I see that no one has started this yet so I will. We are all still hashing out Grimandi, Becks and Carrieri. My belief is Hankinson goes back to a solid traditional 4-4-2 with Pablo and Becks in the midfield as he stated in the paper. I am not sure who Hankinson puts in at forward with Spencer, but I would guess Roberts with Carrieri and even Schmidt coming in the second half as Zizi gets and/or Spenny get gassed. I think he will want Zizi's size up their to begin with. I think the Rapids will have something to prove now that guys are back in their traditional roles and will put a lot of pressure on DC. They will need to show the bitching was well founded. Goals could come from anywhere. Rapids 3 - DC 1
I'm predicting a happier week than the last two. I too think Beck will start along with Spencer and Zizi. Zizi will have the first goal with an assist from Chung. CC will come in at half and put up the game winner. 2-1 Rapids. Was it Hankinson hearing the war drums for his head because of Game 1 or is it because I finally got my Jersey? Who knows but things will be better and we just might find ourselves with a solid team. Garrett
I won't predict a score or result on your board. But the soccer365 article on the Rapids has Hankinson talking about "getting all 11 men behind the ball" and "choosing carefully when we go forward with numbers". That doesn't sound like a strategy designed to produce 3 goals, it sounds almost as if he was going on the road. Any takes on this?
I read the article and I agree that it doesn't sound like Hankinson is going to push everyone forward and attack at every opportunity. It sounds like they are going for more of technical, ball control game, not necessarily a road defense counter attack only mentality. But they may start out defensive to get the team's confidence back. With Hankinson, you have no idea what's coming week to week. If the Rapids get a score early and DC has to push forward, three goals is not out of the question. The Rapids have the guns to pick apart a young team if it exposes itself. So, unlike Yoda, I am sticking to my guns and think the Rapids can light it up. What the hell, its only a prediction.
I hope Becks gets the start and some good fantasy points as I just picked him up for the min 75k. A good pop in his value would help out a lot. It'll also be good to see how he can play from the start. He has been a much heralded player with his P-40 and U-23 status. I want to see what the hype is about!
As a DC United fan, I have just one request. Please do not let Garlick have his typical blinder against his old club where he gets 8 saves, stopping 3 sure goals and posting a clean sheet. Although ... that 1-8-1 formation mentioned in another thread did sound intriguing. -Digital
Post Game Comments Overall, it was an improvement over the SJ first half fiasco. We started pretty tentative, and the DC goal was way too easy. After that, we controlled play until the second overtime. Vallow did a very good job. He seemed nervous at first, but by the end, he was excellent, and his height is certainly a plus. I couldn' fault Beckerman, for a player starting his first league game as the play maker, he did a good job. The line on Rizo was real. He definitely likes to go forward. He saved our bacon one time with a great slide tackle. Zi Zi's influence is amazing. He had more head balls towards goal in this match than the whole team had last year. If he doesn't get hurt, he is going to greatly help our attack. By the way, he certainly must have a degree from an acting school. Nothing wrong with that if he can get away with it. When Crawford came in, he did an excellent job. He overdribbled once, but I thought he did a very credible job. I really enjoyed the match, but I am really disappointed that we didn't come away with three. We need to improve our finishing. While Spence made an excellent PK, most of his other shots were pretty wimpy. Can't wait for the next match. I hope they improve as much again!!!! We always hear about how much Henderson and Chung run, and they do, but I have got to credit Wes. He never stops running, and fighting for the ball. His passes aren't always on target, but I think the reason he plays is because he never stops working, and can always be counted on for scrappy play. Go Raps!!!!!
