The play was bang - bang. None of our defenders are quick enough to have run from Finlay to the goal mouth in that amount of time.
Columbus Postmatch
- Thread starter NYCFC_Dan
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The play was bang - bang. None of our defenders are quick enough to have run from Finlay to the goal mouth in that amount of time.
The club thought they had three points in the bag after a stoppage-time penalty kick by David Villa. But an even-later equalizer from Columbus’ Ethan Finlay sent the teams into the locker room with a point apiece, and coach Patrick Vieira into an argument with referee Sorin Stoica that saw the New York boss ejected.
Vieira had cooled significantly by the time he gave his post-match press conference, and had no interest in disparaging Stoica.
“It was difficult for the referees because he had to make some really tough decisions, but I think we have to analyze the game,” Vieira said. “We had some (calls) go for us, some went against us. But of course you’re frustrated, I’m frustrated, because … it’s difficult to concede the goal at the end.”
http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/...vieira-wild-draw-columbus-type-game-mls-needsVieira had cooled significantly by the time he gave his post-match press conference, and had no interest in disparaging Stoica.
“It was difficult for the referees because he had to make some really tough decisions, but I think we have to analyze the game,” Vieira said. “We had some (calls) go for us, some went against us. But of course you’re frustrated, I’m frustrated, because … it’s difficult to concede the goal at the end.”
If you are talking about that last 2 games, yes, but I think you have a different time period in mind.
I used to make a lot of excuses for Josh...but Im sick of his shaky keeping. The dude does not seem confident in goal much of the time...and makes to many suspect positioning decisions. Holy hell that last goal was pathetic.
We may be first in the East, but I dont have a lot of faith in us moving far in the playoffs against good clubs with the way our defense and keeper continually squander away wins.
We may be first in the East, but I dont have a lot of faith in us moving far in the playoffs against good clubs with the way our defense and keeper continually squander away wins.
I think we've squandered about 10 pts this year because of Saunders making dumb-Fck positioning decisions. That's the difference between living the 1st place lie that we're currently enjoying and actually being a bad-ass contender.
And to clarify- we're in first play only because of our offense. As others have noted, that will get exposed in the postseason by a hot defensive team and Saunder's constant blunders.
Saunders did not do well on that last goal, but the defense screwed up before he left his line. My descriptions follow each photo.
Look at the right side of our defense. Pirlo is the 10-yard man. Jack is in-between playing nobody but covering against service to the middle. Kamara and Finley are off to the right by themselves with Villa. The positioning isn't wrong, but Villa needs to stay with one of his two men and Jack needs to realize when the ball crossed over so far that he needs to provide help with those 2. Here's how we look when the initial service is across the field.
The ball is just starting to come back across. Chanot and Brillant are working. So is Lampard (more on him soon). Jack is running, but is neither on the ball or a player and still in no-mans land. Villa is standing still. Kamara and Finlay are wide open on the right side with nobody showing any awareness they even exist.
The ball crosses back. Kamara and Finlay are still unmarked. The closest field players are Jack and Villa who show no awareness. Both are watching the ball. Saunders runs to that side, still on his line, and probably sees Kamara and Finlay unmarked at this point. Jack is moving more to goal than to where the ball is going.
Jack finally sees Kamara and Finlay. Villa leans away. Lampard rushes in. Saunders still on goal.
Saunders off his line. Meanwhile, God bless Frank Lampard. No other field player is on either a man or the ball but Frank is on both, although Brillant is, to his credit, manning the goal line. Jack is there too but needed to be on Kamara, while Villa needed to be on Finlay. The ball is unseen here at the feet of Lampard or the man he is wrestling with, Cedrick, one of whom kicks the ball directly to the unmarked Finlay. Even if it is Lampard I blame him 0%.
And it's over. Saunders is on no man's land but I think the ball goes in if he's on the line anyway.
Look at the right side of our defense. Pirlo is the 10-yard man. Jack is in-between playing nobody but covering against service to the middle. Kamara and Finley are off to the right by themselves with Villa. The positioning isn't wrong, but Villa needs to stay with one of his two men and Jack needs to realize when the ball crossed over so far that he needs to provide help with those 2. Here's how we look when the initial service is across the field.
The ball is just starting to come back across. Chanot and Brillant are working. So is Lampard (more on him soon). Jack is running, but is neither on the ball or a player and still in no-mans land. Villa is standing still. Kamara and Finlay are wide open on the right side with nobody showing any awareness they even exist.
The ball crosses back. Kamara and Finlay are still unmarked. The closest field players are Jack and Villa who show no awareness. Both are watching the ball. Saunders runs to that side, still on his line, and probably sees Kamara and Finlay unmarked at this point. Jack is moving more to goal than to where the ball is going.
Jack finally sees Kamara and Finlay. Villa leans away. Lampard rushes in. Saunders still on goal.
Saunders off his line. Meanwhile, God bless Frank Lampard. No other field player is on either a man or the ball but Frank is on both, although Brillant is, to his credit, manning the goal line. Jack is there too but needed to be on Kamara, while Villa needed to be on Finlay. The ball is unseen here at the feet of Lampard or the man he is wrestling with, Cedrick, one of whom kicks the ball directly to the unmarked Finlay. Even if it is Lampard I blame him 0%.
