MLS Cup Playoffs - November 30 - New England (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
what should have happened:
we were playing zone defense when we should have had our best, experienced defenders marking their most dangerous players at the very least.
what happened:
ball came in and buksa was BEHIND both chanot and callens, who had no idea what buksa was doing. they were watching the ball. only one to notice buksa moving to the ball was gray, who was just overmatched in height and strength. in zone defense, if anybody hesitates, it's over. the premise, of course, if the ball enters your zone, you have to clear it. but if you're misjudging the ball or think someone else might come get it, some players may let it go. this is what i think happened as you can see four of our guys just watching the ball instead of attacking it when it came into the box.
in summary:
goal probably would not have happened if our CBs attacked the ball risking friendly fire to clear it.
yep. It was zone defense where people were ball watching, marking an area vs marking a man. It was also cleverly designed by NE to have Buksa attack the delivery instead of waiting at a spot for it.
yea. i've never been a fan of zone defense. i've played both and to be honest, even in zone defense i didn't care where the ball was, i went after it. lol. zone only matters before the ball is kicked, when it's kicked there's only one thing that should matter and that is clearing it. i'll never understand the mindset of "oh it's not in my zone so i don't do anything".
i prefer man marking on set pieces. especially when the opposing team has dangerous attackers who NEED to be tracked.
To be fair, this was only the second goal NYCFC gave up from an indirect free kick's initial action, ultimately, where zonal marking could have come into play.
The only other goal they allowed in this manner was the last Hudson River Derby that was actually sent in, headed, and then a later runner got on the end of it to shoot it in.
NYCFC has been fantastic in defending against indirect free kicks this season (except for that one time they weren't paying attention against the Fire - again, nothing against zonal marking)
ETA: American Soccer Analysis has NYCFC as giving up 6 goals from set pieces and free kicks (corner kicks are another category). 3 of those were Zelarayan direct kicks, the Red Bull goal noted above. The Fire goal noted above, and then the first game against the Revolution which seems to be a second phase goal rewatching the highlights. I have a more complete clip of that goal but on another computer to verify how that one happened exactly.
Yes. I know the team has been very good on set piece defense this season, which has been an improvement and a very welcome one. they are usually attacking the ball. here, they kinda just fell asleep for some reason.
I just think in this situation, they relied on gray to cover the back post when they knew there was a threat. i'm sure they assumed he could handle it or maybe they're so used to thinking anton is there so they don't worry about it. but knowing buksa and bou were there, i think they could have made a little adjustment in who stands where so they could at least be aware of where the danger men were.
just my personal opinion about zonal marking. the vast majority of teams seem to rely on zone defense and it works as long as you have players who attack the ball. it's when you have players kinda passing off on the next guy and everyone's caught ball watching, that's when it looks particularly bad.
That's fair.
I just always see blaming of zonal marking when a goal is let up from a set piece, yet it often lacks the context of how often the system is successful.
That doesn't mean to say there aren't occasional breakdowns in it, like you noted here. And those should still be pointed out. But it still often results in general complaining about zonal defending when in aggregate it is still getting the job done.
I just noticed this. Not sure what happened with the cameraman but after taty scores, the camera pans up to the upper decks and you can see "G.O.A.T."
Coincidence? perhaps....
Coincidence? perhaps....
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On zonal marking. The reason a lot of people think zonal marking is a bad system is that when zonal marking gives up a goal, the blame goes to ... zonal marking. When man-to-man marking gives up a goal the blame goes to the specific defender. Rarely do people say, well that's why you shouldn't do man-to-man marking. They say, that's why NAME screwed up that play.
So psychologically people anchor to zonal marking being to blame way more often than they do so with man marking. However, the reason most teams do zonal marking is that the stats say it is much more effective. The only strategic reason to use man marking is to be able to hold a specific individual blame worthy.
(FWIW I think we went through tons of analysis on this same point in 2016 or 2017.)
So many fucking emotions. I know those of us who've been here since the beginning, who went thru Lampardgate, and the countless embarrassing losses needed that win so bad. The team found a way to pull through. Hopefully we can make up for the lack of Taty in Philly.
New England Revolution fans still out here bitching about algorithms.
Really enjoyed listening to
SoupInNYC on Blue City Radio. Great job as always
SoupInNYC on Blue City Radio. Great job as alwaysThanks man, appreciate it.Really enjoyed listening to
I concur. Listened last night. Really adds to the NYCFC fan experience.
Solid game analysis from a New England perspective.
shortcornerslongprose.com
What The Hell Did I Just Watch: Playoffs 2021 - Short Corners Long Prose
It's been a week and the result still hurts. A recap of the Revolution's loss in the MLS Cup Playoffs to NYCFC on Nov. 30th.
shortcornerslongprose.com
watched a UK MLS podcast video that had twellman on it.
twellman said the reason revs had a 23 day bye was because they didn't want to play on thanksgiving. so mls gave them the later game.
twellman said the reason revs had a 23 day bye was because they didn't want to play on thanksgiving. so mls gave them the later game.
I heard that too; it's at ~19:50 of this link:
www.spreaker.com
Episode 100: MLS Cup preview with Taylor Twellman
It's our 100th episode so to celebrate Elliot & Henry are joined by ESPN pundit and all round MLS legend Taylor Twellman to talk about MLS Cup
www.spreaker.com
