LAFC - Postmatch

[NYCFC_Dan]

Another draw. Still a better result than most expected after the first two games. Unfortunately I missed this one due to work. What’s everyone’s thoughts on the game?
I saw Sweats moment of brilliance but I’m assuming it was the only one having read some of the tweets.
Sands still getting a lot of praise and it’s good to see Mitrita scoring. Great individual goal by him.

 

[Keith Putnam]

Sweat giveth two points and Sweat taketh two points away.

Overall the best play we've seen from the team so far this season, but we need someone who can consistently be on the end of our pretty decent buildup play. Tremendous effort and goal from Treats, but we can't rely on him taking the ball from the halfway line and beating a whole defense for all of our goals.

Great Pepball-style cutback from the endline for Ring's goal.

Sands is going to be great. Should we presume he's keeping Parks out?

 

[LIexpat]

Becoming a big fan of sands, so composed for someone so young

 

[Annagram]

IMO it looked ten times better than in the first two games, but the team is still sorely lacking a central striker. Both conceded goals were individual errors, of which I consider Chanot's worse, giving the ball away under no pressure. Sweat pushed the panic button and hence the PK, but otherwise he was better than I expected. Tinnerholm was lively on the right side, built up several good attacks and was solid in defending. Callens was also good, and Jimmy Sands is growing into a hell of a player. Hard to believe he's only 18.

Ring was his usual commanding self, and capped a good performance with a well taken goal. If only he had buried that header some moments later. Mitrita has really quick feet and will be even more of a handful in near future. His goal was sheer individual brilliance, and there would probably have been more if he had had better support. Johnson had pretty little to do at his goal, hardly having to make a save. Matarrita was solid, just as Ofori (subbed by Sweat). Castellanos started ok but faded in the second half. Maxi just doesn't pose a real threat. I didn't see Medina doing anything else than his normal making up the numbers during his short stint. He's a terrible waste of a DP spot. Get rid asap.

And tbh, LAFC were quite strong and well organized. They were much, much better than Orlando, and could have won, had Diomende not shot wildly wide in the dying seconds.

The team needs a central striker. And obviously a coach as well.

 

[NYCFC3rdDP]

Sands is the real deal... nice to have our first Homegrown look like a mainstay... desperately need a #9 for obvious reasons but also to get Maxi back in the midfield helping control the game

 

[Ulrich]

The defense got sliced and diced, Mata was a dud like Medina and Tinny constantly gave up the runner. If LAFC had a bit better touch on some of their throughballs, it’d have been over early. And Johnson again makes a world class fingertip save. LAFC “Lost” the win more than we earned the tie. The ref also missed a pretty clear hand ball on us in the box about 5-10min before LA got their PK.

Our midfield got run over pretty badly, always looking to push up they left a ton of space behind and were countered way too much. Pretty crazy that a guy like Ofori, who only played last year because Herrera was injured, hasn’t now started twice - it goes to show what I said in another thread, that the FO only tried to raise the floor rather than the ceiling - if Parks was our big MF signing and he can’t beat out Ofori, then the FO lost the script.

Mitrita looks like he’ll have a moment of brilliance every match which is what we need. I still have no idea what our tactics were, save for pushing as fast as we could, and that’s an issue.

Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but the throw in that led to Sweat assisting Ring should have gone the other way. It was right in front of me and the guy behind me also thought it was LA’s throw.

Overall, found it to be a boring match with the LA fans sounding louder, and every turn over in midfield expecting a quick counter aimed at our outside backs. 3pts out of 9 is a losing record, especially when two matches are at home. Our trending since last season is not good, and it’s one man’s fault.

 

[SayWhat44]

Sweat.....

 

[Shwafta]

While I don't disagree that 3pts from 9 is bad (because it is, frankly), I thought we played the best soccer of the season. Against another contender, and we scored twice. Yes we gave up our lead twice, but I thought that was a strong showing. It looks like our attack is slowly getting more comfortable playing together, but here are the points I noted today:

1. Castellanos was even more invisible than Medina
2. Medina was invisible
3. Lewis didn't make any impact as a substitue
4. Sweat, oh Sweat, giving me reasons to love you (that play to Ring) and reasons to hate you (...) but I thought while we were playing 5 defenders, he actually did very well in his midfield role.
5. Maxi looks so lost, I'm not sure what changed from last season?
6. SJ had some... questionably awful... passes today.
7. Chanot and Callens are the only reason we have 3 points this season
8. Tinnerholm had some very nice runs and pushes on their midfield, and I quite liked it.
9. Dome, what the fuck are you thinking bringing on medina? Dumbest idea of the season.

I understood today what our tactics were, it just seems like he wants us to try and break through other teams through the wing rather than through the center- in fact most of our play up until the final third - seemed to come from the wings.

I do think, however, that had we kept the same tactics as the first half, with the 72% posession and what we had been doing, we could have come out of that match 3-1 winners.

 

[Revfugee]

[QUOTE="Ulrich, post: 277001, member:]Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but the throw in that led to Sweat assisting Ring should have gone the other way. It was right in front of me and the guy behind me also thought it was LA’s throw./QUOTE]

Nah, it was the right call. Right in front of me in 129.

We really didn't look that bad. We need a finisher. Until today I though Mitrita should play up top. But he is so good off the wing I changed my mind.

As usual, Sweat derangement syndrome is in full force on this board(edit: in the shoutbox). He was subbed in because Mata was a disaster waiting to happen all day. And other than the penalty, which was far from the worst mistake all day (ahem, Chanot — twice!), he played pretty well and created Ring’s goal out of sheer will. He is not the player we want at LB, but there is a reason Mata hasn’t beaten him out.

