My .02 After The Latest Redbull Game

[S1ARK5]

That was a painful loss. No other way to put it. And you know what, I am ok with that loss because, let's be real here, the Redbull are clearly the better team, best team in NY this year. No shame in admitting it, the sooner we realize our problems the sooner we can fix them. The Redbulls clearly look like a team that has been playing for a few years together and we clearly need better players in key positions and need more time to gel. With that said, here are my thoughts on yesterday's game.

1. First and foremost, I am really looking forward to not having to watch the following players on the pitch for us start next year: Grabavoy, Brovsky, Wingert. Brovsky takes the cake. He is absolutely one of the worst soccer players I have ever seen in my life. As soon as he came in for Wingert, I said oh shit, no way, we are screwed. Mind you, I don't think much of Wingert either but Brovsky is just that bad. So bad that he was subbed off 30 minutes or so after coming on. Goes to show you. Grabavoy, my goodness, very disappointed in him, I thought he was a decent MLS mid but like I said all of these three scrubs will be playing with the Cosmos or somewhere in the GREAT NASL maybe as soon as next year.
2. I thought Kreis made a huge mistake subbing out Ballouchy. I like bringing in Poku, but he should have subbed out Grabavoy. Ballouchy was one of only two or three players that was handling the redbull pressure decently. The person you take out is Grabavoy and put Poku up top and Mix and Ballouchy on the wing. BAD MOVE by Kreis.
3. I mean let's be real, we do not have the horses as of yet to compete against a good Redbull team. Our midfield play is atrocious. We couldn't string two passes together in the second half. Our backline were playing scared and kicking the ball upfield any chance they get instead of trying to build something from the back.
4. Calle - in limited minutes he looked much better then any fullback we have had so far this year. I hope he is truly healthy and can stay that way. He is a big improvement over Brovsky, again not saying much I get it, but still, I think if he is healthy, and we have Hernandez, Facey, Calle and Iraola. That is a big improvement.
5. Speaking of which, when is Iraola coming, end of July????? Let's hope.
6. Yesterday's loss was painful no doubt but we still have plenty of time and a crappy eastern conference to make a run in July and August, especially considering this team will look much different at that time.

Overall, we just aren't a good team right now. To me a successful team has the following: a very good midfield and great movement/continuity, obviously among other things, but to me those are most important. We saw yesterday a midfield of Dax, Sacha, Grella, dominate even BWP was getting into the mix.

Last thing, I really fucking hate the redbulls, it's ON, see you next time and we will see in the coming years, who really will own the city on the pitch.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

I agree with all of this. Well said.

 

[The Toe]

Iraola is here the 12th for his debut. Wouldn't be surprised to see him training soon.

Agree about Grabavoy. He's kind of one of those "does a bit of everything and busts his ass" kind of players, but it's just not enough. We need guys that are proficient in at least one area. We're going to have quite the conundrum at Midfield when Pirlo and Lamps arrive and Shelton is healthy. That'll give us Mix, Jacobson, Lamps, Pirlo, Shelton and Poku, who should be the main 6. Can you play 5 of them all game with one competent sub? Thankfully, I think one of the older guys can be taken off for Poku almost every game to counter their age/fitness, though they both should be fine. This should be a fun summer, even if it's spent mostly sorting everything out. We'll finally have depth, and quality depth at that.

 

[sbrylski]

First and foremost, I am really looking forward to not having to watch the following players on the pitch for us start next year: Grabavoy, Brovsky, Wingert. Brovsky takes the cake. He is absolutely one of the worst soccer players I have ever seen in my life. As soon as he came in for Wingert, I said oh shit, no way, we are screwed. Mind you, I don't think much of Wingert either but Brovsky is just that bad. So bad that he was subbed off 30 minutes or so after coming on. Goes to show you. Grabavoy, my goodness, very disappointed in him, I thought he was a decent MLS mid but like I said all of these three scrubs will be playing with the Cosmos or somewhere in the GREAT NASL maybe as soon as next year.

