I was this close to typing what a terrible game by Jozy!!
but it was a pretty bad game by bradley, but yet his header then markys header led to the pozuelo goal
funny game this football. you can play overall terribly but then one moment of brilliance is all that counts
Last edited by stevep; 07-13-2019 at 09:09 PM.
Good match. Let’s take the 3 pointer. It will take a while for this formation to gel. I’ll I ask is that the doubters at least recognize the win, as it is deserved. I am tired of people that only post when we lose, but give no recognition when we win.
What a difference a reasonably full squad makes. Best overall team performance in quite some time.
Gonzalez was fantastic in his debut tonight.
Last edited by ManUtd4ever; 07-13-2019 at 09:13 PM.
Gonzalez is so cool headed, he's exactly what the backline needs. Westberg showed again why he's the current #1 keeper. Great to see Jozy back, and nice goal!
What will it take to bench Bradley? I'd prefer Fraser out there.
Thoughts;
Auro - nice to see him back. Nice cross to jozy.
Omar - by far the best cb on the team already.
Westburg - bono should be traded.
Deleon - dont like him on the wing. Endoh was better and richie should be playing there not rb.
Jozy - welcome back
Bradley - its time to move on, fraser is a better passer and costs nothing. Use the dp spot on a winger.
The shaff- teams are catching on. Love his effort but tfc should bring in a tam winger/striker.
I think that goal exorcises the Omar Browne ghosts from Panama.
Bench Bradley? Come on man, you want to make a run here? Well then any idiot coach will go with experience and players that know how to win and have won before. Anyways I will repeat myself again Omar Gonzales is a very key signing here that’s all I have to say, a very very key signing , well done TFC front office.
The season started tonight and they got the three points - that’s the bottom line for me this evening. The schedule save for the @LAFC game is quite decent in terms of the quality of opponents the rest of the way. As others have said, Omar was a calming presence back there and even though I truly love our Captain for all that he has done both on and off the field, it’s getting more and more apparent that he is clearly regressing and the decision next year on whether he stays or not as a non-DP will be a big one for him and the club; can’t see anyone paying him anywhere near what he’s making now so it will be interesting to see what he and the team do; another DP who can produce some offense and play 30 games a year would make a huge difference.
Let’s hope the next three home games set us up for a second half run like what Seattle seems to do every year.....going 8-6 over the remaining 14 games is not unreasonable to me and that gets us to 50 points - steal a tie or two from those 6 losses and even better.....
Urruti is not impressive at all for a dp number 9. He was non existent vs york9 and today off the bench.
Normally we’re in the away section but a certain cheese monger threw us into a box this time... so we drank it out.
Not a great game overall in terms of football, but Pozo showed his talent. Jozy finally had a shoe call worthy moment again.
Scuttlebutt showing his age and experience... not a great game from him. Deleon wasn’t great either. Endoh looked meh as well, as did Laryea though he came on late.
Omar played well. Mavinga once again showing why he’s one of the best defenders in MLS and covering for everyone else.
Bradley made a ton of mistakes. Auro looked better than he usually does.
Marky had a good game, but will never get respect when he plays well.
Westberg still a steal despite being a manlet. Even during our cup season Bono wasn’t even close to as competent.
Glad to see Lovitz do well too. He was awful here but is doing well elsewhere.
Gallardo better be a game changer for us because Smorgasbord isn’t ready and we apparently gave up signing anyone else because of that...
Gonzalez was great. What a huge presence (No pun intended).
Westberg awesome again. Finally had better players to prove it.
Quite a few good performances today. Westburg played quite well. I thought some of these bounces for the impact were fortuitous.
Bradley’s game to me looks increasingly stale. We could probably all point out what he’s planning to do with the ball 5 seconds before he does it. Fraser’s ability to split lines and see the field is refreshing. That said, can Fraser cover the required ground? I think we will get to find out at some point as I heavily doubt Bradley is worth DP dollars to this team but someone else might give it to him.
What's with the Bradley critiques? Did he have a great game? He had a good game. Nobody is ready to step into his shoes that we have from end to end.
Sure his long balls aren't as effective but that's not what we need from him anymore.
Last edited by Brooker; 07-14-2019 at 02:14 AM.
Shaff hasn't been found out - he's being accounted for as a threat and that's good for us. (Gallardo is a right sided forward - Curtis said they specifically changed their minds about who to bring in because of how good Shaff has been)
Shaf forces their RB to play wide and stay back, which limits a lot of team's offence (see us in the first half when Auro was sitting back & tucking in) & opens up space against the CB's for Pozuelo & Altidore to sit in. Pozuelo sat in that pocket most of the night. It also allowed Morrow to sit back a bit more.
He did a lot of heavy lifting up and down that left wing occupying space and bothering them when they tried to go down there. Was he spectacular in running at people and getting by them? No. But sometimes that's not all you need. They moved Omar Browne over to their left because he wasn't getting anywhere against Shaff & Morrow. (Then Laryea shut that wing down along with Zavs - impressive for a couple of backups whose defence has been shaky)
That and a lot of RB's in this league are not all that good at defence.
*******
And, yeah, I'm going to say it
Zavs was good enough in the moment with a true defensive leader beside him and a decent enough FB to his right while defending a lead. Nobody ran at him with pace so he survived. He's a situational CB sub - expensive for what he is but he did the job and with his limited skill set, he has a place (just on too much money for me). He should not be on the pitch vs Houston.
Let’s see what Shaffelburg looks like when we have a legit threat on the right side of the field and the can’t just overload the left.. DeLeon didn’t offer much in that department today.
Otherwise: he’s 19,and we should expect some ups and downs. If he doesn’t play he doesn’t improve. Keep him on the field.
Everyone has ups and downs. Delgado had a miserable game last time but did really well last night.
Love Bradley, but last night he didn’t have a very good game. Not what you expect from the highest paid player on the team either. With Fraser coming up they need to re-evaluate Bradley’s role, especially as he enters the twilight of his career.
Bradley just won top XI in gold cup, thought his passing could have been crisper but shit happens. We also have some load management this week with a mid-week and Saturday game. We will see Oso, Gallardo, Mullins, Akinola and Fraser this week. Good progress but still need more. If Westberg doesn’t make that save, the game might have been completely different.
Feeling better but still need more.
COYRs
This is my main concern this year.
Fraser needs minutes to keep in good form and develop, but because of Bradley, and because Wanney's thinking, probably he'll get very few minutes.
Not even talking about starting...but even as a super sub.
Wanney has no balls to ever replace Bradley in the last 20-30 minutes, even if he's playing far worst than expected. Not if Bradley is not asking to be replaced!
So to answer your question:
It will take injury to bench Bradley (of course we do not wish that), or at least 3 terrible games by him as a starter (so Wanney would have no choice but bench him, but 3 crap games in row by him are never happening).
I just wanted to shout out to SoccMan2 on his analysis of Gonzalez, and OgTheDim's comment early on about the game being "cagey"
It was 15 minutes in and the players' shirts were drenched. Clearly a draining environment. I thought it was reasonable to play that way and then adjust, which the Reds did.
Agree on the Delgado props as well, he played much better than he has. I think Bradley had an off game but in no way do I feel it's a harbinger of doom.
I missed the opening credits, where was Oso?