Vancouver Postmatch

[NickA]

Besides our lack of finishing and below average goal keeping...Viera f'd up with the Herrera sub and tried to compensate with the other subs, only to make things worse. The team was discombobulated once Fredric came on. Then our best defender is trying to play DM?! Makes no sense.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

• Pirlo had an immaculate game. Fuck the haters. If Maxi had come on instead of Brillant, we could have put our foot on Vancouver's neck and ended the game.

Johansen was scary but not really at fault for the goals.

Pirlo was fine. But how is it immaculate when you miss 3-4 decent chances to score? What exactly was immaculate? Our lack of shape and generally worse than in months look? Is the bar so low that since he didn't do anything really bad he gets a 9?

Lurch absolutely at fault on 2nd. Could (should?) have saved the first, but he's as slow as TPFKAU and slightly less athletic.

Also, generally makes the team worse and has no command of his defense. Hope it's the last time we see him.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

One more thing since no one has made it especially clear:

How many replays of opponent goals have Sweat trotting around even though he is grossly out of position?

Correct answer is all of them, apparently.

Poor Tpkau was running himself ragged and actually cut out a cross a time or two. Meanwhile, in news of assholes chilling at midfield, you have Sweat jogging like he's been called over for a time wasting sub. What the hell is his deal and why does PV suffer that shit?

 

[JayH]

#teambringbackslosh The fact that you probably don't know whether or not I am joking says it all.

 

[canchon]

I'll have to go back and look at the replay but who should have been covering Bolanos on the cross for Vancouver's second goal? Bolanos had enough time to have a cup of tea before delivering that cross.

And then, nobody in the back line covered the far post, I know that Harrison went up to get the ball and missed it over his head, but why was it Jack's play to head the ball out? That play was like a carbon copy of the NE late goal.

 

[SanBartG]

Pirlo was fine. But how is it immaculate when you miss 3-4 decent chances to score? What exactly was immaculate? Our lack of shape and generally worse than in months look? Is the bar so low that since he didn't do anything really bad he gets a 9?

Lurch absolutely at fault on 2nd. Could (should?) have saved the first, but he's as slow as TPFKAU and slightly less athletic.

Also, generally makes the team worse and has no command of his defense. Hope it's the last time we see him.

In the past I've agreed that Pirlo's performance was sub par. But not today. Perhaps immaculate was too strong a word but then your characterization of his play today is equally off the mark. Yes, he missed some chances. Everybody missed chances including Villa. But if you look back you'll see the majority of chances we had were the result of Pirlo's passes. Many on the first touch after pirlo and perhaps more on the second touch. In that sense, he did his job to perfection last night.

 

[SoupInNYC]

https://twitter.com/x/status/882817219184480257

Numbers don't lie. Defense is a tire fire with Brilliant on the field.

To be somewhat fair to Brillant, how many of those goals have come with us playing some variation off of our normal formation?

There were two games which we played as a CB in our 4-3-3, @RSL with a shit midfield in front of him and @NJ in the Cup match with a more talented midfield, and our defense was pretty solid in that.

I still like him as a defensive stopper for the last 5-7 minutes of regulation time when holding a lead. Coming on like he did against NER and Vancouver is just way too much time to concede the midfield.

 

[SanBartG]

To be somewhat fair to Brillant, how many of those goals have come with us playing some variation off of our normal formation?

There were two games which we played as a CB in our 4-3-3, @RSL with a shit midfield in front of him and @NJ in the Cup match with a more talented midfield, and our defense was pretty solid in that.

I still like him as a defensive stopper for the last 5-7 minutes of regulation time when holding a lead. Coming on like he did against NER and Vancouver is just way too much time to concede the midfield.

If he's only good for 5-7 minutes in very limited circumstances the. he's no good at all. We need to dump him and Lurch and find people that actually can play their position.

 

[SoupInNYC]

If he's only good for 5-7 minutes in very limited circumstances the. he's no good at all. We need to dump him and Lurch and find people that actually can play their position.

But that's not what I said. He's fine for coming in for 5-7 minutes when we change our shape.

The one game he played as a CB in our normal formation with a legit midfield, he was good.

ETA: I would love to find a cheaper option as a backup CB, because he definitely has his faults. But I'm not willing to dump him and end up with someone like Jefferson Mena as our backup.

 

[Christopher Jee]

Pirlo was fine. But how is it immaculate when you miss 3-4 decent chances to score? What exactly was immaculate? Our lack of shape and generally worse than in months look? Is the bar so low that since he didn't do anything really bad he gets a 9?

