What Went Wrong
DCU's most valuable players didn't show up, anyone who's appeared on the national team was probably looking forward to getting called up for the USMNT match against Scotland, DCU's stoic midfield lost his cool and got tossed, and the defense including the goalkeeper could not get organized.
It was a bad start when your cental defender gets injury and you have to use one of your subs so early. Credit the Fire for taking advantage of the change and never allowing the DC backline to ever get settled and relaxed. Though hindsight is 20/20, before the first goal I felt that there was something wrong with the lineup. There was no cohesion. After the first goal it seemed even more evident. Passes couldn't be strung together and it looked like every offensive player was trying to do to much on his own while the defense was doing everything it could to just clear the ball. One thing I don't remember seeing much of was overlapping runs. Not many players made overlapping runs and if they did they usually weren't fed the ball. I would like to know how much communication there was between the players because it seemed that no one was talking to each other.
Looking at individuals:
Jaime Moreno - has been struggling for a couple of game. I believe the Fire did their homework and marked him very closely and always knew where he was. The only time he did get the ball was well outside the penalty box. For long stretches he couldn't pay to get the ball, but the few times he did get the ball he did usually create opportunities but no one was there for the finish. That leads to:
Jamil Walker - He is fast, really fast but I think after all the rain the past few weeks, he couldn't take advantage of his speed. He quickly became ineffective. Since he isn't a true goal scorer yet, his first touches got away from him. On a dry field with open space, it doesn't matter because he can quickly recover using his speed, but on this day he came up short.
Santino Quaranta - I thought he began the game well but trailed off the map as the game went on. It seemed that the Fire defense was vulnerable when he streaked down the right flank and cut into the center of the field right outside the box. The couple times he tried it, it looked like the defense was just watching him. The problem is that it seemed that as soon as the Fire went up 2-0, he quit. I would've personally liked to see Josh Gros in that position. He has been consistent the entire year and never quits.
Christian Gomez - for some reason he couldn't get anything started. Why? I have no clue on this one. How to improve? I don't know, it just seemed like he was off his game and never got on.
Dema Kovalenko - Hard working as usual but I think on this occasion he tried to hard. One lesson I was taught was that you can't always go full speed. You have to calm down and let the play build up. I think Dema could've used this lesson.
Brian Carroll - I thought he had a good game overall and arguably was the best DCU player on the field.
Ben Olsen - I felt that he was anxious to get on the field and had a bit of Dema's affliction throughout the game. He tried to hard, went to fast and tried to do too much on his own.
Defense as a whole - No one played well enough to be distinguished from the group. No one could keep an assignment. There was no help. Fire players were open quite a few times with no defender in sight. The clearances were sloppy and passes out of the back were lazy.
Nick Rimando - Usually makes great decisions and has saved DCU's butt several times but on this day he just couldn't decide where to go and was left in no man's land. He also seemed a step slower than normal. I have always been impressed with how quick his reflexes are but he seemed weighed down.
Subs - too little too late. Freddy is a good player but not a magician. and Lucio Filomeno is too new to mesh well in such a high pressured situation.
All in all the first goal against DC took the breath out of them and they never recovered and the Fire never relented. Credit the Fire for a really good game on their part. They played the same way they played against DC during the regular season, scoring pretty much the same number of goals. DCU just didn't match their intensity and became frustrated and lost their composure in the end. The Fire dominated the game, got under the DC players' skins and did what they needed to do.
I firmly believe that this was one really bad game. We have to remember this isn't the same team from last year. Had all the competitions happened a year ago the results would be different. This team simply isn't as good. Certain things have to change but not a restructuring of the entire team.
Yet to be posted: changes for the offseason, look at this weekends games, miscellaneous soccer stuff.
It was a bad start when your cental defender gets injury and you have to use one of your subs so early. Credit the Fire for taking advantage of the change and never allowing the DC backline to ever get settled and relaxed. Though hindsight is 20/20, before the first goal I felt that there was something wrong with the lineup. There was no cohesion. After the first goal it seemed even more evident. Passes couldn't be strung together and it looked like every offensive player was trying to do to much on his own while the defense was doing everything it could to just clear the ball. One thing I don't remember seeing much of was overlapping runs. Not many players made overlapping runs and if they did they usually weren't fed the ball. I would like to know how much communication there was between the players because it seemed that no one was talking to each other.
Looking at individuals:
Jaime Moreno - has been struggling for a couple of game. I believe the Fire did their homework and marked him very closely and always knew where he was. The only time he did get the ball was well outside the penalty box. For long stretches he couldn't pay to get the ball, but the few times he did get the ball he did usually create opportunities but no one was there for the finish. That leads to:
Jamil Walker - He is fast, really fast but I think after all the rain the past few weeks, he couldn't take advantage of his speed. He quickly became ineffective. Since he isn't a true goal scorer yet, his first touches got away from him. On a dry field with open space, it doesn't matter because he can quickly recover using his speed, but on this day he came up short.
Santino Quaranta - I thought he began the game well but trailed off the map as the game went on. It seemed that the Fire defense was vulnerable when he streaked down the right flank and cut into the center of the field right outside the box. The couple times he tried it, it looked like the defense was just watching him. The problem is that it seemed that as soon as the Fire went up 2-0, he quit. I would've personally liked to see Josh Gros in that position. He has been consistent the entire year and never quits.
Christian Gomez - for some reason he couldn't get anything started. Why? I have no clue on this one. How to improve? I don't know, it just seemed like he was off his game and never got on.
Dema Kovalenko - Hard working as usual but I think on this occasion he tried to hard. One lesson I was taught was that you can't always go full speed. You have to calm down and let the play build up. I think Dema could've used this lesson.
Brian Carroll - I thought he had a good game overall and arguably was the best DCU player on the field.
Ben Olsen - I felt that he was anxious to get on the field and had a bit of Dema's affliction throughout the game. He tried to hard, went to fast and tried to do too much on his own.
Defense as a whole - No one played well enough to be distinguished from the group. No one could keep an assignment. There was no help. Fire players were open quite a few times with no defender in sight. The clearances were sloppy and passes out of the back were lazy.
Nick Rimando - Usually makes great decisions and has saved DCU's butt several times but on this day he just couldn't decide where to go and was left in no man's land. He also seemed a step slower than normal. I have always been impressed with how quick his reflexes are but he seemed weighed down.
Subs - too little too late. Freddy is a good player but not a magician. and Lucio Filomeno is too new to mesh well in such a high pressured situation.
All in all the first goal against DC took the breath out of them and they never recovered and the Fire never relented. Credit the Fire for a really good game on their part. They played the same way they played against DC during the regular season, scoring pretty much the same number of goals. DCU just didn't match their intensity and became frustrated and lost their composure in the end. The Fire dominated the game, got under the DC players' skins and did what they needed to do.
I firmly believe that this was one really bad game. We have to remember this isn't the same team from last year. Had all the competitions happened a year ago the results would be different. This team simply isn't as good. Certain things have to change but not a restructuring of the entire team.
Yet to be posted: changes for the offseason, look at this weekends games, miscellaneous soccer stuff.
posted by SccrPlaya at 7:30 PM
1 Comments:
I really enjoyed reading what you had to say. Interesting perspevtive that I never thought about. Thanks!
See ya,
Gary
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