Toronto Postmatch - Goodbye 2016

[SFphoto]

It's a tough pill to swallow going out like that. But like others have said, we can't let two games define our season. Unbelievable turnaround after a disasterous first year. The FO trimmed the fat and really gave us the pieces to succeed, which is something many other MLS teams would love to have. Ownership that gives a shit.

There was a stretch in the second half of the summer when we were without a doubt the best team in the league. But ultimately it was our inconsistency that killed us. And to echo what was said on page one, we were completely incapable to rising up for the big games.

As for tonight, we were just completely outclassed. Giovinco is the best in the biz no question. It brutal watching Brillant try and defend him. How the hell do you let the best goal scorer in MLS run at you without even attempting to close down the space between you and him? One small touch inside and it's over.

I don't want to completely judge Erik on three games, but it's pretty clear that neither of our keepers are great shot stoppers. That said, he has great composure when handling the ball. He had two or three calm cutbacks on Giovinco that would have had Saunders swimming. I didn't feel the usual Saunders stress when he had the ball at the back.

All in all it was a fun and positive season. I think the spark that ignited our turnaround after the Red Wedding will really go down as part of the foundation of this club.

I did SORT of miss the self deprecating nature of last year. WE NEVER WIN AT HOME AND WE NEVER WIN AWAY.

 

[NickA]

I really thought we had the defense worked out with the Frenchmen. Yes, they are mildly better than Hernandez & Mena...but all 4 aren't consistent enough to be considered really good. That's probably the biggest disappointment of the season.

 

[NickA]

Solid post.

To point 2) – I thought we came out in a 4-3-3. Small mod was that Iraola dropped when we had the ball and I think both Matarrita and RJ pinched in. Something that Guardiola has been doing but we can't possess the way his teams do so when we lose the ball, we leave a lot of space wide. This is how Giovinco got isolated twice. We went back to the weird 3-2-2-1 I think when Shelton came on.

It didn't work. I think this may be your point 3). I suspect it's got something to do with all of the tinkering. We lacked familiarity, we weren't moving fluently, which makes sense if we are subtly shifting shape so often. I hope Vieira learns from this.

Already looking forward to next season!

Well a 3-5-2 tends to smother a 4-3-3 unless you have crazy good skill players...which we don't. They double & triple teamed every time we had the ball in midfield and attack. The point of it is to slot those L & R mids to L & R backs...back & forth. Essentially giving the formation 5 backs and 5 mids. At times it felt like they had an extra player or two...that's how you know TFC played it perfectly...especially on a small field. Kudos to them for kicking our ass. They have a quality team with a lot of talent.

 

[TabascoDiva]

Despite the loss, I left the stadium satisfied (not thrilled though becuase of the loss. . . any type of loss dampens the spirit a bit ) however looking forward to next year.
1- Our Football Club is the new kid in the block and ended 2nd in the Eastern Conference
2- Our top Dp, and still one of the best strikers in the world shined throughout the season.
3- We the fans are also new at this business - We traveled through the late trains- the slow moving buses , heavy traffic- through the cold, the glaring burning sun, the rain( my pal CatNYC and I huddled under one umbrella in the heavy - non stop rain on the game Lampard scored his hat trick. We also deserve an applause for our loyalty to the NYCFC team.
Love you team ! Love you fans! Love you Forum! Love you NYCFC_Dan for giving us this forum to cry, bitch on, laugh and disagree and get mad at others too.

 

[Christopher Jee]

Well a 3-5-2 tends to smother a 4-3-3 unless you have crazy good skill players...which we don't. They double & triple teamed every time we had the ball in midfield and attack. The point of it is to slot those L & R mids to L & R backs...back & forth. Essentially giving the formation 5 backs and 5 mids. At times it felt like they had an extra player or two...that's how you know TFC played it perfectly...especially on a small field. Kudos to them for kicking our ass. They have a quality team with a lot of talent.

I don't disagree, but was just responding to the quoted point that we didn't try anything different from the first leg.

We really didn't even come close to exploiting the typical lack of support for the wingbacks in 3-5-2. Maybe partially because we are so steadfast on playing out of the back, gives them a lot of time to reset their shape etc.

Would be curious to hear your take on how the 3-5-2 usually gets broken down given your experience watching Italian football, NickA. It's been a long time since I saw a lot of this formation.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

I really thought we had the defense worked out with the Frenchmen. Yes, they are mildly better than Hernandez & Mena...but all 4 aren't consistent enough to be considered really good. That's probably the biggest disappointment of the season.

I think Mena would have been a better choice than Fred. Hindsight and all.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

We had to press for a goal, that leaves our defense alone with their attack. Giovinco has been destroying guys all year one on one. I think you are being harsh on the defense. If you expect us to have defenders that can consistently beat giovinco one on one, you are watching the wrong league.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

We had to press for a goal, that leaves our defense alone with their attack. Giovinco has been destroying guys all year one on one. I think you are being harsh on the defense. If you expect us to have defenders that can consistently beat giovinco one on one, you are watching the wrong league.

I think we need a midfield revamp. We are always going to be inconsistent if we rely on long balls.

 

[sbrylski]

I think we need a midfield revamp. We are always going to be inconsistent if we rely on long balls.

What midfield? Can't use revamp because we don't have a midfield to replace.

 

[NYCFCfan]

Some post match thoughts.

We have absolutely no Plan B. Vieira wants to play out of the back, but when that isn't working he doesn't know what to do aside from switching out defenders for attackers and continues to try and play out of the back.

All the players were in the locker room last night, including Mix, Brandt and Gomez.

Villa is looking forward to a rest to clear his mind "but not too much rest" as he thinks 2 1/2 months without games is too much.

Tony Taylor flies to Panama today, Matarrita said he's looking forward to playing with the national team too. He was devastated after that lost. He wants to win badly.

As I was leaving the stadium last night I walked past Villa, Martinez, Bravo and Brillant hanging out with their families. Brillant especially looked sad.

Lampard skipped out on interviews, he got dressed and pretty much ran out. Same for Pirlo, he left quickly. You have to wonder if these two will be back next year.

I watched the game from the bleachers so I was miserable with the rest of you guys. Here's to 2017!

 

[Christopher Jee]

It's the unfortunate result of not having the squad to perform the tactic. Committing to playing out of the back requires acceptance that the countermove is to press you. To beat the press, you need players who can do two things extremely well: play their way out of very tight spaces, and play accurate one-touch pass and move.
The reason Vieria's POFTB system isn't used much in MLS is because MLS teams can't afford enough players who have those skills at the level required. You'd need a backline and a midfield entirely made up of DPs.

Yeah, we may have to wait until our academy starts producing consistently until the fully-loaded version of this philosophy is viable for us.

 

[Angela Miller]

Don't make me call Angela on you.

I'M Shocked you NYCFC_Dan T Tom in Fairfield CT LionNYC and JGarrettLieb had nothing to say about what I said on page 1 of this thread !!!

 

[Christopher Jee]

Chanot was absolutely horrible tonight. My god. Him and Brillant are paid too much to have them shit the bed so horribly in our biggest game of the year like that. It must be in Brillant's contract that he has to implode three times a season.

Tonight sucked, but at least we made it clear that we could give up hope early on. And generally speaking, this season was great. So weirdly enough, I don't mind how it ended. We're going to be even better next year.

I don't think anybody on our side had a good game last night, but we didn't help either Brillant or Chanot by leaving them isolated 1v1 with Giovinco a handful of times in the first 20 mins and throughout the match.

 

[Angela Miller]

Despite the loss, I left the stadium satisfied (not thrilled though becuase of the loss. . . any type of loss dampens the spirit a bit ) however looking forward to next year.
1- Our Football Club is the new kid in the block and ended 2nd in the Eastern Conference
2- Our top Dp, and still one of the best strikers in the world shined throughout the season.
3- We the fans are also new at this business - We traveled through the late trains- the slow moving buses , heavy traffic- through the cold, the glaring burning sun, the rain( my pal CatNYC and I huddled under one umbrella in the heavy - non stop rain on the game Lampard scored his hat trick. We also deserve an applause for our loyalty to the NYCFC team.
Love you team ! Love you fans! Love you Forum! Love you NYCFC_Dan for giving us this forum to cry, bitch on, laugh and disagree and get mad at others too.

I liked your what you said to NYCFC_Dan !! TRUTH!!

 

[Gotham Gator]

We managed to make Jozy Altidore look like a world class striker. That's quite an achievement.

Boooooooo to you.

When he is healthy and on form, that's exactly what he is.

 

[JayH]

Just think about how boring the Forums would be if we won the MLS cup. A couple of weeks of virtual celebration and then not much to talk about. Instead, we will be on full blast hereon through March. Pain, frustration, speculation and contemplation is our diet. The team took one for the Forums.

 

[engine46]

Some post match thoughts.
Lampard skipped out on interviews, he got dressed and pretty much ran out. Same for Pirlo, he left quickly. You have to wonder if these two will be back next year.

Those might've been the two cars that sped out onto River Ave. and almost ran me over. I probably would've been ok with that, too.

 

[Angela Miller]

Just think about how boring the Forums would be if we won the MLS cup. A couple of weeks of virtual celebration and then not much to talk about. Instead, we will be on full blast hereon through March. Pain, frustration, speculation and contemplation is our diet. The team took one for the Forums.

You wanna know what your problem is bro?? You're just to fkn Deep for all of us !!!

 

[roxfontaine]

We really didn't even come close to exploiting the typical lack of support for the wingbacks in 3-5-2. Maybe partially because we are so steadfast on playing out of the back, gives them a lot of time to reset their shape etc.

We have absolutely no Plan B. Vieira wants to play out of the back, but when that isn't working he doesn't know what to do aside from switching out defenders for attackers and continues to try and play out of the back.

This sums up our season. I'm so happy with the success we've had but you can't help but wonder what could be if we had a Plan B. We truly did live and die by our foundation this year and that is both encouraging and a bit scary. It's fantastic that we have a real playing style now but we have to be better overall but particularly when playing against a high press.

 

[Sabo]

I have a story to try to distract you from yesterday.

I live over 2 1/2 hours drive from YS (with no traffic). After night games I leave directly after the final whistle and stop at the Sloatsburg rest area on the Thruway. The place was empty. The cashier for my snacks and drink saw my jersey, asked how the game went, and told me that about 90 minutes before 4 busloads of thrilled Impact fans stopped there and overwhelmed the vendors. He was kind of amused and kind of annoyed when they began chanting "Build the Wall" over and over again.

When they all finished their business and left the building he went outside for a smoke and the busses were still there. Suddenly he smelled something burning. He went to check it out. They were burning a flag. He was alarmed they were burning a US flag because of the chants and moved closer to see what was going on. When he got closer he saw they were burning a Red Bulls flag, said "OK" and went back to work.