skilled, determined, fit, etc. to make it in this league (lotsa luck). 4. Dyachenko & Quaranta don't have the skillset to be midfielders, have you ever seen so many dubious tackles? Try them at forward (at least they have some height), if they are not productive, bench them. 5. Lay off Marc Burch, he should develop into a fine wing-back and can be special on set peices. 6. Where was McTavish? To me he's proven in defense and midfield. 7. Clyde Simms had too much to do, surrounded by illegitimate midfielders, he had to be the boy with the finger in the dyke. 8. Credit where credit is due, Chicago is a very good team. Senor Blanco and David Beckham are the league's two best players. TGIF
Franco Niell waves to the crowd after the game... How can Rod Dyachenko pass the ball forward when his eyes are clearly on the sides of his head? $180,000 right there that could have went to Christian Gomez. If MacTavish was healthy, he should be starting in the center next to Martinez. Peralta bites it as well. Thx, Jay!
I don't want to argue but Payne and Kasper make the player acquisition choices. He hired Soehn. His rant was trying to convince his bosses that this poor start to the season is the players fault. My point is players make mistakes but most of our problems relate to player acquisition, retention, and coaching strategy and tactics. I still want to know who was it he was blaming --- Peralta, Simms, Tino, Wells?
I just want to say that in skimming the posts, and seeing a lineup post, and seeing the word "scurry" near the goalkeeper line ... it made me realize that things really aren't all that bad yet.
Yeah, we have to make up 4 points over 23 games, impossible! Most likely, the way things are going, fifth place in the East will make the playoffs again this year. Also, 40 points was the lowest playoff spot last year. We can go 8-5-10 in the matches we have left and do that. My guess that the last playoff spot will end up going to around 36 points this year, which, of course, is even easier.
What are you seeing that can possibly lead you to those conclusions? I'm serious, because I want to be as optimistic as you are. TFC after their additions are a better team than us. Period. NE, when they get their players back is a better team than us. Period. We aren't even going to discuss Chicago and the Crew. So we're left with KC and Red Bull ...... you know the KC that dominated us in week 1 and the Red Bulls who have been playing without a healthy Angel all year but is still ahead of us in the standing while having played less games. Sure, I know that the first 7 games is just a snapshot of the season, as we have 23 to go. But what about OUR play and the play of the teams you mentioned makes you so confident about a top 4 finish? I said this at the beginning of the year, before a single game was played: the people who think the regular season is "meaningless" (not you) and we could cost thru to the end, need their head checks. This team is going to have to spend every ounce of it's energy to have a CHANCE of sneaking into the playoffs. No less than a 100% committment will do.
I'm sure this will be considered trolling, but I feel that I must respond... With regard to the bolded part, I expect to see stuff like this posted in San Jose forums and whatnot, but HO LEE CRAP - you have more cautions than shots on goal and you think you dominated a game? You don't have a forward on the team that in his current form is what Rolfe is and there is no one on your team that matches up to Blanco at anytime in either of their careers. You can possess the ball all you want, but if you don't score or threaten to score, "dominance" possession is irrelevant because you simply eat up the time you need to score and if you allow a team to counter, put yourself at risk of not having enough time to score if your opponent counters...