Zizi is the man. As the year goes on I'm expecting big things from him. I thought Rimando fell on the back of his legs but I guess I could be wrong. Hopfully he isn't hurt too bad. Spencer annoyed the hell out of me tonight. Once again he's always either going the wrong direction, holding onto the ball too long or trying to do too much. I'd rather see Pablo as a more a-mid. He was actually in the box with the ball twice in a row and didn't take a shot which I think he could have made. I think him and Roberts are the only 2 guys that look like that know exactly what's happening on the field and where they should be. I wasn't impressed with Beckerman but it's his first game of the year. Stewart saved our ass when Vallow was down. Vallow looked good too. Too bad Hendersons shot didn't go in. Garrett
Good Team So being 0-1-1 isn't so great after two home games, but I sorta like this team. We had good chances, but like the rest of the league, there's a lot of 0-0, 1-0 games as the defenses seem to be ahead of offense...except for the Rapids, esp in the first 10 minutes. Beckerman was OK. Leaave him in there, he'll learn from Pablo. I sense that someone needs to find the middle on attacks and help our wings get going toward the goal, not just down the sides. I thought that this was C.V.'s best asset, and miss that. Course, he didn't do much the rest of the time. Teams have a 'book' on the Rapids and it works. They line up at the top of the box, never play the offense trap, and mob anyone in the middle. See LA last year, SJ, and now DC. We exploit this with Zizi down on top of the goal, as the whole thing collapses inward, but haven't been able to lay it back for a 12-20 yard slam (Balboa, Spencer, etc.). Yet. I've always thought that you need a header game, a slant game, a perimeter shot game, and at least one jitterbug (like Wolde) so that the defense has to cover the whole area. We're getting there.
I wasn't impressed with Beckerman but it's his first game of the year. ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Why don't you save the criticism until he gets a few games?? I felt he played fine in such a pressure game for him. He is a good player and with more games he will get into a comfort level out there, become more creative and continue to get better with pablo, chung, henderson and spencer around him..
Spencer - disappointing. He's a long way from where he was. If he isn't there by the end of August or another injury comes up the Rapids should drop him. Zizi - extremely dangerous. Impressed with every thing I saw. Always in the box ready for an opportunity. Could use two of him. Carierri - hungry for the game. Hanki should start Chris and let Spenny play the 2nd half if Chris doesn't score. Loved the mix up with DC's keeper. Pablo - needs to shoot. Drills should give him the confidence to take shots. Beck - needs playing time. Didn't impress, but wasn't bad. Needs to work into holes. Surprised Rizzo was in front of Becks several times. Hanki should have used Pibe to train Beckerman before they dropped him. Rizzo - looked very good. Great slide and a solid addition to the team. Loved how he worked so far up on attacks. Looking forward to a full 90 minutes from him. Wes - good defender. He needs specialized work on passing. Stewart - saved the game with that header! Liked everything I saw. Good solid starter. Vallow - should start. That goal reminded me of David "Big Bird" Kramer last year or Garlick in the first game. In spite of the mistake, Vallow was solid the rest of the game. Liked how he got the ball back into play instead of screwing around. I would start him until Garlick earns the position.
Some thoughts: -Zizi did a good job holding the ball, but aside from his header which Rimando nicely saved, his shots on goal were weak. I like a lot of what I see, but he needs to finish better. -Pablo looked good and came forward several times. It looks like Hank will be having Kyle and Pablo alternate jobs in the center of the pitch, which gives the flexibility to let Pablo come forward. -Kyle did not show well to the ball in the first half. He had a better second half, and had some nice passes when he had time to pick somebody out. Quite a few times, though, he would receive the ball and reflexively make the easy square pass. With his ball skills, I would like to see him look for a better option before giving up the ball so easily. If he is supposed to be our primary a-mid, he needs to do this. Still, not bad for his first game. He needs several more chances to see what he can do. -I'd like to see Chung and Henderson getting more involoved on the wings. If they can spread the defense out, it will open things up more for Zizi and Spencer in the middle. -Fraser and Stewart looked good in the center of the defense. I was particularly impressed with Stewart - very solid. -The outside backs looked much better than the last game. Rizo picked his times to go forward wisely, and looked good doing it. Plus he looked solid on the defensive side of the ball. Crawford did well as his replacement, and had several decent ventures forward without leaving things too exposed at the back. -Yeah, Vallow looked like a statue on the first goal, but in truth, he would never save that rocket into the corner. (Future advice, Scott: Dive, even if you can't save it. It looks a lot better.) Other than that, I thought Scott played a solid game -It seems that most of the players individually played fairly well, but we still ended up with a 1-1 draw. I think that the biggest problem that the Rapids had was that the final pass or shot in and around the box often let them down. There were several times where they should have had much better shots than they did. Also, on the corners, Hank would put a lot of the players right around the goal line. I would like to see more players coming in from the top of the box. Keepers, especially small ones like Rimando, would think twice before coming out to grab the ball with Zizi coming at them.
