Orlando (Away) - Postmatch

[NYCFC_Dan]

Well we talked at length about what team will show up come regular season. Don’t think anyone thought we’d see a defensive counter attacking team after we’ve played possession and build up the last few years.

Shouldn’t have let that one get away.
I’m out for an event right now so not much else to say. Disappointing to draw against a team that played us without a DP.

 

[Fake Jew]

Mitrita is on that Almiron level we wanted him to be. Other than that it’s going to be a long year if he’s the only positive like today.

 

[Dreaming_NYC]

Not a bad first game but i don't think the 4-3-3 or the "5-2-3" works for us. Maxi just isn't that guy.

 

[BxLio91]

Well another disappointment

 

[Kenny]

Can't help but feel like a loss since we were up 2-0, but there were some positives to cling to. And a point away on opening day isn't horrible for this team, that is still gelling.

Negatives: Medina, Ofori, Rocha, and Dome.

 

[JayH]

If Medina would have chased that ball down ....

 

[46Chromeboy]

For all the eye rolling critics gave Vieira for his insistence on build up play from the back, I must say, having Johnson boot 50/50's all game makes me sad.

 

[twsj91]

No plan. No identity. Gonna be a roller coaster of a season.

 

[Revfugee]

Can't help but feel like a loss since we were up 2-0, but there were some positives to cling to. And a point away on opening day isn't horrible for this team, that is still gelling.

Negatives: Medina, Ofori, Rocha, and Dome.

Hot takes:

We played better in the second half than we did in the first even though the scoreline contradicts that.

Penalty no-calls offset each other.

Mitrita is going to thrill us.

Ofori was terrible in the first half but scored. He was better in the second.

SJ deserves the most blame. He totally botched that ball in. He should have bossed it.

Second goal was confusion between Sands and Chanot. All day long either Sands was too withdrawn or Chanot felt he needed to step up to cover for him. I wasn't impressed with Sands today at all. A couple of decent passes and one great tackle on Nani, but he looked confused far too often.

I dont think Sweat sucks as badly as most folks on this board do, but he did snooze on one chance that wasn't converted, and more importantly, we can’t afford to be wasting a sub swapping in Rocha for him.

We need a striker. Or we need Maxi more withdrawn and Treats farther up. Or both.

Timner and Lewis also kinda sucked in the first half but were better in the second.

Still prefer Ring more withdrawn.

Medina is very frustrating. Has quality but zero bite. And Mitrita should be taking all of our corners.

Parks looked strong in limited minutes. Composed and able to work out of trouble.

Callens is still one of the most underrated players in MLS.

 

[S1ARK5]

I will say it again and always. I just don't see all the hype with Maxi. Decent player, but he lacks so much if he is going to play close to the box. He can't finish, lack of vision, and just a meh player as far as I am concerned. He is best and build up and that's it.
Overall, the only quality I saw from us was from Mitrita.

We should have lost that game 3-2 easy but for some reason the PK was not called on Chanot. Even after looking at it. I dont know what the refs were thinking.

I said also during the off season. This will be a long year. Orlando is absolutely trash.

Jonathan Lewis had a very poor game.

Just a bad performance even after we were up 2-0.

Buckle up boys.

 

[Alex Da Silva]

