Home - March 11 - Tigres - CCL (Postmatch)

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I'm not feeling well about this season.

0-1 Tigres. Need to win in Mexico to advance.
 
At this rate the corona virus spread will suspend the rest of tournament

Did welll for part of the game. Finishing needs work badly even for mls regular season (if It even continues)
 
Forget CCL. What I saw was that we played well and with heart for pretty much the whole game except the final few minutes. Much better than what I was seeing before. Finishing was disappointing but you can say that about a lot of clubs. I now have hope, whereas before I was really worried about the Deila era.
 
I was feeling better in the first half but the finishing is just garbage. I also don’t understand why you take Isi off when he was the best thing going offensively. ISI also played good D.
So Delia changes him out for a guy to come in to flail around the pitch and draw a stupid yellow? No goals in three games. Maybe Best we can hope for is the season gets suspended and season ticket credit for 2021.
 
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Much improved performance.

First half Tigres gave us a lot of space between the lines. Héber and Ring seemed tasked to double team the single pivot. I don't follow Liga MX but that felt well planned. It was nice to see Héber coming short and Mitri / Shradi running into space behind him. Ring's aggression and willingness to run into forward spaces created dangerous opportunities. It didn't have quite the structure of late 2019 NYCFC but much better.

Second half, seemed Tigres compressed the space between their defensive lines and we had a little more trouble creating opportunities. The defense from Maxi on the wide play that led to the goal looked like someone playing with an injury. As dangerous as he was going forward, that made the substitution look like a bad decision. Also was sad to see Medina come on for ITS. Sounds like Isi picked up an injury but I would have liked to see GMS come on. Someone who can run at defenders, at least in theory and when on form. You can also tell teams are targeting Mata and I'd like to see what Gudi can do when he has a bit more fitness.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised. Tigres had a lot of weapons and ultimately they made the difference, but we punched above our weight and spending for most of the match.
 
I was feeling better in the first half but the finishing is just garbage. I also don’t understand why you take Isi off when he was the best thing going offensively. ISI also played good D.
So Delia changes him out for a guy to come in tocflail around the pitch and draw a stupid yellow? No goals in three games. Maybe Best we can hope for is the season gets suspended and season ticket credit for 2021.
Heard Isi picked up an injury
 
Until this team learns how to finish in the final third they are going nowhere. They had Tigres if they could just finish.

whatever, MLS season is going to be canceled and if CCL continues Tigres are winning the whole fucking thing.
 
Can we talk about the ref?

1. Hands to the face on SJ by Vargas not called - and Vargas scores the goal.
2. 2 potential penalties not called in the second half.

Concacaf gonna Concacaf.
It's true. In concacaf you are playing the opponent AND the refs. But forget concacaf. NYCFC played much better toninght and gives me renewed hope for the season! Which is too bad, because the season will be canceled. haha
 
Until this team learns how to finish in the final third they are going nowhere. They had Tigres if they could just finish.

whatever, MLS season is going to be canceled and if CCL continues Tigres are winning the whole fucking thing.
We do everything right to get the ball wide and in good positions but we lack creativity and finishing to score. It’s all very stagnant.
 
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Forget refs, bad finishing, lineup/subs, and that we looked better tonight...... we’re on a three match losing streak. There are a lot of woulda coulda shoulda situations over the matches, but we haven’t done what’s needed and in a game of inches & 50/50’s, nothing is falling our way.

0-3 as the current steak is not good, considering all three teams have been higher quality than our only two wins, and our next MLS match (if played this weekend) is a must win match.
 
was at the stadium - not sure how it looked on TV, but Tigres was clear majority. Our supporters could barely be heard cheering and i'm not sure if that's cause they were simply drowned out by the tigres fans or poor organization and lack of effort on their part. Perhaps the latter, cause when things got intense late in the 2nd half, they did get loud enough to hear.

As far as the game, we played better than we have been, in the 1st half. I am convinced that Mitri needs to get benched and perhaps come on as a super sub. He was literally walking around, even when he had the ball. His defensive pressure was average at best. What's the point of standing 5 yards from a player??? that's not pressure! Heber was running his ass off covering the space and getting back on defense while Mitri was still walking back from the Tigres PK box.

Other than that, we had good flow. Isi was dangerous and we seemed to click slightly better on offense, but we still cannot finish for the life of us. Are we practicing finishing enough at training? Should we be practicing finishing WHILE being defended at training?

