LAFC - Postmatch

Rolling Weekly Poll

  • Dome Out

    Votes: 14 36.8%
  • Dome Stay

    Votes: 4 10.5%
  • Too Early to Overreact

    Votes: 20 52.6%

  • Total voters
    38
While I don't disagree that 3pts from 9 is bad (because it is, frankly), I thought we played the best soccer of the season. Against another contender, and we scored twice. Yes we gave up our lead twice, but I thought that was a strong showing. It looks like our attack is slowly getting more comfortable playing together, but here are the points I noted today:

1. Castellanos was even more invisible than Medina
2. Medina was invisible
3. Lewis didn't make any impact as a substitue
4. Sweat, oh Sweat, giving me reasons to love you (that play to Ring) and reasons to hate you (...) but I thought while we were playing 5 defenders, he actually did very well in his midfield role.
5. Maxi looks so lost, I'm not sure what changed from last season?
6. SJ had some... questionably awful... passes today.
7. Chanot and Callens are the only reason we have 3 points this season
8. Tinnerholm had some very nice runs and pushes on their midfield, and I quite liked it.
9. Dome, what the fuck are you thinking bringing on medina? Dumbest idea of the season.

I understood today what our tactics were, it just seems like he wants us to try and break through other teams through the wing rather than through the center- in fact most of our play up until the final third - seemed to come from the wings.

I do think, however, that had we kept the same tactics as the first half, with the 72% posession and what we had been doing, we could have come out of that match 3-1 winners.
Lewis didn’t make an impact because he was wide open on the right wing and no one wanted to give it to him. I think he touched the ball once and honestly if he is gonna be a “super sub “ he can’t be given 10 mins he needs at lest 25 mins
 
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Lewis didn’t make an impact because he was wide open on the right wing and no one wanted to give it to him. I think he touched the ball once and honestly if he is gonna be a “super sub “ he can’t be given 10 mins he needs at lest 25 mins
With national team he proved with more time he can do more and so far this season he has 1 assist coming from a start against Orlando Where he was better then the bunch (not the best performance). I think if you put Lewis In the XI now because the team is actually trying to play he would do much better then Castellanos. Against Orlando we didn’t play to his strengths getting him 1v1 we played kick ball and he managed to get an assist and was dropped for no reason. He dealt with a bad situation against Orlando and got us a goal. Taty has played more minutes with a better style in the last two games and has done nothing. I think Lewis should go back into the team IMO. He just needs a little time to catch form and i promise he will be balling and complimenting Mitrita
 
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I am a little concerned with the number of yellows we are picking up, hopefully they don’t start turning to reds, we are also going to have to start rotating the squad soon to deal with suspensions
 
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What was the Gx for this game? Just curious.
Opta says we deserved to lose 2-1 or 3-2. 2-2 was not statistically beyond rational possibility but required luck on both ends. ASA won't be out for a few days.
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This is flipped from many games late last season where we won the xG battle but either drew or lost, and IMO looked a lot worse than yesterday. I think the team was more fluid and direct on offense yesterday than we have seen in a long time. I also wonder if that kept me from noticing our defensive flaws (besides the 2 obvious ones).
 
I am a little concerned with the number of yellows we are picking up, hopefully they don’t start turning to reds, we are also going to have to start rotating the squad soon to deal with suspensions
This is always going to be a thing for us. The tactical foul is very important to limit the effectiveness of the counter attack. We are not light on holding midfielders.
 
Yesterday was the first time I saw Sands play live -- really good stuff. He fouls like a 30 year old veteran. Really locks down the D-mid with tackles and interceptions and excellent positioning. If USA has a solid U20 World Cup and James plays against top teams we might not have him for the entire season.

I don't like Maxi as the 9. I understand why he is up there given our roster but the first year under PV he was getting the ball too deep to be most effective and now he is getting it too high. If Dome asks me its time to try Parks instead of Ofori and pivot the two in and out of the 9. From what I have seen Parks has the skillset to move the ball better than Ofori. With Sands and Ring in the middle I think we can put more O in the midfield than Ofori.

Looked like a 3-4-3 to me when Sweat came in but he and Mata weren't on the same page with their D positioning -- seemed like a coaching issue.

Callens is a beast.

Chanot wasn't 100% after he went down with the knock. Still made some great plays but we almost lost the game at the death. Hope its minor.

DC and LAFC are 2 of the best teams in MLS this season, but we need to be able to keep leads. The weakest teams in the league are way better than any time I started following the league 7 years ago. We can drop points any game we make defensive errors this year so Dome has to be able to get this team to hold leads. I thought we were too impatient with the ball when we were up 2-1.

Before the season started if I told you after 3 games we would be 1 point up on Atlanta after they played Cincy and Philly at home while we had DC and LAFC you would be happy.
 
Yesterday was the first time I saw Sands play live -- really good stuff. He fouls like a 30 year old veteran. Really locks down the D-mid with tackles and interceptions and excellent positioning. If USA has a solid U20 World Cup and James plays against top teams we might not have him for the entire season.
I don’t think the club will release him.

Beyond that, Tab seems not to rate him for some reason if we look at how he hasn’t called him up much at all this cycle. Or NYCFC has just made clear from the beginning that he wouldn’t be available so Tab moved on early.
 
I don’t think the club will release him.

Beyond that, Tab seems not to rate him for some reason if we look at how he hasn’t called him up much at all this cycle. Or NYCFC has just made clear from the beginning that he wouldn’t be available so Tab moved on early.
I agree not for $3-$4 M, but with an impressive U20 World Cup and after Adams success at the 6 in the Bundesliga coming out of MLS, there is the potential for an offer the Club doesn't want to turn down.

I am assuming Sands isn't getting called up because locking down starting time for NYCFC is better training than being with the U20s, but this is the same coach who didn't rate Lewis on the team 2 years ago, so I could be wrong. Sands in the 11 seems much more clear cut though.

After Herrera's experience I don't think the club is keeping players out of the U20 World Cup.
 
I agree not for $3-$4 M, but with an impressive U20 World Cup and after Adams success at the 6 in the Bundesliga coming out of MLS, there is the potential for an offer the Club doesn't want to turn down.

I am assuming Sands isn't getting called up because locking down starting time for NYCFC is better training than being with the U20s, but this is the same coach who didn't rate Lewis on the team 2 years ago, so I could be wrong. Sands in the 11 seems much more clear cut though.

After Herrera's experience I don't think the club is keeping players out of the U20 World Cup.
I was only talking about releasing him for the WC.

I’m sure they will sell him on at some point if he keeps up this level of play.

I don’t recall if Herrera was a regular starter for us or not back then. Wasn’t he still going through a PV ritual initiation stint as a squad man? Anyway, since NYC likely aren’t actually playing for anything, it would be great for Jimmy if they let him go. Hope they do.
 
Quick thoughts. Sands was amazing. Had some family from Italy with me and they couldnt stop raving about him.

They pointed out numerous times we have no 9.

Why does Dome play people out of position. Lewis is best making passes in from the left side. Not cutting in from the right. Maxi needs to be in the midfield with Ring and Sands. I didnt realize castellanos was playing for a big portion of the game.

my fix to this shit... play a 3-5-2 between our 3 centerbacks and ring sands at CDM. you can put maxi and 4 wingers on the field between the spots. Hell even Mata can play knowing that you basically have 5 defenders back.
 
The first two matches I only got to see a half each. This was the first full match I saw and we were clearly the better team overall.

Big Mitrita fan. Glad he scored and think we see a lot more of that.

Sands would have a bright national team future if we weren't loaded at that position already, but still think he will make squads some day soon.

Their PK was unlucky on our part, bad touch by LA.

Sweat was mediocre as always. He has broken this boards brains worse than Trump has for both sides.

I know it was a draw, but I have slightly more faith in Dome after that one.
 
Got a bit too drunk to remember a lot about the game (or much of yesterday, really) but I do recall us looking a little lacklustre at times and often having a gaping hole where a striker should be.

Also delighted to discover the steak fries at Yankee Stadium.
 
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i didnt understand the Ofori sub at all. I actually thought he was one of our best players in the first half. He wasnt doing anything crazy but he was a good link up man and he was able to successfully switch the field on numerous occasions. He didnt lose any possession with the ball on his feet and only had a few misplaced passes. As someone who has been overly critical of him in past games i was beyond impressed with how he was playing last night and then next thing i know hes getting called out for a sub.

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i didnt understand the Ofori sub at all. I actually thought he was one of our best players in the first half. He wasnt doing anything crazy but he was a good link up man and he was able to successfully switch the field on numerous occasions. He didnt lose any possession with the ball on his feet and only had a few misplaced passes. As someone who has been overly critical of him in past games i was beyond impressed with how he was playing last night and then next thing i know hes getting called out for a sub.

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Thanks for the graph.

Yeah, I'm surprised there aren't more people talking about it, that it wasn't mentioned in the press conference, etc.
 
Thanks for the graph.

Yeah, I'm surprised there aren't more people talking about it, that it wasn't mentioned in the press conference, etc.

That was also my impression, and I mentioned it during the match in the shoutbox. Ofori was having his best ever game for us, by far. Last season, at his worst, he was the kind of player who would make 9 lateral or back passes for each forward one, making our morose buildup ever worse. But in this game he was incisive without losing his good completion rate. I wonder if the fact that Maxi was higher up the pitch is what forced him to be less meh, and not skirt the responsibility to be creative. In any case, that buries Parks further in the bench. So I have to agree that outside of Mitrita we've had nothing but depth signings this offseason. And we still need a LB and a Striker.

BTW if Sweat had not created the goal, this would have been his worse match ever for us, by far. He has never been precise or reliable in his passing and decision making, but yesterday was abysmal. He seemed to send every other pass to a rival player, many times under no great pressure whatsoever. Besides the penalty he could have easily been the direct cause of another LAFC goal. In only 40 minutes he gifted LAFC 4 or 5 half chances that were not major chances only because he wasn't close enough to our 18 when he gave the ball away. Mata is, without a doubt, the lesser of two evils at LB, dumb and chaotic as he is.