Game was moronic.
Ref was an idiot. Philly played like a CONCACAF team. Chapman singlehandedly blowing the draw by being in the wrong place yet again. Dribbling around the box without shooting. Two injuries.
Both goals came from exploiting the weakness of pairing up Zavaleta and Ciman on Auro’s side which is basically a free counter goal every time.
Westburg looked good.
The “2 weeks away” threadOriginally Posted by Richard
We need wide players and defenders. We haven't come close to replacing what we lost in the off season. Ali curtis is more to blame than vanney.
i know management doesnt have to disclose the information, but who else was approached to be manager of the club
That was pretty much the story of the game.
I foresee a lot of sky-is-falling to come out of this one so I'm just going to say I thought we played decently and this was a game on a knife-edge we easily could have won. We had a glut of half-chances not fall our way and seriously, we were all over them in the second half. They scored an OG and a counter attack down the side of our player that was injured on the field.
We had absolutely nothing break our way today. It happens.
The depth of the team and not having any impact subs is more concerning than the result. Our strongest XI can hang with any team in the league except probably LAFC, but as constructed we're 2 injuries away from a crisis.
Like it or not we’re back to pre 2015 level. Utter mediocrity. The only difference is we’re paying three massive salaries to achieve such averageness. (And one of those salaries can’t be relied on to stay fit) Players like Morrow, Mavinga, Delgado and Osorio really need to pick up game and find the form we know their capable of, or be moved on. Curtis stands guilty of padding the squad with completely average MLS players like Ciman, DeLeon and Boyd.(why on earth did we acquire the latter when he can’t even make the squad?) Curtis is also culpable for essentially wrecking our season by failing to add the defensive and attacking strength we badly need. Auro and Zavaletta are a bust and should be shipped out if we can find anyone who wants them. We also need to face the fact that Hamilton, Laryea, Fraser and Akinola are TFC II level players. There might be room for one in the first team squad, but not all four.
In short we need a major rebuild. Pozeula was a red herring if you ask me. Great player but not exactly the replacement needed to replace both Séba and Vazquez. I don’t think Curtis is the man to undertake this rebuild. He’s nothing more than a MLSE yes man. So the rebuild must start with a General Manager who knows what he’s doing. I always thought it weird that Giovinco, Vazquez, and Bezbatchenko left at the same time. I think there’s more to that than we’re being told.
Not going to draw the conclusion that we are crap or they are good based on that game. Well apart from our defence being crap but we knew that already.
Agree. I thought we played reasonably well but made a ton of mistakes and did very little with the chances we got.
Injuries are concerning, our bench isn’t great, and our non DP players need to show some teeth in front of goal (Hamilton made some attempts at least). Positioning needs work too...
I think auro and ciman wil be out for a long time. Auro was in too much pain to go to the ground.
Now tfc had to rely on moor every game... How long will he be healthy?
The post match official team tweets are less positive than feelings in here.
Poz saying the mentality has to change.
Yep. You can see how frustrated he is too.
Also, for all the Seba haters who didn’t like him “diving” or “whining,” basically all the Philly fans were complaining about Pozo diving and whining.
Maybe Seba dove and whines for a reason — he was systematically targeted by every team. They’ll do the same to Pozo.
Better see Endoh soon. Would be an upgrade on all attacking options right now minus Jozy & Pozo.
So the master plan to rest players against Atlanta so we could do our best today...worked out a charm. 6 points dropped in a week..add in Portland ...at what point are we in crisis mode?
When they aren’t in the top 7. At least Jozy is back and Moor but for how long?
Zavs . What was up with him today? On that goal his footing sucked.
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
Yes, let's blame this loss on not running our team into the ground.
We lose because our defence is crap without Moor. The fact our team only works well when 1 particular guy is playing tells me we have too many pass happy defenders not really interested in defending positionally. Other teams in this league figure out the balance. We can't get past that "they pass well “ criteria.
Which is why I still say we don't make the playoffs.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 05-11-2019 at 06:02 PM.
So, after ditching TSN, I discover the game is also on cfto. I decide to watch, and much to my dismay, my predictions are coming true. TFC is not a good MLS team. They proved early on, that despite allowing too many easy goals, they could beat crappy teams.When playing better sides, we are poorly organized, outplayed, cannot finish, are woeful on corners, have no players who can cross accurately, lacking in pace, and tactically, abysmal.
Take Poz out of the line up and we are bottom dwellers. The only above MLS avg players are: Poz, Bradley, Mavinga, Osorio, Altidore and Moor, when healthy. All the rest are interchangeable and would be hard pressed to start on other teams in this league.
I am really disappointed with Morrow. He was a big reason for 2017, but stinks now. hoping CFTO doesn’t cover any more games this year, because thus has spoiled another Saturday.
There’s a reason for that though. Those are the defenders Vanney needs in his system. He needs defenders who are good on the ball, who can pass, who can run forwards.
Zavaleta isn’t one, and you ideally won’t have all your defenders playing that way. That’s why Ciman becomes a liability. That’s why Bono looked abysmal too. His distribution isn’t great, and either his confidence is shot or he can’t play in the way Vanney needs him to. Westberg is better at getting out and sweeping, which we witnessed him do numerous times today.
The reason Westberg had to come out is because the central defenders are playing too far forward and getting caught out. Mavinga is a freak athlete who is able to get back but he was playing in the midfield half the game.
Then you have everyone in the midfield playing high, with Bradley running basically box to box with no backup, Pozo running box to box, and while Morrow can get back and play defensively, Auro isn’t really defensively capable.
The big problem, again, is we’re playing a style of football that this team can’t play unless all the right pieces are there, and even if they are the margins of error are high. Bradley misplaces a pass into an opposing player? They counter and catch us out.
