RSL v Crew [R]

[Old Ska]

Originally Posted by knowwonnose

While I won't bash the coach, I believe that he will have problems now.

Okay, when the front office shill is making comments like this the writing is on the wall.

Time to bring in Jeff Agoos.

[clarette]

The second half was totally and completely vomitrocious.

While the ref was certainly special, if we had actually, like, attempted to make runs toward goal, we would have had two or three easy tap-ins in the first half.

Mehdi's awesome and all, but he's not so mesmerizing that his teammates have to stand around and watch him do neat tricks with the ball for 90 minutes.

[keyph]

Here, here! We need to chant "run" or something! Pretty sad!

[rabble-rabble]

Saddest part of the night for me was that as I'll be out of town for the May 27th match and tonight was one of the 'trade-in' nights for season ticket holders, I traded in the extra ticket and took a friend who likes a lot of sports, but hasn't really experienced a lot of soccer. I was hoping he might enjoy the night and become a regular fan of the 'beautiful game.' His summation of the night was 'a lot of running around for nothing'. I doubt he'll be inspired to return.

I think the less I say about the game the better. Really need to find something to take my mind off RSL for a while but this losing over and over again is really getting depressing.

[RSL Punk]

Originally Posted by clarette

Mehdi's awesome and all, but he's not so mesmerizing that his teammates have to stand around and watch him do neat tricks with the ball for 90 minutes.

I don't know--I'm still pretty mesmerized by that "I've got the ball stuck in my 'fro" move myself. Someone get that on a highlight reel, please.

And regarding the second half (or just everytime we have the ball on offense), has John E. been channeling "Hoosiers?" Does EVERYONE have to touch the ball twice before we can try to shoot? There were at least two open shots Mehdi could have connected on, only to boot it over to Klein, who booted it to Jeff, etc. etc. ad nauseum. One-touch, please! (But none of this hitting the hardware and bouncing out sh** anymore, please. Someone needs to sacrifice a goat to the Turf Monster again, I think.)

[AreliusIV]

attendance: 15,804

Attendance for home games continues to drop.

[AreliusIV]

Keys to the match:

The Crew haven't had a lot of offensive firepower this season, so most the keys to the match reside internally:

1) Can Harris and Cunny combine to make something happen?

Apparently not. First half: B- / Second half: B

2) Can Ballouchy become the playmaker that RSL desperately needs?

No, at least not yet. First half: B- / Second half: B

3) Can Williams snap out of his pity party and show up?

Yes. He should have been in the starting line up. We sorely missed him in this game. Second half: A

4) Since we will be without Williams (at the start at least) and Kreis we will really need the flanks to step up offensively: Klein and Johnson.

Didn’t happen. First half: B- / Second half: B

5) Can Akwari keep from making costly mistakes?

Yes, he had a strong game. First half: B / Second half: A-

6) Will we see Christian Jimenez?

Yes, but he fails to make any mark on the game. Second half: D


Columbus noticed that Forko was in. As a rookie in his first game, they kept going at Forko to exploit his immaturity. In the second half, they succeeded. Forko got juked by Hendrickson, who served it in for a Crew goal. The Crew's repeated attempts to exploit Forko's inexperience paid off.

The story of this match was that we sorely missed Williams. Ballouchy wasn’t able to get it done. His play was alright during the run of play, but he had some of the worst set pieces I’ve seen. Ballouchy sometimes slows the game down when we need pick up the pace. He is all about possession play.

We had a very anemic offense and the service in to the forwards was very weak.

There was a lack of movement off the ball.

I shudder to think what will become of RSL without Pope and Sequeira.

Once again, Williams should have been in from the start. His lack of service into the forwards was sorely missed.

[rslfutbolfan]

Ok, Im no expert but I disagree with you. I dont think we missed Williams in the least and I dont think he did crap when he was in. I think Ballouchy is the one that hustles the most on the team and played the best. The first half was excellent. We consistantly kept the ball on their side of the field and looked almost like the team we should be. Dont know what happened second half. I still have to blame conditioning. Get those boys out there running for an hour half on a consistant basis and they will have more strength in the second half.

I am not too conserned about what will happen without Douglas and Pope as all the other teams will be down their best player (s) and it will give us a chance to try something new. I still say start the reserve team...except then it will screw up our wonderful reserve team record. LOL

And...seriously...KILL THE CROW. I have tried everything....Medhi wig, mustache, red underware....Next game I am sitting with RCB, if that doesnt work its onto more serious witchcraft!

[Dadof3]

No comment about the game...just pick any game from the senond half of last season at home...replay...there it is...

The good news...Ballouchi is worth the price of admission...lovely touch, deceptive speed, deceptive strength...all the tools to be a very special player.

I'm thinking of this as the Bulls in Jordan's early years...I'm not sure Ballouchi will be Jordan, but he should be one of the top 3 players in this league within 3 years.

[BroncsBomber]

I liked a lot of what I saw out of Forko. He had good pace as evidenced with keeping with Kamara. He had a lot of good position and I even saw him impede his guy when the ball aqwasn't around. He did do pretty good for his first start. I actually think the goal should be charged against Eddie. He should have closed on Garey sooner.

Cunningham has shown disinterest at times. Harris could develop into a good holding forward but I fear that the way he plays he might be getting a Tonya Harding wack to the knee from any number of central defenders. That boy is a scrapper but he might be a little too much on the dirty side.

Ballouchy torched Ezra on a couple of plays. Mehdi is going to be fun to watch and the forwards should always be running for him since it has become obvious that he is not going to shoot the ball.

It will be interesting to see how we look with Douglas gone for the WC. I like his running although he tends to be favoring the attack a lot more than he ought to. He was walking on the defensive end that gave upa couple of chances.

Klein moved around a lot and was ainvolved a lot more in the play, which was great.