Match Day 7 - Portland @ TFC Saturday April 27 3pm - You Be Connected

[OgtheDim]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KSo-Vvrkms



Gotta give what you got
So start it


*********

Have at It People

[Bobo]

Yesterday aside, Portland's performances have been even worse than the stats suggest. Question marks all over the field, they can't even get Valeri the ball. Have to expect a win at home, regardless of who leads the line for TFC.

[Mikmacdo]

I hope westburg gets another chance this game. Auro and moor should start as well, I'd bench mavinga or go three at the back.

[Red CB Toronto]

The Reds hopefully can continue on their path and get the three points. Lots of footy fans will be at the first ever CPL matches down the QEW in Hamilton that day.

[DinamoTFC]

Yesterday aside, Portland's performances have been even worse than the stats suggest. Question marks all over the field, they can't even get Valeri the ball. Have to expect a win at home, regardless of who leads the line for TFC.

Some really bad results. We need to pick up 3 points this game before we play a couple tough away games in Orlando and Atlanta within a week. 3-1 for us hoping

[TFC1154ever]

Jozy out for 2-3 weeks. Expect him to miss the next 3 games. The targeted date will probably be the home game on May 11th against Philly

[Hamilton_Red]

Portland ...Dallas Away...Columbus Away...Toronto Away...with trips home after each game. Brutal travel schedule. While they rebuild Providence Park.

Hard to say what happened to Columbus...but we should be looking to keep up the 3+ goals a game run and tighten up at the back. Give Westburg the start until he does something wrong.

[stevep]

Jozy out for 2-3 weeks. Expect him to miss the next 3 games. The targeted date will probably be the home game on May 11th against Philly

Where did you see this?
I can't find this anywhere??

[reggie]

Where did you see this?
I can't find this anywhere??
manning mentioned it today...

[Canary10]

I hope westburg gets another chance this game. Auro and moor should start as well, I'd bench mavinga or go three at the back.

Need to stick with Mavinga. I would play the same starting 2 or starting 3 (depending on formation) every week at this point subject to injuries. All these guys are capable. They need a chance to play with each other every game to build that understanding amongst themselves. There is no set of positions on the pitch that requires a better read of each other than centre half imo.

[paul-collins]

I would play the same starting 2 or starting 3 (depending on formation) every week at this point subject to injuries. All these guys are capable. They need a chance to play with each other every game to build that understanding amongst themselves.
Agreed. For all the angst about Ciman, I thought he was improved last week over previous games. I think it comes with the territory that for CB you develop your instincts in tandem with the tendencies of those around you.

[JuliquE]

Agreed. For all the angst about Ciman, I thought he was improved last week over previous games. I think it comes with the territory that for CB you develop your instincts in tandem with the tendencies of those around you.
This; his international and club pedigree should afford him the benefit of the doubt, here, in so far as at least giving him a run of games, and, therein, the chance to develop a partnership, before we judge his usefulness to our side.

Aside from that, he seems like a great locker-room guy and a good person, who's desperate to be there (Canada); really should be making sure we know what we have, before chasing out guys that tick those boxes.

[Brooker]

Jesus logged on and thought I had some phone calls to make... I got the game day wrong.

Portland coming off a win! Now they're not due. Can't lose today to that shower of shit. Jozy or not.

[Gringo Starr]

Is everyone on a bus going to Hamilton or something?

Hope Vanney does the right thing and gives JHams the start today

[Bushmancan]

Is everyone on a bus going to Hamilton or something?

Hope Vanney does the right thing and gives JHams the start today


I actually want to see Boyd today, see if he can connect with Pozuelo. Want Hamilton as well, but we need to see if Boyd has anything.

[Graeme]

How about Chapman with Pozu moved upfront?

[flambe]

Stupid question I know, but what’s the latest you’d get there today to make sure you get a cape/flag?

[portu]

Is everyone on a bus going to Hamilton or something?

Hope Vanney does the right thing and gives JHams the start today
Jhams not getting a start would be criminal

[MightyDM]

Westberg gets the start or it shows the team has no confidence in him either

Expect to see JHams and Ayo up front. Maybe Endoh off the bench.

Edit: I think Oso gets a rest.

[flambe]

Would be nice to see Westberg get the start.

[Gringo Starr]

I'm guessing Vanney will play the same 5 guys in the middle Bradley, Pozo, Marky Oso and Deleon, don't see him changing that with Jozy out. I'm hoping JHams up front but wouldn't be surprised if Ayo is there. Back four of Auro, Moor, Mavinga, Morrow with Bradley sitting way deep so almost like a back 3.

I have a feeling this could be a lot like the Chicago game with us having a ton of possession but struggling to get legit chances and being caught on a counter attack

[Gringo Starr]

Stupid question I know, but what’s the latest you’d get there today to make sure you get a cape/flag?
I would guess that if you got there for 2:30 you would get one for sure, the red t shirts they gave away earlier this year were still available when I got there 20 minutes before kick off. It's really only the Kia toques people seem to go nuts for

[flambe]

I would guess that if you got there for 2:30 you would get one for sure, the red t shirts they gave away earlier this year were still available when I got there 20 minutes before kick off. It's really only the Kia toques people seem to go nuts for
Yeah, I figured 2:15 to be sure, I always misjudge the timing of these things...
Thanks!

[Mikmacdo]

I would guess that if you got there for 2:30 you would get one for sure, the red t shirts they gave away earlier this year were still available when I got there 20 minutes before kick off. It's really only the Kia toques people seem to go nuts for
I got there at least 30 minutes before and didn’t get a t shirt at gate 4,.

[Gringo Starr]

I got there at least 30 minutes before and didn’t get a t shirt at gate 4,.
I used the Bmo entrance near will call, gate 1, less volume maybe?

[portu]

Vanney: "Drew Moor will be available"

Drew Moor: doesnt make the bench

[stegosaurus]

Vanney: "Drew Moor will be available"

Drew Moor: doesnt make the bench

Available to sit in the injured players box.

[oranje boven]

Cool and windy but at least not rain snow and sub zero like the normal...
i always wonder - do you take the wind at your back first half or second or does it matter?

[Mikmacdo]

Vanney: "Drew Moor will be available"ii

Drew Moor: doesnt make the bench

Going to need 3 goals to win this game with Zavaleta starting. Ugh. I'd rather they call up Julian Dunn than play Zavaleta.

[ag futbol]

This formation makes no sense. Poz is too far up the field and Osorio is no winger.

[ag futbol]

How is that not a yellow. If Hamilton gets that he’s through on goal

[ag futbol]

What are Auro and Delgado doing? Awful

[notthesun]

Delgado's mark initially... just lets him get free, simple lack of commitment. You have to follow through on marking your guy.

[stegosaurus]

Hold shirt all game, foul off the ball... no cards. Is this the York9 game?

[ag futbol]

Delgado's mark initially... just lets him get free, simple lack of commitment. You have to follow through on marking your guy.
Agreed. Auro needs to attack that ball though.

This is a joke of MLS officiating. Poz has already been hacked 3-4 times.

[ag futbol]

Did the whiteboard before the game say “play hospital passes to Bradley”

[zorsofstesab]

Delgado 2 defensive blunders so far. The goal and the near miss on the shot by Blanco.

[69Chevy396]

Worst TFC half so far in 2019. Other than the lucky goal, and Mavnga’s great defensive play, they have nothing.

[notthesun]

Can't remember the last time we were so thoroughly outplayed in terms of possession and control of the game at home. Even last year with our awful home record we generally played teams even, just with too many mistakes and bad moments to get results.

Since the 25th minute they've just run us over in midfield.

[ag futbol]

What a frustrating half.

Vanney did not field the right formation IMO and Delgado is terrible

[DinamoTFC]

Terrible half. Delgado worst player on pitch once again.

Id like to see Laryea on the pitch and push Auro up if needed.

[ag futbol]

I don’t get the plaudits from the TSN crew for Zavaleta. He whiffed on that clearance which fell to Valeri. If Valeri has potted that VAR easily could have called it a goal (a la Hamilton / Chapman earlier this year). He’s also made a few other bumbling decisions but hasn’t been punished for them.

Now that said, I have some small amount of sympathy in that our defending from the fullbacks and mids has been awful (Bradley excepted).

