THIS! I loved the fact that Diehard finally got his chance, but why do you need to say you're "rewarding Mclain"? And "resting Sean"? He doesn't have any more games left to play, what would we be resting him for? A long flight back to Atlanta? Gamecock already said the correct answer to the press' question so I won't repeat it; but seriously N-Rod, even when you do something logical you make it seem completely illogical.
Stupid to call Johnson a bad goalie when he's played his whole career with cones as defense. What a shit narrative it is and I'm tired of it.
I just don't understand how people can say Lampson is a better goalie. He was a 3rd in Columbus. And NROD even said today they BUNKERED like Hitler when the Russians were on the outskirts of Berlin at the beginning of the season .
further to my point, here are the back sixes they played behind: 1998 Brown-Kubik-Okaroh-Kotschau-Armas-Marsch 1999 Brown-Kubik-Okaroh-Gutierrez-Armas-Marsch 2000 Lewis-Kubik-Brown-Bocanegra-Armas-Marsch 2001-Whitfield-Brown-Curtin-Bocanegra-Armas-Marsch 2002-Beasley-Brown-Curtin-Bocanegra-Gray-Marsch 2003-Whitfield-Brown-Curtin-Bocanegra-Armas-Marsch 2005-Caballero-Brown-Curtin-Segares-Armas-Pause 2006-Robinson-Brown-Sanneh-Segares-Armas-Pause 2010-Robinson-Brown-Conde-Krol-Pause-Husidic 2011-Anibaba-Gibbs-Cuesta-Segares-Pause-Paladini 2012-Anibaba-Berry-Friedrich-Segares-Pause-Pardo 2013-Anibaba-Berry-Soumare-Segares-Larentowicz-Alex 2014-Palmer-Larentowicz-Hurtado-Segares-Alex-Watson 2015-Palmer-Larentowicz-Adailton-Jones-Polster-Cocis 2016-Kappelhof-Campbell-Meira-Vincent-Polster-Cocis a few things should stand out, but here's a big one: Zach only played behind 4 different center back combos, and 5 regular CB over his 8 season with the Fire. SJ has had a different center back pairing every season, and sometimes more than 1 a season. That's pretty fvcked up right there. Similar stability/lack of stability in the center MF spots as well.
So, what you are saying is that, by signing good experienced center backs and developing excellent young center backs, AND having stability at the other defensive positions, a goal keeper will better? By the way, I completely agree with you, of course, and this is something that both of us (and many, many more) have been saying for years. Bottom line, we both think Zach and Sean are both very good goalkeepers. Who's better? It is a moot point. Zach benefited from stability in defense. Zach benefited from being more of a presence in defense. Zach benefited from marginally worse competition in the league. Sean benefited from being more athletic. Sean benefited from not playing a nomadic existence (Zach played at Soldier Field, Naperville, New Soldier Field, Toyota Park) Sean was hurt badly be instability in defense and, frankly, crappy defenses. I give him a greater benefit of the doubt due to this issue. Sean has some weaknesses (poor distribution and booting up field to no one in particular) that seem glaring when they happen. The fact that we are all even being forced to have this discussion is crap. We have a decent, athletic 28 year goal keeper, who is in the prime of his career, has been with us for seven (mostly miserable) seasons, at a fairly reasonable $250,000 a year. We should not have to worry about goal keeping for the next five years. This. As always, @HeyFireGO sums up in 30 words or less and sums it up perfectly.
Nonsense. Hamid was injured and let TWO goals in because he didn't take himself out of the game. SJ came in and did let a creampuff in but he may not have been warmed up or had jitters and over thought it or it was just one of those things. A better back line and his numbers are much better.
Justice: We are pleased to announce that @sjohn25 has been voted as your Supporters' Player of the Year. Congrats, Sean! #cf97 #WHOSEHOUSE pic.twitter.com/PlrBnLpztO— Section 8 Chicago (@Section8Chicago) November 4, 2016
As it should be. The best player we have. The longest serving player (by a long shot). The best ambassador for the team that we have, or used to be when we actually had team ambassadors. (his commercials for Aldi and the commercials they shot at the former A&G Fresh Mart were great).
