MLS - June 14 - Columbus (Home - YS)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
The game was an outlier as soon as the red card occurred. Best thing to take from it was the effort. Also, Jones and McFarlane have juice.
That noted, that referee was in over his head. VAR items:
—The red card wasn’t obvious, but it appeared to be the correct call.
—The offside goal that was overturned offered no view on the telecast that was sufficient to reverse the call. However, there may have been a view that was exclusive to VAR. it was close, either way.
—The VAR penalty, though, was ridiculous and a clear exhibition of how not to use VAR. If it takes 7 minutes to review, the call on the field should stand. It also was a flop.
After the third VAR decision went against the home team, the players and fans were restless, and the referee started handing out fouls and cards like Halloween candy. Let’s hope we don’t see him again until he gets more MLS Next experience and learns how to manage a game. And, VAR.
It never would’ve been more than a draw, but that loss showed this team - right now - can play with anyone.
That noted, that referee was in over his head. VAR items:
—The red card wasn’t obvious, but it appeared to be the correct call.
—The offside goal that was overturned offered no view on the telecast that was sufficient to reverse the call. However, there may have been a view that was exclusive to VAR. it was close, either way.
—The VAR penalty, though, was ridiculous and a clear exhibition of how not to use VAR. If it takes 7 minutes to review, the call on the field should stand. It also was a flop.
After the third VAR decision went against the home team, the players and fans were restless, and the referee started handing out fouls and cards like Halloween candy. Let’s hope we don’t see him again until he gets more MLS Next experience and learns how to manage a game. And, VAR.
It never would’ve been more than a draw, but that loss showed this team - right now - can play with anyone.
What a joke.
The red card, I guess, it's a red card. It's soft, but it's a red card. Didn't get a look at the offsides call so who knows.
The penalty is a complete joke. Farsi dived like he's in the Olympics, which don't start until next month. So, so soft. How is that a clear and obvious error? That's a veteran VAR trying to re-referee the game, and a rookie ref allowing it because he had no control.
That was a terrific game of soccer completely ruined by the referee. Loved the fight from the team tonight. Columbus is better, but we're not far off it.
The red card, I guess, it's a red card. It's soft, but it's a red card. Didn't get a look at the offsides call so who knows.
The penalty is a complete joke. Farsi dived like he's in the Olympics, which don't start until next month. So, so soft. How is that a clear and obvious error? That's a veteran VAR trying to re-referee the game, and a rookie ref allowing it because he had no control.
That was a terrific game of soccer completely ruined by the referee. Loved the fight from the team tonight. Columbus is better, but we're not far off it.
In addition to all the calls the ref also got played like a fiddle by Darlington Nagbe in the first half. I’ve never seen a referee warn about persistent infringement within about 35 minutes. Game management, I feel, is something that is often talked about with referees but hard to illustrate. That guy last night didn’t have it.
Lost in all the pearl clutching about the official is that we were completely played off the pitch in the first 60 minutes.
Columbus had 4.57 xG, which is orders of magnitude more than I’ve ever seen. And before you point out that we were down a man for 50 minutes, more than half of that was generated in the first half.
They carved us up like the Christmas goose and only Freese standing on his head kept us in the game. Turns out our plan to play a high line and apply pressure was either poorly conceived or poorly executed or both.
Columbus had 4.57 xG, which is orders of magnitude more than I’ve ever seen. And before you point out that we were down a man for 50 minutes, more than half of that was generated in the first half.
They carved us up like the Christmas goose and only Freese standing on his head kept us in the game. Turns out our plan to play a high line and apply pressure was either poorly conceived or poorly executed or both.
Agreed. I am not sure whether it was missing TM, poor shape, or the lack of adjustments when it was clear they were playing the long balls through and over the top, but they were able to get behind our defenders clear on goal 5 or 6 times in the first half. We were completely outplayed.
I was hoping that, being prepared to play without Martins and O'Toole would have us more organized than we were against San Jose when even they were tearing us apart for a bit. Unfortunately, we were just so disorganized and easy to beat in the back. Hopefully Martins gets back and never goes down again lol. Also, I'm starting to warm up to the idea that he is worth a DP spot!
Can't take much out of this game, between the missing players, the delay, the red card, the bad ref, it's one of those games where what happens is kind of an isolated incident. What was nice to see was the fight and resilience.
