Nowak had as good a year coaching as there has been in this year, consideirng the situation he inherited, the transition throughout the summer and injuries. He deserves coach of the year. With respect to KC, I thought they were poor. No ideas on offense, even when they were a man up. More critically, their vaunted defense was unable to prevent passes from getting to our forwards. In contrast, DC did a masterful job of cutting off the service to Wolff and Arnaud.
What killed me about KC is they can be an incredibly competent counter attacking side when they want (at least aginst us). But they just don't seem to want to too often. Weird.
Nope. That's a textbook call. You could make a case that Esky didn't deserve a card because of lack of intent, but the ball contacted his arm while the arm was away from his body, giving him a clear advantage that directly led to the goal. That's an illegal play to ANY ref that knows his business.
Yep. Henrik Larsson had a somewhat similar goal disallowed against Villarreal in the UEFA Cup in April. He didn't intentionally handle the ball, but his arms were up, and the ball went in off his arms. And I disagree that KC is a "donut" team. Gutierrez and Zavagnin had been excellent all year. The midfield they put out there are rarely going to unlock a well positioned, organized defense, but they did show the ability to launch and sometimes finish counters. And you'd have to expect that without Klein and a match fit Simutenkov. KC was just unable to get their attack going. KC is partly to blame, but kudos to DC for doing their part in preventing the swift and decisive KC breaks.
D. C. United is far and away the rags to riches story of the year for MLS. No question. Nowak has been far and away THE BEST COACH in MLS this season. I personally dont quite get why MLS hands out these awards before the playoffs and championship are complete. I would think that at least certain awards should include the playoff performance as it is still part of the same season, as least to me. Sure Andrulis did a pretty good job, when you look at crew's final season standing and record, but honestly how does what he did even come close to comparing to what Nowak has done? It just simply DOESNT. Ill bet crew fans would trade in that award for the one Nowak guided D.C. United to, the one im holding in my avatar. D.C. United PROVED that KC cannot bunker and win against a team that is offencively as strong and superior as United. It helps we have pretty good defence as well, but so does KC, and look what our offence did to them. If KC had a similar or equal offencive power, maybe things might have been different. Im pretty certain that it would have stayed 3-1 had they not gotten the PK and scored on it.
Take a look at the video at mlsnet.com. Esky's arm was not extended away from his body and he made no attempt to deliberately handle the ball. Since the ball would have bounced off his torso had it not hit his elbow, saying that he gained "clear advantage" is stretching things a bit.
When Did DC become offensively strong? They are a physically dominating team that scored one goal on offense. The other two cam from an own goal and a clear handball. It just proves that KC can't play from behind.
When Did DC become offensively strong? They are a physically dominating team that scored one goal on offense. The other two cam from an own goal and a clear handball. It just proves that KC can't play from behind.
Hmm, maybe as a Metros fan you could ask your goalkeeper, a fellow by the name of Johnny Walker, whether or not he thinks that DC United is offensively strong.
I know its a cute repsonse and all but it doesn't really answer the question. They didn't lose because they couldn't handle an offensively strong team. They lost because they displayed great ineptitude offensively. An own goal and and goal off a hand ball do not an offensive power make.
not to change the subject, and I do like Erice Wynalda, but man, he really has to go...every game he's announced has indirectly been a knock toward MLS and all of soccer. I only heard him for about five minutes during the middle of the first half. The score was 3-1 and he stating that "I know this game will get good, I can feel it". It's already 3-1??? Just how does he define good???? As for Mickey Mouse, Eric prefers Sesame Street, as within a minute later he compared Eskandarian & Moreno to "Ernie & Bert"???? And this is coming from our announcer? I know we can do MUCH better...
Even Paul Gardner, MLS's resident angry man, can recognize that these two are not mutually exclusive statements.
Ok, for THIS particualr match, ill give you that, so fair enough. BUT, the BOTTOM LINE is that United got it done. IT does not matter if it bounced in off of Esky's butt, Bo's cup, or a seagull that happend to be flying over KC's goal to sh!t on those b@startds below... the fact remains that it got DOEN. 3 times Vs KC's 2, and one of thiers was a converted PK. KC CANNOT SCORE, and CANNOT defend against a team that has a potent offence. You of all people should know the answer to your question. How many times have you had to hear the SIX-TWO! SIX-TWO! SIX-TWO! Chant this season and playoffs?
They are a defensive team. Of the 8 teams below them in the standings, 5 scored more often (Columbus did as well).
Uh no one is trying to minimise DC's title, The point being made that DC was some sort of offensive juggernaut that KC couldn't handle was false. I simply pointed that out.
No. The law is that the ball must be deliberately handled. Advantage has nothing to do with it. If you want to argue that he deliberately handled the ball and therefore Kennedy should have called it, fine, that's a judgment call. But to argue that it should be called he gained an advantage because the ball hit is arm ignores what Law 12 says... (from FIFA's website -- http://www.fifa.com/fifa/handbook/laws/law.12.frame.html) "A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)."
I don't know, DC put three in the net after falling down a goal to the best defense in the league (at least statistically) in what, seven minutes? The fact that United didn't score more had a helluvalot more to do with the fact that they had to play a man down and only a 1 goal lead for forty minutes. You can downplay the explosivness if you want by suggesting rightly that if the ref had proper position the second goal wouldn't have counted, but the fact is, the goal is on the scoreboard and the third goal, though an own goal, was legit and part of a breakaway and cross that had left KC's defense stretched thin and desperate. More of the same may have been in the cards if not for the poor punch by Rimando and ensuing handball by Dema. DC wasn't as impressive as it could have been, but they certainly were impressive considering how quickly they had fallen behind and whom they were down against. The goals certainly weren't as impressive as those scored against New York, but they were 3 goals, and they were 3 more than anyone I can ever remember scoring against KC this year after falling behind 1-0 (could be wrong though).