United-Crew Grades [R]

I am not going to quibble too much with any grades. We played a fairly desultory game. However, I will say that I disagree with most people's assessment of Quintinilla. I thought he was excellent, particularly in his defense.

As for Chino, I know he is a big whipping horse on these boards -- and even in this thread -- but he did come up with a crucial assist in the 96th minute. That's worth something.

Speaking of defense, I thought all of our defenders were unbelievably shaky. Prideaux, Petke, and Ivanov all made Jeff Agoos-type passes and botched clearances that should have resulted in several Crew goals, rather than just the first goal. Yes, Petke scored, but I thought otherwise he was pretty bad.

AQ

 

Warren 3.5 "F-ing Sh_thead" - M.P.
Ivanov 4.5
Petke 6.5 MOTM
Nelsen 5.5
Prideaux 4.5
Quintanilla 4
Kovalenko 4.5
Convey 4
Martins 5
Cerritos 4.5
Stoitchkov 4

Namoff 5
Eskandarian 2
Alegria 5.5

 

Warren - 3 His inexperience showed. The lack of communication with his backline was obvious, notwithstanding the mixup with Petke on the first goal.
Ivanov - 3.5 I can't believe he is a SI and than we used an allocation to get him. His game play is just mediocre at best.
Nelson - 5 Solid effort. He and Petke are rocks in the back line.
Prideaux - 4 A relatively poor effort. Struggled.
Petke - 5.5 Best player in the back. Great goal.
Kovalenko - 5. Solid game. Just not enough support in midfield. Spent the whole game covering holes.
Quintanilla - 4 Unimpressive. Came in and out of the game. I keep thinking this guy is going to have a breakout outing and then he slips back into his old habits.
Convey - 4.5 An ok game that could have been so much better. Must start to finish his chances.
Cerritos - 5 Presented good runs but had little service.
Stoichkov- 3.5 An incredible talent past his prime. Some beautiful touches and vision but those pluses don't outwieght a slew of negatives from workrate to discussions with the ref.
Martins - 4.5 A very strong forward. Shows well. He needs to translate his talent into goals.

Namoff - 4.5 Best substitute. Covered a lot of space. Begining to wonder why he is not starting over Ivanov.
Eskadarian - 0 Absolutely worthless. Unbelieveably stupid decisions even for a 10 year old player let alone a number 1 pick in the entire draft. He should have played his LAST game in a DCU uniform.
Alegria - 1 He only gets the 1 because of the assist to Petke. The assist could not overcome his generally poor play and the abisymal coverage in failing to keep West out from getting the pk. Why is he on the team?

 

Analyze this...

Good point of view, Nick...
I think its not a matter of forwards...
How many forwards we had this year?
How many goals did they score?
In this defensive game that DC plays, not even the best forward of the world would be able to score goals.
I cant understand how a forward plays alone in the front and still has to go back to defend. The midfield plays a lot at defense... The ball hardly gets in the atack, and when it does, its 50/50.
What do you think about this?

 

United's problem all year has been scoring and the inability to find the right combination up top. It seemed as if the problem had finally been addressed with the pairing of Cerritios and Stewart.

Just as this combination was starting to click, the midfield started to crumble as injuries hit and some players fell out of form.

Today, DCU is a shadow of team it could be if injuries didn't decimate the side. Compare what I consider DCU's optimum team compared to what we fielded against Columbus.

Rimando
Reyas Nelsen Petke Prideaux
Kovalenko
Olsen Stewart Convey
Quaranta Cerritos

vs

Warren
Ivanov Nelsen Petke Prideaux
Kovalenko
Q2 Cerritios Convey
Stoitchkov Martins

Very few teams can expect to leave that firepower on the sideline and feel confident of winning.

 

I thought Thiago Martins looked really dangerous. Do you think United will keep him next year? What's his contract sitaution?

Commentator was right on hristo taking away cerritos' space,

keepr looked quite good in 2nd half

petke is a horse, too bad about miscommunication

good luck for playoffs

 

grades only please...commentary can wait for other threads.