Comments on: Drilling down on: Houston Dynamo 3, D.C. United 1

By: kingarthur900

kingarthur900 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 06:30:12 +0000

Wow; for playoff football this was a blazingly boring game. I’m sure it was the fatigue/injuries/etc, because games between teams at this level in MLS really are usually entertaining affairs. I haven’t seen DC play that much this season, but that Boskovitc fellow seems like more of a liability than anyone. His mark scored each of the first two Houston goals. I thought he was supposed to be some euro-goal-machine. The bigger point (and more interesting to me) is how the ‘mid-level’ European players, who used to come to MLS and dominate, now come to MLS and struggle. If you’re from the Scottish league, or from the 2nd division of a Euro-power, well, prepare to have your pants pulled down by the Yanks. You really have to be a top-tier player from the first division (notable exceptions aside) where you’re from to make an impression in MLS. I’m really happy to watch as, year after year, MLS raises it level of play with mostly ‘local’ players.

By: donjuego

donjuego — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 03:24:41 +0000

I’ve been saying this for three weeks now. I predicted poor play and injuries. Exactly what we are seeing.

Scheduling teams into three games in 8 days, and four games in 12 days is downright incompetent on the part of Nelson Rodriquez. He should be fired for this playoff schedule. It demonstrates a lack of necessary soccer knowledge.

All they had to do was keep the conference final as one-game. Change it in the future when you have your schedule issues worked out. There can be no justification for this.

By: wyrm1

wyrm1 — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 02:27:19 +0000

The schedule is a big part of the injuries for both teams. I know that MLS wants to squeeze the playoffs in as quickly as possible, but a 2 day turnaround (for both teams) is pretty brutal for playoff soccer. DC looked absolutely gassed and Houston didn’t look a lot better.

Imagine how much better this game would have been with both teams having a week’s rest (or at least 5-6 days rest).