Congratulations, Jaime. You deserve the praise.
It was a pretty good day for United fans yesterday.
I understand he didn't want to set the record off a penalty but the onus had been on him to score for several weeks now so I'm glad he took the opportunity. Moreover, I think he's still got it in him to score another two goals at least by the end of the season.
The ball Jaime scored with was presented to his 11 year-old son sitting on the sidelines. Good to celebrate the Atlantic Cup with a bit of MLS history, huh? I was watching Comcast and noticed that it was MLS history indeed: Thomas Rongen, Bruce Arena, and John Harkes were all on hand to witness Jaime make history. Cool.
----------------------------------------
Let's get to the meat. Player ratings:
Perkins - 7
Burch - 7
McTavish - 6.5
Vanney - 6.5
Namoff - 6
Simms - 7.5
Olsen - 8
Gomez - 8
Fred - 8
Emilio - 8
Moreno - 9
(8 for the game, +2 for the record, -1 for the record by penalty)
---------------------------------------
Rongen said the first fifteen minutes of the game witnessed DC's best offense all season. I wouldn't go that far, but they were solid for those fifteen and other than conceding a goal, they were solid all game. So much so, in fact, that Mathis almost got the jump on us towards the end. Perkins proved useful yet again.
Other than Jaime's penalty (equal, if not better to, Angel's masteful finish), none of our goals had any class. They found net, true, but only because they bounced of a Red Bull first. However, the fact of the matter is that United consistently produced throughout the match. As exemplified by Clyde Simms, we fought Red Bull for every first, second, and third ball and won the majority of them. Red Bull started and finished by giving us more space than we needed to complete our crosses and slot our through balls. Five out of six Atlantic Cups don't lie: United knows exactly how to break down NYRB's defense and does it on a regular basis. This suits me just fine.
Our chances of reaching the finals at RFK this year just doubled, by the way. Or so I calculate.
---------------------
Other notes:
- Did you see Burch's lofted give-and-go towards the end of the game? I know you did. It was beautiful. The bonus? He's still our left back. Our left back. The one we'd been missing for half a season. I really appreciate that Burch is regularly going box to box, making a positive contribution on offense while maintaining good presence on defense. It's a good thing we bumped him up to the senior roster ( $30,000 > $17,500) because we're going to have a hell of a time holding on to him during the close season.
- Did you see Burch leg-lock Angel's ankle? I know you did. It was beautiful. This brings up a good point, though. Which would you have preferred-- the penalty, or Burch's ejection? I think I would have preferred the penalty.
- It was a cheap penalty though. Richards went down from a touch softer than Downy. I'm fairly certain that the ref made a conscious decision that instead of punishing United with a red he'd gift Red Bull with a goal. If Richards hadn't gone down and Red Bull hadn't scored on the play, Burch would have been off.
- Speaking of Richards, he's fast as hell but has all the creativity of a blank piece of paper. Other than run with it, Richards never does anything with the ball.
- Sorry to see you sitting out, Gros. Hope you make the best of your time off.
Enjoy.
Showing posts with label RBNY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RBNY. Show all posts
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Somebody Step Up: DCU 0-1 RBNY
The scant positives:
Gros is proving a very valuable member of the squad indeed, sliding back into his old position with little difficulty. He penetrated up front more than a few times and fulfilled his defensive obligations well. Burch did admirably, making only one rookie error as far as I could tell and serving a couple good balls into the box. McTavish continues to prove he belongs in the first team. Fred continues to prove that sometimes, he's got more class than the rest of the team knows what to do with.
The plentiful negatives:
Why didn't we have a single person who could put away what Fred provided? Emilio was absent, Gomez was appalling, and Addlery was incompetent. Fred made the most of every opportunity and no one could do the same.
I hereby condemn the 4-5-1 from Soehn's playbook. It's useless. Instead of creating more opportunities, it actually crowded the midfield and allowed Red Bulls to play zone defense with ease. Gros might be the kind of player to pound the endline and find service in the box, but Fred certainly isn't. When you've got players like Fred, Gomez, and Emilio being the vanguard of your attack, you need service on the ground, into the box. Soehn commented at halftime that the team wasn't exposing the flanks enough. Why did this concern him? Instead of taking issue with how the players were adjusting to the formation, why not simply adjust the formation? Remove some dead weight (Carroll, Addlery, Simms) from the midfield and allow for some penetrating runs and smooth passing. Don't force flank play on these brilliant creative minds.
Speaking of brilliant creative minds, Addlery isn't one of them. He can't finish, either. At least Carroll is useful in the backfield.
-----------------------
In the second half I found myself cussing the same as when the U-20's lost to Austria. Seeing my beloved United flounder so badly had that kind of effect on me. With the schedule getting more and more difficult these next few weeks and our first Superliga match this Wednesday, I think my profanity is justified. We need results fast.
-----------------------
Other notes:
- The sooner Altidore turns 18, the better.
- Comcast has a very tidy scoreboard. ESPN, please adjust accordingly.
- Vanney and Perkins can be blamed with equal measure for conceding the goal.
- I'm starting to see merit in the arguments against Carroll. He looks like dead weight. Let's get Olsen back immediately.
- The way Gomez missed was disgusting. It's not like he clipped a post or sent it straight into Conway's hands -- it's that from the six yard box, Gomez completely missed the goal. Squarely over the top bar. Nasty.
