MLS - February 22 - Miami (Away)

[ZYanksRule]

youth kids know how to close out a game. we were up a man against a miami team on short rest. we didn't play like we were trying to close out a game. closing out a game means keeping the ball and attacking on when there's a good, high percentage opportunity. otherwise, if you're in trouble, you knock it to the corners or take there yourself and make the clock tick. then on defense, you get compact and find your shape.

We didn't do any of those things. I don't care if it was messi and miami. You're telling me a bunch of so-called professionals can't do a decent game of keep away a man up? It's not like messi or busquets were chasing anybody down either.

Sure, our roster is not on miami's level. I completely agree. But I would have liked to see them attempt to close out the game. In my opinion, I didn't see any of it.

I think it's an easy thing to talk about, but when you're under pressure on Opening Night against the best team in the league with the best player in the history of the sport, it's easier said than done. I think a lot of our mistakes were forced by Miami. Even with our struggles, it still took a moment of pure brilliance to take the win away from us.

I think you're being too harsh on the players on the pitch -- they did fine. They could have done better, but it's never going to be perfect when the gulf in skill is as high as it was on Saturday. Messi delivered a world-class moment to beat us. It happens. Maybe I'd be more on your side if we had a complete roster and the skill difference wasn't so high, but all things considered our guys did fine. Room for improvement? Yes. But they were fine.

 

[JayH]

I think it's an easy thing to talk about, but when you're under pressure on Opening Night against the best team in the league with the best player in the history of the sport, it's easier said than done. I think a lot of our mistakes were forced by Miami. Even with our struggles, it still took a moment of pure brilliance to take the win away from us.

I think you're being too harsh on the players on the pitch -- they did fine. They could have done better, but it's never going to be perfect when the gulf in skill is as high as it was on Saturday. Messi delivered a world-class moment to beat us. It happens. Maybe I'd be more on your side if we had a complete roster and the skill difference wasn't so high, but all things considered our guys did fine. Room for improvement? Yes. But they were fine.

Yes. Some of closing out a game is doing the basics, tempo control, time wasting, etc. But that alone is not enough, as often it is just the swing of the game when the other team plays stronger and better in the later stage - it’s not a matter of closing out a game. Especially when you are playing newbies, it’s not necessarily a lack of closing out the game, it’s getting dominated and outplayed at the end like happened here.

 

[mgarbowski]

Subtle

https://twitter.com/x/status/1894827582262256035

 

[ZYanksRule]

Yes. Some of closing out a game is doing the basics, tempo control, time wasting, etc. But that alone is not enough, as often it is just the swing of the game when the other team plays stronger and better in the later stage - it’s not a matter of closing out a game. Especially when you are playing newbies, it’s not necessarily a lack of closing out the game, it’s getting dominated and outplayed at the end like happened here.

And game-state controls it. Miami was always going to push for the equalizer. There's no real discernible difference losing 2-1 or 3-1, so they might as well go for it and try to find a point. Meanwhile, there is a difference for us so we're always going to play a little more defensively in those moments. I still think we did a decent job of killing the game off, we just got Messi'ed.