And you could probably add a few more guys to this list. It's a good thing that CFG already seems to be taking over for personnel decisions. The are going to go thru a bit of a learning curve when putting together an MLS team, but I'm sure they'll pick up the right values quickly. I'm still convinced that Kreis can be a good manager, but he needs to already have the right toolkit in place.

thought Kreis made a huge mistake subbing out Ballouchy. I like bringing in Poku, but he should have subbed out Grabavoy. Ballouchy was one of only two or three players that was handling the redbull pressure decently. The person you take out is Grabavoy and put Poku up top and Mix and Ballouchy on the wing. BAD MOVE by Kreis.

There isn't a ton of people praising Ballouchy on this board, but his level of criticism around here has dropped dramatically. He's the only MLS veteran we picked up in the offseason that still has some positive plays left in him. I think he picked up some chemistry with Mix and Villa much faster than some of the other guys, who are still stuck playing too many passes laterally or backward.

I agree that the substitutes were bad in this game, probably worse than the Cosmos game considering the context, but...

I mean let's be real, we do not have the horses as of yet to compete against a good Redbull team. Our midfield play is atrocious. We couldn't string two passes together in the second half. Our backline were playing scared and kicking the ball upfield any chance they get instead of trying to build something from the back.

...any sub is still going to look stupid because we still aren't working with much talent. I want to see Kreis with an actual complete roster before I anoint or damn him.

Calle - in limited minutes he looked much better then any fullback we have had so far this year. I hope he is truly healthy and can stay that way. He is a big improvement over Brovsky, again not saying much I get it, but still, I think if he is healthy, and we have Hernandez, Facey, Calle and Iraola. That is a big improvement.

I thought Calle disappeared a little during the game, but I suppose that's better than getting your name called for shitty plays. I think Calle's injury really hurt him, he'll have the next ~3 games to find a role on this team or get pushed out by the reinforcements with the rest of the fray.

I think he'll be fine as a bench sub for LB (behind Angelino) or LM if needed this year, but the team may have also already decided to send him back after his loan ends this year (otherwise he will cost a good chunk of allocation money to remain a non-DP), and therefore invest less time in him moving forward.

Speaking of which, when is Iraola coming, end of July????? Let's hope.

July 12, with Lampard! It was announced again at the game Sunday. I don't believe we have Angelino's start date confirmed yet, however.

Yesterday's loss was painful no doubt but we still have plenty of time and a crappy eastern conference to make a run in July and August, especially considering this team will look much different at that time.

True, but we are running out of time. We don't have to play like a top of the table team, but we have to stop playing like the dregs. Another 3-4 game losing streak at any time could be a deathblow.

 

[Seth]

That was a painful loss. No other way to put it. And you know what, I am ok with that loss because, let's be real here, the Redbull are clearly the better team, best team in NY this year. No shame in admitting it, the sooner we realize our problems the sooner we can fix them. The Redbulls clearly look like a team that has been playing for a few years together and we clearly need better players in key positions and need more time to gel. With that said, here are my thoughts on yesterday's game.

1. First and foremost, I am really looking forward to not having to watch the following players on the pitch for us start next year: Grabavoy, Brovsky, Wingert. Brovsky takes the cake. He is absolutely one of the worst soccer players I have ever seen in my life. As soon as he came in for Wingert, I said oh shit, no way, we are screwed. Mind you, I don't think much of Wingert either but Brovsky is just that bad. So bad that he was subbed off 30 minutes or so after coming on. Goes to show you. Grabavoy, my goodness, very disappointed in him, I thought he was a decent MLS mid but like I said all of these three scrubs will be playing with the Cosmos or somewhere in the GREAT NASL maybe as soon as next year.
2. I thought Kreis made a huge mistake subbing out Ballouchy. I like bringing in Poku, but he should have subbed out Grabavoy. Ballouchy was one of only two or three players that was handling the redbull pressure decently. The person you take out is Grabavoy and put Poku up top and Mix and Ballouchy on the wing. BAD MOVE by Kreis.
3. I mean let's be real, we do not have the horses as of yet to compete against a good Redbull team. Our midfield play is atrocious. We couldn't string two passes together in the second half. Our backline were playing scared and kicking the ball upfield any chance they get instead of trying to build something from the back.
4. Calle - in limited minutes he looked much better then any fullback we have had so far this year. I hope he is truly healthy and can stay that way. He is a big improvement over Brovsky, again not saying much I get it, but still, I think if he is healthy, and we have Hernandez, Facey, Calle and Iraola. That is a big improvement.
5. Speaking of which, when is Iraola coming, end of July????? Let's hope.
6. Yesterday's loss was painful no doubt but we still have plenty of time and a crappy eastern conference to make a run in July and August, especially considering this team will look much different at that time.