- Our brief glimpse of the 3-5-2 wasn't pretty. Let's not revert.
- I'm honestly curious to see what Tom Soehn's blood pressure is. Does he stress about this team as much as I do? If so, he should probably seek out some prescription blood thinners. Aspirin at least.
- I excuse Fred for his red card. I hold him absolutely blameless. The referees missed some blatant jersey pulling, blatant even for a free kick into the box, and then Red Bulls got indignant when they discovered that Fred was a little ticked. The red was harsh, even -- there was very little contact and Fred had an honest view of the ball. Shoddy refereeing and a really unfortunate series of events for Fred. Dane Richards is shameless.
- I'm really sorry Gomez can't find his form. We sorely need his good touch and smart dribbles. I wonder, what is it about Fred and Emilio that disrupts him?
Gros is proving a very valuable member of the squad indeed, sliding back into his old position with little difficulty. He penetrated up front more than a few times and fulfilled his defensive obligations well. Burch did admirably, making only one rookie error as far as I could tell and serving a couple good balls into the box. McTavish continues to prove he belongs in the first team. Fred continues to prove that sometimes, he's got more class than the rest of the team knows what to do with.
The plentiful negatives:
Why didn't we have a single person who could put away what Fred provided? Emilio was absent, Gomez was appalling, and Addlery was incompetent. Fred made the most of every opportunity and no one could do the same.
I hereby condemn the 4-5-1 from Soehn's playbook. It's useless. Instead of creating more opportunities, it actually crowded the midfield and allowed Red Bulls to play zone defense with ease. Gros might be the kind of player to pound the endline and find service in the box, but Fred certainly isn't. When you've got players like Fred, Gomez, and Emilio being the vanguard of your attack, you need service on the ground, into the box. Soehn commented at halftime that the team wasn't exposing the flanks enough. Why did this concern him? Instead of taking issue with how the players were adjusting to the formation, why not simply adjust the formation? Remove some dead weight (Carroll, Addlery, Simms) from the midfield and allow for some penetrating runs and smooth passing. Don't force flank play on these brilliant creative minds.
Speaking of brilliant creative minds, Addlery isn't one of them. He can't finish, either. At least Carroll is useful in the backfield.
-----------------------
In the second half I found myself cussing the same as when the U-20's lost to Austria. Seeing my beloved United flounder so badly had that kind of effect on me. With the schedule getting more and more difficult these next few weeks and our first Superliga match this Wednesday, I think my profanity is justified. We need results fast.
-----------------------
Other notes:
- The sooner Altidore turns 18, the better.
- Comcast has a very tidy scoreboard. ESPN, please adjust accordingly.
- Vanney and Perkins can be blamed with equal measure for conceding the goal.
- I'm starting to see merit in the arguments against Carroll. He looks like dead weight. Let's get Olsen back immediately.
- The way Gomez missed was disgusting. It's not like he clipped a post or sent it straight into Conway's hands -- it's that from the six yard box, Gomez completely missed the goal. Squarely over the top bar. Nasty.
- Our brief glimpse of the 3-5-2 wasn't pretty. Let's not revert.
- I'm honestly curious to see what Tom Soehn's blood pressure is. Does he stress about this team as much as I do? If so, he should probably seek out some prescription blood thinners. Aspirin at least.
- I excuse Fred for his red card. I hold him absolutely blameless. The referees missed some blatant jersey pulling, blatant even for a free kick into the box, and then Red Bulls got indignant when they discovered that Fred was a little ticked. The red was harsh, even -- there was very little contact and Fred had an honest view of the ball. Shoddy refereeing and a really unfortunate series of events for Fred. Dane Richards is shameless.
- I'm really sorry Gomez can't find his form. We sorely need his good touch and smart dribbles. I wonder, what is it about Fred and Emilio that disrupts him?
Saturday, July 21, 2007
DCU vs. RBNY 7/22 -- Watch the referee!
I just spotted this on DCUnited.com's pre-game article --
"REFEREE: Abbey Okulaja. SAR (bench): Rob Fereday; JAR (opposite): Adam Wienckowski; 4th: Mark Geiger
MLS Career: 64 games; FC/gm: 30.1; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 6; pens: 18
Games involving Red Bulls: P15 W8 L1 T6; FC/gm: 30.8; Y/gm: 3.3; R: 1; pens: 8
Games involving United: P9 W3 L4 T2; FC/gm: 34.2; Y/gm: 4.4; R: 1; pens: 4"
It would appear that RBNY has performed decidedly well under this referee and DCU decidedly not. We receive more yellows, they receive more penalties... And the game being on their home turf, I fully expect Okulaja to be Bulls-biased. I'll be keeping tabs.
"REFEREE: Abbey Okulaja. SAR (bench): Rob Fereday; JAR (opposite): Adam Wienckowski; 4th: Mark Geiger
MLS Career: 64 games; FC/gm: 30.1; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 6; pens: 18
Games involving Red Bulls: P15 W8 L1 T6; FC/gm: 30.8; Y/gm: 3.3; R: 1; pens: 8
Games involving United: P9 W3 L4 T2; FC/gm: 34.2; Y/gm: 4.4; R: 1; pens: 4"
It would appear that RBNY has performed decidedly well under this referee and DCU decidedly not. We receive more yellows, they receive more penalties... And the game being on their home turf, I fully expect Okulaja to be Bulls-biased. I'll be keeping tabs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