[General Woolfe]

What the hell was Auro doing at Tuiloma's goal. He's standing watching him have a free shot rather than putting the player under pressure. The guy is a complete waste of money. He couldnt defend if his life depended on it. I know he was signed more as a wingback in our previous 3-5-2 lineup, but even going forward he offers very little. Rather than hit the byline and put over a telling cross, nine times out of ten he turns back and plays the ball into the middle. It really bugs me watching Betashour perform week in week out for LAFC with the knowledge he could still be in our first team, providing some balance to the right side of our defence.

Also Hamilton has to do much better if he is to have a future with us. After his brilliant cameo in the last game today was his big chance to show he belongs in first team squad, but he's been invisible the entire first half. We really need substantial investment up front to replace Giovinvo or were going nowhere this season. Altidore just can't be relied upon to stay fit, and its clear Vanney doesnt rate Boyd? So why did we buy him? Just another another wasted salary from Ali Curtis who is rapidly proving he is not up to the task.

This should be three easy points today before a testing road trip. Portland have been abysmal this season yet were allowing them to run this game and on the first half alone look the better side out there. Its just not good enough for a side that really should be one of MLS top clubs right now. instead we are wallowing in mediocrity, something MLSE seem content with, with all their teams

[69Chevy396]

Terrible half. Delgado worst player on pitch once again.

Id like to see Laryea on the pitch and push Auro up if needed.

Poz is playing everywhere, and the entire midfield are sleepwalking...that collision involving Bradley speaks volumes about how confused these players are. Hamilton cannot be the lone forward, his first touch is awful. He plays better when the defenders are concentrating on the better guy (Altidore). I predict A 3-2 loss

[notthesun]

Bradley is just a janitor today, thank god he's playing because he's cleaned up so many bad giveaways on our part.

[ag futbol]

I swear to god if Delgado wasn’t a fringe USMNT player Vanney would have moved on a year ago.

Take off the beer goggles Greg!

[Richard]

Vanney must be blind. Get Delgado off.

[daner90]

Portland just a different class today. They are playing with so much speed on both sides of the ball. Toronto on the other hand is just walking the ball up the pitch and making alot of backward passes...

[daner90]

Also Delgado looks lost. So many bad giveaways in the middle of the park.

[DinamoTFC]

Getting out played by the second last place team and missing Jozy highlights the deficiencies in this team. We are missing creativeness, attacking energy down the wings. This is exactly what Ogthedim is talking about in the other thread.

[notthesun]

Oso you have to play that to Pozuelo out wide man...

[ag futbol]

Honestly Vanney deserves that for his shit subs and willingness to play for a draw at home

[DinamoTFC]

Honestly Vanney deserves that for his shit subs and willingness to play for a draw at home

This is horrible coaching today. Delgado is your worst player today. Keeps him on and doesn't go with 2 strikers to relieve pressure.

[notthesun]

I don't see us playing for a draw at all. We're just playing poorly, can't create anything meaningful.

[General Woolfe]

FFS this is pathetic. Again Auro invisible as a rightback. What a complete and utter waste of money this guy has been. We are simply not putting enough pressure on the Portland players. Were standing off and giving them all the time and space in the world.

Again Vanney gets his subs wrong. Instead of pulling Hamilton (although he hasnt done much granted) he should have added an attacker and gone 4-3-3 rather than stay with a formation that clearly isn't working. Delgado has done nothing all afternoon and clearly the right sub was to pull him and put Akinola on in support of Hamilton. Even his second sub he leaves Delgado on and hooks DeLeon instead. Unbelievable. I'm starting to think Vanney has run his course and is rapidly losing the plot. Maybe it was Giovinco, Altidore and Bradley that won us the title in 2017 rather than brilliance form the coach

[ag futbol]

FFS this is pathetic. Again Auro invisible as a rightback. What a complete and utter waste of money this guy has been. We are simply not putting enough pressure on the Portland players. Were standing off and giving them all the time and space in the world.

Again Vanney gets his subs wrong. Instead of pulling Hamilton (although he hasnt done much granted) he should have added an attacker and gone 4-3-3 rather than stay with a formation that clearly isn't working. Delgado has done nothing all afternoon and clearly the right sub was to pull him and put Akinola on in support of Hamilton. Even his second sub he leaves Delgado on and hooks DeLeon instead. Unbelievable. I'm starting to think Vanney has run his course and is rapidly losing the plot. Maybe it was Giovinco, Altidore and Bradley that won us the title in 2017 rather than brilliance form the coach
I’m not sure what Auro is supposed to do. Without a proper winger in front of him he’s always going to be tight to his man when receiving the ball. And runners up top have been non existent. It’s the same thing Poz is looking at right now

[69Chevy396]

FFS this is pathetic. Again Auro invisible as a rightback. What a complete and utter waste of money this guy has been. We are simply not putting enough pressure on the Portland players. Were standing off and giving them all the time and space in the world.

Again Vanney gets his subs wrong. Instead of pulling Hamilton (although he hasnt done much granted) he should have added an attacker and gone 4-3-3 rather than stay with a formation that clearly isn't working. Delgado has done nothing all afternoon and clearly the right sub was to pull him and put Akinola on in support of Hamilton. Even his second sub he leaves Delgado on and hooks DeLeon instead. Unbelievable. I'm starting to think Vanney has run his course and is rapidly losing the plot. Maybe it was Giovinco, Altidore and Bradley that won us the title in 2017 rather than brilliance form the coach
What we are watching, is pre Giovinco TFC. Without that dynamic, creative, constant threat, this team really has nothing. Altidore alone, is an Altidore waiting for an injury...he tries to hard. Poz needs decent players around him, and we simply don’t have that in our current complement. Aside from Osorio, Altidore, Bradley, Poz, Mavinga, and perhaps Morrow, all others are sub par MLS caliber

[Richard]

Put pressure on Manning and Curtis as they've seriously dropped the ball this off-season. No wingers, shaky defense and a thin offense once Altidore is out.

[stegosaurus]

I’m not sure what Auro is supposed to do. Without a proper winger in front of him he’s always going to be tight to his man when receiving the ball. And runners up top have been non existent. It’s the same thing Poz is looking at right now

Pozo spinning around in a circle looking for someone to pass to just about sums up the game for me, or maybe Boyd doing his best Big Ben Spencer / Bambi impression. Are we sure he’s actually a professional footballer? He could just be a Boyd impersonator who also slept on Vanney’s couch.

Mavinga has been good today.

[stevep]

Ssh since 2016.
Worst game at BMO I've been to.
Boring.
I have talked to many people that were early years ssh that no longer have season seats. If the soccer was like this before I can see why

This had a Mariner feel to this game.
Flashback to torsten friends and Danny koeverman

[stegosaurus]

Ssh since 2016.
Worst game at BMO I've been to.
Boring.

Consider yourself lucky, I guess.

[notthesun]

ffs Auro. There actually is a time to just cross the ball into the mixer and it's right there, when you have 6 guys in the box and nobody with you making any kind of supporting run. Cross the fucking ball instead of standing there staring at your man and then inviting pressure with a back pass.

[zorsofstesab]

wtf Chapman? That is basic soccer.

[ag futbol]

Pozo spinning around in a circle looking for someone to pass to just about sums up the game for me, or maybe Boyd doing his best Big Ben Spencer / Bambi impression. Are we sure he’s actually a professional footballer? He could just be a Boyd impersonator who also slept on Vanney’s couch.

Mavinga has been good today.
Looks like a guy who lifts weights and otherwise plays men’s league at a meddling level

[69Chevy396]

We need a Seba replacement. We need 2 speedy, quality wingers. We need 2 steady defenders.

[Mikmacdo]

Boyd is absolutely useless. Hey Ali sign some players!

Zavaleta hasn't even been terrible.

4-2-3-1 doesn't make sense with 0 wingers. DeLeon isn't a winger. Osorio is being wasted on the wing.

[ag futbol]

We need a Seba replacement. We need 2 speedy, quality wingers. We need 2 steady defenders.
FW on left side (DP)
CB who can lead and take over for Moor
Somebody to replace Delgado in the starting 11

And more wide players

[DinamoTFC]

This game is absolute trash. The CPL game today was 100x better than this shit.

