I agree entirely. Yeah, KC was a bit of a disappointment, but the match overall for me was, as you say, interesting. Re: KC, pick your excuses. A bad first half, to be sure, but in the second it just seemed as though their lack of a bench caught up with them. Jesus, Taylor was a horrible sub. Plus, it just seemed like Gansler was outcoached. And, take it from me, those of us in Columbus have experienced some bizarre post-season coaching recently.
no one will debate this fact though. the crowds their have sucked the last two mls cups. only good thing they have going for them have been visiting supporters. the blargest mls cup crowd i have ever seen would be the New England one in 2002 soooo many people, but such a boring match what was is like 60k or something haha the best was back when they were in DC 56 k crowds, loud as hell for the home team
So am I the only one who thought that the reason KC had such a lackluster game for the last 60 minutes is not so much that they sucked but that DC shut them down? Earnie Stewart, until he came out of the game, I thought he closed down the KC left flank very well. And the DC players were more tenaciously contesting the 50/50 balls. Yes there was a certain lack of creativity on the KC side, but honestly, I thought DC was on top of their game from Esky's first goal to the end.
no matter how well DC shut down KC, they should still be able to create situations that make it hard for DC. It is simple, get the ball wide isolate a defender, take him on or make a combination to get the ball to the endline and whip it in.(only one solution of many) Or you could do as kc did and make a bunch of meaningless passes with no movement off the ball. If there is no movement off the ball then you are never going to break down a team.
I absolutely agree that these aspects all made it a compelling game to watch, but with 30 minutes of a team down by a goal and playing with a man advantage you certainly hoped that the second half would be more competative. I give all the credit in the world to Earnie Stewart and Jamie Moreno though. Those two guys just seemed to be absolutely everywhere.
Everyone seems to be blaming the KC players for lack of creativity (nothing but balls over the top) but you all have it wrong, it wasnt their fault! it was the coaches fault! who do you think told the players to do nothing but balls over the top? THE COACH! MLS is getting better every year but the coaching isnt. MLS need a few foreign coaches to bring in a different style of play.
You're going to get a slightly lamer crowd in a neutral environment. It was a decent crowd but when you consider this is a region of over 10 million people and they can't even draw 26,000 to a game? Fortunately, I'm confident that if the Galaxy were in it, you'd have 27,000 and 30,000 more trying to get in. Want a guaranteed sell-out? Well here, quit charging $50+ per ticket. Then, the Home Depot Center is "nice" but hardly a bad-ass venue. After four visits to the stadium I like it but they've got the absolute (and per-dollar) crappiest nachos I've ever had in a stadium. Learn to sneak food into the overpriced environment. The whole joint, while clean and pretty, is still very sterile and lacks the urban funk that makes sporting events cool. How do you fix that? First, put trough urinals in the men's bathroom. It's more barbaric and makes people drink more beer. Parking, dear God, don't pick the wrong exit out of that place. The bottlenecks on Artesia Blvd. will make 27,000 feel like a million (go the back way). Anyway, for today's game you have to consider the circumstance: Los Angeles got knocked out by Kansas City last week, so the interest here just shuts off after that. The crowd was pretty responsive. Very pro-D.C. it seemed. It didn't help that Radio Shack was handing out red and black cheer sticks. Last note. People were very accepting of my groups behavior today. I'm going to shred 3 copies of the Sunday L.A. Times and throw the confetti, bang on the back of seats yell "home of the Wizards" during the national anthem and the 12 people I bring are going to do it too. I'm glad that was understood.
Yeah, but at the end Kansas City just looked lazy and sloppy. I know you get tired but they weren't even running that hard in the first half. I was sure they were saving it up for the end but they weren't. Why don't players charge at the goalkeeper when he tries to get a little bold? Put the fear of God in the man. Urgency. Running after 50/50 balls. Put crazy blitzing pressure on them and try to rattle them like Germany does. Maybe the German national team is an unfair and over-athletic comparison They just didn't look like they wanted it very bad today.
Taylor came in and I checked my program....524 minutes. Nice move Gansler...but did he really have any options to spark the offense at that point? Absolutely no urgency either. Six minutes of injury time and I was yelling at the ref to end it because I couldn't take the half ass approach of the Wiz. I was surprised Adu got on the field too...especially after the red card and the lead cut in half....perhaps a change to spark the counterattack but still... It pisses me off even more how the Galaxy wasted an opportunity to lift the Cup by not showing up in KC....but anyway.
