Small mercies that Hassli is suspended for Wed, but Vancouver can bring in Camilo and Mattocks off the bench?
Vancouver drew at Chivas USA on Sat, and flying to Toronto, so no excuses about fitness this time...
PRE/IN/POST-match TFC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps, Wed Jul 11
Small mercies that Hassli is suspended for Wed, but Vancouver can bring in Camilo and Mattocks off the bench?
Vancouver drew at Chivas USA on Sat, and flying to Toronto, so no excuses about fitness this time...
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
I'm assuming (and even requesting!) a few changes to the starting 11 for this one, after the Philly game. Soolsma deserves a start, and I can also see Emory dropping out after the weekend game. Does anybody know is Harden is still injured? And if Cann is nearing fitness now? Williams is a possibility, although after a year out, its going to take some time building him up to full match fitness, and especially going 90 minutes in this heat.
Also, has anybody seen the last few Whitecaps games to see how they are palying Le Toux? Is he playing down the middle now (he's MUCH more dangerous playing CF compared to that weird wing position he was playing before, and being ineffective)?
I hope Mariner does what he should have done yesterday, and makes some adjustments to the fatigued starting lineup. I would like to see the following...
--------------------Kocic--------------------
Eckersley----Williams----Henry----Morgan
-------------------Frings---------------------
Soolsma-------------------------DeGuzman
--------------------Avila---------------------
---------Johnson---------Koevermans------
Subs: Lambe, Silva, Dunfield
here's my predicted lineup.
Kocic
Hall/Ecks/Emory/Morgan
Lambe/Frings/Dunfield/Avila
Johnson/Koevermans
Is anybody going to this ?
Since we are always skipping the midfield going forward and get screwed up in the back when diffending,Mariner should try a new formation,it might work.
5-5
Kocic
Hall/Ecks/Emory/Dunfield/Morgan
Lambe/Johnson/Koevermans/Frings/Avila
I like this line-up. Would be shocked to see Emory in. He was way to gassed yesterday. Fresh legs at the back and Soolsma is a must.
I'll be honest, at this point I'm not even sure if it matters who and how we play anymore. The season is over, and the next season doesn't start up for another 8 months. That's right, 8 months until we play a competitive MLS game again that actually matters. Last season ended on a high note, and we were all so very optimistic going into the current season - but we all know how that ended up. I'm not going to be fooled again. TFC has made me a pessimist.
Sure, try some new formations, give some of the younger players a bit more time as well. But at the end of this season we will still stand with absolutely fuck all - just like we ended season 1-5. I'm not going to knock Mariner for it, but for a "massive club" (according to Mariner) it's funny that we don't have a coach with at least a BIT of head-coaching experience. In fact, Preki is really the only coach of our now 7 who had any real, significant head-coaching experience (3 years with Chivas - made the play-offs all 3). The other 6 all came with "assistant coach" and "youth team coach" credentials. No wonder we can't fucking win. I fear that we may have to wait several more seasons before we'll be close to the play-offs. The drought will almost certainly continue until Anselmi is gone.
Solution: We need someone like Sigi Schmid - who led Seattle to the play-offs year one and two, won the US Open in year one and two, and is now well on their way to making the play-offs third year in a row. How do we expect to do the same when we keep bringing in former youth-team/assistant/reject-coaches?
This game and the last against the Union are the first really directly comparable games we have for the new regime versus the old. We know Winter got a result against Philly and Mariner emphatically didn't. Winter got a draw and win against Vancouver, so it'll be interesting to see what happens Wednesday.
Last edited by Canary10; 07-09-2012 at 12:30 PM.
Before the excuse machine cranks up, consider this fact:
Vancouver played Wednesday July 4th in Colorado. Then traveled for a Saturday (July 7th) game in California and then travelled to Toronto for the upcoming Wednesday night game.
There is probably some favoritism in the squad. Mariner tends to play "his players" rather than players who clearly deserve to be in the line-up like Soolsma, JDG, and Henry. Mariner favours Dunfield even when he gassed out than playing a fresh and healthy JDG. Heck were probably going to see the same line-up from last game against Vancouver.
This is what I would like to see as well, that's if Williams is healthy... Oh and if we have to play 4-4-2Originally Posted by ManUtd4ever
This is what sadly we will most likely see... Btw this post was gold.. Lmao..here's my predicted lineup.
