Other MLS Games This Weekend - Saturday Feb 29 & Sunday March 1st 2020

[OgtheDim]

And so it begins, for other teams as well. If I have questions or reasons to watch the game, they'll get mentionned. But, with so many unknowns, there are a lot of :noidea: games out there.


Saturday


Colorado @ DCU 1pm - Colorado is going to play a high pressing game while DCU is going to sit back and counter. The team with less possession is going to win this game Why watch this game? Drew Moor & Benezet memories + Ole Kamara in a 4-2-3-1 might be a 20 goal scorer this year

New England @ Montreal 3pm - NER goes to the only pitch in the league worse than theirs - the concrete of Olympic stadium. Lots of people have NER as a dark horse in the East. If so, this is the sort of game they have to win. The question in this game? Well Henry stick with the turtle defensiveness

LAGalaxy @ Houston 3:30pm - Galaxy has all that attack - is the defence better? Houston with a new coach but do they have the midfield to hold up against LAG?

Philly @ FCD 6:30pm - Philly has supposedly gained some midfield steel this offseason. FCD is back to being a youth driven team and are the hipster dark horse in the West.

RSL @ Orlando 6pm - RSL somehow kept chugging along last year and finished 6th in the Supporters Shield table. Orlando has yet to make the playoffs. Pundits saying that will reverse this year, with Orlando making a big move into playoff contention with Pareja as their coach.

Atlanta @ Nashville 8pm - Atlanta is in the dreaded CCL post-game period but Nashville is a big work in progress. The spine of Nashville is pretty good so unlikly to be a rout. Why watch this game? Supposed to be 50K coming out and nobody has a clue how they are going to behave

SKC @ Vancouver 10:30pm - Last year at this time, a LOT of pundits were calling on SKC to win the West. A tad off those predictions. Vancouver admits to be in year 2 of a 4 year project.



Sunday


NYCFC @ Columbus 12:30pm - GAME TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND APART FROM OURS Weird start time. Columbus is significantly improved on offence but defence might still have some issues. NYC is in the dreaded CCL post-game period and might be just putting this one off. BUT, their youngsters are hungry to show the Man City bosses their worth. We play NYC next week & Columbus for our 5th game. The NYC team we see will not look like this one at all.

Cincinnati @ NYRB 1pm - Cinci in transition more then turmoil but still not good to fire the coach that close to opening day. NYRB has turned over half its starters. Two teams we play in the first 6 games of the season.

Chicago @ Seattle 3pm - Seattle coming off the bad CCL PK loss to a team they should have put away. Fire are not sure who they are yet as a roster, let alone as a team.

Miami @ LAFC 5:30pm - Miami brings a lot of vets & youth looking to succeed up against a team coming down off of what might have been their highest moment as a club. This has the makings of 70 minutes of upset followed by 20 minutes of return to norm.

Minnesotta @ Portland 7:30pm - All you need to know about this game is its been dubbed - The Flannel Derby

[levyashin]

Nice one OG good summary.
Always look forward to this part of the weekend trying to better the bookies

[magmadragon]

Thanks for doing these write-ups again.

[RedSonia]

Ah... I missed these little summaries!

[OgtheDim]

Thanks, people. Redcoat was doing this before me and deserves the credit for the idea of educating ourselves about our opponents.

************

A reminder that all games not shown on TSN are found on DAZN. TSN direct is like watching it on TV - no playback/pause etc. DAZN has all that, with the added bonus of getting the broad range of MLS commentators including occasionall the SKY people (calling it from a studio in England).

https://www.tsn.ca/mls-on-tsn-schedule-1.962000


As usual, lots of grey market streams out there for those choosing to do so.

[Yohan]

Thanks, people. Redcoat was doing this before me and deserves the credit for the idea of educating ourselves about our opponents.

************

A reminder that all games not shown on TSN are found on DAZN. TSN direct is like watching it on TV - no playback/pause etc. DAZN has all that, with the added bonus of getting the broad range of MLS commentators including occasionall the SKY people (calling it from a studio in England).

https://www.tsn.ca/mls-on-tsn-schedule-1.962000


As usual, lots of grey market streams out there for those choosing to do so.
No credit for me? ;)

I enjoy reading your write ups too, considering I don't have the time to follow the league as closely as I used to.

