Crew Game 9, Violent Win (FCD)

Justin Meram and Sebastian Miranda provide a couple special goals that propel the Crew to victory in a game that will probably be more remembered for elbows, a concussion and a speared trachea.

1ST HALF
Referee Baldomero Toledo watched over a choppy start. If not for Tchani getting burned by not playing to the whistle the half would have ended with zero goals. Ethan Finlay, once again got the start up top but took an elbow to the head / neck and was replaced by eventual goal scorer, Meram.

2ND HALF
Things got very heated right out of the locker room break. In the fog of war it seemed as if the Columbus players wanted to get some revenge for the Finlay concussion. Meram picked up a yellow by elbowing the same guy that took Finlay out. Eventually, in the 64th minute, Dallas' Zack Lloyd was the one who was thrown out. A couple minutes after that Meram fizzed one past the Dallas 'keeper to tie things up.

Five minutes after that Sebastian Miranda headed one in from 20 yards out. Yes, 20 yards. Header. Solid header. Amazing header.

THE END, CONCLUSION
• 36 called fouls. 6 Yellow Cards (1 Red).

• I would say that this is the most violent Crew game I've seen in some time. I'm not sure if the ref could have done much more than he did. In fact, he seemed to let the players work it out of their systems during open play. Were this another ref on another day... handbags and multiple suspensions. Perhaps we saw what Major League Soccer actually is, in its pure form. Often times we see games over officiated. Helicopter Refs?

• Ethan Finlay is too small and too inexperienced to play up top. He is a head shorter and 30 lbs lighter then your average MLS Defender. I repeatedly told the person I was with that he would end up hurt. He did - and it was ugly. I do not think this was Warzycha's call to put him up top. I think it comes down from higher up (Bliss, McCullers). I hope that they don't forget what happened. I certainly won't.

• Tony Tchani's mental slip up was infuriating. He thought the ball was out and went on waiving his hand around instead of playing through the whistle. This is what you get with him. Full credit to Coach Warzycha for leaving him in, though. That show's confidence in your players and will go a long way with them.

Well done, Bobby. Leadership!

• Another strong CB showing from the Crew. Williams and Gehrig have been excellent over the past few. Vukovic is also playing with amazing amounts of energy and passion. Only 2 goals against in three games.

MLS Saturday Predictions

Here is what my power ranking system says will happen in MLS tomorrow, with a little home advantage sprinkled in.

LA v MON: Win, Montreal +1
The Galaxy have to get one of these at some point, don’t they? Not this one I guess.

DC v HOU: Draw
I expect a really good game here. Houston plays pretty soccer most of the time. They don’t make unnecessary fouls, keeps the game moving. Unfortunately, if you give DC that kind of game you will get scored on. Should be a great show in the new home.

DAL v CLB: Win, Crew +2
Dallas is having a slow start to the year. Crew is on the verge of being slow all year, but I think they can really nab this one in a big way. Crew will win at home by 2. I’ll even go as far to say that Justin Meram will score at least one.

VAN v NE: Draw
I like what both of these teams are doing this year. I have the Revs pegged for the playoffs, even.

KC v CHI: Win, KC +1
This one has the chace to be a boring game. KC has just been dominate this year, home and away, but the Fire play from the back and are patient. They can out patient most but KC will pull this one out.

No Power Rankings, Only the FUTURE

Just looked at the MLS schedule tonight, lots of games. Hm. Instead of posting power rankings, which is what I was fixin' on doing, I'll take a look into the FUTURE.

NY v. Houston
Man, great game. Houston can almost taste that orange in their new digs. That said. NY will win this one. Going against my gut and my heart though. Like this Houston team a lot. One of those teams that is very well coached.

Numbers say NY.
Gut says, Houston

Toronto v. Montreal
Woops. This game just broke my will to put much more effort in. Didn't know a Canadian Championship was going on tonight. These things stink without lower division teams. Imagine the Carling Cup with only 3 teams. Ugh. FOUR!***(top secret message)

Numbers say Montreal
Gut says? nothing really.

Chicago v. Real Salt Lake
Good game here. I'm thinking "Toyota Park" is in III. In the wrong font that looks funny. It's Illinois. So Chicago is at home.

