I'm taking the long view.... Ah... good times, good times.... It's about time for NYFC to go on a run... I expect the Rapids to acquire Mehdi Ballouchy any day now.
Captain Sam Cronin has been added to tomorrow's teleconference fan forum. Apparently questions will not be pre-screen so we'll see how (and if) this works.
Hopefully a transcript is released. Not pre screening means this could be fun. And I am stuck at a work event.
I'm going to try to call in. If I do I'll take as close to a transcript as I can and post it on my blog at some point after the event tomorrow.
How do you suppose people will be able to ask questions? Is there going to be a code to punch in to "raise one's hand"? I just got a robo call recorded by Richard Fleming reminding me of the call in details.
As did I. It seems that if you get the call at 12:30 tomorrow and answer you are in and can ask questions. With no filtering this could get interesting. Or ugly. Hope someone in the media is going to listen in and write something up about it. My wife wanted to know what I would ask and upon brief reflection I stated that I would ask Hinchey where winning ranks in his metrics. It seems that he has stated he is judged by the bottom line and fans in the seats. Interesting that he can be considered successful without winning regularly. And thanks Jason for making a transcript and posting it.
can someone here do a favor for me today? Can we start a separate Conference Call Town Hall Thread and then update it with a decent breakdown of discussion topics and replies? I'm too in and out of office today to sit in on the phone call. A veteran of the last town hall, I am sure I can fill in a lot of Tim's canned responses from what was passed on last year, but if there are new details, I'd love to hear.
My perception is that Mastroeni is under pressure to win NOW. He no longer can afford to go with the young guys, so he brings in experienced defenders who will be less likely to make a mistake (as a young defender did against Kamara on the first goal saturday). Mastro thinks we have the talent on the offensive end and that the goals will eventually come based on the chances created, crosses, etc.. Seriously, Kevin Doyle is an Irish international, he's got to start scoring buckets of goals soon, right? RIGHT?
Agreed. The missing piece is offensive midfield. We have talent there, but it isn't linking properly. Doyle has impressed me, but he isn't going to score on his own. At least not very often. Rod.
Rough transcript of the Fan Forum is up: http://view-from-the-couch.blogspot.com/2015/08/rough-transcript-of-front-office-town.html
Sounds like the same BS spat out last year....OP's leaving, blah blah blah...Losing doesn't help, blah blah blah. There is absolutely no accountability from ownership and TH doesn't have the balls/or knowledge to do anything about it. I mean he's increased the off-field product, but no one cares if the team continually loses. It's an affordable option for entertainment in CO and the FO knows it. If it was like the NFL pricing, no way in hell would PB/PM/TH be around cause an owner would have overhead through the roof and winning is the best way to achieve larger returns. (Examples obviously in the NFL of owners who don't give a shit, unfortunately, KSE happens to be ours too)
This Q-and-A struck a chord: Advisory board: "Season tickets are expensive, why buy next year?" TH: Good question, season tickets are a personal choice. Depends on your relationship and how you support from a thick and thin basis. Asking for more patience, asking for continued support. They're going to continue to invest. They try to put on best possible experience, hopefully that's a reason to continue to come. Indeed, season tickets are a personal choice. That is precisely why I made the choice never again to give a single penny of my money to any team owned by Stan Kroenke. I'm hoping that Kroenke will eventually grow bored with the Rapids and sell the team to an owner who gives a rip or else move the team and let Denver get an expansion team owned by somebody who gives a rip.
@Knave started his wonderful playoff projections thread this morning and well, Colorado is all but toast. But we all knew that. One interesting stat came out of it though. Colorado is tied for the worst home pts/game average this season. We're actually a better road team than home team (tied for 4th best road pts./game). Hey Tim, what was that about wanting to make the Dick a fortress?
The Rapids have basically played like a road team all year. Very defensive and hoping to snatch a goal.
