Been A Long Time. Celtic Rundown.
By: Winslow Homer | July 15th, 2010
Whelp sorry everybody. For the longest time I couldn’t acces the Editing Controls to post. I guess its the server where I was trying to log in because now I’m on a different network and…wa la, I’m on.
Thanks to unclebp for coming on board and we’ll try to do our best to keep this thing consistent. Tag Team style.
So where were we?
Last place. Some tough loses. More consistent play. Maybe we’re starting to turn this thing around? We probably should have 5 or 6 more points then we do, just in the last month. There’s plenty of season left and every game we seem a little bit better.
Last night the Union had their first oppurtunity to take on some international fare and christen PPL Park against Celtic. Luckily I was able to attend…albeit late due to crazy storms turning 291 into a river and a huge back up on 95. (The game’s attendence took a hit due to those factors, and the game almost being called because of the aforementioned storms, but still I overheard someone from management say they had over 13,000 there. Not bad for a weekday game that was hardly advertised and had alot of issues keeping people from being there).
Celtic was pretty well represented but The River End was pretty much full and drowned out You’ll Never Walk Alone. Best part was around the 75th minute some Celtic fans lit flares and then fought security. Haha
Oh yea there was a game too.
Only problem was Celtic really didn’t look like they wanted to be there. Either that or they were hung over/had jet lag. Union dominated possesion first half. I don’t know if Celtic had a shot on goal during that time. Le Toux had a nice pass from Old Man Coudet and we were rewared for really controling the begining of the game. After the half the game got a little bogged down, there weren’t a lot of chances on either side. Up until about the 89th minute I would of said the best Celtic did was lighting lose flare and getting kicked out of the stadium. In the 90th minute and the 3 minutes of injury time that followed Celtic seemed to come alive and tested the Union D and Mr. Perk in the net. There were two scuffles in front of the net, some amazing work by Perk to keep Celtic from scoring and the luck of the cross bar, (apparently not the Irish, or Scottish Irish…or whatever), and in the end the Union held on for the W.
All said and done, I think we can take a little pride in the result. Yes it was basically Celtic’s 2nd, (probably 3rd) team, and they didn’t exactly put in a whole lot of effort. But we did. And that’s saying something. We didn’t have to show up either, playing a mid week game and having to play again two days later.
Good job boys.
Except I forgot to mention Toni Stahl got himself kicked out of the game. Really? In a friendly.
Few other notes:
First time at PPL for me and let me tell ya, I had crappy seats and got there late, but it was a beautiful place to watch the beautiful game. Great sight lines, amazing views of the waterfront and a real felt atmosphere makes a it a real treasure for our team. Really guys, we’re lucky to have PPL and not be stuck in a place like RFK. If you can get tickets for a game, do it.
Torres took a hard tackle last night and had to get taken off the field. Injury report is sprained ankle…not sure where he’ll be against Toronto on Sat.
Coudet, got the start last night and did a good job of managing the middle of the field. He’s been working out with the club for a while and it seems likely he’ll be signed. (Summer transfer window opened today). He really looked good yesterday, concidering the state of the competition, and I think it would do us good to sign him for at least the rest of the seaon. He’ll bring some real veteran leadership and control to our attack.
Le Toux has really become, in my mind, a clinical finisher. Having Coudet control the ball for him really might add a little Shake and Bake. He’s really turning into an asset and something to build the future of our club on. People keep saying we need to bring in a big name attacker for one of our DP spots. I think that’s dumb. One, our team has lots of YOUNG talent. Nowak needs time to let them grow. Mwanga seems to have a foot of gold and might be a great compliment to Le Toux (or visa versa who knows). Can’t forget Union Jack in that conversation either. Point is, bringing in players like Coudet might not be the popular move but its the right one. We need structure and that’s the way to go. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind a DP signing on Defense…that’s a place we could use more presence.
Who would ya’ll like to see brough in during the window?
Category: Union News
Comments
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Glad to see the blog up and running again WH.
Who is this Coudet guy? I could not see the game and I have never heard of him.
Can’t wait for the next post on the Toronto win, and to become a regular commenter.
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As for the transfer window–I think more than anything we need depth in the defense. Toni Stahl is proving to be a real flop–was he really sent off? That’s two out of three appearances!–and it seems that Nowak may have even less confidence in that Jamaican international we have (I can’t even think of his name) at center-half. And what do we do if one of our fullbacks gets hurt? In particular, an injury to Jordan Harvey would decimate this team’s already-on-trial defense, and after a pretty great game for Orozco by his standards against Toronto, an injury to him would be pretty bad as well.
Really, I think we’re rather thin in other places given the ages of some of our “always-starts” and our hard-working style of play. Neither Moreno or Miglioranzi are spring chickens, and you’re already seeing the effects of their starting every game. Migs does so much for the midfield, no one on the squad can pull off those lofted passes like he does. But he also has very, very little of the ball it seems like, because he doesn’t have the legs at 35? to start and finish every game as he’s doing. That’s why you see Mwanga and Le Toux starting (and sometimes finishing) attacks from the midfield. Moreno seems to be coming off earlier and earlier every game, and I feel we become far less effective when he isn’t there to lead the line.
In this case I’d be partial to giving more time to Zimmerman–he hasn’t impressed, but I think it’s absurd that a player whose claim-to-fame is being a regular starter in the U16s (really??) gets picked above someone a bit older and more experienced. Not to criticize Nowak, but you could see the difference between McInerney and Zimmerman in Toronto–with Mac’s chance, he hesitated and lost the ball between his feet; with Zimmerman’s, he took a shot and earned a pretty generous (ball to hand?) handball.
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Thanks for posting…things might not be updated super regularly for a bit but I think we’ll be a lot better than we were haha.
Coudet is another old dude but he has a lot of experience in S. America and played briefly in Spain. Last year he played with Orozco @ San Luis.
Yea Toni got tossed. The Jamacian national you were thinking of was Shavar Thomas who got shipped off a few weeks ago. I’d be all for a beefing up the defense and midfield. Our attack is fine for now but the backline is not deep and honestly its probably been the weakest part of our team. Maybe that’s just them taking some time to get used to playing with each other but they’ve all suffered from inconsistency.
I’m having a hard time finding anything on rumors one people we might be going after…anything?
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Our defense isn’t great, but as I always try to note on those nice Facebook official Union threads, they aren’t as bad as everyone says when they concede a goal. No, they can’t keep a clean sheet, which is a black eye on their status and certainly means they are not top-class. But I think in some games, our attack has failed us.
Since putting three past the Sounders, we’ve only been able to score a goal per game. In the Chivas game, we had three, four, maybe five clear opportunities to get on top at 2-1 in the second half, and we missed all of them. That’s when we played relatively well; but against Toronto, players passed the ball poorly and we had too much trouble generating any kind of width to create chances. The second half was better, but only in flashes could I call them a “passing” side, and frankly we were lucky to get both goals–one from a totally unmarked man at the near post and, again, a pretty solid ball-to-hand at the very end. Still, they played better than Toronto, or alternatively, the defense stifled De Rosario, Ibrahim, and co more effectively than the Toronto defense did our boys. The defense conceded a late goal, but precedent says the attack is going through a rather poor stretch.
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But I suppose all is fair in love and soccer, and I’m not begrudging our boys the win. If we really do deserve three or six more points than we have–as you say WH–than scrapping a controversial win on a hot, hot day two days after key players played their last game is pretty fair if you ask me.
Transfer rumors–haven’t heard any, but none of the media outlets I look at for “transfer rumors” talk about the MLS. Unless it’s a Theirry Henry (and we hear about it through Barca/Arsenal press), I don’t think we’ll know about any signings until they happen.
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Hello! (ello! elo! lo! o!)
Seems Philly’s signed Coudet–so how is he? Can he give Migs some rest? What’s his style?
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