Quite a few of the defenders in the league are former midfielders. When they were younger, they were probably all the best players on their teams, so they'd be put into spots where they get the most touches and influence the games the most.
Exactly. This league seems more concerned with simply filling roster spots rather than finding actual quality to put on the rosters. The developmental player spots are the most annoying of all. Though many here slam me when I say it I will say it again. Signing 22 year old college grads and calling them "developmental players" does not constitute actual talent development. You do not start the process in the early twenty's you start it in the early teens. This kind of approach just tells me that the league is not at all serious about talent development. The talent level in this league is on the way down and people seem to not realise that. Unfortunately the people who run this league only seem to be interested in the buisness side of it. Many here will say thats the most important side and I will agree. But when people concentrate on the buisness side only to the detriment of all else that is a problem.
I am sorry that doesn't wash. This is noit about money it is about professionalism and standards. You can replicate the professionalism of a Real Madrid without the budget in much the way a Real Madrid can replicate the professionalism of a Rymans league side at times. Its about the attitude. There are teams in third division (League Two) in england so strapped for cash where the coach has to knock down walls and do masonary work when the dressing rooms needed to be enlarged. Yet the level of professionalism is not far below say division 1 (The Championship). This is from players who know they will have to find real jobs the moment their playing days are over. Its all about the attitude.
NO Preki NO Klein To me these are the creative influences on KC. Without them the KC midfield struggled mightily against the DC midfield. With better service Wolff and Arnauld could do more. In the Western conference finals the play between Wolff and Arnauld was what got them thru, but DC defenders shut that down. KC became a knock it around a pray for a break kind of team. Maybe it was best to just bypass midfield and take it straight to the forwards to see what they could do. DC **** and counting. Moreno=best player in league history
During the KC-LA game I was surprised to see the graphic where Arrowhead Stadium was only 69 yards wide. And I thought SJ had a narrow field. How did KC play at the HDC center earlier this year? The wider field would hurt KC's ability to deal with DC's game since DC is used to exploiting a wider pitch. And with the serious question out of the way, this has to be one of the worst threads ever on BS. Let's see, people are complaining because the LOSING team looked disspirited and uncreative?? Start complaining when the WINNING team looks bad. PS - as far as foreign coaching goes, isn't Gansler Hungarian?
I think KC's problem in the second half is they don't have the skilled type of team that can play from behind. They are used to getting a 1 goal lead and then just defending all game. Once they got behind 2 goals that was lights out. They dont have the skill to come back from 2 goals. If Preki and Klein were playing, then that wouldnt be as big of a hill to climb. But without them, they had no chance. Just the fact that their only offensive option off the bench was Matt Taylor speaks volumes.
Congrats to DC, well deserved win; KC just looked outmanned and outgunned, and they seemed to give up. About 30 seconds before Wynalda made his comment about KC's lack of urgency, our guests were all saying, "what's with KC---they show no urgency or fire at all", so even casual soccer-watchers could see the problem...Congrats to DC fans, great showing on TV; I agree that Klein and Preki are pretty much KC's team; oh, and in retrospect, leaving Tony on the bench in favor of rookie keeper? Please--KC needed fire, and Meola's got the fire, in my book.
there needs to be a replacement already within the squad, or atleast a potential one so that when the time comes for certain players to step down, there is no question who is going to fill the spot.
And it takes a couple months of 6-8 hours per day practice time (low intensity, akin to shooting free throws or uncontested jump shots in basketball) to learn how to deliver an accurate ball or to have a decent first touch. The other soccer basics can be learned as easily as from watching the EPL or La Liga games. And no one expects a Real Madrid out there but it'd be nice not to get a group of blind mice either.
Meh. Gansler's a good coach (deserved CotY) who did what he had to do. KC's a donut team. They're excellent in the back, pretty good in the front, useless in the middle (w/o Preki, that is).
OK, Doctor D. The winning team scored an own-goal and got one off a handball, then spent the second half bunkering down and making half-assed counter attacks. They also had a player ejected for blocking a goal with his hands. How's that?