Frings was a true force out there so that's a big positive.
DK was Ali Gerba-ish last night but that's likely due to fitness. I saw bits of his quality but he needs more time.
Johnson looked like he was out of position last night....fumbling, slipping, and poor crossing.
We had our chances last night; just couldn't bag any as usual. BUT, at least for once, I can see where the goals are going to come from.
unfortunately Winter is blind and continually starts Plata and others over him, he won us 2 corners and set Santos up for a perfect header in the few minutes he was on.Originally Posted by KGH
That pass was famous! Everyone in 110 was talking about it for a long time afterward!
Soolsma: he had at least two terrific crosses. But he might be the slowest player in the league, and we might be the slowest team in the league.
We were exposed a lot by Dallas' quickness. Part of it was that it was kind of a pre-season game for us. But team speed is going to be a major issue.
Last edited by ensco; 07-21-2011 at 08:44 AM.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
I can't believe how different everyone's perceptions are...I thought Viator was great. He looked shaky at first but really came on as the game wore on. He's got pace. So important in a wingback.
Frings was awesome. Really does show what we've been missing in the midfield. And we finally have a guy for set pieces. We've never had any threat before on them before. No longer will corners be a time to run and grab a beer! Having said that, De Guzman's absence was really apparent. In a 4-3-3 all the midfielders are essentially central midfieders (with the two outside forwards as the flank men). There is lots of space for a guy like De Guzman to play with Frings in that system. I totally disagree with people who want him gone. We're always better with him in the line up. With Dunfield as well, we've got a really solid midfield.
Koeverman's shot was wicked. But, yeah, he got little service and looked tired. But not a bad start.
Two worst players on the pitch: Harden (surprise, surprise). He just looks out of his league. He is so poor on distributing the ball from the back. He constantly puts the team in pressure with his bad decisions. I wish Frei would stop rolling the ball out to him. It's always a disaster waiting to happen. Irlo looked slow, but paired with a good central defender with pace and some passing ability and he'll be ok. We should NEVER lose a header in the box with that guy. And Maicon Santos was the second worst player. That header he missed is unforgivable - that is a goal every time in a higher level league. The only reason why he has goals at all is he gets those gifts on a regular basis and maybe puts in 5% of them. He is awful.
Plata is our Carlos Tevez. That guy can run forever.
New players:
Frings - a great signing.
Koev - we'll see when he gets fit, but last night was not convincing.
Johnson - promising.
Viator - terrible signing, not good enough.
Iro - slow, too big, will struggle.
The rest except for Frei....shit.
Plata has really lost a step.
Should NEVER play again...Harden, Borman, Yourass, Gargan.
[quote=Davenport;1344999]New players:
Plata has really lost a step.
quote]
Are you fucking insane?
[quote=Canary10;1345018]No. not the last time I checked.
So along with all the other attacking midfielders and forwards he's set the world on fire in the last few games ?
We've scored 5 goals in the last 10, yes 10, MLS games.
He hasn't scored, but the last thing I'd say about him is he lost a step. The guy's what, 17?
it's funny that you tear apart players like yourassowski and strugis, but then give benefit to JDG.. of all fucking people.. and a guy whose never even played a game with our club before.
he didn't compliment plata and they played 7 games together.
he didn't compliment anyone really. he just gave the ball away and didn't drop back fast enough to defend the break. you'd be surprised to see how many goals resulted from that. if he couldn't EXCEL with a team of scrubs, then what makes you think he can do any better now? i mean, the team was shit. he should've looked like a god out there, and now we're putting him next to a man like frigs saying "he's gonna do well, and step up his game".
newsflash: anyone can do that when they're next to frigs. that's the kind of player he is. he tries to better everyone around him with his play. it's something JDG is incapable of doing, either because he can't or because he's lazy.
everyone needs to stop defending him.
he didn't work with plata when we thought he was going to.
he didn't work with mista when we thought he was going to.
he didn't work with vitti when we thought he was going to.
he's a cunt and he needs to pack his bags.