Can't take much out of this game, between the missing players, the delay, the red card, the bad ref, it's one of those games where what happens is kind of an isolated incident. What was nice to see was the fight and resilience.
I said it in the chat, but I work with a guy who refs USL Championship and below. Warned me this ref got promoted in 2023 and he’s not great. Guess my coworker knows his stuff
I want to watch the game on TV to check myself, but this was not the feeling I got from our 18 before the red. I tend to get very frustrated by missed assignments and mental errors at the back (remember my catch phrase “mata can’t defend”). What I saw was us conceding possession, bottling up the tight spaces, giving them poor angles for shots that went right at Matty or were taken weakly. IiRC Two balls went over the top, one for a weak shot and another for the red. They were doing exactly what we have tended to do when we don’t win. Dominate possession resulting in weak shots.
Tanisjevic was clearing everything up pretty well. I remarked on it in the chat.
Neutrals and Columbus fans over on the GDT on Reddit seemed to think it was pretty even up to then. And someone pointed out that fouls were 11-1 against us even before the Red. I want to fact check that, but thats not Pearl clutching. Thats a ref getting worked and worked good.
Anecdotally, A guy I used to play with, An Italian guy who was one of the tactically smartest players I ever played with and a neutral, was a few rows in front of me and said the red was unfortunate because it threw off a pretty even contest. He was three rows in front of me.
I’ll go watch again but from where I was sitting it didn’t feel like we were getting “carved up.”
The red changed the game. While it was SOFT, had we been the benefactor of the call, I find it hard to believe anybody on this forum would argue against it being a valid call.
We had ONE shot on goal the entire first half. I think maybe 3 shots in total? (Santi post, wolf weak shot, ojeda goal) We didn't really create much otherwise. I thought the crew kept possession well and passed around our press fairly well. Yes, we did win the ball back here and there, but a lot of those fouls we committed were due to frustration from all the pressing and NOT getting the ball. Were there some soft foul calls? sure. But was there persistent fouls? Yes. Again, if we were the crew, we'd have been complaining about the hack jobs we were suffering.
The crew took advantage of our disorganized backline with diagonal runs and were able to get in on freese almost at will. It was pure freese brilliance that kept us from going down by a few goals in the first half and kill the game. We did not look like ourselves until the 2nd half and we were down a man and then down a goal. We played with urgency and purpose. We did not do that in the first half.
The PK was a bad call because the ref took 10 minutes and 500 replays to overturn the decision. If he had called in live play, while it would be very very soft, there was still an arm in the back with some extension and those have been given in this league and others. But taking that long to make the call showed that it was not clear and obvious to overturn in his opinion and this was a case of the VAR re-refereeing the game to his liking.
All in all, while we lost, I don't feel too bad about it. Our guys fought bravely and I thought having maxi on the field really helped with our organization. So much so that we were still able to press with success even while down a man when teams normally go into bunker and counter mode. He is truly a club legend.
I do worry that our back line was so disorganized when missing a couple players. I think it's a concern that should be addressed in the summer transfer window. We need more depth but I thought McFarlane cameo looked good and I'd like to see more of him.
Also think we need to get Martinez and Jones on the field at the same time. Both super pacey and smart.
We had ONE shot on goal the entire first half. I think maybe 3 shots in total? (Santi post, wolf weak shot, ojeda goal) We didn't really create much otherwise. I thought the crew kept possession well and passed around our press fairly well. Yes, we did win the ball back here and there, but a lot of those fouls we committed were due to frustration from all the pressing and NOT getting the ball. Were there some soft foul calls? sure. But was there persistent fouls? Yes. Again, if we were the crew, we'd have been complaining about the hack jobs we were suffering.
The crew took advantage of our disorganized backline with diagonal runs and were able to get in on freese almost at will. It was pure freese brilliance that kept us from going down by a few goals in the first half and kill the game. We did not look like ourselves until the 2nd half and we were down a man and then down a goal. We played with urgency and purpose. We did not do that in the first half.
The PK was a bad call because the ref took 10 minutes and 500 replays to overturn the decision. If he had called in live play, while it would be very very soft, there was still an arm in the back with some extension and those have been given in this league and others. But taking that long to make the call showed that it was not clear and obvious to overturn in his opinion and this was a case of the VAR re-refereeing the game to his liking.
