Cushing also said that they were the players he wanted and was involved with the signings. Whether true or not, he gets credit.
MLS Cup Playoffs - October 28 - Cincinnati (Away)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
The red card was an absurdity. Lucho had more contact with Tayvon's head on his foul than Tayvon had on his pushoff.
Penso walked onto the pitch and told the ref it was a red. If it had been a less Sr. 4th official or a non-attention seeker like Penso I don't think it ends up being a red. But we know one thing, if Penso is in the building he's going to find a way to make it about him.
conversation probably went like this:
Penso: Hey, that Lion guy from NYC is here and he said he didn't want controversy. Let's give him something to take home to NY!
Main Ref: Who?
Penso: Don't worry about it. Give a red.
I don't understand how VAR doesn't look at it. That's not a red card. That's not even a yellow card. It's a yellow on Lucho for the ridiculous flop. The center ref in this game is a disaster every game he does; how does he get a playoff game? Incredibly poor from PRO to assign him a playoff game.
Personally, I felt the talent gap was pretty stark last night. Nobody on our team was even close to the level of Arellano and Acosta. Maybe a young Maxi, but that's just the memories. So I completely agree that we have invested poorly in the last few years. Even Santi, with all his talent, is miles below Acosta as a matter of vision and judgment. I don't know how their dribbling success stats compare, but I do know that Acosta only dribbles when it is worth the risk, at the right moments and in the right areas of the pitch. Sometimes it seems that Santi never saw a dribbling chance he didn't want to avail himself of. He does carry our team in terms of goals and assists, but I don't know if he makes anybody better or the teams as a whole better IMHO.
To be fair - some of that may be down to age. Not saying there isn’t a big talent gap, but Santi is still pretty immature as a player. As he enters his prime he could get better. His giveaways were awful I thought.
Interesting - Fotmob gave Santi by far the lowest rating at 4.8. It’s rare to be that low without a red card or own goal or something.
Talles Magno at Corinthians has 3 goals and 3 assists in like 12 games and mostly positive ratings. Either Brazil is easier than MLS or maybe we weren’t using him well. The constant Bakrar rotations have been maddening and that dude has zero confidence- you can see it on his face. The coach isn’t making us better.
And, he’s really the easiest person to blame in all of this. Perhaps a bit unfair but if you make mediocre choices even with mediocre talent, you’re going to take a lot of the blame.
to me, santi didn't look ready to go from the start. he didn't seem his usual, "no one is gonna stop me" self. his dribbling and touches were off for most of the game.
Sometimes, I think santi plays like he doesn't trust anybody else to do anything. He dribbles because he thinks if he passes it, he won't get it back or it will turn into nothing. Of course, this only hurts everyone when the other team just smothers him constantly like they did last night and as most teams have started to do knowing that he likes to dribble.
i think all our players, sans maxi (he's already proven his worth), have plenty of room to improve. we have a fairly young squad and they SHOULD grow. the question is whether they will and if cushing is the right coach to help them reach their potential. I'm not saying cushing out or whatever. it's really difficult to say if another coach could get more out of this roster. as others have pointed out, we don't have quality depth in most of our positions and that hurts us a lot.
imo, whether we advance past cinci will depend on if we play to win or if we play to squeak by. that's gotta be on cushing's tactics, right? otherwise, i don't understand why we'd back off. If we are gonna go out, i want us to go out guns blazing. Going out while playing scared just makes it worse.
Is Ojeda hurt? I thought it was odd that he didn't get subbed on. Of the three young guys, Ojeda played 921 min followed by Fernandez at 677 and then Jovan at 265. That's a significant difference in-game time. With a playoff game on the line, you would think there would be an advantage to playing the guy who has the most experience playing with the other guys on the pitch.
- Martinez went from a winger who couldn't make it in Belgium to scoring 16 MLS goals
- Haak and Gray have been on the first team for years at this point, long enough that I think their growth is far beyond the "academy reps phase"
- Jones looked better with every appearance up until he broke his leg
- Ojeda has progressed just not at the rate most would like and he still has a way to go
- Santi is a much more mature player, he loses his head far less often and seems to be developing as a leader (not sure if those things count for your definition of development).
- The Union considered Perea expendable and he was getting zero time for them.
