Columbus - Postmatch

[Seven]

Ok, how the heck was Jonathan Mensah still on the field after he took down Maxi from behind in the second half? Easy yellow card, and Mensah was already on a yellow. Yes it didn’t end up impacting the end result but would have been a big game changer.

Ugh, I forgot about that in all my happiness with the win. But yes, that seemed to me an obvious yellow card. Commentators wondered if the ref didn’t give it because he was already on a yellow, which is a very stupid reason.

It was a professional foul stopping a promising attack: textbook yellow

 

[Ulrich]

Ugh, I forgot about that in all my happiness with the win. But yes, that seemed to me an obvious yellow card. Commentators wondered if the ref didn’t give it because he was already on a yellow, which is a very stupid reason.

It was a professional foul stopping a promising attack: textbook yellow

There was that and a handball in the box that wasn’t called.

 

[Seven]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1018316456243744768

 

[Kjbert]

If Maxi could finish, he wouldn't be in MLS. I thought he had the best week of his career this week and he ran every game we played in. Played out of position for 280 or so minutes over 6 days. Probably ran close to 20 miles. Never stopped. Hats off to him. He's been phenomenal this year and I am happy to eat crow.

Ring is our best player. How does he have the energy to do what he did this week. Played 4 positions tonight.

Johnson was the MOTM tonight. Steffen was fantastic for them too.

Tinnerholm looked gassed but turned it on in the second half. Sweat played well defensively.

Chanot I thought was a little slow tonight but solid. Callens was great. Best CB in MLS. He should he playing in a Top 5 league in the world.

Ofori was quietly instrumental in building the attack.

I thought Medina put in a good shift.

Matarrita played well. Moved around a bit. It's obvious he would like to play with a target forward in the box. He looked comfortable again playing as a Forward.

Wallace was abysmal. He looked tired but what kills him is that he has no touch. You can't link up play out wide or hold up play when you can't play with the ball at your feet. I understand his purpose on this team as a defensive minded forward but he crushes you offensively.

Lewis was a difference maker again.

Awuah came in and the team avoided passing him the ball like the plague.

 

[Sabo]

There was that and a handball in the box that wasn’t called.

After the play was over and we were complaining the ref indicated handball which I took to mean he saw it but thought it was ball to hand. Despite screaming for the handball I was ok with that. Mensah's takedown of Maxi was absolutely a second yellow.

Callens was MOTM for me. Crazy good performance.

This was a great week but we will be SOOO much better when Maxi isn't our target forward. The Wallace experiment didnt work either. Reyna announcing (essentially) he is looking for a replacement for Ofori didn't do much for his confidence. He played the whole game like he was afraid to make any mistakes and I thought it was one of his worst games in a while after steady improvement.

GD difference with Atlanta is just 19-16. Eastern Conference is looking like the top 3 and then everyone else fighting for 4-6 at this point.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

After watching this, one has to wonder why PV went to Nice and not Dome

The bigger club got the better coach.

NYC is truth.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Wallace was abysmal. He looked tired but what kills him is that he has no touch.

Oh lawwwdddddd. I’ll get to all this tomorrow (later today). But oh lawwwwddddd.

 

[Vallos]

 

[Falastur]

I only managed to really catch the first half in any detail, and that half felt patchy and back-and-forth to me. Sounds like I missed out by not seeing the second half. Just watched the highlights and I can barely catch a feel for what the play was like but those are some nice goals, even if it's fairly clear we missed as many sitters as we scored. Happy to hear people are suggesting that the Pineapple Period might be even better than the PV Period which came before.

Also, as a final note, what on earth was Sosa thinking?!? How did he see that turning out, except by ending with a him seeing red?

 

[Sabo]

I only managed to really catch the first half in any detail, and that half felt patchy and back-and-forth to me. Sounds like I missed out by not seeing the second half. Just watched the highlights and I can barely catch a feel for what the play was like but those are some nice goals, even if it's fairly clear we missed as many sitters as we scored. Happy to hear people are suggesting that the Pineapple Period might be even better than the PV Period which came before.

Also, as a final note, what on earth was Sosa thinking?!? How did he see that turning out, except by ending with a him seeing red?

Sosa wasn't thinking at all but I loved what happened that led up to the card that you won't see in the highlights. We had an excellent attacking opportunity in the 92nd minute and instead of going for goal or trying to pass to runners, Maxi dribbled into the corner to kill off the game. 3 Crew defenders tried to pry the ball out and Maxi won us a corner. That red card was at the end of a sequence of keep away that was very very smart and obviously pissed off Sosa for some reason.

11 days to get Villa and/or Berget on the pitch. Despite the Ws we need a central striker on the field. I never thought I would miss Okoli.

