RSL vs. DC Aug 31 Pre/PBP/Post [R]

[BetterThanChivas]

- The goal where Nolly made the difficult save but let the ball die on the line where Gomez took care of cleanup duty did NOT involve Eddie Pope letting Gomez run through. That was Scarlett. I suggest that you show that play to all your young defenders in pee-wee leagues. It is exactly what not to do: ball watch. As a defender, you must protect both your goal keeper and your line. You also don't let unmarked players streak by you through the box. It still blows my mind how badly Scarlett picked this one up.

Scarlett was not marking Gomez. Scarlett was near the ball when it was on the line, but he didn't try to go for it. Cutler was the one marking Gomez, and he just let him through.

[SoccerPrime]

Originally Posted by BumpyPitchBoy

...The awful 5-1 scoreline is only a small fault on the defense....

While I agree that our midfield and most notably the d-mid position is weak, there is no way you cannot blame the backline for this result.

Ask Jay Nolly what he thinks.

[Hiddnfox]

im embarrased. I have a friend in Colorado who is a CRapids fan....and he's making fun of ME! it should be the other way around!

[Rover]

Originally Posted by RSL1

I need to apologize. So many goals that I actually lost track of some of my game notes and was somewhat factually incorrect with my previous statements. In watching the highlights, here is where I was wrong:
- The first goal was not a result of Dunseth's poorly timed and ill-advised tackle on Freddy's ankle at the top of the box. However, a very dangerous near goal resulted from it. We were one post away from it being 6-1.
- The goal where Nolly made the difficult save but let the ball die on the line where Gomez took care of cleanup duty did NOT involve Eddie Pope letting Gomez run through. That was Scarlett. I suggest that you show that play to all your young defenders in pee-wee leagues. It is exactly what not to do: ball watch. As a defender, you must protect both your goal keeper and your line. You also don't let unmarked players streak by you through the box. It still blows my mind how badly Scarlett picked this one up. Eddie Pope can be somewhat pardoned from my previously scathing commentary for that play.
- That said, Dunseth let more people run by him unmarked than I care to annotate. Dunny, Pierce and Akwari need to go back to marking "101" for some continuing education.

Thanks for the corrections--the only one I had noted was the Pope-Scarlett thing. But this was a complete team loss, and your analysis is excellent.

What do we do? Well, we have eight one-game seasons left to make some noise. We aren't out of the playoffs, but we can't consider that a goal at the moment.

Bruce Arena has done all he can to give us a chance against the Revs. We'll see what this team is made of in how they respond to the next challenge.

We can beat the Revs. But we could have beaten DC United too.

[montgjules]

Crazy idea, but I'm wondering how Chris Brown would do as d-mid? He's played midfield and defense fairly effectively at different points during the season. I woudl personally hate to see it because I like him more up top. He has a lot of speed and can create some dangerous runs (ala Scarlett) to the forwards.

I don't like Cutler back there. Not that he's doing horribly, but it's a little bit of a weak spot right now.

Why oh why do they always launch the ball up into the sky and hope that it just might land at the feet of somebody dangerous? Every time they do this (EVERY TIME) it ends up as an ill-planned pass to the other team. I'm so sick of that long ball to nowhere. How about instead trap the ball and pass to somebody nearby? Is that so much to ask?

Okay. Rant over. I love everybody again.

[SoccerPrime]

Originally Posted by Hiddnfox

im embarrased. I have a friend in Colorado who is a CRapids fan....and he's making fun of ME! it should be the other way around!

Just tell him we have Tarley now so WATCH OUT! :signrocko
Also, please explain how you can have friend who calls himself a Craps fan?
I didn't know they had any fans.

[Aero]

Originally Posted by BumpyPitchBoy

Scarlett was not marking Gomez. Scarlett was near the ball when it was on the line, but he didn't try to go for it. Cutler was the one marking Gomez, and he just let him through.

I agree. I'm not sure how much I'm willing to blame Scarlett for that goal. I think he had positioned himself well to clear the rebound which he believed would come forward. It wasn't his fault that Jay dropped the ball and then kicked it backwards towards the goal. That's all on Jay. Scarlett did exactly what he was supposed to do by positioning himself in front of his keeper to clear the ball if there was a rebound. It's the keeper's job to make sure that any rebound goes forward instead of back towards the goal.

[bordelais7]

Originally Posted by bordelais7

I'm confident that the above back 4 can keep stop at least one attack. I'm saying 4-1 DC.

Guess I was wrong about the back 4.

[SokkerNut]

Originally Posted by bordelais7

Guess I was wrong about the back 4.

Guess I might be in the minority here, but it isn't just about the back 4. I was totally unimpressed with the mid-field play. There was so much open space in the middle it was ridiculous. I kept asking myself where's the midfield. I guess the bottom line is it was a poor game all around and with the exception of Tarpley's play and some good moments by Nolly, there are 11 men on the field and they stunk up the place. They need to watch and re-watch the game tape from the FC Dallas game where they played a beautiful game as a team.

[prk166]

*grumble*
*grumble*