My #s say RSL
Gut says Draw, but RSL will win this sucker.

Dallas v. Seattle
FC Dallas off to a bad start and WILL get hot soon. Fortunately for Seattle, Dallas is so worried about facing Columbus on Saturday they will shat the bed on this one. Zzzzzz.

Numbers: Mean Green
Me innards say the Rex Velvet villain super guy's hometown.

Vancouver v. Edmonton
Wait. There are lower division teams in this Canadian thing? Any other blogger would go back up and edit what I said before, but I'm not bothering. Go Edmonton!

Numbers say??? uh Vancouver, I guess.
Gut says... the MLS team I guess. I'd rather see the NASL team win.

***I secret blog cheated!

Here's an indecipherable graph.

---------------
UPDATE May 11th, 2012: Both my mind and my numbers were 3 for 5. Not too bad. I'll take the numbers next time, though. Easier, sustainable and I can hang the ol' hat on it with little effort.

In Search of a Guldan (8)

I'm starting to enjoy Patrick Guldan's Notes and Grades on the Crew. So much so that I pulled all the scores from this year for a closer look.

I also skimmed through last year because nobody has received an (8) yet this year... more on that at the bottom of this post.

Or, how about; more after the jump (just like over at his site!).

I don't have a jump here. But if I did, I would have put it right here.

************Boom!

Mr. Guldan is consistent and his scale is reasonable. It's also easy to understand. Here is the explanation behind it:

Note on Grades: I have set 5 as an average performance. The player had both good and bad events on the field. Under 5 is a disappointing performance. Above 5 is a notable performance.

Simple and to the point.

Here are the average scores of each Crew player, through Round 8 of this year.

Avg Rating: Player : Times Rated
6.5 : Williams : 5.0
6.3 : Vukovic : 4.0
6.2 : O'Rourke : 5.0
6.0 : Duka : 2.0
6.0 : Marshall : 7.0
5.6 : Gruenebaum : 8.0
5.6 : Mirosevic : 8.0
5.3 : Schoenfeld : 6.0
5.1 : Vargas : 7.0
5.1 : Miranda : 8.0
5.0 : Finlay : 8.0
5.0 : Tchani : 4.0
5.0 : Coaching : 8.0
4.9 : Renteria : 8.0
4.9 : Gaven : 8.0
4.8 : Anor : 5.0
4.8 : Gehrig : 4.0
4.6 : Urso : 6.0
4.4 : Francis : 7.0
4.0 : Meram : 1.0

I spent a bit of time working with min / max and variance. I also created consistency ratings based on these ratings. Link.

Since I pasted all this in a simple spreadsheet, I also pulled out Guldan's favorite adjectives out of the 1,834 he has written within "Grades" section of his grade writing this year:

# of instances: Adjective
22: Touches
16: Passing
13: Shots
11: Interceptions

Personally, I'd like to see J. Williams type words more. "Work" or "Working" only mentioned (5) times. "Teamwork", "Passion" and "Respect" (0) times. Crimes!

Want Mr. Guldan's summary of all player ratings and notes by game? Link.

I also worked with the numbers in the same way as online retailers do. As in; Net Promoter Score. Or NPS. This is a commonly used method that takes out the middle reviews and scores given as customer feedback. Theory is that the customers ridin' the fence aren't statistically important. If you want that data you can email me. No link for you.

I also created a + / - rating based off Mr. Guldan's evaluations. (No link here either.)

I've got loads to say on this but I'll stop and go out with this... Guldan has only given out one (8) score since the start of last year. April 5, 2012. FC Dallas.

Or as I know it; "The Eight Once".

Gaven (8): Very influential on and off the ball. His goal was a magnificent strike and he was a terror on the right side.

Will we see an (8) this year?

Not looking likely.

--------------
Further Reading on "Rating the Rater" evaluations:

Sentiment Analysis

Appraisal Theory

Organizational Behavior

New Crew Signing, Pt. 3, An Englishman in Columbus

Yes, Chris Birchall is from Staffordshire, same as my beloved Stoke City. He is a Port Vale guy, but I can forgive him for that.

