Portland - Postmatch

[Midas Mulligan]

Kind of seemed like one of those matches where you lose the battle to win the war. And when you have the kind of start we have, you can afford that kind of game.

What battle?

PV got smacked down again, as he tends to against decently competent tacticians.

He also made silly lineup and sub decisions.

Wallace can only play if the other team wants the ball. Otherwise, he's neutralized before he starts.

Terrible all around.

Villa must be playing his way back into fitness.

Losing Isi sucks. Benching Medina was silly. We must always have at least one on the field. Without them, we are slow and unable to take on and beat a man .that makes scoring near impossible.

ETA: oysters in Sioux Falls.

 

[LionNYC]

I just watched the highlights. I really have shouldn’t.

This is the game that draws the comments for Johnson to not get call ups for the USMNT. He’s not consistent enough and prone to errors.

Wallace. I don’t even know what Wallace was doing.

Portland won on counterattacks and set pieces based on our zonal marking.

Shameful performance today by New York. Exploited.

I’m very glad that I was far away from the bench for this game, because if this happened when I saw sitting Pitchside at Yankee Stadium, I wouldn’t be able to refrain from saying how I left to Vieira on his wrongdoings.

 

[TabascoDiva]

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.

I was pouting but reading your post with, your sense of humor and Danny Villa made me laugh.

 

[TabascoDiva]

/thread

Hi JayH what thread?

 

[ferrarinycfc]

Well that sucked.

 

[Kjbert]

My thoughts are this is an insanely premature hot take.

That's fair. When does it go from insanely premature to appropriate?

 

[Nelson Jay]

That's fair. When does it go from insanely premature to appropriate?

I say when Villa hugs the post and watches a goal go in.

 

[Marito]

He found Villa in the box twice, which was pretty positive. If he was acting according to instructions, it looked like his primary job was to harass the back line to force turnovers, and be an outlet for passes.

Also, because Portland were bunkering instead of pressing, since the first minute really, that played to TMac strengths. He could be semi-stationary and play creative through balls.

 

[mgarbowski]

Prediction: Villa will score about half his usual goal production this year, maybe 10-12. But a lot of them will come in a tight bunch where he scores almost a goal per game over 2 months or so. It will be tempting to think he has not fallen off and had just gone through a dry spell, but that will be wrong. Decline often sets in quickly, and next year will be worse. I don't begrudge him anything this year. He earned it, and when Maxi, Isi and Jesus play together, maybe with some Berget mixed in, we can score. But unless he proves us wrong and scores 16-18 or so this year, he can't come back in 2019, except under greatly reduced financial terms and with a much lower expectation of playing time.

Also, last night -- with Medina and Tajouri-Shradi on the bench -- felt a lot like the last quarter of the 2017 season. Villa was ineffective, nobody could step up, and Maxi's strengths are wasted without a sufficient supporting cast.

 

[Marito]

Exploited is the word. And somebody compared Portland's tactics to RBNJ but that's not accurate because Portland sat really far back and didn't press. They literally just watched the ball go around, stayed compact, and waited for our mistakes. I don't think they tired themselves. It's amazing how flat we were without the overlapping fullbacks.

 

[mgarbowski]

Vieira was not quite really, really quite, or in any way remotely pleased.

https://twitter.com/x/status/988256372323168256

 

[JayH]

I am nervous about Villa’s decline. Though what makes me feel a little better is that he was hurt during the preseason and now has been out a month, so he has to be so far from game fit. If he can stay healthy now, we won’t see exactly where he is at for a while (which will hopefully be close to the old 7). Of course, the injuries may also be indicitive of decline, but let’s hope he can ride it out with some health luck.

 

[dannd23]

A lot went wrong by a lot of people yesterday. But Sean Johnson. Woof. What a terrible game.

 

[JayH]

A lot when wrong by a lot of people yesterday. But Sean Johnson. Woof. What a terrible game.

Last season, he had his stinkers at the end of season and the playoffs. Maybe he will get them out of his system earlier this season

 

[Keith Putnam]

Vieira was not quite really, really quite, or in any way remotely pleased.

https://twitter.com/x/status/988256372323168256

His at-the-half remarks on television were pretty honest about how terrible we were, too. Which I appreciated.

 

[Ulrich]

Last season, he had his stinkers at the end of season and the playoffs. Maybe he will get them out of his system earlier this season

Johnson didn’t have a great game, but other than the first goal, I’m not sure How he can really be faulted:

Goal 1: looper to the back post. Callens had position. SJ could have called him off but I’m not sure he’d have been able to reach it if he had. That was Callens’ play to make and he should have followed through.

