stepping back ... Think Earnie's comments are spot on, and a better choice maybe to not view them as comments between games so to speak, but more as comments on a whole season, and even bigger, comments on a different culture that undoubtably exists. In terms of his timing, in one respect, yes, maybe these coming earlier affect better results in the standings, etc. , though they most likely wouldn't have prevented Olsen and Rimando's injuries. However, his comments, acknowledging our disparity with say the Dutch system commented on before, should be a wake-up call to the administration. DC has unique ties amongst the MLS to be bigger than just another MLS club team. And if any are out there wondering how does the team regain their former glory, or whatsmore, go beyond and help improve the perception worldwide of American Soccer, can there be any doubt about how?? I think it's Earnie we need to show us the way, whether it's the way we practice, the way we draft, the way we strategize, extending to the way we play on the pitch. DC is in the playoffs despite their many setbacks, and Earnie is complaining about a lack of consistency. You might be confused and claim it's irrelevant, but think how much better we'd feel if the team had continued it's winning stretch of a few weeks ago on into our current run of play. Consistancy builds confidence, which breeds efficiency if focus can be maintained. Consistant efficiency breeds success.. and the circle continues..
I guess this means we have two groups of players on this team, those that put the team first and those that don't. I wonder who falls where?
Maybe a bit off the thread topic, but I think it would do the MLS good (help the officiating too) if they were a little more liberal with red cards. Knowing a professional foul could be red, should add goal scoring (always enjoyable), improve the flow of games, and add to referees authority (too often sorely lacking). In addition, when a team goes a man down, it often makes for an interesting twist to the game, and is not as severe a blow to a team as might be expected (this is a bit of a guess, anyone have stats on this?). The disadvantages might be that the MLS rosters are not deep enough. If players get red-carded during the period when National team call-ups are on-going, rosters can get pretty thin. And it hurts marketing too, i.e. if Ruiz gets suspended for the Gals game at RFK, attendance would definately suffer.
I know what you mean. But in another way it sounds like precisely the coach's team. At its best what is a Ray Hudson coached team but a collection of highly individualistic players who just happen to play well together. It just happens, however, that this collection doesn't and that fact is not lost on Stewart. And, yes, Stewart might make a good coach down the line.
Right. Initially there would be red cards or at least mandatory yellows given as players learn not to grap people on breakaways. Another thing the refs should do is not call dives of almost any kind (even if fouled), and give yellows for diving. Fans complain loudly about players that dive, but you can't really blame the players for that because the refs call it. Eventually from the cards the diving and the physical play in MLS will go down, and faster better quality soccer will result. Less injuries will occur. And MLS will be a little more like the EPL and the Dutch league-more to the liking of Stewart. You can say that will increase yellows, BUT I say DECREASE the # of yellows where a player fouls a diver. I see so many yellows where guys fake getting hit, rolling around on the ground. In order to do this though, we need refs who have the ability to discern a real foul from a fake one, and the courage to not call a fake one. And one more thing before I go-the refs need to stop allowing the time-wasting at the end of the games. For example, when teams take way too long to take throw-ins, goal kicks, corners, substitutes, injuries, what have you, the ref should give warnings and be open to carding. But I'm not counting on the refs getting better any time soon...and the main reason Earnie isn't getting it done isn't the refs
Much more than some other players on our team... Coming from someone who was apparently bitching at the coach before our last match that he wasn't ont he starting roster, then managed to take himself out of the game for about 15 minutes of the first half by letting his temper get the better of him, this is truly an ironic juxtaposition.
I don't think Stewart is referring to Convey. Here's a hint. After the game Saturday, Earnie made a point of stating that he thought the offsides call was correct! Why would he make a point of stating this? Perhaps he was embarassed by the behavior of two players in particular who spent most of their energy in fhe first half arguing with the officials and linesman instead of just letting their football ability do the talking. He singles out Brian Namoff for praise... a guy who runs all game, plays defense, and doesn't worry about stats. Hmmm... which players don't do those things?