I wish you could troll TH with that comment...I'd love to hear his squirmy answer. EDIT: Sorry for the double post.
The Rapids have scored less than 1 goal/game twice, both times they scored 29 in 30 games. 2004, which got Hankinson fired, and 2007, which should have gotten Clavijo fired. We need 33 goals this season to not set a record for worst offensive season (goals/game). Currently we're on pace for 29.5. Its very possible that despite having 4 more games we could tie or beat our record for fewest total goals in a season.
I know we're all depressed, but here's something to rub salt in the wound: There is almost zero chance Pablo gets fired. We're in hell.
Some more or less random thoughts on 2015, so far: Most teams in a rebuilding season actually have a plan, follow the plan, and show progress. The Rapids seem to be imitating the Oakland Raiders. (Dear RFO: That isn't intended as a compliment.) The Rapids finished last season with very few players who could start for multiple MLS teams. Irwin. Moor. Brown. Not much has changed, despite the roster changes. Irwin. Moor. Cronin. Doyle. The formation is stagnant. Other teams know what to expect, and have the luxury of an easy few days of preparation for the predictable. The names change, but the approach to the game doesn't. That's coaching. Meaningful tactical changes don't happen during the match. If Plan A doesn't work, there's always next game. A rare goal lead generates the sense of foreboding: what will the team do this week to screw up and lose? A goal down generates the sense of resignation: oh well, it didn't work out this week, either. The postmatch quotes simply insult intelligence. Most of the fans on here have played the game and know excuse-making when we hear it. "We created good chances, but the ball just didn't go in the net" is meaningless logorrhea. The truth is: "We don't have enough talent to win on talent alone, and we aren't coached well enough to overcome the talent gap." Nothing about this team is interesting to watch. Possession is useless, with no sense of build, attack, or purpose. Defense is haphazard ("Hey, we avoided THAT disaster!"). Offense is individual. Set pieces are wasted time. There is no communication during a match. The players don't know each other's tendencies, because they don't know from week to week who will be in the lineup and in what position. Let's move Moor from CB to LB to RB to . . . wherever. Watts can play . . . wherever. Let's see, Powers is ineffective out wide, so let's shove him out wide. This is seen in the defensive breakdowns, passes to nobody, set pieces with no plan, and failure to mark players. Pablo was a great player. He has no clue as a coach. That isn't getting better. Sending him to offseason kiddie coaching school didn't work last year and won't fix the issue this year. It's time to end this now. #PabloOut. The RFO brain trust successfully dismantled the Cup team. Any idiot with a sledgehammer can wreck something. It takes a lot more to build something. The top half of the current technical staff needs a major housecleaning. #RFOOut It isn't getting better. It's getting worse. There is zero reason to believe that 2016 will be as good as 2015.
With all the other problems, it's kind of meaningless to think about this one, but my list would be: Irwin, Moor, Figueroa*, Harrington*, Cronin, Sarvas, Powers, Torres*, Doyle. I think Serna and Ramirez don't fit the criteria but would be prospects other teams would take a chance on. *Figueroa presumably; Harrington isn't good but MLS lacks for leftbacks; and I don't know what to make of Torres. But one would think with his skills he could help a lot of teams. But the bigger problem is, that's fine to have more than 4 MLS-quality starters. But how many players would be in an all-star conversation if it weren't hosted here? Maybe Irwin? It's a problem when there are no stars to raise the overall game of the team. Especially when the coaching can't do it through coordinated team play.
Thinking the Rapids problem can be fixed by replacing one person is naive at best. Anyone who has had responsibility for choosing / signing and selecting the players to walk on the field must be replaced.
He also said his vision for the team was to play attractive, attacking, exciting soccer. It was one of the reasons he forced out Gary Smith. How attractive, exciting or attacking have the last 18 months been? How about the last 48?
If you consider the 4-0 outburst against Dallas to be an outlier and remove it from consideration, we're on pace for 28.