Yossi wanted to make sure I still sent in a report. Now that I have some distance (about 3000 miles) and a few libations in me…I can be a bit softer than I would have been yesterday. I think you can tell I was sufficiently pissed…seeing as I said nothing to say to anybody and left as fast as possible. I actually wanted to leave after the 4th goal and motioned to Yossi for a sub. If you guys weren’t going to play hard – I didn’t see any point in sticking around. Coming on the heels of the Spartak game where we quit and I got hung out to dry…I needed a break.
That may be a bit harsh but that’s how I felt yesterday. In case you haven’t figured it out by now…I hate to fucking lose. But I can accept a loss where we played hard and came up short. I can accept losing like we did in the semi-finals last season. We fought our asses off and came up short. This team wasn’t as good as that team but you wouldn’t know by the score line. We dominated this game, lost focus and served it up on a silver platter.
Those of you who are new may not realize this…but those who know me by now know I am going to stop way more PK’s then I am going to let go in. The fact that I did it again yesterday and you all stood at the line while the shooter got the rebound and scored their first goal shows your head wasn’t in it. He may still have gotten it but none of you were near it. You were all taught since you were five…crash the net and clear a rebound.
Goal #2 was on the next play because we hung our heads after dominating the whole game to that point. Their guy just walked through three of us then I did enough to stop his progress but no help came and he had all the time to gather the ball back and put it in. That was a result of not regaining focus after the last play. Way to stay with it guys!
Goal# 3 was the worst. We had too many people up and out of position. By now their whole game was centered on counter attacking and the same guy on my left came down, led the 3 on 2, crossed it to a wide open man in the center who crossed it to the wide open man on my right who shot and…oh wait…I stopped that one too…but most of us were still watching the play so they got the rebound and scored again.
All our time in their half eventually paid off in a nice chip by Saul. Hopefully that earned you more time on the pitch bro.
Goal #4 This was the old Dinamo we don’t give a shit anymore play. Nobody did much to stop their progress, mark a man or clear the ball. So it left a guy with a clear, unchallenged shot from about 7 feet out that a brick wall wouldn’t have stopped. Top corner.
They were a team and we were a bunch of individuals masquerading as a team. Now I am not here to say that we need to run together, stretch together and warm up together or all speak the same foreign language like they do, but we need to play as a team. Realize that what you do on that pitch is not for your own glory but for the good of the team.
If you are a center back. For Gd sakes stop trying to dribble the ball all the way up to the front like you are a midfielder. Then when you lose the ball (which you always do) get the fuck back to the back line faster than the guy with the ball because that is why we are always outnumbered on a counter.
If you are in the back line…get on line with the last man. Too often wing backs are up too much without knowledge of what is behind them…then when they lose the ball somebody from the other team ends up with it.
If you are in the back line…and somebody from the other team happens to have skills and goes around you…don’t foul on purpose to get the ball back…especially in the box. Then attempt to do the same thing a few more times all over the pitch in the same game. That is selfish AND caused the momentum to completely swing the other way.
If we have two center mids….and the other team has the ball, they should probably NOT both be on that side while the middle is wide open…and all mids GET THE FUCK BACK ON DEFENSE.
Can we stop just launching the ball and hope our strikers end up on the end of it and hope they end up with a good shop and hope we score? Take a note from the other team – very patient and once they had possession made the most of it. They all knew their roles and acted accordingly. Pass the damn ball, move into space. Strikers need to play off each other. Check to the ball, lay it to your partner and run into space. Not difficult.
Samir tried to blame himself. Very valiant. Not true. Without that guy we are nowhere..much of the time he was playing D all by himself. I heard talk of the formation being the problem. Um…so a different formation would have changed the team attitude?
Guys I play on Thurs for Spartak…Sat for Red Star…and have played for every other team in this club at one time or another (well…Turbine hasn’t asked yet). This is the team I look forward to playing with. This is the team that is going somewhere. This team will be in the playoffs and will make a showing. Now get your collective heads out of your asses and show up like a damn team. This division is still right there for us and we should win it. I don’t want to hear that we moved up a division so we aren’t going to dominate blah blah blah. Have we played a team we couldn’t beat yet? Continue to beat the teams we have already beaten. Beat the Roma team with that chick and beat these guys next time and it’s all ours. Stop worrying about calls, refs, kicking the shit out of players on the other team and play fucking soccer.
Peter get your ass back to the pitch.