As I said at the half in the shoutbox, we need an LB almost as badly as we need a striker, but Sweat was a wash today. Mata has talent but leaves his partners exposed because he has no brain. Sweat is nowhere near as talented but plays with more grit and positional awareness, which is why two managers have favored him. I think we all want an upgrade at LB though.

On the positive side, Mitrita today was every bit as good as Villa was most of last season. Maxi was his old self, Ring was close to a brace, Sands mostly a rock, Taty looked less lost than usual, and Callens and Tinny were pretty solid.

The first sub should have been Sweat for Mata, Ofori looked fine.

We have drawn two of the best teams in the league and one that is much improved, and are two howlers from having 7 poonts from three games. I’m not satisfied but I’m not ready to panic.

 

[Annagram]

2. Medina was invisible
9. Dome, what the fuck are you thinking bringing on medina? Dumbest idea of the season.

My theory is that Domé keeps Medina in the side to keep up his self-confidence. Leaving a young DP out (which he'd deserve) would destroy whatever there's left of the lad. And perhaps DT hopes that Medina has a lucky break and can build up from there. There can't be many other reasons.

 

[Shwafta]

My theory is that Domé keeps Medina in the side to keep up his self-confidence. Leaving a young DP out (which he'd deserve) would destroy whatever there's left of the lad. And perhaps DT hopes that Medina has a lucky break and can build up from there. There can't be many other reasons.

I... I really don't know if that's the case. Leave him out forcing him to work harder to get his spot back. Why should he feel entitled to it just because he's a DP?

 

[NickA]

Mitrita has a lot of upside here, but he lacks help. Maybe it's me, but I becoming increasingly annoyed with Maxi. He seems to make questionable decisions with the ball. Team looked good at times. 3 draws means little difference between 9 points & 0 points. We need a striker, but I don't think that's how Dome wants to play.

 

[Annagram]

I... I really don't know if that's the case. Leave him out forcing him to work harder to get his spot back. Why should he feel entitled to it just because he's a DP?

As I said, it's a theory. Do you have other explanations?

 

[Ulrich]

My theory is that Domé keeps Medina in the side to keep up his self-confidence. Leaving a young DP out (which he'd deserve) would destroy whatever there's left of the lad. And perhaps DT hopes that Medina has a lucky break and can build up from there. There can't be many other reasons.

If that’s whats happening, he’s holding different players to different rules/standards and that will destroy a locker room. Medina hasn’t shown any reason to be rewarded with game time.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

LAFC is the easily with Seattle the best team in MLS with DC and SKC close behind. The fact that we are competing with these teams with out a #9 is very good sign.

Without that Chanot error we win this game.

 

[LionNYC]

Only two thoughts at this moment.

I somehow threw out my entire back after eating in Legends. No idea how it happened. My entire back was spasming and in pain throughout the entire match. I can't even remotely twist. Had to go to the first aid station it was so bad. Still bad even getting home.

Dome doesn't inspire confidence. He isn't a big enough personality to communicate to players on the field. Nobody hears what he has to say. Lewis was going to come on for someone else but after Taty did another stupid trick that failed, he pulled Taty off.

 

[Ulrich]

LAFC is the easily with Seattle the best team in MLS with DC and SKC close behind. The fact that we are competing with these teams with out a #9 is very good sign.

Without that Chanot error we win this game.

Without the Johnson fingertip save we lose this game.

Edit- also don’t ignore the fact we “competed” with DC at home, and dropped points to them and they suck on the road. And LA just flew cross country to play on a crap-ass field - we play them at their venue and we aren’t in the neighborhood of “competing” with them.

 

[Annagram]

Without the Johnson fingertip save we lose this game.

We don’t know whether it was going in. Might have hit the bar. But a good save anyway.

 

[ZYanksRule]

While I don't disagree that 3pts from 9 is bad (because it is, frankly), I thought we played the best soccer of the season. Against another contender, and we scored twice. Yes we gave up our lead twice, but I thought that was a strong showing. It looks like our attack is slowly getting more comfortable playing together, but here are the points I noted today:

1. Castellanos was even more invisible than Medina
2. Medina was invisible
3. Lewis didn't make any impact as a substitue
4. Sweat, oh Sweat, giving me reasons to love you (that play to Ring) and reasons to hate you (...) but I thought while we were playing 5 defenders, he actually did very well in his midfield role.
5. Maxi looks so lost, I'm not sure what changed from last season?
6. SJ had some... questionably awful... passes today.
7. Chanot and Callens are the only reason we have 3 points this season
8. Tinnerholm had some very nice runs and pushes on their midfield, and I quite liked it.
9. Dome, what the fuck are you thinking bringing on medina? Dumbest idea of the season.

I understood today what our tactics were, it just seems like he wants us to try and break through other teams through the wing rather than through the center- in fact most of our play up until the final third - seemed to come from the wings.

I do think, however, that had we kept the same tactics as the first half, with the 72% posession and what we had been doing, we could have come out of that match 3-1 winners.

I agree that we played well. But this is a results business, and at some point Dome needs to get results. We seem to normally play well under Dome, but the results aren't there.

I thought aside from his mistake Chanot was a beast, breaking up a ton of chances. Callens also a rock.

I don't understand why Taty is always so far wide. He gets the ball but the only thing he can do is try a cross. Would like to see him allowed to play closer to the box.

Mitrita is dynamic. A little selfish at times, but he is a thrill to watch. Great find.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Sweat derangement syndrome is in full force on this board

You literally can’t play worse than he does. He made so many stupid plays, poor toouches, insane challenges, and zero contribution touches that we’d need a bigger server to list them.