Overall, we just aren't a good team right now. To me a successful team has the following: a very good midfield and great movement/continuity, obviously among other things, but to me those are most important. We saw yesterday a midfield of Dax, Sacha, Grella, dominate even BWP was getting into the mix.

Last thing, I really fucking hate the redbulls, it's ON, see you next time and we will see in the coming years, who really will own the city on the pitch.

In no particular order:

3. Totally agree. While I love our team we're just not as good as the Red Bulls right now. Our recent run of good play shows that we *can* play well and beat anyone on a given day but on average we're just not that good. Yet.

5. Supposedly Iraola will play, with Lampard, on July 12th vs Toronto. At least that's what they put up on the screen at the stadium.

1. I'm not a Brovsky hater, and I've seen him make some great plays even when he's had bad games, but he seemed a bit out of it yesterday. And that he was subbed off makes me wonder if he's got some sort of injury that was bothering him. Was definitely weird to sub him off after only half an hour or so. But just because it was odd doesn't necessarily mean Kreis is a dimwit, just that we may not have all the info on this. So yeah, not a Kreis hater either I suppose, and I'm hoping in the middle of our third season we're all singing his praises as we head towards our first cup. Or, ya know, we could be looking for a new coach instead. I'm willing to wait and see though.

 

[S1ARK5]

And you could probably add a few more guys to this list. It's a good thing that CFG already seems to be taking over for personnel decisions. The are going to go thru a bit of a learning curve when putting together an MLS team, but I'm sure they'll pick up the right values quickly. I'm still convinced that Kreis can be a good manager, but he needs to already have the right toolkit in place.



There isn't a ton of people praising Ballouchy on this board, but his level of criticism around here has dropped dramatically. He's the only MLS veteran we picked up in the offseason that still has some positive plays left in him. I think he picked up some chemistry with Mix and Villa much faster than some of the other guys, who are still stuck playing too many passes laterally or backward.

I agree that the substitutes were bad in this game, probably worse than the Cosmos game considering the context, but...



...any sub is still going to look stupid because we still aren't working with much talent. I want to see Kreis with an actual complete roster before I anoint or damn him.



I thought Calle disappeared a little during the game, but I suppose that's better than getting your name called for shitty plays. I think Calle's injury really hurt him, he'll have the next ~3 games to find a role on this team or get pushed out by the reinforcements with the rest of the fray.

I think he'll be fine as a bench sub for LB (behind Angelino) or LM if needed this year, but the team may have also already decided to send him back after his loan ends this year (otherwise he will cost a good chunk of allocation money to remain a non-DP), and therefore invest less time in him moving forward.



July 12, with Lampard! It was announced again at the game Sunday. I don't believe we have Angelino's start date confirmed yet, however.



True, but we are running out of time. We don't have to play like a top of the table team, but we have to stop playing like the dregs. Another 3-4 game losing streak at any time could be a deathblow.

I agree with a lot of your responses. I hope July 12th is the date. But yea it still kinda early believe me, a lot can change in a span of 3-5 games but you are right. If this leads to another 5-6 games of losing then it will start to look bleak for this year.

and by no means am I saying Kreis is a bad manager but his subbing has been subpar so far and that is fine. He is not working with much and I am a big J.Kreis fan. I think with an offseason or two of his own, a real offseason that doesn't have him look at MLS scrubs that teams didn't want, and then we can properly judge him. He is a good manager, one of the better ones in this league and I wouldn't trade him for anyone really.

 

[S1ARK5]

In no particular order:

3. Totally agree. While I love our team we're just not as good as the Red Bulls right now. Our recent run of good play shows that we *can* play well and beat anyone on a given day but on average we're just not that good. Yet.

