With Martino's build U14s would probably be about right. I'm sure I saw a fairly weak gust of wind blow him offside on Saturday.
Anyone know Martino's contract status? He couldn't possibly still be playing on his original deal could he? If so, he's got to be out of contract soon.
If McCullers fires Andrulis and eventually turns this thing around, he coule potentially be worshipped in these parts.
Until the next guy starts losing and stays around too long. It's unforutnate I can't hit the powerball for 1 billion. Then I could buy the team and have enough cash on hand to meet the monthly money calls.
Well, not for nothing, but he's right on both counts. It's NOT his fault (not directly) the the team is missing PK's. Professional players, at this or ANY OTHER level, should not miss five out of six, in any, ANY given stretch. That falls squarely on the players. I've heard people ask "Why aren't they practicing them by now?" I've heard from someone whose opinion and word I trust that they are practicing them. And Kyle Martino getting a dumb red card is on no one but Kyle Martino. (Hey, as someone in 107 said, "At least you saved Andrulis the trouble of yanking you!!") BUT... The argument turns around back on the coach eventually. Penalty kicks are all about attitude. If no one on the team has the necessary attitude, that's on the coach. The coach is supposed to control the team. If things are going on on the field that are costing us matches that are out of the coach's control, then the coach has LOST control, and that's on him also. If the PK's and Kyle's red card were the only things wrong with this team, maybe Greg could skate. But these are actually minor glitches compared to the steaming puddle of liquid crap that's infested our stadium this season. Greg is the fisherman, and the Crew are the mackeral he's trying to catch. And he's totally at the end of his line. He either needs to reel that bad boy in NOW, or the fish will break the line and be gone forever.
I discussed this with the wife and as long as it's a really big jackpot I can buy the Crew if we win. So keep your fingers crossed boys and girls.
Good post. We're having the old "why should the coach get fired when it's the players who aren't performing?" debate. Well, here's how I put it in an e-mail to McCullers a couple weeks ago: "It is the responsibility of the coach to assemble a squad capable of competing for the championship, to train those players to championship standards, to place them in a tactical system which will get the best from them, and to prepare them mentally to perform at their peak. Greg Andrulis falls far short of this standard." Yes, professionals should not miss 5 of 6 penalties. Yes, it is ultimately Martino's fault that he got the second yellow, and his fault that he looked for all the world like he couldn't have cared less that he'd been given it. But in the end it is the coach's responsibility to run the team so that those things do not happen, so that the players, individually and collectively, achieve the very best they can achieve. That's what coaching is. Otherwise, you'd only need the players. (Though we couldn't possibly be worse if the team was completely uncoached, so maybe we should give it a try).
I'll say again though, as I have a million times, we're not losing games because of missed PKs. We're losing games because we can't score goals. I mean, if our team strategy really is "play for PK's" fine. Idiotic, but fine. But we have a bunch of supposed professionals who can't seem to manage a rudimantary offense that rpoduces a goal once in a while. So PK's, which are gifts from the gods, become that much more imporant: because they're our only hope of scoring. It shouldn't be that way. And I'm sorry but our offensive tactics ARE the coach's responsibility, aren't they? I mean, he must be there for SOMETHING. Bottom line: Blame Andrulis for missing the PK? Absolutely not. Blams Andrulis for the fact that we desperately needed a PK in order to salvage a draw (and avoid a shutout) at home against a weakened rival ripe for the plucking? You bet.
While I certainly agree that all blame on any subject lies at the feet of Andrulis (ridiculous or not), my only point in defending Merz was that the article was hardhitting on the numbers, the facts -- something Crew fans have been screaming for. I don't dispute that Craig's logic within the article follows a nonlinear path. The shots about it wasn't Andrulis taking the PK or getting a red card and he is a good guy were probably just attempts to be balanced. It's funny though what the defense of Andrulis consists of. Merz doesn't necessarily come out and point to his on-the-field successes. Rather he says Greg is a nice guy and he didn't take the PK or get the red card. Pretty funny indictment of Andrulis if you ask me.