 

[Keith Putnam]

We're 4-0-1 since Domé took over. Small sample size, but the eye test confirms that both in-game management and overall tactical setup have seen major upgrades under Torrent.

That assist by Lewis was just outstanding. Delaying his pass until the microsecond that three CLB defenders over-ran Medina was just <kissingfingers.gif>.

This may have been our most closely fought match in a while. The first half was largely a stalemate, but our second half shape, with the packed forward line, started paying off immediately with a bunch of chances.

Given the fluidity of our front four I imagine that what Domé has told them is his general idea about what spatial relationships he likes up top, and then he leaves them to figure it out in the moment. He also seems to have given the squad some clear, simple ideas about how far forward the fullbacks should get relative to what third of the pitch the team is occupying. I pretty consistently saw Tinny and Sweat (Sweat wasn't quite as disciplined) making sure they were in the right place dependent on whether we were in our third, the midfield or their third. Basically a 4-2-3-1 when out of possession and in our third / beginning transition, flowing to a 2-4-3-1 in transition and then basically a 2-1-3-4 when controlling the ball in the final third.

I think Domé spends the first half deciding how much Pepball he can attempt to play in the second. We've consistently been starting our second halves much top-heavier than the first halves.

 

[mgarbowski]

Anybody else totally spoiled by this team at home right now?
Last night I’m completely confident even as its stays 0-0 at minute 70, 75, 78. All i can think is: this is our place, this is our time. It happens. Just wait for it. No worries. This is what we do. We score late and win at home.

 

[Kjbert]

Anybody else totally spoiled by this team at home right now?
Last night I’m completely confident even as its stays 0-0 at minute 70, 75, 78. All i can think is: this is our place, this is our time. It happens. Just wait for it. No worries. This is what we do. We score late and win at home.

Yes. Totally spoiled.

Last night, I got my standard chicken tender dinner. Then I dropped them on the concourse. Normal, every day KJBert would have been pissed off the rest of the evening. But I knew we would win and I shrugged it off.

So yes. Totally spoiled.

 

[Revfugee]

Sosa wasn't thinking at all but I loved what happened that led up to the card that you won't see in the highlights. We had an excellent attacking opportunity in the 92nd minute and instead of going for goal or trying to pass to runners, Maxi dribbled into the corner to kill off the game. 3 Crew defenders tried to pry the ball out and Maxi won us a corner. That red card was at the end of a sequence of keep away that was very very smart and obviously pissed off Sosa for some reason.

11 days to get Villa and/or Berget on the pitch. Despite the Ws we need a central striker on the field. I never thought I would miss Okoli.

That little piece of Maxi magic was the cherry on the sundae. His energy and composure were simply amazing.

I applaud your stylistic deployment of hyperbole in employing the Okoli reference to make your point but I hope our gentle readers know it is only hyperbole. We need a striker but we are better off in the current configuration than we ever were with Okoli.

 

[Kjbert]

So we started with a 4-2-4 right? And then went to a 4-2-3-1 in the second half at some point?

 

[canchon]

I think Domé spends the first half deciding how much Pepball he can attempt to play in the second. We've consistently been starting our second halves much top-heavier than the first halves.

This to me is the major difference between Dome and PV. With PV, you kind of knew 15 minutes into the game whether the team was a good matchup or not and it didn’t really change. I feel that Dome takes the first half to understand how the opponent is playing and then makes his adjustments. The team consistently plays better in the second half, which almost never happened under PV.

 

[canchon]

So we started with a 4-2-4 right? And then went to a 4-2-3-1 in the second half at some point?

I felt that they started with Ring and Ofori as double pivots but then definitely pushed Ring higher up the field. Once Higuain went out the team definitely pushed higher as well.

 

[mgarbowski]

So we started with a 4-2-4 right? And then went to a 4-2-3-1 in the second half at some point?

Warshaw said it was 4-2-3-1 then 4-1-4-1 after the half. Ring moved up.

 

[Seven]

Anybody else totally spoiled by this team at home right now?
Last night I’m completely confident even as its stays 0-0 at minute 70, 75, 78. All i can think is: this is our place, this is our time. It happens. Just wait for it. No worries. This is what we do. We score late and win at home.

I was nervous in the first half. Turns out it was all for naught, but there were large stretches of the first half where we couldn’t seem to hold possession and the field felt tilted towards SJ. I would be interested to see the xGs for this game because I think a better finishing team could have made it a tighter game. Columbus had plenty of chances, but they took terrible shots.

And I was very happy when Berhalter subbed out Higuain.

 

[sundance]

If Maxi could finish, he wouldn't be in MLS. . . . Hats off to him. He's been phenomenal this year and I am happy to eat crow.

Let’s all just take a moment to appreciate this.

Glad to hear it, KJB.