Preseason - 2/24 Montreal Impact

I think this is a bit of a reach. Let's be honest, all we have to go on are 'behind the scenes' training videos. And I've seen plenty of examples of say, Rodney Wallace or Jack Harrison goofing around during training, with zero implications for their game time. Until PV benches Villa for squirting the kit man before every damn match then I'm not buying it.
That's fair. I kept wanting to caveat my post for that very reason but got distracted. It didn't feel like a completely fair assessment.

On the flip side, Harrison and Villa are both savage in training as well as having fun.
 
I thought Medina looked better on the defensive end than the other preseason games which is good our style of play. Still need someone other than Villa to set up and score some goals.

Got slapped in the face leaving youtube on after the stream ended and the YT algorithm played old NYCFC/Impact highlights featuring a nice goal from Jack Harrison.
 
Watching it live here are my takeaways.
Mata was incredibly bad. Bad giveaways all game. Passes directly to defenders.
My line of sight was directly behind goal and some of his passes came off his boots direct to defenders which made me and friends wonder why the hell he would even consider the pass or what the pass was to begin with.
Tinnerholm skied every single shot he took in warm ups. I mean like 5-15 yards over goal. This continued into the game. Guy has a very heavy touch and a couple crosses and shots sailed into stands.
Midfield is rough. Herrera gave the ball away and made bad passes and we had a very hard time passing out of pressure.
Medina was invisible in the first half but only because the team played everything through middle and left. At one point they flipped and he went left but they still couldn’t get him anything.
Second half looked like a completely different team. Medina made a lot of nice runs and mata barely missed him. He definitely has pace for days.
First half was horrid and second half was watchable and closer to what I hope we see next week but still not enough to make us a contender.
 
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The interesting thing about this game was that Vieira only out in New players to fit the lineup. We didn’t have a RB and RW after cutting or transferring players. Tinnerholm and Medina are put in the lineup.

We had Lewis as a new player and got some minutes after the midseason. Herrera also started after the U20 World Cup. Hopefully Vieira puts the better players in the lineup earlier. I don’t think Wallace is our best LW. And I think Sweat is more consistency than Matarrita even though Matarrita at this best is better than Sweat at his best. Maxi played deep a lot last year to bring the ball up the midfield. He did that today too.

Based on everything, Vieira isn’t going to change anything. The same formation, same style, same tactics.
 
You have to wonder if Matarrita gets the start on Sunday. He has been poor all pre-season.

Was he the one who passed it directly to Piatti at the edge of the 6-yard box?
 
I watched the whole thing when I got in last night and it seemed like a really good game. Lots of good passing and movement from us. I'm not sure I agree with the whole 'start every single move ever with passes from the defenders and the goalkeeper', but on occasion we worked it forward well and had some impressive passing plays.

Agree that Mata was absolutely shocking - the guy isn't really a defender. He's like a left midfielder whose brain just departs when he gets back in to the defensive third. Can't pass well, poorly positioned and unable to tackle.

Plenty of positives from everyone else though. Agree that Medina looked good defensively, if a little short when attacking. Wallace had some good running and positioning, but fell short a little with his final product.

Overall, i'll take it. If we play like this for most of the season and learn how not to shoot ourselves in the dick, we'll be in pretty good shape.
 
Last night reminded me a lot of last season.... if Villa doesn’t score, it never appears as though we’re going to - this isn’t to say we don’t get good looks as the ball does get worked in well, but save for Villa, anybody taking a shot seems hesitant or rushed (as if the speed of play is too much when needing to pull the trigger). I fear we’re going to have real trouble scoring each game and unless our Viking proves he’s field-ready and starts banging them in, it’ll start to reveal we really haven’t addressed our dire need for a #2 scorer - we really should have minimum 3-4 guys on the field that have the confidence and ability to score inside the box and 1v1, but nobody outside of Villa exudes a finisher’s mojo.
 
Was he the one who passed it directly to Piatti at the edge of the 6-yard box?

According to Glen Crooks, it was Callens who made the backpass to Piatti. If so, it just solidifies his reputation as a strong player undermined by terrific lapses in judgment. Not sure we can stand for that to continue.
 
According to Glen Crooks, it was Callens who made the backpass to Piatti. If so, it just solidifies his reputation as a strong player undermined by terrific lapses in judgment. Not sure we can stand for that to continue.

I mean, you can look for yourself and see it was Mata

It was emblematic of where our play goes wrong - when someone stops flicking it, touches it more than once, turns the wrong way, or any combination, and quickly panics, then often duffs it.

(fwiw I think the next pass was more or less on to Ring from where Mata started and the play keeps going, but he just brain farted)

The fact that we do this so close to our own box so often is a real killer.
 
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