Two words have not been uttered in Columbus in rapid succession for quite some time. Those two words? Winning and streak. Don't look now, but now the Crew are unbeaten in three matches, and have won their last two. In those last three games, the Crew have fought back from a deficit, and overcome a one-man disadvantage to win the game anyway. It seems the Crew have fought through their funk to gain a winning mentality, and have used that to play with true heart on the field. Let's just hope they can keep it up.
Unfortunately, I had to work on Saturday night, and therefore was not able to see the game live. Thanks to MLSLIVE.TV (not all of us can afford the luxury of DK and DVR), I usually watch the games the next day if I happen to miss one. Unfortunately for me, I accidentally learned of the score on a website that I didn't expect to see the score on, so I already knew the result when I watched the game. I don't know if everybody else feels the same way, but I always find it difficult to truly enjoy a game when I already know the outcome, and I found my attention wandering from the match on more than one occaision. Because of this, I won't be analyzing the match the way that I usually do, and so I'll just go over the basics of the game.
So what did we learn from the Galaxy game? At the beginning of the game, the Crew came out and played good attacking soccer, and were rewarded with Chad Marshall's goal after Schelotto was fouled outside the area. Things were looking very good for the Crew until the red card to EZ Ezra Hendrickson. It certainly didn't look like a red card offense to me (certainly worthy of a yellow, however), and was reminiscient of Pablo Mastroeni's sending off against Italy in the World Cup. However, the Crew showed remarkable character in recovering from the red card, and after two saved penalties following two soft calls, the Crew took a 1-0 lead into halftime. One thing Sigi is known for is having his teams play very organized soccer, and the Crew did just that for the remainder of the game.
Things went from bad to worse, though, after Schelotto succombed to what looked like some kind of muscle injury. In general, you can almost always count on a team that has a man advantage to score at least one goal when they've had that advantage for longer than a few minutes, so it was a safe bet that the Crew needed at least one more goal to put the game away, and it wasn't looking good with their best offensive player on the bench. We all know that Schelotto is an incredible player, but no matter how crucial he is to the Crew's offense, the Crew were a team before he got here, and they will be a team after he leaves - and they showed that even without their talismanic Argentine, they can still produce some goals, as evidenced by Grabavoy's goal after some good work by Oughton and Gaven, as well as Moreno's header that put the game away. I predicted a 3-1 win for the Crew, and it looked like that was going to hold up, until Buddle scored a consolation goal to make the final 3-2, but I'm still going to pretend that I got the score right.
Overall, the Crew showed magnificient composure and heart on the field, and showed that they indeed can provide some offence without the presence of Guille. Truth be told, a better team than LA probably would've put the Crew away, having a man advantage for so long, but take nothing away from the Crew's effort in this game. It's matches like these that make me proud to be a Crew fan. For now, the infamous "gel" period looks to be over with, as Guille further adjusts to the play of MLS, and the rest of the team gets some much-needed swagger as they try to climb up the standings over the course of the next few games. There's a lot of the season left to play, but there is good reason to be optimstic. Hope springs eternal yet, Crew fans. Thanks again for reading, and I'll have at least one (if not more) posts before Saturday's game.
"It is good for us. We needed a win, and we were going to come out and get it. Right now we are a very confident team. We were also a confident team when we started the season, but we had some ties that we thought could have gone our way. We were patient, and this team is never going to give up; we are going to continue fighting. Winning streaks are a habit, so I hope we can continue this one for some time."
-Ezra Hendrickson on the Crew's win in LA.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Goalkeepers/LA Pregame
As promised, here is my latest entry, where I will discuss the Crew's goalkeeping situation, and look at the upcoming LA game.
Everyone seems to have a very strong opinion about who should be between the pipes for the Crew. Some people think it should be Andy Gruenebaum. A lot of people believe that Hesmer is better than the Hebrew Hammer. Some people think that all three Crew goalkeepers are inadequate, and that the Crew should bring in someone else to tend the nets for the remainder of the season. Which is the right decision? It's really hard to say at this point. All three keepers are around the same age, and all three have shown a fair amount of potential. Up until recently, Gruenebaum looked to be the #1 keeper for the Crew, and he showed some great athleticism and pulled off some great saves, but ultimately, his decision-making and positioning led Sigi to start the now-healthy Will Hesmer in goal. Is Hesmer an upgrade from Gruenebaum? It's hard to say at this point; a few more games will tell us much on the subject.
