This was not the best game to watch stuck at an airport in China.
This was not the best game to watch stuck at an airport in China.
I think that's going to get rescinded.
This game ... I don't know. The first half was great, but we didn't put away the chances. We lost the second half. Probably deserved a draw.
I also thought NY just defended really well. There were multiple times when we had some really good passing going, and the only thing stopping us from getting in behind was a last-ditch leg thrown out by a NY player, or a just-in-time tackle.
Honestly, we weren't bad at all. We just weren't good enough. We need more in terms of offense than just Jozy. Maybe Poz needs to player more of a second striker role rather than creator, or something.
My issue in the second half was the back 4 + Bradley played the ball way too slow. Either Osorio & Poz & Laryea & Shaff stopped moving or those back 5 regressed to safety first.
When they press, you have to pay the ball quickly. Heck, the 4-3-3 counts on it. The team did that in the first half - they didn't in the second. Ultimately, that & the misses in the first half are why we lost.
Caldwell is unbelievable, he so critical of his old team , trying to be fair it’s sad .And she’s right a babbling brook , does no one learn from the best announcers in the premier league that leave space btwn moves then simply name players . And give the viewers credit in having knowledge of the game . Mute is the way . They fire quality people and keep Caldwell ???
ALL HELL'S BROKEN LOOSEhttp://gfycat.com/SharpKindArrowana
well, that is good news at least.....This same team with Giovinco, would be tough to beat... in 2017, we played shit in many games that were won because if his magic....with the parity in this league, it would only take one great forward, to make a difference....playing alongside Altidore and Poz...or, imagine a Carlos Vela on this team ....
Another shitshow, and I fear our playoff chances just disappeared tonight. The question is will Ali Curtis & Greg Vanney go with them.
Our failure to replace Giovinco cost us again with an abundance of missed chances. The game should have been killed off by half time. Vanney had no answer to the NYRB shuffle at the break. I can only hope our subs were forced and not strategic. Curtis still hasn’t delivered his promise to replace Seba with anything close to similar. Our signings haven’t improved anything. Gonzalez was to blame for the NYRBs opener, and has a tendency to switch off at crucial times. Although I know it’s his first game in MLS, Benezet was horrific. Why take off Shaffelburg when he was our best player on the night? In fact why are we brining in another left winger, from a second tier French side when Shaffelburg has performed excellently for us? Why bring in another left winger when it is a goalscorer we needed? I take it DeLeon and Mavinga were injured because neither of those subs made sense either. I swear if Vanney says either “felt a little tightness so we decide to be cautious” i’ll scream. We couldnt afford to be cautious tonight, it was a must win game. A chance to leapfrog the NYRB has become a 5 pt deficit. If LAFC take care of NER tonight it might offer temporary hope, but in reality NER are vastly improved under Arena and they’re facing the best team in the league tonight, so the result will be an anomaly not a window of hope.
That NYRB sub was because of an injury - the difference wasn't a change in style by NYRB. NYRB started out the first half with the press but when they can't, they drop back low - seen it all season. The difference in the second half was TFC didn't play the ball quick enough & thus let them stay in the press. Like him or not, DeLeon did a lot of that dirty work in the first half - his loss was the biggest one.
I think in a full 90 those 3 should cause some havoc along side with gallardo but tonight was tough to swallow. Until he came in we spent most of the half in our half. I mean not much changed after but we did at least create some chances of some fast breaks but it looked like Poz and antidote were just gassed by that point to even try and help him. I don’t see Seba in him but a guy that will will draw defenders and extra coverage. For the 20 min he put in. It was solid in my opinion As for Vela along side him in this squad. Well that would just be a dream. But again it’s only 20 min in his first outing but you can see the guy has skill on the ball
If DeLeon is what turns a game for this team, the team is flawed. He’s not even a starter on a top MLS side (nor should he be for us)
This is a tough fixture. Away game against a top team. This is the issue with the “we’ll get it later” mentality of last season and this one. You start needing to squeeze points out of games that are really hard to get. We lose and it’s excused but then the season hangs in the balance
That flaw is the safety first mentality of one Michael Bradley. You could see Gonzalez wanting to pass the ball to somebody but nobody moved - one of the issues for our midfielders is they know people will just recycle so they don't move around as much as other teams.
I love Bradley but in our setup the DM has to move the ball forward quickly, and that is just not happening.
I think shaff still need work He had one solid chance that I can’t take away from him. But he’s way too soft on he ball and if he didn’t have the speed he has. He would be useless right now. I think the kid is great and going to be great for TFC but still soft. He can only beat players with speed not skill. But that’s okay with a wing player. I don’t think Nico is the saviour for this team I just felt in the 20-25min he gave it was solid. Again I think shaff has a great future ahead of him here. But he can’t play a one two touch or even make the right decision in tight spots. Chip crosses are not going to get you many assists solid hard balls across the box will. Shots will. Shaff at this point should be coming in for the final 49 and killing tired back lines. Just my two Anyway. Shit loss hard to swallow I’m still pissed. Lol
You can’t blame Bradley for that in isolation. The team is fielding (and continues to recruit) a bunch of technically sound but diminutive and unathletic runts who have trouble carrying weight defensively. Bradley is trying to counterbalance that but doesn’t have the range he used to.
One place the team and Vanney both need to improve is the start of the second half. It’s often flat. Could only watch bits and pieces tonight, so can’t comment too much. We sure looked good in the first half. Was Jozy really offside? Didn’t look possible from the angle they showed given where he had to have been when the ball was kicked but the angle wasn’t very good
Last edited by MightyDM; 08-04-2019 at 06:36 AM.
I will maintain, and repeat, that the players are good enough even before the signings. That is all. If we're not winning it's not them. This many players don't just turn to shit or stop putting up results.
You are correct. However, if we were to add one star forward to this team, it would be a contender...improving the midfield and defence helps, for sure, but not in the way a proven goal scorer does for a team. LAFC right now, is an avg team, with 3 outstanding players, and they will make the difference in the end. They will likely surpass all of TFCs 2017 records (and Atlanta’s too), and Vela will have a year that even Seba couldn’t match....
I thought we have been unbalanced since Seba left - at least until Schaff and Endoh were promoted to the first team. And our defense has been incredibly porous. But there have been good stretches of play - like what I was able to see in the first half - followed by schoolboy breakdowns. Not sure this is coaching. My bigger concern about coaching has been selections for certain games - Panama and Houston come to mind - and how we come out in the second half. I am not in the Vanney out camp but I think he will be on thin ice unless the talent we have is able to express itself.
Last edited by MightyDM; 08-03-2019 at 09:41 PM.
Holy shit is Mavinga really injured again; also now Deleon?!?!
I would REALLY REALLY like to hear something about that amazing sports science company they supposedly hired for this year...
I said this in another thread but a high level soccer trainer I met - doing his PhD, no slouch - says that TFC over trains and doesn’t use modern techniques. He was very careful - he said “the whole league is too American in their training methods” but that’s what he meant. He may be wrong but it’s an interesting perspective. .