Booked For Dissent

I filled in for Charlie Boehm at MLSNet last night. Here is my recap and wrap.

I’m still reading a lot of complaining about Orozco’s red card, most recently Fullback, who remembered some particularly dubious anti-US officiating by Wolfgang Stark, who sent Orozco off.  And almost immediately after the game, Ives, being more mild-mannered, wrote:

Orozco can’t throw an elbow of any kind, but the referee did not have to give a red card that early in the match. The elbow wasn’t at the face or a full-swing strike. It was an innocuous swing that led to an award-winning acting job by Solomon Okoronkwo. That didn’t matter as much as the fact that Orozco lost his cool, leaving it up to the judgment of a referee to determine his fate.

Although he clearly blames Orozco for his action, this is an argument we’ve all used when a game-changing call affects our team at certain spots, “The ref can’t make that call that early in the game.” Let’s get that phrase out of our system. A red card or a penalty or even a late free kick in a dangerous spot, at any time of the game, should be called regardless of whether it’s at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the game - or if it winds up determining the game. You can argue whether or not the call was valid, but the clock should not enter into it.

When play resumed following Orozco’s dismissal, the U.S. had the ball. This means that a foul was called against Okoronkwo before the elbow was thrown. Therefore, Orozco’s elbow was judged as an act of retaliation, which is an automatic red, regardless of Okoronkwo’s reaction or where he was hit.  The intent to retaliate was obvious, and Stark had no other option but to send him off. Naturally, this was missed by JP and ‘Celo, who acknowledged that the call was just, but didn’t put it in the proper context.

And yes, Galaxy fans, Gallardo should have been sent off for his elbow on Donovan for the exact same thing. But i still maintain that every call that doesn’t go the Galaxy’s way is karma for years of Ruiz’s late penalties.

Aaron says Nowak covered his ass:

Next, let’s move on to Peter Nowak. Today was the day that we saw Nowak exposed as yet another feckless wuss more interested in covering his own ass than actually going out and winning that match. Obviously, down a man, a forward had to come off for defensive cover. But why on earth do you take off Altidore? All he has done in his international career is cause trouble for opposing defenses by running at them and finishing his chances.

But Nowak has his career in mind. He can’t take McBride off. McBride played in England, see. He’s a US Soccer legend. If Nowak is going to save his ass, be better be able to tell people that I had a Premiership captain on the field at that moment and we couldn’t get it done. Never mind that playing an immobile target striker alone, in what might charitably described as the “Crouch role,” up top against a big physical defense was never going to create many opportunities. In reality, Nowak might as well have said, “We weren’t interested in advancing anyhow.”

Aaron, you ignorant slut.

The keeping of McBride had nothing to do with him being a Premiership captain. In that situation, the purpose of the lone forward is to be a target and hold the ball until the midfielders could come out of the bunker. McBride, who has never been given enough credit for being a very smart player, starts from much better positions that Altidore.

But Rogers and Kljestan were ineffective in making that transition, so the US couldn’t attack for much of the game. The Nigerian defenders could match Altidore (but not Wynne) for speed, so hoofing it into space for him wouldn’t do anything.

The biggest, and most fair criticism that could be attached to Nowak was that he went into a tournament without enough defenders, especially with Edu already playing out of position. This was said even without the benefit of hindsight. If they could have taken Rogers off and put a natural left back on after Orozco’s blunder, things may have been different, although I can’t say for sure, given Nigeria’s quality.

Edu, by the way, should have been assigned blame for the first goal. He bought the fake, allowing Isaac, whom he had covered, to get behind him.

Kljestan, by the way, suffered from a bad case of what I call John Starks Syndrome: doing way too much to play yourself out of a slump. And yet he finishes the tournament as our leading scorer.

I wasn’t too thrilled with his performance in Qualifying or the first two games, and figured he was just nervous. But now I think he may have been planted by the FMF to sabotage us. They knew we’d be so thrilled to have a kid choose the US over Mexico that we wouldn’t care if he was actually good or not. Maybe Hugo Sanchez wasn’t as much of an idiot as we thought.

Check in around 7:00 tonight for my liveblog of tonight’s US Open Cup semifinal between DC United and the New England Revolution. I’ll be going from the RFK pressbox, so I doubt I’ll have the same WiFi problems that I had at the SoccerPlex last month (you never know, to be honest). But I am faster than MLS’ matchtracker.

Lalas fired, Gullit resigns. Ruud officially becomes the biggest high-profile MLS coaching bust since Bora in 1999. Maybe even bigger, because a) there was no attention paid to the 1999 Metros in the national media, and b) at least Bora lasted a season.

For all my issues with Cobi Jones, in fairness I think he can be a very good MLS coach. The players all respect him, and he knows what it takes to win in this league.

The only other time in MLS history when the NY/NJ Metrostars/Red Bulls beat DC United by more than one goal was on September 28, 1997, the last game of the regular season, after United had clinched the Supporters Shield and the Metros had already been ruled out of playoff contention. Jaime Moreno, by the way, scored in that game, too. That makes today’s game the worst loss ever to our biggest rivals.

If United loses on Tuesday, somebody(s) will have to take the fall.

It’s a pretty good move, in that he’s a proven MLS player, with speed, who can play in defense or the midfield, and United gave up allocation money instead of the usual draft picks. But does this confuse United’s lineup more? If he plays in the back, Martinez moves to central defense, where he struggled at the beginning of the season. If he plays on the wing, does Fred move to the right, or in the center until Gallardo returns? And what does this move tell us about the team’s plans for Burch, which would give further ammo to those of us who feel Soehn has a youth problem?

We’ll see this weekend…

Before I start, I want to say that I personally like Dave Kasper. He is a smart man, and has always been open with me. I also know he has the best interests of DC United at heart. So I hope these posts, despite their length, come across as measured and analytical, rather than unfair, gratuitous and personal.

Dave Kasper has been widely praised for the hard work he has put in down in South America, building relationships with clubs and agents, and providing a model that have caused other MLS clubs to follow suit. But how successful has this tactic been?  Here’s the list of them since 2005, after the performance of Christian Gomez caused Kasper to broaden his search:

2005: Facundo Erpen, Lucio Filomeno
2006: Matias Donnet
2007: Luciano Emilio, Fred
2008: Jose Carvallo, Marcello Gallardo, Gonzalo Martinez, Franco Niell, Gonzalo Peralta

Now let’s take Gallardo off that list. If an agent calls you up and offers you a guy with his pedigree, you make that deal every time.

Of the remaining nine men, four - Filomeno, Donnet, Carvallo and Niell - didn’t even last a full season with United.  Fred had a great first season, but has struggled this year.  The jury is out on Peralta, whom I like but hasn’t shown the consistency, very similar to what we got out of Erpen, but without the recklessness. Martinez has been a revelation, and I think his loss of form this month is the result of him trying to cover for the inexperience around him.  Finally, there’s Emilio, who has done exactly what he was brought in to do, even if it comes in bunches, and not in the cold.

So really only three of the unknown commodities - Martinez, Emilio and Fred - could be considered as quality acquisitions. And the higher salaries given to those who have failed, notably Filomeno and Niell, have come at the expense of deepening the squad with players better suited to the style of play and demands of MLS.

In Part 3, I’ll look at how Kasper’s preference for South American talent caused him to overlook the importance of the SuperDraft.

At the beginning of the season, we were told that D.C. United’s squad was improved to compete in international competition. One of the biggest changes was the trade of Bobby Boswell to the Dynamo.

Tonight, Houston beat Pachuca, 2-0, to advance to the SuperLiga finals. Guess who scored the game-winning goal.