[stegosaurus]

Looks like a guy who lifts weights and otherwise plays men’s league at a meddling level

Pozo is going to get pissed off pretty quickly if he isn’t already. He’s already frustrated, persistently hacked all game, and virtually everyone playing in front of him barely look any more competent than the guys playing up front in the CPL game.

[zorsofstesab]

Oso, wtf?

[gracos]

It's taken a few more games than expected; but Altidore is made of glass check; Ciman was just a charity signing check; and if management has no clear plans for new personnel its only going to harder to watch check and checkmate

[ag futbol]

I love Justin Morrow as a defensive fullback but if you have no true wide threat on the left side you are sunk.

It looks like a training drill watching him taking 3-4 touches every time trying to figure out what he’s going to do

[ag futbol]

Everyone who thought we just need a CB and the goals will come needs to rethink that assumption.

We’re a set of glass hamstrings away from being a below average team unfortunately

[stevep]

We've been exposed today.
We're not very good at this point.
We need more players

The crazy thing is we could have won if you take back those two plays by Portland.
That shows how shit this league is

[SirBobSaget]

All 3 subs came on and looked terrible. Can't believe Akinola didn't put his head on that perfect cross.

[notthesun]

Deserved loss for sure. So lethargic in attack compared to our other games this season and no coincidence this was the one where we were missing Altidore. Delgado, DeLeon and Auro were poor in attack and it killed our ability to build up play.

Bradley was great today, we concede two more without him. Westberg also was good, keep playing him.

I can only say it so many times, this team is sunk without Moor starting.

We also keep subbing Chapman in at right wing because there's no one else. He sucks there. Our lack of quality wing play was exposed again today as without the Altidore-Pozo combination in the middle we have no way to break down a bunkering team, which they became after taking the lead. The one chance we created was due to Pozuelo drifting out wide to actually get on the ball facing forward and make a play. Altidore probably scores on that cross too...

Fuck waiting for summer signings, the needs of this team are already beyond clear. TAM winger and CB. It's that simple.

[Hugh Jazz]

With better execution of simple things and a bit of urgency the team we started should have been able to easily beat that Timbers side.

[Mikmacdo]

Deserved loss for sure. So lethargic in attack compared to our other games this season and no coincidence this was the one where we were missing Altidore. Delgado, DeLeon and Auro were poor in attack and it killed our ability to build up play.

Bradley was great today, we concede two more without him. Westberg also was good, keep playing him.

I can only say it so many times, this team is sunk without Moor starting.

We also keep subbing Chapman in at right wing because there's no one else. He sucks there. Our lack of quality wing play was exposed again today as without the Altidore-Pozo combination in the middle we have no way to break down a bunkering team, which they became after taking the lead. The one chance we created was due to Pozuelo drifting out wide to actually get on the ball facing forward and make a play. Altidore probably scores on that cross too...

Fuck waiting for summer signings, the needs of this team are already beyond clear. TAM winger and CB. It's that simple.They need two wingers, Deleon isn’t creative or fast enough to be a winger.

[69Chevy396]

Deserved loss for sure. So lethargic in attack compared to our other games this season and no coincidence this was the one where we were missing Altidore. Delgado, DeLeon and Auro were poor in attack and it killed our ability to build up play.

Bradley was great today, we concede two more without him. Westberg also was good, keep playing him.

I can only say it so many times, this team is sunk without Moor starting.

We also keep subbing Chapman in at right wing because there's no one else. He sucks there. Our lack of quality wing play was exposed again today as without the Altidore-Pozo combination in the middle we have no way to break down a bunkering team, which they became after taking the lead. The one chance we created was due to Pozuelo drifting out wide to actually get on the ball facing forward and make a play. Altidore probably scores on that cross too...

Fuck waiting for summer signings, the needs of this team are already beyond clear. TAM winger and CB. It's that simple.
Will say it again, and again....this was the type of game we were stealing in 2017 because of a moment or two, of Seba brilliance. Take him, and Altidore out of the equation, and we stink. Poz is going to get injured the way MLS hacks are targeting him, and then the slide to last place will be guaranteed.

[ag futbol]

Deserved loss for sure. So lethargic in attack compared to our other games this season and no coincidence this was the one where we were missing Altidore. Delgado, DeLeon and Auro were poor in attack and it killed our ability to build up play.

Bradley was great today, we concede two more without him. Westberg also was good, keep playing him.

I can only say it so many times, this team is sunk without Moor starting.

We also keep subbing Chapman in at right wing because there's no one else. He sucks there. Our lack of quality wing play was exposed again today as without the Altidore-Pozo combination in the middle we have no way to break down a bunkering team, which they became after taking the lead. The one chance we created was due to Pozuelo drifting out wide to actually get on the ball facing forward and make a play. Altidore probably scores on that cross too...

Fuck waiting for summer signings, the needs of this team are already beyond clear. TAM winger and CB. It's that simple.
Agreed with all of this.

Too add: what on earth is Vanney doing continuing to field Osorio and Chapman and all these other guys as wide players? That’s not where they play and they’re horribly ineffective in those spots.

Should have gone 4-2-3-1 with Osorio-Poz-DeLeon as the “3” intentionally playing narrow. And we shouldn’t have waited until we were down a goal to add a second striker or release our fullbacks.

Edit: heck for how bad DeLeon looks at times and how incapable he seems to playing simple combinations I might even consider dropping him for Chapman there.

[General Woolfe]

Completely unacceptable. Losing at home to a side second bottom of the West shows how far our standards have dropped in the last 12 months. Is there no way we can change ownership because were going nowhere fast under MLSE. Its clear they are content with a single championship season in 2017, after all its something none of their other sides have achieved. Instead of building a dynasty they've allowed key individuals from Betashour to Giovinco to Bezbatchenko to leave without adequate replacement. Seba should have been resigned at the of the 2017 season, but instead Manning dragged his heels, making it clear they had no intention of renewing his contract when it expired leaving Seba no option but to look elsewhere. (Please spare me the money argument because if we had taken care of him at the right time, the ridiculous figures at the end would never have came into play)

Today was a shocking performance in a season that's been littered with them already. Our league position flatters us. There were times in today's game I thought I was watching Mariner's hoofball, with long aimless passes from deep within our own half to no player in particular. Similarly from the wing, any time Morrow or DeLeon made it past the defender it was a blind pass into the centre rather than picking out a forward to play it to directly. As good a player Pozeulo is, he is far too lightweight and is frequently brushed off the ball with ease. To be fair to him however he is being asked to do too much on his own. There is absolutely no movement in front of him to allow him the opportunity utilize his skills and make a telling pass. He is also being asked to replace both Vazquez and Giovinco, which is simply impossible. He is more at the level of the Spaniard imo, an talented yet limited player rather than a superstar in the mould of the Italian, who quite simply is the best player to ever don the red shirt of TFC.

I fear we might be at the stage where a complete clearout is needed, from Ali Curtus, through Vanney, to half the playing staff. Osorio, Delgado and Chapman are shadows of the players who contributed to our 2017 triumphs. Auro is a bust, same with Boyd. Hamilton belongs with TFC II along with Liam Fraser, and Ciman, DeLeon and Westberg look average MLS journeymen at best. Only the captain and Mavinga get pass marks today and without them the result could well have been more embarrassing than it was.

[69Chevy396]

Completely unacceptable. Losing at home to a side second bottom of the West shows how far our standards have dropped in the last 12 months. Is there no way we can change ownership because were going nowhere fast under MLSE. Its clear they are content with a single championship season in 2017, after all its something none of their other sides have achieved. Instead of building a dynasty they've allowed key individuals from Betashour to Giovinco to Bezbatchenko to leave without adequate replacement. Seba should have been resigned at the of the 2017 season, but instead Manning dragged his heels, making it clear they had no intention of renewing his contract when it expired leaving Seba no option but to look elsewhere. (Please spare me the money argument because if we had taken care of him at the right time, the ridiculous figures at the end would never have came into play)

Today was a shocking performance in a season that's been littered with them already. Our league position flatters us. There were times in today's game I thought I was watching Mariner's hoofball, with long aimless passes from deep within our own half to no player in particular. Similarly from the wing, any time Morrow or DeLeon made it past the defender it was a blind pass into the centre rather than picking out a forward to play it to directly. As good a player Pozeulo is, he is far too lightweight and is frequently brushed off the ball with ease. To be fair to him however he is being asked to do too much on his own. There is absolutely no movement in front of him to allow him the opportunity utilize his skills and make a telling pass. He is also being asked to replace both Vazquez and Giovinco, which is simply impossible. He is more at the level of the Spaniard imo, an talented yet limited player rather than a superstar in the mould of the Italian, who quite simply is the best player to ever don the red shirt of TFC.

