MLS - September 11 - New England (Away)

Just came here to say Parks has become one of our best players, along with Taty. Both have become fundamental cogs for the system. Everything positive seemed to be going through them tonight. Talles is good at protecting the ball, but I have no idea how he can ever have been a winger. Alfredo continues to disappoint, same as Malte.
 
I made it through the first half and had a dinner with the parents. Wasn’t expecting much tonight. We still have a game in hand and only 1 point behind Orlando. Next two games are winnable. Not saying they’re must wins but close to it.
I remember the sentiment on the forum that getting 2 points on the road against Chicago and Toronto was okay.
Looking at 2 points from the last seven road games makes it a little harder to feel okay about those draws.
Think that the Best Team in MLS label was a bit premature.
Looking forward to getting back in the W column Tuesday.
 
Maybe I'm crazy, but considering the opponent I didn't think we played that poorly. They're really good at Gillette. We didn't boss the game by any stretch, but we were pretty good all things considered. I thought Anton was horrible tonight -- he got into plenty of good positions, but so many bad passes, I really liked the early returns from the Taty, Thiago, Santi, Talles group before he went down with injury -- hope it's not too bad, because I'd like to see that again. We were playing some really fun stuff before Santi went down with the apparent hamstring injury.

Unfortunate to lose. Alfredo looked so clumsy on that turf. Also no Taty next game due to accumulation, so that'll be interesting against Dallas. Maybe Thiago can start up top and Isi, Maxi, Medina so we get some fresh legs with such a short turnaround.
 
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I made it through the first half and had a dinner with the parents. Wasn’t expecting much tonight. We still have a game in hand and only 1 point behind Orlando. Next two games are winnable. Not saying they’re must wins but close to it.

well Nashville just went and won on the road. Seven points behind them now.
 
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well Nashville just went and won on the road. Seven points behind them now.
...With a game in hand. IF we win that game in hand (very likely as it's Dallas at home) and the nashville game when they play us at our home, that's only 1 point behind. Let's see what happens. Top 3 is still very much a possibility, even if top 2 seems a bit out of reach.
 
NYCFC has allowed more than one goal just 8 times this year.
NYC has managed just one result - a draw - in those 8 games.
Calllens was missing for 5 of the 8 games in which it allowed >1 opposition goal.
Callens also missed 8 games overall.
NYCFC's record with Callens out is 2-5-1.
Is there any player more important to NYCFC than Callens? The team has lost 8 games and he was a DNP for 5 of them.
Teams don't score on NYCFC when he plays, and the team rarely loses when he plays.
Remember a few weeks ago someone said the club is not that high on Callens? Do we believe that? If so, the club is stupid.

Speaking of which: Why the hell does CONMEBOL play games later in the window than any other confed such that it's impossible for players to make club games the next weekend? Why is that even allowed? CONMEBOL played games Sunday 9/5, same as CAF, UEFA and CONCACAF. The latter 2 finished on Wednesday 9/8, CAF was done by Monday 9/6. The AFC was finished Tuesday 9/7. Yet CONMEBOL played its last set of 5 games on Thursday night 9/9. The official FIFA calendar says CONMEBOL's window ended on Tuesday 9/7. At worst, they should have been done by Wednesday like everyone else. F&ck CONMEBOL. They only have 10 damn teams, so their scheduling should be easier than any other Confed.

By the way, Nashville also allowed 2 or more goals in just 8 games, yet their record in those is 2-2-4 (10 points). Is it because they score more than NYCFC? No. Both have scored same number of goals & NAS has played one extra game (so slightly lower G/Gm). NYCFC's record in close games is poor and the ratio of points to goal differential is abysmal. NYCFC has been extraordinarily unlucky getting results in 2021. Just makes it that much more frustrating.

NYCFC finally has someone score besides Taty after 530 minutes and he gets hurt 5 minutes later. Completely changed the game, when already missing 2 players due to infractions and another was red-carded this game on a pair of yellows. I swear, this team needs to do better with adversity but it also has not caught a break all year. The one arguably lucky win was at LAFC. Every other close or flukey result has gone the wrong way.

The previous non-Castellanos goal was also by Rodriguez against Toronto, and they were easily the 2 prettiest NYCFC team goals all year, and probably top 5 or 10 in MLS. This club is capable of so much and they need to both catch a few breaks and start performing more consistently. As in, please show us something, anything, Mr. Talles Magno, and where did the Thiago of his first 4-5 games disappear to?

NYCFC has an opponent's H/A PPG to date of 1.43. That is harder than all but 5 teams, and those teams are terrible, with PPGs of 1.17 or lower.
NYCFC's remaining opp's H/A PPG is 1.10. Easiest in the league. No excuse for the team not to compile points from here on in.
 
