Stewart voices his frustration

Wow! Good for Earnie! What he says makes a tremendous amount of sense. I do not blame him at all for being so frustrated with a lack of system, or having to play so many positions. The individualism thing surprised me, but I guess it makes sense. My guess is he is talking about Etch here, but I am not for sure. Indirectly, he bashes Ray pretty good. Quite informative.

 

Interesting article. I do disagree with him about the shooting for goal. Granted passing for a 75% chance is better than taking a 25% chance, but we tend to pass into 0% chances.

I know he's not the only player who feels the same frustration. Stoichkov hinted at similar things in the Gildea piece.

Sachin

 

Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration

The problem is that a lot of our players don't seem to be able to tell the difference between the two situations.

If it's clearly a better chance if you pass, then pass. When in doubt, shoot.

 

I think one of his bigger damning inferences is that Hudson plays whoever he feels had the "best" last game. Yes, injuries and call-ups suck, but the lineup cited, the one that had that successul spurt, could be played on Sunday with only two players missing, and one of them is the goalkeeper. Rimando and Olsen are out. So put Convey in for Olsen and you have nine of the starting then that were so successful earlier. Maybe you put Namoff in for Ivanov if Ivanov has really gone off form, but other than that, argh, I don't feel like writing about this anymore.

 

Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration

I took that to mean, the pass itself has a, I dunno, 10% chance of succeeding, so the 25% shot is the better play. Maybe I'm wrong. I could see it interpreted either way. But he did say "better" as if that was his judgment.

 

Does he really have a legitimate beef with his teammates that they are playing to inflate their statistics? Seems he's really upset with how US media focuses more on that than it should. Big deal.

I don't think there are many fans who would disagree that Namoff's had a fantastic season for us - but I'm sure his stats don't show that. Earnie should give us all a little more credit, and add the sitters that he's missed or not taken to the things that keep him up at night. Kinda sounds like it's everything but himself that's the problem.

 

Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration

I think what he's saying is people need to stop making the perfect pass. And as much as I hate Stoichkov, at least he's urging guys to go forward and run at people.

I've been a big believer all season that Earnie hasn't failed, but the system has failed Earnie.

 

Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration

It was a very interesting article. I read that sentence/section/ramble about 4 times and I can't quite tell if he's saying we try to pass for the 75% chance shot too often without ever taking the 25% chance shot ---- or that we would rather take the 25% shot than work for the 75% shot.
I think we WAY TOO OFTEN try to pass for the perfect highlight-reel shot when we should just SHOOT THE BALL. Weird things happen when you shoot, balls get deflected, goalies slip, defenders knock balls into the net. But nothing at all happens when you stand there waiting to deliver the pass that gets you on the news. Well, except defenders close on you and take the ball away......

 

Re: Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration

Great point that all of us seem to get, but the team doesn't. How many other people think that if the play Chicago scored its first goal on happened to us, there would have been no 30-yard shot into the goal, but two or three passes ending in a loss of possession?

 

I interpreted some of his comments as stating that if everyone--when healthy--was comfortable with a system, then the players aren't going to look for a "Marco Etcheverry" all of the time to bail them out. Or think that a goal will only be scored if a certain player touches it in a sequence.

And, I think he is right about not panicking and lobbing the ball into the box against Chicago. In the past game, it reminded me of the US women's WC game against Germany. It got a bit predictable. For one thing, I think lobbing air-balls into the 18-year box when you have Bocanegra and Curtin as central defeneders is not the most successful plan.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Stewart voices his frustration

You could tell that it seemed Williams was when given the green-light to shoot from that area of the field. He took at least three shots from that same area. One was the goal. Another forced a leaping save by Warren, and the third was in the stratosphere...but 1 out of 3 isn't bad.

 

i wish that earnie would have said this stuff earlier... maybe then we wouldn't be in this position... i doubt it, but maybe... it is however the culture we've grown up in and built the team around... one or two players carry the team, instead of several players filling defined roles... (sounds like a coaching problem to me... but the players must be broken down) i'm still a supporter of getting rid of the names on the back of there jerseys.

 

Again, coming from an unabashed Earnie supporter, I'm not surprised it's taken this long for him to boil over considering that:

1. Some people on the team and coaching staff seem more interested in giving quotes than backing them up.

2. He's a World Cup veteran who has captained his country at the highest level, still playing on occasion for a successful national team and basically has no leadership role on the team.

Think he feels minimized?

