Pathetic... no just tragic. Unacceptable. Would have made my thoughts after metroing home last night and getting home, but slept on it. Where to begin.... good lord... I can think of ONE person on that squad last night who was making a difference... maybe TWO... seriously I am reaching... Everything was just ... forget it I am not even going to discuss it..
Agreed. Chicago has more talent than we do right now. Then again, I did start the "where is all this talent?" thread....
"There is none so blind as he who WILL NOT see." People are simply throwing their heads in the sand. I said prior to the season that this league had improved and it wasn't going to be a cakewalk for DC, especially with the extra games. Looking around the league, this team is middle of the pack (at best) in skill and is near the bottom of the league when it comes to athleticism (which despite people's cries to the contrary, is a HUGE part of the game). Teams like Chicago, Columbus, Colorado, etc. beat this team to loose balls regularly. I was at the 4-1 victory over Toronto. And TFC came apart right from the beginning, giving up 2 goals, and then losing a man to a red card. The weird thing after that though, was that for the rest of the 70 minutes or so of the game, even though we outscored TFC another 2-1, I was shocked at how many good chances on goal TFC was able to muster up, simply by having faster and more athletic players than United. Changes need to be made, somewhere.
Sir: This absolutely hurts me to type this, but I don't believe you to be trolling, and I believe you to be correct. May God have mercy upon my soul. There it is.
I completely disagree about DCU playing well during this game. From start to finish Chicago looked at ease and completely in control of the outcome. Yes DC had some possession but to no real effect and certainly not to seriously trouble Busch, unless you think off target 35 yard shots from Simms was putting Chicago in a panic. I will agree that while I didn't think Quaranta played well he is talking too much of the blame for Chicago's first goal. How is it that Paralta (your central defender in a 3-5-2) is not within 30 yards of the penalty spot, where a wide open Mapp is lurking to take his shot? In that situation you also have to ask where are the 2 defensive midfielders, Simms and Dychenko, that normally should be controlling the space in front of the central defender?? Also, as a few people have already mentioned where is Zack Well commanding the box and his defense to ensure the defense does not get stretched to this degree?
I thought Vaughn did a good job as well. He didn't buy Niell's flops and DC was doing their best to thug their way through tackles in the middle but he didn't let the game slip out of control. I was also, and this is hard to say, very impressed with Blanco. He fought through a ton of tackles without even thinking about flopping (maybe seeing Niell do it first hand made him realize how ridiculous he looks) and only exaggerated slightly on a cheap shot from Burch. He definitely went down a time or two when he probably could have stayed up but the vast majority of times that he was hit he kept moving forward.
I have to agree. We didn't dominate ANY part of last night's game. Blanco is everything that ElPrincipe described and more but he has also produced results for Chicago from day one while our #10, being just as skilled, has not. It's clear that without Olsen on the field this team is an empty shell and that has to be remedied soon. I don't want DC United to play without Ben Olsen, it just doesn't sound right...but we should be able to. We have a deep bench, but it's just that. We have a goalkeeper who has spent the majority of his MLS career as a backup, a core group of specialized players (like Moreno and Namoff) who number too few to make up a full starting lineup and the rest are, let's be honest, reserve quality at best. For me, just making the playoffs will be an achievement. I love my club dearly, but I'm also honest. This is a rebuilding year for United.
I agree on your player assessments and on Quaranta taking too much blame for the teams ills. I would give both Neil and Quaranta at least credit for working hard and trying. Do I think either can play at this level - NO.
Yeah. It's going to be all about the two-hour tailgate before the game and the one-hour drum circle afterward. In between? Feh!
Thank you. Exactly where I have been for the last couple of weeks after watching a lot of other games on Direct Kick. The other factor that makes the challenge even more difficult is that while the West is a weaker conference we play these teams a fewer number of times and we have shown no ability to win on the road.
Don't always agree with MM10Shirt but let's be realistic here: DC is not vastly more talented than any team, any one or anything.
