The Agony and the Agony; Crew 0–DC 2

By: scott | August 19th, 2007

Ok, let me begin by stating emphatically that I don’t think this loss portends any doom and gloom. It’s been suggested that Crew fans might take two losses on the bounce as reason enough to pack it all in for the season. But I think we will make the playoffs and we will give teams grief along the way. Are we ready to win the MLS cup? Maybe not yet. Tonight’s game ought to help us see that.

The most important thing I realize is something I essentially knew already–we don’t have a lot of depth. I’ve been busy all week so I hadn’t yet read about Marshall’s injury, but when I saw the teams come out I was worried. Where’s Marshall (injured), where’s Gonzalez (on the bench)? Don’t get me wrong, I love EZ and I think Rusty Pierce plays his heart out, but these two are not an ideal pair of center backs to face the highest scoring striker in the league. Emilio is a poacher–thinking and moving quickly to earn himself chances–centerbacks who are not as quick as they once were or who were never all that quick to begin with are going to have trouble. That said, for a full half they completely dominated him. He didn’t even have a sniff of the ball. It was awesome. And DC without Olsen cracking kneecaps in the midfield looked pretty toothless. We moved the ball well against them, we came forward often and with intent, but we never really looked that much like scoring. I was particularly impressed with Hejduk’s runs down the right side, the guy never gives up.

The second half was largely a different story altogether (particularly the first 20-25 minutes). DC put on a passing clinic as the Crew stopped closing down, stopped chasing balls, stopped trying to go forward. I’m still not sure what happened (I need to watch the video). What I do know is that lazy finishing cost us and didn’t cost them. We had plenty of chances on goal and Perkins is not as good as all that, we should have put something away. At the other end Fred took over and made things happen for a team that thrives on space. We lost our game plan, simple as that. Oughton’s introduction slowed the bleeding a little, but not much. And our attacking subs, Gaven and Garey, helped to make even more chances we couldn’t put away.

So, what else did we learn?

We cannot depend on Schelotto to inspire us every night. He seems more than willing to try, but everybody has off games and tonight was his turn. He looked tired in warm-ups, he didn’t chase the ball until we were under the knife in the second half, his free kicks too often seemed designed for the ten foot striker at the back post we haven’t signed yet. Honestly I was waiting for Sigi to sub for him. Of course, as soon as I thought this he found his script and started making things happen.
The point is, in the first half when we had control, someone else needed to step up and make our goal scoring opportunities. Moreno, Grabavoy, Szetela, etc. They’re all capable. This kind of balance will be threatening. Maybe Robbie Rogers would have been a good sub tonight, someone to run straight at them, mix them up a little.

Finally, as always, I am both heartened and discouraged by the crowd. 21,000+, that’s awesome. Unfortunately they didn’t have all that much to cheer about, and when soccer fans get bored, they get rowdy. This leads to cups begin thrown at opposing goalkeepers. That’s right, cups with ice in them. What a display of masculinity. I can only hope that those cups were really aimed at the referee who was dreadful (calls were soooooo inconsistent, and we should have had a penalty in the second half when Gaven was wrestled down by McTavish). HPI says that “In post-game comments, coach Sigi Schmid was highly critical of the referee, pointing out apparent inconsistencies in calls by the north linesman and referencing DC’s 5-0-1 record in games refereed by Richard Heron” (http://www.huntparkinsider.com/news/62.php). Sigi’s been watching the EPL I think.
Anyway, keep your heads up and your drinks in your hands Crew fans. Let’s take the moral high ground here and beat teams on the field. One or two bad calls is only marginally to blame, we could have had three of four goals if it has been our night.

On the Crew website Sigi talks about inconsistency last night– “It’s a growing process for us. To be a good team, you’ve got to be consistent. You’ve got to be able to do it over 90 minutes” … “We’ve been pretty consistent over the last 10-11 games and we need to just find that consistency and so tonight was not a shining moment for us, but there will be better moments ahead” (http://columbus.crew.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20070819&content_id=112383&vkey=news_coc&fext=.jsp&team=t102).
I definitely agree, we’re still a team that’s improving. Apparently we’ve already signed this kid Pacheco from T & T for the midfield (http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161191312) and our success this year, bolstered by Schelotto, should help bring in new talent in the off season. We have a great core group here–one that can threaten this year, but maybe not quite finish the job. Regardless, I for one am pretty excited to see what happens next.

Until next time Crew Nation, hold your cups of ice tight and think black and gold thoughts.