Toronto (Home, Playoffs) - Postmatch

mgarbowski said:

Any definition of game that allows the the winner to be devastated and the loser ecstatic is a useless definition of game. We did not win 2-0 over Columbus in 2017. We lost a single contest 4-3 and both sides played accordingly. When neither side cares who "won" there is no winning or losing.

ETA: Seriously and I'm not being pedantic or contentious because I'm salty over Wednesday. Do people really think we won something that night against Columbus? Do people think we accomplished something that Columbus tried to prevent? That's completely incomprehensible to me and and absolute elevation of form over substance.

Double ETA: Apologies to Schwallacus who made it clear that he didn't want an argument. I also have no interest in arguing. I do find the opposing view beyond comprehension.

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Schwallacus said:

I could be over romanticizing our exit and looking at the remaining teams through a jealous lens, but I think one of the biggest differences between us and the rest of the teams in the playoffs is a lack of a player to totally take over a game. I think we have the best spread and consistency of skill and talent from position to position, but no one stands out as a player to rule over a match. Maxi is the closest to being this player, but his finishing will never be there. Look at the four teams below;

LAFC- Vela
Seattle- Lodeiro
Atlanta- J. Martinez
Toronto- Pozuelo

Hell, I'll even add Zlatan to this list even though LAG are out. He made LAG a threat every game even though their defense tried their hardest to give up as many goals as possible, and he always came prepared to destroy in El Trafico games.

All great overall teams and talent throughout their rosters, but each of those individuals has the ability to take the chance when served up to them, even if their team is getting thoroughly outplayed. Teams are afraid of our possession and spread of attacking wealth in Heber, Taty, Isi, and Mitri. They're all great attacking pieces to have, and I love that they're on our squad. However, we don't have someone that makes teams shit their pants knowing that even if given what would be a minor chance to another player, this one will make you pay.

As Garbo mentioned before, Villa was the closest person we had but he tended not to show up for bigger matches. I'd love it if we turned our Medina DP spot into someone with the ability to take over a match when needed.

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Schwallacus said:

As Garbo mentioned before, Villa was the closest person we had but he tended not to show up for bigger matches. I'd love it if we turned our Medina DP spot into someone with the ability to take over a match when needed.

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LostAnvil said:

Dome helping Mata up was a touching gesture

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Schwallacus said:

I could be over romanticizing our exit and looking at the remaining teams through a jealous lens, but I think one of the biggest differences between us and the rest of the teams in the playoffs is a lack of a player to totally take over a game. I think we have the best spread and consistency of skill and talent from position to position, but no one stands out as a player to rule over a match. Maxi is the closest to being this player, but his finishing will never be there. Look at the four teams below;

LAFC- Vela
Seattle- Lodeiro
Atlanta- J. Martinez
Toronto- Pozuelo

Hell, I'll even add Zlatan to this list even though LAG are out. He made LAG a threat every game even though their defense tried their hardest to give up as many goals as possible, and he always came prepared to destroy in El Trafico games.

All great overall teams and talent throughout their rosters, but each of those individuals has the ability to take the chance when served up to them, even if their team is getting thoroughly outplayed. Teams are afraid of our possession and spread of attacking wealth in Heber, Taty, Isi, and Mitri. They're all great attacking pieces to have, and I love that they're on our squad. However, we don't have someone that makes teams shit their pants knowing that even if given what would be a minor chance to another player, this one will make you pay.

As Garbo mentioned before, Villa was the closest person we had but he tended not to show up for bigger matches. I'd love it if we turned our Medina DP spot into someone with the ability to take over a match when needed.

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SoupInNYC said:

Well said.

I do think Mitrita is capable of taking over a game, but I definitely wouldn't consider adding him to that list.

I'm hopeful he'll continue to improve next year and we'll see a few more Atlanta-like performances out of him. I'm not sure he'll reach the consistency of the guys you listed above, but do think he's one of those guys that if he can get going, look out.

Edited: In case you happened to read this shortly after I posted, I had erroneously included text from a previous post that I ended up discarding. This has been removed.

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JayH said:

Well, that sucked.

The first half was one of the worst we played this season. And it wasn't tactics, it was primarily execution. We looked tight, couldn't possess, and gave away the ball at such a high rate. KP played a massive role in that, and simply failed under pressure. Toronto is also a good team, playing well, and they were ready to take advantage of that.

In the second half, we played so much better, and should have won the game. Unfortunately the nature of the one-and-done is that very often it is won by the hero or lost by the goat. And we had two of the latter. And that's how it goes. And it's heartbreaking.

It was fucking eerie that on that Mata play, as it was developing, I had my reoccurring flashback to his first leg playoff blunder in Toronto, and yup.

The Citi option is a poor one. It didn't feel like our home, and I am sure that it felt foreign to the team as well. No excuse, but we did lose some of the advantage we earned.

Losing Dome would be terrible. He was terrific this season. He can't play for the players, that's on them. CFG needs to focus some more on continuity or we are in for a long disjointed ride.

Great seeing buds Midas Mulligan and adam, and meeting Sabo.

This one is going to sting for a while.

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Schwallacus said:

I could be over romanticizing our exit and looking at the remaining teams through a jealous lens, but I think one of the biggest differences between us and the rest of the teams in the playoffs is a lack of a player to totally take over a game. I think we have the best spread and consistency of skill and talent from position to position, but no one stands out as a player to rule over a match. Maxi is the closest to being this player, but his finishing will never be there. Look at the four teams below;

LAFC- Vela
Seattle- Lodeiro
Atlanta- J. Martinez
Toronto- Pozuelo

Hell, I'll even add Zlatan to this list even though LAG are out. He made LAG a threat every game even though their defense tried their hardest to give up as many goals as possible, and he always came prepared to destroy in El Trafico games.

All great overall teams and talent throughout their rosters, but each of those individuals has the ability to take the chance when served up to them, even if their team is getting thoroughly outplayed. Teams are afraid of our possession and spread of attacking wealth in Heber, Taty, Isi, and Mitri. They're all great attacking pieces to have, and I love that they're on our squad. However, we don't have someone that makes teams shit their pants knowing that even if given what would be a minor chance to another player, this one will make you pay.

As Garbo mentioned before, Villa was the closest person we had but he tended not to show up for bigger matches. I'd love it if we turned our Medina DP spot into someone with the ability to take over a match when needed.

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ZYanksRule said:

Maxi Moralez was doing that all season for us. He had a moment of brilliance when he found ITS for the goal, but was otherwise pretty quiet. He definitely had games where he just took it over, though he might have run out of gas late in the year. He was so important to the team that it was hard to give him a game off, but we went only as far as he took us. He didn't have a great game on Wednesday, we went home.

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Christopher Jee said:

If I can bring myself to watch the game, I'm curious how they nullified him. I remember Bradley and Delgado being close to each other. Also remember that Maxi's first touch was horrible so maybe it was just an off night. Or nerves.

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VernonJohn said:

I feel this sentiment... not sure I can stomach going through the match again but want to know if my real time thoughts about the game were correct such as; Maxi did not impress, Keaton was bad, team looked very out of sync passing... Thought Sean was great but could he have gotten to the head ball? (Has Chanot come to mean giving the ball to your opponent in your defensive third?)
For an exercise in futility:
If Mata doesn’t stupidly gift Toronto a penalty shot in the 90th minute, does NYCFC win it in extratime? The team looked kind of ferocious for a stretch in the second half and maybe Toronto have been gassed after playing... oh what’s the point, it’s torture thinking what might have been.
I grew up outside of Philadelphia so this kind of loss is the norm for me as a fan.

On another note, I didn’t like Citi field and the league is probably thrilled to have NYCFC not hosting anymore playoff games.

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canchon said:

To me the most sad thing is how quickly it all ended on Wednesday night - I was mentally preparing for extra time and thinking “we should play well and still have subs left to change the game” and then in a split second the entire season was over on one moment of abject stupidity.

Going back and looking at the underlying stats hurts even more. They played like crap, yes, but still should have won if not gifting two goals. I also thought that Taty finishing just one of his myriad of chances would have made the difference.

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moogoo said:

especially in the first half when he was 1v1 on westburg. a clinical striker would have chipped westburg or dribbled around him. i don't think i'm being harsh. it's an area that taty can improve on for sure.

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canchon said:

i didn’t get a good look at that during the game because of Citi’s crappy sight lines - but upon watching the replay, Taty slowed just for an instant which allowed Bradley to pressure from behind. Oh to have 2016 Villa in that same situation.

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moogoo said:

This makes me think about how we can talk about Chanot's and Mata's mistakes til we're blue in the face. But the facts are, it's a lot harder to defend than it is to score, and defensive mistakes are always more criticized than offensive ones. If Taty had buried his chances, if Mitri had made the most of his few breakaway chances, etc etc. Defensive mistakes wouldn't have mattered.

In any case, i think i'm done thinking about this game. ONTO THE CCL! Hopefully with Dome...

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Christopher Jee said:

Haha tbh have to disagree that is was harder to not give up that header or penalty than it was for Taty to score.

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