MLS - March 29 - Atlanta (Away)

[Revfugee]

Really annoyed that the chat wasn’t accepting my posts, but not nearly as annoyed as I am that this was essentially a blow by blow repeat of the Ranger collapse last night.

Last goal was 100% on Freese.

Two of our best players made howlers tonight. Sad part is that overall we looked pretty promising. Still so shallow that Pascal couldn’t sub until too late..

Ugh.

 

[ZYanksRule]

We need to sign someone. That's it. That's my takeaway. This team is good enough to get results, but we will continue to drop winnable points until we add depth.

A little too much sloppiness on the defensive end (Parks, Freese, and Thiago especially). Can't win when you make that many mistakes against a good team.

At least we're fun to watch and play entertaining soccer again.

20 goals for Alonso in 34 appearances -- I need to understand what Cushing didn't see all that time. The coaching change has been such a massive upgrade for this team.

Heavy Metal Football against A Bulletproof Mentality was quite the ride tonight.

 

[Kenny]

Can’t score a single goal at Columbus… and get a point. Score THREE at Atlanta… and get nothing.

This fucking team.

 

[KevinJRogers]

Pathetic capitulation tonight.

David Lee, get off your posh ass and sign some players who can contribute. We need more depth!

We definitely need to fill in the gaps. But what concerns me the most was the on-pitch argument between Freese and Martins. We can't afford that. Chemistry is essential on any team, but on one as thin as ours, it's doubly important.

 

[Revfugee]

I took a lot of positives from our play tonight. But I’m in no mood to discuss them right now.

 

[KevinJRogers]

I took a lot of positives from our play tonight. But I’m in no mood to discuss them right now.

This one really stung.

 

[Revfugee]

We definitely need to fill in the gaps. But what concerns me the most was the on-pitch argument between Freese and Martins. We can't afford that. Chemistry is essential on any team, but on one as thin as ours, it's doubly important.

If they are pros they will patch it up. Martins had every reason to be pissed at Matty. ETA Matty needs to won up to that one.

 

[ZYanksRule]

We definitely need to fill in the gaps. But what concerns me the most was the on-pitch argument between Freese and Martins. We can't afford that. Chemistry is essential on any team, but on one as thin as ours, it's doubly important.

I'm not so much worried about it -- as Revfugee they'll hash it out behind closed doors. I do NOT like seeing a player showing up his teammate like that in front of the cameras. Do it behind closed doors, but don't do that on the pitch.

 

[Fake Jew]

Freese not calling things out to his defenders is the difference between a great and elite keeper.

 

[moogoo]

If they are pros they will patch it up. Martins had every reason to be pissed at Matty. ETA Matty needs to won up to that one.

i don't agree it was freese's fault. The ball was not coming that fast and the attacker was right on martin's back. The safest play would have been for martins to play it back to freese (this is what i thought he was going to do.. a nice little header would have worked) or knocked it out of bounds. Instead, he motioned to freese, who was still a solid 10 yards away and the ball was bouncing slowly. attacker on his back and he did a pretty crappy job shielding it.

I chalk that one up to Martins making the wrong decision. I don't think it was coming into the box with enough pace and distance from the attacker for freese to come get it.

 

[LionNYC]

The last goal is completely on Martins. Just clear it out if there’s any confusion. Waste of a DP spot.

 

[moogoo]

crazy to score 3 and come out with nothing. the own goal happens so i'm not mad about it. more upset with how the 3rd goal happened. started with fernandez ball watching and then the rest of the team kind of ball watching.

why don't we ever get closer with 1v1 defending? can't just let an attacker turn and put in a cross. I'm sure they are scared to give up a PK, but just because you are defending tight doesn't mean you have to try to win the ball. just force them to go further from the goal or play it backward.

i'll never understand why so many professionals don't defend well.

i'm sure jansen is pissed. go up 3-1 and go home with nothing.

 

[mgarbowski]

Ugly defensive lapses by both teams. By my subjective measure only 1 goal by each team didn't feature a major error. So I'm still concerned about NYC's ability -- especially on the road -- to create when the defense doesn't hand over a gift. I agree with the consensus that we looked better on offense overall. It's the last third where we continue to struggle unless it's a fast break (which got us the PK) or a defensive lapse we don't necessarily force.

Even though came off a defensive gift the one touch 1-2 from Fernandez to Wolf on the latter's second goal was pretty to watch.

