MLS - July 17 - Atlanta (Away)

[Revfugee]

I’m glad we came back and all with a NYCFC B squad out there, and that Talles and Bakrar got closer to being off the schneid (still not convinced they are), but OMG our defending was a shambles, especially in the first half.

Martins demonstrated his value by his absence, as did Tayvon. I’ve been less harsh on Tanis than many folks have, but he and Ilenic are a disaster together as defenders.

The first goal was just everyone falling asleep, especially Keaton and Tanis. Ugh. First match all year that I’ve FF’d through large swaths since until Maxi came on we had no hope.

I hope we don’t have to see this back line again. Against a competent attack it would have been 4-2 or 5-2.

Nonetheless I’ll take a point on the road, especially from two down, and give a nod to Nick for game management.

 

[Davo15]

My apple tv somehow got unsynched and it took me half an hour to get it back up . We were already down 2-0 by the Time I got it on so I decided not to bother ,

 

[KevinJRogers]

Red Bull and the Crown both drew tonight as well. The situation ante holds, but Orlando beat the Coyotes in Nashville so they're just four points behind us now and within range of the scrum.

This may prove a valuable point. Zoiks.

 

[Revfugee]

Btw where was Martins tonight? No mention of him anywhere…

 

[moogoo]

stopped watching at halftime with no real hope of any result... saw the scoreline and watched the 2nd half.

so happy for both bakrar and especially magno for getting goals. magno looked VERY active and motivated. I thought he contributed well even without the penalty/goal. He moved around a lot, tracked back, pressed, combined with players and out of everyone on the field, he was the only one who could beat anybody on the dribble even on that horrendous surface.

Jovan scoring to win it for us would have been icing on the cake.

not much else to say. proud of the squad for getting it done. our defending really should not have been so terrible. I really think it's just a matter of learning proper positioning and EFFORT. we definitely lacked effort on both goals we gave up and for the most part, we pretty lucky that atlanta do not have any clinical finishers or it would have easily been 4-2.

I couldn't be happier for magno to get some playing time. I hope he gets more opportunities this road trip and leagues cup to show his worth. I wish I could understand Nick's reasons for keeping him off the field. He may not be the fastest winger, but as long as he's tracking back to help defend, his 1v1 ability when isolated on the wing could give us a lot of options. Especially with Jones out

 

[Gotham Gator]

How unhappy are the Atlanta fans right now. They dive in the box all night and don't get a single penalty. We go down easily one time, and BAM!

 

[Marito]

stopped watching at halftime with no real hope of any result... saw the scoreline and watched the 2nd half.

so happy for both bakrar and especially magno for getting goals. magno looked VERY active and motivated. I thought he contributed well even without the penalty/goal. He moved around a lot, tracked back, pressed, combined with players and out of everyone on the field, he was the only one who could beat anybody on the dribble even on that horrendous surface.

Jovan scoring to win it for us would have been icing on the cake.

not much else to say. proud of the squad for getting it done. our defending really should not have been so terrible. I really think it's just a matter of learning proper positioning and EFFORT. we definitely lacked effort on both goals we gave up and for the most part, we pretty lucky that atlanta do not have any clinical finishers or it would have easily been 4-2.

I couldn't be happier for magno to get some playing time. I hope he gets more opportunities this road trip and leagues cup to show his worth. I wish I could understand Nick's reasons for keeping him off the field. He may not be the fastest winger, but as long as he's tracking back to help defend, his 1v1 ability when isolated on the wing could give us a lot of options. Especially with Jones out

With an opponent defending in a low block and clogging the spaces, Talles Magno becomes a real weapon, with his 1v1 ability in tight spaces. In our usual high-press and run into space kind of attack he is an odd fit. Still, we should have seen him get more minutes. I was pretty sure he was out the door, but now I don't know.

But the obvious truth is we have under-invested in our defense. It would be hard to say Tanasijevic is better than Alfaro, and he's clearly much worse than both Ibeagha and an aging Chanot. Xande Silva dribbled past him at will. And it doesn't look like Ilenic will become a defender any time soon. A few injuries really make us really vulnerable at the back.

 

[SoupInNYC]

With an opponent defending in a low block and clogging the spaces, Talles Magno becomes a real weapon, with his 1v1 ability in tight spaces. In our usual high-press and run into space kind of attack he is an odd fit. Still, we should have seen him get more minutes. I was pretty sure he was out the door, but now I don't know.

But the obvious truth is we have under-invested in our defense. It would be hard to say Tanasijevic is better than Alfaro, and he's clearly much worse than both Ibeagha and an aging Chanot. Xande Silva dribbled past him at will. And it doesn't look like Ilenic will become a defender any time soon. A few injuries really make us really vulnerable at the back.

Magno and Maxi available off the bench to attack low blocks. Those two guys can do things in tight spaces in the attacking third that nobody else on this roster can.

 

[LionNYC]

The thing I noticed and was really happy with was Talles' defensive effort. He won a lot of balls on the left side deep in our half.

 

[SoupInNYC]

Btw where was Martins tonight? No mention of him anywhere…

Him or Santi, not sure.

I'm speculating that they were given the night off due to rotation, and perhaps stayed in NYC to have less travel for the week, so they weren't in the 18.

But will look to confirm this during tomorrow's pregame press conference.

 

[KevinJRogers]

Those two guys can do things in tight spaces in the attacking third that nobody else on this roster can.

This is exactly why I thought Nick would bring Jovan on with Talles Magno: to try and navigate through traffic in the box and muscle one in. But he elected to put Wolf on the left and move Julian central and tilt the field instead.

Which is fine, he knows a heck of a lot more about it than I do, and we can't argue with the result. It worked. With a little late luck, we might have won.

As it is (I mentioned this on the club's Facebook page), we've had our share of draws which felt like losses. It's nice to have a draw which feels like a win for a change. Something about this match feels very much like a breakthrough. A minor one, maybe, or maybe something bigger.

But it feels good.

 

[moogoo]

With an opponent defending in a low block and clogging the spaces, Talles Magno becomes a real weapon, with his 1v1 ability in tight spaces. In our usual high-press and run into space kind of attack he is an odd fit. Still, we should have seen him get more minutes. I was pretty sure he was out the door, but now I don't know.

But the obvious truth is we have under-invested in our defense. It would be hard to say Tanasijevic is better than Alfaro, and he's clearly much worse than both Ibeagha and an aging Chanot. Xande Silva dribbled past him at will. And it doesn't look like Ilenic will become a defender any time soon. A few injuries really make us really vulnerable at the back.

Talles doesn't have pace to run in behind and isn't dangerous in that way like Jones is, but I disagree that he's an odd fit if the opponent isn't in a low block. He's perfectly capable of high press (he did it last night) and his soccer IQ is high enough to recognize how to combine with others and be creative to perhaps play someone who has a lot of pace in behind. not playing him at all is a waste of his talents. I wish we knew why nick doghoused him...

 

[ZYanksRule]

Great, great fightback. So happy for Talles. Hope this means he can get himself more minutes. He was terrific last night.

Save of the week by Freese in the 85th. How does he get to that ball? Incredible.

Can we laugh at Atlanta for a moment? They must have had 20,000 no-shows for this game, because they listed an attendance of over 40,000.

 

[Gotham Gator]

The thing I noticed and was really happy with was Talles' defensive effort. He won a lot of balls on the left side deep in our half.

His pressure helped lead to the bad backpass and our first goal.

 

[FootyLovin]

His pressure helped lead to the bad backpass and our first goal.

Yes.

And are we going to show no love for Bakrar on that?