New England - Postmatch

[Midas Mulligan]

The wee man runs around like a headless chicken sometimes, so his energy was useful and he found himself at the base and top of the midfield making some nice link up plays.

I dashed from the airport to make this game and I shouldn't have. Should have just gone to the pub.

How is Mata a wee man? I vehemently disagree with your characterization of his performance, but that’s no surprise to you or me. I do agree he made some nice link up plays, but I think you undersell his performance about 3 fold.

That performance right there is why a U3 should never, ever play for us. Not before and certainly not now that there is hard evidence from 2 additional players that they are light years beyond him.

As for the last part, I was in the same position and opted for my home bar. Kudos to me. I assume you agree. I can’t imagine how annoyed I’d have been to have gone straight from the airport to that hot mess.

 

[Keith Putnam]

We no longer have an identity.

Sure we do. It's "create our way into the final third, then fail, give up a garbage goal and lose".

 

[canchon]

One final thing, who told the team to send in blindless cross after cross? Every single one was a flat out easy clearance for NE or no one was there. Shameful.

Also, doing something with their 14 (?) corners rather than lazily sending the ball in for an easy header out would have been nice. Shameful. Wasn’t Dome Pep’s set play guy? Has NYCFC scored on a corner since he got here?

 

[canchon]

Sure we do. It's "create our way into the final third, then fail, give up a garbage goal and lose".

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Villa had a quiet match

Think he was clearly bad, my dude. You credit him too much.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

One final thing, who told the team to send in blindless cross after cross? Every single one was a flat out easy clearance for NE or no one was there. Shameful.

Also, doing something with their 14 (?) crosses rather than lazily sending the ball in for an easy header out would have been nice. Shameful. Wasn’t Dome Pep’s set play guy? Has NYCFC scored on a corner since he got here?

You weren’t aware we start Sweat at fullback? Have you missed 18 months of games?

 

[LionNYC]

 

[Shwafta]

NE get their first win in two months
NYCFC lose their first home game of the season
NYCFC lose back-to-back for the first time in over two years

bad day.

1. What the fuck is up with our finishing? There were a good 15+ shots and crosses that could have been DEADLY back in march. Villa had so many screamers, Mata tries to shoot in the beginning and absolutely fluffs, Castellanos failed as well... Everyone was taking too many touches. We used to do more first-time shots and passes, now we don't. It's like we're afraid of their net. Castellanos had that one chance where he just kept pulling it left. Could have shot forever ago and it might have gone in.

2. Sands was great tonight. If he doesn't win his way into the starting XI by now, idk what to think.

3. Amagat was bad. Better than his RB debut, but still bad. He will probably start on saturday.

4. Maxi wasn't being his Maxi-self.

We finally got what we wanted, and still couldn't win. There's nothing left for this season. Still gonna go to the rest of the games I can make, as well as go to the DC away game because why not see Rooney live at their new stadium?

The one bright side of the game was that adam (and his girlfriend) now know what I look like (don't stalk me c

LionNYC can I ask how you get to sit down there every game, or is that your season ticket?

 

[canchon]

You weren’t aware we start Sweat at fullback? Have you missed 18 months of games?

My favorite Sweat moment was when he was cutting in on the left in front of the defense and you knew that he couldn’t shoot and he basically bumbled it right to the keeper.

He has that one early bending ball but his crosses are complete crap.

 

[dummyrun]

Why the fuck should Dome be here next year?

Oh wow.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

Oh wow.

Please explain how he’s deserved to stay thus far.

Because the eye test and the ol’ record sure as hell don’t back it up. He’s progressively worse every week.

 

[Ulrich]

All the possession and shots means zilch if you don’t score. Brad Friedel just pulled off a rope-a-dope by putting out a C-level team first half and bringing on Fagundez and Agudelo in the second as fresh, fast legs against tiring legs. Their counterattacks, while few, were extremely dangerous. So while the game should have been put away early, which is on the players for poor shooting, Dome got out coached tactically by failing to maintain the fluidity of the attack and possession with his first sub - Amagat - and waiting to bring Lewis on until unfortunately Villa, Maxi, and everybody else was too tired to make the runs for him to cross to. The kid cant be effective if everybody else is gassed, that’s just piss-poor player management.

The team needs to devote a lot of time to finishing drills tomorrow and Friday. If we lose Saturday, and this is a very unfortunate time to be playing a confident and surging DC, then we’re looking squarely at having to fight for the #3 seed with a real possibility of getting caught by not just Columbus, but an outside chance that Philly passes us too. Dome is just one match better than a .500 coach and that’s after inheriting a team sharing the 1 or 2 spots with Atlanta.

