MLS - April 24 - Toronto (Home)

agree with others that citi "felt" better than yankee stadium. for me, i think it's because citi field is just cozier the way it's built. supporters also sounded super loud even without a true supporter's section. the infield turf was immaculate. if not for the mowing lines, you'd have a tough time picking it out. the grounds crew did a fantastic job.

i was sad i couldn't get my hands on pig beach bbq.
 
agree with others that citi "felt" better than yankee stadium. for me, i think it's because citi field is just cozier the way it's built. supporters also sounded super loud even without a true supporter's section. the infield turf was immaculate. if not for the mowing lines, you'd have a tough time picking it out. the grounds crew did a fantastic job.

i was sad i couldn't get my hands on pig beach bbq.
Funny enough from where I was sitting, the supporter's section wasn't too audible. I don't get why they don't situate them by the other goal instead of in a weird awkward angle like that
 
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Anyone with a differing view of the Morales second yellow card? Didn’t even look like a foul to me.

Also the offside on Taty's goal going off Morales...He didn't intentionally try to play the ball. How is that offside?

watched the highlights - morales has a good grip of the jersey and kinda smacks him in the face. still soft, imho.. but i guess we can't really argue it.
 
Just watched the highlights. Not seeing what mgarbowski mgarbowski et al saw regarding SJ. I'm not sure how he stops 4 of those goals.

#1 - Bang bang play that goes in off the post. I don't think there is anything he could have done.
#2 - You could say he should have stood taller, but then he opens himself up to a low shot. He forced a strong chip, and Jimenez delivered.
#3 - No way he blocks that (not Bono, nor anyone else). Maybe you can argue he should have come out for the punch. Though it was in no man's land and whipped in with pace.
#4 - Just no possible way he or anyone makes that save. Shot with pace from point blank range.

What are others seeing that I'm not?
 
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Funny enough from where I was sitting, the supporter's section wasn't too audible. I don't get why they don't situate them by the other goal instead of in a weird awkward angle like that
I think part of the idea is that the overhang in that section greatly amplifies the noise they make. Their chants carry across Citi in a way that they never (or rarely) do at YS.

Architects take note. If we could build that kind of enclosure in our stadium to amplify our SS, um, yes please.
 
What an offensive display. Even at 2-1 it felt like we would figure it out. I have to admit at halftime I was cursing Citi Field, the Bolt kits and Toronto. But then I fixed it by switching to Heineken. Somehow that always works.
Every service is better at Citi (nice to see hawkers in the stands, which have disappeared at YS) so it’s good to break our whammy there, finally. I still prefer129 at YS to my Citi seats in 135 tho.
 
In the final moments of the game, I'm watching on the replay at 93:58 Rubiel Vazquez motions to signal for the end of the game briefly before pointing at the ball because Toronto have the attack. In the first half, despite just 2 minutes of added time, he blows the whistle at 1:48 of added time.

Terrible refereeing today. Both Morales yellow cards are soft. And Toronto kicked the ball away in the first half when we had a throw in, that's supposed to now be a yellow card for denial of a restart. A yellow wasn't given.
 
In the final moments of the game, I'm watching on the replay at 93:58 Rubiel Vazquez motions to signal for the end of the game briefly before pointing at the ball because Toronto have the attack. In the first half, despite just 2 minutes of added time, he blows the whistle at 1:48 of added time.

Terrible refereeing today. Both Morales yellow cards are soft. And Toronto kicked the ball away in the first half when we had a throw in, that's supposed to now be a yellow card for denial of a restart. A yellow wasn't given.

i saw that too. ref was ready to blow the final whistle, had his arms in the air.. and then saw tfc had the ball so he stopped and let the play carry on... WHY? that's some bullshit. they were at midfield. it was not happening in the final 3rd.

offsides on morales on our first goal was BS too. morales was ducking and bono was getting no where near that shot.

also - based on the highlights, the camera angle at citi field is SO much better than at YS. the field doesn't look that small at all and looks how it should look.
 
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In the final moments of the game, I'm watching on the replay at 93:58 Rubiel Vazquez motions to signal for the end of the game briefly before pointing at the ball because Toronto have the attack. In the first half, despite just 2 minutes of added time, he blows the whistle at 1:48 of added time.

Terrible refereeing today. Both Morales yellow cards are soft. And Toronto kicked the ball away in the first half when we had a throw in, that's supposed to now be a yellow card for denial of a restart. A yellow wasn't given.
I thought the ref was bad overall. It’s always annoying when a hard foul isn’t disciplined and then a soft foul is carded 10 minutes later because the ref wants to get a grasp on the game.
Service was much better today. Harder driven balls rather than the lofted ones in previous games. Still have to improve on finishing which is crazy to say having scored 5 goals. More importantly we have to improve defensively.
 
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I thought the ref was bad overall. It’s always annoying when a hard foul isn’t disciplined and then a soft foul is carded 10 minutes later because the ref wants to get a grasp on the game.
Service was much better today. Harder driven balls rather than the lofted ones in previous games. Still have to improve on finishing which is crazy to say having scored 5 goals. More importantly we have to improve defensively.

our backline has been rag tag for awhile now. first we need some consistency, which will give us more organization. then we need some mental focus. we lack that mental focus and fall asleep at the worst times.

throwing vuk on there and gloster at the end made it that much worse... especially gloster, who just seems very lost.
 
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Just watched the highlights. Not seeing what mgarbowski mgarbowski et al saw regarding SJ. I'm not sure how he stops 4 of those goals.

#1 - Bang bang play that goes in off the post. I don't think there is anything he could have done.
#2 - You could say he should have stood taller, but then he opens himself up to a low shot. He forced a strong chip, and Jimenez delivered.
#3 - No way he blocks that (not Bono, nor anyone else). Maybe you can argue he should have come out for the punch. Though it was in no man's land and whipped in with pace.
#4 - Just no possible way he or anyone makes that save. Shot with pace from point blank range.

What are others seeing that I'm not?

I believe Johnson could have been better on the second goal, and perhaps he should’ve been more aggressive on the fourth in light of the jumbled back line. The first goal was a great play by TFC and the third was on the defense, not Johnson. Overall, an average performance for Johnson, made to look worse by the team losing concentration (and a player) at the end.

The biggest concerns I have with the defense are A) health and B) set piece defense. B may improve as A improves, but we’ve been spoiled by the Callens/Chanot chemistry, and there will be growing pains.
 
This team is such a joy to watch. We play some spectacular stuff. Those goals were complete class. Not really worried about the defense; we gave up 0 shots for almost an hour of gameplay. Feels like defensively our opponents are converting on every single chance. That can't continue all season.

When Taty's hungry, he's basically not defendable. What a player.

Also, we give YES a lot of crap all year -- so they deserve credit that they did a shorter than normal Yankees postgame in order to get to us live. Does feel like their coverage has improved over the last couple years. Goes without saying that a Yankees postgame show is much higher rated than our games, so they get credit for getting to us at 5pm.
 
On the replay it looked like a hard to see very slight deflection off AM’s back.
Yup. There was one angle that shows it deflecting off of Morales’ back and IMO that kept the ball on frame, or at least into the net. If it doesn’t deflect off of Morales, I think it hits the post and bounces back or goes wide.

I thought it was the right call.

But also what a play design from Vartughian and a still incredible shot from Taty
 
Just watched the highlights. Not seeing what @
mgarbowski
mgarbowski et al saw regarding SJ. I'm not sure how he stops 4 of those goals.

The point is not they were easy saves. The point is they were makeable, and making none is poor.
5 shots faced, 1 save.
Saving all 4 of the goals he allowed would have been extraordinary.
Saving 3 would be very good.
Saving 2 is normal good.
Saving 1 of the 4 is the bare minimum.
Allowing all 4 was very bad.
To be fair, he save he made was a rather nice play.

But Bono made 3 saves (at least) that were as tough as the 4 Johnson allowed. Before we broke through the first half narrative was that Bono was the difference as he stuffed multiple open shots on goal. He also had a great play around 77' or so when he came about 30 yards out of goal to stop an open breakaway. Yes, he succumbed to the deluge. Bono made more saves than Johnson faced SOGs.

This excludes shots that were blocked or off target. Bono saved >50%. Sean saved 20%. If he manages 40% there's no angst.
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I confess I have a tendency to overcompensate for what I perceive to be a counter-tendency among NYCFC fans to fault our defense, especially the subs, or players who are out of position, and hold Johnson blameless. I probably overstated things a bit yesterday when I was reeling from a near late-game collapse in what should have been a laugher. I do expect more from our USMNT keeper than I do from Chris Gloster. Our defense yesterday had 1 natural CB and we've been without a league best RB for forever and they kept Toronto shotless for 50 consecutive minutes. Not just SOGs, but zero shots at all for 50 minutes straight. That's an extraordinarily dominant defense. When they faltered I expect our keeper to pick them up at least sometimes.

Johnson was a hero last fall. Yesterday he nearly cost us points in a game we absolutely dominated and should have won by multiple goals.