13 September 2005

Liveblogging Copa Sudamericana

Thoughts: Like the game says... "Should have done better." I'm going to take the night to think about this. I am somewhat disappointed, but also somewhat releived that it isn't a 1-0 defecit.

Full Time:
1-1, end of game. DCU needs to win to get in. Barring that... at least a 2-2 tie.
90+3: CORNER KICK! Played short... Freddy crosses... Erpen! No, he missed... I'm in exclamation point overuse mode.
90+2:
Now some posession, but it results in a goal kick.
90+1: Nothing significant yet.
89th: Cleared by Erpen. Then the ref, who has been giving multiple calls to Catolica, gives them another one. They just miss. We need one more counter. 3 minutes of stoppage.
88th:
Can't be giving up corners now... C'mon defense. And... Christ, it comes close with Catolica keeping back to stop any counter, and Catolica gets another corner.
86th: Adu having a good game. He's taking the ball from people. Rimando gets a crossbar to help him out too.
84th: Not going to be much stoppage. Catolica is still thinking counter... FREDDY makes a good defensive move. Holy !@#!@#. When did he learn that?
82nd: Usually it's DC that lets down in the last 10 minutes, but DCU seems to have suddenly found the effort to make something happen.
81st: Wilson in for Prideuax. I'd prefer Boswell, but apparently Peter wants to up the attack quotient. ADU... just missed.
80th: JAMIL WALKER! 1-1! JAMIL JAMIL JAMIL JAMIL JAMIL! Crazy goal, finally a bounce goes DC's way.
78th:Moreno caught off again. Very close. Expect the BigSoccer people to be screen capturing that one.
75th: Posession is better now. Adu is playing well on the ball. Dema just showed that he has some skills and draws a caution on a Catolica midfielder. Gomez on the free kick... poor kick. It was the feeling like you have when simulating the game in FIFA 2005, and you see the "Wright-Phillips with just the keeper the beat" fade out to be replaced by "Should have done better."
74th: When I was a young kid, I played the silver ball...
70th: Catolica is now lofting balls toward the DC end like Doug Flutie in his Boston College days. Christian just missed now on a decent ball out from Rimando. That was almost it.
69th: Adu in for Gros. I agree with this sub entirely. Nowak has undergone some criticism, from me included, for his subbing recently. Now he's playing for goals now, and he's right. DCU is essentially playing a 3-4-3 now.
64th: Catolica has had the better of the action so far in this half. Again, DCU is not moving out of their third particulary well. Rimando has had some good saves, but he hasn't put the ball at his feet of his attackers well.
61st: Erpen gets beat again and allows a corner. DCU had dominated minutes 10-40, but they haven't gotten things back to that level.
59th: Catolica plays one of the best off side traps you'll see. They master the art of moving the line as a group.
53rd: Carroll is in a battle. His marking is good, his clearence... not so much.
49th: Gros seems to have woken up, he's much better on and off the ball. Prideaux gets a caution.
46th: Walker comes in for Olsen, who hadn't done much to keep posession like we expect him to.

Half:
Oof... DCU has had chances, but the "Bend, but don't break" defense of Catolica has been fairly effective. Dema, Gomez, and Namoff seem to be having a good game. Tino and Moreno need to be doing better, but neither has been subpar. Olsen and Carroll need to get into the play. Ditto with Josh Gros. Erpen, Prideaux aren't having their best game.s

45 +2
: Disaster. Erpen misplays a ball off a throw in, or a throw in was poorly played. Catolica pushes the ball in the net. Quinteros deserves credit for a great reaction. Blah. Seconds later, the half ends.
45th: Yup, 3 minutes of stoppage.
43rd: DCU is starting to slip up on the pressure. Catolica has had their best sustained work in DCU's third since the 10th minute.
41st: I still have a bad feeling about the ref.
38th: Please finish a chance. Please? All credit to Catolica's keeper, but please get one in before the half.
37th: DCU has really started to play well, but can't seem to break through the Catolica final line. Once DCU gets in the penalty area, Catolica's defense turns into a series of pinball bumpers -- Dema has been asked by the ref to remove the chain he wears around his neck. Apparently the ref is afraid this will turn into a reenactment of the Ninentendo game Double Dragon and someone will hit Dema's A+B buttons to trigger the use of the foreign weapon.
36th: Tino should be treating this game as part of his USMNT audition. In fact, I think he is.
33rd: I bet if they played this game in low gravity, so that all the players floated around above the pitch, and the bike was the typical way to move the ball, that Erpen wouldn't have just given up that ball and given Catolica the counter-attack. Sadly, we play on Earth.
31st: Rimando! RIMANDO!
28th:Is Namoff attacking much more the last couple of games? The time at midfield has apparently reawakened a desire to be a striker.
25th: Dema seems to want another goal. You wonder if he has a bet on whether he can finish with more goals than red cards this year.
20th:
DC has played a much better from minutes 10-20 than 1-10. More posession, better passing. Now a long wait for the Catolica keeper to recover from a collision with Erpen. Hope this doesn't stop the momentum that DCU was building. We're going to 3 minutes of stoppage time here alone.
18th: First corner of the match goes for Catolica. Fortunately, they forgot that DC United kvetchers aren't happy with Nick Rimando's height, so they head it over the goal.
16th: Remember that crappy PK that was awarded at the end of the first leg of the Pumas game? You get the feeling that could happen again? If I could borrow Joe's Han Solo pic, it would accompany the "I've got a bad feeling about this" quote.
14th: One of those "who's onside, who's offisde?" scrambles in Catolica's box. The Chileans get the offside call.
12th: Finally, DC has made some work offensively. You know, I like the fact that running Catolica supporter club web pages through Babel fish means translates the team to "The Crossed Ones" Makes them sound, I dunno, like a team cursed by fate. Or by icing. Mmmmm... icing.
10th: DC has to get better on the ball. They have not sustained the posession soccer they will need if they're going to win this leg. Catolica has been fast and working their angles nicely, but if DC can see a weakness, it has been Catolica's weakness on set pieces.
7th: DC has not had the best of the play. Catolica has had two chances, DCU hasn't done much with the ball and has only had posession for about two minutes.
8:16 PM
: Game Starts

Your 3-5-2 Lineup:

Rimando
Prideaux/Erpen/Namoff
Gros/Carroll/Kovalenko
Olsen
Gomez
Quaranta/Moreno

Nowak playing the top line-up.

2 Comments:

At 14 September, 2005 12:42, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It will be incredibly difficult to score on them in Chile. This next game has the potential to be:

(a) an embarassment for the league. Remember that Catolica beat Alianza of Peru 5-0 at home.
(b) show a great effort and represent MLS well, despite a close loss.
(c) historic.

That shit better be televised.

 
At 14 September, 2005 20:29, Blogger Dan Benton said...

Hey, I recently came across your blog and was wondering if you'd perhaps like to join Most Valuable Network writing on DC United. www.mostvaluablenetwork.com is the URL if you'd like to check out the company. I don't have enough space to really fill you in on perks and such, so if you're even slightly interested, or have any questions please e-mail me at dan_benton@mostvaluablenetwork.com.

As you can see there are no MLS teams covered right now. We just started to recruit for MLS writers, today as a matter of fact. I look forward to hearing back from you.

 

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