NYCFC v Chicago Postmatch

[JayH]

Not much to add here.

I thought that Mendoza was abysmal, a play killer on many of our best chances with no cohesion with his teammates. He does not fit.

It only took Villa one free kick to demonstrate that he needs to take that role from Pirlo.

Good move pulling Pirlo. I would have even taken him out at 60.

That field was a disaster. We got lucky no one was seriously hurt.

The passing looked like a random college game. It was hard to watch the quality of EPL in the am, the women in the afternoon and then that game.

They are playing tight and frustrated and it is affecting the overall play. They so desperately need a positive result to get their mojo right.

 

[hiller87]

Mix and Mata played well. Villa clearly wants to win. That's about all the positives from this game.

 

[EganSoccerWords]

Pretty sure the goal was disallowed because of a handball bring it down.

https://gfycat.com/UnluckyOnlyGreatargus

 

[Shane1988]

[QUOTE="JayH, post: 135961, member: 915]

It only took Villa one free kick to demonstrate that he needs to take that role from Pirlo [/QUOTE]

Bit harsh, Pirlo is arguably one of the best set piece takers in the last 20 years, I would still let him be the primary taker but let Villa take more short distance free kicks like last night, Villa is a underrated free kick taker

 

[Shane1988]

https://gfycat.com/UnluckyOnlyGreatargus

50/50 for me, sometimes given sometimes not

 

[Shane1988]

Mix and Mata played well. Villa clearly wants to win. That's about all the positives from this game.

100% agree Mr Villa is built that way and that's one of the reasons why he is one of my favourite players of all time

 

[JayH]

For whatever reason, since Pirlo joined last season, his free kicks have been way off of the mark. And at this point it's a reasonable sample size. On the other hand, Villa was on point last season, and put in a great ball last night. Even as a huge Pirlo fan for many years, that's enough for me to ignore his credentials, at least for now.

Gio scored bushels of free kick goals last season. Drogba came in and did the same. Pirlo kicked field goals. We have such a small margin for error at this point, I go with Villa

 

[mgarbowski]

I'm going to dissent from the consensus that our problem is too much passing in the box and that our guys are afraid to shoot. I agree.that happened sometimes. But we had 8 shots on target which isn't low at all. Some were quality but 2-3 were weak ground skippers from 12-20 yards out that Lampson easily corralled. Plus we had a few off-target shots from the same range that missed left, right, and/or high.

And then there were lots and lots of attempts that aren't counted as shots because Chicago had 9-10 men inside the box every time we had possession deep and several tries, all from 12+ yards away hit one of the defenders and bounced away without getting near goal.

Then on top of all that, yes, there were instances where a guy had the ball 12+ yards away and tried not to shoot through that thicket and tried a pass that didn't help because all those other things weren't working either. We threw the kitchen sink and couldn't score.

It's clear that the tactic against us this year -- at least at home -- is to pack it in on defense and to try to score on counters, flukes, and set plays. It is working. The opposing teams are letting us throw the kitchen sink. We have not made them pay for it since we scored 2x in the first 28 minutes of 4 straight home games.

We need to figure out how to score against that and just "more shots from distance" is not the answer. One solution would be to be dangerous on our own counters when we have numbers before the other team packs it in. We looked ugly doing that last night. Second, we could learn to score ourselves on set plays once every few games. Third, I don't have a third. Better shots that don't skip or miss, and better passes?

 

[Seven]

Was Chicago's attack that bad without Accam, or did our defense just play much better? Their positioning seemed much better, minus the non-goal

 

[Seth]

The passing looked like a random college game. It was hard to watch the quality of EPL in the am, the women in the afternoon and then that game.

Agree 100%. I can't even count the number of times Villa was charging the goal pointing where he wanted the ball only to have to loop back around again because there was no pass. But it was only made worse by having watched the Liverpool match earlier in the day before going to the stadium. There was one play where they made five or six brilliant short passes back and forth that lead up to a goal. It was just some amazing play, which they did any number of times not just the once. Until we can do that sort of thing we may just flail away in the box the way we did last night. Love the team, the game we play not quite so much.

It just sometimes feels like we have players who all play on the same field, just not together.

 

[FootyLovin]

I'm going to dissent from the consensus

This. One mark of consistency from our first 5 games seems to be that our results don't match our play. We were the better team last night. We created more and defended better. But we didn't finish. And that is the big difference when your play doesn't match your results.