Now, it's really hard to guess what Sigi's train of thought was when he traded a partial allocation for Hesmer, who was Kansas City's backup goalkeeper until this season. How can you tell if one backup goalkeeper is that much better than another team's backup goalkeeper, given that each backup will only play a handful of games throughout the course of a season? It was a move that was (and quite frankly, still is) rather puzzling. If Sigi was going to make an upgrade at the goalkeeper position, he probably could've gotten a better upgrade than Hesmer. But the past is the past, and now the Crew find themselves with three goalkeepers who are all looking to seperate themselves from the rest of the pack. I am fine with Sigi giving Hesmer a chance, and over the next few games, we'll see how Hesmer does. My personal opinion is that unless Hesmer does spectacularly over the next few games, Gruenebaum should be put back in. Andy's problems stem from poor positioning and a few bad decisions, which are problems that are remedied by experience and good coaching - he's shown that he has the ability, and if he can figure out how to work on his weaknesses, he could be a great keeper.
That being said, I won't be terribly upset if Hesmer is given the #1 spot. I also won't be found crying in a corner if the Crew sign someone with more experience. Even turning back to Wild Bill Gaudette wouldn't be the worst thing in the world in my mind. I also hear there's this fantastic keeper out there named Dan Popik...
Whichever decision Sigi makes, I think it's best if the decision is made sooner than later, and that Sigi sticks by his decision. It won't be good for the team if the Crew rotates their keeper every few games, and whoever wins the starting keeper spot will need all the experience that they can get. I think it's great that all three keepers seem to get along with each other real well, and that they all want each other to succeed. Hopefully that mentality will continue after Sigi makes his final decision, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.
Moving onto tomorrow night's game against LA, this is absolutely a must-win for the Crew. Although the Galaxy will be boosted somewhat by the additions of Xavier and Pavon to their squad, they remain Donovanless and Beckhamless, and there is never a better time to beat the Galaxy. Aside from RSL, there probably isn't a weaker opponent for the Crew in MLS right now, but that doesn't mean that it will be an easy game - LA is still a decent team, and even without Donovan, they can be dangerous.
The biggest lineup issue for the Crew is Rusty Pierce returning from suspension. It will be interesting to see whether or not Sigi reinserts Rusty into the lineup, given the way the backline played against Kansas City. My guess is that Pierce will indeed start, and Miglioranzi will be dropped to the bench, but it's possible that Sigi could name an unchanged lineup from Wednesday's game. Other than Pierce returning, Thomas, Herron, and Virtuoso are still out, so the rest of the lineup looks set.
Despite LA's new additions, a Crew team on the upswing will take down a Galaxy team who haven't beat the Crew in MLS play since 2004. So I'll pick the Crew to win 3-1. Kool-Aid for all! Thanks for reading!
Everyone seems to have a very strong opinion about who should be between the pipes for the Crew. Some people think it should be Andy Gruenebaum. A lot of people believe that Hesmer is better than the Hebrew Hammer. Some people think that all three Crew goalkeepers are inadequate, and that the Crew should bring in someone else to tend the nets for the remainder of the season. Which is the right decision? It's really hard to say at this point. All three keepers are around the same age, and all three have shown a fair amount of potential. Up until recently, Gruenebaum looked to be the #1 keeper for the Crew, and he showed some great athleticism and pulled off some great saves, but ultimately, his decision-making and positioning led Sigi to start the now-healthy Will Hesmer in goal. Is Hesmer an upgrade from Gruenebaum? It's hard to say at this point; a few more games will tell us much on the subject.
Now, it's really hard to guess what Sigi's train of thought was when he traded a partial allocation for Hesmer, who was Kansas City's backup goalkeeper until this season. How can you tell if one backup goalkeeper is that much better than another team's backup goalkeeper, given that each backup will only play a handful of games throughout the course of a season? It was a move that was (and quite frankly, still is) rather puzzling. If Sigi was going to make an upgrade at the goalkeeper position, he probably could've gotten a better upgrade than Hesmer. But the past is the past, and now the Crew find themselves with three goalkeepers who are all looking to seperate themselves from the rest of the pack. I am fine with Sigi giving Hesmer a chance, and over the next few games, we'll see how Hesmer does. My personal opinion is that unless Hesmer does spectacularly over the next few games, Gruenebaum should be put back in. Andy's problems stem from poor positioning and a few bad decisions, which are problems that are remedied by experience and good coaching - he's shown that he has the ability, and if he can figure out how to work on his weaknesses, he could be a great keeper.
That being said, I won't be terribly upset if Hesmer is given the #1 spot. I also won't be found crying in a corner if the Crew sign someone with more experience. Even turning back to Wild Bill Gaudette wouldn't be the worst thing in the world in my mind. I also hear there's this fantastic keeper out there named Dan Popik...
Whichever decision Sigi makes, I think it's best if the decision is made sooner than later, and that Sigi sticks by his decision. It won't be good for the team if the Crew rotates their keeper every few games, and whoever wins the starting keeper spot will need all the experience that they can get. I think it's great that all three keepers seem to get along with each other real well, and that they all want each other to succeed. Hopefully that mentality will continue after Sigi makes his final decision, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.
