Columbus Crew SC vs. New York City FC
Sunday, March 1st 12:30 PM ET
MAPFRE Stadium
TBD
Opening Day
Sunday, March 1st 12:30 PM ET
MAPFRE Stadium
TBD
Opening Day
Away - March 1 - Columbus
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
- Status
Amazing that this game -- the MLS season opener -- is in 5 days and we have no chatter at all. I guess we all have ScotiaBank CCL Fever. I almost posted a cricket GIF but decided to spare
Shwafta the anxiety that would induce.
So here's a bit of a start. The Crew had 0.86 PPG through 21 games last year, then earned 1.54 in the final 13. The added a new keeper (Eloy Room) and Young DP mid (Luis Diaz) that summer. Off-season, they added a Dutch CB by way of Norway with the awesome name of Vito Wormgoor, Darlington Nagbe, and Lucas Zelarayan as a DP offensive playmaker from Tigres. Now they are a popular dark horse, most-improved-club candidate for 2020.
OTOH, xG says they were really unlucky in those first 21 games and correspondingly lucky in the final 13 so did they really get better? Or, maybe it took that long for them to adjust to Caleb Porter's system and when that happened they started clicking. But is his approach that complicated? Plus I expect that adjusting to a new coach affects chance creating, not chance finishing. And where they improved mostly was chance finishing.
Finally, they had a great preseason for those here who seem to think that means something. We didn't, but we just looked great in a real game and will have played 2 real games to none for the Crew. A lot will depend on our squad rotation on a short week for us. To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to them last year except when we played them, and I certainly haven't looked at any footage from their preseason.
In conclusion, I have no conclusion. Maybe we catch them still learning to play together and over-confident from winning meaningless games. Maybe they catch us recovering from CCL. While I want wins, I'll take road draws while we're working through CCL rotations and short rest.
Take it from here somebody.
Shwafta the anxiety that would induce.So here's a bit of a start. The Crew had 0.86 PPG through 21 games last year, then earned 1.54 in the final 13. The added a new keeper (Eloy Room) and Young DP mid (Luis Diaz) that summer. Off-season, they added a Dutch CB by way of Norway with the awesome name of Vito Wormgoor, Darlington Nagbe, and Lucas Zelarayan as a DP offensive playmaker from Tigres. Now they are a popular dark horse, most-improved-club candidate for 2020.
OTOH, xG says they were really unlucky in those first 21 games and correspondingly lucky in the final 13 so did they really get better? Or, maybe it took that long for them to adjust to Caleb Porter's system and when that happened they started clicking. But is his approach that complicated? Plus I expect that adjusting to a new coach affects chance creating, not chance finishing. And where they improved mostly was chance finishing.
Finally, they had a great preseason for those here who seem to think that means something. We didn't, but we just looked great in a real game and will have played 2 real games to none for the Crew. A lot will depend on our squad rotation on a short week for us. To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to them last year except when we played them, and I certainly haven't looked at any footage from their preseason.
In conclusion, I have no conclusion. Maybe we catch them still learning to play together and over-confident from winning meaningless games. Maybe they catch us recovering from CCL. While I want wins, I'll take road draws while we're working through CCL rotations and short rest.
Take it from here somebody.
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Their yellow jerseys will contrast nicely against our secondary dark blue kits.Amazing that this game -- the MLS season opener -- is in 5 days and we have no chatter at all. I guess we all have ScotiaBank CCL Fever. I almost posted a cricket GIF but decided to spare
So here's a bit of a start. The Crew had 0.86 PPG through 21 games last year, then earned 1.54 in the final 13. The added a new keeper (Eloy Room) and Young DP mid (Luis Diaz) that summer. Off-season, they added a Dutch CB by way of Norway with the awesome name of Vito Wormgoor, Darlington Nagbe, and Lucas Zelarayan as a DP offensive playmaker from Tigres. Now they are a popular dark horse, most-improved-club candidate for 2020.
OTOH, xG says they were really unlucky in those first 21 games and correspondingly lucky in the final 13. Maybe it took that long for them to adjust to Caleb Porter's system and when that happened they started clicking. But is his approach that complicated? Plus I expect that adjusting to a new coach affects chance creating, not chance finishing. And where they improved mostly was chance finishing.
Finally, they had a great preseason for those here who seem to think that means something. We didn't, but we just looked great in a real game and will have played 2 real games to none for the Crew. A lot will depend on our squad rotation on a short week for us. To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to them last year except when we played them, and I certainly haven't looked at any footage from their preseason.
In conclusion, I have no conclusion. Maybe we catch them still learning to play together and over-confident from winning meaningless games. Maybe they catch us recovering from CCL. While I want wins, I'll take road draws while we're working through CCL rotations and short rest.
Take it from here somebody.
I haven’t watched any of their preseason games but of the ones publicly available, apparently they have been scoring goals.
With Zelarayan taking over the playmaker role in midfield vacated by Higuian, I’m curious to see who takes the captain’s armband with Wil Trapp now in Miami.
In addition to curiosity about how the reinforcements will pan out, I think they need Harrison Afful healthy. He broke his jaw last year and was missing from a lot of games before their end of season improved form. In general I think it’s an open question about whether they have their consistent back four
With Zelarayan taking over the playmaker role in midfield vacated by Higuian, I’m curious to see who takes the captain’s armband with Wil Trapp now in Miami.
In addition to curiosity about how the reinforcements will pan out, I think they need Harrison Afful healthy. He broke his jaw last year and was missing from a lot of games before their end of season improved form. In general I think it’s an open question about whether they have their consistent back four
I'm really not expecting to win this game and will be happy with a draw. We'll have players who still probably aren't match fit playing their second game in 5 days in the cold. Hopefully we see a lot of fresh faces. At least we know Ronny will throw numbers forward.
that's assuming we wear them even if it is an away game. we wore the sky blue ones last time we played in columbus.
good points, but columbus is probably in a similar boat as not being completely match fit and only having preseason game intensity under their belts. depending on how we rotate, could be interesting.
Overall, i think it should be a good match for us. a great test of our depth cause it's early in the season, not a lot of match fitness and coming off a game just a few days prior and then having to travel (albeit not that far) to play in cold temps. i'd be happy with a draw and thrilled with a win. we have the talent but early defensive woes shown in the san carlos game has me a bit worried. we get caught ball watching way too often. curious if this is just early season form or trying to adopt new defensive tactics from Ronny.
in any case, one step at a time! more discussion here after we secure our CCL trip to the next round.
I almost posted a cricket GIF but decided to spare
I have no such mercy.
Yeah. I know for me personally, I get so wrapped up in college bball, that its hard to find the time to nerd out about both.
And even though it is early, and we'll have to deal with some potential "different starters" due to fatigue, our guys should be closer to match fit than Columbus'.
I'm worried that the 'best team' schtick everyone is using is gonna cause complacency or something in our squad over time.
this happens with many teams who base it off on past season. the results early will determine if they still use it. I mean for the first 6/7 games last year we did not look anywhere near the first place eastern conference team we ended up in.
of course, but i was referring to the "reputation" of being one of the best in the league is based off where we ended in the table. and now that carries over to the start of this season.
EDIT: if we have another start similar to last year that reputation goes right out the window.
So, here is the question.
We have a crucial CCL return leg on Wednesday, and then 3 days' off before a game at Columbus to open MLS play.
Do we rotate the squad at all between those two games, and if so, how do we do it?
We have a crucial CCL return leg on Wednesday, and then 3 days' off before a game at Columbus to open MLS play.
Do we rotate the squad at all between those two games, and if so, how do we do it?
- Do we prioritize the CCL match, notwithstanding that our 5-3 away win makes it really hard to lose the series?
- Do we prioritize Columbus so that we are properly focused on MLS?
- Do we mix it up?
- Do we just expect that with 3 days' off, our players can adjust and go with our Best XI both games?
i think we go into wednesday with our best XI. we put the game away first half with 2-3 goals and then second half, we can rotate out. it's still early in the season and some players are still in need of match fitness minutes (tinnerholm, maxi, isi). this is an opportunity to get them minutes and prepare them for the weekend. especially maxi and tinnerholm.
yea it's short turn around, but at least it's a short trip to columbus but then we have a few days before we travel to toronto. definitely going to be two tough MLS games right off the bat. Gonna be a true test of our depth and cohesiveness of the team.
I get why you'd think this, but interestingly we've underachieved at first under successive new coaches and overachieved after a period of acclimation:
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