Philadelphia - Postmatch

[mgarbowski]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

I do suspect this is the worst 5-game stretch since 2015, but I will concede that I haven’t really scrubbed for details (I’m on vacation with 4 kids).

I did have the beginning of 2016 in mind. I remember thinking that while we weren’t grabbing points, we seemed to be playing much better than the prior season. I had a lot of confidence at the time that we would start getting results and make the playoffs.

I hadn’t thought of that second 2016 stretch you mention, but I remember it well. The loss to RSL drove me off the boards and away from the team for 3 weeks. You remember that one - they scored 3 goals on us with 2 shots on goal. And the Orlando tie where the Lions got a header at the death as half our team gave up on the play because the whistle was already late. Again, I think our results lagged our quality in that stretch.

Right now, I think our results are ahead of our quality. The losses to Seattle, Chicago, and Philly weren’t bad luck. They were well deserved. Meanwhile, we were barely able to beat Toronto up a man for 80 minutes - without Jozy’s temper, that’s probably a loss. Even the Orlando win wasn’t strong. We did control possession and were crisp offensively, but we were very poor defending counters (a problem that’s killed us lately), and poor Orlando finishing (4 shots off the post) kept it from being close.

And by the way, 4 of the 5 teams in this stretch are below the playoff line, and 2 are averaging 1 PPG or below.

On the other hand, as you point out, 4 of the 5 games were on the road.

These kinds of analyses are inherently in the eye of the beholder. We are going by our impressions rather than hard evidence (i.e. results). Our overall form looks poor to me. I look forward to them proving me wrong on Wednesday however!

I started a really long response but I'll cut to the short version. This is less an argument than an explanation why I'm sanguine.

NYC just won 2 of 4 road games, after being winless in 6 straight dating to mid-April. This is a direction that pleases me. I don't worry about winning ugly on the road in MLS. Suddenly, only 5 teams have more Away wins.

For all the hand wringing this weekend about why Dome seemed smart at first and clueless lately: he started with 4 of 5 at home followed by 4 of 5 away. KISS

The Vancouver draw at home? We outplayed them completely, and drew because Johnson was unavailable.

I'm mid-level optimistic for 6 more wins (4H2A) and a mid-60s point total. Could still mean a third place finish, but maybe someone else stumbles, and that's objectively a strong season. Too bad if someone else is better.

 

[Ulrich]

I started a long response but I'll cut to the short version. This is less an argument than an explanation why I'm sanguine.

NYC just won 2 of 4 road games, after being winless in 6 straight dating to mid-April. This is a direction that pleases me. I don't worry about winning ugly on the road in MLS. Suddenly, only 5 teams have more Away wins.

For all the hand wringing this weekend about why Dome seemed smart at first and clueless lately: he started with 4 of 5 at home followed by 4 of 5 away. KISS

The Vancouver draw at home? We outplayed them completely, and lost because Johnson was unavailable.

I'm mid-level optimistic for 6 more wins (4H2A) and a mid-60s point total. Could still mean a third place finish, but maybe someone else stumbles, and that's objectively a strong season. Too bad if someone else is better.

I’m not discounting anything you’re positing, it’s all solid stuff. My issue(s) with so many of our losses and ties is that far too often we show a lack of urgency and fight. Call it a lack of energy or playing lax or even lazy, I don’t know. It’s like the team can’t get themselves motivated for matches, and instead play flat. That leads to being second on 50/50 balls and mistiming runs and passes, and losing sight of needing to move off the ball. Or passing when the shot is there. Very few of the players would ever make you think they play with raging fire, our Scandinavians Ring/Tinny/Berget definitely do along with Villa (when not sulking) and Maxi, and maybe I’ve missed it, but the others don’t ever appear as though they’ll bleed out before being beaten.

There have been matches this season when we’ve been losing but I wasn’t worried because I knew we were more talented and our system would get us the opportunities to score/win. Our intensity didn’t matter because we were obviously the better team. But lately, I haven’t been so confident that we could rescue points, because either we’ve had undesirable options off the bench, or mostly the guys on the field just didn’t look like they’d run through a brick wall for the win. They sure don’t look like they’ve got the killers instinct around the net - too often trying to “pass” the ball in with weak placement rather than ripping a shot (on target - not Ring’s place kicker shots) come what may.

Why am I responding to you might you ask..... mainly because you are optimistic about the possibility of 6 more wins, which I agree is very doable if for no other reason than we are the more talented team on paper. But I fear that our robotic rhythm of a system, is in some ways a crutch, because when executed correctly should always get us numerous opportunities around the box every match (as Pep says, his job is to move the ball 2/3 of the way down the field and it’s the players responsibility for the final third) but our lack of killer instinct and typically flat energy will leave us stranded in the playoffs when we run up against a team equal in skill or better in tactics. Something needs to change, either in the locker room or in weekly training sessions, that cultivates a fiery seriousness or at least develops a way to harness it to flip the switch when the whistle blows.

 

[Kjbert]

Highlight was when Ulrich typed K Kjbert in the shout box and it autocorrected to Liberty Mutual.

Can we revisit this

 

[ZYanksRule]

I started a really long response but I'll cut to the short version. This is less an argument than an explanation why I'm sanguine.

NYC just won 2 of 4 road games, after being winless in 6 straight dating to mid-April. This is a direction that pleases me. I don't worry about winning ugly on the road in MLS. Suddenly, only 5 teams have more Away wins.

For all the hand wringing this weekend about why Dome seemed smart at first and clueless lately: he started with 4 of 5 at home followed by 4 of 5 away. KISS

The Vancouver draw at home? We outplayed them completely, and drew because Johnson was unavailable.

I'm mid-level optimistic for 6 more wins (4H2A) and a mid-60s point total. Could still mean a third place finish, but maybe someone else stumbles, and that's objectively a strong season. Too bad if someone else is better.

I'm a Yankees fan, too (obviously) ... their seasons feel remarkably similar. The Yankees are on pace for 100 wins, but the Red Sox are going to win 110+ games, and there's nothing you can do about that.

Meanwhile last season Toronto had the most points in league history -- there could be 3 teams at 2 PPG in MLS this season, and all of them are in the East. If we have 2 points a game but still can't win the Shield, I will tip my cap to the team that wins it.