Away - 02/15 Red Bulls

[Christopher Jee]

Just watched it on the DVR.

I have to say I was disappointed by Awuah. Offensively, he had a hard time showing for the ball and then looked slow and panicked a little when he got it. Defensively similar – didn't seem to have enough spacial awareness to be effective in the press. I hope it was just an off-day for him.

Sweat looked OK on the ball but wasn't tight enough on his man and got turned 7 or 8 times. He's probably gone.

The whole team was sluggish off the ball on offense. So that maybe mitigates how bad Okoli and Awuah looked on the ball.

Gomez looked really handy. Great recovery speed and had the vision and the quick feet to get himself out of trouble a number of times. Also seems oddly strong for somebody who looks like a tiny bird.

I thought Jalen Brown showed a decent amount of promise. Zizzo is Zizzo, but Brown probably had the beating of him overall.

Finally, Harrison did his full running-down-blind-alleys thing a few too many times. I hope he can be coached out of it.

Sands is the truth – intelligent, technical and already physically developed enough to handle himself. I know it makes sense to be cautious about players who are that early on in their development, but it's hard to see what could go wrong at this point. Those cross-field diagonal passes off of both feet – oof. Really gave our wingers time and space to take on the RB fullbacks 1v1.

All in all, not a bad showing. It was great to get a decent look at some of the new faces. Given the gulf in experience between the two line-ups, I actually feel like our boys over-performed.

 

[Kjbert]

James Sands controlled a midfield consisting of Sacha Klejstan. Hate on RBNJ all you want, but Sacha Klejstan is the starting #10 on the USMNT at this moment.

Call it a hype train, but Sands controlled the game from the moment he stepped on the field. It was like watching Tom Brady dink and dunk up the field.

 

[JGarrettLieb]

James Sands controlled a midfield consisting of Sacha Klejstan. Hate on RBNJ all you want, but Sacha Klejstan is the starting #10 on the USMNT at this moment.

Call it a hype train, but Sands controlled the game from the moment he stepped on the field. It was like watching Tom Brady dink and dunk up the field.

That is all.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Just watched it on the DVR.

I have to say I was disappointed by Awuah. Offensively, he had a hard time showing for the ball and then looked slow and panicked a little when he got it. Defensively similar – didn't seem to have enough spacial awareness to be effective in the press. I hope it was just an off-day for him.

Sweat looked OK on the ball but wasn't tight enough on his man and got turned 7 or 8 times. He's probably gone.

The whole team was sluggish off the ball on offense. So that maybe mitigates how bad Okoli and Awuah looked on the ball.

Gomez looked really handy. Great recovery speed and had the vision and the quick feet to get himself out of trouble a number of times. Also seems oddly strong for somebody who looks like a tiny bird.

I thought Jalen Brown showed a decent amount of promise. Zizzo is Zizzo, but Brown probably had the beating of him overall.

Finally, Harrison did his full running-down-blind-alleys thing a few too many times. I hope he can be coached out of it.

Sands is the truth – intelligent, technical and already physically developed enough to handle himself. I know it makes sense to be cautious about players who are that early on in their development, but it's hard to see what could go wrong at this point. Those cross-field diagonal passes off of both feet – oof. Really gave our wingers time and space to take on the RB fullbacks 1v1.

All in all, not a bad showing. It was great to get a decent look at some of the new faces. Given the gulf in experience between the two line-ups, I actually feel like our boys over-performed.

Fully agree.

To unpack this Harrison thing a bit more, it won't surprise me to see him lose his starting spot for a spell. Nothing wrong with him having to work his way back into the team. There are lots of interchangeable pieces, so it's going to pressure him to take the next steps. He got figured out last year and never adjusted. Now, we have players to push him.

 

[JayH]

Fully agree.

To unpack this Harrison thing a bit more, it won't surprise me to see him lose his starting spot for a spell. Nothing wrong with him having to work his way back into the team. There are lots of interchangeable pieces, so it's going to pressure him to take the next steps. He got figured out last year and never adjusted. Now, we have players to push him.

Yeah, I really think that he needs to be in the middle of the field with room and options. When he's on the wing he too often looks like a kid in his lane playing line soccer. He can still beat defenders at times but just as many times he will be bottled up. To me, it's a matter of playing a more natural position not skill and ability both of which he clearly has.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Yeah, I really think that he needs to be in the middle of the field with room and options. When he's on the wing he too often looks like a kid in his lane playing line soccer. He can still beat defenders at times but just as many times he will be bottled up. To me, it's a matter of playing a more natural position not skill and ability both of which he clearly has.

The issue with that is the game moves a lot faster if you're in the middle. If he has trouble making decisions wide, it could be exacerbated with a move to him in that area.

 

[JayH]

The issue with that is the game moves a lot faster if you're in the middle. If he has trouble making decisions wide, it could be exacerbated with a move to him in that area.

