Can the more experienced explain the reasoning behind letting an obviously tiring Mais, Hejduk, and McBride get that far into, or finish the game? If we're going to sub for freshness, why wait to the last minutes? If we want to try some positions, how about Westie up top for McB, Duncan for Mais, and McCarty for Frankie in the 65th to 75th? Seems all the above subs need game time to keep sharp and all need to improve as we get to midseason. We risked some injuries on a soft field as well! JC needed and was ready for 90. Martino looked OK and needed the late game tactical work IMO. We effectively went to a 4-5-1 with McB dropping into the D. All that meant was a crappy Rapids back line had an easy time. We played best last year by adding pressure in the final 20mins. If you want to keep Martino you can swing him up front and add Walsh in the middle. Walsh made some NICE outlets. JC needs to learn how to take the ball down from the air with his feet. Stewart is a hack.
I don't know about putting Oughton in there earlier. He looked kind of lost out there tonight. It was good to see Walsh get some time. I would have liked to see West get in there with those slow ass defenders with Cunningham at the 60' mark. The only defender for Colorado that is worth a damn was Jeff Stewart. He was everywhere for Colorado tonight.
Andrulis was interviewed on FSW last night and said he talked with the players mentioned about playing time before leaving for Houston. When each returned, Andrulis asked them how they felt. Each said OK. Andrulis also inferred that the club was monitoring their work rate through the match to see whether any or all should be subbed.
I was wondering about the subs too. I was thinking that they coulda possible put in McCarty and taken out McBride. At that point they coulda shuffled the back line around, maybe putting Dunseth on the left and put Denton at left mid and moving Garcia up top with Cunny. That way you still have two burnes up top and you get some fresh legs in on defense. Also I was hoping Akwari would get some minutes against a hopeless Colorado offense. And that woulda taken out Hejduk. As for Oughton, I agree with myshap. he just ahsn't looked right out their this season. Something is just missing.
After the game against Colorado last year and some of this other bunker-ball crap we've seen, I should kick you in the nuts for bringing up a major defensive substitution. I applaud Greg for keeping up the pressure through the later stages of the game. Colorado looked like they were going to put a couple away if we settled into our box. A defensive sub before the 80th minute could have really hurt us.
I'm not sure what the complaint is here. The only questionable act was for Greg to leave in Mais for an extra 5-10 minutes. He seemed to be involved in every foul and a yellow card was just a matter of time. The timing of the other two subs seemed to be adequate. It gave Walsh some minutes and gave McCarty a chance to test his leg after the injury. And a two goal lead with 5+ minutes to go should be a save time to go into a 4-5-1. Contrary to holding a one goal lead for 20+ minutes with that formation.
Hey numbnuts, before you start the backswing read the whole post. I suggested moving Garcia up top to streach the defense since he would have more left in his tank than BMB since BMB went mid week against mexico. Also moving Denton up to left-mid. I know its a message board and attention spans are relatively short, but it if you take the thirty extra seconds to read the post you'll realize it was not really a defensive move i was suggesting.
Yeah, I saw that you suggested bumping Garcia up top with Cunny which would keep us at a 4-4-2 on paper. However, I guess I still don't respect the skills of Denton too much and would be scared that he would like to hang back and bunker. However, on the flip side, he has shown this season that he loves to make runs... Moral of the story -- hurry up and get healthy Edson so we do not have to argue about this anymore (at least until Nats games pull away our boys)!!