A good chunk of the Xolos game was Leonardo. Yes, the entire defense could have played better, and I do think our midfield was overrun at times, but had Leonardo not made that 1 bonehead play letting the ball bounce behind him we would have been going to the semifinals. Yes, he was pressured. I just don't care. I'm not blaming the entire D for the game. He's still in my doghouse and will be for quite some time.
That may be true but its also true that probably 80% of goals scored in soccer are due to one or more players "losing marks on set pieces, confusion on switchoffs, just dumb plays.., ... losing concentration." I've seen Man City, Barcelona, and even Bayern players in recent weeks turn and look at each other after ceding a goal and be all "how the hell did he get open" or "what the hell were you thinking?" All teams have these gaffes - the difference is the really good teams don't do it nearly as often as the bad teams. So the question is how often are we making these kinds of mistakes this season? Ignoring the Xolos game (we almost always have looked bad when playing Mexican teams at their home) I would give us a B on that count. But we don't have enough data or stability in the back line to know for sure how good our defense is likely to be this season.
If your CBs are scrambling, you're already in trouble. Goals are scored by running at backlines and forcing them to make decisions on the fly. This is why LD and Keane, for example, are so devastating. A great defender makes the right decision to break up the play more consistently than not but as skydog said, even a great defender can make a mistake under pressure. Vincent Kompany had a gaffe over the weekend that cost a crucial goal. So while I'm not making excuses for Leo's bad decision-making, there isn't really a team in MLS that can put us under the kind of pressure where our backline is doing emergency defending for extended periods--that's all I meant by the Xolos match being an outlier.
I get your points, guys, I really do. I know Xolos hammered us because they attack well at home, and I know a lot of it is Leonardo. Not arguing any of that. Just trying to explain why I am worried about the defense after getting slammed for having that opinion. =) Only time will tell whether I am right to be worried or not, and I grant you it is a small sample size. But I am still worried. We shall see.
Oh you have every right to be worried. What's the fun in being a fan if you don't worry about your team, get excited for your team, get mad at your team, and take their accomplishments and failures as your own? And that's why we brought Leo in - to make sure we are worried every minute he is on the field! It makes it so much more exciting when he manages to get through a game without f'ing up!
Speaking of the premise that "it's no excuse but it happens at all levels of play" check out Fulham's set piece marking in the highlight video for today's game vs Tottenham: http://www.livesoccertv.com/match/821821/tottenham-hotspur-vs-fulham/
Today should be a good test of the D. Last season in BC, Landon scored in the third minute and we held them scoreless for the remainder of the game.