Also would it be churlish to point out that we would have won our last two games if Soteldo had scored on a penalty and a breakaway
According to MLSsoccer.com, that's the first time in three seasons that Michael Bradley hasn't played the full 90 minutes.
Man, it's hard watching team legends age out.
People ripping on Jozy in his mentions after a classy Twitter post has me irritated. Obviously anyone who has seen me post lately knows what my thoughts on current Jozy are, but telling him as a TFC fan on Twitter that he is shit is just awful. He knows he needs to be better, he doesn't need a small army telling him he is shit.
https://www.torontofc.ca/video/lates...-august-7-2021
He's just straight about it. "It's evident, everyone can see it. It's about the energy and the attitude. It's not important what happened in the past, what is important is that, I think now it's obvious for us what we have to do for the team to react."
That's got to be the nicest way of saying they're too old he could have come up with.
My respect for Perez increased 5000%. Straight shooter and to the point.
Curtis just makes me angry, fucking clown does nothing for this team.
Home now...Scotch had for a friend of the family's granddad passing on so pardon me if my words are a bit less precise
Priso pass on the second goal is......worth him starting next week.
xG finally looking better for us (how did Soteldo miss that first half chance?)
Stadium ROCKS even with that less people IF we are doing well.
Zavs has learned - keep him - sure he'll still screw up occasionally (as do all MLS defenders) but he's remarkably better after 2 weeks
Not a single mention of why Mavinga wasn't in the lineup - somebody shouda asked
NER will be interesting
Last edited by OgtheDim; 08-07-2021 at 11:43 PM.
that was the first 45 minutes bradley sat out this season.
i'd also reckon it's close to the best 45 minutes we've put out since 2017. unplayable for large parts, scored twice, created multiple other great opportunities, looking solid defensively against one of the best side sin the league.
perez deserves huge credit for hooking bradley and jozy. he also needs to sit them for next weeks game.
I feel badly for Bradley hitting the late career wall, but the fact was that he didn't make a single effective play on the ball for nearly 40 minutes. he couldn't close anyone quickly enough, or react to passes quickly enough. He was chasing shadows, just running aimlessly between offensive players trying to shut them down because the requisite speed just wasn't there.
And the mobility difference between Jozy and Achara was even more severe.
And a related issue: Bradley unfortunately hasn't adjusted his play to match. I believe Cheyrou was slower than Bradley, but he was incredibly circumspect, always looking around. He knew where to be, and was thinking two plays ahead. Cheyrou didn't have as many defensive duties as Bradley which made it a bit easier, but still. I've watched Bradley for sections of games, but that is easier to do in the stadium than when watching on TV. I find he very rarely looks around. He'll drift forward and to the side, might end up at the touchline near the halfway line, trying to pressure and shutdown an opposing player, eyes always on the ball. But he won't see a much more dangerous play developing behind him, and also won't talk to send someone else to cover there. Then when he receives the ball himself, he often won't have the next pass planned ahead, doesn't see the next quick opportunity, so he either has to hold the ball and slow the game down, or pass backward. (Not always: sometimes Bradley is ready and can spring a great play forward; but it's not often enough.)
Big problem with trying to replicate tonight's 2nd-half success: Priso can't play that role for 90 minutes. It's really sad when some of your youngest players aren't fit enough to play the full game at high intensity. (I'm concerned Singh may be similar.) Maybe start Priso, bring him off around the 60th minute, and ask Osorio and Delgado to play the double pivot. Bring on someone like Okello, Shaffelburg, DeLeon or Bradley to fill out the midfield. Maybe even overlap Achara and Jozy for about 10 high-intensity minutes around that time.
An aside: Osorio has been a bit invisible. I find it harder to fit him into a productive role at the moment, than to fit Soteldo and Pozuelo together on the pitch, at least the way they played in the 2nd half. Anyway, I'm concerned Pozuelo still isn't 100% fit, and also picked up some new knocks tonight. (Shitty ref let NYC hack away far too much.) Osorio has a bigger role to play if Pozuelo can't play full games.
Last edited by Auzzy; 08-08-2021 at 01:54 AM.
“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
Sure, but I always found Vanney’s list of priorities put this further down the list so he was partially culpable. He was preoccupied with defensive shape. Maybe this was a good thing given our frailties but it also meant a lot of sideways / backward passes. You could tell creative license was left to a few players and most others were expected to be cogs in the system. Sometimes you have to take the marginal chance rather than cycling the ball 30x and hope you’re going to find that opening to walk it into the net.
Last edited by ag futbol; 08-08-2021 at 06:23 AM.
When Armas wanted to open things up by encouraging players to pass forward, it often meant forcing passes that simply aren’t there and exposing the back line to counter attacks. Of course, that happened with Vanney as well and is a known Achilles heel of our side.
Fixing our back line isn’t as easy as buying a Soteldo or Pozuelo. The best defense in MLS are grown, not bought. It’s one of the few things we haven’t been able to do.
Replying to several of these posts - I agree about Oso, he hasn’t made his kind of impact the past few games. Hopefully this changes and he picks up the quality of his game or he might be the next to sit. It looked like he was culpable on the first goal for not covering Castenaos who made the pass - he jogged. Better in the second half though.
Removing MB meant that Poz became far more able to run the game - I’ve been worried about the fact that Poz and Soteldo both need the ball all the time but was oblivious to the fact that when we played all through MB it hurt Poz too - he was a revelation in the second half.
Bradley has clearly lost a step. It’s incredible that he recovered from two injuries to start again, and we need to give him credit for that. The one in the final was particularly nasty and could have been career ending, particularly after he played the whole game on it. But I totally disagree with the poster who says that he doesn’t look around etc. it’s just not true. I watch Bradley every game and is head is on a swivel. He anticipates plays and breaks them up, brilliantly sometimes, but his lack of speed means he overcommits to do this and therefore can get caught out of position. For the same reason he doesn’t track runners very well., like on the first goal.
Plus he’s a legend. As is Jozy.
The coach was right to sub them - but we aren’t right to shit on them. I certainly won’t.
Also, in the second half Soteldo was far more effective by moving the ball quickly. Now we need him to show some finishing skills having missed a PK and a breakaway the last two games.
Lots of thoughts after the chaos of that second half.
Its amazing how different our side looks when we move the ball quickly instead of holding the ball and letting the other team get set.
Would love to see Perez reward the kids who came on in the second and created so much momentum. Start Achara, Priso and The Schaff and see what they can do with Solteldo Poz and Oso up front.
Im a massive Jozy supporter but the difference in what Achara provided was night and day. Soteldo and Poz need someone up top who is going to create space and cause havoc. Jozy is doing neither of those things.
NYC has the same problem with DM's that we have with CB's - can't seem to find one that lasts. The second half adjustments Perez made focused on that weakness.
NER next week is not quite the same thing.