^ I agree.
I was going to say, and this goes a bit counter to what I have also perceived as a lack of concetration, that at times our players seem to be so anxious at not conceeding, that they follow the play so closely, that what they end up doing is ball watching, you see them all staring in the direction of the play, forgetting to be mindfull of the players around them, and so often leaving space and/or compleltely open players.
We need a fucking exorcist and a vodoo practitioner.
Last edited by Richard; 04-20-2013 at 05:20 PM.
Here we go again. Nelson must act immediately. This is a real problem.
When it's happening with this kind of frequency over the years, with an endless list of names, surely we must be doing this on purpose.
Gross
surely fitness is a big component for teams who consistently concede in the dying mins, and BTW we have been doing this for a couple of seasons. Obviously mental strength is another component, the same way for yrs on end Man Utd continually grab late winning goals. I was very concerned at how tired Silva looked in this game
I guess this week the player who initially won the headed corner having pushed himself up off the shoulders of, and simultaneously held down his marker had nothing to do with it.
It's an interesting list for reference purposes Armen but it means very little with respect to what is going on right now. Different coaches, different players (in the main) therefore part of our history but not part of our present. All that matters is 2013.
Originally Posted by ArmenJBX
Oh, I understand that. I posted that just for reference. I loved our performance today. It was a demonstration in the fundamentals of football. Results will come, and I think remembering that we went 0-9 this time last year is a good barometer of how much we have improved.
I do agree with you. The team did many, many things right today. The ball movement was the best we've seen this year most certainly. In terms of the little things, I loved Emery's sublime ball to Braun who's glancing header was very well saved by their keeper.
Agreed. I was going to post, TFC needs a staff shaman!
This is a nightmare. This should happen at most twice a season, not once a week (almost). Very worried the squad is now stuck on this and are going to make mistakes trying to over-focus to not make a mistake.
TFC is loads better than last year but we're not getting the benefit of building confidence because of these stoppage time setbacks.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-699704.html
Moderator
Agreed. Firstly, I think we have to acknowledge that there is more than a little bad luck going on here. This, my friends, is the epitome of a trend. We are completely losing our shit in the dying minutes. Los Angeles, Philly, and now Houston have all come from behind and scored equalizers in stoppage time - that's 3 games so far and we've only played 7 in the season! The chances of this happening is astronomically slim when you count up the minutes.
Now, I don't know what can be done on the coaching side of things, but I think you're absolutely right that the squad's morale has been dealt a blow by these results and it could very well affect us in future matches. I don't know what can be done to tackle the problem, but it's imperative Nelsen gets a grip on the matter.
Did the USA , of all countries, just fix soccer? - C. Ronaldo, May 27th commenting on the FBI-led investigations into fraud and corruption throughout FIFA.
This is just beyond ridiculous.
As a coach, there isn't a lot you can do to train for this. It is the result of the pressure of a game, long and hard fought, and the result of a few bad decisions in sequence by tired players who are not at their best for making decisions.
A bad play by Braun (the pass back) to Henry, who turns the ball over, leading to the swing of play into our zone. The bench is yelling to push the ball into the corner, 100m from goal, and Braun tries instead to maintain possession. Henry rushes the pass, right to the opposition. O'Dea tries to waste time, but instead concedes a corner. Poor positioning on defending for it.
Once, bad luck. Twice, there's an issue. Three times in a short period of time and Houston, we have a problem. Nelsen's post game comments indicate his frustration. What can you do?
Despite the changes and improvements, we still find ourselves one game away from the wooden spoon. With the same symptoms this team has suffered since inception. I'm terrified that this is as good as it gets.
The issue against Houston wasn't closing out the last minute, it was the intensity throughout the whole game. TFC exploded at the start of the second half, got the goal, got a red card - then their intensity lowered rapidly. At that point TFC "should" have gone on to score at least 1 or 2 more goals to close out the game. There is ALWAYS the danger that if you go into the final minutes with only one goal lead, that the oposition will get a chance. TFC needed to close the game earlier by being a couple of goals in the lead, especially with an extra man on the field. You can't keep going into injury time with only a one goal lead, that's extremely dangerous in any football game.
Having said that, on another day, TFC would have scored 3 goals and would be easily in the lead against Houston - TFC had more than enough chances before they lowered intensity to finsih off that game by the 60th minute. Hitting the bar, post, good saves by Hall etc, they had their chances, they just needed to finish them off.
