jloome
06-09-2008, 01:38 PM
Hey All,
I tend to think yesterday's game was a prototypical TFC road game: as soon as we sat back defensively (a hedge against the heat maybe) our link-up play in the midfield disappeared.
This wasn't about Dero and ching running Toronto over. It was about us not holding onto the ball. At all. In fact, Ricketts, Wynne and Brennan were the only guys on the field who didn't hoof it to the lead man as soon as they got the ball.
Harmse and Robinson were, in a word, atrocious. I'm not sure Harmse touched the ball more than twice the entire game, and his marking was non-existent. Robinson was not holding up the play until players could move upfield and into channels.
And this is always the problem as soon as this team gets flustered -- it falls onto the back foot and starts playing long ball, when they should've been taking Houston's team speed out of the game by slowing down the pace and stroking the ball around.
I realize we need a DP striker, but it's clear we also need a backup midfielder to Guevara who is a playmaker. We need to rebalance the mid so that when Guevara isn't around, there's someone else who can make the pinpoint pass that starts a break or gives people time to move. Ricketts kept drifting inside to take on this role, becuase no one else was doing it (and I think Carver gave him license to roam a bit) but he's a winger, not a central guy.
Even if it's an older player, we need someone in the mid who can pass and hold up. Robbo isn't good enough -- he's a good holder but that's it. His passing is all short-scope.
Harmse, the less said the better. He was fucking terrible yesterday.
IT wasn't just the centre mids, of course; the defensive shape was very weak yesterday. Marvel Wynne seems so confident of his own speed that he leaves the back corner open, knowing he can track back -- but never realizing that allowing his man in that deep gives all the opposing attackers time to get into the box.
Velez's positioning was very weak at times, and James's was horrendous in the first half, although his speed made up for it a few times.
Just a very poorly played game.
I tend to think yesterday's game was a prototypical TFC road game: as soon as we sat back defensively (a hedge against the heat maybe) our link-up play in the midfield disappeared.
This wasn't about Dero and ching running Toronto over. It was about us not holding onto the ball. At all. In fact, Ricketts, Wynne and Brennan were the only guys on the field who didn't hoof it to the lead man as soon as they got the ball.
Harmse and Robinson were, in a word, atrocious. I'm not sure Harmse touched the ball more than twice the entire game, and his marking was non-existent. Robinson was not holding up the play until players could move upfield and into channels.
And this is always the problem as soon as this team gets flustered -- it falls onto the back foot and starts playing long ball, when they should've been taking Houston's team speed out of the game by slowing down the pace and stroking the ball around.
I realize we need a DP striker, but it's clear we also need a backup midfielder to Guevara who is a playmaker. We need to rebalance the mid so that when Guevara isn't around, there's someone else who can make the pinpoint pass that starts a break or gives people time to move. Ricketts kept drifting inside to take on this role, becuase no one else was doing it (and I think Carver gave him license to roam a bit) but he's a winger, not a central guy.
Even if it's an older player, we need someone in the mid who can pass and hold up. Robbo isn't good enough -- he's a good holder but that's it. His passing is all short-scope.
Harmse, the less said the better. He was fucking terrible yesterday.
IT wasn't just the centre mids, of course; the defensive shape was very weak yesterday. Marvel Wynne seems so confident of his own speed that he leaves the back corner open, knowing he can track back -- but never realizing that allowing his man in that deep gives all the opposing attackers time to get into the box.
Velez's positioning was very weak at times, and James's was horrendous in the first half, although his speed made up for it a few times.
Just a very poorly played game.