MLS - August 6 - Columbus (Away)

Montreal was the hardest of our 3-game Away stretch. I'm not sure which is the easiest. Columbus is better than Miami, but Miami is better at home, to the point where I think they are confident and just expect to win there. So on top of always focusing on the next game, I think this has to be where we get a necessary win.

I went into the 3 games thinking 3 points or lower is terrible, 4 is borderline acceptable, 5 is good, and 6 or more represents varying degrees of solid-excellent.
 
Montreal was the hardest of our 3-game Away stretch. I'm not sure which is the easiest. Columbus is better than Miami, but Miami is better at home, to the point where I think they are confident and just expect to win there. So on top of always focusing on the next game, I think this has to be where we get a necessary win.

I went into the 3 games thinking 3 points or lower is terrible, 4 is borderline acceptable, 5 is good, and 6 or more represents varying degrees of solid-excellent.

Columbus is the easiest as they will be on short rest. With Cucho, I believe the Crew are better than Miami, but I'd rather play either after a midweek tilt against Montreal.
 
Per Cushing in pregame press conference, Maxi, Chanot, and Tinnerholm all practiced and are "healthy". Mentioned they are all likely not 100% fit so minutes will still be determined.

Based on how he answered this question, I think, barring any last minute setbacks, that all three should at least be available on Saturday.
 
Frustrating game today. Thankfully, in other news, the Mets swept the Braves in a doubleheader today, are 30 games over .500 and have deGrom going tomorrow to make it four out of five against Atlanta and a 6 1/2 game lead in the NL East.

Maybe they'd like 20 percent of a soccer team? One which would love to be their neighbor? We might even be able to talk them into giving us a blood transfusion or something.
 
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i think this game just shows how much we miss a player like parks in the midfield.

Acevedo just has not shown improvement in the last 2 years imho. I'd rather we take our chance with Zel or Haak to develop.

We looked much more dangerous with maxi and anton on the field. Why is that? In my opinion, it's because anton is more aggressive going forward and faster at making decisions, which makes a huge difference. maxi also reads the game better than anybody we had in the midfield before he came on.

We got lucky on 2 goals and Room kept the rest out. That's just how it goes sometimes. SS looks to be getting farther away but the cup is within reach if we can find our groove again. we just seem to have lost our edge. our quick play and relentless attack just hasn't been there. hope we can find that attitude and form again soon.

HUGE fingers crossed Callens is ok. but it looked pretty bad and I won't be surprised if he's out for a month.
 
Well glad I didn't blow off movie night with my non sports fan friends to watch this. I DVRed it but honestly will probably erase without watching. Just ugghh hopefully better next week.
We weren't horrible, just frustrating. There were stretches where we actually played really well, especially early in the match. But after the first 10 minutes or so we just kind of lost it and spent the rest of the night scrambling. Missing some 'x-factor' stuff. Something intangible.
 
HUGE fingers crossed Callens is ok.
Reports from Blue Balls on Twitter are a sprained MCL. So, should be alright. I've had that same injury myself and actually got it in a very similar way, someone rolling up on my leg. Came back from it fairly quickly without any problems, but it did take about 3-4 weeks (my strain was classified as mild).
 
Reports from Blue Balls on Twitter are a sprained MCL. So, should be alright. I've had that same injury myself and actually got it in a very similar way, someone rolling up on my leg. Came back from it fairly quickly without any problems, but it did take about 3-4 weeks (my strain was classified as mild).

yea so a month missed if we're lucky. that's not great when we're making a final push into the playoffs. looks like martins and chanot are gonna have to learn communication skills very quickly.
 
Aside from the Callens injury, probably as optimistic as I can feel after a loss.

We got torched by Zelarayan and Cucho -- those guys torch everyone, and Zelarayan always torches us. They scored some nice goals, it happens. But we carried play for a while, on the road, scored twice and created a lot of chances against one of the better defensive teams in the league. Our main issue is whether we can score without Taty. We can. We can play really good stuff without him.

The game unlocked when Maxi and Anton came in, which makes sense -- Maxi is one of the best No. 10s in the league, and Anton is one of the best fullbacks in the league. They both bring so much offensively.