Roster is a disaster. There were only 8 on the bench even with 2 keepers. 2 of the non-keepers have 0 MLS minutes. Someone in chat (gbservis ?) noted every bench option for Pascal was a downgrade. Our guys were gassed at the end.

The 2023 parallels continue. Two wins at home. Two ties and two losses on the road. Incomplete roster with a bit of quality.
The 2023 season did not start really veering towards the ditch until around Game 10.

Theory: Martins had an Own Goal 2 games ago and has had some howlers. So maybe he was spooked by Keaton's tonight which is why he neither tried to soft touch it to Freese or kick it over the endline.

 

[Alex Da Silva]

crazy to score 3 and come out with nothing. the own goal happens so i'm not mad about it. more upset with how the 3rd goal happened. started with fernandez ball watching and then the rest of the team kind of ball watching.

why don't we ever get closer with 1v1 defending? can't just let an attacker turn and put in a cross. I'm sure they are scared to give up a PK, but just because you are defending tight doesn't mean you have to try to win the ball. just force them to go further from the goal or play it backward.

i'll never understand why so many professionals don't defend well.

i'm sure jansen is pissed. go up 3-1 and go home with nothing.

I disagree on the own goal, if you don't concede that you don't concede the rest, 2 down as a struggling team you don't make the comeback, getting a gifted goal to bring it within one gives belief to go and win the game, shifts momentum. It was a terrible own goal that totally shifted the momentum of the game.

 

[ZYanksRule]

Ugly defensive lapses by both teams. By my subjective measure only 1 goal by each team didn't feature a major error. So I'm still concerned about NYC's ability -- especially on the road -- to create when the defense doesn't hand over a gift. I agree with the consensus that we looked better on offense overall. It's the last third where we continue to struggle unless it's a fast break (which got us the PK) or a defensive lapse we don't necessarily force.

Even though came off a defensive gift the one touch 1-2 from Fernandez to Wolf on the latter's second goal was pretty to watch.

Roster is a disaster. There were only 8 on the bench even with 2 keepers. 2 of the non-keepers have 0 MLS minutes. Someone in chat (gbservis ?) noted every bench option for Pascal was a downgrade. Our guys were gassed at the end.

The 2023 parallels continue. Two wins at home. Two ties and two losses on the road. Incomplete roster with a bit of quality.
The 2023 season did not start really veering towards the ditch until around Game 10.

Theory: Martins had an Own Goal 2 games ago and has had some howlers. So maybe he was spooked by Keaton's tonight which is why he neither tried to soft touch it to Freese or kick it over the endline.

We also have a habit this year of not being able to close out games. Leading 3-1 in the 2nd half, that game has to be closed out.

I'm not even that upset by this result -- this time of year, I care far more about process than results. And despite some late-game issues, our process has been much better than expected.

 

[moogoo]

I disagree on the own goal, if you don't concede that you don't concede the rest, 2 down as a struggling team you don't make the comeback, getting a gifted goal to bring it within one gives belief to go and win the game, shifts momentum. It was a terrible own goal that totally shifted the momentum of the game.

of course own goals are terrible. but they happen and that's just bad luck. just saying it's difficult to be angry at parks for it. if anything, the lead up to that attack should have been defended better. Haak stepping out of the CB when he should have seen shore going to press the same guy. They both miss and now there's a gaping hole. had Haak stayed in his position, he would have been able to cover and hopefully contain saba. that likely would have prevented the own goal. but Haak is no CB and likely made the wrong decision due to his inexperience there.

 

[KevinJRogers]

If they are pros they will patch it up. Martins had every reason to be pissed at Matty. ETA Matty needs to won up to that one.

I'm not so much worried about it -- as Revfugee they'll hash it out behind closed doors. I do NOT like seeing a player showing up his teammate like that in front of the cameras. Do it behind closed doors, but don't do that on the pitch.

I agree with both of these, to a point. But I was talking about the fact it happened at all. I've never seen an on-field argument when there wasn't a preexisting beef to fuel it. That worries me.

I also happen to agree with mgarbowski -- I thought Martins should have passed back to Matt or slipped it safely over the by-line rather than wait for Freese to come and get it. We'd seen a couple balls sent over the end line in less challenging circumstances, which leads me to believe Pascal wants the ball ushered out safely when there's any doubt to begin with.

Anyway, it was a really good performance we squandered today. Stings. But the consensus is spot on: we're incomplete, and until we get more quality and more depth, we're winning on clouds and vapor, and losing the same way.