(sorry if this is coming off as harsh, its certainly not me being angry at you. i just simply can't see how people can have faith in JDG. he's let us down so many times, he doesn't play well and often looks lazy on the pitch. i've also heard from numerous people that he's pretty much called it in for the season)
personally, i think we should be starting soolsma and bringing on plata as a winger. plata tries to take to many people one, it's not good during the first 60 minutes of play because they know how to crack him.
if you had soolsma on, you still get the chances, sans the pace, just work a slower buildup (which he's been more than capable of doing) and then bring on plata to dust defenders when their legs are tired.
Frings looked class all night, and although made his name as a full back in the German national team, has the football brain and passing ability to anchor the midfield. He reminded me of Beckham when LA were in town recently - sat in the centre circle, received the ball from the defence and played some intelligent passes up to the forwards. All we normally see is a lot of "huff & puff" from our midfielders with very little guile & craft. One poster hails Frings as our new dead-ball specialist.... don't make me laugh - a talented footballer, but free kicks on the edge of the box? Did not trouble the keeper in the least.
The other debutant I was excited about seeing with Koevermanns. The guy LOOKS the part... tall, athletic looking, Dutch footballer. He know's where a centre forward should be, but either due to 'ring rust' or not gelling with the team mates yet, he was pretty ineffective. Very weak headers when 2-3 good chances came his way in the air. Still, he has the right pedigree, let's give him time.
All in all, the team looked 10 times better than in recent home games and I actually enjoyed the football last night, even if we didnt get the result we deserved.
"One poster hails Frings as our new dead-ball specialist.... don't make me laugh - a talented footballer, but free kicks on the edge of the box? Did not trouble the keeper in the least."
Were you stuck on the streetcar for the start of the game? He almost scored 2 minutes in.
Frings was a boss (and im glad that I wasnt wrong in my description)
DK looked winded
Viator was 50/50, judgements still out imo
Iro was not bad at times, definitely needs some more time out on the field with a regular partner
Johnston was not bad, think itll take some time
Plata gave up a few balls and had poor touches, love the kid but wouldnt hurt for him to come off the bench for a few games
Harden, Borman gotta go. At most never play Borman on defense ever again and play him as a bench winger, his defensive positioning is brutal.
Everyone else was meh.
Stuck in traffic & missed first 10 mins unfortunately, but was waiting for a Beckham moment as the ball curlked into the top corner sending the crowd into ecstact 2 mins into injury time..... but no, unfortunately we got saw a typical full back effort, with ball going 10 feet over the bar
Dont get me wrong - loved the tackles and passing from Frings, but see him ending up with a Gary Neville or Patrice Evra scoring record for TFC
He had a nice free kick early on that gave the keeper serious trouble.
it was brutal getting to the game last night!
I was thinking the same thing last night with the Beckham comparison. I said Frings is the best distributor of the ball I have seen at BMO next to Beckham. He sees the field at level that surprised me. I was expecting him to be much more simple square ball kind of player, but his vision and touch were world class no doubt.
Johnson created space well and roamed into space well but his touch and crosses were brutal. Hopefully that is just nerves.
Iro came as advertised. Physical but slow. Teams will be looking to run at him at all opportunities.
Koevermans tried to do too much which is expected as he's trying to impress. But i'm not worried about him. That long shot in the first half brought me out of my seat and made me spill my beer. You owe me 12 bucks Koevermans!
Frings was a man amongst boys out there. Rust and fatigue took over near the end. Can't wait until he's match-fit.
It was on target, but it wasn't really a hard save to make, and the last minute one obviously didn't work either. his corners were very hit and miss as well.