Though he can utilize his passing ability which I think is actually a strong point of his. Some of our best goals last season were a result of his great passing when he had drifted to the AM space. On the wing, it's head down and beat a defender, or a cross, and he loses the ability to thread passes. I agree that he still needs to work on his decision making under pressure, but an opportunity to feed the wings or Villa would help with that.

 

[Ulrich]

Fully agree.

To unpack this Harrison thing a bit more, it won't surprise me to see him lose his starting spot for a spell. Nothing wrong with him having to work his way back into the team. There are lots of interchangeable pieces, so it's going to pressure him to take the next steps. He got figured out last year and never adjusted. Now, we have players to push him.

Ah but to be fair, to whom was he supposed to pass to yesterday when nobody was showing for him? In many ways, it reminded me of when Mix was on the wing and left out there with zero support. I'm not sure that many of those players/trialists understand the nuances of how to shift in a 433

 

[FootyLovin]

Sands is the truth – intelligent, technical and already physically developed enough to handle himself. I know it makes sense to be cautious about players who are that early on in their development, but it's hard to see what could go wrong at this point.

I think we have utterly failed to ask the important question. At what age does one grow out of the ability to learn the Pirlo shimmy? Can you imagine Sands picking that up and continuing to develop otherwise too?

 

[SayWhat44]

Just watched it on the DVR.

I have to say I was disappointed by Awuah. Offensively, he had a hard time showing for the ball and then looked slow and panicked a little when he got it. Defensively similar – didn't seem to have enough spacial awareness to be effective in the press. I hope it was just an off-day for him.

Sweat looked OK on the ball but wasn't tight enough on his man and got turned 7 or 8 times. He's probably gone.

The whole team was sluggish off the ball on offense. So that maybe mitigates how bad Okoli and Awuah looked on the ball.

Gomez looked really handy. Great recovery speed and had the vision and the quick feet to get himself out of trouble a number of times. Also seems oddly strong for somebody who looks like a tiny bird.

I thought Jalen Brown showed a decent amount of promise. Zizzo is Zizzo, but Brown probably had the beating of him overall.

Finally, Harrison did his full running-down-blind-alleys thing a few too many times. I hope he can be coached out of it.

Sands is the truth – intelligent, technical and already physically developed enough to handle himself. I know it makes sense to be cautious about players who are that early on in their development, but it's hard to see what could go wrong at this point. Those cross-field diagonal passes off of both feet – oof. Really gave our wingers time and space to take on the RB fullbacks 1v1.

All in all, not a bad showing. It was great to get a decent look at some of the new faces. Given the gulf in experience between the two line-ups, I actually feel like our boys over-performed.

Great post and completely agree. I've been leading the charge on the let's relax on Sands and let him develop ... however the kid just absolutely controlled the game yesterday from the moment he stepped in. I think I saw him flick a nice through pass and at the same time raised his right hand clearly giving me the finger.

To the dismay of those eager little girls in Rye. He'll probably get a contract.

 

[Christopher Jee]

I think we have utterly failed to ask the important question. At what age does one grow out of the ability to learn the Pirlo shimmy? Can you imagine Sands picking that up and continuing to develop otherwise too?

Ha, that was probably tongue in cheek but it's an interesting question. I dunno if he'll ever have that in his locker. Pirlo was a 10 all his life who started playing as a regista when he couldn't knock Baggio out of his position when they played together at Brescia. Sands looks more like a Gerrard / Scholes / Alonso / Kroos type. Didn't really get to see him unleash any thunderbolts though.

He just has an overall different shape + posture when he plays. Pirlo's shimmy (if we're talking about the same one) works mostly because when he's receiving the ball with his back to the defender, there are a number of things he usually does that look exactly the same until he makes that inside cut. So he has a lot of optionality until the last moment when he can decide to do it or not. I didn't really see that from Sands - so if he starts to make that shape, the defender is like "huh he looks like he's preparing to imitate Pirlo right now" vs "I wonder which of the 100 things I've seen him do before he's gonna do now?". Ridiculously granular explanation^

Kid will find his own style. I just hope he can avoid a serious injury.

 

[Ulrich]

I think we have utterly failed to ask the important question. At what age does one grow out of the ability to learn the Pirlo shimmy? Can you imagine Sands picking that up and continuing to develop otherwise too?

I'm not sure anybody can learn the Pirlo shimmy. It's nature not nurture; Pirlo has an extra chromosome that allows that move to execute naturally.

 

[Viewfrom226]

I didn't get to watch until late last night, but here's what I thought:

• Match itself doesn't really matter given our lineup and the fact that RB were generally playing in second gear. They won because they had much better players than us and converted two nice goals when our defense got all twisted around.
  
