MLS Week 6 [R]

[Cosmos Factory]

05/06

Los Angeles Galaxy 0
New England Revolution 4

Scoring:
NE -- Taylor Twellman (unassisted) 5
NE -- Steve Ralston (Jose Cancela) 39
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (Jose Cancela) 43
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (penalty kick) 69


Kansas City Wizards 1
Chicago Fire 1

Scoring:
CHI -- Chad Barrett (Chris Rolfe) 18
KC -- Eddie Johnson (unassisted) 48


FC Dallas 3
Houston Dynamo 4

Scoring:
HOU -- Ricardo Clark (unassisted) 31
HOU -- Brian Ching (Brad Davis) 35
HOU -- Dwayne De Rosario (Brian Ching) 45
DAL -- Carlos Ruiz (unassisted) 60
DAL -- Ramon Nunez (Roberto Mina) 61
HOU -- Dwayne De Rosario (Brad Davis) 67
DAL -- Drew Moor(Ronnie O'Brien) 76

DAL -- Ronnie O'Brien (caution; Trickery) 90


Real Salt Lake 0
Columbus Crew 1

Scoring:
CLB -- Jason Garey(Ezra Hendrickson) 70


Colorado Rapids 2
D.C. United 1

Scoring:
DC -- Christian Gomez (Joshua Gros, Alecko Eskandarian) 49
COL -- Jovan Kirovski (penalty kick) 54
COL -- Nicolas Hernandez (Cooke) 84

[p***@yahoo.com]

Post by Cosmos Factory
Los Angeles Galaxy 0
New England Revolution 4
NE -- Taylor Twellman (unassisted) 5
NE -- Steve Ralston (Jose Cancela) 39
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (Jose Cancela) 43
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (penalty kick) 69

Seeing how I tend to think that both players should be in the WC squad,
I'd like to point out that the PK for an Albright foul on Twellman was
largely a credit to TT's dribbling ability. At least, I would've liked
to point that out if it had been anywhere close to the truth. ;-)

Post by Cosmos Factory
FC Dallas 3
Houston Dynamo 4
HOU -- Ricardo Clark (unassisted) 31
HOU -- Brian Ching (Brad Davis) 35
HOU -- Dwayne De Rosario (Brian Ching) 45
DAL -- Carlos Ruiz (unassisted) 60
DAL -- Ramon Nunez (Roberto Mina) 61
HOU -- Dwayne De Rosario (Brad Davis) 67
DAL -- Drew Moor(Ronnie O'Brien) 76

Ching shows his scoring range ... that one was clearly from NBA
three-point territory, i.e. 8 or 9 yards ;-). Perhaps more importantly,
his set-up work for DeRosario has been very good lately. A big question
is whether he can do the same thing against opponents who are stronger
and savvier than most MLSers.

Post by Cosmos Factory
Real Salt Lake 0
Columbus Crew 1
CLB -- Jason Garey(Ezra Hendrickson) 70

Well-taken first goal for the rookie Garey ... hopefully not a fluke.

Adding a comment regarding Devin's thread, I definitely think that MLS
play has taken more forward steps than backwards ones. That said, a big
problem in recent years that teams are often more interested in
protecting a scoreline that in breaking down their opponents. A recent
NE-KC game started out very nicely, but after 30 minutes the Wizards
closed down their offense and spent the rest of the game successfully
maintaining a 1-0 lead. It was disappointing to see them do that,
particularly since they were playing at home.

P

[Grant Flowers]

I've got a question for Rapids fans.

Why does Mastroeni play center back for Colorado, when he's considered good
enough to play defensive midfield in the WC for the Nats?

Stupid coach? It's been perplexing me for a while.


Grant

[Jason Maxwell]

Post by Grant Flowers
I've got a question for Rapids fans.
Why does Mastroeni play center back for Colorado, when he's considered good
enough to play defensive midfield in the WC for the Nats?
Stupid coach? It's been perplexing me for a while.

More a stupid GM, though I'm not sure which of the Charlie Wright/Marcelo
Balboa/Fernando Clavijo trio to blame. He played DM until this season. In
the most recent offseason Nat Borchers transfered to Norway and the team
traded away Richie Kotschau (Richie left before Nat). Nat and Mike Petke
were our center backs, with Kotschau filling in if one of them was
unavailable. The team waited too long to find a replacement so up until
this past weekend Pablo had been taking the open center back spot and when
he or Petke weren't available, Chris Wingert filled in. See the early
Rapids scores for how well this worked. This weekend marked the debut of
former Bilabo center back Aitor Karanka, which allowed Mastroeni to move
back to the DM position. Rapids gave up one goal that on replay, appeared
to be offside, and Petke and Pablo both had their best games of the season,
while Karanka looks like the steadying presence in the back the team sorely
needed.

When Pablo gets back from the WC he'll have to fight Kyle Beckerman for the
DM job, but I fully expect Fernando Clavijo to create a supid lineup where
Beckerman, Mastroeni, Clint Mathis, Jovan Kirovski, and Nico Hernandez all
start but Dedi Ben-Dayan and Fabrice Noel get stuck on the bench.