I don't understand where this "we took the foot off the gas after the red card" is coming from. Directly after the card was Earnshaw's bicycle, then 5 minutes later Braun had his diving header saved, then 10 minutes after that Earnshaw hit the post. We never slowed down. We were on top of them all match. We just didn't finish our chances.
Yes, well said. A couple of bad decisions lost us the full three.
Not just a couple of bad decisions - football is a very fine-line sport - as I said in another thread - if that goal was 6 inches higher and wider, TFC would have scored around 6 goals! Nobody would care if we concede that one goal if we score 6! TFC just need to stop going into the last minute 1 goal in the lead, that's a dangerous thing to do!
It's a little more than scoring more than one goal, as Dallas showed, when they were 2-0 up.
It's about seeing the game out. The game is played in three different philosophies; Start strong, score the goal, finish the game. Everything else is variables and factors that have to be overcome. The method, the style, the formation, the situations (red cards, injuries, etc) are all variables. The basic skeleton of the game is to start, score and finish.
Toronto has usually struggled with the variables as well as the key focuses. This isn't the case anymore. Toronto has improved tremendously in the execution of the game plan. Now they just need to see the whole plan through.
What I mean though, is that you can't keep going into the final minute just one goal ahead! You HAVE to score more than 1 goal. Scoring 1 goal per game is never going to bring success. You HAVE to score more. Teams ALWAYS get one chance sometime in a game. If you go into the final minute and the opponent hasn't had that chance, the law of averages usually means that they will still get a chance, its inevitable in football.
I undestand what you mean, but just going into the final minute over and over with just a one goal advantage is asking for trouble. TFC had more than enough chances yesterday to be 3 or 4 goals ahead going into injury time. It was frustrating the manner in which TFC dominated for vast portions of the game, and yet still couldn't convert that domination into goals. In the end, its goals that win games, not posession or chances or domination. TFC needed to convert their chances, and they had enough chances to win 5 games yesterday!
Exactly. We've fallen into this pattern of going up by a goal, and then moving into defense mode and hoping for the best. Right after Hall scored, i noticed the entire team visibly move their lines back. I don't know if Nelsen is instructing the team to do this, or if it's just psychological, but it's a bullshit tactic that never works. Even during the KC game, we were lucky as hell that they didn't tie it up in the last few minutes.
I've got a valid question to put forth to all of you. If Earnshaw had of netted a goal instead of hitting the cross bar (We're using the Houston match for reference) and ontop of that Hall's strike from 25 out. That puts us 2-0 up. Would we have conceded two late goals?
Maybe we just need to score more LOL.
We need to get louder the last 10 minutes of games...everyone was getting nervous and quieter. If we truly are the " 12 man" we need to step up the support
even the best teams in the world struggle to hold onto leads if they go into the final minutes only leading by one goal. I remember Man Utd at home to Crawley 3 years ago, Man Utd went up 1 goal, but the last few minutes were manic with tiny Crawley pushing hard and Man Utd kicking balls off the line. TFC just don't yet have the defensive quality to hold out that lead in the MLS. You really have to rely heavily on your defence if you think you can scrape out a one goal win. TFC really had to put their chances away yesterday to go into the final minutes. Until they can do that, they will always struggle to hold onto a win.
No, I don't think we give up 2 in stoppage. If we were up by 2 yesterday, I think we still give a late one but not 2. And I'm afraid that if we continue to give up the late goal regardless if results in dropped points, it will continue to compound the problem.
Jings, I don't know you but I think I love you :-D
Why?
Because right or not, Jings just threw out the ONLY solution that we can implicate.
Jings, I am with you man, last 10 minutes we get a loud as possible! Next week let's build a roof then blow that mother fucker off!
I like this idea. Something must change towards the 85th minute to resolve the 90-min complex.....
A 2-goal lead, vs. a 10-man Houston team, that wasn't playing very well even when they 11 on the field, and that was missing some of their best players by the end of the game -- I think it's more than likely that the win would have held. But you never know.
In any case, it's hard to expect perfection from our defense, even more so when all your best fullbacks are out, and when you're still missing one or two top players in defensive midfield. The late collapse was awful, but we have to realize: 1) overall TFC played better yesterday than vs. KC at the dome, just less lucky this time; 2) offence has to do their part to pot a few goals.
Those aren't the only problems for sure, but still part of the picture.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote