Columbus 1st Leg ECS - Postmatch
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
I think it's extra sad that the main culprits tonight were guys who had been among the most solid during the regular season: Callens and Johnson. I personally think Columbus missed clearer chances than us, at least in the first half. Meram missed a sitter after a rebound, and Kamara another one.
In terms of our XI, Struna seems much better than White, at least offensively. His cross that Villa headed to goal around the 70 minute was our best cross the entire match, by far. Matarrita needs to start. 4 of the 5 goals came off glaring mistakes: the bad first touch by Rodney that allowed Santos to pick his pocket in the first goal, the slip by Ring in the second, the bad goalkeeping by SJ in the third, and Mensah's slip in our goal. People seemed to be slipping a lot.
I think Herrera played very well, was everywhere, and was the most determined after Villa. Maxi was who he is, which is still one of our best players even if he's not worth 2M a year. Harrison was pedestrian. Besides Villa and Herrera nobody seemed to be playing with great urgency.
We are set up to attack with short passing through the middle, which makes us slow and predictable, and intricate. We have no overlapping fullbacks, and no target forward. Only one of our wingers (Harrison) tries to dribble, and tends to do so cutting inside to his left foot, so nobody looks to widen the field at pace. That also makes Maxi looks like he's trying to slow down and centralize things, because that's exactly what he's trying to do.
In terms of our XI, Struna seems much better than White, at least offensively. His cross that Villa headed to goal around the 70 minute was our best cross the entire match, by far. Matarrita needs to start. 4 of the 5 goals came off glaring mistakes: the bad first touch by Rodney that allowed Santos to pick his pocket in the first goal, the slip by Ring in the second, the bad goalkeeping by SJ in the third, and Mensah's slip in our goal. People seemed to be slipping a lot.
I think Herrera played very well, was everywhere, and was the most determined after Villa. Maxi was who he is, which is still one of our best players even if he's not worth 2M a year. Harrison was pedestrian. Besides Villa and Herrera nobody seemed to be playing with great urgency.
We are set up to attack with short passing through the middle, which makes us slow and predictable, and intricate. We have no overlapping fullbacks, and no target forward. Only one of our wingers (Harrison) tries to dribble, and tends to do so cutting inside to his left foot, so nobody looks to widen the field at pace. That also makes Maxi looks like he's trying to slow down and centralize things, because that's exactly what he's trying to do.
Really is astounding that our core decided to collectively have their worst games in our most important of the season. I hate this team. I love this team.
There's an actual market for him though. I'd rather sell him than waste it.
Pretty fucking disastrous night, and I'm completely devastated, but the pearl-clutching is already in overdrive (cut Maxi? Really? Maybe tell him to shoot every now and again). For the record, I only think you're entitled to call for Vieira's sacking if you can spell his name right.
I don't want to sound like a broken record on VAR, but when you're dealing with the kind of caliber refs you get in MLS, it's only ever going to be bad news. Thinking that MLS refs are going to do a better job if you give them more technology is like saying a troupe of chimps will do a better job of the Super Bowl halftime show if you give them a confetti cannon and 20 minutes instead of 10. Or maybe that playoff game was improved by three minutes of watching the ref watching a screen and then still making a dubious decision. Whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, it was a ridiculously open game that realistically could have gone either way until the sending off. For about 10 minutes we were completely at sea, Vieira had no clue what shape we needed to shore things up, Ring was a bombscare waiting to happen at CB and no-one on the field stepped up to martial the team. Add in a brainfart by Special Guest GK Josh Saunders and a bizarre meltdown at the end and we are where we are. If we'd kept it even to 3-1 I'd be pretty confident going into Sunday. As it is I'm annoyed that I finally came up with a good Mataritta song and I probably won't even get to use it.
Random aside - was there a minute's silence before the game? Not that I care, but I didn't see one on the pregame show, and it seems fairly strange on a day like today.
I'm eating quite a lot of Halloween candy now.