Lurch absolutely at fault on 2nd. Could (should?) have saved the first, but he's as slow as TPFKAU and slightly less athletic.

Also, generally makes the team worse and has no command of his defense. Hope it's the last time we see him.

RE Pirlo

Everybody misses those chances. When you like those players they get a pass, when you don't, you are merciless. I mean "you" in the general sense, as in "one". Or do I? Maxi, Yangel, Ring and Villa will miss one of those 1-1s (or chances of a similar quality) every handful of games.

I think it's really difficult for me to be with you on us looking as bad as we have in months or having no shape. Our shape was fine until we tried Chanot at DM. 11 shots to 1 at half time tells a compelling story. After that, between Lopez, Chanot and Brillant switching positions routinely, we were lost at sea. I don't think you can chalk that up to Pirlo.

Pirlo's positioning and passing were top drawer. Should have had one penalty for sure, but I didn't get a great look at the second half shout. He didn't really put a foot wrong.

RE Johansen

First goal was a killer finish by a known dangerman. It went side netting. I don't care if he's 8 ft 9.

Second goal was a complete miscue by Jack. Maybe Johansen should have covered near post but it's an absolute rocket of a shot and I don't know if he gets it anyway.

I mean, I'd love if we never had to play him again too. I'd also love if my cats woke me up with breakfast in bed instead of getting me out of bed for breakfast. What are ya gonna do, at least in 2017? Rawls must be real bad.

Thinking back on it, there was an awful lot coming down our left wing, including the second and third goals. If I could bear to watch the replay, I'm almost certain I'd see either Tommy or Sweat are out of position. I forgot they should never be on the same wing together.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

#teambringbackslosh The fact that you probably don't know whether or not I am joking says it all.

I now have a better understanding why we started Slosh#Legend for so long.

Can Rawls really be worse? I think not. I've never seen such timidity from from a 6'7" 225 lb hulk of a man. Any cross should never come close to an opponent head, yet he retreats to his goal line like it's his job.

He's mentally toast at this point. He's not doing his job mainly because he's scared of the glaring error, imo. It's like he's thinking "if we give up a goal and I'm standing in net, no one will blame me."

I don't know how you shake that. I do know that the answer isn't playing your way out of it when the team is in the hunt.

 

[SoupInNYC]

Thinking back on it, there was an awful lot coming down our left wing, including the second and third goals. If I could bear to watch the replay, I'm almost certain I'd see either Tommy or Sweat are out of position. I forgot they should never be on the same wing together.

I was only able to watch the last 10 minutes of the match (wish I hadn't now) so can really only speak to the 3rd goal.

But TMac had possession and took way too long to make a decision on where to go with the ball and was completely muscled off the ball. That was followed up with a run down the left where as Midas Mulligan pointed out earlier, Sweat was jogging back without any resemblance of urgency to cover.

Then you had the marking mixup with Brillant and Chanot and there's your clean header.

 

[Christopher Jee]

https://twitter.com/x/status/882817219184480257

Numbers don't lie. Defense is a tire fire with Brilliant on the field.

Haha but we all know that we use numbers to tell falsehoods all the time.

 

[sundance]

To be somewhat fair to Brillant . . . .

Nah


(Seriously, though. PV has to up his sub game. At this point it's Pavlovian: I see Brillant come on and I give up hope.)

 

[SoupInNYC]

Nah


(Seriously, though. PV has to up his sub game. At this point it's Pavlovian: I see Brillant come on and I give up hope.)

Ok

 

[Midas Mulligan]

RE Pirlo

Everybody misses those chances. When you like those players they get a pass, when you don't, you are merciless. I mean "you" in the general sense, as in "one". Or do I? Maxi, Yangel, Ring and Villa will miss one of those 1-1s (or chances of a similar quality) every handful of games.

I think it's really difficult for me to be with you on us looking as bad as we have in months or having no shape. Our shape was fine until we tried Chanot at DM. 11 shots to 1 at half time tells a compelling story. After that, between Lopez, Chanot and Brillant switching positions routinely, we were lost at sea. I don't think you can chalk that up to Pirlo.

Pirlo's positioning and passing were top drawer. Should have had one penalty for sure, but I didn't get a great look at the second half shout. He didn't really put a foot wrong.

RE Johansen

First goal was a killer finish by a known dangerman. It went side netting. I don't care if he's 8 ft 9.

Second goal was a complete miscue by Jack. Maybe Johansen should have covered near post but it's an absolute rocket of a shot and I don't know if he gets it anyway.

