First Impressions - CD Chivas USA 2 : 2 D.C. United
United had a two goal lead. United could have lost, might even deserved to have lost, this match. From about the 40th to 65th minutes, United was lost and had conceded all momentum to Chivas. Yes, the initial goal was an unfortunate stroke of bad luck as Perkins banked his clearance off Razov and into the net. But after that moment, Chivas earned all their goals, and perhaps more. Saved by a post from a Boswell own goal. Saved by a poor shot by Galindo. Saved by the assistant referee who unfairly put Chivas off-side. Saved saved saved from an embarrassing result that perhaps was deserved.
What's odd is that the defense wasn't really the problem. Namoff, Boswell, Vanney, and Burch all contributed some key tackles. United was let down by its midfield from about the 30th minute onward. Consistently the ball was played too quickly, or too hard, or simply misplayed in transition right back to Chivas. Blame the poor performance on Fred, on Gomez, on Simms, and on Olsen. Quite simply, by playing inaccurate one touch passes, they allowed Chivas to run at the defense over and over again. It could have been a slaughter. The defense gave up two goals, could have given up more, but given the pressure they were under did the best one can reasonably expect.
Right now, I am not happy. With United, with ESPN's ridiculously poor coverage in terms of delays, and continuing college football, and then fading to black in the final ten minutes, with Tom Soehn for not getting this team prepared for a second half they nearly conceded to the opposition. Yes, even spotted the two goal lead, I feel fortunate United came out with a point.
Debrief in the morning. Maybe I'll be more satisfied with this result once I sleep on it, but I doubt it.
Quick addendum before bed: The defense played well except perhaps Namoff, which is surprising given that he's been pretty good this year. I have little problem with Vanney, Boswell, or Burch.
Labels: 2007 Season, CD Chivas USA, DCU, First Impressions
posted by D @ 12:49 AM
15 Comments:
2 things:
- At a Glance section is in need of some updating luv.
- Perspective - The Goats have a *solid* home record, and while a W woulda been nice, I think we did enough to shake Chivas' confidence in their "solid home play".... Some games are defined by that phrase "did enough".
Sure, there were mistakes and problems. That's the game. Let's aim for sharper play overall on Sunday. Maybe taking the team to Ben's Chili Bowl would help....?
I want to believe in my heart of hearts that Troy would have saved that one-on-one breakaway that was called offside, but I dunno.
What is it about the HDC that makes referees make mistakes?
First the Galaxy-Chivas fracas-brawl, and this week Kevin Stott waves off a red card (a reverse Graham Pohl) and his FIFA AR misses what was an obvious no offside.
Rough game, rough game.
OK, I'm going to defend ESPN right now (slightly) and you all can shoot me down if you want, but I'm pretty sure that their policy is to stay with a live event once the coverage has begun and not switch to a new live event until the first one is finished. Hence, the delay in coverage. I've seen them do this with back-to-back college football games before. But, please, correct me if I'm wrong.
Second, why are people giving Perkins a pass on that play off Razov? That's the most boneheaded thing I've seen a keeper do in quite awhile. Not his first high profile mistake this year.
Not sure if you stayed up to watch United last night…but I did…and I’m still pissed about it. Not really about the game but more pissed off with ESPN shitty coverage…
1st they delayed the game until 10:53pm…because of the college football game (Middle Tennesse vs. Louisville)…who cares bout either of these teams except for students and alliums of these schools…and is Middle Tennessee even a real college or just the community college of Tennessee?
2nd they didn’t flip over to the United game until the crappy college game was completely over (Louisville won 58-42) and the last 10mins of this game was Louisville giving all their 3rd stringers playing time and running out the clock…seriously they showed the whole damn game!!!
3rd while I’m watching the crappy college game ESPN has a graphic on the screen showing the United score and a game clock…it was mocking me saying…”look its 1-0 and we are 10:32mins into the game that you probably want to be watching”
4th all the commentators for ESPN are dicks except for the Irish guy…I would rather listen to Balboa talk about how he brushes his hair…”1000 strokes every night before bed!”
5th we are in the last 10mins of the game and…….. nothing……. the coverage go out…black screen…….I think some drunk dumbass ESPN tech guy tripped and knocked down the dish or kicked out some plugs…what a fucking joke of coverage.
So thanks ESPN2 for keeping me up until almost 1am and tucking me in with angst and anger…douchbags.
I am actually less satisfied this morning than when I went to sleep. That is no small feat, considering how pissed I was when I went to bed at a number of things, including but not limited to Troy Perkins, ESPN, and Brian Carroll.
ESPN's policy is to always stay with the game until it ends. It happens when MLS runs over too.
That said my biggest problem wasn't that, or even the fact that they had "technical difficulties." It was that as soon as we start watching the game Dave O'Brien says, "Welcome back, you haven't missed anything" showing a complete lack of respect for the game.
The quote really just exemplifies his mind set about soccer and why he feels it is completely okay to talk about random shit that has nothing to do with the game during the run of play.
Just to jump on the anti-ESPN bandwagon -- I hate the fact that they'll cut away from the game for replays, sideline interviews, etc. I couldn't believe that they would cut away to last weeks GotW almost immediately after getting the signal back online. Even if they're contractually obligated to show it they could've waited for the end of regulation.
Kinney: is that a 2 or a 1 on the Anti-Power poll this week?
Does anyone else feel that it might be time to write a collective open letter to the ombudsman of ESPN over their horrid soccer coverage?
Oh...yeah...I almost forgot about Carroll
If anyone is still wondering why he got benched for Simms...those sad/lazy/"look coach I found a dasiy growing on the field!" mins he played should be your answer
Kinney: zactly.
He's not The Worst Soccer Announcer In This Or An Anti-Matter Universe for nothing.
Adam - He was terrible even in his limited duty. He turned right into a double-team and gave the ball away on what may have been his first touch(es), and then later watched a ball roll across the top of his own 18 towards him, which was then picked off by a Chivas player.
Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Carroll in a nutshell.
One more point about ESPN's delayed coverage. Why did it take 5 more minutes after the got to the game to show the goal? Idiots.
Early season college game between two teams that no one cares about and the score is like a kajillion to a bajillion. Gimme a break. Middle Tennessee Valley East West North State University College alumni are cracking into their third bottle of Old Crow by 10:30pm.
I want an asterisk next to Razov's name for that goal. That's like +18 karma points.
The thing that bothers me most about ESPN is that this happens all the time. They allow 3 hours for a football game knowing that very few games are over in three hours these days. This one went on for FOUR hours. They need to allot more time or pressure the football powers that be to speed up the game. I am so sick of missing large portions of games because these football games just won't end!
Sitting through the end of the American football game made me just shake my head at those who call soccer boring and football exciting. Granted soccer games where one team is up by a lot of goals and one team is bunkered down aren't that exciting but at least things still happen. Football its simply run, wait for the clock, yawn, rinse repeat for 10 football min. which take about 40 min. to play. Grr...
-K
One more thing... I'm not going to fillet O'Brien for his "haven't missed much" comment because he would've said the same thing if a football game experienced "technical difficulties" when the score was 14-10 and, when the video came back, the score was still 14-10. Sure, a few plays would've gone by, but in the grand scheme of things the score didn't change, so what did we miss?
I don't think he was saying "oh this is a boring game so it doesn't matter that video went out", but rather "there has been no change in the score - it's as it was when you left"
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