Jason

Post by Grant Flowers
Grant

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

Post by Jason Maxwell

Post by Grant Flowers
I've got a question for Rapids fans.
Why does Mastroeni play center back for Colorado, when he's considered

good

Post by Grant Flowers
enough to play defensive midfield in the WC for the Nats?
Stupid coach? It's been perplexing me for a while.

More a stupid GM, though I'm not sure which of the Charlie Wright/Marcelo
Balboa/Fernando Clavijo trio to blame. He played DM until this season. In
the most recent offseason Nat Borchers transfered to Norway and the team
traded away Richie Kotschau (Richie left before Nat). Nat and Mike Petke
were our center backs, with Kotschau filling in if one of them was
unavailable. The team waited too long to find a replacement so up until
this past weekend Pablo had been taking the open center back spot and when
he or Petke weren't available, Chris Wingert filled in. See the early
Rapids scores for how well this worked. This weekend marked the debut of
former Bilabo center back Aitor Karanka, which allowed Mastroeni to move
back to the DM position. Rapids gave up one goal that on replay, appeared
to be offside, and Petke and Pablo both had their best games of the season,
while Karanka looks like the steadying presence in the back the team sorely
needed.
When Pablo gets back from the WC he'll have to fight Kyle Beckerman for the
DM job, but I fully expect Fernando Clavijo to create a supid lineup where
Beckerman, Mastroeni, Clint Mathis, Jovan Kirovski, and Nico Hernandez all
start but Dedi Ben-Dayan and Fabrice Noel get stuck on the bench.
Jason

Post by Grant Flowers
Grant

Fabrice played High School ball right down the road,how is he adapting
to the Pros??

Lloyd Heilbrunn

[Jason Maxwell]

Post by Lloyd Heilbrunn

Post by Jason Maxwell

Post by Grant Flowers
I've got a question for Rapids fans.
Why does Mastroeni play center back for Colorado, when he's considered

good

Post by Grant Flowers
enough to play defensive midfield in the WC for the Nats?
Stupid coach? It's been perplexing me for a while.

More a stupid GM, though I'm not sure which of the Charlie

Wright/Marcelo

Post by Lloyd Heilbrunn

Post by Jason Maxwell
Balboa/Fernando Clavijo trio to blame. He played DM until this season.

In

Post by Lloyd Heilbrunn

Post by Jason Maxwell
the most recent offseason Nat Borchers transfered to Norway and the team
traded away Richie Kotschau (Richie left before Nat). Nat and Mike Petke
were our center backs, with Kotschau filling in if one of them was
unavailable. The team waited too long to find a replacement so up until
this past weekend Pablo had been taking the open center back spot and when
he or Petke weren't available, Chris Wingert filled in. See the early
Rapids scores for how well this worked. This weekend marked the debut of
former Bilabo center back Aitor Karanka, which allowed Mastroeni to move
back to the DM position. Rapids gave up one goal that on replay, appeared
to be offside, and Petke and Pablo both had their best games of the season,
while Karanka looks like the steadying presence in the back the team sorely
needed.
When Pablo gets back from the WC he'll have to fight Kyle Beckerman for the
DM job, but I fully expect Fernando Clavijo to create a supid lineup where
Beckerman, Mastroeni, Clint Mathis, Jovan Kirovski, and Nico Hernandez all
start but Dedi Ben-Dayan and Fabrice Noel get stuck on the bench.
Jason

Post by Grant Flowers
Grant

Fabrice played High School ball right down the road,how is he adapting
to the Pros??

He's obviously still a bit green. He's got great speed and more passion
than anyone on the team save Joe Cannon, but he needs to work on pulling the
trigger a bit, he's still waiting for the "perfect" shot. I'm confident
that if he can get regular playing time this season that he'll mature
quickly. He's picking up a bad habit of going down a bit too easily this
season. Last season he made a couple of plays happen (One goal and one PK)
by not going down on hard fouls, this year he's going down on easy ones.
He's certainly not a Ruiz or Wolff, going down when there's been no contact
or anything, but I don't like seeing him head down that road.

On a personal note, I was at the last game of last season in Salt Lake City
where he got his first professional goal in a 1-0 victory. I head the
committee running the Rocky Mountain Cup and we presented it to the Rapids
on the field after the game. I got a chance to congratulate him, and later
on one of the other Rapids fans on the committee asked which one of us had
to tell Fabrice not to expect a trophy after every goal. ;)

Jason

[JK]

Post by Jason Maxwell
This weekend marked the debut of
former Bilabo center back Aitor Karanka, which allowed Mastroeni to move
back to the DM position. Rapids gave up one goal that on replay, appeared
to be offside, and Petke and Pablo both had their best games of the season,
while Karanka looks like the steadying presence in the back the team sorely
needed.

Is this the same Karanka who played for Real Madrid? The DCU announcers
identified him as such, but I thought there were two Karankas. In any
event, he looked good.