All in all, while we lost, I don't feel too bad about it. Our guys fought bravely and I thought having maxi on the field really helped with our organization. So much so that we were still able to press with success even while down a man when teams normally go into bunker and counter mode. He is truly a club legend.
I do worry that our back line was so disorganized when missing a couple players. I think it's a concern that should be addressed in the summer transfer window. We need more depth but I thought McFarlane cameo looked good and I'd like to see more of him.
Also think we need to get Martinez and Jones on the field at the same time. Both super pacey and smart.
Some of our second half improvement can be put down to game state also. The Crew took zero shots between going up by 2 and Santi's goal, and only 1 after that. I'm not diminishing the effort by our guys, but Columbus understandably played differently with the lead.
WRT the xG, there's no disputing the Crew had a big advantage, but that MLS xG figure is distorting your perception. The MLS xG for the Crew in this game was 21% higher than ASA (3.78) and 26% higher than OPTA (3.61). And roughly 0.80 of all of those is the PK. Excluding the PK OPTA has the Crew with just 2.82 xG. That's a good game but not off the charts good.
Overall for the season, MLS xG blended for NYC and its opponents is 16% higher than ASA and 20% higher than Opta. Never look at MLS xG figures without accounting for the fact that it is skewed very, very high.
Rossi had a shot from 8 yards in front of goal with 0 field defenders ahead of him at '26.
Ramirez had a shot from virtually the same spot also with 0 field defenders ahead of him a minute later.
Overall, CLB had 8 shots and >1.3 xG before the red.The Rossi and Ramirez shots account for maybe 60% of the xG. In sum, the had a lot of shots and 2 were fantastic chances.
There's going to be a section on this in my midseason post coming in a day or two.
Also, after we scored we held that lead until the half, which was massive. But we also needed to lock the Crew down in the first 10 minutes of the second half, because it was a near certainty they would come out buzzing. They did, we did not.
They had 5 shots in the first 8 minutes of the second half. Though brief, that's an incredible shot rate. It's unsustainable, but for reference it would be 56 shots in a full game. NYCFC had 1 shot in the first 8-10 minutes. The Crew came out of halftime determined to outwork, outrun and take advantage of the man advantage as fast as possible and they absolutely succeeded.
They had 5 shots in the first 8 minutes of the second half. Though brief, that's an incredible shot rate. It's unsustainable, but for reference it would be 56 shots in a full game. NYCFC had 1 shot in the first 8-10 minutes. The Crew came out of halftime determined to outwork, outrun and take advantage of the man advantage as fast as possible and they absolutely succeeded.
Obviously there were a lot of no-shows last night because of the weather, but that's the loudest non-Derby crowd I can remember in a long time at Yankee Stadium. After Santi's goal, it was really fun in there. Great energy in the building for those last 20 minutes.
Also, since Apple apparently uses a paint by numbers approach and didn't think there was any reason to show this after the game, Cushing made a bee-line for the referee after the final whistle and gave him a little piece of his mind. It wasn't long, but I did see him wag his finger. Obviously a bunch of NYCFC players also circled the ref after the game.
I don't understand why everyone keeps saying the red was soft. Ilenic full-arm shoved a player in the back that was clear through on goal, that's a penalty 10/10 times. It was incredibly stupid by Illenic who clearly acted out of frustration from being burned 4 times before that. There are plenty of legit things to gripe about with the ref but the red is not one of them.
The red card was correct and I don’t have any issue with it.
I wanted the ref to look at offside on the ball in on CLB’s equalizer and more importantly the VAR review and PK goal.
with a team already down 2-1 and down a man, a penalty there to give about an 80% chance of 3-1 basically ends the game. That call was very subjective (don’t give me “it’s contact in the box so it’s a foul!”) The CLB player absolutely sold that and flopped like Gumby and the ref needed 10+ reviews to see “well maybe there was contact there…” a good ref realizes that if he can’t make a decisive overturn, let them play on.
That call took a point away from NYCFC and awarded 2 to CLB.
My concern wasn’t just that they were getting balls through our back line, but that they were carving up our press with such ease. They went through our press and over our press - pretty much whatever they wanted to do. It was actually quite impressive.
Hilarious to see the big blank spot before Cucho’s penalty, I can only assume this was the ref checking the replay again, and again, and again, and again…