I think Zizi and Rizo could turn out to be huge pickups. Zizi will get better as the team gets used to using him. Rizo has great first touch, can pass well, and got forward and back without stranding anyone. I was impressed. Sure, he made some mistakes but he showed a lot of promise. Thinking of Rizo and the team in general: What's with all the long balls? This is not working! I am glad I am not the only one who thinks this. Spencer is driving me crazy as well. We need his leadership and but it is almost as if he is not on the same page at times with the rest of the team. He lays balls off to no one, takes on three guys or TAKES TOO LONG TO PLAY THE BALL. He does this on the top of the box when he should be looking for a quick pass to the wing or Zizi. Carrieri is much more simple in his approach: charge the goal and shoot or pass and see what happens. This team needs more of the latter attack. Zizi could thrive with passes close in for headers and volleys off that cannon he has. Both he and Beckerman seemed to freeze up when given the opportunity to shoot. The team played a lot better and it looks like a game to build on, but what strikes me is that they look like there is a disconnect to the regular season from the preseason. With all that work, the team looked tentative and out almost new to each other. Part of it is playing Spencer and Zizi when they did not have the opportunity to play as much in the pre season. But I think part of it was they were psychologically rattled by the first game and need to get their legs back under them. Back to Spencer, I know this has been thrown out before, but I think an alternative is to try him at times as a withdrawn forward/midfielder with two forwards in front. If it can work, this can help for when Pablo is gone and he can he can switch into Beckerman's position when the team needs an offensive push. I still want Beckerman out there but I think the team can switch out players situationally for games. If we play into the Open Cup and lose Pablo to the Nats for a while, we will need flexibility. If Zizi gets going and the midfield starts to gel more, we could see a lot of improvement from week to week. And just to show I can at least try to be fair, Crawford did well when he came in as a sub and I even stopped holding my breath every time the ball was on his side of field.
Re: Good Team I really noticed this last night. I did not realize until you brought it up that this is a tactic that has been used repeatedly against us. Part of it last year is that we had no game in the air or off set pieces so teams could just pound us at the top of the box. Zizi hopefully can start breaking this down. I also think Spencer hurts us here screwing around with the ball as gschroeder brought up.
I agree with the general sentiment about most of the players, but for it boils down to the fact that as dangerous as we could be, we couldn't beat DC at home. Very, very disappointing. Only things I'll add to what's been said: Vallow - except for forcing himself into a fine save by venturing too far off his line, solid and dependable, with consistent and smart distribution. Still, not yet enough of a convincing argument for me to see him as a clear preference over Garlick in the coming weeks. And I have no idea how anyone can blame DC's goal on Vallow. Midfield organization - Hankinson may continue to profess his dream for "total football," but until we've had a consistent four midfielders playing in a consistent four positions, it's going to be a mess. Against DC there looked to be a little too much freedom of movement, largely as a result from too much miscommunication. Far too often we saw two Rapids players trying to occupy the same space, too often balls into the corners had no supporting runs, too ofen long, switching balls were played when holding possession and passing the ball 3 yards would have sufficed to build forward movement. And under no circumstances should Beckerman ever wind up on the back line during the run of play.
Two quotes from Hanki about the long balls that went no where: "When we win a ball through the flow of play that is when to play the ball quickly and try and get behind them." "So, making the right decisions, when to play long and when to play short, is what we need to get better at." Both of these can be accomplished by having a consistant midfield and overall lineup from week to week. When you change stuff every game, no players get a 'feel' for what the others are going to do.
