Matchnight: United-Red Bulls

Natasha Kai, Heather Mitts, and Amy Rodriguez for Washington.

Can anyone find a live feed to the match!? The college dorms do not provide FSC!

With that substitutes list, Mr. Olsen might be seeing a handful of minutes.

callin' it now, soehn switches to 3-5-2 with quaranta slotting inside...with Vide, Simms and Guerrero forming a trio of terror that unleashes somehurt

I have seen Ben with Kids. Sicks kids in hospitals.

he will do fine.

hopefully he gets some time today, because he just kills the energy drink from NY

tvunetworks.com

channel 21500

Got anywhere to watch where I do not have to start up an account or download stuff?

see above

Uh-oh. DyaSTINKO is on the bench.

Unfortunitely there are not many people here tonight.

Benny's ankle still may be tender but he's getting his face back into true caveman form...

Crayton almost pulled a Wells there.

Bretos: "Sounds like a Greek footballer but it's actually a foot ailment."

Joe Vide feeling good about shooting from 30. Barely to the left.

Max reading Goff's work and passing it off as his own. Yes Max. We know that Clyde has played every game and has clocked the most minutes for DC.

for a guy described as an "unskilled" player Vide sounds like he is coming along quite nicely. Comments on the game would be nice trying to listen on my phone and keeping up with all of the helpful comments from all the fans here

Teams are still feeling each other out... Crayton and Conway have both kept their near post safe but not too many chances either way yet.

I like Joe Vide. Every team needs an enforcer. A Dema Kovalenko.

This game is going both ways with pressure - dumb mistakes from both clubs are allowing numerous oppurtunities

If Zach's problem was he never came off his line quick enough, I think Crayton's problem might be he comes out too quick. He just came out for a corner and he failed to get a finger on the ball. A good header and DC would have been down 1 goal.

The Boston Revolutions are up 1-0 on the Galaxies.

Emilio nearly got one - he's down and took a tough hit to his ribs. Should be fine.

Emilio nearly got one - he's down and took a tough hit to his ribs. Should be fine.

Posted by: MK | August 30, 2008 8:13 PM

The Red Bull defender hip checked Emilio as he headed the ball. Why isn't that a penalty? Oh wait, Kevin Stott is the ref, I understand now.

Both players were going for the ball - the contact was incidental and didn't interfere with the play. I think it would have been a very harsh penalty. We're going to have a lot of cards in this one though...

Emelio down and out - Grandpa Doe coming in at 45 min.

Crayton nearly was in the center circle on that one...

Any live feeds that are Mac friendly?

Crayton should wear #10.

have we been playing agressively enough to warrent 3 yellows? Tony seems to think the reffing has not been entirely equal. Moreno still not being protected?

I think each of the cards were warranted - they were all studs-up and from behind.

Landycakes scored an equalizer heading into the half in the other game.

No really outstanding performances for DC, but it looks like we've suffered another injury. Just what we need another one of our creative attacking players injured. McTavish is going to get beat by Dane and either give up a goal or get another caution and get thrown out if he doesn't improve his positioning. I haven't been impressed by Burch when he has the ball going forward. He hasn't added anything to the attack. He's standing on the ball too long letting the defender shutdown his left foot option which leads to either a backpass or him cutting into the center and loosing the ball.

Crayton isds very good. Very energetic. We need every player like. Common we need to win!

FSC giving the silent format a shot...

Cronin's hurt and out for LA in the second half - Josh Wicks is taking his place in goal.

At game what is tb
V saying abouit emilio?

This ref stands out in memory as bad from last year...

Max Bretos never sounded so good.

Doe offside. Otherwise we would have crucified him for missing a 1-on-1 with the keeper.

Doe missed but was offsides anyway.

They were speculating that Emelio's got a groin injury (but the audio went out at halftime, so no updates since). They showed him being stretched on the sideline and it looked like he waws in a bit of pain.

Is FSC without a picture as well as sound now?

is the audio out for ya'll or is that just a Time Warner Cable thing? my other channels are fine

no news about Emilio, will update if that changes

With no audio it almost sounds like this is being played at the Meadowlands!

Cakes just scored his second to put LA up 2-1 in NE.

MK funny, JM might disagree though

Sorry that should have been MJ

I have it up on WFED and on FSC and it is driving the wife crazy since they are not synced.

is Doe faster than Emilio? Why the long balls to Doe? He seems to be busy anyway.