  
• Of the guys we have rarely seen, I was most interested in what Awuah and Gomez did.
  
  
• Awuah wasn't great, but looks like he could be an energy guy in the CM who is also capable of switching play with a decent pass. Not breathtaking, but capable of moving the ball. There was enough there to interest me in seeing more. Maybe ultimately a Mikey Lopez type who can actually play a pass. The Wallace signing probably hurts his chances since we now have cover for Mata and I had thought his versatility could be his ticket to some time this year.
  
  
• Gomez was able to beat a pressing winger off the dribble at least twice in the first half. That's a bit high risk if you turn it over, but it is also a nice skill to have when you are trying to break pressure. He remains interesting.
  
  
• Sands was certainly fun to watch, albeit with the benefitof playing at a point when the match had really slowed down. One little thing I noticed that you see with the best players in Europe, but rarely in MLS, is that the head is moving. For example, when the ball is played to him over space, he often turns his head to see where the next pass is and where the pressure is coming from rather than just following the ball to his feet. A lot of MLS guys never do that.
  
  
• Hard to see Brown, Wingate or Sweat having any role this year. Perhaps the first two are USL fodder.
  
  
• Happy to keep Stertzer or not. Numbers game.

 

[gbservis]

Awuah wasn't great, but looks like he could be an energy guy in the CM who is also capable of switching play with a decent pass. Not breathtaking, but capable of moving the ball. There was enough there to interest me in seeing more. Maybe ultimately a Mikey Lopez type who can actually play a pass. The Wallace signing probably hurts his chances since we now have cover for Mata and I had thought his versatility could be his ticket to some time this year.

If Awuah = Mikey + some passing ability - totally out of control and constantly on the verge of a red card, thats a great upgrade.

 

[SayWhat44]

If Awuah = Mikey + some passing ability - totally out of control and constantly on the verge of a red card, thats a great upgrade.

I loved that about Bravo... dude was always on the verge of a red card and I loved it. Kept it interesting.

 

[gbservis]

I loved that about Bravo... dude was always on the verge of a red card and I loved it. Kept it interesting.

Yeah, I didn't mid it with Bravo because it had a positive impact. He brought a toughness, clearly got under the other teams skin, I agree it was fun to watch. The red card risk associated with Mikey seems to come with much less upside.

 

[FootyLovin]

Ha, that was probably tongue in cheek but it's an interesting question. I dunno if he'll ever have that in his locker. Pirlo was a 10 all his life who started playing as a regista when he couldn't knock Baggio out of his position when they played together at Brescia. Sands looks more like a Gerrard / Scholes / Alonso / Kroos type. Didn't really get to see him unleash any thunderbolts though.

He just has an overall different shape + posture when he plays. Pirlo's shimmy (if we're talking about the same one) works mostly because when he's receiving the ball with his back to the defender, there are a number of things he usually does that look exactly the same until he makes that inside cut. So he has a lot of optionality until the last moment when he can decide to do it or not. I didn't really see that from Sands - so if he starts to make that shape, the defender is like "huh he looks like he's preparing to imitate Pirlo right now" vs "I wonder which of the 100 things I've seen him do before he's gonna do now?". Ridiculously granular explanation^

Kid will find his own style. I just hope he can avoid a serious injury.

Only somewhat tongue in cheek. I do think this is a skill that probably can be taught, but only at a fairly young age and only with a certain body type. Without checking I believe Sands is a bit taller and lankier than Pirlo. I think Pirlo's relatively short/moderate height with a low center of gravity is a lot of what allows him to do what he does.

 

[Viewfrom226]

Alonso

This definitely reeks of recency bias since I watched Bayern-Arsenal right after NYCFC, but that's the guy that came to mind. I'm not saying his is, or every will be, Xabi Alonso. But the same idea of taking up smart spaces to receive and then move the ball, combined the technical skill to hit cross-field passes, felt similar.

It has to be said that RB were playing pretty slow by the time Sands came in, but its hard not to be excited about what we've seen to date.

 

[Kjbert]

I didn't get to watch until late last night, but here's what I thought:

• Sands was certainly fun to watch, albeit with the benefitof playing at a point when the match had really slowed down. One little thing I noticed that you see with the best players in Europe, but rarely in MLS, is that the head is moving. For example, when the ball is played to him over space, he often turns his head to see where the next pass is and where the pressure is coming from rather than just following the ball to his feet. A lot of MLS guys never do that.
  
• 
  
• Happy to keep Stertzer or not. Numbers game.

Nailed it. Watch the guys that play in the hole in Europe, especially those who aren't especially athletic - Xabi Alonso, Matic, Fabregas, Michael Carrick.

Something else that he does that most MLS guys don't (and it bothers me with guys like RJ Allen), he knows where the next pass is going. As soon as the ball is played to him he already knows what pass he is playing next.