I thought the Rapids looked like the team playing their first game of the season. I know it was the second game, but it just had the feel of a team trying to gain confidence. They were slow out of the gate, but gained a bit of confidence as the game went on. DC definitely had there best game so far, if we Rapid fans are scratching our heads then they really must be. Chung and Henderson were my two most disappointing players. Neither of them seem to be near where they were last season. I expect that to get better. Chung was largely invisible on the wing, but had a few nice plays when he slipped into the middle. That left the wing wide open for our new left back to venture forward a fair bit, and Rizo did a nice job. I recall one cross at least that made me wish he'd work with Henderson on this part of the game. I would still be happier if we could get better width a cross the field. Up top I really liked Zizi. He needs some polishing, but his size and strength caused a ton of problems. I like Spencer a lot, but I think either Carrieri should be starting or replacing Spencer much earlier. I thought the MastroBeckerman duo in midfield was solid if unspectacular. Neither committed any glaring errors, but they didn't produce either. Other teams will find it hard possessing the ball through the center of the pitch with those two in there. I expect that they'll improve as they get more comfortable. In the case of Beckerman he just needs to play faster, and gamble on occasion. In the back Stewart was solid. Rizo proved that he can cover his bets. Fraser was his old self. Hart's the guy I was really impressed with. I think he may have turned the corner in his game. He did his energizer bunny thing alnight, but he didn't seem as wreckless as last year. His overall game just seemed better, more mature, than what I've seen in the past. I didn't see the first game, but I can see what Hankinson sees in Crawford. He shouldn't start, but he'll be a player. Now, I want to see the same starters next game. There was plenty of good solid play for this group to build on. A lot of their shortcomings will be erased as they build confidence.
Huge improvement from the first match. I think the team chemistry is coming together. One of the reasons why most of us weren't in a state of panic after the first match was that we know what these players are capable of and understand it was only the first match. We knew it would come around. And I'm sorry to harp on the issue here, but I think with Gilles Grimandi gone a huge emotional burden has been released from the teams minds. Overall the Rapids didn't look too bad. We know it going to improve. A few guys seemed to disappear during the game but overall not too bad. Would have liked to have had the win but feel this makes the team stronger and hungry the next time around. I felt everyone did a good job against DC United, including the fans. Not a bad turnout either, what was it 21,000+. Great weather too.
Not quite. The first match against KC was a better match for DC. This is a game we should have won, but I like ZiZi for you guys. Dangerous (but a bit of a whiner).
GREAT attendance in Denver. What's up? Was it Grimandi exploding bobble-head night or a bunch of disgruntled Rockies fans?
Brilliant Orange Greenie hit the nail on the head. Someone should take Hanki's copy of "Brilliant Orange" away; the Rapids aren't ready for "total football".
Ray Hudson says that DC United will live or die based on the performance of Marco Etcheverry. Entering the season, I would not have said the same thing about any Rapids. However, the lack of performance from Chung and Henderson may represent the same thing for the Rapids. Two experienced players, for whom a lack of youth will quickly subtract from their effectiveness, for whom the Rapids pay a lot of salary, will have to become more involved in the game. If they do not, the Rapids might be better served by having a couple of mindless-hustle-bots run the sidelines. Their story will be the Rapids story for the year. As a biased DC supporter for Saturday's game (but I did buy one of those expensive black-and-green, I mean black-and-blue, jerseys) I thought United had the most opportunities, a bit fewer in the second half. Jeff Stewart had the better of the Stewart-Stewart battle. There is no reason the Rapids shouldn't start Stewie. I was surprised at times the ease with which the Rapids' young defenders dealt with Stoitchkov in one-on-one battles. Hristo's best chances came on chasing opportunities into the corners for crosses. Vallow and Rimando both did great jobs, especially compared to Meola giving up three from outside the box against Chicago. Roberts is the #1 starter for the Rapids. You start Spencer or Schmidt or Carrieri because they are the best match for Roberts. As far as I am concerned, that is the Rapids front-line dilemma. Within this view, you want the best crossing service from your wingers, which argues for Kinglsey and Chung to play the wings.
What puzzeled me most is Henderson. That's two really bad games in a row from someone who's trademark is his hard work and consistency. It's really early, but I think that may be this teams biggest worry right now if he doesn't turn it around. Second worry: Central Midfield. Again very early, but I do not think Becks is ready to run the midfield. Give him the games right now until we get our player (Powell?). When we get that player though, be sure to give Becks minutes during the season. Pabalo's passing really sort of sucks. His tackles are back to preWC form though. Third worry: Spencer. We need the Spencer of two years ago back! Hopefully it's just a matter of getting back to form. Top excitement so far: Zi Zi. I like what I see of him and if he continues to adjust ... yozzers! (Give Carrieri his ops though ... he's proved himself.) Second excitment: Rizo ... fantastic debute. Third: Crawford ... his first game was a total flop. But last game he showed us some tremendous ability with the ball!