First Impressions - Columbus Crew 1 : 0 DC United
Forget the six word novel preview, we can sum up that game in one word, ugly. The past couple of games United has been playing ugly but made the other team look real good. The Crew didn't look good doing it, but still strolled away with three points. I don't really know what to say about this game, or this season for that matter. After this debacle I doubt United makes the playoffs. Please, please, please prove me wrong United.
Sohen started the same formation with different people. Sohen got the same result with different people. Now I am not saying its the formation, I seriously think we can win with a 3-5-2. I think it might be easier with a 4-4-2, but at this point DC's problems are more than just tactical. Gomez, Carroll, Boswell, and Perkins are not delivering like they were last year. Not all of them are horrible (though Carroll is getting close), but that is the spine of DC United and all of them are under performing. Moreno has been invisible. Fred showed flashes of brillance but always came up short of delivering, just like someone else that played that position last year. The list goes on, but like I said earlier, I really just don't know what to say that will be of any help.
Labels: 2007 Season, Columbus Crew, DCU, First Impressions
posted by Kinney @ 10:47 PM
9 Comments:
I thought that they looked way way better once they got scored on... they weren't perfect... but they looked like they had a bit more of what we expect to see from them.
No excuses left for them though, I am happy with Erpen out, lets give Brian Carrol a night off and put a Simms/Olsen d-mid out there to see if they control better.
Better than the 1st two MLS games, but still well below par. In the early CCC games all those passes that just barely missed we were sure would start to click once we got in "game shape". Sorry to say that we have not (as a team) improved on that. Still too many errant passes that are behind or ahead of the runner. I think that is our biggest problem right now.
Fire Soehn. I hope that by now saying this Tommy boy turns it around and learns how to prepare his team. I've never been the type to call for somone's head prematurely, but I think it is fair to say that these past three games have been the most pathetic consecutive loses in DC United's history. Even the Ronger/Hudson era never seemed to be this bleak. The worst, and most telling point in all of this is Soehn's seemingly dense inability to realize and correct any of the problems that are wrong with his team. Do they even practice during the week!?!? This is a joke. Tom Soehn was handed a shoe in championship side and he's got them playing mindless, tactically empty soccer. They look horrendous.
I can't disagree more right now... Tom Soehn was handed a team that had been figured out toward the end of the season, I have a feeling that for the next few weeks we're going to not only have to find our passion/stride again, but find a new way to play that will actually work against teams that know how we play and know how to stop it. All a team has to do these days is grab a video of DC United v Chicago Fire and copy what the Fire does right... (sad but somewhat true)
i think the main reason we're all so disappointed is that coming into the season this team looked like it might just annihilate MLS.
results at the outset of the season have an amplified psychological effect. i do think circumstances -- poor individual performances, better than expected opponents, and stagnant tactics -- have conspired to make this look worse than it is. (so it's probably just actually "really bad" instead of "****ing disastrous.") some guys are playing like crap, and some things need to be changed, but the team is not this bad.
i'm not ready to pull the plug on Soehn just yet, but we need to at least see him addressing both tactical and individual problems. i like the 3-5-2 and even think it can be preserved, but if other teams have a tactical formula to beat it, then Soehn needs to show he can counter that, either with a tweaked 3-5-2 or a different formation.
(like jason said: it's bad enough to get beat by the Fire once. but it really sucks losing to them every single week.)
and a couple of lolligaggers need to hit the bench. i hope Erpen is just the first.
How to beat DC 101: 1. Put 8-9 guys behind the ball and clog the middle 2.counterattack playing long balls to the wing 3. If dc is lucky enough to cut through a packed D, then just foul. DC is either dumb or arrogant because we never change tactics to combat this simple strategy. DC always pushes 7-8 into the attack leaving easy counter chances and our D isn't fast. DC always attacks down the middle with short passes and ignores flank runs. I can't remember more than two crosses vs columbus
DC rarely plays well placed long balls to attackers, always try and set up the perfect chance and
Their attack is real predictable
I wasn't able to see the game, but if a couple of long United buildups had ended with dramatic finishes, would people be feeling better? How dangerous did Cbus look beyond their lone goal?
Why are you guys so down on Erpen? I only saw him lose his footing in the game before this one, did he screw up way more in the game before that one?
There actually were a few decent attacking buildups during the game. However, as soon as they got the ball into scoring position, no one wanted to take a freakin shot. They were all looking to pass to someone else, when no one else had a better shot. That hesitation really hurt us. Emilio had an uncharacteristically quiet outing as well, except for that hand ball which was just rediculous.
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