Early Season Results

[barticusz]

Just looking over the start to this season. 1-0-3. Not great, but we've had stretches of great play and we're controlling games on the road.. Our record is what is is, but some would argue that we should have won the RSL game if not for incompetant referring and we were our own enemies against Chicago. All is not lost.

Last year we started 3-0-1 and we all know what happened there. The difference was that we escaped with a victory in Seattle, while getting trounced in RSL, barely beating DC united who had over 60% possession of the ball. And we played an excellent road game in Columbus.. after that.. 3 straight losses, two of which were at home.

I just feel positive about our start and have faith that we'll come around. The fact that for the first time in our history we're causing teams to play our style at away is very exciting to me. I hope that this will translate into a positive spell at home where we'll have a more refined product in May. If we can get Caldwell and Perquis back that will only help us. Even if it is only one of them. There's lots of time left and our attack has looked very creative.

Dallas, Orlando and Philadelphia remain on our 7 game road trip. 2 wins are a real possibility still however, if we can come way with a 1-1-1 record to finish the road trip with a 2 - 1 - 4 record I wouldn't be all that displeased.

Last year we had 4w - 5d - 8l on the road. It is what we do at home which will matters most in this league.

[MartinUtd]

I'm not in panic mode, far from it. But there's definitely reasons to be concerned (namely the fragility of our back line).

Either way it's too early for evaluations. If we're on 1 point/game after 10 then we can start talking about the sky falling.

[Pookie]

No need to panic. MLS took a page from the CFL.

It's the new MLS, now with 10% more playoff qualification.

[barticusz]

hahah good point pookie. I used to make fun of the CFL for that all the time. "CFL Playoffs, where everyone's invited!"..

[Cashcleaner]

I'm not in panic mode, far from it. But there's definitely reasons to be concerned (namely the fragility of our back line).

Either way it's too early for evaluations. If we're on 1 point/game after 10 then we can start talking about the sky falling.

Can't argue with any of that. And truth be told, I think last match was an aberration. Even including last year's squad, I don't think we've had a team as offensively powerful as this one. We just need to get the defense working on all four cylinders, now.

[Ultra & Proud]

I will continue to be very worried until I see that Vanney & staff can identify our readily visible problems and then come up with some solutions to fix those problems. Staying the course and getting flogged by the same means for 4 matches in a row has me questioning a lot of things right now.

[TFC07]

CFL playoffs is so Canadian where no one is left out. So it's nice to see MLS adopt Canadian way for once.


TFC is good backline and goalkeeper away becoming a very good team in the league. Hopefully TFC is able to fix backline and goalkeeping issues before home opener.

[GuelphStorm2007]

They are more or less where I thought they would be. I was a bit disappointed with the effort in Chicago but I was pleased with the post game comments of our Manager. I think TFC are a bit better than last year but we are still making brain fart decsions in the back. which our manager said in his post game interview and that needs to worked on. Even our attack seems to be a bit slow. Afer 4 games Seba is the real deal, and Morgan has been a pleasant surprise.

[MightyDM]

Interesting that our Goalie says we are being beaten on the counter and our Manager says we are not.

[TheGoodson]

IMO the problem isn't the formation that we are playing it is that Vanney insists on playing players out of their natural positions... This is not FIFA on PS4 or XBOX you can't excpect players to perform to their optimum if they are in roles that are not accustom to.

Vanney needs to do the following:

Bench Creavelle he is not a right back and will never be, he has no postional awareness and does not know when to jump into the attack or stay back and shift to cover the field. Replace him with Bloom

Clearly define roles in the midfield, you can't have Bradely, Cheryou and Osorio all be double pivots as they all have their limitations. Cheryou has zero speed so if he jumps in to the attack he can't recover when we turn over the ball. Osorio is terrible defensively, he needs to sit and watch a bit to understand and be taught what is required of him defensively. Look at Russel Tiebert in Vancouver his game as evolved and and has become more of a complete player this is my expectations of how Osorio should develop. Bradley needs to be told to reign in his game, he is not superman he can not do everything himself. He seems to be pressing or trying to do too much. Simplfy his game and be the player that he was with Roma and when he played for the US prior to the world cup last year.


Have Altidore play consitently in the middle, it is frustrating to watch him come back deep to get balls and help out defensively or play out wide, when he is the player that should be leading the forward line. He caused soo much havoc in Vancouver playing through the middle.

Bench Findley and put in Dike. Findley does not add anything to the team, doesn't put in an effort to help defensively and is a blackhole going forward. To my previous point if they want Altidore to be a tad more free and not play as number 9 then Dike is the logical person to enter into the line up.

Start to transition Morgan into a winger, he is barely adequate defensively to be a LB, but he has pace and can whip in a ball better then most players on the team. He could be cover as LB, but would also be able to play as LM/LW. I'm not sure why no coach has ever thought of this as he has potential to be a capable MLS player just not as LB.

Hopefully, we can get at least a win and a draw from the next 3 games before we have our home opener.

[Detroit_TFC]

I would like to see Dike and Altidore play together, let Altidore be the mobile forward since he will do that anyway as we've seen, and Dike can be the guy camped out in front.

[Areathrasher]

Dike 100% needs to come in for Findley.

Unleash the Dike!!

[Beach_Red]

No need to panic. MLS took a page from the CFL.

It's the new MLS, now with 10% more playoff qualification.

Just think of it as a regular season with a trophy and then a champions league with (almost all) the same teams.