Now What?

By: Herschel | October 14th, 2009

I decided not to comment on our 2-0 loss against Chivas since my arguments are the same as the Houston tie except for the Zoltan goal. This week we didn’t even score and it would seem that playing those players in a slump (Wolff, Arnaud, Jewsbury) has brought nothing good.

The game did have a horrible offside non-call on the first Chivas goal, but in all honesty should be blamed on the assistant and not the ref (Mike Kuhn has all the evidence, and the video is clear also).

Although we are not mathematically eliminated, only a complete debacle by the teams in front of us and a sudden resurgence of our team would get us through. (OK, not going to happen). This brings up the point of what we should do with these last 2 home games. Keep the mediocrity and try to bust the slump some of the players are in (hey, one more week might do the trick, right?), or use the friendly venue to give some others a shot.

I personally think Zusi did an OK job on Saturday, not any worse than Arnaud (OK, here come all the comments from the ones with the Arnaud blinders). I’d love to see Zoltan in for Wolff, who again got a bloody nose and who is in the scoring drought part of his up and down season. Will this happen? No, because the coach is also wearing his own blinders hoping that all these players he has been partly responsible for bringing in and giving to Curt Onalfo to use (and now having to use himself) will somehow magically show us all their talent. It just seems that it’s his last ditch effort to justify what he has done.

That actually is kind of sad since when the season comes to a close and the cutting needs to start most of the players leaving will be those who never got that chance. Yes, Yes, some have said that those reserve games have shown us who is good and who isn’t. For me that’s a bunch of crap. Players play to the level around them and playing college teams might be good exercise but the only ones really getting the learning are the…(wait for it…) college teams. And judging some of those players on the one or two games they get to play in with no regularity is actually meaningless. Like someone mentioned in another post, the best goals I’ve seen from the Reserves came from players who aren’t starters and I’ve seen a couple of college players make a few of the starters look foolish. Should we go ahead and sign the kid that was able to dribble through Jimmy Conrad? Giving so much credit to these reserve games to judge quality is absurd; unless we actually play teams that are better than us; KC Brass, UMKC, etc, not the case. Two word: Ryan Pore, need I say more?

In my book you judge these players when they are asked to play at that higher level. If players aren’t given that chance at the higher level they don’t get the chance to succeed. Case and point Ricardo Clark for example who I’ve never seen as a great player IN HOUSTON, but when asked to step up with the USNT, at a different level, he has shown that quality that makes him a good mid with a foot in Europe at the end of the season. The same goes for other players who although have a normal or good level in the MLS but seem to step up when asked to do more. I’m not saying we have superstars on our bench, but I do think we have some serviceable ones who might be able to step up and do an OK job when they get on the field filling in for a starter if it’s not their first time in a meaningful game.

So we lose against that “punk” Montero (that one’s for Coach Onalfo), or against DC; so what? there’s nothing on the line. Pride? Really?

I’ll take losing with a new lineup now, than over losing again like we did against Santos, where Jimmy Conrad got hurt and the guy that came in had few or no minutes and got schooled by the Mexican forwards.

I believe in moral victories but beating Seattle and DC would not even be that (that is, if we actually were able to muster the offensive power to do so).

Oh well, I’m sure Peter Vermes has though about the good of the team next year and setting up the next guy for success instead of trying to justify his job and escape failure. The more he coaches the less the blame scale tips against Onalfo and his time coaching with the hand he was dealt. He’s not blameless but he’s sure as hell not the only one to blame.

Since we didn’t see any KC goals last weekend I leave you with a few of my favorite ones. Enjoy.