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NYCFC has allowed more than one goal just 8 times this year.
NYC has managed just one result - a draw - in those 8 games.
Calllens was missing for 5 of the 8 games in which it allowed >1 opposition goal.
Callens also missed 8 games overall.
NYCFC's record with Callens out is 2-5-1.
Is there any player more important to NYCFC than Callens? The team has lost 8 games and he was a DNP for 5 of them.
Teams don't score on NYCFC when he plays, and the team rarely loses when he plays.
Remember a few weeks ago someone said the club is not that high on Callens? Do we believe that? If so, the club is stupid.

Speaking of which: Why the hell does CONMEBOL play games later in the window than any other confed such that it's impossible for players to make club games the next weekend? Why is that even allowed? CONMEBOL played games Sunday 9/5, same as CAF, UEFA and CONCACAF. The latter 2 finished on Wednesday 9/8, CAF was done by Monday 9/6. The AFC was finished Tuesday 9/7. Yet CONMEBOL played its last set of 5 games on Thursday night 9/9. The official FIFA calendar says CONMEBOL's window ended on Tuesday 9/7. At worst, they should have been done by Wednesday like everyone else. F&ck CONMEBOL. They only have 10 damn teams, so their scheduling should be easier than any other Confed.

By the way, Nashville also allowed 2 or more goals in just 8 games, yet their record in those is 2-2-4 (10 points). Is it because they score more than NYCFC? No. Both have scored same number of goals & NAS has played one extra game (so slightly lower G/Gm). NYCFC's record in close games is poor and the ratio of points to goal differential is abysmal. NYCFC has been extraordinarily unlucky getting results in 2021. Just makes it that much more frustrating.

NYCFC finally has someone score besides Taty after 530 minutes and he gets hurt 5 minutes later. Completely changed the game, when already missing 2 players due to infractions and another was red-carded this game on a pair of yellows. I swear, this team needs to do better with adversity but it also has not caught a break all year. The one arguably lucky win was at LAFC. Every other close or flukey result has gone the wrong way.

The previous non-Castellanos goal was also by Rodriguez against Toronto, and they were easily the 2 prettiest NYCFC team goals all year, and probably top 5 or 10 in MLS. This club is capable of so much and they need to both catch a few breaks and start performing more consistently. As in, please show us something, anything, Mr. Talles Magno, and where did the Thiago of his first 4-5 games disappear to?

NYCFC has an opponent's H/A PPG to date of 1.43. That is harder than all but 5 teams, and those teams are terrible, with PPGs of 1.17 or lower.
NYCFC's remaining opp's H/A PPG is 1.10. Easiest in the league. No excuse for the team not to compile points from here on in.

This is a phenomenal breakdown. It has felt like we are so much better than the results, and cool to see that some of the data bears that out. It's why some of us are so bullish on their run-in. Even with the fixture congestion, it really seems likely that they can get on a run here down the stretch.

Really hoping Santi is OK. He's a really good player and will fit in very nicely as the No. 10 if Maxi leaves after the season as we all expect.
 
Missed the game (at a birthday party). Is Santi injury bad? What happened
 
Missed the game (at a birthday party). Is Santi injury bad? What happened

no details. it was a non-contact injury and he was able to walk off the field on his own with no additional help. So, most likely he pulled/strained his hamstring with at worst a very minor tear. recovery time should be a week or two. We'll know more in the preview for dallas I bet.
 
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NYCFC has allowed more than one goal just 8 times this year.
NYC has managed just one result - a draw - in those 8 games.
Calllens was missing for 5 of the 8 games in which it allowed >1 opposition goal.
Callens also missed 8 games overall.
NYCFC's record with Callens out is 2-5-1.
Is there any player more important to NYCFC than Callens? The team has lost 8 games and he was a DNP for 5 of them.
Teams don't score on NYCFC when he plays, and the team rarely loses when he plays.
Remember a few weeks ago someone said the club is not that high on Callens? Do we believe that? If so, the club is stupid.

Speaking of which: Why the hell does CONMEBOL play games later in the window than any other confed such that it's impossible for players to make club games the next weekend? Why is that even allowed? CONMEBOL played games Sunday 9/5, same as CAF, UEFA and CONCACAF. The latter 2 finished on Wednesday 9/8, CAF was done by Monday 9/6. The AFC was finished Tuesday 9/7. Yet CONMEBOL played its last set of 5 games on Thursday night 9/9. The official FIFA calendar says CONMEBOL's window ended on Tuesday 9/7. At worst, they should have been done by Wednesday like everyone else. F&ck CONMEBOL. They only have 10 damn teams, so their scheduling should be easier than any other Confed.

By the way, Nashville also allowed 2 or more goals in just 8 games, yet their record in those is 2-2-4 (10 points). Is it because they score more than NYCFC? No. Both have scored same number of goals & NAS has played one extra game (so slightly lower G/Gm). NYCFC's record in close games is poor and the ratio of points to goal differential is abysmal. NYCFC has been extraordinarily unlucky getting results in 2021. Just makes it that much more frustrating.