[ensco]

The Flannel Derby :rofl::rofl::rofl:

[OgtheDim]

No credit for me? ;)

I enjoy reading your write ups too, considering I don't have the time to follow the league as closely as I used to.

"Thanks for adding reputation to this user. May you be lucky enough to receive the same Reputation back in turn"

:cheers:

[OgtheDim]

Houston sold out for Chicarito & the home opener. Do not underestimate how many Mexican will show up just for him. When we host LAG in April, I expect a 25K+ crowd with a LOT of Mexican flags.

[MikeForbes]

Houston sold out for Chicarito & the home opener. Do not underestimate how many Mexican will show up just for him. When we host LAG in April, I expect a 25K+ crowd with a LOT of Mexican flags.

Yep. I expect a nice Mexican following for Pizarro when Miami travels as well.

[notthesun]

Drew Moor starts for Colorado in the season opener. Benezet is out after breaking his nose in a preseason friendly, tough luck.

[OgtheDim]

Love those red shorts on DCU.

Nice to see Irwin and Moor.

[tfcfans]

A nice eastern conference loss for DCU at home, always good for East contenders to lose home games to Western opponents....every little bit helps our guys!

[levyashin]

I thought that Audi field was grass ,seeing football lines on artificial turf is just crap.

[OgtheDim]

I thought that Audi field was grass ,seeing football lines on artificial turf is just crap.

It is grass.

They will be replacing it in about a month after the XFL game - they went cheap and decided not to wash the lines off. The league told them they had to replace the XFL logo, thus the cricket pitch in the middle.

Looked awful and bounced quite a bit - a lot like our pitches in 2017 & 2018.

[jloome]

It is grass.

They will be replacing it in about a month after the XFL game - they went cheap and decided not to wash the lines off. The league told them they had to replace the XFL logo, thus the cricket pitch in the middle.

Looked awful and bounced quite a bit - a lot like our pitches in 2017 & 2018.

Impact looking awfully undisciplined and freelancing early against New England. I wonder if Henry will be like Mo and other former striker coaches, who believe tactics are no substitute for guys doing whatever the fuck they want.

Sure hope so.

[jloome]

Ha! Good timing on my part. They immediately score.

EDIT: I hate that stupid fucking bell so much.

[SoccMan2]

Impact looking awfully undisciplined and freelancing early against New England. I wonder if Henry will be like Mo and other former striker coaches, who believe tactics are no substitute for guys doing whatever the fuck they want.

Sure hope so.
You watching the same game I’m watching? Please do not use Henry with that clueless joke of a coach Mo in the same sentence lol, Impact have out possessed New England so far, it’s not even close.

[jloome]

You watching the same game I’m watching? Please do not use Henry with that clueless joke of a coach Mo in the same sentence lol, Impact have out possessed New England so far, it’s not even close.

They had five bad minutes at the start and have controlled pretty much since. Neither side looks like much, though.

[OgtheDim]

Henry has waaaay more of a tactical mind then MoJo. Could see that against Saprissa.

That carpet though is an abomination- only thing worse then NER's monstrosity.

[Areathrasher]

Pavon is gonna put up Giovinco Esq numbers this year imo

[OgtheDim]

Montreal with a very CONCACAFy win over NER. Rapids kinda did the same over DCU. 2 works in progress getting results early.

[benito]

Pavon is gonna put up Giovinco Esq numbers this year imo

Great strike.

https://youtu.be/FqmHodpSFYY

[OgtheDim]

Orlando supporters with the most serious shade I've seen in an MLS TIFO since our bad old days


https://twitter.com/JEichenblatt/status/1233895037316014080

[OgtheDim]

Then there is this one......

https://twitter.com/MontminyEmeric/status/1233845880563916800

Sometimes, you just have to admire stuff even when its Montreal.

[OgtheDim]

Philly losing and Blake looked bad on both goals.

[benito]

Orlando tifo

https://twitter.com/KirbyHazard/status/1233895069486342144 (https://twitter.com/KirbyHazard/status/1233895069486342144)

[OgtheDim]

https://twitter.com/MLS/status/1233941146390405120

[OgtheDim]

So Nashville is slower then we were in 2018, all their players have only one trick (apart from Zimmerman), prefers to sit back, doesn't execute the low block well at all, can't counter, has no idea of urgency, & can't press. If they play like that against us, we are going to murder them in 2 weeks.

[MightyDM]

Great strike.

https://youtu.be/FqmHodpSFYY

You are joking, right? Impossible to see that in the shadow.

[MightyDM]

Orlando supporters with the most serious shade I've seen in an MLS TIFO since our bad old days


https://twitter.com/JEichenblatt/status/1233895037316014080

Deleted!

[OgtheDim]

Ok, here it is again

https://twitter.com/AmericanCasual1/status/1233897993016733696

[OgtheDim]

So....not going to learn too much about NYC or Columbus today.

NYC goes down a man after 3 minutes. Columbus can't create a decent chance - ball movement way too slow.

[ensco]

Just scouting our opponent in MLS Cup 2020 now.

[magmadragon]

The Nashville Atlanta game. One of the ARs really messed things up to help Atlanta's 2nd goal. Put up the flag which confused the Nashville players (I know you play to the whistle, but still), lowered the flag, and allowed Atlanta to continue unopposed. Was an awesome strike either way. That AR, it's the same one that caused confusion for us last year during the game at New England.

[levyashin]

Atlanta just lost 20+ goals for the season.

[PaceyWinger]

So....not going to learn too much about NYC or Columbus today.

NYC goes down a man after 3 minutes. Columbus can't create a decent chance - ball movement way too slow.
Learned that the hype building around Columbus and a potential bounce back might be overblown.

[PaceyWinger]

Carlos Vela magic.

[PaceyWinger]

I think Miami is going to be decent once they figure out a system they want to play. There are peices of that team and they can add in the summer, but they are not ready for the top teams. Also 70 mins into the game and I'm pretty unimpressed with LAFC other than their supporters. They bring it.. much respect.

[tfcfans]

For all of our frustration with yesterday’s ending; only one team in the East got any points on the road other than us and that was Atlanta playing an expansion team and they may have lost Martinez for an extended period of time, so I think I’d take our result over theirs too....frankly NYRB beat the worst team at home, Clbs beat a 10 man NYCFC team, and only Mtl beat a team in NE at home who was a non-playoff team last year - I guess Orlando tied a good team but they were at home too. How many East teams looked way better than us yesterday, and we were still short Bradley and Piatti?

[OgtheDim]

,,How many East teams looked way better than us yesterday, and we were still short Bradley and Piatti?

Nobody.

Its only the first week but Atlanta and Montreal look well coached. NYC is an unknown.

[tfcfans]

Nobody.

Its only the first week but Atlanta and Montreal look well coached. NYC is an unknown.

Unless Atlanta find a suitable replacement -- then all the best coaching in the world is not making up for the loss of Martinez....thats close to 45%+ of their goals over the last 2 seasons gone in an instant --- we all know what its like to not have your top scorer on the field, in this league replacing a top-level DP forward is near impossible without a DP slot open.....lets be honest -- when they won it all in 2018 JM played an incredible 95% of available regular season minutes that year, he played about 85% of the minutes last year -- imagine what Jozy's numbers would look like if he was anywhere close to those numbers? Jozy got to 72% of the minutes in 2017 and 29% of the minutes in 2018 -- think our results those two years aren't skewed a little by those numbers? (FYI - Carlos Vela had about 89% of the regular season minutes last year played) -- bottom line is it's really hard to have sustained success if your best players aren't on the field, especially teams where a bulk of their scoring is tied up in one key (DP) forward....

[ag futbol]

For anyone looking for a good sleep-aid, whitecaps and a 10:30 EST time slot are the ticket.

Long year for Cavalinni I think. Service non existent.

[Yohan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNznzsFQXvY

Lots of golazos in week 1

[Yohan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QaQ9YV5HBQ

[barticusz]

I was reading that with Martinez out, Atlanta’s only striker depth is Adam Jahn. No disrespect to him but it just goes to show that in the current state of MLS roster building we’re not the only team with the issue about what happens when we lose our star striker.

[Ultra & Proud]

I was reading that with Martinez out, Atlanta’s only striker depth is Adam Jahn. No disrespect to him but it just goes to show that in the current state of MLS roster building we’re not the only team with the issue about what happens when we lose our star striker.
We've been able to survive without Jozy for 5 years now to a fair degree. Let's see if they can.