Colorado - Postmatch

[mgarbowski]

I'm definitely on the side that we did well to get a win. Playing at altitude, with 3 starting caliber wingers unavailable to go a whole game, and getting width almost solely from fullbacks, it's no shock we had trouble against a fully parked bus. Shots inside the penalty area are not high percentage when you have to shoot through 6 legs. We had an advantage being a player up but this is how Colorado plays.

Philly played the Rapids at home, took 26 shots and got 1 goal.
Minnesota played in Colorado managed only 9 shots and 0 goals.
LAFC in Colorado 12 shots 1 goal.

This was a great game to have Chanot and Ring suspended. It's almost impossible to critique our midfield as the Rapids barely tried to move through it.

Colorado is saying we were offside on the initial long ball to set up Mitrita's goal but I don't see it.

I think we wasted JLew as an asset, but he vanished after the goal and Ian was correct that he would have been on the bench (and probably not on for a minute) for us tonight.

Really. Where did he go? He worked his ass off to get that assist and then ghosted.

 

[JayH]

I'm definitely on the side that we did well to get a win. Playing at altitude, with 3 starting caliber wingers unavailable to go a whole game, and getting width almost solely from fullbacks, it's no shock we had trouble against a fully parked bus. Shots inside the penalty area are not high percentage when you have to shoot through 6 legs. We had an advantage being a player up but this is how Colorado plays.

Philly played the Rapids at home, took 26 shots and got 1 goal.
Minnesota played in Colorado managed only 9 shots and 0 goals.
LAFC in Colorado 12 shots 1 goal.

This was a great game to have Chanot and Ring suspended. It's almost impossible to critique our midfield as the Rapids barely tried to move through it.

Colorado is saying we were offside on the initial long ball to set up Mitrita's goal but I don't see it.



Really. Where did he go? He worked his ass off to get that assist and then ghosted.

Was just typing to acknowledge how dead-on you were last week when you assessed the Rapids recent game plan and likely commitment to it against us. That’s exactly how it played out and made it exceedingly difficult to crack, probably even harder with a man up as they were even more committed to parking.

 

[dummyrun]

He worked his ass off to get that assist and then ghosted.

As a wise man once said, "It's not enough to do two great things a game."

 

[mgarbowski]

Was just typing to acknowledge how dead-on you were last week when you assessed the Rapids recent game plan and likely commitment to it against us. That’s exactly how it played out and made it exceedingly difficult to crack, probably even harder with a man up as they were even more committed to parking.

Thanks. I'll add that I think the score dictated the Rapids hyper-commitment to playing compact and deep as much as the red card did. In between their goal and our first goal (34 minutes) they took 0 shots, including 27 minutes at even strength. Between our two goals (43 minutes) they took 3 shots. After our second, with about 10 minutes to go with added time, they took 4.

 

[dummyrun]

I was disappointed in Matarrita's and Tinnerholm's crossing

Shouldn't lump them together, I don't think. Tinnerholm was getting into the assist zone and pulling it back to set up shots, which is what we want. Mata was firing off wide aerial crosses, which is what I yell at Sweat for.

The problem's not entirely on Matarrita: the team tended to leave him in one-on-one situations on the wing when we could easily have played two-on-one against an opponent that was packing the middle and gotten him in narrower positions closer to the touchline. That's something NYCFC's going to have to be more disciplined about as it continues to improve in the first two thirds and faces more entrenched defenses.

 

[Ulrich]

I'm definitely on the side that we did well to get a win. Playing at altitude, with 3 starting caliber wingers unavailable to go a whole game, and getting width almost solely from fullbacks, it's no shock we had trouble against a fully parked bus. Shots inside the penalty area are not high percentage when you have to shoot through 6 legs. We had an advantage being a player up but this is how Colorado plays.

Colorado is saying we were offside on the initial long ball to set up Mitrita's goal but I don't see it.

Really. Where did he go? He worked his ass off to get that assist and then ghosted.

This isn’t directed at you, just in general.....

I find scoring/assisting by forwards to ever be in the eye of the beholder and jaded. Far too often I’ve heard fans of Mitrita (and others) say it doesn’t matter if he goes the entire match doing nothing if he has that one moment of brilliance. I tend to disagree, but that’s not the point here. Lewis had an absolutely massive moment of brilliance trashing Ibeagha in a footrace, then shaking off a physical challenge (Medina would have been carted off to the hospital), and then turned the corner in the box to center a pass before our wonderkind sweeper could shut him down. Not really his fault that his team then went down a man and his tactical orders were limited.

Colorado are what they are, a very limited team short on talent- hell, they started a 16yo at attacking Mid who scored a goal while being defended by our expert international player Mata. The same kid gets a red, not a particularly vicious red, but a scissor on a guy made of glass, so they then go down a man.

Heber’s Goal was a thing of beauty, but one that I have an issue with since two players were offside in the current “passive” definition. Don’t like it and never will.

Parks is a revelation and glad he’s showing his chops. I think there’s a place for him down the road on the MNT - he’s very hard to dispossess the ball from with his big body/long legs shielding it, and his vision is easily better than Michael Bradley’s.

This was a fortunate 3 point, not really deserving but earned. I wouldn’t say credit goes to anybody for brilliant tactics or execution - it was simply gritty by a few players.

 

[adam]

As a wise man once said, "It's not enough to do two great things a game."

Good pull of the quote. But when it was made the kid was getting 5 minutes a match. 2 moments of brilliance in that span of time ain’t too shabby.

 

[FredMertz]

Matarrita is so frustrating. Anyone can see that he’s got a ton of skill, yet he floats crosses like he’s trying to hit the clouds and he has 2-3 egregious defensive “yikes” per game. He got beat on the first goal and did his best to give up the game in the 91st with his awful foul.

I actually thought the decision to make a tackle was bad, but his execution seemed excellent and undeserving of either a foul or a yellow.

 

[adam]

Just noticed the home/away match discrepancy with other teams on the table. If we consider home points easier to come by we're in great shape going forward.



Atlanta is about to play home match #12 today. And DCU & NJRB Away matches #11 for both. Left out the points, since we don't know the results yet.



Only LAFC has more away points then us and they played 13 away matches to our 10, going 6-3-3. We have the fewest away loses in the league with 2.

I was trying to figure out where we catch up, so I made this chart. Seems we're still behind on matches till our 3 game homestead in the first half of September during the international break (9/3-9/11).

 

[Kjbert]

Hey LionNYC what did you end up doing with your free time out there?

I didn’t watch the match last night so I appreciate everyone’s commentary.

 

[dummyrun]

If we consider home points easier to come by we're in great shape going forward.

The average MLS team earns twice as many points per game at home, so yeah they're definitely easier to come by. NYCFC's historically been a below-average home team, earning just 60% more points at home, but who knows why that is or if it means anything for us this season.

By the way, FiveThirtyEight sims season point totals based on team strength, home/away, all that good stuff. They've got us finishing at 58 points, first in the East with a first-round bye. Too bad they probably don't account for all those wild double game weeks we've got backloaded.

 

[Gotham Gator]

For the Colorado goal, I put a lot more blame on Ibeagha than Matarrita - although both made bad mistakes.

Ibeagha decided to get in a foot race with Lewis for the ball. It was clear from the start he wouldn’t win, and he should have known so based on all the times they must have faced off in practice.

Ibby should have conceded possession and run to a spot that was between the ball and the goal and been in a possession to defend once Lewis gained possession.

 

[Ulrich]

For the Colorado goal, I put a lot more blame on Ibeagha than Matarrita - although both made bad mistakes.

Ibeagha decided to get in a foot race with Lewis for the ball. It was clear from the start he wouldn’t win, and he should have known so based on all the times they must have faced off in practice.

Ibby should have conceded possession and run to a spot that was between the ball and the goal and been in a possession to defend once Lewis gained possession.

Ibeagha didn’t have a choice. If Lewis ran free without even being challenged, Ibeagha never would have caught him to be in position. Ibeagha’s only play was the challenge and he was beaten.

 

[Christopher Jee]

For the Colorado goal, I put a lot more blame on Ibeagha than Matarrita - although both made bad mistakes.

Ibeagha decided to get in a foot race with Lewis for the ball. It was clear from the start he wouldn’t win, and he should have known so based on all the times they must have faced off in practice.

Ibby should have conceded possession and run to a spot that was between the ball and the goal and been in a possession to defend once Lewis gained possession.

I think he went for the tactical foul but didn't count on how determined Lewis was to stay on his feet and hurt his former team lol

 

[LionNYC]

Hey LionNYC what did you end up doing with your free time out there?

I didn’t watch the match last night so I appreciate everyone’s commentary.

Friday night, we went to three breweries with Colorado supporters.

Saturday, I unfortunately had to work the morning and afternoon because we have a large engagement with a deadline approaching. Other people went for a hike around Red Rocks. Otherwise, before the match we were invited to the Colorado supporters tailgate.

Sunday, I’m writing this from the airport.

 

[Gotham Gator]

Ibeagha didn’t have a choice. If Lewis ran free without even being challenged, Ibeagha never would have caught him to be in position. Ibeagha’s only play was the challenge and he was beaten.

There was a play to be made by running to a spot more central.

 

[mgarbowski]

NYCFC's historically been a below-average home team, earning just 60% more points at home, but who knows why that is or if it means anything

If your measuring stick for home performance is the ratio of Home:Away points then NYCFC has a tough go of it because since 2016 (which just excludes the 2015 first year team as kind of irrelevant to the analysis), NYCFC has been the best Away team in the league over 3.5 years. The league average combined Away points over that period (excluding subsequent expansion teams) is 55. Double that is 110 Home Points. NYCFC has 75 Away points. Their 121 Home points is 2.2 times league average Away but only, as you note 1.6 their actual Away. If they earned 2 times their actual Away at Home they would have had 16 more combined points than the next best team and an average of 63 points per year. As it is, they have the second most total points in the league from 2016-now (and 4th best at Home). They're not a poor home team at all. They're just the best Away team.

 

[Ulrich]

There was a play to be made by running to a spot more central.

No there wasn’t. Sands did that and he wasn’t in position when that was the play he made. Ibeagha does not have the same speed as Lewis so if Lewis is running free in a footrace, even with the ball, how is Ibeagha going to miraculously run a longer distance, it’s a geometric triangle since Ibeagha was even with Lewis, while being slower.

 

[Christopher Jee]

I think he went for the tactical foul but didn't count on how determined Lewis was to stay on his feet and hurt his former team lol

TBF to Seb, I think he did a good job of getting back and shaping Lewis's options.

I love the moment where Callens, I think, checks his shoulder, sees that Mata isn't marking, and gives him a call. At that point Mata kinda scuttles into position, but that just makes his failed clearance all the more frustrating.

 

[413Blue]

I would have loved to have had JLew over the last two months with all of our injuries/international/congestion related shortages, but he is still what he always was. A kid that will blow you away on a couple plays, but can't follow through for an entire match. He was tactically useless after the red card because he provided no hold up play.

I hope he develops his game more completely, and perhaps had he gotten more playing time here he could have been further along, but I'm at peace with the trade. He is not in our best XI and wasn't going to be, so giving him a chance elsewhere was the best for both sides.

I was happy with Mitrita. Hopefully once fully healthy again and now with more time in the system he can provide that constant threat he was supposed to. I'd still like to sell him, but hope he proves me wrong and all of the the "just give him time" folks right.