Kocic
Hall/Ecks/Emory/Morgan
Lambe/Frings/Dunfield/Avila
Johnson/Koevermans
Last edited by DaBandit; 07-09-2012 at 12:41 PM.
Guys, 17 more wins and we can still get a Supporter's Shield.
I don't think Mariner is stupid as hell!
(I will call him that though, if he plays the same starting 11 and it backfires!).
Agreed, this is no excuse for this game. Vancouver have had just as busy a schedule as TFC lately.
One of Winter's faults as a manager was his refusal to settle into a preferred starting lineup, and the players, especially on the backline, never seemed to develop a sense of cohesion.
Now Mariner has gone to the other extreme by refusing to rotate any capable players off the bench into the starting lineup during the most congested part of the schedule.
It would be nice if there was a middle ground.
T-boy, making changes for the sake of making changes will not satisfy me though. I want to see soolsma in and more importantly I want jdg in and dunfield nailed to the bench until about the 70th min. At which time if we are up a goal or two bring him in to try to fortify the defense..
At this point I have very little faith in Mariner, his starting 11 and subs have been extremely bizarre.. Case in point, we're down 2 goals yesterday and we take off Avila? One of the few guys we have that has some offensive flare.. Should I/we have more patience with Mariner? Maybe so but I for one have lost my patience after 6 years.. Mariner shouldn't be learning on the job here, the supportor of this club deserve a top notch coach with experience. Mariner seems to be way out of his depth. Do I hope he proves me wrong, hell ya, but I just don't think he will..
We shall see, I guess!
I remain optimistic. I can see why lots of other people lost their optimism years ago. But I always see a new coach as a new beginning in footballing terms. I love seeing the transition from one coach to another. It takes time (longer than 7 games) but as long as we see a movement - a development - of the team, that's ALL we can hope for at this moment in time.
We simply cannot expect an overnight change in fortunes. Having said that, change should be much quicker than a season and a half!
With the 442 we have difficulties spreading opponent on our possession without the use of wide attacking players. 442 does not seem to fit well the younger future of the team : Silva, Soolsma, Lambe, Plata, etc, so they are out with PM.
It's just Mariner's current "dumbed down" version of football 4-4-2. You can easily have a 4-4-2 with 2 wingers. But, I guess, when you need to buckle down, then isn't the time to have a couple of "flair" wingers.
My favoured version of 4-4-2 is to have the two flairs wingers though. It makes for very attractive football. Winger's are always the most exciting players in a team to watch.
I am afraid the 'dumbed down' version will stay with us, even though now we really have nothing to loose.
It's not so much a dumbed down version. I'd say he's playing the outside midfielders more centrally, and the fullbacks are expected to get up and play more as wingers.
Correct. He's making the midfield more compact right now and then letting the full backs free down the sides. I personally would prfer wingers rather than full backs playing as wing-backs. I hope Mariner moves towards a more traditional 4-4-2 (2 central DM's and 2 attacking wingers) in the future.
He seemed to have gotten off that script yesterday and played a flatter midfield across the whole width. Didn't work very well.
I didn't have a problem with that sub. Avila was non-existent save for his one pass to Koevs and with possession all in favour of Philly, IMO we needed someone who's better at breaking up plays and able to win balls back. However, by 45 mins it was too late. I think my issue was why JDG wasn't started when he's played back to back games of 10 mins and probably would have been able to inject energy from the start. Soolsma as well ... I guess we can draw our own conclusions on why they are riding the bench right now.
I see your point about Avila and your right he was pretty non-existent. but he was playing out wide, which generally always sees him ineffective. i would have like to have seen him dropped in behind RJ and danny.. keep your offensive players on the field when your in search for goals and put them into positions where they can excel.
I just wanna see Danny K score. He doesn't deserve to play on the worst team in the world. If he can have a great year to seal his ticket outta this mess.........good on him.
Gawd, I can't believe it's come to this.
King Koev' scores and celebrates with de Guzman.
Agreed. It wasn't dynamic enough in midfield. I'm guessing he used the flat midfield as Philly are on a roll right now, and they are at home playing with confidence. It definitely didn't work, though. It worked to an extent for England in the Euro cos it was a neutral venue and one off style games. But in the league, away from home, its asking for trouble and sucking too much posession back onto your defense. That doesn't work, unless you have the best defense in the league (TFC definitely don't!).
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