In the soccer universe he affiliates with Trinidad and Tobago because of his mother. I reckon I could do the same type thing by claiming England as my kickball residence through my mother, but I shantish much good at football -- and that's going the wrong way (or something). Regardless! What?! Jeeze.

The timing is off, but this sort of player signing is solid. I have loads of data on him. I also know where he stands in relationship to the rest of the league. So instead of me getting all crazy about his pottery / English-ness, I can confidently evaluate him.

But his place on the Columbus Crew? Good question.

Looks like Central Defensive Mid (CDM) at the moment. Danny O'Rourke has seen a few games there this year as well as Kirk Urso. Hmm. This lineup / depth chart Crew stuff is getting tricky, so lets clean up this little CDM / stopper spot, shall we?

1. Rich Balchan
Good player, has a 'sports hernia' and can't seem to get better. Part of me wants to point fingers at the Crew training staff, but it is what it is. He's not game fit.

2. Danny O'Rourke
Danny is a multi-purpose defensive player. He can fill in anywhere. Believe it or not, I'd like to see him at right back over Miranda right now but I have a feeling that he will pair up with Josh Williams while Chad Marshall tries to determine his playing future (concussions).

3. Eric Gehrig
I still think the CDM is his natural position but in Coach Warzycha's mind he see's him as an athletic body he can run in the back, no matter the spot.

4. Kirk Urso
Kirk came out of the gates starting this year. Four games I think. Too much, too early but of the new boys on the Crew he has played the best.

So, when you look at it this way you see that picking up a player like Birchall makes sense. That is, if he plays the CDM spot. Columbus has a tendency to put players in spots outside of their natural position. My understanding is that Birchall is a Defensive Mid. A stopper.

Chris Birchall; 2011 MLS.

Chris made $157,125 last year. For those keeping track, don't worry. Crew still last in MLS in terms of wages.

I had him rated 189th in the league overall (slightly above average of a 59 rating). He had 23 appearances and 1551 minutes. None of that should diminish the fact that he was an important cog for a LA Galaxy team that posted the 3rd best Goals Against average in Major League Soccer History.

That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, though.

The Crew still have to address problems. Tossing people at it doesn't work and isn't sustainable. The #1 problem with this club? Injury. Columbus desperately needs to work on getting (and keeping) people healthy before anything else. This signing just a band-aid on a wound that isn't healing.

There are a handful of other deep rooted problems with Columbus. This is Part III of a series of posts about Crew signings in 2012. More posts to come, just as more signings are coming for our beloved Crew.

Part I, can be found here. Link

Part II, Link.

--------------
Principle:
One acquirement passed down to me from a former Rolls Royce (Aircraft Engine Division) and Corning engineer that I will never forget is Problem Analysis. I've learnt, in a decade spent in manufacturing, that properly identifying problems (both potential and existing) is the first step you should take before initiating any change.

--------------
The base artwork on this post: Paine Proffitt. Search him.

Crew Game 8, Late Night 0-0 Draw (POR)

Portland v. Columbus. Two struggling and desperate teams got together at 10:30 PM EST last night for some FAST PACED MLS ACTION.

1ST HALF
Portland tried their darnedest to get that goal but couldn't find that finishing touch. Meanwhile, Ethan Finlay started up top for Columubus and drained all his "afterburners" in the first 15 minutes leaving Renteria in the defending forward role, leaving the Crew toothless.

2ND HALF
Some real intensity down on the field. Both teams felt that 3 points were in reach but neither deserved them. Disjointed action and late challenges wrote the script here. Ultimately, the Columbus Centerback pairing of Eric Gehrig and Josh Williams keep out former Scottish PL goal scorer Kris Boyd (Williams doing most of the heavy lifting).

Andy Gruenebaum had a busy day stopping 6 shots on target.

THE END, NOTES
• Josh Williams (6) has more shots in less minutes than Ethan Finlay (3) this year.

• Only Crew players with a per game shot rate lower than Finlay are guys with ZERO shots. That zero shot list includes: Gruenebaum, Miranda, O'Rourke and Gehrig.

• Finlay is being ruined. Gassed himself in the first part of the game and hung Renteria out to dry. Renteria ended with ZERO shots yesterday.