I don't want to sound like a broken record on VAR, but when you're dealing with the kind of caliber refs you get in MLS, it's only ever going to be bad news. Thinking that MLS refs are going to do a better job if you give them more technology is like saying a troupe of chimps will do a better job of the Super Bowl halftime show if you give them a confetti cannon and 20 minutes instead of 10. Or maybe that playoff game was improved by three minutes of watching the ref watching a screen and then still making a dubious decision. Whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, it was a ridiculously open game that realistically could have gone either way until the sending off. For about 10 minutes we were completely at sea, Vieira had no clue what shape we needed to shore things up, Ring was a bombscare waiting to happen at CB and no-one on the field stepped up to martial the team. Add in a brainfart by Special Guest GK Josh Saunders and a bizarre meltdown at the end and we are where we are. If we'd kept it even to 3-1 I'd be pretty confident going into Sunday. As it is I'm annoyed that I finally came up with a good Mataritta song and I probably won't even get to use it.
Random aside - was there a minute's silence before the game? Not that I care, but I didn't see one on the pregame show, and it seems fairly strange on a day like today.
I'm eating quite a lot of Halloween candy now.
Like most of the team, Maxi was not at his best today. Far too conservative and seemed to lack vision to unlock them with a thru ball. That said, he was still one of our performers.
Wallace and Jack killed us. Ring was decent but you can't get back that costly an error
What happened to Harrison? Has he been figured out? He has been a complete non-factor the last 12-15 games it feels like. And PV can be baffling. I get the whole "play your game to the bitter end" thing he mentioned before the match, but there's a reason this is a 2-leg thing and you have you to plan according to that.
Okoli is the worst player in MLS. Every single time he touches the ball, he is so off-balance that he can't make a play and he's constantly falling away from the ball and out of possession. Is he really that passive? I can't believe he was a league's leading scorer at one point.
Okoli is the worst player in MLS. Every single time he touches the ball, he is so off-balance that he can't make a play and he's constantly falling away from the ball and out of possession. Is he really that passive? I can't believe he was a league's leading scorer at one point.
And totally agree with whoever posted they were puzzled by bringing in Okoli. He hasn't done anything in ages, and offered nothing resembling quality when he was provided with opportunities. Don't understand why Lewis can't get a shot
Nothing wrong with VAR or refs tonight.
Would another team in the world pay $2mm p/a for him? Idk... if you can sell do it, he’s not a DP in this league. Especially at the 10 spot. If not cut him. It’s only money and it’s not ours.
PV is 0-5-0 in playoff/cup matches. And we’ve been outscored 13-1.
0-1 vs cosmos
0-2 @ Toronto
0-5 vs Toronto
0-1 @ NJRB
1-4 @ Columbus
0-1 vs cosmos
0-2 @ Toronto
0-5 vs Toronto
0-1 @ NJRB
1-4 @ Columbus
Maxi didn’t have a great game, I get it. Love it or hate it, but he’s one of the top 20 players in league via Audi player Index (and I know, we can shit on the methodology in a different thread, but you look at the names on that top 20 list and they are generally top MLS players). He needs to start shooting the ball but his work rate and passing are quality in general.
Stop it with buying out maxi. What I would bust him on is his want to play slow. This league is built on scoring on turnovers. You see Higuain pull the ball back tonight? Nope, putting it forward (and 2 assists).
Well, he's been a pro for 10 years. Not sure he's going to change at this point.
Unless he's just doing it because that's what coach is telling him to do. In which case.....
I didn't say I wanted to buy him out. I was just saying it's stupid to do so when we can sell him.