Slowmotion header-clearance from NY... could have easily been dealt with another way.

Jaime should go back to the shorter hair with highlights. He scores more like that.

Guerrero plays a great diagonol to Burch on the left, but Burch's cross finds a defender.

Jaime wins a corner on the right. No? How was that a goal kick?

That's the first time I've ever seen a rainbow successfully incorporated in a game. That was great!

I've seen Jay Jay Okocha do it in youtube video clips but that was the first time I've seen it live.

I-270 you are too quick the audio feed hadn't even said that yet. We need the goal hopefully soon, we seem to be attacking quite a bit

Who had the rainbow

Big hair and big eyebrows won't save you from a clash of heads... JPA and Simms just proved that.

Moreno was running at the defense and flicked it over his head and over the defender on to Quaranta (I think - no Bretos commentary to help me).

Gallardo on for Burch in the 70th.

Gallardo in for ?

Joseph just brought the Revs level with LA - 2-2.

Anyone else getting tired of the Osario worship? He must be leading Soehn 15-1 in on-camera shots and, back when the audio was working, Chris and Max were piling on the adulation.

Gallardo will give us a lift if he can continue to run for 22 min. Hope he is not too rusty. Come on United not too much time to get that 3 points

They can talk about him all they want. Until NYRB does better than the La Manga Cup I'm not a believer.

Gallardo's creativity and energy are helping so far. Vide had a chance to double his career goal tally on that one.

Doe is Slow.
Slow is Doe.
Go Doe. Go!
Oh No! Dyachenko.
In for Doe.

Dyachenko on for 45th minute sub Doe... If that's not a vote of incompetence, I don't know what is!

Dyachenko up front is not all that bad. Please don't say he is playing mid

Jaime wins the PK. Beautiful through ball from Q.

Here we go! PK for Moreno!

Miss. Wide left.

Conway didn't even move and Jaime put it wide.

The smoke bombs aren't as satisfying if the goal we're celebrating isn't scored.

This is just a cursed season. 2 PK misses by Jamie "Automatic" Moreno. So many injuries...

It doesn't seem to be our day. Jaime misses a PK that is unbelievable

Wow - VERY fortunate not to be scored on there.

Great save by Crayton!

Rojas takes the corner. Headed down to Crayton's left. he does well to deflect it out.

Fulham made it through the day without losing to Man U. That should be considered a moral victory.

The Revs - LA commentators just said that Ante Jazic is the next step in MLS defenders. Wow.

Free kick from 30. hits the wall.

Game over.

2 games tonight, 2 draws. That PK should have been the difference.

With all the injuries it is nice to see at least a tie. Crayton another shutout, at least we have something to look forward to. We should win the Open Cup, and we may be a sleeper come playoff time

That was not a satisfying experience.

I forgot how good gallardo is on the ball. Jets just hope that emilio is not hurt that badly.

Crayton is incredible, and man does he have cojones - on a few occassions he was out there dribbling around the Red Bulls! Talk about confidence. Also had some fantastic saves.

Gallardo came in and had an immediate impact on the game. Too bad Dyanchencko had to come in for Doe. What was the deal with that? Quaranta seemed to be spaced out a lot of the time.

Fair outcome all in all, but boy could we have used this win.

Frustrating game; a tie is very appropriate. Nice to have Gallardo back. And Doe -- for how ever long he played. Any update on Emillio????

The ref seemend very inconsistent during the first half but seemed to settle down to consistent blindness during the second. We were fortunate that not to have a goal scored against us when he provided nice pick for NY mid-way through the second half.

On to Wednesday.

*The gal who sang the Anthem was top notch all the way. We should get her every game.

*I have definitely seen 1 or 2 dudes in Lot 8 who could be more effective for 10 late minutes than Lightning Rod.

*Gallardo completely changed the game in our favor.

*Keeper is exciting but a bit reckless.

*Abby Wambach, HOPE SOLO, and whatever leftover Jersey girl we can get -- O'Reilly, Rampone or Lloyd. Mitts would only be for a year til Philly comes on.

We weren't outplayed but we were out-coached--AGAIN! Why would Soehn change what worked so well last week: Simms and Vide in d-mid with Quaranta in front of them? Why wasn't Kirk on the bench? Why in heaven's name do we bring in Dyachenko? The good news is that Vide continues to impress--he reminds me of a young Ben Olsen...We better beat Charleston because that's the only trophy we're in contention for...

