Atlanta (Away) - Postmatch

NYCFC_Dan

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I missed this one and based on the chat when I peeked in its a good thing I did.
People were complaining about Heber not being in the lineup before the match even started. Done had told Glenn C that it was a fitness issue and he wanted pace up front.
So, those that did watch, how did that pace work out?
Appears the consensus is that the defense was shit today.
I did see the Martinez opening goal and how is that not a foul? Absolutely annihilated Chanot. Went right through the back of him.
 
They were just better today. Controlled the ball completely and were more creative in the final third.

Matarrita was terrible - roasted by Gressel all day.

Ofori was not good enough. I think we needed Parks from the beginning.

Also should have had Heber from the start. He not only had the great finish on our goal, but he also got the sequence started on a clever ball to Maxi.
 
Mata was absolute trash. Anybody that thinks Sweat gives a cushion should realize Mata is way worse - he conducts no semblance of marking.

Mitrita is no better than an average player. Selfish. Loses the ball. Pouts. Becomes disinterested. His first loss of ball started the counter that ended with Martinez barely missing and holding his groin. Mitri is a massive strikeout by the CFG scouting.

Ofori is at best an emergency squad player. He brings nothing to the team to hold or push possession- at best he makes back passes. He jogged a ton today after losing the ball or not being successful in the tackle.

This team is seriously flawed. We’d have a losing record without Heber and it’s only his brilliance at scoring that has us winning - he’s like a BWP that just flat out scores. We don’t manufacture goals often enough to be competitive.

Dome. What’s there to say. He screwed up the lineup so badly. He just doesn’t win the big matches. We looked so unprepared out there.
 
This was a massive challenge to begin with, so minus Heber at the start we had little hope.
Parks' importance is highly underrated. Ofori is not bad, but Parks brings fluidity in the transition that Ofori simply is incapable of providing.
Sands had his first truly poor performance today. Hopefully this was an aberration.

Our full squad, on normal rest is good enough to beat Atlanta, even on the road. We didn't have that tonight. Oh well.

The EC is winnable for us.

Eta: Mitrita was a major failure, he showed very clearly this game was way out of his league. We tried to find a player from a trash league, but some players belong in trash leagues. We need to cut our losses on our two DP busts.

Sweat is better than Matarrita, not just because he is a much less shitty defender, but he allows Tinnerholm to play more aggressively, unlocking his full potential.
 
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What a difficult game to watch....

What else is there to say except we got dominated for 90% of the game? There were clear refereeing mistakes in this game. We should have gotten DOGSO called against ATL, Martinez's going through Chanot to get the header goal should have been a foul. But Chanot taking down Pity in the box was a clear penalty that was not called either.

We would have been a different team with Heber and Parks on the field. Ofori doesn't bring the offensive threat and/or vision. He doesn't dribble - ever. He takes the ball, two-three touches and he passes it off. Of course, Dome already said Heber not starting was fitness.. perhaps Parks not starting was for the same reason.

Overall - everyone played pretty poorly except for Sean (though I think he could have done better on the first goal) and Taty (he worked pretty hard basically being our lone forward since Mitri was pretty much a no show).

My biggest gripes:

Mata - his only saving grace is that he's good offensively but today he showed none of that. Not only was he not a thread offensively but he was extra poor on defense. I caught him jogging after a runner several times and toward the end of the game saw him smiling!? I don't know about any of you, but if i was playing in that game, the last thing i'd be doing is smiling. He has been a huge liability to us the last few games and without any real replacement for him, it shows that the club needs to go out and sign a solid left wing back.

Mitri - absolutely ineffective. The few touches he had were right into a defender where he'd lose it and then just shrug and walk back instead of trying to win the ball back. This type of non-chalant, undetermined, lack of passion play is what I dislike the most. His handful of magical moments isn't nearly enough to outweigh his lack of trackbacks and second efforts to win the ball back after HE lost it. Villa worked 100 times harder than Mitri and there's no comparison when it comes to their offensive contribution to the team.

Ring - i don't know how he has become such a poor passer of the ball. I don't remember him ever being this bad but this whole season, he's passed to nobody or the opposition more than a teammate. and that leads me to my last gripe...

Easy giveaways and poor passing - as a team, we have been pretty poor at passing. Better teams have torn us up for it but even against lower quality opposition, our giveaways have caused us much more trouble more often than not. Is it tired legs? Is it laziness? I'm convinced its one of these two since we have the quality.
 
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This was a massive challenge to begin with, so minus Heber at the start we had little hope.
Parks' importance is highly underrated. Ofori is not bad, but Parks brings fluidity in the transition that Ofori simply is incapable of providing.
Sands had his first truly poor performance today. Hopefully this was an aberration.

Our full squad, on normal rest is good enough to beat Atlanta, even on the road. We didn't have that tonight. Oh well.

The EC is winnable for us.
we have a lot of tough games ahead and many of them under a tight schedule. We'll be playing with rotated squad for sure. It'll be tough to go the rest of the season not dropping more points - even at home.
 
They were just better today. Controlled the ball completely and were more creative in the final third.

Matarrita was terrible - roasted by Gressel all day.

Ofori was not good enough. I think we needed Parks from the beginning.

Also should have had Heber from the start. He not only had the great finish on our goal, but he also got the sequence started on a clever ball to Maxi.

Accurate, agreed.

Credit where credit is due - Atlanta played its best game of the season today. Atlanta is one of the best sides in MLS, and it showed today.

That noted:

1) Matarrita was at his defensive worst today. Left back has been a concern of the forum as a whole. Today was Exhibit I. I will defer to the analytics experts, but it seemed today that every three minutes Gressel had a free cross that Matarritta failed to close.

2) The team clearly was uncomfortable with the artificial turf bounce. If we must head to Atlanta for a playoff match, the team needs to practice for a week on the plastic.

3) It is too simplistic to blame the lineup selection for the loss, but the team should learn that against Atlanta on that turf it is best to go offense vs. offense and try to win 4-3. No Ofori or Ring/Sands combination. Start (if healthy) with Parks and Moralez behind a combination of Taty/Heber/Mitrita/GMS/Shradi.
 
Accurate, agreed.

Credit where credit is due - Atlanta played its best game of the season today. Atlanta is one of the best sides in MLS, and it showed today.

That noted:

1) Matarrita was at his defensive worst today. Left back has been a concern of the forum as a whole. Today was Exhibit I. I will defer to the analytics experts, but it seemed today that every three minutes Gressel had a free cross that Matarritta failed to close.

2) The team clearly was uncomfortable with the artificial turf bounce. If we must head to Atlanta for a playoff match, the team needs to practice for a week on the plastic.

3) It is too simplistic to blame the lineup selection for the loss, but the team should learn that against Atlanta on that turf it is best to go offense vs. offense and try to win 4-3. No Ofori or Ring/Sands combination. Start (if healthy) with Parks and Moralez behind a combination of Taty/Heber/Mitrita/GMS/Shradi.
Mata has been bad all season but nobody has wanted to admit it.

And no, the lineup is critical if you are essentially missing an outside defender because he sucks, a CM because he adds nothing, and a petulant child DP because he’s moody when his selfish skills don’t work.
 
Mata has been bad all season but nobody has wanted to admit it.

And no, the lineup is critical if you are essentially missing an outside defender because he sucks, a CM because he adds nothing, and a petulant child DP because he’s moody when his selfish skills don’t work.
I think everyone has admitted that Mata sucks, the only debate has been whether he sucks more or less than Sweat. There is no reason for Mata to be in the lineup anymore.
 
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Couldn’t watch and won’t have a chance for a while. I don’t care if it’s coach’s decision or fitness, not having Heber ready and starting this game for anything but injury is malpractice.
 
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I think everyone has admitted that Mata sucks, the only debate has been whether he sucks more or less than Sweat. There is no reason for Mata to be in the lineup anymore.
It’s not even a question save for those that won’t admit Sweat is better. Mata has directly been responsible for a huge percentage of goals this year. He’s beaten nearly every match.

PV was at least realistic enough to give up on Mata’s Offense roll of the dice to ensure he’d have a LB that’d stay home. That’s what Dome has never realized is the case - he’s been trying to play Pep-ball with a guy that doesn’t have the ability to cover or play defense. And that’s a serious tactical problem when our entire left side today was setup to be non-effective against ATL’s potent offense with Mata/Ofori/Mitri
 
I am so tired of reading that after the match Dome said “the players need to be brave.” That’s a Fcking cop-out by the manager on a Jose Mourinho level and will only create locker room problems. Speaking of which, I mentioned during the shoutbox that the players were not fighting for each other and were walking a lot after losing/not tackling the ball, which is not what you’d expect to see with a unified group. And if not for Taty’s heroics last match to salvage points with a man advantage, the team could be on a three-match losing streak - they’re riding a fine line right now which is becoming the NYCFC second-half form implosion. Buckle up.
 
Yea the walking and obvious lack of effort is what kills me the most.

If we get beat we get beat. But to show a lack of passion and effort makes the loss a thousand times more aggravating,

the way we played, it could have been a whole lot worse of a result. could have been a much more embarrassing 4-0 loss.

2-1 is respectable for anyone not watching the game, but for those who did, and watched the lack of effort, the jogging, the walking, the whatever after losing the ball, the kicking the ball just to kick it and it goes whereever it goes... it felt like a 10-0 loss. the first 2 minutes and the last 15 minutes were the only times we were any kind of threat other than when the long ball was lucky enough to find a target. i just want to forget i watched this game.
 
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I think this board is giving ATL too little credit. They are a very talented team and they put it all together today. Most other teams would have lost this one by at least 3 goals.

That said:

Mata was Mata. For three years his brain has not improved and I doubt it ever will. I’m not hearing the chorus of “Sweat is trash, we should be playing Mata,” right now. All it took was for Mata to get his chance and confirm what has some of us have been saying since day one: he is a massive defensive liability.

Sands’ first half was terrible. Just constantly out of position and looking confused. His yellow was pointless. He did improve in the second half but today we were reminded how young he is.

SJ was amazing. Except for the first goal. But on balance he took away about three more than he gave.

Keaton instantly opened things up. Ofori actually had a decent day but Parks’s ability on the ball takes tons of pressure off the back line.

Taty is a beast. I love this guy. Fights every ball and tracked back 70 yards to pressure Pity on a break. And that lay-off to Heber...

I’m just not that upset. We went into their building, fought back from 2-0 and fell short. The thing about this team for me is that they have never lost their composure all year. Right up until 90’ when my DVR kicked, we were knocking on the door.
 
Early in the match the stat went up on screen that we have only scored two goals from set pieces this season.

Let us remember (again) that, on paper, anyway, Domé's actual job on Pep's staff was designing set pieces.

I 100% agree that whatever led to Hebér being unfit for this match is incompetence. You must have your key players for your key matches.
 
There are a lot of players on this team that I just don't trust in a big game. Matarrita is chief among them. It seems any time he's in a big game he plays poorly. Tati is another -- he goes to ground far too easily, and that crap doesn't get called in the playoffs. Fight through it the way he did in that chance with 5 minutes left.

Sands had a howler -- it's OK. He's young, he's going to have games like that.

This game gave me a lot of hope. Atlanta and NYCFC are the two best teams in the East. If we can find a way to be better than them in the standings, if we can get them on our turf (or wherever NYCFC plays its home playoff games this year), we have a great chance to beat them. NYCFC played a terrible game today and still only lost 2-1. But if we have to go to the Benz come playoff time, turn out the lights.
 
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As I was driving with my mom back from the Hamptons after this match, the front passenger tire gave an alert that the pressure was low. It dropped down to 16 psi before we stopped as a gas station and put more air in. We put in 46 psi. By the time we got home, which was only 25 more minutes of driving, it was down to 9 psi. The car obviously needs a new tire.

It was a crap day all around.

And I still believe that Josef Martinez fouled Maxime Chanot on his header. Martinez elbow goes right into Chanot's neck before contact is made on the ball. Unacceptable refereeing.
 
These are the games that I just want to forget. These are also the games in which I noticed I am spoiled by top euro teams who consistently win away games and show up at big games.

Maybe one day, nycfc will be like LAFC is, at the moment.

On to the next one...