About the possession stat, considering we started the game at 33% possession, I would say that speaks more to how crappy Portland is than how stellar we are.Originally Posted by rocker
That being said, we probably had 70% possession in the last 30' onwards.
Difference between Morgan and Garcia, is that Morgan would make something happen with the ball or play it safe. Garcia would attempt to 'slow' pass it back to Frei effectively giving it to the opposition striker for an easy goal. Garcia single-handedly destroyed our games.
Morgan on the other hand can be out of position but his pace is good enough to keep up. Positioning is a lot easier to improve than technique, and Morgan will improve with experience. A simple matter of "that's the situation = run here". If anyone remembers, it took Wynne almost a full season to get his positioning down.
^^^ This right here. At least they are entertaining.
What a game. At one point I contemplated quitting being a fan of football all together "the last straw", after the rejected handball. Now I couldn't be more optimistic going into Real Esteli and picturing TFC in the playoffs next year. Wow- gotta love football.
I remember, watching Preki-ball hoping that our team would simply get A CHANCE. Now I'm just thinking of BURYING the chances that I KNOW we will get!
First off - Wynne has never had his positioning down. Never did. Still doesn't.
Garcia at CB? Never. Garcia at LB? I would take this. I'm not saying Garcia is perfect by any means - obviously he made many, many mistakes. But at LB he was actually pretty good.
I'm fairly confident Morgan will be a regular starter for us one day. But that day is not coming any time soon. It will take a lot of time (in the reserve league preferably) for him to improve his positioning. In the meantime, Garcia's technique is better than Morgan's.
Either way, its a moot point. There's no way Garcia is coming back. The point of my statement is that Morgan is right now, at best, a bench player.
56% possession isn't "stellar" so I think you're overstating the case. If a team has 44% possession that doesn't make them "crappy". And the shifts in possession stats don't really tell one which is the better team.
Portland is typically a long ball and set piece team, while TFC is a play-it-on-the-ground possession type of team (in theory), so the stats will reflect that.
Plata was fantastic! De Guz did not fulfill his DP status. While there was moments of frustration the fact that they earned a point in a difficult atmosphere was very encouraging. Glad to see Danny K show his scoring instinct with that finish on plata's inviting cross.
Deguz almost cost TFC with a poor backpass. Stefan Frei cleaned up the mess.
So tell me, if the shifts in possession stats don't really matter, or reflect on the ability of the team, what makes the possession stat "interesting" and why did you post it?
Deguz poor backpass is Garcia's best back pass.
Although I wouldn't rely on Morgan to be a starter for a couple of seasons, I don't see anything wrong with him starting an occasional game here and there. 1 game in MLS will probably equal 5-10 in reserves, for the experience he gains. Playing on field with Frings and co. he'll become all the more valuable.
Another way to think of it, if he gets a lot of exposure at the end of this season, for better or for worse, he will be all the more invaluable next season, when we WILL NEED to call on him. This season is a development opportunity now anyway.
It was a fun game to watch (a bit of a rarity for TFC road games). When we went down 1-0, I thought we'd be okay if we didn't concede before the half. Then when we gave up the penalty, I though "here we go again", but when we scored, it really felt like we we're going to push forward and get another. Lots of highs and lows.
The period between the goals was really strong, too bad the team can't turn it on like that more often. It will be interesting to see if they build on this against Real Esteli and really put them to the sword.
That I can agree with. Starting an occasional game is much different than this....
I do hope Morgan sees time on the field, but he should be a bench player first (hopefully comes on when the regular LB goes to CB and replaces Harden / Iro around 45'-60').
GOL tv showed a 60/40 possesion breakdown in favour of Portland!
Plata is amazing given his size and age. Just a machine, really.
Really like Johnson too.
CBs are absolutely garbage.
I don't know what happened to JDG. Unbelievable.
great fight, once again the last 25 minutes we looked like a real team.
To me, its clear DeGuzman's gotta go (Harden is the same), Dunfield took over with no probs. Also great to see the new kid score a goal right off the bat. Once again I feel theres more to come.
me too
Not sure IRO is the centre back we are looking for..