Moving onto tomorrow night's game against LA, this is absolutely a must-win for the Crew. Although the Galaxy will be boosted somewhat by the additions of Xavier and Pavon to their squad, they remain Donovanless and Beckhamless, and there is never a better time to beat the Galaxy. Aside from RSL, there probably isn't a weaker opponent for the Crew in MLS right now, but that doesn't mean that it will be an easy game - LA is still a decent team, and even without Donovan, they can be dangerous.
The biggest lineup issue for the Crew is Rusty Pierce returning from suspension. It will be interesting to see whether or not Sigi reinserts Rusty into the lineup, given the way the backline played against Kansas City. My guess is that Pierce will indeed start, and Miglioranzi will be dropped to the bench, but it's possible that Sigi could name an unchanged lineup from Wednesday's game. Other than Pierce returning, Thomas, Herron, and Virtuoso are still out, so the rest of the lineup looks set.
Despite LA's new additions, a Crew team on the upswing will take down a Galaxy team who haven't beat the Crew in MLS play since 2004. So I'll pick the Crew to win 3-1. Kool-Aid for all! Thanks for reading!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Crew 2 - Kansas City 1
I guess I picked a good time to start writing about the Crew. I now find myself in the very foreign position of having to analyze a win (not that I'm complaining). Much has been made of how the Crew have built on their comeback tie at New England to produce this much-needed home victory. I'm not so sure that I believe the hype, but I still find myself optimistic (this is the Crew we're talking about though; the team that builds up your hopes every now and then so that it can smash them to bits the next game). Honestly, the Crew has played better overall in some of their ties and losses than in last night's win, but as we are reminded every time we see the Eastern Conference standings, it's the results that matter. Perhaps Sigi said it best post-game when he said "I don't care how we played. I don't care what it looked like. A win's a win and we're very happy."
Now, onto the specifics of the game. The defense was solid, especially for being very makeshift in nature. In general, they limited KC's chances, and got a little lucky on a few of the chances that KC did get, but overall, the defense did themselves proud. Ezra at outside back was serviceable, as was Miglioranzi. I have to admit, I'm not entirely sold on Stefani (the plays that come to mind when his name is mentioned are highlighted by a few missed sitters early in the season, as well as that howler of a clearance that came off the Crew's crossbar in New York), but a few more performances like last night's will do much to assuage my concerns. Zayner also looked good while he was in, as he didn't make any glaring mistakes, which is really all you can ask of someone getting his first MLS minutes. If he develops properly, he could be a long-term successor for Hejduk.
The midfield performed well, if not spectacularly. Defensively, I thought O'Rourke and Co. did very well, but going forward they left something to be desired. Much of the Crew's possession (especially in the first half) stemmed from the defensive midfielders passing back and forth with the defenders. I would really like to see this team turn more into a possession-oriented team, and with personnel like Grabavoy, Schelotto, Moreno, Oughton, and O'Rourke, there's no reason why they shouldn't be very adept at stringing multiple passes together in the offensive half.
The front line did what they needed to do, and got on the scoresheet. Eddie Gaven scoring his first of the season brought a wide grin to my face, and hopefully he can build on that. Eddie wasn't spectacular throughout the game, but he was much improved from some of his performances earlier in the season. As Gaven looks to go on an upswing, Moreno continues to impress with his work and link play. Short of scoring a multitude of goals, he's done everything right since he came over from Houston, and has provided an excellent presence for Schelotto to play off of. As for Guille, it's obvious to anyone that he's on a totally different level in terms of skill and vision (some of his passes make me laugh out loud to think that anyone has the audacity to try and sneak that ball through). He's pure class, and his assists numbers reflect the impact he's had on the Crew's offense. The only beef I have with Schelotto is that, at times, he seems to be too unselfish. It's something that I've experienced firsthand, is that when somebody plays with a team that is below his playing level, that player always tries to set up his teammates, even sometimes when shooting himself would be a better option. There have been several times this season when I thought Guille was in a great position to shoot, but instead passes it back to where somebody is (or should be) making a supporting run. Still, I'm not complaining, and I'm very glad that Guille is here.
So, to recap: solid, if uninspiring play from the Crew, solid defense, and some decent finishing at the other end leads to three points in the bag. That's all well and good, but I'm reserving a lot of judgement on this game for after Saturday at Los Angeles. Saturday's game is a very important one for the Crew - if they can fly home with a win and build on what they have already, it will go a long way towards climbing up the standings, as well as building the team's confidence. A loss, and everything could sink back down into the quagmire that we've been sunk in for the greater part of two (or three, depending on who you ask) years. There is hope yet, Crew fans, but don't get too optimistic. Kool-Aid is lethal in high doses.
