^ Yeah you're right..good eye..Pirlo was behind lifting the player. Have never seen that before in a wall.
^ Yeah you're right..good eye..Pirlo was behind lifting the player. Have never seen that before in a wall.
Pirlo was, for all intents and purposes, by far the worst player on the field yesterday. Incredible to watch a guy that talented literally lose the ability to run at anything faster than a snail's pace.
It'll be very interesting to see that team next year with two new elite DP signings.
NYCFC tried to copy what Rapids did to get a point, to bunker and counter. Except NYCFC is a possession based team and they don't have speed for effective counters. Pirlo was a liability in the centre of the midfield and no Herrera was a bonus for TFC. And having Altidore meant Giovinco wasn't isolated and NYCFC couldn't ignore the wingbacks so there was more space for TFC on attack. I guess the lesson here is, stick to your team's strength.
It's good to see Giovinco was able to take over the game, even if TFC didn't have the best game overall.
“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
Pirlo's hand on that guys back is barely lifting the guy. Also chalking up our win to Pirlo's mediocrity is pretty unfaor to our squad. NYC came out hard the first 15 minutes and we weren't at our best all game yet we still managed to dismantle them..that's a comprehensive victory.
Apologies if this has been posted already. I havent read through the thread since the game.
Interview with Vieira after the match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzMsTp9y63Y
There's been a theme of blaming the refs for losses (and in fairness, the refs can be pretty bad sometimes) but Vieira comes into this interview and basically says "We were outplayed, they have a great side, we need to improve"
Guy just got some respect from me.
“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
Pirlo knew where Seba was going.
Just as Seba knew where Pirlo wanted to go and called Moor back to cover that post.
Years on the training ground together.
It seemed more like 25 minutes that they were pressing hard... but once we stopped trying to force it up the left (to Vasquez and Morrow) and gave Edwards some opportunity, NYCFC had to spread out again and that's what created the space for Gio's first.
In the second half after the second goal we were content to let them possess and just kept them mostly outside.
I thought we played well but pirlo's lack of speed really lobsided the result. If you don't have mobility in the centre of a MLS midfield and some steel you are flat out dead.
We did an excellent job limiting Villa, quiet day for him.
Zavs had him in his pocket all game. It's crazy how much he's improved since two seasons ago. Not the most athletic CB but I'd put him and Moor up as our best CB's. He gets caught out of position only once every couple games. His performance during the final last year was one of the best single performances by any tfc player ever.
Who cares if Pirlo sucked. TFC exposed a weakness and capitalized. Thats what good teams do.
TFC won because Seba dominated the game and was on all 4 goals. Had very little to do with Pirlo, who wasn't as bad as everyone is making it seem.
The focus will be on Seba. And for the first 30 minutes, NYC had the ball but had no penetration. Veirra said as much after the game. That's a team defence thing. And Villa was basically marked out of the game. I give a lot of credit to the back line, especially Edwards and Zaveleta who held Silva in check where he likes to operate.
Gallery for this game now available on my site : http://viewfromthesouthstands.com/gallery/ 100+ images including all 4 goals even if the ones in the south end are somewhat obscured by the inebriatti flags !
There are games when xG doesn't tell you how things worked out.
The Mavinga tackle barely moved the xG. The second Seba goal didn't move it at all.
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/11tegen11/status/892091743486738434
mmm expected goals model doesn't always tell you the whole story, even with larger sample sizes. our xGD says we should be a middling playoff team, which is better than it was a couple of weeks ago when said we were a borderline playoff team.
still a useful tool in general though.
Pirlo was hitting all kinds of passes in the first 10-15 minutes. Defensively he was suspect, but the whole of NYCFC were even more suspect. You can't expect 1 player to carry an entire team in that situation.
I'm starting to seem like a Pirlo fanboy but I'm not. I was watching how they were trying to mark Seba out of the game. When the ball went to our right Pirlo tracked the ball and their #8 came in to shaddow Seba. When it went left #8 went with the ball and Pirlo immediately got into seba's personal space. On the first goal #8 didn't do his job and when Pirlo realized it (as the pass was coming in) he had no time to recover marking someone twice as fast as him from 10 yards out. They had a good plan but it fell apart on a few occasions. We know what that's like. Though Pirlo gets dangled on the move I would place blame on their other mid (#8, not sure what his name is).
heck yes. they were cramping and dropping out there. LOL
Pirlo caption - "doh. no Chiellini or Buffon back there....we're screwed."
http://viewfromthesouthstands.com/ga...cdde9a73_b.jpg
I was watching Pirlo a lot this match cos I figured it may be the last time I got to see him play - I'm no Pirlo fan, but I respect what he's done in the past and he still has those little bits of magic in him - reminds me of Frings last season with us - although I think Pirlo has more legs left than Torsten did.
For the first 10-15 minutes they looked like they had this game all planned out. I thought they would have had a couple guys work the midfield and then pass to Pirlo who would just serve it to the forwards - which he was doing - but then the other mids just disappeared. - This plan fizzled out quick and Pirlo was just in no mans land.
He tried to occupy Gio's space in the 2nd half - for large chunks of the half gio and Pirlo were occupying the same space, but Pirlo just ran out of gas
#8 was Ring. He had a great first half of the season but has been regressing a bit since then.
Their midfield pressing/rotation is completely thrown off when Pirlo plays instead of Herrera. Herrera covers more ground than pretty much everyone in the league which really helps NYCFC specifically because of their style. He would have, for instance, absolutely shut down the lane Seba had on his first goal. We're lucky he didn't play yesterday or it might have been a very different game. Having Pirlo in there instead of a classic destroyer like Herrera forces Ring and Moralez to do a lot more work covering lanes defensively, which in turn threw off their whole shape. We exploited it well, but that's not the NYCFC we're gonna see come the playoffs.
Can we all just enjoy yesterday's impressive four-nill victory over a close rival that gave our side distance in the Supporter's Shield and NOT nit pick on any negatives some over observed? The self flagellation is just too much.
TORONTO FC, 2017 MLS CHAMPIONS!!! (Still the greatest in league history!)