And it's over. Saunders is on no man's land but I think the ball goes in if he's on the line anyway.
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Lampard tried his butt off to get that back line organized all game. Hats off to him but it's also clear he is extremely frustrated at the lack of marking across the back line.
RJ getting torched again and again was painful to watch.
Jack's lack of situational awareness is a minor blemish on an otherwise great campaign, but it is worth nagging on. His touches in the first 5 min of action were dribbling into 1 v 3 and then losing the ball instead of sending it back around.
Great work in attack, I actually thought we got a good # of chances in the 1st half considering how a delay screws everything up. Villa tracking back on D multiple times to prevent Crew buildup was solid, especially between minutes 15 & 75.
Chanot or Brillant probably should take the goal kicks at this point instead of Saunders.
Also, it was a good atmosphere 2nd half at the Playwright's on 45th, but I like the other Playwright's better
.
RJ getting torched again and again was painful to watch.
Jack's lack of situational awareness is a minor blemish on an otherwise great campaign, but it is worth nagging on. His touches in the first 5 min of action were dribbling into 1 v 3 and then losing the ball instead of sending it back around.
Great work in attack, I actually thought we got a good # of chances in the 1st half considering how a delay screws everything up. Villa tracking back on D multiple times to prevent Crew buildup was solid, especially between minutes 15 & 75.
Chanot or Brillant probably should take the goal kicks at this point instead of Saunders.
Also, it was a good atmosphere 2nd half at the Playwright's on 45th, but I like the other Playwright's better
.
What's amazing is your 2nd photo shows half the CLB team offsides on that pass across the goal. That may be why Chanot was so riled up.
It was a game that we could have lost, then should have tied, but then could have won, then in the end tied, just before having almost lost.
I think the last two matches, and our frustration with them, also reflect the distortion of expectations due to the early season success on the road which was always likely to regress to the mean in terms of results. Both SJ and Columbus are not very good teams in the overall scheme of the league, but I think they have collectively lost one or maybe two matches at home all year.
We haven't played all that well in either match, but in both we played well enough to stay in the match and nick points as compared to certain other road matches this year. It isn't that satisfying to be sure, but I think that is the typical reality in MLS. The real test, for me, is if we can continue the good home form which has been excellent over the past three matches, but those are spread over two months.
I'm not saying there aren't things to improve. Hernandez at RB needs to end soon. And while I am not one to blame everything on Saunders, I don't think anyone would argue that he's not a weak link on a team with real aspirations. But I still feel fine about the results to date and the last two weeks doesn't change much.
All that being said, after getting poured on for the first half yesterday, it would have been a lot more fun if we had held on.
We haven't played all that well in either match, but in both we played well enough to stay in the match and nick points as compared to certain other road matches this year. It isn't that satisfying to be sure, but I think that is the typical reality in MLS. The real test, for me, is if we can continue the good home form which has been excellent over the past three matches, but those are spread over two months.
I'm not saying there aren't things to improve. Hernandez at RB needs to end soon. And while I am not one to blame everything on Saunders, I don't think anyone would argue that he's not a weak link on a team with real aspirations. But I still feel fine about the results to date and the last two weeks doesn't change much.
All that being said, after getting poured on for the first half yesterday, it would have been a lot more fun if we had held on.
Having the one player not in the frame be the one playing them all on side would be . . . alarmingly typical, and the NYCFC leg appearing in the left side of the next picture suggests (though does not prove) that this may have been the case.
Matarrita was offscreen in the other shot. Here shown jumping and playing them all onsides, or close enough at least. Trapp is the one furthest up and might be off but looks even to me.
As I suspected. Great work with the slideshow analysis. What an embarrassing breakdown to have two Crew players wide open at the back post.
Hats off for the rigorous analysis.
Last argument against Josh that I will make – I try to avoid scapegoating in general – is that keepers are also responsible for organizing their defenses, particularly on set pieces. As the one player who has the whole pitch in their field of vision for most plays, they should be screaming bloody murder if they're not feeling protected.
As with most complex system failures, this isn't any one person's fault, but only happens because multiple safety checks fail. Josh organizing his defense. Harrison and Villa leaving their men. A soft call on the free kick. Josh leaving his line. Etc.
I saw this breakdown as an exercise in non-scapegoating, which meant spreading the blame, which was all too easy. Saunders is not faultless at all, but as I mentioned in the breakdown I do think the initial defensive positioning was OK. Some might want Jack further right but then you have room for the initial service to lead a parade down Broadway straight to goal.
On the plus side, I think Lampard was nearly a hero. He picked up Cedrick early and then, holy sweet potato, followed him to goal. What a concept! If he didn't keep marking his man Cedrick can just flick Kamara's ball right into goal. At least Lampard either tried to clear it or forced Cedrick to kick it out. I'm also not sure Chanot or Brillant did anything wrong except not get a head on the initial service but that happens. Everyone else was either to blame or neutral at best.
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