 

ok first off, i know that earnie has been very self-critical, too much so in my opinion. i have had conversations with him where he has shared frustration with his own play. he certainly takes responsibility for some of the problems in his own play. this may not have come out in the article, but i know he feels that way.

second, despite the fact earnie has starred on our national team, he is very much a dutch player. in holland, players rarely take pride in a goal, but in the pass (or passes) leading to a goal. this has been the case since the late 60s and is very much a feature of the dutch game. moreover, the typical dutch play--attacking, flowing football, relies on a very precise and rigid system of play. true you are free to create in the system, but it really depends on each player doing things very precisely. if you watch eredivision games, the play is way more discplined than you will find in mls.

stewart is in many ways the personfication of this system, he like many dutch players, is very ego-less when it comes to stats, etc. this isn't really the mindset of better mls players.

until mls gets a real reserve and youth system in place the call ups, injuries etc. are going to continue. if you look at dutch clubs they have a lot less problems than mls clubs do. first off, you have a bigger roster of players and your reserve players get time in reserve side matches. your players all play the same way--the under 16 #3 plays exactly the same way as the U 19, reserve and senior players. when they move up to the higher team, or into a starting position, they play the same position. it is very rigid system with the goal that all #3s or #10s in your system play the same way, same role, same responsibilities. Van Gaal's ajax was probably the height of this (there is a great book i bought recently about his philosophy at ajax, very fascinating).

 

MLS' style of play is physical, as Earnie said. I'd argue it's too physical. I see too much hard tackling, shirt pulling. And I can't stand it when guys are on breakaways and there's "professional fouls"-should be a red card in my opinion. But that's MLS for you.

MLS as Earnie said is also goal- and individual-oriented. Guys don't necessarily play under the strict system like he had in Holland.

I'm not sure Earnie should come back next year. I think he's incredibly talented, but it should be obvious he has not been a great fit for MLS and DC United this year. If he comes back next year, I hope he commits a change in attitude and play. He says he won't change, but he'll need to.

 

Tell it, Earnie. It's a team sport, and we have not been playing like a team, for one reason or another. Some of that is injuries, some of it is personalities, but Ray and John have got to take responsibility for not making this team work together.

 

I'm a big fan of this Dutch style of play, and I overall like Earnie as well, but to be fair, for every flick-on pass he had Saturday where none of his teammates had made that "blind" run, he made his share of god-awful giveaways right to a Fire player.

 

personally I'd like to see earnie have much more responsibility next year -- maybe even taking the captain's band, particularly if nelson doesn't come back (although I've always wanted olsen to be captain, but that's an aside).

I just think there's something very strange about our national team captain and biggest club pickup in the offseason not being heard from until the playoffs. once marco and hristo are booted, we need earnie to put his stamp on this team. make him an assistant coach if necessary, but he's got to be given (and take) the chance to really lead. someone with his credentials should not be relegated to bitching on a web site about what's wrong with the team after the regular season's over -- he should be trying to fix it, and he should be given all the help he needs.

I think there are some driven, team players here -- benny and dema, for sure -- that could be the nucleus of the team earnie envisions. cerritos too. but hudson only exacerbates the problems -- always sounds like hudson focuses on that individuality (esp. marco) and not on the team, system or discipline. and I think convey is undoubtedly one of the selfish players earnie's alluding to, tho that's just my opinion.

fire hudson, don't sign marco or hristo, listen to earnie.

my 02

 

Anyone else think Earnie might be a good coach down the road?

 

Stewart should tell Hristo and Marco that the next time they yell at the ref we're going to storm the field and kill them.

 

I was talking to Hristo at the meet the team day this year and he was saying basically the same thing. One of things that popped out were that the players (not all) have the attitude pay me then play me. They don't feel as if they have to earn the right to play. It is just pay wether or not I play, no big deal if I play or not just as long as I get paid.

 

Earnie's angst

I was the reporter who asked Earnie the question that got him on the subject. He has referred several times in past interviews with me to the need for coherent team play.

I asked him about the contrast between Chicago and United on the evening in that regard and he began.

The vibe I got was that he was more upset in earlier interviews and this one with the lack of a coherent system more than with his teammates.

See my article at www.cybersoccernews.com for a slightly different emphasis.

Steve Long

 

I think that many of us are being a bit naive if we believe that yesterday was the first that his teammates ever heard from Earnie on this topic. Just because he is now speaking about it with the media, doesn't mean that he hasn't been preaching it to the team all year. Also, as a new transplant to the team, you can go on record blasting your team to the media in day 1. just not something a new guy does. I think that guys like he and Stoich have probably been through this time and time again with some of the younger players, and it's my guess that most just don't listen. everytime i see Convey's ridiculously selfish play, i just have to wonder. To this day, i see some of the quotes that Ray made when it was looking like Convey was gonna be sent overseas, and it seems to me that he was quite happy to have him go. why is that?