A nice night for a game, and a beer.
Fun, occasionally good soccer, some hustle, some new guys, Pozo back on track, some horseshoes at the end (my read is both extra time PKs were BS)...
I like it!
A nice night for a game, and a beer.
Fun, occasionally good soccer, some hustle, some new guys, Pozo back on track, some horseshoes at the end (my read is both extra time PKs were BS)...
I like it!
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
VAR took away all the fun in winning though. the ref was listening to his ear piece for half the game. We scored our first goal, he's listening to his ear piece. Atlanta starts crying for a PK instead of giving out yellow cards, he listens to his ear piece for 4 minutes and gives a penalty. I still don't understand why you give a team a goal for a ball going away from the net and bouncing into someone's arm (arguably) while it is placed in a natural position. Then the second VAR penalty is absolutely insane, I still haven't seen it touch anyone's hand, unless there was a foul or something, I still don't see where the penalty is.
Instead of celebrating a last minute win, there was 0 celebrations because the whole game was VAR'ed
I was busy watching another 3-2 game that was entertaining (Fury v. Battery), but not as much as that match. Good night all around.
Can we finally keep Endoh up?
Uh...
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/TorontoFC/status/1144068445312602112
Delgado had the one nice touch but he's good when he doesn't have to think about it - when he thinks he goes tentative. DeLeon worked well with Poz.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 06-27-2019 at 09:37 AM.
I'm just fed up with it honestly, maybe it's just me. But I left BMO pissed off about VAR, not happy we won the game in the 93rd minute. And there was Laryea and Pozuelo who aren't in that celebration, because they were yelling at the referee
If that pk went in, what would everyone be talking about today?
VAR is killing the in stadium experience. You can't celebrate goals anymore. It used to be I would glance over at the linesman to see if the flag was raised, no flag means cheer it up. Now have to check the forums to see why the ref has his hand to ear. Its slightly more tolerable at home since get to see the replays.
The refs are not making any decisions anymore, the game is being officiated from the control room.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
Marky played pretty well last night.
Giving other players a chance and switching things up really breathed a bit of life into the team.
It wasn’t just Shuffleburp being speedy, but he was tenacious. Pirez was trying to fuck him up constantly and he just got up right away and kept his eyes on the prize. He took some pretty heavy hits.
Same goes for Endoh sending whichever Atlanta player to the shadow realm when he bodied him off the ball. Knocked off the ball shoulder to shoulder by Endoh is pretty hilarious; most of our first team players would have just fallen down trying to get a call.
Fraser made mistakes, but as soon as he did he was fighting to get those balls back, and again, he wasn’t going to get a call in this game.
We still lacked a clinical approach in front of goal, and the game could have been over without the VAR nonsense had some chances been buried earlier on (same goes for ATL), but the approach was miles better than hoping an errant cross will accidentally fall to the foot of Boyd or Hamilton and end up in the net.
I’m with whoever said that OG probably won’t fix the defense as is. Even today we were heavily reliant on “transition” play and passes out the back — when we fail at this, it leaves our defense hung out to dry.
Zavaleta made a big mistake, but it wasn’t entirely his fault. Still not worth the money, still not starting quality, but we’ve seen much worse from him.
Ciman makes some great passes, but also some really poor ones leading to interceptions. Sometimes he defends well, but at other times he doesn’t. He’s capable of playing reasonably well, but is gaff-prone and needs to figure that out.
Moor has been poor this season, hasn’t impressed. Too slow, too many crucial errors, too many injuries yet again — time to move on.
If OG is good and (taking the Captain’s armband for the USMNT last night) can control the backline, and Mavinga is fit, we have a formidable starting duo at CB. Depth isn’t great though.
Morrow was okay, but we still don’t have an RB (Laryea and Auro are both better going forward). Auro is gone again, and he honestly isn’t much better than Laryea at this point anyway.
In a way we lucked out that Atlanta was pretty jumbled up front and at the back, but our performance tonight showed some hope for the B team. A pleasant surprised: a pretty exciting game we should have drawn ended up a win due to some poor refereeing and luck. I’ll take it.
I hate VAR. It was supposed to take out the controversy. Instead it doubles the controversy. I really couldn't see how the DeLeon penalty could have been called after watching the replay many times. It might have hit is hand. I can't tell. In the end it was still an interpretation which his no different than if it had been live.
Anyway....Pozuelo is one of the most insane passers of the ball I have ever seen. Some of the angles he gets, his eye for what he can get through, passes I don't even understand how he can see...he's amazing. Get a player or two that can finish (Jozy), and he'll be getting like 2-3 assists a game.
Last edited by Canary10; 06-27-2019 at 09:27 AM.
I was predicting a loss last night, and I am glad I was wrong!
Shaffelburg played really well last night and made some nice runs down the wing and had some lovely crosses. I was happy to see he wasn't afraid to shoot the ball as well.
We got lucky on a number of bad passes in our end (the second Atlanta goal was a doozy on Westberg and the defense).
Lastly, Layrea is continuing to impress me with his some of his runs.
It was great to see the team celebrate like they won a trophy after Pity's woeful PK. I'm happy to see that team get three points for once.
It shows what can happen when you insert a few players fighting for position into the starting lineup. We need to do more of that.
Kelly is the absolute worst for this - relies upon it way too much. The difference between him & Elfath (one of the first in the world to use VAR when it was on trial) is night& day. Elfath overrules it and is the boss. Kelly lets the VAR tell him what is going on & then concurs while watching.
I really just want to write WEEEEEEEEEEEEE and leave it at that.
and maybe I will.
oh, and f@ck Alan Kelly and Var
have a good one lads and lassies
Nice little piece on Shuffleboard last night...
It’s an implementation and training issue. Once the implementation is correct and there’s a standardized method of use, VAR won’t be as perceptible or awful.
In this implementation (and in others) with the ways many refs use it worldwide, VAR will always look ridiculous.
Unfortunately, it could be a while until it works in such a way that the flaws aren’t as egregious.
VAR exists to satisfy television viewers and answer “why can’t they see it on the field when millions can at home. “. In this context it is to the disadvantage of fans in the stadium and to the flow and energy of the game. For that reason at a minimum it should be minimized and managed carefully - it is already close to destroying the spontaneity of the fan experience at critical moments in a game. That’s why it should be done instantly and only for obvious errors etc.
it is also structured in a flawed way - a foul on Poz that should be a yellow that prevents a real goal scoring chance is not reviewable and cannot be, unless we want the whole game to be stopped and started; yet slight handballs that had no material difference are reviewed and cause a goal. This is inherently unfair. personally, I prefer not having it at all. Let the game be.