He wins after spending the first third of the season in limbo. Incredible decisions by the "soulmates".
Sean Johnson was really solid for the Fire and an incredibly nice guy. After the Argentina game this year, my friend and I stumbled around the neighborhood looking for a bar. We found a tapas place, and there was a couple having drinks outside. My friend proceeded to grill the guy about his martini. I thought this guy was going to tell us to ******** off, but he very politely described in detail the drink offerings on the menu. As we went inside I couldn't shake the feeling that this guy looked so familiar. As he was leaving he poked his head inside to ask my friend how his drink was. I said "You're Sean Johnson" he proceeded to hang out for the next 15 minutes answering questions about the fire, taking pictures, and thanking us for the support. He couldn't have been any more nice or professional. Absolutely stand up ambassador for this city and this team.
I agree, Hamid did a disservice to his teammates, as he was clearly injured and most likely thought about preserving his order in the ranks than asking to be subbed out. Sean didn't get a chance to warm up and you know what, a LOT of great keepers make mistakes. The internet is full of "howlers" by great EPL keepers. I once asked him about that goal and how it impacted him and he simply said something like "you can't let it get you down, you need to push it out of your mind and move one and get better, learn from it..." To his credit, while he is arguably overpaid and not a premier keeper, despite letting in some soft goals and making mental mistakes in terms of his positioning, he's never let in a goal as bad as the one we're talking about. Unfortunatly, Sean (a) got complacent here or (b) didn't get the proper coaching by Arron Hyde to get better. Maybe (c) Sean has peaked or (d) Busch got into his head and Sean learned a few bad habits.
(a) What? (b) Maybe? (c) Maybe? (d) What? Regardless of any of these inane points, Sean was the best keeper the fire have had since Zach Thorton and easily a "premier" keeper in MLS. Playing for arguably the worst team in MLS for most of his career, he still impressed enough to get national team call-ups. Also, do you think an apparently competent organization like ATL would be interested if he wasn't? I would argue that Sean Johnson has saved more points for his team than any other keeper (except maybe Rimando) over the time frame of his career. Also, for the last time, who the f@ck cares how much he's paid? The league pays his salary and we're nowhere near the cap/suggestion. Also, we have stack and stacks of funny money that has been supplemented again by finishing last again. So it's a completely pointless exercise to argue if he's worth the salary. The last question I'd ask is: Do you think this team will replace Sean with someone better? No, so it doesn't matter, we should keep him. Edit: and one point I forgot to mention has to do with loyalty. This organization vastly underestimates the importance of player loyalty. Showing a player that they have a long term future here would be a good step toward drawing talent. The best way to do that is by demonstrating with your current players.
' 1/5 of the transfer fee for a player from the Turkmenistanian Premier League? (I don't know know if it exists, but NROD will find a way).
I don't know where to start first with responding to you. (a) complacent in terms of how hard you practice and believing you're the sure results in a lack of improvement. A former player who is still in the league has said SJ was lazy at times and assumed he was a "sure thing" as starter. (b) is valid. A GK coach is supposed to help improve a keeper and remove bad tendencies. AH does not appear to have helped SJ become a better keeper. (c) Sean has peaked. Are you saying he has not peaked? (d) It's well know that JB tried to get into SJ's head for a time and that he tried to mess with SJ's game. That may have impacted SJ. What proof to you have that ATL is interested? Through the rumor mill (admittedly weak "proof") I've heard that it's not. $ does matter. It does because every year the Fire tries to negotiate reduced option salaries and/or tell players to take a hike when they ask for raises. So if it is that concerned about money, then yes, every dollar counts. While the Fire find a better keeper, and a better one on a dollar to dollar valuation? Yes and yes. There are better keepers in MLS for cheaper money. That said, I agree with you that he's played with a weak defense for several years. But all that tells me is that he would let in less goals with a better defense, not that he would be a "better" keeper. He would still make bad decisions in the box and would be weak in his distribution. Is he better than Lamps as an all around keeper? Yes their play over the season shows that Sean is better, but he's not worth 200k in my opinion. But we can agree to disagree. I agree with you on two other points, he's the Fire's Second Best Keeper and loyalty does and should matter, but the FO gives to craps about it.