Preseason - February 8 - AIK

I watched about 20 minutes of Houston-Minnesota a couple nights ago and watched a decent chunk of both halves instead of doing work at my desk this morning.

It wasn't apples to apples because those teams used a mix of 50-50 A/B while we were more A and then more B, but even the B side was WAAAYYYY ahead of what Houston and Minny were doing. You wouldn't know the 3 teams are all in the same league by watching the 2 games.
 
I watched about 20 minutes of Houston-Minnesota a couple nights ago and watched a decent chunk of both halves instead of doing work at my desk this morning.

It wasn't apples to apples because those teams used a mix of 50-50 A/B while we were more A and then more B, but even the B side was WAAAYYYY ahead of what Houston and Minny were doing. You wouldn't know the 3 teams are all in the same league by watching the 2 games.

im assuming Houston had RGV players in it? then again they are playing CCL next week i think so they should be trying to look in better shape
 
I was excited to see Sands at CB for the second half if he continues to be deployed at both CDM and CB that's great depth coverage and more opportunities to play for him. I thought Ibeagha looked really good, seemed even more comfortable on ball than last season. Not only are Chanot and Callens one of if not the best CB pairings in the league but Ibeagha may be the best CB3 in the league. Parks impressed me as well, good at finding space to make himself available picked out some nice passes, always moving.
 
My reaction when I seen Lewis went the whole 90.
Domè the troll
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I think we may have overhyped the sweat as CB depth, did not look very good and was pretty disconnected to Chanot. Ibeagha had his moments but it double responsible for the penalty for not only committing the foul but putting himself in the situation to do so by being caught on the ball. Lewis looked like he wasn't making choices fast enough but it seems like it will round into form. really excited to see the chemistry between Lewis, Mitrita, and ITS already building. Medina was useless up top, Ofori had some good passes right up the middle to the attacking mid, JPT had a lot of misplaced passes but looked comfortable in midfield,

However, after watching the game I now understand a lot better about the style of play Dome wants the team to have. It is actually quite similar to what PV had us doing but with a twist. both systems are meant to draw opponents in with passing from the back then springing on the counter, however, while PV had a lot of horizontal passing in our 3rd trying to draw opponents toward our side of the field before springing the quick passing sequence to get up top, dome wants us to pass the ball much more vertically between the top of our defensive 3rd and the middle 3rd, causing confusion for defending teams and opening space, then the backline or dropped back mids look for a few openings to launch the attack, either the wings (Or super high pressing outside backs) get free and a long ball (usually across field and forward) to the offensive 3rd or the attacking mids, forwards coming in between the team's stretched lines with enough room to turn once they receive the ball where they can play it wide or drive at the defense. It is going to take a bit of time to get everybody on board with the system but I think it could work wonderfully, especially since it gives us a more direct attack that does not rely on knock-downs from a strong center forward. the yoyoing vertical passing to draw the opponents it does seem fairly risky and we will have to see if they can get the tactics down and reduce the amount fo turnovers generated from that first phase of the attack.
 
im assuming Houston had RGV players in it? then again they are playing CCL next week i think so they should be trying to look in better shape
Damn. I forgot they were playing in CCL. Their prep made no sense. It was 4 30 minute quarters and instead of playing their starters for 60 and backups/trialists for 60, they split their A squad up 7 in one and 4 in the other and rotated other players in and out from that starting core for each of the 4 periods (at least that's what it looked like to me based on what the starting lineup was and the 20ish minutes I watched of one period.

It was ugly.
 
Soft call to be honest. It happens.
I was referring more to the play before the foul, where he looked very uncomfortable receiving a back pass, turned it over, and then committed the foul in the box.
Also, I think the pass to him was imperfect, but he could have done better and handled it.