• Portland is a poor club.

• This Finlay / Renteria pairing is one that I haven't even seen in scrimmages. That includes the OSU match last Tuesday. What sort of logic was Crew Coach Warzycha employing?

• Columbus has now only won 4 in their last 18 games. This is the worst 18 game run I can find, going back to 2007.

• Over the past two games, Josh Williams has shown himself to be one of the (if not, the) best players on the field.

• More on Williams: He plays the way he talks. What does he talk about? Things you don't hear coming out of the Crew locker rooms enough this year... Battling, sticking together, trash talking, toughness, teamwork and respect for opponents. And that's just after one game. LINK. Columbus needs, like, 10 more guys like this one.

• Not easy to win late games out west. EST teams only getting wins around 20% of the time (normal away team success rate is 37%) so a Draw is a positive result. It just feels like the Crew should be beating this team anytime of the day.

---

the snow is falling

Crew Core Competencies, with Grapes

Know what? It's high time I give a review the Crew players currently on the roster, before they are gone. Why? It's been over a year since I've been intently following this swashbuckling bunch of lovable rebel rousers.

Flash Gordon Accompaniment.

Reviews tend to consist of the latest and greatest fads coming out of the all-knowing collective genius that is Human Resources. Believe it or not, here at Helltown we have a HR department. She is known as 'being sober'... and she's not in today.

Over the past few days I've gone through a big old list of footballing attributes. When I say big, I mean Football Manager 12 + FIFA 12 plus real world attributes big. Once I got a big old list of them, I whittled them down to core socker attributes. Things that a manager can assign numbers to from the comfort of his or her office (or cubicle, as the case may be). AKA, Core Competencies!

Below are attributes that I found fitting. Traits that I found important to everyone, regardless of position. Things, that if I were building my own team, would be most important.

They are:

Attitude, Consistency, Determination, Durability, Intelligence, Natural Ability, Positioning, Stamina, Strength, Teamwork.

I limited it to ten attributes because it makes assigning a score easy and round. 10 being the highest you can score (BEST). 10x10 is 100. Or 100%.

Core Ability : Name
90% : Milovan Mirosevic
86% : Eddie Gaven
86% : Danny O'Rourke
86% : Chad Marshall
85% : Josh Williams
85% : Julius James
81% : Eric Gehrig
80% : Nemanja Vukovic
80% : Tom Heinemann
75% : William Hesmer
71% : Aaron Schoenfeld
70% : Justin Meram
70% : Olman Vargas
70% : Bernardo Anor
68% : Kirk Urso
65% : Sebastian Miranda
63% : Ethan Finlay
61% : Rich Balchan
57% : Shaun Francis
53% : Emilio Renteria
53% : Tony Tchani
52% : Andy Gruenebaum
52% : Dilly Duka

Not Rated: Jairo Arrieta, Kevan George, Cole Grossman, Aaron Horton, Matt Lampson, Carlos Mendes, Aubrey Perry, Ben Speas, Korey Veeder

Now take out the injured players, assign position and START! Seems easy doesn't it. It's interesting how something as simple as assigning values to players through method is lost on many.

Here are the attributes that didn't quite make the cut into my Core Competencies(!) I felt like some of them were too position specific.

Composure, Decision Making, Level of Discipline, Acceleration, Aggression, Bravery, Command of Area, First Touch, Handling, Marking, Off the Ball, Pace, Tackling, Work Rate, Aerial Ability, Anticipation, Creativity, Crossing, Dribbling, Flair, Heading, Jumping, One on Ones, Reflexes, Technique.

However. If you want to see how I rated each Crew player based on all their categories, you can. LINK.

Signed,

The Helltown Grape Ape from Breaux Vineyardland.

----------
ADDED NOTES:
Core Competencies are more about feel. Once you sort out what competencies are important you will find out that this is how coaches, managers, corporations shape identity. Some people value these things far and away above other measurables. I'm still trying to figure how important it is in the world of sports.

What I did with these attributes is weigh them to pluck out less important qualities. I did continue on a rate each player in each category with that weight, here's how:

Top Comps were scored as 10,5 or 1.

Comps a level below that: 5, 3 or 1.

Least important were: 0 or 1.

I added them up and divided by the total possible score. I simplified scores by not getting nick picky about the difference between a 6 and an 8. The easier you make scoring the better. Usually a player or person has a good first touch or doesn't. No need to spend time splitting hairs, especially when you use more abilities / traits in your comp.

Anyhow, here is how my overall ratings went. On the far left is the OVER ALL, includes all comps, traits and abilities. In the middle is the score with just my Competencies. It's interesting how far Milovan, James, Heinemann and Vargas dropped when more skill traits were added. Urso dropped the most. One the surface it appears that this particular team is weak on the skills side of things (I dropped the GK's off this list).

87% : 86% : Eddie Gaven
87% : 86% : Chad Marshall
85% : 86% : Danny O'Rourke
84% : 90% : Milovan Mirosevic
83% : 85% : Josh Williams
77% : 81% : Eric Gehrig
76% : 80% : Nemanja Vukovic
76% : 85% : Julius James
73% : 80% : Tom Heinemann
69% : 71% : Aaron Schoenfeld
69% : 70% : Bernardo Anor
64% : 65% : Sebastian Miranda
64% : 70% : Olman Vargas
63% : 61% : Rich Balchan
62% : 70% : Justin Meram
61% : 63% : Ethan Finlay
60% : 57% : Shaun Francis
58% : 53% : Emilio Renteria
57% : 68% : Kirk Urso
55% : 53% : Tony Tchani
48% : 52% : Dilly Duka

Fun stuff for me, believe it or not. I think I am somehow hard wired for this sort of thing.

Next up for me is to figure out a goal driven metrics based on a teamwork foundation for who starts week to week.

---------------
Quick note on the Flash Gordon link up there. Caught the movie in HD recently and it looked beautiful. The cinematographer, Gilbert Taylor, also worked on on The Beatles, Hard Day's Night.

Global Sports Salary Survey 2012, Crew Last

Thought I'd post up a couple notes about Sporting Intelligence's Salary Survey.

First off, here is the LINK to the organization that put it together and not ESPN's summary.

The Columbus Crew come in last out of 278 clubs surveyed over 14 leagues worldwide.

To be frankly honest, it is a bit embarrassing. To be lowest or last in anything is. Seeing the team you follow closely and spend hours upon hours writing about being last on this kind of list stings a little.

It also doesn't make a lot of sense. Major League Soccer is single entity yet The Columbus Crew are $1.4 MILLION DOLLARS below the league median in player salary.

There are those that like to tell us that sports "at the end of the day, is just a business." This is something you usually hear from team executives when your heart has just been ripped out because your favorite player just got traded. Or the jackass star of your favorite team from your own hometown takes his talents elsewhere. Gotta get yours right?

Let this be a Helltown lesson, you only use that "...just a business" card when you are screwing someone over.

Teams, clubs, franchises that see any sort of extended success view (and thrive off) sports as pure performance based competition first.

I'd like to think that Columbus thrives on that pure competition. Pushing and pulling players in and out based on performance. All the player transactions over the last couple years having purpose and meaning that leads fans to the greater good.

Instead, I realize that it has nothing to do with the players. I realize that Columbus is a mini thiefdom that is fueled by club nepotism. Coaches on the pitch and employees in the offices do not realize the direction to the dark depths this team is headed in.

Check "thecrew dot com". It reads like HR memos to government employees. Memo back to the good folks there... Ohio is probably the most sports crazed place on the planet. They have been to the highest highs and lowest lows. Save the horseshit. It ain't gonna fly here.

I wrote a couple months back about all the players the Crew have let go in the past couple years. Almost none of them found another job playing soccer. Think about that. Imagine the board letting 20 teachers go from your child's school and only a couple of them being rehired as teachers somewhere else. What would that say about the education your child was getting?

The last place ranking on this particular salary survey has nothing to do with the players. Nor does it have anything to do with the stadium, fans or supporters. It doesn't even really have to do much with Robert Warzycha.

No. It's just an outward representation of how far this franchise has fallen.

Of how mismanaged they really are.

---------------------

1.64 Million Crew Moves, is a post that summarizes the player transactions Columbus made during this past off season (and where they are now). LINK