Portland - Postmatch

[Falastur]

Ugh. So after a great start to the season we have that rarest of things - a game where pretty much no-one turns up to perform at all. Just an all-round horrible day really. Not many positives to draw from the game but to take some perspective we're still top and now the players will have to ground themselves and reassess their performances, and PV has hopefully learned some more about player selection, because I think the rest of us all did.

How many games into the season before we start get a definite answer to the question of whether Villa still has it or not, too? Seems we're split down the middle on the answer but I'm definitely starting got fear the worst - and I hate myself for saying it.

 

[JayH]

/thread

 

[Seven]

The good: Ring

The bad: Everyone else

 

[SayWhat44]

FUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKKKKK THIS THREAD

 

[Kjbert]

Johnson looked shaky. Sometimes happens. CBs we're ok not great. Matarrita was brutal. Positionslly clueless. Tinnerholm was fine. Early on, he was forced to play deeper because of how Mata was playing. Usually Sweat does this to allow Tinnerholm to go forward.

Ring was Ring. No issues there. Our MVP. Ofori looked useless. Maxi was useless. Wallace was useless. Berget was fine.

Villa has not been good this year. I'm sorry. If his name was Danny Villa, he'd be on the bench right now.

 

[Keith Putnam]

Welp! Nobody got badly hurt, nobody got suspended, and at least we lost to the West.

...that's about all of my optimism.

 

[Seven]

Johnson looked shaky. Sometimes happens. CBs we're ok not great. Matarrita was brutal. Positionslly clueless. Tinnerholm was fine. Early on, he was forced to play deeper because of how Mata was playing. Usually Sweat does this to allow Tinnerholm to go forward.

Ring was Ring. No issues there. Our MVP. Ofori looked useless. Maxi was useless. Wallace was useless. Berget was fine.

Villa has not been good this year. I'm sorry. If his name was Danny Villa, he'd be on the bench right now.

Tinnerholm was not fine. He was bad. It's one bad game, so whatever, but passing was off, and his touch was terrible. How many times did he go to trap it and lost it out of bounds?

 

[canchon]

PV gets rumored to Arsenal and his team fucking turns into Arsenal. Pointless possession. Fuck.

 

[Ulrich]

Johnson looked shaky. Sometimes happens. CBs we're ok not great. Matarrita was brutal. Positionslly clueless. Tinnerholm was fine. Early on, he was forced to play deeper because of how Mata was playing. Usually Sweat does this to allow Tinnerholm to go forward.

Ring was Ring. No issues there. Our MVP. Ofori looked useless. Maxi was useless. Wallace was useless. Berget was fine.

Villa has not been good this year. I'm sorry. If his name was Danny Villa, he'd be on the bench right now.

Mata was either never around or got undressed. When he went forward, he had the opportunity a LOT to play the ball to Berget in the corner and instead would pull it back to Callens. His one good game was against an absolute toothless opponent. He’s just not that great.

His Costa Rican compatriot was also horrible. Even his offside shot on essentially an open net (5’ away with only the keeper) was missed. Neither of those guys helped the team or their causes. Neither looks good enough for the WC.

Tummy actually didn’t look like the worst out there today.

 

[canchon]

https://twitter.com/x/status/988209247023316992

 

[JayH]

Tinnerholm was not fine. He was bad. It's one bad game, so whatever, but passing was off, and his touch was terrible. How many times did he go to trap it and lost it out of bounds?

My other nit to the summary is Berget. Thought he was clumsy and detrimental again.

 

[Ulrich]

My other nit to the summary is Berget. Thought he was clumsy and detrimental again.

I don’t think he has ballerina’s feet, he’s a big dude and he’ll always look clumsy. Villa gave him an incredibly difficult ball to trap in the box on the run.

I didn’t understand why at the end he was playing deeper and TMac was on the wing. Everything was baffling.

 

[FredMertz]

If you're going to lay an egg, it might as well be at an away game on the West Coast. Get it out of their system...

 

[Kjbert]

Guys. I said fine. Not good. Fine.

 

[JayH]

I don’t think he has ballerina’s feet, he’s a big dude and he’ll always look clumsy. Villa gave him an incredibly difficult ball to trap in the box on the run.

I didn’t understand why at the end he was playing deeper and TMac was on the wing. Everything was baffling.

He made several awful passes and misplayed several other touches. He killed the play almost every time he was involved. He had Khiry’s touch tonight.

 

[SayWhat44]

 

[canchon]

Portland played like RBNJ this game. Packed the back, disrupted passing lanes, and then went quick on the counter. Also had good ball movement in the final third, while NYCFC was completely inept in that regard.

First goal was a fluke play. Similar to Ben Sweat’s shass against RBNJ last year. Second was a fuckup by SJ. And third was against the run of play, awful marking. Basically POR was completely against the run of play (awful set piece marking too) as POR went to a low block as the second half started.

The most concerning thing is the possession for possession’s sake without any real quality in the final third. Expect to see a lot more teams follow the Portland blueprint going forward.

 

[SayWhat44]

Mr trying to type anything about this game

 

[Ulrich]

The most concerning thing is the possession for possession’s sake without any real quality in the final third. Expect to see a lot more teams follow the Portland blueprint going forward.

Mata singlehandedly killed momentum countless times by pulling back to pass to Callens when he was in an advanced position. He needs to make a pass to the wing and run into space to open up the field for the wing or receive the pass back. That happened Time and again.

 

[Jock]