Sunday, July 6, 2008

Week 15 Spotlight

Top XI
G: Nick Rimando Joe Cannon
D: Bobby Burling
D: Michael Parkhurst
D: Facundo Erpen
D: Chris Wingert
M: Colin Clark Shalrie Joseph
M: Emmanuel Ekpo
M: Guillermo Barros Schelotto
F: Chris Rolfe Abe Thompson
F: Ante Razov
F: Adam Cristman


Coach: Crew Assistant Robert Warzycha and new coach Schellas Hyndman each went to the right player off the bench as Steven Lenhart and Abe Thompson rewarded their respective coaches' faith with late equalizers as Columbus and FC Dallas rescued home points.

Top player: Adam Cristman was a force for New England in the Revs' 2-1 win over LA. Had it not been for spotty finishing from his teammates, Cristman would have had a pair of assists to go along with his two goals.

Top goal: Ante Razov's 88th-minute free kick was a stroke of mastery for Chivas' scoring ace.

Top save: Nick Rimando's late save against Houston kept RSL from suffering yet another demoralizing late loss.

Best game: Columbus 2, Chicago 2. The Fire looked like the Fire of old (April and May) and went up 2-0 but the Crew again battled back and leveled terms at the death.

Traveling fans! The Chicago Fire's contingent made for an impressive atmosphere at Crew Stadium

LOWLIGHTS

New York is a mess of a team. How the club has five wins on the year is mind boggling. Their talent is minimal and their depth is nonexistent. Look at their starting lineup from Friday's 4-0 blowout loss to Colorado. Aside from Dave van den Bergh, you'd be hard pressed to find many players who would start for other MLS teams. And forget about the excuse of tired legs left behind by US Open Cup. New York was the only team to play a US Open Cup on Tuesday and lose on the weekend. Every other team that played managed at least a draw.

Enough with Thursday night Houston Dynamo games. Last week's Thursday match was their fourth of the year, and they've scored a grand total of two goals in those games.

Quake fans, where have you gone? Little representation from NorCal supporters in LA for the contest versus the other SoCal MLS team.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

A couple of corrections from a Crew fan...

1) It's Emmanuel Ekpo not Ekpe.

2) Sigi Schmid wasn't coaching the Crew this Saturday. He was in LA for his daughter's wedding. Assistant Robert Warzycha took over coaching duties for the Crew last week.

L.B. said...

Thanks Jon. Was on my way to Chivas-San Jose so I only caught the highlights. Guess Warzycha gets credit for Lenhart's inclusion.

Matt said...

New York is doing it with defense.

Their overall goals-allowed total is middle-of-the-pack, but the majority of those goals came in just three games (5 by Chicago, 4 by DC, 4 by Colorado). Aside from those three, they've allowed more than one in a game only once (Dallas scored two in Week 2).

Having the third-worst offense in the league, now that is a problem....