 

[The Toe]

What happened to the individual talent on the team? SJ, Ring, Maxi -- our three most consistent players -- are completely out of sync in the last 2 months. Vieira had players playing with a purpose at least. Maxi, the MVP candidate before Dome, was in great spots; we were making great short passes through the middle. Now, all of a sudden, we're trying to play 30 crosses a game to our massive front 3 that go 4'11, 5'6" and 5'5"? We're not playing to our strengths and trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

It feels and looks like everything we've done well -- and has proven to be successful in MLS -- was scrapped with a completely new gameplan every week and it looks like 2015. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that we have one of the most talented rosters in the league, but it feels like Dome is overthinking everything and getting the team away from what would be natural for them and it's so fucking obvious. Other than his runs, what does Taty do that's so much better than Lewis? Other than his flailing tap-in, he's put one shot on target, right at the keeper today? Is his defending that much superior to Lewis that he should never start? It is crazy. The organization is holding itself back with their distrust of domestic talent.

 

[mgarbowski]

Is it fair to blame Dome for the team's bad finishing tonight? Or is it just bad luck, or the players' fault?

Well, under Vieira (in 2018) NYCFC had an average Goal-xGoal per game of 0.673 at home, and 0.086 away.
Under Dome, the G-xG has been 0.002 at home, and -0.181 away.

Basically, under Vieira, the team outperformed expected goals a helluva lot more than it has under Dome, by differences of 0.67 goals per game at home, and 0.268 per game away. And these figures do not include tonight, which is unlikely to help Dome.

Either the team suddenly got real unlucky when it changed coaches, or Dome fucked them up.

 

[mgarbowski]

I met LionNYC for the first time in the team store.
I saw adam on the big screen.

Alway find some positives to take away.

 

[LionNYC]

I met LionNYC for the first time in the team store.
I saw adam on the big screen.

Alway find some positives to take away.

I met mgarbowski for the first time in the team store. Nice to meet you Mark!

I'm pretty sure I saw adam get off at the 86th stop on the subway. I had to take a second look. I don't think anyone else wears an orange hat with a subway patch on it.

Always positives, there's more than soccer.

 

[Kjbert]

Maybe we need a target striker.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

I met mgarbowski for the first time in the team store. Nice to meet you Mark!

I'm pretty sure I saw adam get off at the 86th stop on the subway. I had to take a second look. I don't think anyone else wears an orange hat with a subway patch on it.

Always positives, there's more than soccer.

The real question is what Adam will use come playoff time.

Right, Dnigly13 ? And that’s just the man to call him out on it.

 

[Christopher Jee]

That game is much more about finishing than coaching. Our finishing poise is abysmal. Gross. We should have won 5 or 6 nothing'. I put that on the players. Dome wasn’t blameless but that’s a whole lot of poor execution.

Why not? He was the messiah about a month ago.

I'm personally of the opinion that you don't have to sack the manager after you lose against the run of play with your last 18 available players, but maybe I'm old fashioned. We should have battered them tonight. Fucking stupid sub to bring on Amagat when we had them on the ropes, mind. He looks crap.

This team misses Medina badly. Never thought I'd say that. He's capable of leaving defenders on their ass like Castellanos, except he doesn't shit himself when he's one-on-one with the keeper.

Props to Sands, who rarely looked
out of place.

Thank fuck for these posts - if we play like this for the rest of the regular season we will be quite alright.

NE were out of their skins with the last minute blocks. I think they had 3 or 4 key goal saving blocks in the area. I don't see how Dome is to blame for our reticence in the final third. Unless we catch him on the BTS saying "whatever you do, don't take advantage of open looks in the 18".

I didn't think I'd see the 4-4-2 diamond again, let alone see it work really well. Mata as an 8 was an evolution of his successful role as an inverted full back. Castellanos was surprisingly good off the ball, tidy in possession and made the right decisions up until the final ball. Could teach Medina a thing or two about shielding. Kind of like Berget except he has clever feet. 1 goal in 2 starts is promising. And some people on this board were willing to give Berget 7, 8 games?

Is it fair to blame Dome for the team's bad finishing tonight? Or is it just bad luck, or the players' fault?

Well, under Vieira (in 2018) NYCFC had an average Goal-xGoal per game of 0.673 at home, and 0.086 away.
Under Dome, the G-xG has been 0.002 at home, and -0.181 away.

Basically, under Vieira, the team outperformed expected goals a helluva lot more than it has under Dome, by differences of 0.67 goals per game at home, and 0.268 per game away. And these figures do not include tonight, which is unlikely to help Dome.

Either the team suddenly got real unlucky when it changed coaches, or Dome fucked them up.

A bunch of other things changed in that time. Injuries, international duty, the alignment of the stars and Kanye's shoe size. It's hard to isolate Dome IMO as the sole cause of our inability to keep outperforming xG.

 

[Shwafta]

I've been saying it and I'll keep saying it- idc what happens this season. That was over when Vieira left, we all pretty much guessed it.
It's what happens during the off season and beginning of next season, for me. If we continue on like we are now, then Dome out. However I have a feeling that over the break he'll be able to instill a better philosophy; one that he is trying to instill during short intervals between matches which doesn't seem to be carrying over well to games.