I mean, I'd love if we never had to play him again too. I'd also love if my cats woke me up with breakfast in bed instead of getting me out of bed for breakfast. What are ya gonna do, at least in 2017? Rawls must be real bad.

Thinking back on it, there was an awful lot coming down our left wing, including the second and third goals. If I could bear to watch the replay, I'm almost certain I'd see either Tommy or Sweat are out of position. I forgot they should never be on the same wing together.

Lurch should have easily cleared that cross. On the first, he was very slow to close down the angle. No biggie if you get beat there, but make it difficult at least.

Yes, Sweat was out of position practically the entire game, and I don't just mean counters. A lot of times, in the 2nd phase of attack, he's still jogging back. Tommy busted his ass, but he's limited athletically. This is why I always say Wallace is the reason you can get away with Sweat.

As for missing shots, I called out Villa and Harrison (woof) for the same thing. I didn't put Pirlo in my list of "horribles" or "horrible on the night", but what you describe is a far cry from immaculate for me. Also, Villa and Harrison have more than earned a pass for bad shooting nights. On Pirlo's chances, it's a bit weird how timid he is. If he goes in with a bit less hesitation, I think he gets that 1v1 by Ousted and also at least 1 of the PK calls.

His and Tommy's combined presence also killed our high press game, as we usually can close down at least the simplest option. Instead, they could make one square pass and play into the midfield. That overly spread our boys, especially after Herrera went out.

I just don't get why we still think we can play TPFKAU and Pirlo together. The formula is one of them for 2/3 of Herrera, Ring, Wallace. For both, we need at least 3/4 of those guys and Maxi. We see it all the time. Not to go all FIFA, but it really is like what happens when you put together an Ultimate team without looking at workrates. It's so unbalanced and you end up with attackers running unhindered at your CBs all game. Ring and Herrera's high def work rates can cover. No prayer when we lost one of them.

 

[Ulrich]

Three horn blasts signals White Walkers. That felt like the Battle at the Fist of the First.....

 

[Gotham Gator]

Nobody bringing any heat for Chanot and his basically gifting them a goal right at the start? the shitty play from which sprouted the whole shitshow of a match.

I suppose his solid play all season has earned him a pass - not to mention his equalizer - but that one play was horrible. Both stupid and sloppy.

 

[Christopher Jee]

Nobody bringing any heat for Chanot and his basically gifting them a goal right at the start? the shitty play from which sprouted the whole shitshow of a match.

I suppose his solid play all season has earned him a pass - not to mention his equalizer - but that one play was horrible. Both stupid and sloppy.

Felt pretty disjunct from the collapse compared to, say, Vieira going crazy. It was a bad error but I almost wanna chalk it up to turf.

 

[Christopher Jee]

Lurch should have easily cleared that cross. On the first, he was very slow to close down the angle. No biggie if you get beat there, but make it difficult at least.

Yes, Sweat was out of position practically the entire game, and I don't just mean counters. A lot of times, in the 2nd phase of attack, he's still jogging back. Tommy busted his ass, but he's limited athletically. This is why I always say Wallace is the reason you can get away with Sweat.

As for missing shots, I called out Villa and Harrison (woof) for the same thing. I didn't put Pirlo in my list of "horribles" or "horrible on the night", but what you describe is a far cry from immaculate for me. Also, Villa and Harrison have more than earned a pass for bad shooting nights. On Pirlo's chances, it's a bit weird how timid he is. If he goes in with a bit less hesitation, I think he gets that 1v1 by Ousted and also at least 1 of the PK calls.

His and Tommy's combined presence also killed our high press game, as we usually can close down at least the simplest option. Instead, they could make one square pass and play into the midfield. That overly spread our boys, especially after Herrera went out.

I just don't get why we still think we can play TPFKAU and Pirlo together. The formula is one of them for 2/3 of Herrera, Ring, Wallace. For both, we need at least 3/4 of those guys and Maxi. We see it all the time. Not to go all FIFA, but it really is like what happens when you put together an Ultimate team without looking at workrates. It's so unbalanced and you end up with attackers running unhindered at your CBs all game. Ring and Herrera's high def work rates can cover. No prayer when we lost one of them.

Ahh. This is fine. I mostly agree with your characterization of Pirlo's performance and overall limitations. I think we just define "immaculate" differently. What I meant is that he didn't make any mistakes and did everything expected of him perfectly.

I think his "timidity" is a function of his bias for balance and composure. It's a posture thing. He never goes full tilt.