I fear we might be at the stage where a complete clearout is needed, from Ali Curtus, through Vanney, to half the playing staff. Osorio, Delgado and Chapman are shadows of the players who contributed to our 2017 triumphs. Auro is a bust, same with Boyd. Hamilton belongs with TFC II along with Liam Fraser, and Ciman, DeLeon and Westberg look average MLS journeymen at best. Only the captain and Mavinga get pass marks today and without them the result could well have been more embarrassing than it was.
Sad, but true. We forget just how good that 2017 was, when Cheyrou was primarily a late game sub, and Osorio only played occasionally. Bradley is going to ask to be traded to California. Altidore is injury prone. Moor simply can’t play anymore. Poz will be left with the garbage. So, so glad I did not get season tickets again....without serious changes, this team falls and stays, near the bottom by August (Orlando and Atlanta, without Altidore = 2 easy losses)

[Mikmacdo]

Completely unacceptable. Losing at home to a side second bottom of the West shows how far our standards have dropped in the last 12 months. Is there no way we can change ownership because were going nowhere fast under MLSE. Its clear they are content with a single championship season in 2017, after all its something none of their other sides have achieved. Instead of building a dynasty they've allowed key individuals from Betashour to Giovinco to Bezbatchenko to leave without adequate replacement. Seba should have been resigned at the of the 2017 season, but instead Manning dragged his heels, making it clear they had no intention of renewing his contract when it expired leaving Seba no option but to look elsewhere. (Please spare me the money argument because if we had taken care of him at the right time, the ridiculous figures at the end would never have came into play)

Today was a shocking performance in a season that's been littered with them already. Our league position flatters us. There were times in today's game I thought I was watching Mariner's hoofball, with long aimless passes from deep within our own half to no player in particular. Similarly from the wing, any time Morrow or DeLeon made it past the defender it was a blind pass into the centre rather than picking out a forward to play it to directly. As good a player Pozeulo is, he is far too lightweight and is frequently brushed off the ball with ease. To be fair to him however he is being asked to do too much on his own. There is absolutely no movement in front of him to allow him the opportunity utilize his skills and make a telling pass. He is also being asked to replace both Vazquez and Giovinco, which is simply impossible. He is more at the level of the Spaniard imo, an talented yet limited player rather than a superstar in the mould of the Italian, who quite simply is the best player to ever don the red shirt of TFC.

I fear we might be at the stage where a complete clearout is needed, from Ali Curtus, through Vanney, to half the playing staff. Osorio, Delgado and Chapman are shadows of the players who contributed to our 2017 triumphs. Auro is a bust, same with Boyd. Hamilton belongs with TFC II along with Liam Fraser, and Ciman, DeLeon and Westberg look average MLS journeymen at best. Only the captain and Mavinga get pass marks today and without them the result could well have been more embarrassing than it was.
LMAO. Hey buddy overreacting eh ? Pozuelo not at the level of Giovinco? He's playing way better than Giovinco did in his first five or six games. Giovinco is struggling in a horrible league at the moment. Auro a bust? He's one of the few guys who can actually pass.

Hamilton belongs on tfc2? He just scored two goals last game you idiot. He's not a starter but he's a solid backup. Boyd sucks I'll give you that.

Osorio is playing as well as you would expect as a winger.

A new ownership? You realize they have spent more money than any other club in mls.

[69Chevy396]

LMAO. Hey buddy overreacting eh ? Pozuelo not at the level of Giovinco? He's playing way better than Giovinco did in his first five or six games. Giovinco is struggling in a horrible league at the moment. Auro a bust? He's one of the few guys who can actually pass.

Hamilton belongs on tfc2? He just scored two goals last game you idiot. He's not a starter but he's a solid backup. Boyd sucks I'll give you that.

Osorio is playing as well as you would expect as a winger.

A new ownership? You realize they have spent more money than any other club in mls.

Calling people here an idiot, often results in a banning. Do it again, and I will report you.

[OgtheDim]

Different game in person then on TV, it seems.

Portland is better than their record & we are worse than ours.

Zavs had a steady game which given he did not put together one of those after the CCL last year, I'll take.

Lot of the team played their worst game of the season - Delgado, DeLeon, Osorio, Auro.

Getting real tired of Auro stopping our attacks.

Westberg played well. He looked confident & that steadied the defense.

Ref was crud. Looked like a clear red on that behind tackle on Mavinga. And he let persistent infringement go for too long.

Hamilton looked good but nobody is Jozy. Akinola & Boyd put themselves about but when the only penetrating midfielder is Morrow, we got problems.

[MightyDM]

Different game in person then on TV, it seems.

Portland is better than their record & we are worse than ours.

Zavs had a steady game which given he did not put together one of those after the CCL last year, I'll take.

Lot of the team played their worst game of the season - Delgado, DeLeon, Osorio, Auro.

Getting real tired of Auro stopping our attacks.

Westberg played well. He looked confident & that steadied the defense.

Ref was crud. Looked like a clear red on that behind tackle on Mavinga. And he let persistent infringement go for too long.

Hamilton looked good but nobody is Jozy. Akinola & Boyd put themselves about but when the only penetrating midfielder is Morrow, we got problems.

That’s about how I saw it. We were mentally slow. Auto and Morrow were very slow to get crosses in and it really slowed down the attack. I thought our coaches were slow mentally too. You could feel the lack of energy, how deliberately we were playing - they should have made a sub around the 60 th minute. As someone has said, Ayo coming in with Hamilton made more sense than for Hamilton. I think a double change with Ayo and Boyd for Marky and Deleon would have shaken things up, or Ayo and Chapman. At the game it just felt lethargic. Like we thought just passing it around leads to a win. Pace man pace.

[Red4ever]

Terrible game. Terrible stadium atmosphere.

Need something different.

[stegosaurus]

Agreed with all of this.

Too add: what on earth is Vanney doing continuing to field Osorio and Chapman and all these other guys as wide players? That’s not where they play and they’re horribly ineffective in those spots.

Should have gone 4-2-3-1 with Osorio-Poz-DeLeon as the “3” intentionally playing narrow. And we shouldn’t have waited until we were down a goal to add a second striker or release our fullbacks.

Edit: heck for how bad DeLeon looks at times and how incapable he seems to playing simple combinations I might even consider dropping him for Chapman there.

We simply don’t have the personnel to be effective using these types of formations, and it puts a lot of pressure on our defenders because Morrow and Auro (especially Auro) end up being really stretched. Auro just isn’t a good defender.

Pozo is a dangerous player. No one else on the attacking end of the pitch looked dangerous. Portland hacks Pozo so he can’t put the team on his back. Pozo can’t make the right passes because everyone in front of him doesn’t make intelligent runs or know how to position themselves.

When we had Seba, Jozy, and Vazquez, we had a very dangerous attacking trio and a set of offensive threats each with different abilities and strengths. Teams couldn’t play against us like they do now because there were too many people who could change the game at any moment, they couldn’t foul us near the box or going forward and have it be an effective strategy because free kicks were a real danger too.

We won’t have those three players together again, but the FO can’t keep pretending that these pieces are good enough.

Mavinga was good today, and Nephew played well. Westberg looked fine too. Pozo and Bradley played well. Osorio scored but turned the ball over a lot (passes successful: 67%). The rest of the team was simply ineffective, subs were useless, and the formation was really not well thought out.

[stegosaurus]

That’s about how I saw it. We were mentally slow. Auto and Morrow were very slow to get crosses in and it really slowed down the attack. I thought our coaches were slow mentally too. You could feel the lack of energy, how deliberately we were playing - they should have made a sub around the 60 th minute. As someone has said, Ayo coming in with Hamilton made more sense than for Hamilton. I think a double change with Ayo and Boyd for Marky and Deleon would have shaken things up, or Ayo and Chapman. At the game it just felt lethargic. Like we thought just passing it around leads to a win. Pace man pace.

