Shootout win 2 points. Shootout loss 1 point.
Leagues Cup - August 5 - Cincinnati (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
we’re not winning anything without Freeze and Tayvon on the pitch.
Lol I turned off the game and started my daily wind down. After reading for 30 minutes or so I checked the score. Yeah, twilight zone shit.
Our subs -- Parks and Ilenic for Sands and Gray -- were rotational but on balance leaned to offense.* Cushing will never not turtle again.
The late game defense was a shambles. Barazza did himself no favors, especially on the first goal, but:
- Nobody closed on Bucho,
- Asad dribbled solo for nearly 60 yards and took a shot without being challenged, and
- Kubo received a 20 yard pass that went by 3 NYCFC players, turned, and took a shot entirely unmarked.
- On the 4th goal the ball traveled about 60 yards in the air on 3 consecutive passes without ever hitting the ground. Somehow the final pass came off the back of somebody's neck and was propelled forward over his head. At which point the ball finally touched grass, only to be picked up by a running human chia pet who dribbled to goal with zero defenders in front of him because our back line lost sight of someone with electric green hair.
* Then I love, "Hey Mounsef, go in at minute 90 and try to score 2 goals in added time, ok?"
(I think) That's the first time that NYCFC has ever lost a game after having a 2 goal lead.
not sure if going ilenic is more offensive than gray at this point considering gray's vast improvement in attack this season. yeah, ilenic seems more energetic running forward, but he doesn't do much with the ball and often makes the wrong decisions and leaves us completely open in the back. at this point, gray gives us more in attack while also being a head and shoulders better defender.
i was high on ilenic early on considering gray used to do nothing but pass backwards and kill our attacks. but he's improved so much, while ilenic is showing his youth and inexperience more and more.
Fair. Arguably Ileinc for Gray leans offense mostly by subtracting defense.
FWIW, Cushing did say that the Ilenic for Gray sub was predetermined as Gray was returning from injury.
I agree with much of what has been said about our late-game issues but I think more than anything the cause was the subs on the Cincinnati side. Kubo drifts all over the field making them very dynamic. Santos is a proven late-game MLS goal scorer. Their new CB Awaziem was a rock at the back and proved exceptional distribution. Their roster is deep and every player fits their style. FC Cincinnati in the last 4 years finished the MLS season 27th, 10th, 1st, and 3rd (currently 2024). They built a roster of professional players to try to win not some hybrid first team + development academy roster like ours.
We lost last night's game and will flame out in the playoffs because David Lee has done a terrible job selecting players to spend money on. It's been masked by two guys we got on free transfers (Wolf, and Martinez), a super draft pick (Jones), and exceptional goalkeeping by Freese. Nearly every player Lee has spent significant transfer money on is either underperforming or downright abysmal. Compare his transfer spend to the first-choice starter at each position:
Jovan - $8M (Martinez - Free)
Magno- $7.5M (Jones - Super draft)
Ojeda - $7M (Jones - Super draft)
Fernandex - $5M (Wolf free Transfer)
Bakrar - $3M (Martinez - Free)
Risa - $1M
Illenic - $1M (Gray Academy)
That's one consistent starter from $32.5M in transfer fees. It's comically bad.
We lost last night's game and will flame out in the playoffs because David Lee has done a terrible job selecting players to spend money on. It's been masked by two guys we got on free transfers (Wolf, and Martinez), a super draft pick (Jones), and exceptional goalkeeping by Freese. Nearly every player Lee has spent significant transfer money on is either underperforming or downright abysmal. Compare his transfer spend to the first-choice starter at each position:
Jovan - $8M (Martinez - Free)
Magno- $7.5M (Jones - Super draft)
Ojeda - $7M (Jones - Super draft)
Fernandex - $5M (Wolf free Transfer)
Bakrar - $3M (Martinez - Free)
Risa - $1M
Illenic - $1M (Gray Academy)
That's one consistent starter from $32.5M in transfer fees. It's comically bad.
Wow, that is... pretty damning, when presented like that. Well done.
Is that the fastest anyone has ever dropped 4 on us? Has to be, right? I mean, I think even the red wedding goals were spaced out more than that.
RBW featured 4 goals in 15 minutes from 42' to '56. But that also included first half added time, so probably 17-19 minutes.
Yep. My 11-YO insisted on going to bed at about the 72’. After reading to him, I came back up and his big brother told me we lost 4-2. I thought he was shitting me.
This point is taken, but it’s worth pointing out that the right metric is post-shot expected goals, which takes into account where the shot was actually placed and how hard it was hit, etc. The Cincy goals were off low percentage chances, but whether Barraza should have saved them also depends on how well they were taken.
I haven’t been able to find this stat for the game, but I’m curious to know if someone else has it.
Yeah, unfortunately ASA doesn't have any data from this game, so I'm unsure what they ended up being.
I didn't think Barraza was as awful as many are saying. I don't think I would have expected him to save any of those, though I do think Freese gets one of them. But that's more of a testament to how good Freese is than anything. All the shots (except for the 1v1) were low in the corners, very tough to get to. Barraza's biggest shot-stopping negative is he isn't very tall. So I guess if we want to criticize that, then that seems fair and maybe if he had another few inches on him, could have gotten to them.
Another Barraza-related take I had is it was very interesting how they were using him to ping long balls to initiate attacks and it led to the first goal. However, (and I know, hindsight is 20/20) I think they should have given that up, especially after being up 2-0, and even moreso after it was 2-1.
Playing that game can be risky as it can lead to transition moments for either side quickly, and NYCFC doesn't have the aerial threat up top like it used to with Taty. We really needed to settle the game down more with possession and instead, the long kick led to Asad's tying goal and even more momentum to Cincinnati.
Edit: I was wrong about which goal Cincy scored in transition following a long Barraza kick, it was the first goal.
1. Does any site offer post-shot xG for MLS games generally? ASA offers it by keeper. I guess you could look up a keeper and limit the date range to one game to look up the opponent's xG for that game. Is there any other way?
2. ASA has never covered MLS outside of MLS regular season and playoffs, with the unique exception of the MLS is Back tournament. No Open Cup. No CCL. No Leagues Cup or Campeones Cup.
3. FWIW FotMob has the game but not xG, and FBRef also ignores Leagues Cup, USOC and CCL as far as I can tell.
ASA can get you there for non-keepers by using their xPlace. xPlace is the difference between post and pre shot models.
Agustin Ojeda leads NYCFC this year with a +1.04 xPlace.
It's not a shocker that Bakrar is dead last with -2.89. Good for third to last. Bouanga is second to last with -3.07, but his xG is nearly triple Bakrar's, so that's a much more acceptable number, and Dante Vanzwir is dead last with -3.64 (similar xG to Bakrar at 6.51 compared to 6.46)