Faster counter attacking teams are tearing us apart (Lisa), but we can’t even make adjustments unless we sit back. But if we sit back we also can’t score, because we don’t have the speed to do so.
It’s a tough place to be at. In 2017 our defense at least had a chance to breathe, because we were playing in their end and every player going forward was dangerous. Players were less likely to stop our possession by hacking our best player because it was dangerous.
There’s a lot of thought that will have to go into how this team plays, because the players who are not naturally gifted enough to understand keep making boneheaded mistakes. For some people, that’s Delgado, but Chapman has fucked up the play twice in the same way by impeding Pozo when he shouldn’t have... in multiple games... if you can teach someone not to do that, it should have been done before he became a non-youth player.
Our bench isn’t good. TFC2 prospects aren’t going to cut it for the most part. FO doesn’t seem to want to assemble a team equivalent to 2017.
Hard to figure out.
Delgado, Zavaletta and Chapman should go.
No confidence in any of them.
I'm going to reiterate what a lot of what people have said here earlier.
The only above MLS avg players are: Poz, Bradley, Mavinga, Osorio, Altidore and Moor, when healthy. All the rest are interchangeable and would be hard pressed to start on other teams in this league agreed, Ciman is pretty good in my opinion.
Ayo, Hamilton, Laryea, Morgan, Fraser are TFC2
Auro no good, terrible crosser, not losing anything with him injured, maybe deleon can fill that rb role
Morrow, that left side is a black hole where the play dies every time in the final third.
Maybe Morrow is good enough as a left back in a 4-3-3
Zavalleta goes without saying, what the heck was he doing on the second goal today
Marky goes without saying, jogging on first goal
good news is we are only 3 quality players (LW, RW, RB) away from being elite, barring no injuries
westberg is good
Last edited by stevep; 05-11-2019 at 07:18 PM.
was caldwell not calling the game today, highlights it was all kJ
is caldwell fired??
please say yes
Hes in England for a Burnely alumni event
Well that's a shame. KJ is far superior in every way.
yes the sky is falling.this team is slow ,predictable and so bloody boring to watch and they seem to play one good half per game.its turning into a repeat of last season,dropping points at home and leaking goals.they need at least 4 new starters .rb lw cb and another striker
Except that I thought KJ was the home broadcaster for Philly. He was gushing over them. Piss off they weren’t good, they were dumbass lucky. We played like shyte but still could have won. The only good thing going right now is that the east isn’t strong. Just my thoughts.
Only 1 on the pitch at a time, and he's said as such since before we got Moor. The thought in 2017 was Zavs was going to become a second thinking mans defender - well 2017 didn't continue. Actually, a LOT of what is going on since the injuries started to pile up in CCL 2018 has been reacting to things not going according to the way 2017 said the future would be.
I saw a very very good attacking team today move the ball around with pace and guile & guys finding spaces and lines being broken & ....no finishing. This is an improvement over swing the ball around and then make a bad pass & no finishing. Sure Bradley had a bad day & Poz only makes one out of 10 of his passes & why the heck the mids don't trust Hamilton to take the rock I do not know as he was open a LOT. BUT, it was still better then what we have seen for much of this season so far.
I LOVE Westberg and his ability on the ball.
There are many many positives.
But, our defence is unbalanced & until that gets fixed, we will drop points in an annoying fashion. Now if this was 2015 level of MLS, we'd still make the playoffs - its not anymore.
One more... The person we keep forgetting about in the success of TFC in particular and MLSE in general was Leiweke. He was quoted early in his tenure at MLSE that TFC was the first team he could win a championship with.
The new leadership doesn’t think like him. They have been so used to TORONTO making money while being mediocre. He didn’t accept that and understood the value of a winner. Whether it was directly on the books or all the ancillary pull through revenues for MLSE (Merchandise, Content, Media, Sponsorship etc).
This team has the resources to be the dominant franchise in MLS. Curtis did a great job at NYRB but he needs to push the envelope and get us back to the top. ... no excuses.
I thought Bradley was uncharacteristically weak today.
Passing was off. Like, 2 feet off every target. Teamwide, including Poz, Westburg, everyone really.
Hamilton did a great job of dragging defenders around.
If you can't hit a target with your pass, you're going to turn it over. We did, constantly. A more typical execution by this team and we win handily.
We can't direct aerial balls at all. Headers are always aimless.
Yeah Philly were dirty cheap and cheats. But that game was there for the taking.
Not sure why "notthesun" is trying to belittle what is going on here, and how people feel, with "sky is falling" comments.. Philly also had lots of additional chances today, and could easily have scored 2 or 3 more. Things are not looking good, from management to coaching to players. Allowing in 1.7 goals per game is not a recipe for success.
Sure things can turn around, but we keep on seeing things go the wrong way. From not negotiating contracts and signing necessary players in a timely fashion. To repeatedly playing a formation that does not seem to consider the team's current strengths and weaknesses. Osorio and even Pozuelo are not part of the play enough to be able to create things. Osorio often too far on the wing; Poz often too far forward. And Poz doesn't have enough forward targets to pass to.
And then the players not executing. Why do they keep passing the ball around in the opponent's box; shoot the fucking ball!! Even Altidore was guilty of that once. Osorio had that amazing goal recently; and also some good assists this season. But today he was scuffing his shots again.
Read John Molinaro's article after today's game: Vanney again saying that the players aren't playing the way they are asked to. He's said that a couple of times in recent interviews. If that happens repeatedly, that's a big problem.
Last edited by Auzzy; 05-11-2019 at 09:15 PM.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote