MLS Cup Playoffs - October 30 - Philadelphia (Away)

[ZYanksRule]

I said something similar before but I can’t find it now: I actively try to avoid complaining about refs, injuries, scheduling, bad bounces, etc because it’s dumb in its own right. But a side benefit is I feel zero hesitancy or guilt about saying this :
Fuck those whiny crybitch Union fans . Get over it.

Counterpoint: They have every right to feel like they would have -- and probably should have -- won that game last season. We were awful on the day in Philly last year, and if they have their full complement of players it's very likely they roll us.

Their complaints about it being unfair and calling our win illegitimate is wrong, but they have every right to wonder what if.

That said: Philly fans are annoying and let's kick their asses tomorrow.

 

[Mkdaman1818]

I know the reason why this is the case (because ESPN and FOX are showing college football all day) but man these MLS semifinal games would do much better on a Saturday than up against an NFL Sunday.

 

[413Blue]

I know the reason why this is the case (because ESPN and FOX are showing college football all day) but man these MLS semifinal games would do much better on a Saturday than up against an NFL Sunday.

The benefit of the Apple deal. It doesn't matter what else they have in their inventory, we play when it makes sense to us!

 

[Mkdaman1818]

The benefit of the Apple deal. It doesn't matter what else they have in their inventory, we play when it makes sense to us!

I imagine they’re going to try and negotiate cable deals for the playoffs as well, but yes I hope the Apple deal means we can play playoff games on Saturdays

 

[SoupInNYC]

I would say we were missing 3 key starters last year and they were missing 5.. 4 of which were their back line and best XI keeper. They definitely had it worse then and now. Add to that the fact that it was a nonfootball related issue made it feel much worse.

That being said, their whining and asterisk claims are really annoying. I would like to think if the tables were turned we wouldn't whine in the same manner.. but who knows lol

I don’t think we’ll be missing all of them

 

[canchon]

I said something similar before but I can’t find it now: I actively try to avoid complaining about refs, injuries, scheduling, bad bounces, etc because it’s dumb in its own right. But a side benefit is I feel zero hesitancy or guilt about saying this :
Fuck those whiny crybitch Union fans . Get over it.

Hell yeah. This whole assuming they would have won the Cup last year assumes that they beat us at full strength and beat Portland. Enough of all the whining. Accept it and move on.

 

[moogoo]

I don’t think we’ll be missing all of them

I hope you're right! I think Maxi will play some. Gray might be available but we have Anton so it's ok, I think. Chanot and Magno are the biggest question marks for me since ham string injuries are difficult injuries .

 

[gbservis]

As someone who doesn’t do social media, I get zero exposure to Philly fans. So I carry none of the animus others here do.

My un less biased view is this. We’d have screamed bloody murder if asymptomatic COVID had taken 5 of our starters last year. Our last year retorts that we were missing starters too were rightly rebutted that our starters were missing because of football related injuries. And any asterisk we apply this year due to injuries (in an alternate fictional universe in which we don’t beat their asses tomorrow) will be met appropriately with critiques of how that is all part of football and we’re just a bunch of whiners. No thank you.

For me there are no asterisks this year. Squads as full as our normal health allows. Go out and kick ass. Or shut up. On both sides.

I agree they have every right to be frustrated and angry that they had to play the game short-handed, we would be equally enraged. My issue is when they say things like "you won our title", like it's a foregone conclusion that they would have gone to portland and come out with the win. The other one I get pretty often is, "you guys weren't even good you barely beat New England and it took a shootout and then you got lucky against Portland." Discounting that the Revs won the supporter's shield that season and we beat them on the road on their turf field. Meanwhile, Philly went to OT against a terrible Red Bulls team at home because they bunkered like cowards the whole game and needed a screamer from 30 yards out from one of their CBs to win in OT.

 

[KevinJRogers]

I agree they have every right to be frustrated and angry that they had to play the game short-handed, we would be equally enraged. My issue is when they say things like "you won our title", like it's a foregone conclusion that they would have gone to portland and come out with the win. The other one I get pretty often is, "you guys weren't even good you barely beat New England and it took a shootout and then you got lucky against Portland." Discounting that the Revs won the supporter's shield that season and we beat them on the road on their turf field. Meanwhile, Philly went to OT against a terrible Red Bulls team at home because they bunkered like cowards the whole game and needed a screamer from 30 yards out from one of their CBs to win in OT.

Spot on. Plus, it's not like they had been blowing us out. If I remember correctly, we lost to them 1-0 in Philly in August and drew at the Stadium in November.

I secretly (or not so secretly LOL) think they may have been counting their chickens with us down two key starters with injuries and Taty on a suspension. Then suddenly got the Covid shaft and felt like someone stole their candy.

Okay, that's a lot of mixed metaphors. I better go back to the ballgame . . .

 

[gbservis]

On a tactical note, Philly hit their stride this season when their new front three started the click and they started playing a more offensive style. For their first 10 games of the season, the Union averaged 1.4 goals per game on 38.6% possession. For the last ten games of the season, they averaged 3.1 goals per game on 48.4% possession.

It will be interesting to see if Curtain has them stick to the style that led to so much success at the end of the season or given the stakes and our attacking talent he reverts to the more conservative bunkering style they have played for years. It's only one game but they seemed to be back to their conservative ways against Cincinnati where they had only 6 shots on 45.7% possession. Not that much of a drop-off in possession but Cincinnati's opponents averaged 54.8% possession regular season so it wasn't like Philly was up against a team that wanted to dominate the ball.

My guess is that they come out conservative, they won't press our backline but they will make the midfield a congested mess. We will need every bit of Parks and hopefully Maxi's creativity to shuttle the ball from our half into theirs.

 

[Shwafta]

Counterpoint: They have every right to feel like they would have -- and probably should have -- won that game last season. We were awful on the day in Philly last year, and if they have their full complement of players it's very likely they roll us.

Their complaints about it being unfair and calling our win illegitimate is wrong, but they have every right to wonder what if.

That said: Philly fans are annoying and let's kick their asses tomorrow.

You can't do a comparison specifically of "we were awful on the day" i think isn't a fair one, because who knows the reason for the awful play? Maybe it was because they lost concentration "Because it's the kids"? Hard to do that sort of stuff, imo

 

[ZYanksRule]

You can't do a comparison specifically of "we were awful on the day" i think isn't a fair one, because who knows the reason for the awful play? Maybe it was because they lost concentration "Because it's the kids"? Hard to do that sort of stuff, imo

Fair. But I personally think we were bad that game because it was 5 days after the game in New England and we were fried mentally and physically. I don't think it had much to do with who was on the field for Philly.

 

[FootyLovin]

It’s Eastern Conference Final grudge match game day, bitches. Let’s get this shit on.

 

[Shwafta]

Fair. But I personally think we were bad that game because it was 5 days after the game in New England and we were fried mentally and physically. I don't think it had much to do with who was on the field for Philly.

I guess my point is that we can't actually know what the reason was, and saying that X would have happened is almost impossible. Maybe I'm wrong on that point, but I don't think it's really possible.

Either way, we did win the game

 

[Seth]

Either way, we did win the game

They went on to play golf, we went on to play soccer. Personally, I support golfing for Philadelphians.

 

[canchon]

I agree they have every right to be frustrated and angry that they had to play the game short-handed, we would be equally enraged. My issue is when they say things like "you won our title", like it's a foregone conclusion that they would have gone to portland and come out with the win. The other one I get pretty often is, "you guys weren't even good you barely beat New England and it took a shootout and then you got lucky against Portland." Discounting that the Revs won the supporter's shield that season and we beat them on the road on their turf field. Meanwhile, Philly went to OT against a terrible Red Bulls team at home because they bunkered like cowards the whole game and needed a screamer from 30 yards out from one of their CBs to win in OT.

“You got lucky against Portland?” Did they watch the game? NYCFC was up for more than half the game and it only went into extra time because of a last gasp goal that shouldn’t have counted due to a foul (Mabiala admitted to Chanot afterwards that yeah he fouled him). Beating any team in the playoffs on the road is hard, ET or penalties aside. To do it 3 times in a row is remarkable.

 

[moogoo]

based on his interview with crooks, sounds like chanot is definitely not gonna play and the plan is to go to a 4-2-3-1 with amundsen instead of otoole. man, really hope amundsen is on his A-game after not playing for awhile. We can't have him falling asleep mentally on the back post.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1586476325086306305

 

[BxLio91]

I like that our social media team doesn't engage in the silly shit. If we beat Philly I expect our fans to let the Philly accounts have it for twitter fingering.
Probably spam their posts with Back to Back.

 

[ZYanksRule]

based on his interview with crooks, sounds like chanot is definitely not gonna play and the plan is to go to a 4-2-3-1 with amundsen instead of otoole. man, really hope amundsen is on his A-game after not playing for awhile. We can't have him falling asleep mentally on the back post.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1586476325086306305

Personally I think there are some mindgames going on here. Putting Amundsen on who hasn't played since Sept. 10? Cushing doesn't exactly tell the truth, usually, in these situations so I'm taking this with a large grain of salt.

Wouldn't surprise me if Keaton starts and plays a hybrid CB/D-mid the way James Sands used to. Step back into a back-3 on defense, step up into a back-4 going forward.

 

[KevinJRogers]

Personally I think there are some mindgames going on here. Putting Amundsen on who hasn't played since Sept. 10? Cushing doesn't exactly tell the truth, usually, in these situations so I'm taking this with a large grain of salt.

Wouldn't surprise me if Keaton starts and plays a hybrid CB/D-mid the way James Sands used to. Step back into a back-3 on defense, step up into a back-4 going forward.

I'm sure Nick has something like that in mind, along with a couple other wrinkles. I've really come to respect his tactical acumen a lot. And I do mean a lot. He's not going to get out-coached.