[Jason Maxwell]

Post by JK

Post by Jason Maxwell
This weekend marked the debut of
former Bilabo center back Aitor Karanka, which allowed Mastroeni to move
back to the DM position. Rapids gave up one goal that on replay, appeared
to be offside, and Petke and Pablo both had their best games of the season,
while Karanka looks like the steadying presence in the back the team sorely
needed.

Is this the same Karanka who played for Real Madrid? The DCU announcers
identified him as such, but I thought there were two Karankas. In any
event, he looked good.

I think so, but I'm not 100% sure

Jason

[p***@yahoo.com]

Post by JK
Is this the same Karanka who played for Real Madrid? The DCU announcers
identified him as such, but I thought there were two Karankas.

Just looked it up. There is a forward named David Karanka who used to
play in La Liga and is currently with Sporting Gijon in the Spanish
second division. The Rapids' Aitor Karanka, however, is the ex-Real
Madrid defender.

P

[JK]

Post by p***@yahoo.com

Post by JK
Is this the same Karanka who played for Real Madrid? The DCU announcers
identified him as such, but I thought there were two Karankas.

Just looked it up. There is a forward named David Karanka who used to
play in La Liga and is currently with Sporting Gijon in the Spanish
second division. The Rapids' Aitor Karanka, however, is the ex-Real
Madrid defender.

Thought so. I thought he was pretty decent at RM.

[Lucky Devin]

Post by p***@yahoo.com

Post by Cosmos Factory
Los Angeles Galaxy 0
New England Revolution 4
NE -- Taylor Twellman (unassisted) 5
NE -- Steve Ralston (Jose Cancela) 39
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (Jose Cancela) 43
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (penalty kick) 69

Seeing how I tend to think that both players should be in the WC squad,

I feel the same way, especially concerning Twellman. Ralston I felt
proved himself in a few friendly matches that he was worth a spot on
the bench for the WC. About Joseph, is he the Jamaican international?

Post by p***@yahoo.com

Post by Cosmos Factory
FC Dallas 3
Houston Dynamo 4
HOU -- Ricardo Clark (unassisted) 31
HOU -- Brian Ching (Brad Davis) 35
HOU -- Dwayne De Rosario (Brian Ching) 45
DAL -- Carlos Ruiz (unassisted) 60
DAL -- Ramon Nunez (Roberto Mina) 61
HOU -- Dwayne De Rosario (Brad Davis) 67
DAL -- Drew Moor(Ronnie O'Brien) 76

Ching shows his scoring range ... that one was clearly from NBA
three-point territory, i.e. 8 or 9 yards ;-). Perhaps more importantly,
his set-up work for DeRosario has been very good lately. A big question
is whether he can do the same thing against opponents who are stronger
and savvier than most MLSers.

A question that I hope am proven wrong regarding my personal answer.
^_^

Post by p***@yahoo.com

Post by Cosmos Factory
Real Salt Lake 0
Columbus Crew 1
CLB -- Jason Garey(Ezra Hendrickson) 70

Well-taken first goal for the rookie Garey ... hopefully not a fluke.
Adding a comment regarding Devin's thread, I definitely think that MLS
play has taken more forward steps than backwards ones. That said, a big
problem in recent years that teams are often more interested in
protecting a scoreline that in breaking down their opponents. A recent
NE-KC game started out very nicely, but after 30 minutes the Wizards
closed down their offense and spent the rest of the game successfully
maintaining a 1-0 lead. It was disappointing to see them do that,
particularly since they were playing at home.

I see what you are saying. I would definitely agree that MLS has taken
many forward steps, and also has many more to go of course. As I
mentioned in my other thread, posters like yourself know far more about
MLS and the trends in the league than I, so I am happy to read that
many of you concur with my opinions on the level of play. I am
especially happy about the apparent slight rise in overall goals
scored. It doesn't necessarily mean that it is at the expense of poor
defense, rather than improved attack and ball possession. Would you
agree?

[Dwight Beers]

Post by Lucky Devin

Post by p***@yahoo.com

Post by Cosmos Factory
Los Angeles Galaxy 0
New England Revolution 4
NE -- Taylor Twellman (unassisted) 5
NE -- Steve Ralston (Jose Cancela) 39
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (Jose Cancela) 43
NE -- Shalrie Joseph (penalty kick) 69

Seeing how I tend to think that both players should be in the WC squad,

I feel the same way, especially concerning Twellman. Ralston I felt
proved himself in a few friendly matches that he was worth a spot on
the bench for the WC. About Joseph, is he the Jamaican international?

He's not Jamaican. He was born in Grenada, raised mostly in Brooklyn,
but unfortunately
has already played for Grenada internationally.

BTW, the supreme irony in this week's events is that--as it stands
now--the only Revs
player likely to start the first game for his country next month is
Avery John,
Trinidad international who has played most of his recent games for the Revs
reserve team, and the Trinidad national team. :-)



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