Goal 2: SJ makes the diving save and pushes the ball wide. Just so happens Adi was wide and there to collect the rebound. Not sure what SJ could have done more other than smother the ball and hold it, which isn’t easy being on the ground with arms extended (as opposed to ball being backstopped by his body). And he didn’t put the rebound back out to the top of the 6 which is normally where a poacher can fire it home with the free rebound, it was to the far post; hell, any keeper that makes that play against us has a great save because we never have a guy cleaning up the far post. Hard to fault SJ after getting the initial save.

Goal 3: pretty difficult to stop a free header from the top of the 6 yard box. The attacker first shoved Ofori to create space (why VAR didn’t overturn it is a mystery), and then there was another portland player in front/side of SJ that grabbed his attention/distracted him. Once the header was had with power, SJ doesn’t have a chance. My issue with that sequence is our zonal marking. The guy that scored is really tall and he pushed a small midfielder out of the way to exploit our zone. Conventional wisdom would have had a tall defender on him, body/body, that can match his strength and size and prevent him from manipulating the situation. Watching Ofori get shoved was a lot like seeing Maxi get knocked over and the ref ignoring it because it’s Maxi’s fault for being smaller and easy to displace.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

Exploited is the word. And somebody compared Portland's tactics to RBNJ but that's not accurate because Portland sat really far back and didn't press. They literally just watched the ball go around, stayed compact, and waited for our mistakes. I don't think they tired themselves. It's amazing how flat we were without the overlapping fullbacks.

Very concerning. Bunker and counter is an obvious tactic against our play style and PV had no tactical adjustment.

Got to hand it to Portland. The flat 442 worked very well for them. I don't know if I would say that they didn't press, but they used they used the two forwards to funnel the ball out of the middle and towards the sideline where they were able to put pressure with their wide midfielders not have to commit their fullbacks.

They were out numbered in the midfield but we were never able to take advantage of that. We continued to try to attack wide over and over again, even though that was exactly where Portland wanted us to.

 

[Keith Putnam]

Bunker and counter is an obvious tactic against our play style and PV had no tactical adjustment.

I think there's a perception among managers these days that there are basically two valid styles of setting up. A: possess and build with fast, short passing, if you have the quality of players to do so; or if you don't have the squad for that, deploy option B: bunker, press as much as you feel you can get away with, and break on the counter.

As we know, simply popping balls over the top to bypass a midfield is super gauche and only to be resorted to if one is willing to be horribly embarrassed and defensive in the post-match presser.

 

[JayH]

Johnson didn’t have a great game, but other than the first goal, I’m not sure How he can really be faulted:

Goal 1: looper to the back post. Callens had position. SJ could have called him off but I’m not sure he’d have been able to reach it if he had. That was Callens’ play to make and he should have followed through.

Goal 2: SJ makes the diving save and pushes the ball wide. Just so happens Adi was wide and there to collect the rebound. Not sure what SJ could have done more other than smother the ball and hold it, which isn’t easy being on the ground with arms extended (as opposed to ball being backstopped by his body). And he didn’t put the rebound back out to the top of the 6 which is normally where a poacher can fire it home with the free rebound, it was to the far post; hell, any keeper that makes that play against us has a great save because we never have a guy cleaning up the far post. Hard to fault SJ after getting the initial save.

Goal 3: pretty difficult to stop a free header from the top of the 6 yard box. The attacker first shoved Ofori to create space (why VAR didn’t overturn it is a mystery), and then there was another portland player in front/side of SJ that grabbed his attention/distracted him. Once the header was had with power, SJ doesn’t have a chance. My issue with that sequence is our zonal marking. The guy that scored is really tall and he pushed a small midfielder out of the way to exploit our zone. Conventional wisdom would have had a tall defender on him, body/body, that can match his strength and size and prevent him from manipulating the situation. Watching Ofori get shoved was a lot like seeing Maxi get knocked over and the ref ignoring it because it’s Maxi’s fault for being smaller and easy to displace.

Goal one was a mess and it was his job to take command of his domain. I am refusing to rewatch any of the highlights, so you may be correct on goal 2, but in real time I thought that he could have done better. He’s a terrific GK, so I see this as a bad game. Unfortunately the bad games came at the wrong time last season.

 

[Marito]

In terms of Ofori v Herrera, Wallace v Medina or Berget v other options:

The problem with Ofori is that he doesn't like to tackle or disrupt. His passing was better as an 8 than a 6, but he doesn't crash into people and imposes his physicality like Herrera does, so we lose some bite with him at 8.

I didn't think Wallace did much. We didn't need his defense and he's not a guy who, when he sees a wall of opponents waiting for his move, can come up with something threatening or unexpected.

In the situation we were facing, and just for urgency's sake, I would have put Berget as a ST with Villa as false 9, and just bomb crosses and long balls for him to pivot down and try to crash into them. I mean, if we cannot put pressure with delicate interplay let's create it brutishly, at least to give Portland some discomfort. If they have decided on the role reversal, just play like a home team and show some urgency.