TFC is a pretty slow team, and Vanney wants to play possession football. Putting in a guy who is marginally faster because he hasn’t touched the pitch yet isn’t going to turn TFC into a speedy counter-attacking squad. The only guy who actually seems fast is Mavinga.

[leafsman]

The problem is without altidore we have nothing, poz needs someone to finish his passes. If he was playing today he probably would've had a goal or 2. There were a couple points I said if altidore was playing that was in.

[69Chevy396]

The problem is without altidore we have nothing, poz needs someone to finish his passes. If he was playing today he probably would've had a goal or 2. There were a couple points I said if altidore was playing that was in.
Someone with video savy should put together a clip of the misses in todays game....you would think the ball was dipped in olive oil. Best goal came from the Portland defender. If I was Vanney, I would make the team watch that strike over, and over, for an hour.

[RedsYNWA]

LMAO. Hey buddy overreacting eh ? Pozuelo not at the level of Giovinco? He's playing way better than Giovinco did in his first five or six games. Giovinco is struggling in a horrible league at the moment. Auro a bust? He's one of the few guys who can actually pass.

Hamilton belongs on tfc2? He just scored two goals last game you idiot. He's not a starter but he's a solid backup. Boyd sucks I'll give you that.

Osorio is playing as well as you would expect as a winger.

A new ownership? You realize they have spent more money than any other club in mls.

My sentiments 100% exactly

[backbeat]

Someone with video savy should put together a clip of the misses in todays game....you would think the ball was dipped in olive oil. Best goal came from the Portland defender. If I was Vanney, I would make the team watch that strike over, and over, for an hour.


it was a great strike - not sure of the point in watching it again and again, it is what it is - i'd have them watch the lead up to it rather than the strike

Mavinga had a brilliant game and shows why he should be kept long term - we really need a younger Moor to augment, full stop

as well we need more creative, technical attack - winger and a Seba replacement

i'm not as fused if it's this window or the summer - i lean towards get the right individuals, not copping to the pressure, as it were, but still - get it done....:scarf:

[stevep]

looking at few good comments on mls.com. here are some of the best ones i think
I had my money on the Timbers just because MLS teams are incapable of putting together a few good showings in a row. Parity is the word this season, unfortunately a downward parity, all teams can be classified as mediocre or sub-mediocre. No wonder Mexican teams mopped the floor with ours. But hey, people are very happy that aren't any top-heavy teams, just a huge gray mass. The quality of this game was very very poor

"I had my money on the Timbers just because MLS teams are incapable of putting together a few good showings in a row. Parity is the word this season, unfortunately a downward parity, all teams can be classified as mediocre or sub-mediocre. No wonder Mexican teams mopped the floor with ours. But hey, people are very happy that aren't any top-heavy teams, just a huge gray mass. The quality of this game was very very poor"

"From 50:00 to 78:00 i had a good nap on the couch lol what a boring bloody match"

"Its going to take me a few days to get all the knots out of my gut and to get my teeth/jaw unclenched after that s**t-show of a game. Awful stuff by TFC! Osario (tipped to go to the Mexican League at one time) has skilled feet but refuses to use them. What position is he supposed to be playing? Joggy Delgado made ONE good pass...down the left to send the winger. But he gives the ball away all over the field - and watch his 'efforts' to close down the first goalscorer. He's timid. WHY does he get to start every game. Imagine what the score would have been without Mavinga?"

in response to Why does Marky get to start every game? because, we don't have anyone better.

I hope this game gets it through in some peoples heads that jhams is not a starter. he is a 70 minute guy, a good sub
Marky's just bad
Osorio is fine but he needs better players around him.
the new goalkeeper way way better at distribution than Bono, see how he punched the ball out on the deep lofting ball, that would have been a goal on Bono

you people that say get rid of jozy or mavinga, what is wrong with you people? seriously

we are really lucky to be at 13 points
that all being said get some new players and we will be at the top

next weeks game odds are out
https://www.oddsportal.com/soccer/usa/mls/orlando-city-toronto-fc-AwfxJpCK/

bet the farm on Orlando for the win

[ag futbol]

Osorio was never going to look useful playing as a true winger on the left side tonight. That was my first thought when they flashed the second the formation showed on the screen in the pregame. He needs to be at least a little bit inside or outright central. And he needs to be close enough to his teammates to play 1-2’s and combine passes. Same thing with Pozuelo.

I really want to know what was going thought Vanney’s head tonight. Whatever it was, it certainly seemed more about matching Portland rather than playing our own players in the their best positions.

[OgtheDim]

I really want to know what was going thought Vanney’s head tonight..

Well afterwards, it was this

https://twitter.com/joshuakloke/status/1122273277194297344

[stegosaurus]

Well afterwards, it was this

https://twitter.com/joshuakloke/status/1122273277194297344

Could he not have chosen the most eye-bleedingly obnoxious way of posting these in the future? What a headache to read through that on your phone...

Vanney knows what is wrong. Can’t play possession football when your players can’t even make successful passes (or get on the other end of them). Possession with a toothless attack is pointless. Team is slow and disconnected.

[OgtheDim]

Time for an Emperor has no clothes moment, if I may.

It would be nice if we could figure out a way to have somebody else other then Bradley start every single god damned play. I know he's a good passer and all but unless we are in transition, he is either insisting on him getting the ball or people are waiting for him to come for it. Not only is it predictable, but its warping the capabilities of the rest of our midfield & its causing one of our better actual overloading type midfielders to be playing nearer our half then their penalty area.

You want to know why every thing is so darn slow? Because people know where the heck the ball is going.


Does anybody else remember that one time today when Bradley actually charged in towards a Portland ball carrier near their penalty area & how it changed the dynamic for a moment? Hey, I get it - he's a DM. And he's not all that fast anymore. But gosh darn it why can't Oso go back there and start at least some of those plays (I now, he's on left wing because we don't have a left winger)? Heck, Pozuelo spent a good chunk of the 2nd half playing onetwo's with Bradley - not a good idea in my mind but he at least recognised there was a need for somebody to make a better pass from the midfield.

(Yes, this is actually more a "Marky Delgado isn't good enough anymore" post)

[Auzzy]

Some of the long-time posters acting as constant apologists for management in the last couple of months, actually really concern me. Of course they're mostly quiet so far this evening. I expect some of them to be chiming in after 9am tomorrow. Or perhaps after 9am on Monday.

We support the team. That does not necessarily mean supporting current management. Especially not if they're screwing up and hurting the team.

That quote from Vanney actually kind of pisses me off. He talks alot, he's probably a good teacher; or least a good student of the game. But often not a great coach, especially when things are going against us. Both he and the team really struggle to turn things around, when things are going against us. Vanney doesn't talk at all about what he screwed up. Did he chew them out at half time, and/or motivate them, so they come charging out of the locker room and take control in the 2nd half? Most certainly not. He mentioned things were disconnected and slow for a long time. But he did much too little, much too late against that. How is swapping Akinola for Hamilton, going to make the defense & midfield play quicker and more connected?

As others above mentioned: we needed a 60 minute sub. By then it was absolutely clear that nothing was working. His first sub was massively the wrong sub. Should have added Akinola to Hamilton, not swapped them. Delgado should have been pulled off then instead; and DeLeon dropped back into defensive midfield, to at least help secure the tie; also to free up Bradley more. Akinola has the ability to add some speed and width; alternating with coming inside near Hamilton to provide more targets in attack.

Instead of helping to turn things around, guess what the result of Vanney's first sub in the 68th minute was? Portland got the game-winning goal two minutes later.

I thought Westberg did great today. Came out strongly for the ball a number of times. And some of the best distribution I've seen from any MLS keeper. He was dropping 60-meter passes on a dime, repeatedly. And most of them were really hard line drives, instead of the loopy kicks we usually see, that give the opposing team so much time to react. Westberg also seemed to react quicker to shots than he did in the previous game he played.

OK I'm gonna torture myself now, and watch the "highlights." I have some more thoughts about how management has screwed up, but I'm out of time (and ink) for now... And I agree that too many of our "attacks" (if you can even call them that) start with Bradley, make us too slow and predictable.

Oh and anyone who seriously thinks you can replace Vazquez, Giovinco and Jozy, with just Pozuelo and Jozy in attack, REALLY REALLY has to give their head a shake. We obviously need another attacking threat, be it a top-quality winger or other position.