A lot of good comments here I think this thread might be this forum's most constructive forum all season. Makes sense that it comes after one of the players talks about the need for the team to play well together after this season of individual play. Cool. I think Earnie should be our captain next year also. No for the next part I'm gonna talk about our current coach. I won't get carried away, but I will point out that we have seen three year's of Hudson-led offenses (two here and one @ Miami). All of them have been basically the same model, except that Miami's offense was successful whereas DCU's haven't been. So what was the difference? In all three years the offense clicked when individual players took it upon themselves to go to goal. In Miami, by far the most successful offense. Ray had at least three players who naturally went to goal: Preki, Serna, and Henderson. Bishop also helped out from his deep position. Around those three or four you had a very good complimentary type player in Chacon who got seriously hot feasting off the efforts of the others. Bingo. Successful offense. But looking back at that wonderful offense, I have to agree with The Knave when he wrote above, "At it's best what is a Ray Hudson coached team but a collection of highly individualistic players who just happen to play well together." This year has shown the bad side of Hudson's offense even more than last year's (which I'll get to in a second). We have two very vocal leaders in Marco and Hristo who just can't perform at the level they used too and are a bit too proud to fully face the music. After those two we had a little bit of individual attacking interest in two other players- Kovalenko, who usually was playing way too deep to leave much of a lasting impression on the offense, and Olsen, who needed half the season to fully recover from injury, and then got hurt. But when he was on, he was THE only consistent offensive threat. All the other players were/are either too young (Esky say) , or too complimentary (Stewart or Cerritos or Convey) to take it upon themselves to generate offense. So we were left with no leadership in light of the lack of coaching leadership. Basically Hudson has no idea how to coach Stewart- they speak different languages. Hudson speaks of a fist of a team and being the point of the spear while Earnie speaks of blind passes and intuition. Something's got to change. either Hudson goes or we have to get a bunch of individual players who can mesh together. Last year though was interesting. It was much like this year but one of the main individuals got totally pissed off at Hudson- Moreno. Basically Jaime bailed on the team. But after that, Ray made a move that helped to jell the offense. By putting Convey next to Etch at the end he put a complimentary player in the middle of various individuals- Etch in the center, Olsen on the right, Villegas on the left. It clicked. It clicked even when our forwards were the likes of Zambrano and Lassiter for god's sakes. That Hudson went away from this as soon as the season ended indicates that he had no idea that he made a good move and should build on it. No- I am not saying that Convey has to be our a-mid. (And I'm not not saying it either.) I am saying that you need the right mix of players in the right positions for offense to happen. In addition if you have several complimentary types- and this club does in Stewart, Cerritos, Convey, Namoff, Eskandarian, Alegria, and Quaranta- then you need to spend extra time figuring out how they blend, and how they fit in with the more individual players like Olsen, Quintanilla, Kovalenko, and Martins. (Yes, Marco and Hristo are not included because they are all but gone.) Obviously, some of the players besides Marco and Hristo will be gone next year. But probably we will still have a large number of complimentary types out there starting with Earnie. Whoever the new coach is though needs to recognize what kind of players he's got here and use a system that uses their strengths.
Truth be told, Brian Namoff didn't do jack s. He was supposed to help w/the midfield attack, and did very little. Prideaux ran all game, played defense, doesn't worry about his stats. But he never shoots. He rarely advances the ball-he's clearly scared to do so. And as a result, he's not dangerous-and the Fire staff know it. It was incredibly clear that Chicago's strategy was to put absolutely noone on Prideaux. DC would pass and pass until Prideaux got the ball, then Prideaux w/no one on him wouldn't advance w/the ball and often would turn the ball over. I don't know if Stewart is talking about Convey-I think probably not-but Convey was as invisible as Namoff. Is this the kind of play Earnie Stewart prefers? Is this what a successful MLS coach would field? I hope not. No wonder we ended up w/zero goals-we have invisible players out there. I've had enough of invisibility. He says people don't notice these things he says is important-that's because these things end up not making much of a difference at all. You can't fault the guys that are out there trying, and that includes the guys Earnie was bashing. Whatever we're going to do, we've got to iron it out and be on the same page next year. Whether that's playing the kind of system ball Earnie wants, or going on the attack w/individual play and more shooting, the players have to get on the same page and be complementary to each other before the season starts. I think we can all agree on that.
