Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th I know Fred is just coming off an injury but did he really bring anything to the team that Boyzz wasn't? And for all the bitching that was going on regarding Crayton and money for performance; Fred, seems to me, is no where near producing at his pay rate (for a second year-I guess the same could be said for Simms but he makes far less than Fred).
Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th I've been saying the same thing about Fred for a while. Also, Simms is only making ~$50K less than Fred, so it's not that wide a gap in pay scale.
Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th Not to pick on details but (from another thread) Simms just got his 150,000(base) 156,000 (guaranteed) while Fred $ 225,000 (base), $ 257,000(guaranteed).
Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th Remember that last shot we had at the playoffs last season?
Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th I thought it was Burch, too, but Wallace was the culprit. Burch was covering someone inside and Wallace was ball watching. Moreno was onside, dagnabit!
Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th Nice game, we were lucky to get a point. We played well before your goal, then you guys dominated. Your depth is far superior to ours. Pontius is a beast, and ROY in my opinion. Your goal was on a crap play, but on balance, you played so well, I feel fortunate to have gotten a draw. Hope everyone enjoys their 4th, and if you came to C'bus, get home safe. Peace.
We need to score! Put the ball in the back of the net already. How many games have we given away points because we just can't put teams away? If you leave a team around long enough they'll get one or two goals and ruin your day. Perform an excorcism, get mass hypnosis for the team, or practice shooting all day everyday. Just fricking score! Score. Score now. Score then. Score ugly. Score pretty. I don't care. Just score.
The final run was missing. They needed a Mike Knuble to get in front of the goal and score a dirty goal.
If he keeps up his play like tonight, it won't be long until we see Pontius threads in the Yanks Abroad forums. Just on my observations at the game, he's got the potentials.
And they made it pretty. I couldn't be happier, except with 3pts. Totally! It was almost 'creepy' seeing them walk out holding hands. Yeah like, be MVP. Or win MLS Cup. Or lead the league in goals. Hmm... Come to think of it, that's a great fan-action. Or, at the very least, almost every other team in the league should start getting worried about this team. All circumstances given, we showed very well tonight. Probably the most noticeable thing about this game is that we actually managed the game very well. After we scored we slowly but surely started to control the pace, maintain possesion, and get into halftime with the lead. The second half was just more goodness. The players were generally all combining well and using each other effectively. Could have easily won with a little more luck and finishing. The other major key to this game was a great performance from Gomez, aided by our ability to give the ball to him to relieve pressure. The field was very tight, and while I thought almost everyone did well in small spaces, Gomez is clearly the master, and we used him well. I was very glad to see him finish the game, as I think Tommy would have been a fool to take him out. With the above as clear steps in the right direction for this team, that's about as good as I've felt about the team this season because these things will likely be more important to us this season than the 2 points we let get away.
I hope you're neg repped and the post is deleted. You saw nothing. Pontius has the scoring ability of Chad Barrett, is a horrible decision maker, and he can't hold the ball.
Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th Yes, I do. Very well. It was a long, miserable ride home.
Re: PRE-GAME - DC United vs Columbus Crew - July 4th WTF? You REALLY don't get the 'hate' thing, do you? I see through your little 'sportsmanship' ploy!
A couple of thoughts about the game: 1. Don't get me wrong, DCU took advantage of it in terms of possession very well, but it is a rare game that Columbus is going to give you that much space in the midfield. We really could have used Jaime and Emilio on the offensive end. It is a shame to walk away from a game where we are given so much space with only one point. At least we took advantage of the space the whole game. 2. Simms is have a bad year, but he had a good game against Columbus. Here is to hoping that he can build on that. 3. Janicki and the reserves that played were better today. They needed to be and they were. That is probably the best that I have seen Boyzzz play - probably about the most that you could expect to get out of him at the MLS level. N'Silu was more active without the ball and it caused him to be more effective with the ball. 4. Fred is a momentum player. He needs to be playing every day and he gains momentum. He hasn't been able to do that this year. I don't think that he is the type of guy you write off during a disjointed season like this. He is capable of scoring important goals in big games. I definitely see him as a guy that you need to be patient with. 5. So DC United play the defending MLS Cup Champions/Supporters Shield Winners at their place while they are on an unbeaten streak and we are unlucky to only come away with a tie. Good thing we have set the bar so low for Tom Soehn that a hamster could do what he does!
As I said at the beginning, when playing against Columbus you must be efficient in your scoring chances - You can score early against them, but they seem to stay in the game and then come back later to bite you - They haven't been shut out at all this season, even their losses And while a Tie is good on the road against last year's best team and it keeps us in first place in the East, Columbus still has a game in hand and Chicago (who is tied with us in the standings) has TWO games - So basically we're in 3rd place - We have some rest in July, but we really need to take advantage of this rest and get some wins against Colorado at home and in San Jose
Agree with this. What was remarkable was that Columbus started off the game by denying United space, but then after the first goal seemed to drop off dramatically. This gave United a lot of time and space to play. I'd have expected Columbus' coach to fix this at half time, but he didn't. Not good for a defending champion. As for what United was doing, Fred would not have been my choice to sub in for Khumalo, because the F-man offers minimal defense and coughs up the ball too much going forward. Put Fred in, sure, but, if you're going to keep Gomez in the game at that point (and you would, since he was playing well and seemed to have energy to spare), make Fred your forward and then slide Pontius over in Khumalo's spot. Of course, maybe Pontius wouldn't have had the legs at that point to sustain running the line, but you could have told him to stay at home more. Or work McTavish into the game.
By this standard we should be hearing "Go-mito" chants everytime Gomez takes a corner @ RFK. Plus could you ever see guillermo ever banging the drum with whatever supporers group columbus has if he is suspended for a game? nope, me niether. Gomez > Guillermo
Well, that's why you need to finish your chances. Still, a pretty good performance. Would have been nice to get the three points, though.
I remember a time, not too long ago, when we would chant Diablo when Etcheverry took a corner. asitis
Uh, guess what? That's exactly what we do do. Other than the fact that we don't specifically chant the word "Gomito" becuase he's publicly said that he hates being called that, so we use his name instead.