Columbus Postmatch

[Christopher Jee]

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.

Precautionary but perhaps unnecessary response – I didn't mean to imply that you were scapegoating anybody or indicating that this was any one person's fault Nor am I certain that you're saying that I was implying anything of the sort. Asynchronous communication is hard

 

[mgarbowski]

Precautionary but perhaps unnecessary response – I didn't mean to imply that you were scapegoating anybody or indicating that this was any one person's fault Nor am I certain that you're saying that I was implying anything of the sort. Asynchronous communication is hard

Thanks, and I didn't take it that way. I was more building on your reply than taking issue with it.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

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.

As Chris Anderson describes, soccer is a weak link game. We can't be better than Saunders because he's our weakest link. Maybe it's mitigated since he's our filler and people assigned the keeeper position don't touch the ball as often, so our best is like total quality * inverse of filler.

There is less than 3 yards from where he flaps and either the goal or Finley/ball. Let's call it 1.5 seconds, could be more but in no event less than 1 second, and Slosh not only moves barely a yard, but in a direction that is of no consequence to stopping anything. Whatever mistakes may have been made, that's the most egregious. It's his awareness and acumen and lack thereof that is worse than his kicking, and why he's horrible. He makes mistakes that are rookie like in their naivete.

 

[Seven]

Damn, he is good looking.

Just wanted to put that out there...

https://twitter.com/x/status/764878009044234240

 

[SoupInNYC]

As Chris Anderson describes, soccer is a weak link game. We can't be better than Saunders because he's our weakest link. Maybe it's mitigated since he's our filler and people assigned the keeeper position don't touch the ball as often, so our best is like total quality * inverse of filler.

There is less than 3 yards from where he flaps and either the goal or Finley/ball. Let's call it 1.5 seconds, could be more but in no event less than 1 second, and Slosh not only moves barely a yard, but in a direction that is of no consequence to stopping anything. Whatever mistakes may have been made, that's the most egregious. It's his awareness and acumen and lack thereof that is worse than his kicking, and why he's horrible. He makes mistakes that are rookie like in their naivete.

Another play earlier in the game stuck out to me.

The ball was played near the top of the box and Saunders came way off his line. I can't remember exactly how it happened, but the ball ended up being played over to the left side of the box.

Saunders took insanely way too long to get back in net (I have no clue what he was thinking) just in time when a CLB player rocketed a shot and Saunders made an acrobatic save. It was a good save, but not necessary had he just gotten back in net in the first place.

 

[JayH]

Any further word on the post-game PV red? If coaches and players were red carded for abusing a ref after a game, there effectively would be a red card in every professional soccer game ever played.

 

[SoupInNYC]

Any further word on the post-game PV red? If coaches and players were red carded for abusing a ref after a game, there effectively would be a red card in every professional soccer game ever played.

And Marsch should never see the field again

 

[Seven]

Any further word on the post-game PV red? If coaches and players were red carded for abusing a ref after a game, there effectively would be a red card in every professional soccer game ever played.

https://twitter.com/x/status/764840833115824128

The article says they cursed at the ref.
However the cards don't show up anywhere on the boxscore

 

[SoupInNYC]

https://twitter.com/x/status/764840833115824128

The article says they cursed at the ref.
However the cards don't show up anywhere on the boxscore

I'd be curious as to the context of swearing that happened.

Refs get sworn at all the time by players during the match but rarely is any discipline taken, occasionally a yellow is issued.

 

[adam]

I'd be curious as to the context of swearing that happened.

Refs get sworn at all the time by players during the match but rarely is any discipline taken, occasionally a yellow is issued.

I bet they had some choice French phrases that the ref must have understood.

 

[SoupInNYC]

I bet they had some choice French phrases that the ref must have understood.

Your mother was a hamster! And your father smelt of elderberries!

 

[LionNYC]

I'm thinking Vieira cursed in French (which likely no MLS know) and Chanot was translating. That's why both got tossed.

 

[mgarbowski]

Could anybody make out what was the foul that led to the free kick of doom? It was a weird play. The teams were ping ponging the ball back and forth around midfield. Then the ref called a foul just as TMac gets control of the ball. TMac kept playing the ball towards the other goal. He gets pretty far before a Crew guy catches up and says hey there was a foul, at which point TMac pulls a bit of a dick move and as he turns back to our goal he sends the ball 20 yards in the opposite direction to waste time. But he's our dick so we love him. Anyways, there didn't seem to be any foul to set that whole set of events in motion. It's possible that when TMac first got the ball it hit his hand. It's hard to see, and nobody made the handball gesture, even on the Crew. So what was the foul? I really couldn't see anything. I presume it was something valid as we didn't argue anything at that point.

 

[JayH]

Could anybody make out what was the foul that led to the free kick of doom? It was a weird play. The teams were ping ponging the ball back and forth around midfield. Then the ref called a foul just as TMac gets control of the ball. TMac kept playing the ball towards the other goal. He gets pretty far before a Crew guy catches up and says hey there was a foul, at which point TMac pulls a bit of a dick move and as he turns back to our goal he sends the ball 20 yards in the opposite direction to waste time. But he's our dick so we love him. Anyways, there didn't seem to be any foul to set that whole set of events in motion. It's possible that when TMac first got the ball it hit his hand. It's hard to see, and nobody made the handball gesture, even on the Crew. So what was the foul? I really couldn't see anything. I presume it was something valid as we didn't argue anything at that point.

It was a baffling call. Lamps (I believe) was tracking back and barely touched the CC player as the ball was coming to him in the air. It looked like the lightest of contact. The CC player still got his head on it, it just ended up going to Mac. It looked like a really bad call to me. It turned out to be a 2 point call.

ETA it looks like the ref points to his arm or elbow when Lamps looks at him so while I thought it was a call for the bump the gesture could also mean Mac touched it with his arm.

 

[mgarbowski]

It was a baffling call. Lamps (I believe) was tracking back and barely touched the CC player as the ball was coming to him in the air. It looked like the lightest of contact. The CC player still got his head on it, it just ended up going to Mac. It looked like a really bad call to me. It turned out to be a 2 point call.

ETA it looks like the ref points to his arm or elbow when Lamps looks at him so while I thought it was a call for the bump the gesture could also mean Mac touched it with his arm.

Yeah that was nothing.

 

[JayH]

Yeah that was nothing.

See my add above, just rewatched it and there is still the possibility you raised that Mac touched it.

 

[JayH]

In fact I hope Mac touched it as it otherwise is a brutal call, maybe a pay back.

 

[Syed Ashrafulla]

See my add above, just rewatched it and there is still the possibility you raised that Mac touched it.

Edit: I was wrong, MLS's timeline says foul on Frank at 90+4'

 

[JayH]

It is, MLS's timeline says foul on Tommy.

Thanks. That makes me feel a little better (about the call at least).

 

[Syed Ashrafulla]

Thanks. That makes me feel a little better (about the call at least).

See correction, my fault. I wasn't paying attention to the minutes on the side.