MLS - March 18 - D.C. (Home)
- Thread starter LionNYC
- Start date
Carrizo featured a lot in preseason but he's not been in the 18 much once the regular season started, right?
I bet they are hosting him at the Stadium tonight and they're hanging it up so he can see it when he tours the locker room.
God damn nail biter. Finally breathing again. My biggest complaint was pellegrini’s yellow. He didn’t even get close to deserving that. Maybe he mouthed off but the foul wasn’t even a foul
Really poorly officiated match.
fantastic first half.
forgot we were in a game the 2nd. santi + thiago connection saved us.
ref was inconsistent. wouldn't be mad if he never refs MLS again or at least not our games.
Don't think anybody played particularly poorly. Still think we need to improve our set piece defending. Definitely lose track of runners or don't even mark some guys and it happens way too often. It's a simple thing and needs to improve.
Hope Parks is ok. Took a pretty solid knock though in my opinion, it was not a foul. Just got punished by someone coming in a lot stronger and harder. had he beat birnbaum to the ball, it would have been a foul.
Calling out to Barraza for the solid performance. Had some good reaction saves and the goals he gave up weren't his fault at all. Good distribution and dangerous with those cannon direct balls.
Our midfield 3 are fantastic. But clearly, a strong and big #9 will give us problems. Just not good enough in the air. Just the way it is though. While Gray and Cufre didn't have terrible games, I think both could have improved their defending for sure. Gray was slow to prevent the cross on goal #1 and Cufre lost his runner on a set piece that thankfully didn't end in a goal.
Biggest negative to me was how we lost our focus in the 2nd half and lost control and dominance of the game. We need to maintain that killer instinct until the final whistle. I want to destroy teams and make them want nothing more than to get the game over with and go home. We didn't do that tonight and an dominating performance became a nailbiter unnecessarily.
Add to that the lack of game management IQ at the end of the game. I still don't understand why they didn't try to keep the ball in the corner during the last 4-5 minutes there. Force the foul. Take more time off the clock and get a set piece out of it. Another simple thing that needs to be drilled into the players. Don't think we have ever been smart about game management in the final minutes.
forgot we were in a game the 2nd. santi + thiago connection saved us.
ref was inconsistent. wouldn't be mad if he never refs MLS again or at least not our games.
Don't think anybody played particularly poorly. Still think we need to improve our set piece defending. Definitely lose track of runners or don't even mark some guys and it happens way too often. It's a simple thing and needs to improve.
Hope Parks is ok. Took a pretty solid knock though in my opinion, it was not a foul. Just got punished by someone coming in a lot stronger and harder. had he beat birnbaum to the ball, it would have been a foul.
Calling out to Barraza for the solid performance. Had some good reaction saves and the goals he gave up weren't his fault at all. Good distribution and dangerous with those cannon direct balls.
Our midfield 3 are fantastic. But clearly, a strong and big #9 will give us problems. Just not good enough in the air. Just the way it is though. While Gray and Cufre didn't have terrible games, I think both could have improved their defending for sure. Gray was slow to prevent the cross on goal #1 and Cufre lost his runner on a set piece that thankfully didn't end in a goal.
Biggest negative to me was how we lost our focus in the 2nd half and lost control and dominance of the game. We need to maintain that killer instinct until the final whistle. I want to destroy teams and make them want nothing more than to get the game over with and go home. We didn't do that tonight and an dominating performance became a nailbiter unnecessarily.
Add to that the lack of game management IQ at the end of the game. I still don't understand why they didn't try to keep the ball in the corner during the last 4-5 minutes there. Force the foul. Take more time off the clock and get a set piece out of it. Another simple thing that needs to be drilled into the players. Don't think we have ever been smart about game management in the final minutes.
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Scattered thoughts
- At halftime I was celebrating our inevitable 2nd MLS Cup. Second half was a mess and we were lucky to escape with the win. WTH? Cushing and the senior players have some work to do on mentality.
- Why does Keaton never get a look for the USMNT? I guess because we’ve got a lot of talent already at that position? But still
- Santi is (Pep voice) so so so good
- And just like that, we’re in 4th place
All of a sudden, we're at 7 points through 4 games, with Houston up next. Could very easily be at 10 points through 5 games, and we're off to the races.
Incredibly poor in the second half. We thought the game was over at halftime, that the job was done. Pretty much impossible to lock back in mentally once you've checked out like that. We were lucky to escape with all three points, but we also deserved all 3 points.
Think the man-marking issues will clear up with time and experience playing together. The back four (and back six) really don't have a ton of time playing together after Anton and Callens's departures, Parks's injury, and Sands's loan. It'll take time, but we'll get there. That's an annoying problem to have at the start of a season, but one that should get cleared up the longer we go.
When we get a real goal-scoring No. 9, this team is going to be scary.
Incredibly poor in the second half. We thought the game was over at halftime, that the job was done. Pretty much impossible to lock back in mentally once you've checked out like that. We were lucky to escape with all three points, but we also deserved all 3 points.
Think the man-marking issues will clear up with time and experience playing together. The back four (and back six) really don't have a ton of time playing together after Anton and Callens's departures, Parks's injury, and Sands's loan. It'll take time, but we'll get there. That's an annoying problem to have at the start of a season, but one that should get cleared up the longer we go.
When we get a real goal-scoring No. 9, this team is going to be scary.
no matter how many times I see it, all the serious faces and Parks with this family photo smile just cracks me up!
Better not take Houston lightly. They just beat Austin soundly.
In my book, Keaton is simply the best. I have a great picture of him in Portland with my daughter and ran into him on Houston when he was with his (at the time)fiancé and took my intruding on his afternoon with good humor. I also think he’s been getting back to form and feel good about his play overall. It annoyed the hell out of me tonight when some guy behind me was complaining about him all night and yelling to take him off pitch for Alfredo. (Who I complained about along with Grey) when he got on the pitch. What is with the Keaton hate that is out there?no matter how many times I see it, all the serious faces and Parks with this family photo smile just cracks me up!
parks had a great game. not sure what that guy behind you was watching. should have asked him for his take.
that's funny you ran into parks in houston randomly lol.
I think parks deserves a USMNT nod. If he keeps improving, he might get it for the next international break, which is likely to be more MLS heavy.
MLS parity. The gap between teams is truly thin.
All three of our goals were fantastic.
Rooney's plan after the half was clearly to move the ball faster and be more physical. We got a bit football'd to give up two goals, really... our defenders need to work on their battles for headers, but it was definitely unlucky by the numbers to concede twice.
Rooney's plan after the half was clearly to move the ball faster and be more physical. We got a bit football'd to give up two goals, really... our defenders need to work on their battles for headers, but it was definitely unlucky by the numbers to concede twice.