Thank you! The 3-5-2 just is not and has not worked. I cringe every time I see Soehn trot that out. Soehn is slowly, but surely working himself out of a job here. I just disagree w/ the formations so far, and playing players out of thier natural positions, as well as his use of Moreno. Moreno, In my mind, is a 60th minute supersub now. That would be the best use for him. He played well last night, and did try, but he just not have the legs he used to and hes pretty gased by the 50-60 minute mark. Im not on the "Wells Sucks" bandwagon just yet. I think hes a good GK, hes just not getting much help from in front of him ( and its not our backline either for a change). Speaking of that, oddly enough, where our backline was the big glaring problem the past couple of seasons, its now probably the LEAST of our worries. It does bother me that the D is getting alot more shots now, and scoring too, than they used to. That to me is a product of failure up top, and in the attacking midfield positions. We have no flank play at all. Were predictable, and easy to defend. We just do not have the ability to stretch out any defences anymore. So they just clog up the middle and the box, and force turnovers or force us to go out wide, where they know we are not very good. Hardly anyone on this club can give consistantly good service into the box from out wide. We miss Olsen and Gros pretty badly in those areas. (We obviously miss Gomez too, but for different reasons.) The flanks are now, at least to me one of the most glaring defects this club has. That, and the lack of any sort of real bite up top is going to likely make for a very long season. I had a not so good feeling about all this change when it was happening (trades, new signings...etc) but I kept it to myself. It was a "gut" thing. Well, I think that I am now seeing why I had that "gut" feeling that was not very good. It just is not working at all to this point. So far, its looking more like a train wreck to me. Edit: Niell is just not going to last in MLS I don't think. I was skeptical about him before, but for as talented as he may be, he is just ineffective in MLS to date, and I just do not see that changing. Maybe play him on the outside instead of the middle, that might make his small stature less of an issue i suppose. Worth a try. Hell, ANYTHING is worth a try at this point.
Are there any pics from last night? I want to see what the banner we unraveled at the beginning of the game looked like.
To answer your first question, faith. You can call it blind faith. Seriously, I agree that the other eastern teams all look better than us today. But it is not about how we play today. It is about how we play over the whole season and I believe we will improve our play as a team. We've seen large makeovers of other teams take up to half a season to gel. I believe we are in that boat. Plus over the course of the season there is no way that all of those teams will be able to keep up the level of play. I think Chicago is for real. But Columbus playing lights out all season? Metroturds will eventually descend to their name. KC? Didn't they start out strong last year? I agree that we will need focus on the league this year to make the playoffs but we can do it. The glass for DCU is not a quarter full today but for the season I see it as half full not half empty. We might need a little summer time help like in 2004 but we can do it.
No. I had to laugh in the second half when Burch would go to his right, and the fools behind me were saying "Why doesn't he shoot?" (Note: Usually it frustrates me when folks want players to shoot despite the three or four defenders directly between the ball and the goal, but in these cases Marc had clear lanes) and all I could think was, "He can't shoot, he's Marc Burch and the ball is on his right foot and he's going to the right."
Post game quotes (MP3) from K.Payne, Soehn, Dyachenko, and Burch http://www.wjfk.com/pages/1495684.php
We're a possession team with no teeth. The swagger is gone and everyone knows it. It's because we can't score. Shut out of 4 in 7 league games? Gross. This problem needed to be fixed before April - it wasn't, so the club is going to have to pay the financial penalty. Every scout we work with should be profiling strikers wherever they play the game. WE MUST SIGN A FORWARD. This isn't something we can wait on. I want to hear about signing rumors, and I want to hear about them last week. Why is everyone saying Wells should learn Spanish? Why don't the hundreds of thousands of dollars in new defenders try to learn some English. They should be trying to fit in with US. Peralta barks at Namoff all game, every game - who the hell does this guy think he is? A) You're new B) You suck C) Shut the ******** up. And while I'm at it, Namoff is in a contract year. If we don't put up the $$ to sign him after signing some of these clowns...... Which leads me to Neil - this has been covered. He's built like 7th grader - what were we even doing scouting this guy (and doing a poor job at that) let alone signing him? Damn it - let me go back to my first point. We need new scouts that need to find us a new forward. How many times can you blow up the best regular season team in the league and expect it to repeat. Is this a game? Or a business? Tommy needs to go. Who do you blame for Burch being one footed? Mark? Does that not jump out on film? We have a promissing LB in development......but he's not being developed. He's just getting playing time. Playing and developing are not the same thing. Does he teach? Or does he just make decisions, questionable one's at that. Someone mentioned picking up Harkes and I would absolutely love that. Here is a guy that spent (too long in my opinion) years teaching the game to kids in our youth development programs. Never undervalue the ability to explain and teach some of the fundamental and technical aspects of this game to even professionals. And if Benny can't play again, then put him on staff immideately. Hell, I'd rather have Ben Olsen as our head coach. RSL did it. The difference between Benny yelling at those guys (like he'll do) and Tommy doing it, is Benny has gone to war with them. Benny has led them for years. Benny is the heart and soul of the club. Tommy hasn't done shit, except throw people under the bus in the media. Players respect Ben Olsen. I don't think players respect Tom Schoen. I don't think this guy has a clue how to fix this. He certainly doesn't give off the impression that he's going to defend and fight for his players. I think that's why his players aren't defending and fighting for him. Ask yourself this one question - after all the stupid moves we've made, can anyone honestly see themselves looking back and saying, "Man we really shouldn't have fired Tom Schoen! I can't believe we did that!?" No.....this is inevitable. It will happen at some point.