So Mavinga gone for 3 games then.
So Mavinga gone for 3 games then.
What the hell just happened.
Atlanta United remind me of Manchester City with their favourable media coverage. Methinks they might be paying off the journalists in the U.S. and beyond for positive coverage.
Well that was a deserved red card but the one minute short of time is ridiculous.
Final score: TFC 2 - ATL 1 + refs 1 = 2
Notwithstanding I felt we were outplayed for large portions of the game.
Zavs at CB has become a farsical exercise ... like Crewvalle at RB a few seasons ago heading towards Adam Braz levels. A smouldering tire fire.
Last edited by ag futbol; 08-04-2018 at 05:16 PM.
What did Mavinga do? My stream cut out.
Oh Mavinga, that is just bad. He's going to get suspended for sure. Could be more than 3 games.
Proud of Mavinga, TFC need more grit and spine. Too bad we will miss him for a game (assume August 12?)... but Atlanta needs to respect TFC far more than they do.... and that soft penalty call seemed to inspire Bono for the rest of the game.
I wouldn't say comprehensively. It's true Atlanta were in control for the majority of the game, but we weren't too scrambly for most of it – just some of it. And we did do enough to get the two goals.
Poaching a road draw like that against the best team in the league is a great result.
Hopefully they can prove Mavinga was goaded and he only gets 1 game or something.
I would say that it's mainly from the midfield. Our midfield is thrown out of balance when we have Bradley, Osorio, and Vazquez together. Neither Osorio nor Vazquez are defensively adept, and Bradley is poor at anchoring the midfield. You can see how uncertain the defence looked whenever Almiron/Villalba received the ball in space in the midfield.
Delgado is crucial for us in this aspect as he fills up those spaces and supports Bradley. However, I can understand why Vanney would not want to move away from a back 3 given our defenders' + Bradley's individual weaknesses. I still think we need a proper midfield anchor to solve this problem. A good defensive midfield does a world of good for any defence, and we seriously need that.
Atlanta had at least 3 "guy right in front of the net with only Bono to beat" moments.
We were lucky to only be down 1 when Martino decided to take his foot off the gas but not help out his backline. Great fightback - stolen point. Looking at the schedule, Mavinga out for 2 games would be OK - NY is enivitable & I'm not sure he would be traveling to San Jose.
Well that’s a problem certainly but it seems like every plan Zavaletta is running his hardest just to keep up with a guy jogging beside him.
This was their most difficult game on paper the rest of the season (along with @Portland), a Tie in this situation is massive (I told anyone who would listen that I would be ecstatic to get a Tie from this game) — sometimes you need to scramble to steal points the way other teams did against us earlier in the year (like the Chicago 2-2 game in April that felt like a loss to us)....we need to win almost all our home games (give or take one or two ties - 16-18 points from 7 home games), and get some road Wins/Ties (maybe 8-9 points from the 5 road games) to have a shot at the playoffs (47-50 points?!).
Idiotic by Mavinga, but insane that Perez is allowed to run at Mavinga from half to start a confrontation
TFC has one more against Atlanta this season. The Ref influenced the game rather than calling it.
before this game 25 points were reasonably needed to make the playoffs That meant 7 wins 4 ties 1 loss or 8 wins 1 tie 4 loses would do the trick.
Now we need 24 points that is 7 wins 3 ties 1 loss or 8 wins 1 loss.
Against one of the strongest teams in the league. Losing Mavinga though may be the nail in the coffin. He and Morrow seem to have had a major impact on the defensive line. Both are really needed to keep things working. Jozy is a big help too. TFC avoided most of the mistakes that have cost them this year (the PK came technically with in 10 minutes of half but it was a bad call Bono got the ball and the fall was super staged) The Ref seemed to have a particular bias.. which is no surprise.
However.. 8 wins should be the focus right now.
Definitely, that's a problem in itself. We can't afford to play a high line with Zavaleta at the back. Hagglund's quicker, but even he's not quick enough for a high line. If we are to continue on like this, we'll either need to implement a high-pressing system (which Vanney isn't capable of), or get pacier defenders. This might be why he plays van der Wiel there as he does have the recovery pace that no one else has other than Mavinga.
A point is better than nothing I guess, however given the opponent, venue, and the way the game unfolded,it feels more like a point gained rather than two dropped. I always felt throughout the game we were likely to get something on the counter despite the fact AU dominated for large spells. We have reason to complain about the penalty imho, as there can be no doubt Martinez threw himself. If the league wants to cut out all this flopping about by players then that’s the sort of call that should go for the defensive team. I thought Bono was absolutely heroic today. As for Mavinga I thought he tried to push the player and unfortunately caught him on the face. A red card sure, but it wasn’t a punch or a slap imo, and I hope the league takes that into account when deciding his punishment. We still have a fighting chance of a playoff spot but Vanney has to prioritize next week’s game against NY over the Canada cup tie in midweek.
With Mavinga's red card, he better be in the starting lineup vs. Vancouver.
Looks like they're going to play their best 11 in the first leg because they're starting a bunch of bench players vs. NY right now.
I would not be surprised if jozy got a retroactive red too. He grabbed some guy by the throat just before the camera turned away to focus on the Mavinga incident. At least that’s what it looked like for the brief time it was on tv.
Last edited by flambe; 08-04-2018 at 06:58 PM. Reason: Stuff
That was a super mild 'choke'. He shouldn't have put his hand in that area but that's hardly a choke. Then again they called that penalty so who knows in this league.
Why do I have a flashback to the Red Bulls in the playoffs? We might be looking at the start of a new rivalry in the east. Three games ending in 2-2? I'm imagining they're going to face each other in the playoffs.
gio may be out next sunday also.5 yellow cards now