Best effort of the season.
Best effort of the season.
When Seba is going, we are a good team.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
Ricketts was effective. Could be a solid addition to our attack, and he plays hard defensively.
The chance that Ricketts missed .. Hamilton scores that 9 times out of 10. Just sayin'.
Can't miss chances like that if you want Seba to pass to you.
what you see is what you get with ricketts...hard working guy.but will miss a boat load of chances
We won 4-1. It was glorious to be there. Analysis can wait one night while I sleep with a smile.
that was such a great game for giovinco to come out and get the monkey off his back, would have been cool to see him do that in North America lol, overall its looking like we can be a playoff team and that is all I want at this point, alot of clever movement today with players getting passes and spinning to open up and pass, I like that, and the goalie was pretty good for the most part, made some nice sliding saves, great time great game
does anybody know how many giovinco got? im too lazy to check, goals that is, was it 2 or 3?
The vikings chant was pretty sweet too lol
Last edited by pawlukj; 07-23-2016 at 10:51 PM.
It was a really enjoyable game to be at. Seba's Magic returned, Cheyrou was immense, and Chapman good, particularly going forward. However, there was at least ten minutes in the first half, and probably fifteen in the second, that we were all over the place defensively and could easily have given up a second goal. Endoh, although he works hard, was often out of position defensively - he failed to shut down his man on DC's first goal - Cheyrou went to speak with him right after, and Moor and Morrow both made defensive errors. Although Bono made good plays, he again made significant errors, they just did not lead to goals.
we looked liked conceding until Vanney made the subs. Full credit to Ricketts and Altidore for opening DC up, it was totally one way traffic which led to Sebas goal. It's going to be interesting to see selections and tactics from here in because there are now options.
Absolute master class from Giovinco tonight. I think he's back people..... Benoit Cheyrou besides Giovinco has been our best player this season. Man is he fucken smooth and can kill you with a well delivered ball. Missed that screamer by like half a foot. The good for me was Seba (of course), Cheyrou, Endoh, Zavaleta, Altidore and Ricketts were both very active subs. Ricketts has to be used like this to be effectful. Bring him on with 15-20 to go to run at tired defenders. He is actually quite smarts with the timing of his runs. It's his touch and shot that lets him down. Will be an effectful sub. The bad: Chapman (i wanted to strangle him at points of the game. Gives the ball away way to easily.) and Morrow (completely out to lunch in the first half defensively). Moor and Morrow were at fault for their only goal. Hamilton had a decent game. That dummy he gave Gio for the 2nd goal off the post was disgusting. Huge 3 points and a must 3 points next Sunday against the Crew!!
We looked so much bigger once Jozy and Ricketts went up front in a 4-3-3 with Giovinco.
We missed Altidore. His link up play is deadly, and the guy can move and create space like crazy.
Too early to be judging Ricketts, but it does look promising.
Giovinco was a monster tonight.
Smashed 'em 4-1!
Jozy Altidore's quality was noticeable tonight when he came in. Nice touch, nice hold up and nice play. Ricketts looks like he'll get a lot of chances and frustrate us, but probably score a few. Getting Bradley and Johnson bad with Altidore will make us very dangerous. Even a rusty Altidore made us a much more dangerous offensive team. I just hope he gets a goal or two to get his confidence up.
Great 3 pts. Glad that the boys were able to bounce back from such a terrible result vs SJ. Getting Giovinco out of his funk is massive.
On the other side, this DCU side was basically an NASL side with a lot of their key starters out. They are horrid, even when they have their key starters in. Plus playing them at home, not taking 3 pts would have been disastrous.
Lucky to get DCU after SJ fiasco. Let's build on this and make this 4 game home stand count.
“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
Getting Alti back and adding Ricketts was a nice boost. Could be a nice momentum maker as each player comes back in to play. We are developing our depth players through this piece and that is going to be huge later on. Only blemish was Moor on the goal - that was brutal.
OK, DCU are crud and their midfield is a shambles so I suppose we shouldn't take too much out of this game but
gosh that was fun.