All in all, we played well and just lost to Zelarayan and Cucho. I can deal with that. Also got a lot of really good results from the teams around us in the East. We still have a game in hand and hold the tiebreaker over Philly.
 
All in all, we played well and just lost to Zelarayan and Cucho. I can deal with that. Also got a lot of really good results from the teams around us in the East. We still have a game in hand and hold the tiebreaker over Philly.
Ditto. This one was more frustrating than anything else. One of those games we just couldn't grab by the throat. But I never felt we weren't the better team and we're not in a materially worse position now than we were going in.
 
We got torched by Zelarayan and Cucho -- those guys torch everyone, and Zelarayan always torches us.
I mostly agree with your post, but I have to say that I think NYCFC fans have a distorted view of Zelayaran. We basically remember his 2020 playoff run, and then all the goals he scores against us. The 2020 playoffs were almost certainly his best 4 games in MLS, and in 2021-22 he has scored 25% of his goals (5/20) against us. In 50 games in 2021-22 when he did not play NYCFC he scored 15 goals. It's not nothing but he doesn't really tear it up either, especially compared to the 5 goals in 5 games against us. So yeah, Zelayaran always torches us, but everyone? He's streaky.

We got lucky on 2 goals and Room kept the rest out. That's just how it goes sometimes.
Agreed and makes it hard for me to decide on a take for this game. We were lucky to score 2. We were a bit unlucky not to have scored more. The 3 conceded was, in part, reverting to the mean because - as we've discussed - every shutout means you outperformed your xGA by definition. We were due for a defensive performance like this and of course it happened in Columbus (see below). And just after KevinJRogers KevinJRogers and I discussed how some teams just decide to grab shots against us where they can regardless of quality, the Crew did that and, unlike most of our opponents, made them.

Going forward, I'm mostly comfortable with our goals by committee approach for the rest of the year. Heber was never going to maintain his brief torrid stretch and that's OK. Talles, Thiago, Santi and Pereira all have enough of a right time right place put-it-in-the-net knack that we'll keep going. But apart from Taty's sheer volume and (somewhat) every-other-game reliability, we're going to miss him as someone who just sometimes decides, "get out of my way I'm taking my shot and it's going in." This occurred to me watching Seattle at Atlanta yesterday. Cristian Roldan scored Seattle's goal, and it wasn't even some extraordinary individual effort. It was just, to some degree, a product of persistence and strength and control. But his first shot in the sequence was blocked and he just kept with it, moved slightly, and shot again, and I'm not sure we have anyone who does that right now.

Johnson probably had his worst game since early 2021 but it was really just one horrific play. I don't fault him for the Crew's 1st or 3rd goals and his distribution, shot-blocking and control the rest of the game was solid.

Glass half empty: that was a rough game to watch after a stand-pat transfer window. The positions where we need help were on full display and someone got hurt to just make it all worse.

NYCFC has played in Columbus 10 times and has 1 win and 0.60 PPG to show for it, easily our worst Away record when you discount places we have not played at least 5 times.
 
Columbus had the two most explosive players on the field.

That’s bad.
 
1.5 expected goals to 0.7 expected goals, yet the team with fewer won. Four of the five goals could be considered unlucky or the result of a mistake or questionable foul call. I am not sure what to take from that game other than:

1) Acevedo works hard, but is too slow to develop further.

2) Gray has a future with the team, but as a CB not RB.

3) Heber can provide value, but needs a formation adjustment (5-3-2 with aggressive Tinnerholm/Amundsen wingbacks?).

Supporters' Shield is a dream at this point - but top seed in the East (and CCL spot) is still in range. The young attackers will learn, one way or another.

P.S. Get well soon, Keaton.
 
It took 2-3 years for Taty to pan out into a Best XI player. Maybe that's the case with Talles, GP, Santi, etc.

I think Talles for sure will improve. Though I don't see the endless dedication and focus like with Taty. Of course, i don't know Talles at all, so I could be totally wrong.

GP for sure will improve. He's already been improving, I think and will get better with more playing time. My hope is he and anton will develop some amazing chemistry that will carry us into the playoffs.

Santi is already a star in my opinion. His finishing and decision making could improve, but the guy is everywhere most of the time. Let's hope we use that loan transfer money from Taty to sign him on permanently after this season.