A minor quibble in a really good game from him, but dead ball specialist? no.
loved his little pass to start the move plata scored from (plata, how the hell did you not stay onside there? elementary stuff). In to space, right where it was needed, and quickly enough that it put them right on the back foot. too many times it takes our guys too long to control the ball and think about what they're doing, that extra second or two saved are the difference between mediocre and really good.
Kovermans, had a maicon santos kind of game, nothing, except one shot out of nowhere that looked really good. will be better when fully fit, why the hell did he get a full 90 mins.
iro. showed potnetial to be the big imposing strog guy at the back, looks horribly uncomfortable with the ball, but more practice with the team will help that.
viator. looked bad in first half, didn't really notice him in the second which I guess is an improvement, hopefully he's better at cb than rb.
johnson, worked hard, got in some good positions to make crosses, but didn't take advantage.
all in all frings great, the others, meh but with signs of potential to be good with more time.
Johnson managed to get to some pretty dreadful passes to him and control the ball. He did look lost out there though. But it's expected when you are trying to pass to two players whom you've never played with before. It's tough because you don't know how they play, where they will run to, how they like to strike the net. etc.
Not downplaying Frings here, but stepping into a DM role is much easier than an attacking role. All he had to do was get the ball, move to the open space and pass the ball, slowing or speeding up the play depending on the situation. He controls the situation. And he did it well.
Couldn't agree more
Ask JDG how easy it is to step into that role on a new team. The goal is to make it look easy. I think you are definitely downplaying the role. Especially when it comes to our team. My only issue with him and the formation, was the gap between him and our back 4, which was exposed quite a bit.
I was going to say if it was easy how come JDG never looked as good?
The guy beside me exaggerated that Frings had connected on more passes last night than Carl Robinson did in his TFC career.
Things that make you go "hmmm."
It's one game so I'm going to hold off my thoughts on each player, however, it seemed we were a stronger side out there last night. In a physical sense.
Not sure you guys read the full paragraph so I'll re-post it:
Not downplaying Frings here, but stepping into a DM role is much easier than an attacking role. All he had to do was get the ball, move to the open space and pass the ball, slowing or speeding up the play depending on the situation. He controls the situation. And he did it well.
Comparing the two different roles, not saying overall anyone should be able to do it.
Last edited by jabbronies; 07-21-2011 at 11:00 AM.
Frings - That's what a DP midfielder should look like in the MLS. Give him the captain's armband NOW.
Johson - Really impressed by him last night. Has some skill and speed, I think he'll end up being a great acquisition.
Iro - Fucking brutal. Absolutely brutal. Harden certaintly played better last night. And that's coming from someone who can't stand Harden and always feared Iro when we played him. Why is it every time the "new" player has a bad game we blame it on the rest of the player? Sorry guys, this one was all on Iro.
Viator - Decent defender. A little sloppy, he was just alright in my mind.
Koevermans - Really didn't make himself available enough. Forget the lack of service, he didn't do anything to get involved in the game.
Read it all. Comprehended. Disagreed. When you play a possession-style game, the most important role on the field is your holding/defensive mid. It's not easy to just slide into that role on a new team.
JDG - Came from the spanish league where the man on man contact wasn't as hard as MLS. So when he came to MLS, He would get bounced around and knocked off the ball like nobody's business.
Frings - comes from a tougher German league where the contact is similar, if not harder than MLS. I'm sure we won't see him get bounced as much as JDG does. But I guess time will tell.
We are comparing Two players breed from different styles of football.
I know the role - that's where I played 70% of my life and am most comfortable playing.
Maybe I don't know the attacking role to speak to this but:
Slotting into a 3 man attacking forward line with 2 other players you have never played with before and having to be creative with them against a 4-5 man defensive line is harder then slotting into a holding mid role where you can get away with just getting the ball, moving to space and passing it forward or back to the open man.
Frings didn't do anything special last night - he played a pretty safe game and kept it basic - he did it well, but IMO, his having to mesh right away with his surroundings wasn't as complicated as the two new forwards.
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