Re: A lot of good comments here I'd MUCH rather have a coach who can develop a system that the players can step into than one who just throws a bunch of players together and hopes they find some magic. Or maybe I'd rather see something in the middle - a good system and players who click. Hudson is not capable of developing or communicating such a system or recognizing where the players would fit. He must go. I think this is a dangerous assumption to make. Do we have any evidence whatsoever that Hristo won't be back? Or that Marco won't be back? (I believe this comments to that radio station were smoke-blowing, not real information.)
Uh...let me think...........um..............oooooooh......uh........ooooh, I know, I know............. Etch and Hristo!!!
Sorry I wrote this before I saw ursula's post. He said basically the same thing. Obviously I agree w/what he said. I'm still wondering why they moved Convey back to the wing after his successful play w/Etcheverry last year. Stick w/what works and build on it. Just repeating what ursula said.
I agree. One of the common arguments given in defense of Hudson is that we've had loads of injuries and callups so it's understandable that the team suffered. To an extent that's true. But it seems to me that if you've got a system where players can learn a position and a role then it's much easier to weather callups and injuries. You don't have to change your entire lineup because one of your players is missing. All you do is slide the second string guy in place for the usual starter. Nobody else has to play any differently. It's just that that one particular position is a bit weaker. In other words, yeah, it hurt the team that there were so many callups and injuries but that it hurt the team so badly is Hudson's fault. I also think a lot of what we've heard from those two is so much smoke and mirrors in hopes of eeking out one more year. And then maybe one more after that. They're both cancers on the team and I just hope someone has the balls to tell those two that it's time to go.
That's never true, no matter how much of a "system" is in place. Some players just work well together, and others don't. This game is a lot about instinct and intuition, no matter how structured a coach tries to make it. If players are intuitively cross-wired, no coach or system can make them work magic together. When players are on the same page instinctually, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
The question is whether you expect the team to be intuitive about other players or other positions. Stewart, by my read, is complaining that nobody on DC United is intuitive about other positions because nobody reliably plays a position. Hudson, on the other hand, constructs teams on precisely the principle that you lay out: find a mix of players who intuitively work together. The difference is that in the former roles and positions can be taught, trained and habituated. The latter is all about what you naturally bring to the field. So if the question is which approach can better tolerate the absence of a player or two, then I think you have to concede that playing a system helps mitigate the damage. I think it's telling that Hudson rarely speaks of who's gonna play right midfield or left back when someone's not available. He says, who's gonna be Olsen, or Dema, or Etch, or Rimando ... It's all about the player for Hudson. It would have helped if it were more about the position. That's all I'm saying. Playing a system mitigates problems when players aren't available.
It does to an extent, but what happens when your entire system is blown out of the water by a preseason injury to a star player and you have to spend all year finding a new system when it becomes obvious that your backup players don't work in the original system? (Think Reyes and the right wingback position in Ray's prefered 3-5-2) That, to an extent, is a danger in playing a non-traditional system. Players may not be able to properly adjust. Basically the same thing happened at Spurs (Ziege) the last 2 years, and now Glenn Hoddle is out of a job. If anything, we need to bring in a coach whose system fits the style of the majority of players in this league. Sometimes round pegs do fit in square holes, but even when they do, they don't quite fill them.
Other new DCU Coaching options Many good choices from the other DCU New Coach thread. Myrenick or Ellinger would be my choice...both very solid. Definitely not Onalfo...he was an assistant under a unsuccessful coach (rongen) and now Arena. NO head coaching experience at all..just travel teams. being one of Areana's "boys" is not enough to qualify him. I have another to add to the list.....Bill Moravek. Moravek coached with Southampton for tow years and is now with Jamaica's National Team...he has head coaching experience as well at the highest level...just anther person to throw into the hat. My choice would be Myrenick with Onalfo or Moravek as his assistant.