[ag futbol]

Could he not have chosen the most eye-bleedingly obnoxious way of posting these in the future? What a headache to read through that on your phone...

Vanney knows what is wrong. Can’t play possession football when your players can’t even make successful passes (or get on the other end of them). Possession with a toothless attack is pointless. Team is slow and disconnected.
Does he know this though? Our style, despite some recent comebacks, strikes me as fortuitous when we have the lead but ineffective when trailing.

Okay, he talks about possession, great. No doubt there were sloppy passes, but where was the threat in the final third? Where was the impetus not just to pass the ball around but to finish with a goal?

[OgtheDim]

As others above mentioned: we needed a 60 minute sub. By then it was absolutely clear that nothing was working. His first sub was massively the wrong sub. Should have added Akinola to Hamilton, not swapped them. .

Hamilton looked gassed to me but would have preferred Ciman in as a RB, Auro move up, De Leon move to the left, Osorio replace Delgado & Delgado out (or DeLeon move to Delgado's position). Would have provided more umph everywhere and a better ball passer out of the back.

BTW, that 2nd goal, if anything, was on Delgado who let Valeri ghost past him and thus isolate Auro out wide. Not sure Akinola for Hamilton is what caused that breakdown.

[Auzzy]

Hamilton looked gassed to me but would have preferred Ciman in as a RB, Auro move up, De Leon move to the left, Osorio replace Delgado & Delgado out (or DeLeon move to Delgado's position). Would have provided more umph everywhere and a better ball passer out of the back.

BTW, that 2nd goal, if anything, was on Delgado who let Valeri ghost past him and thus isolate Auro out wide. Not sure Akinola for Hamilton is what caused that breakdown.

Yeah that would have been a good sub strategy too!

The sub he did do, didn't create any positive impetus. That's what I meant. And if Delgado had been off, which is what everybody around me in 112 was hoping for, then somebody else in his place (like DeLeon) perhaps wouldn't have let Valeri ghost past him.

[reggie]

that was brutal today...how many times did you see mb with the ball and 9 guys jus standing around,no movement at all.they were due for real stinker like today it been coming.poz has hidden all the warts this club has,they are a 500 club at best with this roster.vanney is trying to play man city futbol with a fulham type roster....no true wingers on the 25 man roster.the only true left winger they have was playing for york 9 today.

[stegosaurus]

Does he know this though? Our style, despite some recent comebacks, strikes me as fortuitous when we have the lead but ineffective when trailing.

Okay, he talks about possession, great. No doubt there were sloppy passes, but where was the threat in the final third? Where was the impetus not just to pass the ball around but to finish with a goal?

I didn’t say he knew how to fix the problem (or would), just that he’s identified it in that interview answer :)

He did say you need to use possession with the end result of putting the ball in the back of the net, which, well... we saw what happened.

Pozo scores and assists; he can be the MVP this year if the issues get fixed. But the one thing he can’t do is win the game singlehandedly or out of nowhere like Seba because he’s forced to get the ball in the midfield or track back to our own box, or, as noted elsewhere here, back and forth with Bradley.

[ag futbol]

I didn’t say he knew how to fix the problem (or would), just that he’s identified it in that interview answer :)

He did say you need to use possession with the end result of putting the ball in the back of the net, which, well... we saw what happened.

Pozo scores and assists; he can be the MVP this year if the issues get fixed. But the one thing he can’t do is win the game singlehandedly or out of nowhere like Seba because he’s forced to get the ball in the midfield or track back to our own box, or, as noted elsewhere here, back and forth with Bradley.
Sorry, that wasn’t really directed at you as much as it was quoting for a jump off point and venting my general frustration.

[backbeat]

as i was leaving the match today i thought i heard the announcer saying Osorio was 'man of the match' - if so that's shocking - if anyone on TFC it's Pozo or Mavinga - Pozo created so many opportunities with amazingly placed balls while Mavinga was a beast on the backline......

[oranje boven]

A lazy effort out there today. Too often it seemed like a pass surprised some our players. Even some of our “throw ins” the basic of basic were lazy. I saw on more then one occasion a throw in that was difficult for the receiving player to field the ball.
Mavinga to me was man of the match.

[ensco]

Wow people are mad

[Ultra & Proud]

Sadly I think Zavaleta was man of the match. He was fair today but that's still more an indictment on everyone else.

[leafsman]

Is it just me or is Delgado is terrible with the ball?

[Brooker]

Well that was fun. Portland were there for the taking, man.. that was just flat.

I wish they showed more urgency during the last 10 minutes. I'm pretty sure I was screaming louder than Greg. Come on!

Poor Bradley. He didn't know what to do when guys weren't chasing.

We aren't sh*t. They just didn't give a sh*t. We could have easily won. FFS Greg.

after 90 from Michael:

https://youtu.be/2KX7iuxyjHc?t=14

Lol I wish. Roll on Orlando. Get it together, smash and grab 3pts and all is good.

[Fort York Redcoat]

Portland were just as poor but kicked at Poz to take out our biggest chance to even or go ahead. Yes the changes made to the squad were not enough or too late.

Mavinga was good in the first half. I still don't rate him as who I want to lead at the back. Especially by example. He looked great today, though. Here's hoping he can be more consistent and get some experienced and fit help beside him consistently soon.

Orlando away will be just as difficult as today was. Orlando are no giants and the Farm Team Pigeons made them look better but damn if that match wasn't in slowmo.

[Gringo Starr]

We are not a good team. We are a team with players capable of great individual performances and when those don't happen we get yesterday or the game against Chicago. Slow, boring, predictable, un imaginative, ineffective possession for the sake of possession with a steaming pile of vanney speak. Not only do we need wingers and a CB we should redo the mid field as well.

[Canary10]

To me that game highlighted the lack of options when we need to change things up. I couldn’t see anyone on the bench who could really make an impact. And as Stegosaurus said, we don’t have that player who can take a game by the scruff of the neck and win it on his own anymore.

[MightyDM]

Teams end up reflecting their coaches. Vanney is analytical and not very emotional. That’s how we played.
Also, judging from his comments, Vanney saw the same flaws that we saw and needed to spark a different style of play at half time. He didn’t. When it stayed turgid and slow he should have made changes - and as said earlier he didn’t make the right one. Deleon has been one of our most effective players this year, and as I said above, the situation was calling for a double sub. The game was there for the taking if Vanney could have created a sense of urgency through the right substitutes. He needed to send a message that what was happening was not good enough. Perhaps Akinola Chapman Boyd all at once even.

Auro and marky let their men run by them on the goals - where is the consequence? If he pulled Auro and put Deleon at RB when bringing on Akinola it sends a message.

That said, the performance wasn’t nearly as bad as some on here seem to think - more a reflection of where we are at the moment - mediocre without Jozy. Everything was a touch off and we have players playing in less than ideal positions. With the players we have, the midfield needs to be narrower and Auro and Morrow have to be the width. For example, Osorio is at his best when he is in tight passing with Poz or Bradley, opening up the defense.

Hamilton did ok but didn’t have the level of service he might have. From inside the stadium you could see that he was making very good runs off the ball in the first half and often did not get a pass. Including from Poz.

Finally, the refereeing was to our disadvantage in the first half. Lots of niggly uncalled fouls on Poz, two or three rugby tackles that should have been yellows, and the deliberate trip on Hamilton that was a certain yellow and arguably a red for scoring opportunity. But the team couldn’t generate any emotion or energy from that either. Should have been a motivation.

[ag futbol]

^ After watching the CPL match yesterday and various leagues over the years I can only come to a conclusion soccer in North America has a cultural problem with officiating. Things that are blindingly obvious to everyone are frequently missed or just improperly excused.

In the CPL game, Borges nearly broke a guy’s leg, straight in front of the ref and the 4th official, and didn’t even get a card. Kyle Bekker flatted a guy picking up a ball for a throw in 3-4 seconds after the pay stopped with a hit that would have earned an NHL player an obvious penalty, don’t think he got a card either. The official was David Gantar, who sucks, but you would think would be able to handle at least a CPL game.

Pozuelo was fouled 4-5 times in the span of 15 minutes. If that isn’t persistent infringement I don’t know what is. What does the number have to get to if 4-5 calls in succession isn’t enough? 10? 20?? Even worse, at a certain point the ref seemed tired of calling the fouls and kept swallowing his whistle.