Some thoughts:
1. I don't like domeball it gives up the possession game, utilizes long balls to short players. It makes me nervous to have so little possession. especially when we are trying to rush plays leading to a lot of turnovers. Also we dropped the press entirely, so much of the time Orlando would be running at us and we would just be backing off giving them time and space, do this with a good team and prepare for 4+ goals conceded a game, and even when we did this our backline looked scatterbrained and panicky and this just doesn't feel like a good style of soccer to me.
2. When we were good however we looked really good, that stretch from the midway point of the first half to the beginning of the second we looked really dominant, but for some reason, that faded away and we collapsed.
3. Sands showed us why we like ring so much, sands playing the 6 was tough because he was outmuscled to so many balls and was more of a speedbump than the wall ring usually is, I hope he gets better with reps but it really made our backline have to work so much more, this was heightened by the new "don't press until they are in the box" style dome seems to have settled on
4. I love Ofori higher up the pitch, he can serve up a pretty killer pass and that goal was gorgeous. the more he has to think about defense the worse his judgment gets and as he dropped back more in the second half he started to give the ball away more
5. Subs were way off today, taking lewis off basically led to the second orlando goal because Medina doesn't chase down balls like lewis does and that led to the counter they equalized from. Rocha for Sweat was a bandaid from a bleeding wound but necessary because they were feasting on the left side, and Parks looked good but we needed Isi in the worst way especially after they equalized.
6. We need a LB, we have money go spend it to fix the weakest part of the team
7. sucks that sean had to be scored on like that, it was totally able to be saved.

 

[Davo15]

WTF?

Stuck at work but was able to watch most of the first half on twitter than was forced to actually do stuff.

How did we blow it ? I thought the D was our strength?

Honestly we weren't great in the portion I saw even though we were up 2-0

I liked some of what I saw from Mitrita , the assist was very very good, but at times he seemed a little selfish?

 

[ZYanksRule]

We had a lot of questions about Dome coming into the season, and I'm not sure he answered them today.

Why were two of our most influential players out of position?

Maxi has an MLS MVP-caliber year last year and he starts up top instead of the No. 10? Ring is one of the best D-mids in the league, so he starts in an advanced position? Did not like the team selection.

Getting outplayed by an Orlando team which started virtually none of its stars is not the way I was hoping to start the season. Orlando deserved that win, we stole a point even as we dropped two points.

Good news is that Mitrita is the real deal; guy is going to be a blast to watch all season. Thought Lewis and Sands were both ghosts, and Johnson needs to do better on that first goal.

EDIT: Maybe I'm being a bit hard on Lewis. He wasn't a ghost, but it wasn't his strongest game, and all things equal I'd rather see other guys get that starting role.

There are some positives, but let's not play Maxi and Ring out of position anymore. It didn't work last season and it won't work this year.

 

[Revfugee]

If Medina would have chased that ball down ....

If Chanot and Sands had not let Dwyer split them. They had plenty of time to do that. Medina wasn’t good today, but it that ball was arguably unreachable — you might as well blame mitrita for overhitting it — and blaming a goal on a goal kick at the other end is pretty harsh anyway.

 

[Amon]

Another disappointment, picking up where we left off.

 

[46Chromeboy]

Totally disjointed today with no rhythm or care for possession.
Love me some Ring but if he is going to mauraud forward all season expect to give up 15 or so more goals this year.
I feel like Dome may be giving the young fellas Sands and Lewis heavy early season minutes so when they are inevitably moved down the pecking order he can say that he gave them a chance.
Tojouri has to be in this game at some point.
Medina is not a DP, end of story.
Mitri has the talent but as someone else said he looks the frustrated type. Villa got away with it because you know, it's Villa...
Thank goodness none of this matters because this is MLS and you can't pull hairs until Sept/Oct really.

 

[Brooklyn Blue]

That game was - fine. The hope is that Mitrita and Moralez can develop chemistry, the midfield settles, and the lost lead was due to heat and lack of fitness (which should improve). The fear is that the ceiling is what we saw today, and Dome cannot find the right formation.

Good for Sands to get some run, but he was overmatched today. Knocked off the ball too often and a bit slow with passes. Ring must play the 6.

Sweat and Rocha are (and continue to be) a problem. Spend some money NYCFC.

Mitrita will be worth it.

In the end, a draw on the road is an acceptable result, especially with the penalty that wasn't called.

 

[Kjbert]

Dome is so fucking out of his element here. That was managerial malpractice.

You’re first sub is Medina. You’re second sub is TONY FUCKING ROCHA.

The set up was wrong from the outset. You’re two best returning players are lined up way out of position.