Watching the MLSnet video of the KC game last week, I thought Dwight and Bill were over the top painting a rosy picture of the Crew and how hard the players were working to get things turned around. Are they HSG employees? It just sounded like they'd been leaned on, even more than the Mertz thing reads. Is there any reason based on past experience to take Mertz seriously when he says it"s "apparent" that something will have to be done "by the end of the month." I read that as a half-assed way of doing "tough" reporting without really knowing anything about what will happen to Andrulis, either way. If it's useless speculation, then it's really bad reporting. At this point, there's not much to say except "Why, Lamar? Why this do-nothing ********?"
I think it is fair to blame the coach for our poor PK results. Normally a coach decides who takes the penalty. In our case Greg, defers to the players on the field. That results in the strongest personality grabbing the ball (Sanneh) rather than the guy with the best chance of converting (Cunningham). Buddle doesn't have an aggressive personality to call off the various midfielders who have missed 3 times this year. Glen does but he's gone for now.
I will say that McCullers at least has a start by responding to fans' e-mails. He seems more open to dialogue with the fans than previous occupants of the corner office at 1 Black & God have been. Hell, their company slogan could have been "Sit down, shut up and enjoy the game." Sure we'd all like a Peter Wilt, someone who's an Internet nutjob like the rest of us, but we all know those types are few and far between (the previously mentioned Mark Cuban may be the only one similar to Wilt). McCullers probably has his hands tied a lot more too. Both in, as stated earlier, that the organization was in greater decay than he thought when he took over and by his comments about Hunt being a patient man (which, now that I think of it, sounds like a frustrated "Believe me, I'm willing to fire Greg's ass but the guys above me won't let me do it.")
Columns aren't supposed to be balanced though. They're supposed to be opinions that people either say, "Yeah, right on!" or "What a fvcking moron!' Is Cal Thomas balanced? Is Paul Krugman balanced? Is Stephen A. Smith balanced? No. And that's why people read them.
Glen ignoring Greg's call resulted in our only (maybe there was another somewhere) converted penalty this season.
Here's a line from Merz's piece in today's Dispatch: Sometimes, when watching the Crew, I think that's not the case.
Merz seems to be working on his Doctorate in Stupid lately. In REAL ESTATE the three most important things are "location, location and location." In BUSINESS the only thing that matters is results. Nothing else is number two. Which is an example of how isolated from reality journalists are; no one with the slightest clue how people are graded in the real world would write that drivel.
But, when you're writing a column on a subject you cover it's like letting the cat out of the bag. Everybody assumes you have some biases when you're covering a subject, or beat in reporting terms, but to blatantly express that opinion in an opinion piece on the subject you're covering takes away any legitimacy your beat coverage has. Following me? For example, I cover local government. If I write an opinion piece about how the mayor's a crack-job then how will people view my stories about the mayor in the future? Edit: This is in reference to JasonC's comment above.
Just as a point of reference this does not seem to be the case. Dispatch have three editorial writers, Bob Hunter, and two others (apologies, their names escape me at the moment). Merz on the other hand by and large needs to remain objective, as he's just the beat writer. I could be wrong perhaps, isn't this normally the case? The difference between beat and editorial writers?
Yes and yes. Editorial writers are different writers from reporters. Just like reporters typically don't write the headlines on their own stories. Somebody completely different from the first two mentioned does that. However, Craig's Crew Review, while still largely an objective recap of the previous game, can lend itself to more opinion than a news story. But that recap, even with opinion included, is not considered an editorial or an opinion piece. It's goal is not to take one extreme or the other. See Bob Hunter's editorial in yesterdays(?) paper. In it he rips fans for thinking they know more about coaching than the coaches do. It mentions Andrulis, the coach of the Destroyers and the coach of the Reds (two of which are former coaches now I guess). NOTE: And Bill, in my opinion that is a great example of a journalist being out of touch with the general public.
My excessive drinking before the DC game resulted in my passing out in my seat and missing the entire game. This left me rested for the fireworks and the end result was an enjoyable evening thanks to missing the worst Crew performance of the season. You can't argue with results.