Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Mediocre start to the year

Last night's match saw the debut of my new player ratings system. And tonight: the debut of my player rating icons...


1. Marc Burch - So energetic in both halves of the field. I see a theme developing this year with the Burch/Fred combo. More on that later.
2. Clyde Simms - Looked like the best player on the field at times.


1. Zach Wells - Very quick and aggressive. Not at all afraid to come up to the top of the box to challenge a defender. Almost Perkinsian!
2. Gonzalo Peralta - The dude is effing huge! And fast. And loud. Every time the Ref calls a foul, you see Peralta standing over the ball talking to him. Reminds me of Olsen, but taller, and with less facial hair.
3. Devon McTavish - Early in the game I had him slotted in the lower category. That is until he scored a goal. He seemed a bit too tentative in the attack. That is until he scored a goal.


1. Luciano Emilio - Not his best game, but he had a few poor games last year too, so it's nothing to worry about. I was hoping that being handed the captain's armband by Moreno would inspire Luci, but I guess not.
2. Bryan Namoff - This might be more of a credit to Burch/Fred than a knock on Namoff/McTavish, but you would think that since Namoff and McTavish played next to each other for most of last year that they would be able to communicate better. And because, um, they actually speak the same language!

I also thought Soehn could have used his subs a bit earlier with a lot of tired legs out there. The Stratford sub was fine, but I also would have liked to see Mediate for McTavish or Namoff, or maybe Dyachenko for Gallardo.

All in all, not an unfair result when you consider its our first competitive match with this team and they've been playing together for months. And we were missing our two emotional leaders. United should be able to take care of business next week with the home crowd and a familiar playing field. But at least now we have some idea what to expect from all these fresh faces.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is what I saw last night. (yes I have posted this comment elsewhere but you know what my time is limited!!)

-Harbor View completely outplaying us. Then again, they are used to the horrid pitch, they have been playing together for years, and they all speak the same language.

-Zach Wells rockin’ the goal and dousing Jose Carvallo’s hope of a starting spot (probably, anyway).

-Gallardo having the occasional spark of flair but mostly just subtly creating, just like I like to see.

-los Gonzalos are completely amazing, rock-solid defenders, who are occasionally caught napping and therefore GOLAZO (or almost GOLAZO).

-Ailing Jaime didn’t get to do much, but his replacement Niell stormed up the sides a few times and almost earned the other team a red card. I like Niell. The guy is cool.

-Stratford, the resident Arsenal fan (which I love to see in a player, lol), replaced Niell and drifted more midfield to leave Emilio up front. Why they tried to sit on their 1-goal lead against the strong Jamaican side I don’t know. We didn’t get to see much of Stratford, but the fact that he got on the field alone impressed me.

-Simms, Burch (sometimes–he did slip a bit), and Fred were solid and good the whole time. Burch had the energy, Fred had the smoothness, Simms is just…you know, Simms, so it was all good over there.

-McTavish wasn’t all that great…until he scored (an ugly goal, but a goal).

-PERALTA IS HUGE!!!!

-Namoff wasn’t too wonderful, but he wasn’t handed all that many chances either. Emilio wasn’t great, but then again he isn’t quite the quick start guy.

All in all, I think the game was more a credit to Harbor View than it was bad for DCU. And considering the HVFC-loving ref, the horrid pitch, the language problems, the still-getting-used-to-each-other factor, and RFK comin', I think it will only go up from here.

By the way, the commentators were a disgrace to the beautiful game.

In my innocence I do not understand your new liquor-related rating system, however, I can infer what it is you are talking about. :D

Martin Shatzer said...

CL- If you said that you did understand my system, THEN I would be concerned.

Anonymous said...

:) no worries there!