For me, the 2nd half subs ruined our flow. If Isi had an injury, fine. Bring on Taty for him. But, no, Ronny takes off Heber. WHY? Does he not have any idea that Taty/Heber pair work well together? Then, he brings on Medina who was largely useless. The subs killed our energy and flow and we weren't the same team after that. Defensively, Maxi was a huge liability and I knew, as soon as I saw him defending 1v1 in the corner, than he was going to get beat. I wish he had gone in for a tackle and committed a foul, got a yellow.. whatever. We lost focus after Johnson's save and just stood around.

I know many will say Ronny deserves more time to get his tactics across, but this isn't even about tactics now. To me, it's about his awareness and knowledge of the players he has and how to best utilize them. His subs always seem to come fast and furious, but why? Has there been a game where he hasn't used all 3 subs within a 10 min span or less?

I hope Ronny can prove himself by the 7th MLS game, cause right now I have no faith in his coaching ability. I don't think he's good enough for MLS and definitely got outcoached in this game as well. Tigres toyed with us 2nd half after Ronny made the subs. We did not know how to press as a team to win the ball back.

As for the ref - concacaf gonna concacaf. Not letting us take the corner end of 1st half was BS and then not adding time after the goal is more BS. That's on top of all the missed calls. He seemed to definitely make calls in favor of Tigres, but maybe that's through biased eyes.

Can we go to Mexico and win? Normally, I would say yes. But I think with Ronny at the helm, I think our chances are a lot worse. He SHOULD rotate the entire team out for Dallas and save all our guys a full week's rest for Tigres in mexico.. but, I don't think he is going to and that's going to screw us that much more.
 
Thought the team looked really good in the first 60 minutes, then completely fell apart in the final 30. This should have been a win, we had good enough chances. Heber, Mitrita, and Tajouri-Shradi were all immense offensively. Sands was a machine in the midfield, and really we didn't have many poor performances.

Not sure we'll ever play the second leg, but if we do I don't think we're out of it by any stretch.
 
As a fan experience, I didn't have a good time but I won't harp on that. In terms of the soccer, I'm just a bit puzzled.

I knew at halftime we were going to rue the missed chances. I remember one that Medina couldn't get on the end of. I know there were others. Or at least getting the ball into space to do something. Second half I was wondering what it would take to break Tigres down. I was standing next to Mike from Blue City Radio and we were wondering whether it would be Shradi or Medina who came off when we saw Taty warming up and then at the sideline. Nope, Heber. What? Agree with M moogoo here that you weren't getting defensive pressure from Mitri, so what does swapping out Heber for Taty get you? As Christopher Jee Christopher Jee, Tigres were already tighter defensively in the second half. So then unless Mitri is going to give you something more (he didn't) then you're not really gaining anything with the sub. Someone who is more astute tell me what I am missing
 
As a fan experience, I didn't have a good time but I won't harp on that. In terms of the soccer, I'm just a bit puzzled.

I knew at halftime we were going to rue the missed chances. I remember one that Medina couldn't get on the end of. I know there were others. Or at least getting the ball into space to do something. Second half I was wondering what it would take to break Tigres down. I was standing next to Mike from Blue City Radio and we were wondering whether it would be Shradi or Medina who came off when we saw Taty warming up and then at the sideline. Nope, Heber. What? Agree with M moogoo here that you weren't getting defensive pressure from Mitri, so what does swapping out Heber for Taty get you? As Christopher Jee Christopher Jee, Tigres were already tighter defensively in the second half. So then unless Mitri is going to give you something more (he didn't) then you're not really gaining anything with the sub. Someone who is more astute tell me what I am missing

Don't think you're missing anything. Ronny doesn't know our players and his tactics just aren't good enough.

Subbing off isi might have been necessary due to injury but Heber needed to stay on. He was frequently doing Mitri's defensive work. Mitri needed to come off for taty and bring on maxi for Isi.

Then we got parks and maxi in the midfield, which is when we were most successful last year. Sands can drop to the back and our wingbacks are more free to attack.

We were absorbing pressure (barely cause they were just waiting for us to come at them instead of attacking) and waiting for a counter when we should have been pressing to win the ball back to play our possession game.

Poor Tactics and poor subs lost us this game. The players, except for Mitri in my opinion, all played with lots of heart and intensity. It's a tough loss at the death like that.. for me this was all on Ronny
 
As a fan experience, I didn't have a good time but I won't harp on that. In terms of the soccer, I'm just a bit puzzled.

I knew at halftime we were going to rue the missed chances. I remember one that Medina couldn't get on the end of. I know there were others. Or at least getting the ball into space to do something. Second half I was wondering what it would take to break Tigres down. I was standing next to Mike from Blue City Radio and we were wondering whether it would be Shradi or Medina who came off when we saw Taty warming up and then at the sideline. Nope, Heber. What? Agree with M moogoo here that you weren't getting defensive pressure from Mitri, so what does swapping out Heber for Taty get you? As Christopher Jee Christopher Jee, Tigres were already tighter defensively in the second half. So then unless Mitri is going to give you something more (he didn't) then you're not really gaining anything with the sub. Someone who is more astute tell me what I am missing
You're not. The subs game was awful.
Taty -> Mitri so you have Heber + Taty for like 20 minutes. Towards the end you take Mata off, push callens out wide and sands back in defense, bring maxi or Medina in.

I don't get the subs he made, not at all. Shradi and Heber were some of our best attacking forces tonight and you could see as soon as Heber came off, we couldn't get the ball anywhere.

Not to mention, who plays in what position anymore? Why was Heber playing DM at some points, LW at some, and Striker at others? Why was maxi the only defender at the end? So many players were out of position the whole game, and I wonder if that's what Deila is trying to instill?

I'm giving Deila until the DC game on 4/3 (assuming they all get played) before I join the #out train.
 
As a fan experience, I didn't have a good time but I won't harp on that. In terms of the soccer, I'm just a bit puzzled.

I knew at halftime we were going to rue the missed chances. I remember one that Medina couldn't get on the end of. I know there were others. Or at least getting the ball into space to do something. Second half I was wondering what it would take to break Tigres down. I was standing next to Mike from Blue City Radio and we were wondering whether it would be Shradi or Medina who came off when we saw Taty warming up and then at the sideline. Nope, Heber. What? Agree with M moogoo here that you weren't getting defensive pressure from Mitri, so what does swapping out Heber for Taty get you? As Christopher Jee Christopher Jee, Tigres were already tighter defensively in the second half. So then unless Mitri is going to give you something more (he didn't) then you're not really gaining anything with the sub. Someone who is more astute tell me what I am missing
I'm afraid that it was just "we need a goal, bring on an attacker" instead of a more systematic approach, e.g. Tigres are playing more compactly, we need to draw them out with passing and then hit the open spaces. Or, let's play 2 up front but maintain superiority in midfield with a diamond. Or if you're worried about Tigres attacking down the wing, play 3-5-2. I don't think we are a flexible team in that way anymore.
 
As a fan experience, I didn't have a good time but I won't harp on that. In terms of the soccer, I'm just a bit puzzled.

I knew at halftime we were going to rue the missed chances. I remember one that Medina couldn't get on the end of. I know there were others. Or at least getting the ball into space to do something. Second half I was wondering what it would take to break Tigres down. I was standing next to Mike from Blue City Radio and we were wondering whether it would be Shradi or Medina who came off when we saw Taty warming up and then at the sideline. Nope, Heber. What? Agree with M moogoo here that you weren't getting defensive pressure from Mitri, so what does swapping out Heber for Taty get you? As Christopher Jee Christopher Jee, Tigres were already tighter defensively in the second half. So then unless Mitri is going to give you something more (he didn't) then you're not really gaining anything with the sub. Someone who is more astute tell me what I am missing

On TV Heber Looked gassed. He was having a terrible night for him and I made a note at 56' that I wanted to see Taty for him. He got decent service but didn't make anything of it. On the other hand, Mitrita had a very good game, as did Isi. Both were doing what they need to do (penetrate and create shots or chances) and defending. While Mitrita has an unattractive tendency to walk and sulk when he loses the ball in the final third, he checked back well to midfield multiple times to help force turnovers. He doesn't get enough credit for that.

The midfield in general worked out of pressure maybe as well as I have ever seen them do. Surprisingly this was more true before Maxi came on than after.

And I think the team did a very good job of making Tigres uncomfortable in midfield. I lost count of how many times Tigres banged the ball into touch because of pressure. Keaton and Isi did better at this than Maxi and Medina did, and it showed at the end. Mitirita's move in the box at 76' showed that he still had some gas in the tank when Isi had disappeared and Keaton was starting to lose battles he had been winning. So I understand why Heber, Isi and Parks came out. I would have preferred GMS to Medina, though.

Plenty of Ref issues, and I'll add that I'm pretty sure the goal would have been called offiside under VAR.

Tonight came down to one thing: finishing.

We created the chances and just couldn't get the finishes. We looked far better than we've looked in the first two league matches.

Also, on TV the fan support sounded about equal to me.