“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
But seriously, what is the problem with Ayo? We've heard literally nothing.
On reflection, fascinating.
What is the order of our midfielders? Based on today, I’d say:
Bradley
Pozeuelo
Osorio
Delgado
OKello
Priso
Fraser
And there is room for four
Add the winger / midfielders and I don’t even know where to start
Shaff
Endoh
Gallardo
DeLeon
Achara
And I am missing some. But that’s 12 competent midfielders for four spots. Will be interesting to watch.
Europe is gonna come for Okello before it even thinks of coming for Priso. Teams dream on that kind of physique and ability on the ball.
Reminded me of something Caldwell & KJ said in their "best 25 Canadian based MLS players of all time" list they are doing right now about Davies.
Robinson knew that if you overplayed him, he doesn't grow & he doesn't learn as much.
I think Okello will play half games, only start 1 out of 3 - just like we saw with Davies.
As for Priso, give him time - I remember Osorio had to learn how to be consistent.
Shouldn’t Okello be a striker? I look at that height and coordination and think he would be lethal up front.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Not opposed to playing them and they showed wicked character, even with the massive depth Mullinho brings when your strikeforce consists of two injury prone strikers, a recovering achiles injury in Achara and an unproven at MLS level but high potential player in Peruzza, you cannot stand. If you are serious about winning something. Forget the treble, I mean to win anything you need that certainty upfront.
I thought Zavs was very good and I think perhaps our bias goes away a bit without Vannney but even with Mavinga back, our back line is still fragile. I hope Dunn and Romeo are as good as projected. But Leon missed some sitters last night and we were fortunate. Both Philly (even with losing Aaronson) and Atlanta (Josef is back and Heinze is an up and coming manager) are better. This season is no cakewalk.
Last edited by Bushmancan; 04-08-2021 at 08:31 AM.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
What a brilliant game in Armas debut.
11 players were out and two more were injured and they still got a result.
Auro and Omar were tremendous all game. Okello looks like he will fetch TFC a 7 figure payday. There's a logjam in the midfield, a trade might help balance the squad.
Let’s give zavaleta credit too. He wasn’t perfect but he held it together pretty well as a backup facing that quality of opposition.
About what we need from him if he’s to occupy that spot on the roster.
My two cents...good start by everyone...Jozy showing he was slowing down 20 minutes into the game but started well and then went down with an injury (no surprise)....all the young guns did well enough for a start against a good team...Bradley still fit and tough so that is good but should learn to do corner kicks further away from the keeper's reach if he is going to be taking them with any regularity...in the end everyone worked really hard and we really got lucky at the end of the game where it was pretty obvious all shape of our team was collapsing. I will definitely take it and see signs of optimism with this team this year especially when we get the full squad going and have our first choice starting lineup. We can be a handful for MLS teams.
So I missed this game thinking it was today. Lol
I don't disagree. But if you're going to make this argument, I'd also say you need certainty at CAM too. Pozo is the single point of failure with TFC, with no real back up. At least at forward, there's like 6 players who can play that position, and TFC can platoon if it needs to be.
Let's wait a few games before saying how good other MLS teams are...I thought Zavs was very good and I think perhaps our bias goes away a bit without Vannney but even with Mavinga back, our back line is still fragile. I hope Dunn and Romeo are as good as projected. But Leon missed some sitters last night and we were fortunate. Both Philly (even with losing Aaronson) and Atlanta (Josef is back and Heinze is an up and coming manager) are better. This season is no cakewalk.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
I would say this especially applies to backup defenders. And let’s be honest, there were lots of things that could of happened that game but didn’t, I don’t see a reason to hold Zavaleta to a higher standard than others.
I would say 7 or 8 of our players could have similar call-outs (Priso coughing up the ball in bad spots, Bono’s poor command of his box and spilling that rebound right to an attacker rather than punching it clear, Laryea’s school-boy defending covered only by his pace)
Not fair just to pinpoint Zavaleta, especially when he otherwise played a decent game.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
So it's either perfect or Zavaletta? Yikes there is a lot of middle ground there that would be acceptable. Zav played good enough to play again, but let's not pretened the last 3 or 4 years don't exist, or that he wasn't a lucky bounce or 2 away from a pretty bad and forgettable performance. He's a liability for this team if he's higher than 4th or 5th on the depth chart.
Just listened to the post game interviews. Funny how the Mexican reporters compliment but at the same time talk down about TFC. "Congratulations on the result, it was just a tie but must feel like a win for you...."
But I think the issue is: where can we really count on getting goals? Altidore looks to be picking up where he left off in certain respects. We can praise the activity level last night but a better sign would have been him potting that free header.
I am okay with giving the rest of the guys time. Certainly they could develop into something special down the road and Mullins always gives a workman like effort.
But in big games we need more than this to win.
Lol oh ok really so because of that he had a bad game ? He did well like he has done many times before , but when a player is disliked it’s very easy to watch a player play and only see the negatives. He usually does not make anymore or any less mistakes than most Center Backs in this league or region .
Whatever discussion is going on between Armas and Curtis, they've decided that re-signing Zavaleta as someone who's familiar with TFC is better than trying to get another defender in after Zavaleta's contract expired. Whether that's the right call or not, we shall see.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
So we held the 2020 champions of Mexico, at their stadium, at altitude, to a single (unstoppable) goal ... and we think something was wrong with anyone on our backline last night?
Last edited by ensco; 04-08-2021 at 12:13 PM.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
if that was the only data point to consider then sure.. our defense is unbeatable. i have watched more than last night however so my impression is that something is wrong with our backline. i think this despite the success in one match where the other team had 18 shots and missed 2 impossible to miss chances, hit the woodwork 2x, and had at least 1 goal called back on a close offside.