Maxi Moralez is a good #10. He’s probably best suited in a CM role paired with Ring and a guy like Parks or Sands right behind him in a double pivot.

Instead this fucking ass of a manager lines him as a #9. No, not a false 9 which also would have been dumb, but a #9. So let me get this straight Dome, let’s take our SLOWEST player and best distributor of the ball and make him a target man for your shaky goalkeeper? That’s your brilliant fucking plan? Our central midfield can’t retain any possession and you make no change? Instead, you have your players send the ball over the top to the slowest guy on the pitch?

Then, you take our captain and our team mvp and push him up TWO levels. Are you mad? Orlando carves up Ofori and Sands and you don’t think to make a change? You go up 2-0 and instead of bunkering after the first goal, your solution is Medina for Lewis instead of just pushing Ring back to protect your CBs?

I promised I would give Dome a chance this year. This was his chance. From 1) the tactical mismanagement to start (wrong formation for that lineup or wrong lineup for that formation) to 2) not making a change at halftime up 2-0 to 3) not making the required change at 2-1 to 4) sticking with the formation and not bringing on your most explosive bench option in Tajour-Shradi and then 5) when the game is finally tied you bring in Keaton Parks and tell him to play target man? What an imbecile.

Our $8 million man is out there on the left waving his hands for someone to pass it to him
But because you’re too fucking dumb to set your midfield up correctly, Dome’s fat ass May as well have been playing LW.

That’s it. That was Dome’s chance. Unless he recognizes that this result is squarely on his lack of tactical awareness and/or stubbornness, he’s not redeemable as a manager. That’s a disgrace of a result after being up 2-0. He’s a fucking disaster.

And if you disagree, don’t at me. Save yourself the effort. Because I’m right and this manager is in over his head. He’s nothing but Pep’s buddy and if he wasn’t lucky enough to meet Pep later in life he’d bring serving Sangria at a beachside bar in Barcelona.

 

[Annagram]

Here's my take. Agree or disagree.

Johnson shouldn't be blamed too much for the first goal. An inswinging free-kick like that is the most awkward for 'keepers, and if there was an answer to that, that kind of goals wouldn't happen anymore. He did pretty well IMO.

Sweat was better than I expected. The rest of the back four were themselves: Chanot getting into a position to score from a corner and putting it half a yard wide. How often have we seen that? If he could put those headers on target, how many goals he would have scored by now?

The back four was definitely uncertain about what to do without Ring playing in front of them. Ring seemed to enjoy it and scored a beauty of a goal, but IMO he should be playing deeper, and there should be an 8 of the same quality. Unfortunately Ofori is not that, despite his very well taken goal (I'm still waiting for those who complain that he can't use his right foot; that left foot shot was pretty accurate). Sands might become good, but I'd rather have seen Buster coming in for the second (substituting Sands) half and Ring being drawn back to the 6.

Mitrita will be fine. He'll take a couple of games, and then he'll smash the whole MLS. Mark my words. Lewis would have been fine, if there had been two Rings on the pitch today. He didn't get the ball as much as he should have had. The substitution for him should have been ITS. Medina for me looks a lost case. The sooner the club can send him away, the better. Harsh words, I know, but I don't think he'll ever make it in this league.

Maxi. The false 9. The false 10. The false whatever. The thing is, that without a proper 9, a target player/big striker, this team needs a player who can take the ball, run with it, build up an attack, and either finish or give the killer pass, and Maxi is not that player. He had an ok season last year, but he shouldn't be there anymore. The team should have been strengthened there.

The final word goes to Domé. I don't think he knows what he wants. Since June 2018, he hasn't shown anything that points out to him having the first idea or thought of his own. He doesn't have a clue. Already in Sept-Oct last year I said that he should be kicked out, and my impression hasn't changed. The sooner he's replaced the better.

 

[LionNYC]

It was a very bad day NYCFC. It’s going to be a very long season under Dome. I’m not happy with the performance at all.

I’m glad I put on SPF 100