 

[FootyLovin]

We had 2 howlers. They had 2.5 howlers (giving a .5 for the PK giveaway). Credit to team for putting Atlanta into the spots to give up those howlers and for executing when the moments came.

But as mgarbowski said, our goals didn't come off of well constructed offense. I remember a few years ago a clip being passed around here of a goal that started up the right side, cycled back to defense, came back up the left, made it into the middle for an ultimately pretty direct easy placed goal. It had some ridiculous number of touches and I think all but 1 player touched during the sequence. We are showing more and more of the ability to work the ball around, but not the final 2-3 passes against a set defense to close the deal.

OTOH, Wolf super composed on his first goal. Martinez PKs like a boss. Fernandez to Wolf was very nicely precise.

Conclusion. Sign some players.

 

[Revfugee]

If they are pros they will patch it up. Martins had every reason to be pissed at Matty.

i don't agree it was freese's fault. The ball was not coming that fast and the attacker was right on martin's back. The safest play would have been for martins to play it back to freese (this is what i thought he was going to do.. a nice little header would have worked) or knocked it out of bounds. Instead, he motioned to freese, who was still a solid 10 yards away and the ball was bouncing slowly. attacker on his back and he did a pretty crappy job shielding it.

I chalk that one up to Martins making the wrong decision. I don't think it was coming into the box with enough pace and distance from the attacker for freese to come get it.

Martins should not have had to deal with the ball at all. Matty hestitated, sent mixed signals and caused Martins to make a choice: shield the ball by leaning in to the attacker or address the ball and hoof it out.

In lower levels it’s a no brainer to hoof it out. In a pro system that emphasizes playing out of the back(like ours), the default is to ply the ball and not surrender a corner.

As it turned out both players made the wrong choice but the keeper has the best view and needs to make sure Martins knows he’s not coming if he isn’t.

As the play unfolded my initial reaction
was “why isn’t Matty coming out for that?” then “WTF Matty” then “holy shit Diego, hoof it” in that order. By which time it was really too late.

My bigger point, having slept on it is that we are unlikely to see the combination of gaffes from three of our best players in a single game again.

I was far more upset that O’Toole let himself get out maneuvered by Miggy on that header. That kind of thing is much more likely to plague us again as the season goes on.

ATLs first goal was just great ball movement rendering our guys NPCs. Good teams do that. Sometimes we do that.

On the upside, nice to see Wolf get the monkey off his back. Alonso is still a beast. Julian continues to show progress and I’m convinced he’s gonna turn into a deadly set piece weapon. And aside from the OG Keaton was everywhere and really effective.

Tl/dr if we play this way in general we’ll be OK. Two howlers in a single match is an outlier.

And we are screwed if Maxi, Keaton, Alonso or yes, Martins, gets injured. Still paper thin.

 

[moogoo]

Martins should not have had to deal with the ball at all. Matty hestitated, sent mixed signals and caused Martins to make a choice: shield the ball by leaning in to the attacker or address the ball and hoof it out.

In lower levels it’s a no brainer to hoof it out. In a pro system that emphasizes playing out of the back(like ours), the default is to ply the ball and not surrender a corner.

As it turned out both players made the wrong choice but the keeper has the best view and needs to make sure Martins knows he’s not coming if he isn’t.

As the play unfolded my initial reaction
was “why isn’t Matty coming out for that?” then “WTF Matty” then “holy shit Diego, hoof it” in that order. By which time it was really too late.

My bigger point, having slept on it is that we are unlikely to see the combination of gaffes from three of our best players in a single game again.

I was far more upset that O’Toole let himself get out maneuvered by Miggy on that header. That kind of thing is much more likely to plague us again as the season goes on.

ATLs first goal was just great ball movement rendering our guys NPCs. Good teams do that. Sometimes we do that.

On the upside, nice to see Wolf get the monkey off his back. Alonso is still a beast. Julian continues to show progress and I’m convinced he’s gonna turn into a deadly set piece weapon. And aside from the OG Keaton was everywhere and really effective.

Tl/dr if we play this way in general we’ll be OK. Two howlers in a single match is an outlier.

And we are screwed if Maxi, Keaton, Alonso or yes, Martins, gets injured. Still paper thin.

We aren't gonna agree on this and that's ok. To me, freese stays on his line until martins starts waving him to come collect. At most, he offers himself as an option but he didn't come rushing out to collect until martins waved him to. Freese had zero chance of getting that ball from where he was positioned.

Anyway, we need more players. That we can definitely agree on.