No. A 5'3 "Center Attacking Mid" that poses no goal scoring threat, makes horrid decisions while dribbling at the defense, and rarely creates goal scoring opportunities. He can keep possession by passing it backwards, sideways, and forward 15-20 yards. Potentially a #8 with the role of distributing the ball forward to a #10 that can actually create goal scoring chances and a goal scoring threat. A DP contract of $2 million? No way. At the end of the day, a #10 is judged based upon his stats of goals, goal scoring chances created, and assists and they are no where near up to par based upon his cost. Look at Almiron, Piatti, Valeri, Higuain, Alessandrini, and Klejstan as a few examples of major upgrades and similar cost. We signed Maxi out of desperation because we needed a DP and he was willing to leave a LigaMX team that didn't play him due to his faults listed above. We got this signing wrong and we were targeting other players that declined our offer.
Take Vasquez’s salary and discount it 30% and that is what Maxi is worth. Maybe $500-$700K tops. He’s a TAM player, not a DP. And that’s the problem.
I just don't understand. I just don't get it.
For the second straight season, we decide to change things up in the playoffs. Why? It worked last week, why not return to what worked again? Vieira picked the same XI -- which is exactly what he should have done. Then he totally screwed things up in the following ways:
1. Was Ethan White playing as a midfielder or a fullback? Because he looked like he was playing in the midfield. Why the hell would anyone think Ethan freakin' White should be in the midfield?
2. Why was Yangel Herrera in an attacking role, when he's been so good as a deep-lying midfielder all season? Why can't we just stick to what's been working? Why do we have to change up our system and our style for the most important games of the year.
That Callens elbow was terrible. Deserved exactly what it got. What was he thinking? Just a disastrous decision that's probably going to end our season unless we get a miracle. And Johnson decides to play his worst game of the season in the playoffs. Considering his form lately, a complete shocker from him. Nowhere to be found today.
And the fourth goal ... my goodness. What to even say?
Listen, this team is perfectly capable of winning 3-0, or taking it to 4-1 and taking our chances in extra time. But this is a tall task. And once again it begs the question of why MLS decides the top seed should get Leg 2 at home. For the second straight year, it feels like the series is over before we even get to the Bronx. I understand some of the other series are 0-0, so those teams do get home field advantage, but you shouldn't be forced to play for a tie in Game 1 of the playoffs. You should absolutely be given the choice which leg you want to host.
Ah damn, what a gut-punch that is. This team so clearly peaked too early in the season, and we're probably crashing out because of it.
For the second straight season, we decide to change things up in the playoffs. Why? It worked last week, why not return to what worked again? Vieira picked the same XI -- which is exactly what he should have done. Then he totally screwed things up in the following ways:
1. Was Ethan White playing as a midfielder or a fullback? Because he looked like he was playing in the midfield. Why the hell would anyone think Ethan freakin' White should be in the midfield?
2. Why was Yangel Herrera in an attacking role, when he's been so good as a deep-lying midfielder all season? Why can't we just stick to what's been working? Why do we have to change up our system and our style for the most important games of the year.
That Callens elbow was terrible. Deserved exactly what it got. What was he thinking? Just a disastrous decision that's probably going to end our season unless we get a miracle. And Johnson decides to play his worst game of the season in the playoffs. Considering his form lately, a complete shocker from him. Nowhere to be found today.
And the fourth goal ... my goodness. What to even say?
Listen, this team is perfectly capable of winning 3-0, or taking it to 4-1 and taking our chances in extra time. But this is a tall task. And once again it begs the question of why MLS decides the top seed should get Leg 2 at home. For the second straight year, it feels like the series is over before we even get to the Bronx. I understand some of the other series are 0-0, so those teams do get home field advantage, but you shouldn't be forced to play for a tie in Game 1 of the playoffs. You should absolutely be given the choice which leg you want to host.
Ah damn, what a gut-punch that is. This team so clearly peaked too early in the season, and we're probably crashing out because of it.
Yup. He’s a valuable player. But not worth $2mm in MLS or a DP spot. It’s a capped league and that’s a valuable resource. But to be fair, the FO just lost Fatso and whiffed on all their other attempted signings. It was Maxi for an inflated figure or nothing. He was very servicebale this season. But time to move on and find a true #10 who is a goal scoring threat to take preassure of Villa.