5. Supposedly Iraola will play, with Lampard, on July 12th vs Toronto. At least that's what they put up on the screen at the stadium.

1. I'm not a Brovsky hater, and I've seen him make some great plays even when he's had bad games, but he seemed a bit out of it yesterday. And that he was subbed off makes me wonder if he's got some sort of injury that was bothering him. Was definitely weird to sub him off after only half an hour or so. But just because it was odd doesn't necessarily mean Kreis is a dimwit, just that we may not have all the info on this. So yeah, not a Kreis hater either I suppose, and I'm hoping in the middle of our third season we're all singing his praises as we head towards our first cup. Or, ya know, we could be looking for a new coach instead. I'm willing to wait and see though.

exactly right, I think Kreis is the right man for this job and he will show it in the coming year or two when he has a real offseason or two to work with.

 

[beaucoup_movement]

Ballouchy always gets subbed off. Could just be a fitness thing, Kreis might feel like he can't go a full 90. He's one of the more composed players on the ball so it's not that.

The defense is useless. Just bad players who won't be around in future years. Maybe future weeks in the case of JB.

 

[BxLio91]

Our FBs are awful. Hernandez and Facey can't defend against 6 guys by themselves. Thank those 2, the post and BWP being a terrible finisher for the result only being 3-1. AND Lloyd Sam didn't even play.

 

[Tiger Jones]

All well said, this is going to be a VERY different team in a few weeks so let's just hold our hats and hope we can pull up a few more points so we're not completely out of it by the time the new players come and get situated.

 

[GD10]

Facey is young and its his first season as a pro I guarantee you after the season is over his performances will have greatly improved.

 

[D_RoyJenkins]

I knew we were fucked when Wingert had to come off. It'd never a good thing when you have to make a defensive sub

 

[Davo15]

Some great points but one glaring error. I can concede that they are currently the better team than us. But best team in NY? You have to be in NY to qualify as that.

 

[NYCFCFan10]

3. I mean let's be real, we do not have the horses as of yet to compete against a good Redbull team. Our midfield play is atrocious. We couldn't string two passes together in the second half. Our backline were playing scared and kicking the ball upfield any chance they get instead of trying to build something from the back.

It's true.

I feel we see we're signing Pirlo, Lampard, and Iraola and we have Villa and Mix and we think: "We must be the greatest team in the league!"

But we don't have the majority of those guys yet. And over in Jersey, they're at a 20 year high in their organization. 2 years ago winning the Supporters Shield and last year barely losing the Eastern Conference Finals.

They obviously get up for this game, too. Its a tough ask for our 6 month old squad with 1 DP on the books right now. I think everyone understands the weaknesses in our squad and now we just need transfer windows to fix them.

 

[jaycrewz]

Brovsky = trash. How as a defender, do you only complete 50% of your passes? Id expect goal keepers to have such low percentages.

 

[jaycrewz]

And we need Iraola badly. This defense needs some legitimate skill and leadership to bring things together. Hopefully one guy can turn things around back there. I mean...we see how terrible Brazil and PSG were in the past year when Thiago Silva doesnt play in the back line.

Maybe Iraola can be our defensive talisman.

 

[Konrad]

I knew we were fucked when Wingert had to come off. It'd never a good thing when you have to make a defensive sub

Two defensive subs.................

 

[S1ARK5]

Some great points but one glaring error. I can concede that they are currently the better team than us. But best team in NY? You have to be in NY to qualify as that.

Hahaha...ok listen I am all for trashing the redbulls but to me, and maybe its just me, but the whole playing in NJ, not really a NY team, to me anyways doesn't hold much gravitas so to speak. But please don't let me stop you or anyone else wanting to pile on into that terrible franchise.

 

[S1ARK5]

Brovsky = trash. How as a defender, do you only complete 50% of your passes? Id expect goal keepers to have such low percentages.

As stated above, Brovsky is one of the worst so called "pro" soccer players I have ever seen in my life. EVER!

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

As stated above, Brovsky is one of the worst so called "pro" soccer players I have ever seen in my life. EVER!

Let me direct you to number 11.