Signing off for now, but I plan to make another entry prior to the LA game, where I'll address the much-ballyhooed goalkeeper situation, as well as looking ahead to the Crew's next few games. Thanks for reading, all!
Now, onto the specifics of the game. The defense was solid, especially for being very makeshift in nature. In general, they limited KC's chances, and got a little lucky on a few of the chances that KC did get, but overall, the defense did themselves proud. Ezra at outside back was serviceable, as was Miglioranzi. I have to admit, I'm not entirely sold on Stefani (the plays that come to mind when his name is mentioned are highlighted by a few missed sitters early in the season, as well as that howler of a clearance that came off the Crew's crossbar in New York), but a few more performances like last night's will do much to assuage my concerns. Zayner also looked good while he was in, as he didn't make any glaring mistakes, which is really all you can ask of someone getting his first MLS minutes. If he develops properly, he could be a long-term successor for Hejduk.
The midfield performed well, if not spectacularly. Defensively, I thought O'Rourke and Co. did very well, but going forward they left something to be desired. Much of the Crew's possession (especially in the first half) stemmed from the defensive midfielders passing back and forth with the defenders. I would really like to see this team turn more into a possession-oriented team, and with personnel like Grabavoy, Schelotto, Moreno, Oughton, and O'Rourke, there's no reason why they shouldn't be very adept at stringing multiple passes together in the offensive half.
The front line did what they needed to do, and got on the scoresheet. Eddie Gaven scoring his first of the season brought a wide grin to my face, and hopefully he can build on that. Eddie wasn't spectacular throughout the game, but he was much improved from some of his performances earlier in the season. As Gaven looks to go on an upswing, Moreno continues to impress with his work and link play. Short of scoring a multitude of goals, he's done everything right since he came over from Houston, and has provided an excellent presence for Schelotto to play off of. As for Guille, it's obvious to anyone that he's on a totally different level in terms of skill and vision (some of his passes make me laugh out loud to think that anyone has the audacity to try and sneak that ball through). He's pure class, and his assists numbers reflect the impact he's had on the Crew's offense. The only beef I have with Schelotto is that, at times, he seems to be too unselfish. It's something that I've experienced firsthand, is that when somebody plays with a team that is below his playing level, that player always tries to set up his teammates, even sometimes when shooting himself would be a better option. There have been several times this season when I thought Guille was in a great position to shoot, but instead passes it back to where somebody is (or should be) making a supporting run. Still, I'm not complaining, and I'm very glad that Guille is here.
So, to recap: solid, if uninspiring play from the Crew, solid defense, and some decent finishing at the other end leads to three points in the bag. That's all well and good, but I'm reserving a lot of judgement on this game for after Saturday at Los Angeles. Saturday's game is a very important one for the Crew - if they can fly home with a win and build on what they have already, it will go a long way towards climbing up the standings, as well as building the team's confidence. A loss, and everything could sink back down into the quagmire that we've been sunk in for the greater part of two (or three, depending on who you ask) years. There is hope yet, Crew fans, but don't get too optimistic. Kool-Aid is lethal in high doses.
Signing off for now, but I plan to make another entry prior to the LA game, where I'll address the much-ballyhooed goalkeeper situation, as well as looking ahead to the Crew's next few games. Thanks for reading, all!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Introduction
Greetings, fellow tortured Crew fans. Because of a seemingly lack of internet blogs about the Crew, coupled with my own journalistic desires, I have decided to start my own Crew blog, where I can spout off my (however misguided) opinions. Here's what I have in mind for this blog: I don't intend to write match reports. Go to the Crew's website for that, or read the recap in the Dispatch. Instead, I will write my reactions to each and every game (I may eventually expand reaction pieces to include player ratings), as well as opinion pieces on the team in general, plus reactions to any off-the-field news that may happen. I encourage anyone who reads this blog to give me feedback in the form of comments, whether positive or negative. The best way for me to improve is through constructive criticism.
Because of work, school and other commitments, I will not be quite as active updating this blog over the next week, but after then, my schedule evens out, and I will have a vast amount of time on my hands to write about all things Crew. I hope that at least a few people will enjoy reading this blog over the course of the rest of the season, and thanks to all who have read this introduction.
E Pluribus Crewnum.
Because of work, school and other commitments, I will not be quite as active updating this blog over the next week, but after then, my schedule evens out, and I will have a vast amount of time on my hands to write about all things Crew. I hope that at least a few people will enjoy reading this blog over the course of the rest of the season, and thanks to all who have read this introduction.
E Pluribus Crewnum.
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