Song where the lines I quoted come from. Yes, its a surfing allusion. Love this film.
Song where the lines I quoted come from. Yes, its a surfing allusion. Love this film.
I guess we will find out just how good the roof is? Rainy...
“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
So far Weather Network is saying it most likely won't rain after about 4pm on Saturday.Originally Posted by Yohan
Be interesting if this goes ahead; not sure Oso is really a two-way player.
same position he played all of last year.
This should be our starting lineup with this formation, like every time. Brilliant!
I'm feeling confident with this match. I think we may see Jozy breakout in this one. The caps are missing too many key pieces. Watson being out completely opens the door for Seba and Jozy. On a side note it's a shame what happened to Kudo but man what a hit. I'm calling 3-0 TFC.
Whitecaps will likely bunker and attempt to hit on the counter - if we maintain discipline in the midfield, we should boss this game. Expect a lot of probing. The keys to this game will be scoring early and the movement of Johnson, Osorio and Endoh. We have the patience and passing quality to get through their 9 man bunker.
I may be in the minority on this but the guy you really need to contain on the whitecaps is Techera, to me he is their most dangerous player.
I dropped this over in the news section, thought I'd leave it here as well. Altidore getting his first this weekend could be a storyline. But Bradley says you probably don't understand the game if you can't see how much Altidore is contributing. Thoughts? http://www.torontosun.com/2016/05/13...altidores-game
We didn't play a diamond 'all last year', we alternated between several looks. And he played wide several times, too; his skill set is offensive. His defensive work is awful.
Oso was unlucky with the injury after the Montreal game. I think he's earned that no. 10 spot more than Endoh who will be more effective out wide.
Defensively worse than Delgado? Endoh has the advantage of also having finishing skills, takes attention away from Giovinco when we have 3 offensive threats up top.
We played a diamond for a majority of the season and that's where he was most effective. He played well in the diamond beside somoene like Warner who offset his defensive shortcomings, with a DM behind to protect the back four. We've upgraded both those spots this year. If we're looking to open up and play more proactively now that we're at home, the first place to do that is the shutter position, where we don't necessarily need two Defense first guys. It makes sense to have two guys who balance each other out in terms of skill set rather than having two guys do the same job.
Oso is better suited for possession and distributing, Endoh has better movement and will actually run at attackers. Too early to say who is better for the #10 spot and I think it also depends on the opponent. Nice to have these options though.
He is playing well, he is contributing but he needs to bury some of the chances he is getting.
Yeah, I can buy that argument. We haven't really played even-steven up to now though, we've had six guys watching the defensive and middle zones and four attacking. We've also had very little offensive production outside Seba.
I thought this would be the case, but Endoh had easily his best performance of the year playing centrally last game. Who knows, maybe it turns out he's better in the middle than out wide. I think it certainly gives him more chances to run in this team in particular, since we really don't use the flanks like a lot of other MLS teams do. He made that goal for himself last week by sprinting up the pitch as soon as the ball was turned over, there's no way Osorio would have done the same.
I hope we do trot out that projected lineup. I said I'd like to see it after the last match but I didn't think it would come so soon, but with Delgado questionable it looks like it will probably happen. I think it's a good lineup for home games where we're expected to have more possession and carry the play. Having Osorio in helps break down teams that are set up to bunker and counter, but we still have Johnson and Bradley doing their jobs defensively. On the road against a strong opponent I think I'd be more partial to Delgado starting instead of Osorio, at least for now.
Endoh may have had more freedom to attack since we were at home but i will say that Endoh attacking more allowed seba up to go wide and set up the attack. Both Endoh and Oso have looked their best as the AM but i think Oso would do better at LM than Endoh and he already has built in chemistry with Seba.
Probably for another thread but when Bradley leaves do we slot Johnson into the DM role, if Cheyrou is ready is it him or do we need to change our tactics?
I don't think Endoh's effectiveness in the final third will get hampered if he is shifted to a wide position. Because of his incredible engine, I still think he'll be a pest with his runs. The only difference is he'll be the fourth runner instead of the third.
But Endoh was frequently running in front of Jozy while playing centrally like that (like for his goal, for example), and that may cause problems if they can't get that sorted.
Personally I'll be happy to see him out wide filling in for Delgado with Oso back centrally.
My thoughts? Just win.
Game Day
He's helping but if the team wasn't playing well as a whole this performance would be heavily under the spotlight.
If this unit defensively starts to revert back to the mean (and by no stretch is that a criticism, just a thought after a run of excellent defensive play) we'll need those missing goals.
It's too early to be crowning Endoh as a good finisher since he has only played a handful of games. It's all about consistency and only time will tell, although he does look promising. Some people here make the mistake of micro-analyzing players and judging them on a few plays. You need to look at the big picture.
As for the game, TFC should have no problem taking the full 3 points. It's all in their favor.
I'm just not sure what the defensive mean is for this team.
3 of the 4 defenders are proven all star quality, the 4th is playing like he was for Poland, the goalie is the most consistent keeper in MLS not named Rimando and the DM is the captain of the USMNT. The defensive quality this team has shown in the first 1/4 of the season is unheard of in MLS. You just don't see this consistency in this league because teams don't spend the money or the training time to do so.
They are bound to have days off and we've actually already seen it with Morrow on a couple of games and that first goal in Portland was a Perquis boo boo.
Its a long way to go but I can't help but think that GM's are going to start to notice and consider investing a bit more in defence. Which would be good for this league cause by and large MLS defences are weak.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 05-14-2016 at 07:46 AM.
We are averaging less than a goal per game conceded. Only a handful of MLS teams have done this within the last five years. We would not be starting the trend of having a solid defensive unit.
Regardless, my larger point was dancing around a striker not putting the ball in the net is harder to do when the results aren't there. His performances are being framed by the team's success. If he did exactly the same thing and we weren't getting results it would be a different story.
Last edited by ag futbol; 05-14-2016 at 08:47 AM.
If that were true, we would have regressed to the mean somewhere on our road trip. Given the amount of home games we have and the personnel, maybe you should reevaluate.
He is major contributor to our success though. During the Montreal game for example, he cut off passing lanes and relentlessly pressed Donadel causing a disconnect with their front 4. Donadel had to drop deeper and wider to create space for himself where he then lumped balls to Drogba. Offensively, he then drew the winning penalty to win the game. We don't get that result without Altidore.Regardless, my larger point was dancing around a striker not putting the ball in the net is harder to do when the results aren't there. His performances are being framed by the team's success. If he did exactly the same thing and we weren't getting results it would be a different story.
Seba scored 2 goals vs montreal. The result is clearly from Seba, regardless of the PK.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote