MLS Week 12 - 2019

Just realized LAFC played Dallas on Thursday and play them again Sunday. WTF?!? That’s just awful scheduling.
Kind of like them and Seattle earlier. It’s ridiculous.
Not common in soccer in the regular season but they do that all the time in hockey, for example. Home-and-home series. Agree that it's unusual but I don't have an inherent objection to it.
 
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Not common in soccer in the regular season but they do that all the time in hockey, for example. Home-and-home series. Agree that it's unusual but I don't have an inherent objection to it.
Hockey has teams playing each other more than twice in a season, so back-2-back isn't a big deal. In soccer it's big because that's the entire series and if one team has a glut of injuries/suspensions/etc it skews both matches rather than giving a team an opportunity to reset before the next meeting.
 
Don’t know where else to post it, but Wondo is now the all time regular season goal leader after scoring FOUR goals today. He’s been two away for like an entire year and all of a sudden has an explosive game.

I can’t understate just how awesome of a leader Wondo is. I spent a lot of years watching the Quakes at Buckshaw and he ALWAYS, came and spoke to the fans/SGs after the games. No matter how bad they were blown out (which was pretty often at the time). Never complained about all of the undeserved criticism relentlessly thrown at him after WC2014. The guy is all heart. So happy for him!!
 
Tommy Mac beats Wayne Rooney and Frederick Brillant in a pretty good second half down in Texas. Highlights include Paul Arriola getting a late red card for purposely standing on a player he had just thrown to the ground. Entertaining!
 
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Don’t know where else to post it, but Wondo is now the all time regular season goal leader after scoring FOUR goals today. He’s been two away for like an entire year and all of a sudden has an explosive game.

I can’t understate just how awesome of a leader Wondo is. I spent a lot of years watching the Quakes at Buckshaw and he ALWAYS, came and spoke to the fans/SGs after the games. No matter how bad they were blown out (which was pretty often at the time). Never complained about all of the undeserved criticism relentlessly thrown at him after WC2014. The guy is all heart. So happy for him!!

That’s all really nice, but I’ll never forgive him.
 
Tommy Mac beats Wayne Rooney and Frederick Brillant in a pretty good second half down in Texas. Highlights include Paul Arriola getting a late red card for purposely standing on a player he had just thrown to the ground. Entertaining!

Just a few more details on TMac because I actually caught some of the game. With Houston down 0-1 at the 66' TMac was subbed in. Very shortly thereafter he intercepted a pass which led to a Houston goal 2 passes later at 67'. In the 68' he got to the end of a cross after RUNNING 30 yards, to beat the defender and put the ball (and himself) into the net. It was kinda weird hearing them say "how about that EFFORT..." when talking about TMac. There were quite a few other times when he showed a good deal of the hustle we didn't see much of. Dare I say he looked decent (maybe even good) last night.

TMac's goal starts at 1:53: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-05-18-houston-dynamo-vs-dc-united/recap

They don't show his interception for the first one.
 
Just a few more details on TMac because I actually caught some of the game. With Houston down 0-1 at the 66' TMac was subbed in. Very shortly thereafter he intercepted a pass which led to a Houston goal 2 passes later at 67'. In the 68' he got to the end of a cross after RUNNING 30 yards, to beat the defender and put the ball (and himself) into the net. It was kinda weird hearing them say "how about that EFFORT..." when talking about TMac. There were quite a few other times when he showed a good deal of the hustle we didn't see much of. Dare I say he looked decent (maybe even good) last night.

TMac's goal starts at 1:53: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-05-18-houston-dynamo-vs-dc-united/recap

They don't show his interception for the first one.
We did see that effort the first 2 years.
 
Just a few more details on TMac because I actually caught some of the game. With Houston down 0-1 at the 66' TMac was subbed in. Very shortly thereafter he intercepted a pass which led to a Houston goal 2 passes later at 67'. In the 68' he got to the end of a cross after RUNNING 30 yards, to beat the defender and put the ball (and himself) into the net. It was kinda weird hearing them say "how about that EFFORT..." when talking about TMac. There were quite a few other times when he showed a good deal of the hustle we didn't see much of. Dare I say he looked decent (maybe even good) last night.

TMac's goal starts at 1:53: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-05-18-houston-dynamo-vs-dc-united/recap

They don't show his interception for the first one.
In fairness to him, he’s probably slimmer and carrying less mass as a result of the 24/7 natural sauna otherwise known as the Houston heat. Less mass means he can run faster/longer without looking like my 12yo dog readying for a nap. Had it been necessary for a 35-40 yard run, probably would have been out of his completion zone, but sounds like he’s got a third of the field covered now.
 
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Literally every team from the east we needed to not win didn’t. Best bye week ever.
The one exception was midweek, when Atlanta flew hella far to Vancouver on short rest and won their fifth straight. Obviously a draw is our best result, and it's always a rough call, but failing that I prefer Atlanta give up a goal or 3 for the first time in 5 games and lose to the Red Bulls.
 
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Literally every team from the east we needed to not win didn’t. Best bye week ever.
everythings-coming-up-milhouse-memes.jpg
 
Just a few more details on TMac because I actually caught some of the game. With Houston down 0-1 at the 66' TMac was subbed in. Very shortly thereafter he intercepted a pass which led to a Houston goal 2 passes later at 67'. In the 68' he got to the end of a cross after RUNNING 30 yards, to beat the defender and put the ball (and himself) into the net. It was kinda weird hearing them say "how about that EFFORT..." when talking about TMac. There were quite a few other times when he showed a good deal of the hustle we didn't see much of. Dare I say he looked decent (maybe even good) last night.

TMac's goal starts at 1:53: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-05-18-houston-dynamo-vs-dc-united/recap

They don't show his interception for the first one.
We did see that effort the first 2 years.
Exactly, Mark.

TMac was never a low effort guy. He just was (and is) a low athleticism guy. But he tried hard and (to an even greater extent) played smart. He made those runs for us too. Go look at Ben Sweat's goal against the Red Bulls two years ago. Tommy was at the back post ready to knock the ball in if it hadn't gone in on its own.
 
Just a few more details on TMac because I actually caught some of the game. With Houston down 0-1 at the 66' TMac was subbed in. Very shortly thereafter he intercepted a pass which led to a Houston goal 2 passes later at 67'. In the 68' he got to the end of a cross after RUNNING 30 yards, to beat the defender and put the ball (and himself) into the net. It was kinda weird hearing them say "how about that EFFORT..." when talking about TMac. There were quite a few other times when he showed a good deal of the hustle we didn't see much of. Dare I say he looked decent (maybe even good) last night.

TMac's goal starts at 1:53: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-05-18-houston-dynamo-vs-dc-united/recap

They don't show his interception for the first one.

It's actually the second goal where he physically ended up in the back of the net in a match in Texas to score a goal.
 
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Exactly, Mark.

TMac was never a low effort guy. He just was (and is) a low athleticism guy. But he tried hard and (to an even greater extent) played smart. He made those runs for us too. Go look at Ben Sweat's goal against the Red Bulls two years ago. Tommy was at the back post ready to knock the ball in if it hadn't gone in on its own.
It can be argued that when TMac resorted to standing still and pointing for his teammates, that he had slid to a low energy/effort player. We got two years of that.
 
It can be argued that when TMac resorted to standing still and pointing for his teammates, that he had slid to a low energy/effort player. We got two years of that.
Helping one's team maintain shape is important. Maybe not sufficient, but necessary.
 
Only if that player is also in the correct position.
Haha, I have no recollection of him being caught out of position, but it's long ago enough to be possible and I have no inclination to go looking through old tape.
 
Playing with house money here. If Jersey loses, well, I'll never not enjoy a Jersey loss. Never. A draw would be optimal result in terms of points and standings. An Atlanta loss would not be bad either. Don't think that's happening, though, after the red card.
 
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