Fellas...for those of you who did not see the debacle last night, I second the previous post with a few additional comments. I'm not surprised that I guessed the startin lineup to a tee...but I suspected Bertille would try something like this.
Shaka: What the hell was Shaka thinking trying to trap that ball with his body...
It was a dipping shot which he should have dove forward and taken cleanly. It is inexcusable for ANY Goalkeeper at this level...especially one of Shaka's experience. Shaka's reputation as "Dracula" seems to have morphed into the "Mummy". He was in a mess last night.
Sancho: Fought hard as T&T sweeper and tried to marshall the porous space directly in front of him. I have no real issues with his performance. A fighter til the end.
A. Pierre: In a mystifying move by Bertille, he plays Anton a central defender, out of position at right back...a position that requires SPEED and recovery ability...which Pierre has NONE. The second goal was clearly his fault as Pierre allowed Ruiz to run free in the area, push past him and score.
Henry: One of 4 T&T players who played the whole game and did not quit on the night (Edwards, Sancho and Eve the others). Playing out of positon again (a central defender playing left back) he conceeded one corner the entire night...every ball out of the back was played with his left foot and went directly to the head, foot or chest of a T&T player. When Ruiz came over to his side briefly in the second half, Henry shut him down and allowed him no space to turn or move. A strong performance. He should have played as stopper instead of Lawrence!
Lawrence: You heard it here first. If Lawrence plays another game for T&T in the next year, I will be shocked. Lawrence clearly had no idea of his responsibilities...he looked slower than ever(molassez) and was directly responsible for the last two Guat goals. On the 4th goal, T&T had a free kick opportunity that went wasted and Henry, who had gone up for the set piece, was sprinting back 45-50 yards to get back into the play. Henry chases all the way back, gets back to the man with the ball, bounces him off and pokes the ball back to Lawrence...WHO MISTRAPS THE BALL!!! The forward then picks up the ball and takes a few steps before blasting it past Shaka! Similarly on the 5th goal, Lawrence's man scores a clinical goal on a break when Lawrence is trailing 10 yards behind him for almost our entire half of the field. ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS selection by Bertille by starting him for this game when he had no practice with the team and the unit.
Eve: Fought hard and showed his flashes of creativity. However, not our answer at defensive midfield. The D-mid has to be a bruiser, ball-winner, and distributor. Angus has never been any of the above and asking or expecting him to be one now is foolish.
Dwight: Again, expecting Dwight, and outright striker his entire career, to be midfield workhorse is ridiculous. Enough said.
Edwards: Our BEST player on the night by FAR. His work rate is impressive, his accuracy on crosses and composure on the ball excellent. He is indispensable to our team right now.
Fitzpatrick: SHould not have been subbed at that juncture. If there was going to be a sub it should have been Stern. Leslie was not playing his best game, but was solid and was working extremely hard. Taking him off changed the complexion of the game for the worse.
Jones: Worked hard up top and can be a good forward given time and coaching. His rawness still shows but his work rate was ten times better than Stern last night, just as it was in the US game. His substitution for Nakhid was baffling.
Stern: See the above post. THE WORST PLAYER FOR US ON THE NIGHT. Stern is LAZY and is clearly out of form. He threw away three sitters last night. Edwards served him a ball from the right to the Penalty spot which Stern easily controlled and he blasted it off target. Jones gave Stern two beautiful low driven crosses across the face of the goal which Stern WASTED....he failed to connect on one and the other he toe poked directly to the keeper. He also headed a cross directly to the keeper with time, opportunity and the whole goal to choose from and most impressively, in the waning moments of the game, controlled the ball with his back to goal, pulled off the infamous "Stern Turn" and at the penalty spot with only the keeper to beat, blasted the ball 15 meters overbars! I have had it with Stern....he is out of form so why force the issue?
Subs: Hector Sam had a 50-50 half chance that the keeper beat him to. He should have put this one away in my opinion...but that's the way the night went. Hard to rate Hector in this game but his impact was minimal.
Nakhid: Nakhid touched the ball all of three times in his fifteen minutes on the field. Why is a 40 year old midfielder on our side subbing for a 20 year old Jones? Why bring Silvio all the way from Japan and not give him a sweat when we clearly needed a playmaker in the middle of the field?
Other observations: Rojas should have played in this game. Taking nothing away from Henry on the night, who played a strong left back, Rojas could have started outside in his natural spot and put Henry in the stopper position, his natural position, instead of Lawrence. I guarantee we not have conceded three soft goals.
Nigel Pierre should have subbed for Stern!!! I am no fan of Crock, but he is scoring and Stern is not! Crock and Jones/Sam would have been a much more effective combo on the night.
I am not going begin to lambast BSC because I too mentally drained for that now. Someone else could follow up on my post and do that.
Bottom line: WE MUST WIN WEDNESDAY OR THIS IS ALL OVER (and rightly so).