My only comment for TFC would be, we should have flatted Valeri and Blanco if that’s the way Portland was going to play. It might have forced the officials hand to tighten things up. But instead, we just meekly accepted they were going to foul our best player out of the game. We should have made a huge stink of it. But then again, that appears to have been our M.O. for all of yesterday, put in a weak effort and casually accept defeat.

[Hamilton_Red]

I actually want to see Boyd today, see if he can connect with Pozuelo. Want Hamilton as well, but we need to see if Boyd has anything.

Well we saw Boyd...and he still looks utterly useless. Is he a USMNT charity signing...he's scored 7 goals in the last 5 years... 5 of them in a lower division squad. He's not even CPL level. I get that he has had injuries...

[Mikmacdo]

Well we saw Boyd...and he still looks utterly useless. Is he a USMNT charity signing...he's scored 7 goals in the last 5 years... 5 of them in a lower division squad. He's not even CPL level. I get that he has had injuries...
I agree hes absolutely awful and I saw better strikers in the CPL game yesterday. Hopefully hes on a one year deal.

[dow117]

I thought Vanney's tactics were poor. His selection of JH as lone striker was defensive. JH is decent but he cannot do this job alone - he is not a good hold up guy, not fast & turning on defenders is suspect. At home, we should be fielding 2 bona fide strike partners & ley Pozuelo do his job. Vanney harping on about defence & sacrificing offence to make a point did not work. This game shows that we need 2 quality players urgently if we are going o compete

[Hamilton_Red]

I thought Vanney's tactics were poor. His selection of JH as lone striker was defensive. JH is decent but he cannot do this job alone - he is not a good hold up guy, not fast & turning on defenders is suspect. At home, we should be fielding 2 bona fide strike partners & ley Pozuelo do his job. Vanney harping on about defence & sacrificing offence to make a point did not work. This game shows that we need 2 quality players urgently if we are going o compete

So far we have replaced Victor with Poz...which has been a success and an upgrade.

We have replaced Giovinco with Terrence Boyd...

Deleon has replaced Telfer I guess...

No replacements for Aketexe and VanderWiel. We are three TAM players short and the season is 25% over next week..

[SoccMan2]

Boyd is not a replacement for Giovinco I know guys on here are being sarcastic. Boyd is Ricketts replacement and so far Boyd is nothing close to what Ricketts was for TFC. A nice Ricketts replacement would have been a guy like local Canadian player Simeon Jackson who has had a decent career in the UK.

[C.Ronaldo]

I agree hes absolutely awful and I saw better strikers in the CPL game yesterday. Hopefully hes on a one year deal.
he had a decent pass and smashes into plays. Beyond that hes not gonna get you a goal. i can see him go the whole years without one at this pace

more importantly marky needs to go down to tfc2 and give endoh a shot

[DinamoTFC]

Teams end up reflecting their coaches. Vanney is analytical and not very emotional. That’s how we played.

I feel like he needs to become more emotional. The amount of times the players come out flat at start of games or second half is remarkable. I wonder if his talks put the players to sleep. Honestly.

[MightyDM]

I feel like he needs to become more emotional. The amount of times the players come out flat at start of games or second half is remarkable. I wonder if his talks put the players to sleep. Honestly.

I agree. We spent all of last year starting slowly. I am not a Vanney critic in general - but he needs to improve this area, and his substitutions - particularly the timing.

[MightyDM]

My only comment for TFC would be, we should have flatted Valeri and Blanco if that’s the way Portland was going to play. It might have forced the officials hand to tighten things up. But instead, we just meekly accepted they were going to foul our best player out of the game. We should have made a huge stink of it. But then again, that appears to have been our M.O. for all of yesterday, put in a weak effort and casually accept defeat.

Yes. That’s how I saw it. We didn’t have the passion to build on the obvious injustice and score.

[Oldtimer]

Interesting that this match thread is called "you be connected." Prescient?

I think Bradley played poorly and when he plays poorly the whole team plays poorly.

I don't think the formation was ideal, but it's hard to think what would be better given the players available (almost any other formation would have had a critical weakness). I do hold Vanney responsible for running out of ideas to right the situation, that's his job to figure it out. I do give props to Vanney for starting Westberg.

I think after two solid matches Westberg has proven himself a starter. He saved a 1v1 that Bono 90% likely would have let in, and his distribution was solid. Too bad the defence in front of him was shambolic. Symbolic of the horrible defence was the pass-back to Westberg when Westberg had two opposition players on him. How he managed not to get scored on in that situation was amazing.

[stevep]

^ After watching the CPL match yesterday and various leagues over the years I can only come to a conclusion soccer in North America has a cultural problem with officiating. Things that are blindingly obvious to everyone are frequently missed or just improperly excused.

In the CPL game, Borges nearly broke a guy’s leg, straight in front of the ref and the 4th official, and didn’t even get a card. Kyle Bekker flatted a guy picking up a ball for a throw in 3-4 seconds after the pay stopped with a hit that would have earned an NHL player an obvious penalty, don’t think he got a card either. The official was David Gantar, who sucks, but you would think would be able to handle at least a CPL game.

Pozuelo was fouled 4-5 times in the span of 15 minutes. If that isn’t persistent infringement I don’t know what is. What does the number have to get to if 4-5 calls in succession isn’t enough? 10? 20?? Even worse, at a certain point the ref seemed tired of calling the fouls and kept swallowing his whistle.

My only comment for TFC would be, we should have flatted Valeri and Blanco if that’s the way Portland was going to play. It might have forced the officials hand to tighten things up. But instead, we just meekly accepted they were going to foul our best player out of the game. We should have made a huge stink of it. But then again, that appears to have been our M.O. for all of yesterday, put in a weak effort and casually accept defeat.


Referring is one of the best ways to script a game to your desired outcome.
Flagrant non redcall on the mavinga tackle. No calls on consistent fouls on pozo.
The red call changes the entire game in favour of TFC.
Not the desired outcome today by mls

Also, lineup decision to start zavaletta over ciman is really questionable.
No reaction by TFC players to fouls on pozo.
Worst performance by all TFC players in 3 years.
Another thing to add, the substitutions by Vanney yesterday. He wasn't playing to win with those subs. He's not a stupid man, he knows what he's doing.

Upon second day giving me a day to think I have determined that this was a Very suspicious game.

[paul-collins]

I thought Mavinga was excellent. I thought Poz was strong and I thought Oso was decent. I also rate Hamilton for his runs off the ball but he did not get the service he needed.

Bradley was good but the analysis that everything goes through him is correct. But currently his partner is Delgado, and, well, sheesh.

I was ok with Zavaleta. I didn't think much of Auro or Morrow.

DeLeon was kind of absent today.

Westerberg needs more games. Definitely has potential.

Why, in the last 10 minutes, would we have the ball in wide positions and 4 (!) players within about 10 feet of the spot? No options except central top of box. Pointless. Boyd, Chapman, Akindele did not provide options.

[C.Ronaldo]

Interesting that this match thread is called "you be connected." Prescient?

I think Bradley played poorly and when he plays poorly the whole team plays poorly.

I don't think the formation was ideal, but it's hard to think what would be better given the players available (almost any other formation would have had a critical weakness). I do hold Vanney responsible for running out of ideas to right the situation, that's his job to figure it out. I do give props to Vanney for starting Westberg.

I think after two solid matches Westberg has proven himself a starter. He saved a 1v1 that Bono 90% likely would have let in, and his distribution was solid. Too bad the defence in front of him was shambolic. Symbolic of the horrible defence was the pass-back to Westberg when Westberg had two opposition players on him. How he managed not to get scored on in that situation was amazing.

he called for that pass didnt he?
the one that was almost blocked back into the net?

[MightyDM]

Bradley was very very good defensively. A number of takeaways right from the feet of opponents.

But the criticism that we are predictable is true.

[Derko]

Far too many back passes and recycling the ball, be bloody direct and go forward, direct attacking football is hard to defend in my opinion anyway, Westberg played well, had no chances at all on both goals, Mavinga had a great game, if Akinola had tried a header instead of a high boot, I think he would have scored in extra time, put that down to inexperience. Anyway, can't win them all.

