Atlanta - Postmatch

I think Villa was absolutely selfish out there tonight, in a really bad way. In past years he was THE GUY and our only hope sometimes so I get him trying to finish off moves himself back them, but we have some quality around him now, and the fact we didn't score a third after the ring goal, or even in the minutes before it is down to Villa, Medina didn't have a great game because david would not see the pass when he was splitting the defence making a run and instead try to dribble past 5 guys to put a shot right into guzan's hands. When he focuses on getting the interplay right and connecting with the players around him we get a sequence like the one leading to the penalty, if not we get him trying to force it, even when another player (maxi and medina on several occasions) would have been the play. We could have had 3 tonight if Villa wasn't going for glory. Score for the team, not for yourself
Hey -- as you say, it's a different team. He's been out -- give him time to adjust to the supporting cast.
 
The team as a whole plays differently when he is on the field. Herrera had a moment tonight when the right pass to make was to reverse field and send it out wide to Tinnerholm. Instead, he made a 4 foot pass to Villa and then watched to see what he would do next.
 
I think Villa was absolutely selfish out there tonight, in a really bad way. In past years he was THE GUY and our only hope sometimes so I get him trying to finish off moves himself back them, but we have some quality around him now, and the fact we didn't score a third after the ring goal, or even in the minutes before it is down to Villa, Medina didn't have a great game because david would not see the pass when he was splitting the defence making a run and instead try to dribble past 5 guys to put a shot right into guzan's hands. When he focuses on getting the interplay right and connecting with the players around him we get a sequence like the one leading to the penalty, if not we get him trying to force it, even when another player (maxi and medina on several occasions) would have been the play. We could have had 3 tonight if Villa wasn't going for glory. Score for the team, not for yourself
There's some truth to this, but seems weird that you would call him out on it in this particular game. His passing is what led to both goals. Admittedly I yelling at the tv for him to pass it right before Ring's goal, cause I thought he was dancing on the ball too long, but he drew in 3 defenders before he passed it off.

You don't become a striker of Villa's quality by not being selfish sometimes. That's part of the territory, he wants to score goals.
 
Regarding Sweat, I think the discrepancy in WhoScored and the Audi Index derives from those measures being really deficient in how they rate defensive performance. If you complete a lot of passes - both quantity and percentage - you can get a nice rating. If you are out of position repeatedly, and a hole opens up on that end of the field, or if you can't close down and prevent a cross, it doesn't affect the rating.

I do think he was better in maintaining possession and in getting us forward than people want to give him credit for. He completed 86% of his passes - and yes, some of them were forward, including one early in the game that set up Berget for that shot that Guzan tipped over the post.

But his defense was weak, and the worst part is that we are probably going to have to rely on him again vs. Atlanta since the next game is so close to the start of the World Cup and Matarrita likely won't be available.
 
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Overall, I thought this was a pretty amazing game. The level of soccer was high - for MLS, very high. It showed what the future of this league can be. It was also back and forth with each team putting the other on the ropes for a while before the momentum shifted.

I actually think we played pretty well - not perfect - but we went into Atlanta, the team most were ready to crown as the MLS Cup Champion without even playing a game, and we gutted out a point. We out possessed them, shut down their best scoring threat, and put more shots on goal. We came back from a goal down twice. Yes, there were times when we were fortunate. Getting a penalty and especially having Martinez lose his mind and cancel a beautiful goal by Nagbe. But overall, I don't think the result was unfair, and against a team that good, on the road, in that environment - that's a real statement. Let's hope we can do that again when the time comes in October.

And I will also say that I thought Chapman called a good game yesterday. It's only fair after we've been (justifiably) all over him for the past year. I am not saying that I liked every call, but he was relatively consistent and most importantly got the big ones right.
 
The team as a whole plays differently when he is on the field. Herrera had a moment tonight when the right pass to make was to reverse field and send it out wide to Tinnerholm. Instead, he made a 4 foot pass to Villa and then watched to see what he would do next.

I actually thought this during the the mid week RSL game that we became too predictable and that every player was looking to get it to Villa in the hope he would do something magical when in reality he was just trying to get a few mins to get his legs back.
 
What impressed me the most of this game was the Amazing Atmosphere in the stadium !!!! Wow. When I turned the TV on, I initially thought an European game was still on. I did a double look again and it was our Celeste game on.
Once again I will complain about how sedate (putting it nicely) as I compare how dead we are in YS.

I sit on Delta and I believe I am the only one chanting with the the supporters section.
At times It is so eerily quiet, I feel some concern if I am in the Twilight Zone. LOL
That may just be a NY thing. A lot of corporate guys...not the right/crazy mix you get in Europe . You can see the same at Giants game. Relatively quiet compared with other NFL stadiums. The fans just don’t give as much sh t as fans from other places do.
 
But was the penalty itself really fortunate? I don't think so. I believe Berget can be such a calm finisher, that there's a good chance he'd have scored, had Parkhurst not clipped his heel.

I get what you are saying, but penalties are converted at about 80%, and it is unlikely that play was going to result in a shot with those odds. I think that’s true of most penalties. On the other hand though, perhaps it is about being consistently dangerous and the goals will come. I can’t say that 2 goals was an unfair tally given how much we had of the ball and the chances we created.
 
Rewatched the game and can confirm:
-Sweat was a dumpster fire
-Berget was amazing
-Villa is still rusty (going with that and refusing to accept he’s old yet)
-Chanot outran Josef stride for stride twice
-Ring played possibly his best game ever for NYC not even counting the goal. I counted maybe 6 plays that he broke up by coming from behind.
-Don’t think Medina was as bad as people are saying. Not his best, just quiet. No real glaring mistakes.
-I wish Wallace could finish cuz he’s real damn good as a early second half sub.
-Maxi played more of a disruptive role than he did against RSL and did fine for a 5’3” 130 pounder.
-Tinnerboom was quiet, which to me is a good thing against an attack like Atlanta.
-SJ needs to do much better on the first goal. Distribution was poor yesterday. But his punch in stoppage time saved it from being a poor performance.