Villa's breakaway. TMac's heavy touch off the header to him in the box. Mix's slip (twice) at the top of the 18.

Even against a team that packed it in, we could easily have had 3 goals if we had finished the chances they gave us. (And yes, Chicago could easily have had 1 or maybe 2 by that logic, but we still created far more.)

I can't help wondering if those shots went in (or even just 1 of them), would we all be talking about how on a cold, cold night our team still played decent ball and made the connections they needed to get the 3 points.

 

[Stephanie P]

This was the first match where I questioned whether or not I was going to remain a season ticket holder forever. It was awful to watch because, in the immediate aftermath of the match, I had trouble identifying any positive change from last year. Not conceding a goal in the last few minutes was, in retrospect, huge but little else was good. I was willing to accept conceding goals if that meant attacking football but we didn't get that product last night. I know people love Saunders but I worry every time we back pass to him. Kicking it out from a back pass with little pressure on you just isn't acceptable.

Some of the debate has to be on a 4 or 3-man back line. I think we were hurt by not having a Pirlo-Bravo pairing but I will wait to judge that completely since I think Pirlo was having an off night and the pitch conditions were awful. Who knows about fields? Why were they wetted down before and at half time? I think four guys slipped in the space of 5 minutes at one point.

I'm feeling frustrated by the team (but, yeah, I still believe) and fairly desperate for a field of our own. This narrow, shared field is a liability.

 

[Ulrich]

https://gfycat.com/UnluckyOnlyGreatargus

I stand corrected. But the replay in the stadium sure looked like the guy diving did a swim move with his arm.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Matarrita lost his man on the play, we were lucky it was called offsides. Our set pieces suck northernburbs shaved balls.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Saunders passing is so painful to watch. He puts the ball on the side he wants to go to, then he runs 5 steps toward the ball, and still hits a slow roller to the CB. One forward is pressuring our entire back line. Then it comes back to him and he does the same thing. Leaves the ball to the side he wants to go to then runs up 5 steps and hits a slow roller. This time he is panicking and flapping his arms. The CB is covered and can't pass it anywhere, but can't go back to the keeper. Its embarrassing to watch. Starts the whole attack off wrong. Add in Hernandez punting it over everyone and you get my biggest problem on the team.

You fix the ugliest problem first. Saunders may be injured or gun shy from his first game, but he is not even playing good defense. He has no idea when to stay or come off his line. He HAS to go.

 

[joe]

Why is it so stinkingly impossible for an MLS ref to actually call a decent game. WTF ?!? Do they not know what a card is for? If a superstar player repeatedly embarrasses another by playing with the ball but then is fouled, that's a yellow. It was right in front of Geiger's face. And then there were the calls that left Mata on the ground that somehow didn't warrant a yellow??? His no-calls were so blatantly bad it was just sad to watch. His only saving grace was actually consulting the linesman on the hand-ball no-goal by Chicago.

Can't believe we made it 27 post without someone bringing up the officiating. God awful.

 

[ktdNYCFC]

So, what was the 'video on the internet' that got Khiry and Mikey Lopez suspended for this game? I saw a Khiry snap chat on his way in the car earlier but didn't really pay attention to what they were singing

I think it was an instagram video on one of their pages. I saw it a day or two ago but I think they took it down. The two of them were leaving training, and talking about the upcoming game. They weren't straight up trash talking Chicago, but the indirect message they sent was that Chicago is a shit team and we would win it easy. Mikey was definitely the instigator, and Khiry kind of just went along with it. When I saw it I had a "wow, really?" kind of reaction, and I guess PV saw it the same way:

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Can't believe we made it 27 post without someone bringing up the officiating. God awful.

What did you have a problem with specifically. I didn't think it was terrible. If anything I thought Mata should have been sent off.

 

[joe]

What did you have a problem with specifically. I didn't think it was terrible. If anything I thought Mata should have been sent off.

It was just wildly inconsistent. Mata, for example, got mugged twice, once on each side of his card, without even a foul being called.

 

[ktdNYCFC]

What did you have a problem with specifically. I didn't think it was terrible. If anything I thought Mata should have been sent off.

I agree, I wasn't at the game so I watched it on TV - the commentators saw him go down on that aerial tackle and said he might be staying down to protect himself from a yellow. When they showed the replay, it was pretty clear he just pummeled the guy, landed weird on his arm, and stayed down. I think if he had gotten up right away he might have seen yellow there. Mata was very aggressive, which is a good thing, but I hope he's not just getting frustrated / disillusioned with our team.