NYCFC finally has someone score besides Taty after 530 minutes and he gets hurt 5 minutes later. Completely changed the game, when already missing 2 players due to infractions and another was red-carded this game on a pair of yellows. I swear, this team needs to do better with adversity but it also has not caught a break all year. The one arguably lucky win was at LAFC. Every other close or flukey result has gone the wrong way.

The previous non-Castellanos goal was also by Rodriguez against Toronto, and they were easily the 2 prettiest NYCFC team goals all year, and probably top 5 or 10 in MLS. This club is capable of so much and they need to both catch a few breaks and start performing more consistently. As in, please show us something, anything, Mr. Talles Magno, and where did the Thiago of his first 4-5 games disappear to?

NYCFC has an opponent's H/A PPG to date of 1.43. That is harder than all but 5 teams, and those teams are terrible, with PPGs of 1.17 or lower.
NYCFC's remaining opp's H/A PPG is 1.10. Easiest in the league. No excuse for the team not to compile points from here on in.
More on the discussion of luck, Sean John had two fantastic saves this match that kept this a one-goal game. Probably two of his best saves all season long. Those saves essentially did nothing from a points perspective.

On the flip side, he's had several blunders in other games that ultimately led to a loss of points. Replace those blunders with these two saves, and things would be looking better from a total points perspective.
 
More on the discussion of luck, Sean John had two fantastic saves this match that kept this a one-goal game. Probably two of his best saves all season long. Those saves essentially did nothing from a points perspective.

On the flip side, he's had several blunders in other games that ultimately led to a loss of points. Replace those blunders with these two saves, and things would be looking better from a total points perspective.
There's a longstanding refrain among fans and even players/managers of struggling teams in baseball: when we hit we don't pitch, and when we pitch we don't hit. Confirmation bias aside (is that really what's happening overall), I always thought this has limited meaning, because if it is true and if you're losing, it means your opponents have the same problem, but do both just a smidge better.
But for NYCFC, the problem is when we score we defend well, and when lose we fail just slightly on one or both sides such that we deserve to have won and drawn more of those games than we have.

We allowed exactly 2 goals in 6 games. We average 1.72 G/Gm, yet have 1 draw and 5 losses when we concede twice. We should at least have 3-4 draws in those games, and maybe a win.

NYCFC scored 14 combined goals in 3 games, while conceding 1 goal cumulative in those 3 games.

We scored 1 goal 10 times, and earn clean sheets at a 36% rate, yet we have only 2 wins when scoring once, plus 2 draws. 3 -4 wins and 1-2 draws would be "fair."

Of course you cannot expect everything to fall exactly on the mean. But NYCFC has almost everything falling in the same direction away from the mean.

I'll also concede this. In the last 4-5 weeks NYCFC is in a slump, and not playing as well as they were before August. But even there they probably deserve better than the 2-3-2 record, plus Tigres loss, in that period.
 
There's a longstanding refrain among fans and even players/managers of struggling teams in baseball: when we hit we don't pitch, and when we pitch we don't hit. Confirmation bias aside (is that really what's happening overall), I always thought this has limited meaning, because if it is true and if you're losing, it means your opponents have the same problem, but do both just a smidge better.
But for NYCFC, the problem is when we score we defend well, and when lose we fail just slightly on one or both sides such that we deserve to have won and drawn more of those games than we have.

We allowed exactly 2 goals in 6 games. We average 1.72 G/Gm, yet have 1 draw and 5 losses when we concede twice. We should at least have 3-4 draws in those games, and maybe a win.

NYCFC scored 14 combined goals in 3 games, while conceding 1 goal cumulative in those 3 games.

We scored 1 goal 10 times, and earn clean sheets at a 36% rate, yet we have only 2 wins when scoring once, plus 2 draws. 3 -4 wins and 1-2 draws would be "fair."

Of course you cannot expect everything to fall exactly on the mean. But NYCFC has almost everything falling in the same direction away from the mean.

I'll also concede this. In the last 4-5 weeks NYCFC is in a slump, and not playing as well as they were before August. But even there they probably deserve better than the 2-3-2 record, plus Tigres loss, in that period.
I admire the numbers people who break down the game with statistics as I have a phobia in that department. It is an interesting way to look at the game. My way is not so interesting as the way I look at the reason this team is dropping points is that they simply haven’t scored more or as many goals than their opponents 8 times this season for zero out of a possible 24 points. The numbers that are simple enough for me to examine: NYCFC has a plus 14 goal differential while Orlando, ahead of us in the standings, has plus 4. (I understand they have played one more match but even a W for the game in hand we’d still be behind them) They’ve done better with less? Play better over the full 90+?

Is the problem with NYCFC inefficiency? Bad luck? Missing that je ne sais quoi?