I missed somehing. Why was the Atlantic Cup presented to United at the end of the game? What was he tie breaker?

I have to second the accolades for crayton. Eventually he is going to cost us a goal mucking about in the back but he oozes confidence. I also like the quick distribution. Good organizer in the back. I like the fact he is flamboyany.

Found the answer to my quesion on Behind-the-Badge:

"The team also gets to keep to the Atlantic Cup, as the season series finishes 1-1-1. With all things being equal this year (including goal differential), United keeps the cup as the previous year's holders."

Guess that's as good a tie breaker as any -- we keep it because they didn't take it away from us.

A "top notch" anthem singer? I thought she butchered it. To me, the scariest words in English are "And now, with his/her VERSION of our National Anthem ...."

Off Topic: Yannick Reyering (former striker for UVA) made his debut with the Virginia pointy ball team, missing a field goal from about 46 yards out.

That was quite possible the worst job of refereeing I've ever seen in my life, and this includes elementary-school-age kids playing soccer.

Juan-John:

Not sure what you objected to. From the stands (meaning no replay), I saw nothing out of line for a normal MLS official. Some minor missed calls, maybe a harsh card, but nothing ridiculous. Actually, to be honest, I thought the diciest call he made either way was the penalty (from 230, it looked to me like Boyens got the ball just before he got Moreno, but again, I haven't seen a replay yet).

***

Fair result. Neither team played particularly well, but neither was poor enough to let the other team grab the victory. Moreno missed the penalty for us, while Crayton had to make a couple great saves. Until the penalty, I thought the game was going to end 0-0. After that, though, both teams looked like they had a goal in them (probably due to people getting tired).

Gallardo clearly showed what he brings to the team compared to anyone else on the roster. If he had been fit to play more tonight, we might have been able to create a goal. I don't think Doe was fit to play more than 20 minutes, and Soehn left him in as long as he could. Fairly damning for Dyachenko that Doe still was the first choice, given that situation.

This was another game that we weren't very impressive in. That said, earlier in the season we would have found a way to hand NY a goal. Between Crayton's keeping and the overall defensive improvement (which is still only a work in progress, whereas before it was flat-out bad), we have become harder to beat. Once Gallardo can play 90 minutes, we can go back to playing with a bit more style and skill, instead of relying on Moreno to spring everyone every single time.

Ratings? Why not?

Crayton - 7
Martinez - 5
Namoff - 5
McTavish - 5
Burch - 5
Quaranta - 5
Vide - 5
Simms - 6
Guerrero - 5
Moreno - 5
Emilio - 5

Doe - 4
Gallardo - 6
Dyachenko - 5

my wisconsin born, soccer hating neighbor went to the game with us tonight and loveed. it/
boo yoa ya ya

P.S. Anyone watching the Chivas-Toronto goal saw what may well be the most awful injury-time game-winning goal in MLS history. Atiba "Back to Hospital" Harris falls while shooting a pedestrian shot right at Greg Sutton, who lets it go through both his hands and legs before it tricked in. It's probably pretty beautiful if you're one of the 25 Chivas fans out there, though.

saw that game, and i think its great, toronto losing points is always good site

*Abby Wambach, HOPE SOLO, and whatever leftover Jersey girl we can get -- O'Reilly, Rampone or Lloyd. Mitts would only be for a year til Philly comes on.

Posted by: OWNTF | August 30, 2008 10:46 PM
..........................................

What about Tobin Heath? Seriously, though, presumably most of those people will end up playing for Mr. Foudy in Joisey.

That brings up another question. The teams will be filled out mostly by journeyman players, not national team players. Does the Freedom get to keep its current roster, and if so, does that give them an advantage over teams that are being assembled from scratch?

Does the Freedom get to keep its current roster, and if so, does that give them an advantage over teams that are being assembled from scratch?

Posted by: The Jeff | August 31, 2008 8:16 AM

====================
1) allocation of USWNT players; 2) allocation (or maybe draft) of international players; 3) draft of remaining US players. Doesn't sound like Freedom has rights to its roster. The W league combine is this week.

I'd think Wambach is going to play in Los Angeles; she has taken to the west coast.

Mittsy and Lloyd are definitely bound for the as-yet-unnamed Philadelphia team. I'd love it if Kai played here. She'd be the single most charismatic player in Washington since Freddy Adu.