I like Hamilton, a lot. He dummies well, competes for everything in the air and links up well with Seba. But he's no Jozy Alitdore. It was funny because Altidore came on and somebody around me said "He's TFC's Hesky." We all laughed. And then he had 3 touches on the ball after coming back deep and I said "Uh, Hesky can't do that." We forget just how good he can be with ball to his feet. I would love to see a 4-3-3 with Ricketts on the left, Jozy on the right and Seba up top.
Ricketts played well. Looked the part of an MLS forward. Got into spaces, laid the ball off well, moved forward with pace, made a nuisance of himself, had to be accounted for...and missed a shot. On that outing, he looks better then Oduro.
Seba was really good at laying balls off. He is comfortable with Hamilton now, really comfortable with Altidore and was finding space with Ricketts.
The best bit about the midfield is when they got the ball, they went forward. I think Larson posted our possession in the first half was around 36% but did anybody notice? When we had the ball, we moved it at pace, as against swinging it around the back all the time. Even Delgado didn't do his usual look to pass it back thing. Admittedly, DCU's midfield is not very good but this season we havn't taken advantage of teams like this. Chapman is good in games like this (apart from the one time in the second half when we had a potential 3 on 1 break and he hoofed it out instead) cause he can see runners. Endoh had a solid game and found space for himself - still not sure how he created the space for himself on that shot.
Moor on that goal was a shocker, but did anybody else notice how Cheyrou went immediately to Endoh and told him he had to get more pressure on the pass in? I think that was Cheyrou's best game for us. He could sit back and didn't have to pull all the strings. And his ability to get out of a press is really useful.
Defence did good - amazing what happens when you have a consistent back 4. They were not pressed which made it easier. Morrow and Beitashour didn't have to go forward all the time which made it easier to stay solid and ready for their attacks. Sure Moor made one bad play but given everything else he does and did, I'll give him that. Zaveletta had a good game picking out the available midfielder.
Bono - still scares me occasionally but he's a good shot stopper and goes up for crosses with authority. And the lad can hoof the ball to a specific spot, which is more then I can say for anybody we had before Irwin.
All in all, the sort of game we should be getting against a team like this.
Each goal was highlight level.
The dummy, the free kicks, and altidores turn on the ball for blooms sweet cross
At the end of the game, all the players were celebrating a little with smiles on their faces and then Vanney comes trucking onto the field and starts arguing with Seba. WTF was that all about?
To be fair it did look like arguing, though it could have just been him getting feedback on if he was okay or got bruised up.
It seems to me it was about how he brought others into the game more.
I initially wasn't too thrilled with the Rickkets acquisition but early on it seems like his presence is going to be beneficial, obviously he has to work on his finishing, but as along as he plays smart and has good off the ball movement it could work out quite well for us.
Last edited by Richard; 07-24-2016 at 11:16 AM.
This.
Ricketts will frustrate us with misses, but there will be so many opportunities that he will still end up with a not insignificant number of points. He always gets in position to get those chances. (Plus he is very defensively responsible.)
As a frequent watcher of our Nats, I'm always stunned that he gets the start, and yet he still is close to de Rosario in goals per cap (.24 vs .27). On Floro's team (that plays a very defensive game), he scored 5 goals in 12 games last year.
More generally, I thought that he, Jozy and Gio looked immediately dangerous. That last half hour was fun. I'm particularly glad that Gio got a goal in run of play, after scoring twice on set pieces and hitting the post.
Also, I really liked Chapman. His desire to turn forwards is a nice change from Oso's tendency to lay the pass back. Yes there were giveaways, but he also made some great passes forward, especially to Hamilton.
Thought it was noticeable that Vanney very quickly came out onto the field after the final whistle and paid respect to the fans. He almost never does that.the four or five guys who went down into the bunker to celebrate after full time was interesting too.
I think we really got the monkey off our back with this one. I'm betting we win out on this homestand. The young guys looked really good and our top players - bar Bradley Johnson and Irwin - are all coming back into shape and form. Exciting times. sad I'll miss next weekends game.
I'm pretty sure Osorio just lost his spot to Chapman.
This kid just seems to make quicker, and mentally sharper decisions than Osorio.