[Kamp Berg]

Far too many back passes and recycling the ball, be bloody direct and go forward, direct attacking football is hard to defend in my opinion anyway, Westberg played well, had no chances at all on both goals, Mavinga had a great game, if Akinola had tried a header instead of a high boot, I think he would have scored in extra time, put that down to inexperience. Anyway, can't win them all.

Yep, the pussy-footing, go nowhere football is pretty hard to watch.

[Canary10]

Boyd is not a replacement for Giovinco I know guys on here are being sarcastic. Boyd is Ricketts replacement and so far Boyd is nothing close to what Ricketts was for TFC. A nice Ricketts replacement would have been a guy like local Canadian player Simeon Jackson who has had a decent career in the UK.

I think what he was saying is, given we haven't done anything else, Boyd is effectively the replacement for Giovinco at the moment even thought that's not the intent. It's true.

[OgtheDim]

I look at it this way

We play a different system then we did with Seba so like for like replacements are not going to happen

Seba gone
VDW gone
VV gone
Ricketts gone


All 4 of these guys had a capability that we can quantify as part of the total capability of the team as a whole

The capability quantity of Seba was replaced with Poz

The capability quantity of VDW has been replaced with De Leaon

The capability quantity of VV has not been replaced.

The capability quantity of Rickets has been replaced by Hamilton


A TAM attacker would help fill the void in our capability that VV leaving created.

[Canary10]

I look at it this way

We play a different system then we did with Seba so like for like replacements are not going to happen

Seba gone
VDW gone
VV gone
Ricketts gone


All 3 of these guys had a capability that we can quantify as part of the total capability of the team as a whole

The capability quantity of Seba was replaced with Poz

The capability quantity of VDW has been replaced with De Leaon

The capability quantity of VV has not been replaced.

The capability quantity of Rickets has been replaced by Hamilton


A TAM attacker would help feel the void in our capability that VV leaving created.

That's reasonable. The way I look at it in VV, Giovinco and Jozy we had three guys that could score at any time. With Pozuelo and Jozy we're down to two. The fix is the same either way you look at it I think, which is a scoring winger.

[stegosaurus]

That's reasonable. The way I look at it in VV, Giovinco and Jozy we had three guys that could score at any time. With Pozuelo and Jozy we're down to two. The fix is the same either way you look at it I think, which is a scoring winger.

Right, our attack was dangerous back then.

Pozo can play up top like Giovinco, probably. However, if we had some capable attackers making runs into the box he’d be doing a lot of assisting.

Jozy can do that, but the other players don’t seem to be capable of it unless they’re being subbed on late against a team with a clueless defense.

[Derko]

It's all got to do with the tactics that Vanney is dictating, recycle the ball constantly, try for that extra pass in the box and lose the ball, and always passing backwards or lateral, the little diamonds are great if you have the players with the skillset, but TFC have very few of those players, I mean look at Poz's 2 goals and could have been a third in the Minnesota match, strikes from outside the box or at least strikes at the goal, that is how you score goals, Hamilton's 2 goals by driving towards the opposition's goal, Bradley's 2 goals earlier, by driving towards the goal, it isn't rocket science, nothing frustrates me more than that absurd and pointless number of passes statistic, It irritates me when it is the talking point of Spain versus whomever, see if they can top the amount of passes they made last game, ffs. Okay my rant is over, it really is just my opinion :scarf:

[C.Ronaldo]

I look at it this way

We play a different system then we did with Seba so like for like replacements are not going to happen

Seba gone
VDW gone
VV gone
Ricketts gone


All 4 of these guys had a capability that we can quantify as part of the total capability of the team as a whole

The capability quantity of Seba was replaced with Poz

The capability quantity of VDW has been replaced with De Leaon

The capability quantity of VV has not been replaced.

The capability quantity of Rickets has been replaced by Hamilton


A TAM attacker would help fill the void in our capability that VV leaving created.

from 2017
Id add Beitashour, Steven (https://www.mlssoccer.com/players/Steven-Beitashour) capability has not been replaced

we also had a very calm intelligent player coming off the bench for us (and carried us many times)
Mr Benoit was the glue!

[Ben - D.O.W.]

Right, our attack was dangerous back then.

In 2017 our goals per game in MLS was 2.2 (34 games, 74 goals). This year our goals per game in MLS is 2.7 (7 games, 19 goals). Sure it's a small sample size this year, but I'd say our attack is still dangerous, obviously more so with Jozy on the field. I'm not disagreeing with the rest of your post, I'd like another capable attacking threat, but I think it's important to note we've done just fine up front so far.

For reference no one else in the East is even close to that - Orlando and Philadelphia would be second with 1.4 goals/game. In the West it gets a lot closer - LAFC at 2.6 and KC at 2.4 with a few other teams at 2. But either way we're sitting #1 in goals/game - I'm not saying we can maintain that with Jozy on the bench, but we can hurt teams this year.

[Auzzy]

In 2017 our goals per game in MLS was 2.2 (34 games, 74 goals). This year our goals per game in MLS is 2.7 (7 games, 19 goals). Sure it's a small sample size this year, but I'd say our attack is still dangerous, obviously more so with Jozy on the field. I'm not disagreeing with the rest of your post, I'd like another capable attacking threat, but I think it's important to note we've done just fine up front so far.

For reference no one else in the East is even close to that - Orlando and Philadelphia would be second with 1.4 goals/game. In the West it gets a lot closer - LAFC at 2.6 and KC at 2.4 with a few other teams at 2. But either way we're sitting #1 in goals/game - I'm not saying we can maintain that with Jozy on the bench, but we can hurt teams this year.

I would suggest we likely can't maintain that goal-scoring pace, period. A few days ago, denime posted a very interesting article in the daily news thread, about how TFC is scoring goals at a rate way above what would be predicted based on "expected goals" (which is calculated based on actual game situations).

What that likely tells us:
- Jozy (and Pozuelo) have been very good. But Jozy will need breaks for injury, international duty, and recovery. Pozuelo will also need breaks; plus teams now have a couple of blueprint games to watch and emulate, on shutting down Pozuelo via crowding him, hacking, and leaving him much less space than any other TFC player.

- Even when Jozy and Poz are playing, they (and the whole team) will trend down closer towards the "expected goals" output with time, it's pretty well guaranteed. There's always lots of luck involved with scoring, and you can't ride it for a season.

- How to deal with the above issues? Your point is probably, TFC needs to focus on improving the defense, as they already have a good offensive output. I agree with that. However:

- Some of our defensive problems also come from problems at midfield and even at forward. E.g. bad passes & turnovers in dangerous areas; not enough defensive midfield cover; gradually pushing higher and higher when "possession w/o purpose" doesn't lead to goals for TFC.

- In addition to improving defense (by the whole team), they need to improve the "expected goals" output per game, with better players and smarter game plans, so that we don't depend on miracle plays by Jozy & Pozuelo (and can just enjoy them if/when they happen anyway).

[Ben - D.O.W.]

I would suggest we likely can't maintain that goal-scoring pace, period...

I must spread some reputation around before giving it to you again. Great post.

[stegosaurus]

I would suggest we likely can't maintain that goal-scoring pace, period. A few days ago, denime posted a very interesting article in the daily news thread, about how TFC is scoring goals at a rate way above what would be predicted based on "expected goals" (which is calculated based on actual game situations).

What that likely tells us:
- Jozy (and Pozuelo) have been very good. But Jozy will need breaks for injury, international duty, and recovery. Pozuelo will also need breaks; plus teams now have a couple of blueprint games to watch and emulate, on shutting down Pozuelo via crowding him, hacking, and leaving him much less space than any other TFC player.

- Even when Jozy and Poz are playing, they (and the whole team) will trend down closer towards the "expected goals" output with time, it's pretty well guaranteed. There's always lots of luck involved with scoring, and you can't ride it for a season.

- How to deal with the above issues? Your point is probably, TFC needs to focus on improving the defense, as they already have a good offensive output. I agree with that. However:

- Some of our defensive problems also come from problems at midfield and even at forward. E.g. bad passes & turnovers in dangerous areas; not enough defensive midfield cover; gradually pushing higher and higher when "possession w/o purpose" doesn't lead to goals for TFC.

- In addition to improving defense (by the whole team), they need to improve the "expected goals" output per game, with better players and smarter game plans, so that we don't depend on miracle plays by Jozy & Pozuelo (and can just enjoy them if/when they happen anyway).

Yes, exactly.