Must give TFC their due, a lot of good additions to the team. However, not sold on Iro. He is big and tough, but likes skill and agility. He gave up the PK and cost us a goal.I believe he was stop gap measure for this season. Still need a first class centre back.
portland fans are just amazing when i seen how they were on t.v with all the flags and the smoke bombs, they actually looked like epl type fans or european.
But, other than those fans TFC surprised me with this tie. To be honest i was expecting a loss with the way they were playing the first half. Congrats on Marosevic for his first goal on his debute, now if Tfc plays with this much passion as i seen in the second half maybe we can make the playoffs.....jokes but maybe we can win the CONCACAF! woot
Next players to go...
DeGuzman and Santos. Dunfield will replace JDG and our new captain is Frings. That must be a record two captains traded in the same year!
^
DeGuz is still serviceable as a (really expensive) bench player IMO behind Frings and Dunfield, but Santos as absolutely no place on the pitch.
---Johnson----Koevermans----Plata---
--(Soolsma)---(Martina)-----(Marosevic)--
Trade Santos now.
I'm not going to be so harsh on JDG, but you can't help but feel that we could have another great DP with all the connections that our management has.
The question is, if we were to get a DP, what position would he fill? Would we really want a CB DP? Or should we go out and get a world-class winger, Creative AM?
Post Game 073111
Team looks like there really starting to put it together, great come back.
Nothing negative from this result, away at portland down 2 -0.
Lot's of posts and crossbars tonight , some people always find a way to take away a good result.
Nicaragua,
Here we come...
Oh when the Reds...
Last edited by Torontotonto; 07-31-2011 at 02:02 AM.
At this point JDG isn't even as good as the average MLS DM. His ability to dribble the ball out of trouble while being presured is the only thing he has going for him.
Is this truly the formation they dropped into? What I saw was a 4-3-3 but with frings playing CB....and I gotta say maybe thats the solution to our CB issues.
Post game thoughts.
Very pleased Koevermans got that goal, looking good and that was a real nice shot by Marosevic. Plata got his nose in a lot of the attacks from what I heard on the Radio and had a real nice touch pass to DK who thus far is looking the part of Target man.
Johnson appears to be a decent MLS winger and thus far Im happy with his efforts. When Dunfield is healthy, Ive got high expectations for him to be paired with Frings. I think it will be a top pairing.
Frei showed today why on a better side he would be a perennial AllStar keeper.
Nice to get a point on the road, even if the Timbers have been horrible at home.
Time to ship out JDG and Santos, Id really like us to get either a DP AM, winger or CD. I can see arguments for and would be happy with, someone in one of those positions. Santos I believe would free up an international spot.
While I like Johnson and Plata, Soolsma is too often hit or miss and Ive got little time for Martina. I think either an AM who could pair with Frings and Dunfield, or someone out wide who could really be a catalyst and goal scorer would really help our attack and posession. On the other hand, someone like Rafa Marquez-esque from NYRB to lead our backline would be tremendous.
Couldn't agree more. Would be great is we could drop Deguzman at some point and aim for dp CB.
That point is unfortunately after the season is over. But we can and we will.
1 - they aren't smokebombs, it's the piped in smoke machines just like they have at BMO. The smoke just hangs better.
2 - flags and smoke at EPL games? Really?
I really enjoyed that game last night. The one big downside is that when Portland seemed to send players right though our midfield at a good speed. Our guys just didn't seem to have near as much hustle. And let's not forget.... Frei had one hell of a game last night.
overall, it wasn't beautiful, but at least it wasn't cringe-inducing or painful to watch.
///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\///\\\
Didn't stay up for the come-back, but pleased with the final result this morning.
Also very pleased that Winter is experimenting with other Dutch formations, not just 4-3-3. I hope he finds some winning combinations. Maybe it just takes the players knowing how to play better before he lets them out of the most basic formation.
Dunfield playing better than JDG? Lol, that just shows how bad JDG has been. Thanks Mo Johnston. The sooner he is on that plane outta here the better. I'm sure that Winter and Mariner can find much better ways to spend $1.8 million.
Last edited by Oldtimer; 07-31-2011 at 06:52 AM.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
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