Fire Warzycha, 2012 Version 1.0

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Is this the anti-Tebow?

 

Yes, it's The Warzycha.

 

"Polish Rifling"

 

Despite finding a way to make those syrup chuggers look dangerous, the Crew capture the Trillium Cup, and I still want to fire the Rifle.

 

Does anyone else think the Trillium Cup is stupid? It's some league created nonsense that reminds how irritating hosers are and not something I care about winning.

 

Warzycha will be remembered for his trillium cup wins - important of course.

 

Anything we can use to goad TFC fans is a positive in my book.

 

It sure beats losing the Trillium Cup.

 

St. Higuain, the savior of coach's job

 

OK, observations from tonight are still reinforcing the bigger problem: At the slightest threat, we play not to lose. We were more offensive at 2-nil than we were at 2-1. It's an attitude that seeps down from the top. With Sigi, we did not have this attitude, we were "never say die" - now we are "hold on for dear life". And that's the difference, and the main problem, is the overall team culture.

 

Two points, though I don't necessarily disagree with our overall assessment of Warzycha's philosophy.

1) Playing the 3rd game in 7 days, with 7/10 field players having started all 3 (Miranda, Marshall, Mendes, Williams, Birchall, Gaven, Arrieta) we were bound to struggle the last 20 minutes, and we did. I thought reinforcing the MF with fresh legs (O'Rourke) and getting an exhausted Miranda off (James) were good subs. Grossman for Higuain was a bit more questionable (why not Duka?) but the overall strategy was sound. Did you want to leave 4 guys playing their 3rd game in a week MORE exposed?

2) I think your memory on Sigi is clouded by the triumph in 2008. We used to joke that the only sub Sigi never used (ate) were the ones in the match. He frequently didn't use subs, or waited until the 85th minute to use the 2nd one. And it was maddening. He also was almost always like for like. He rarely "went for it" as you suggest. In fact, I can remember clearly Warchya's stepping in for Sigi one game (home vs. Chicago) and us being down, and Robert pulling a back and going 3-5-2. Something Sigi rarely (if ever) did. So much so I remarked on it at the time, thinking "I wish Sigi would do that more."

Still, we got the win, and that is what is important. Will be interesting to see what Warcyha does for Saturday, difficult choices.

 

Perhaps Bob thought lightning was going to strike at that moment, as he is crouching and on the balls of his feet. But even then he got it wrong, because you need to keep them closer together.

 

Now, as the season progresses further and RW gets more training sessions under Higuain's belt...

Does that spell ruin? A buddy of mine said this... Look at what happened with Schelotto, 19 assists with Sigi to 2 assists with RW.

 

There is something to that, but I don't think there's enough time for RW to cripple Higuain yet. Next year though....?

To finish your thought though, in 2008, GBS had 7 goals (? PK's) and 19 assists. Our top scorer was Ale Moreno with 9 goals (followed by GBS, tRR, Brad Evans, Marshall with 7, 6, 5, 4 respectively). In 2009, GBS was our top scorer with 12 (? PK's), followed by Gaven, Moreno, Garey, Marshall (6, then 4,4,4).

In my opinion, that is CLEARLY due to a change of style. He asked GBS to do A LOT more than he had done the previous years in terms of scoring (a forward should score, right?), and less in terms of on the field mgmt. That is, in my opinion, one of the key issues as the season ran down. He ran GBS into the ground that season. He was 7th overall on the team in minutes played, and he needed a break here an there. I think RW was on his a$$ toward the end of the season as he wasn't putting forth "maximum" effort. Hence the first game benching against RSL. #oops

 

TrueCrew is right. We all have a blind spot for St. Sigi. And the sitting back was not culture for TFC (you can make that argument for other games however). What I saw was a back line that was being attacked at full speed with a lot of space against our wing backs. This type of play caused our view tired defense to do a lot of emergency clearances, long balls up and out. This does not equal a lot of possession. Fortunately or unfortunately the Crew are really very good at this type of defense. I thought the addition of James and O'Rourke helped to calm this a little, they still need to do better. Around the 80 minute mark they started to play it to the Midfielders or toward the corner flags. This helped move the whole team up.
This brings up the weakest area of Andy's game, distribution. Andy is not great at getting the ball out far and wide. The TFC defenders were sitting at midfield and knocking them right back in.

 

When will people understand this. The BEST defense is possession. If we knock the ball back and forth between defenders to midfield to forward back to midfield. That allows our team a breather, makes the opposing team work harder chasing, and they can't score if they dont have the ball.

There is a coaching point here: Make the ball do the work.

By substituting in and tactically changing our mentality the way RW does game in and game out, we are absolutely going to have a tired back four. We cannot defend for 90 minutes. No team can.
Hold the ball. pass it around. To do that you have to have technical skills in the midfield. Not sitting on the bench.

 

Um... how do I say this...


Ditto.

 

Exactly. It felt like Higuain and Milo were the only players looking to possess and slow the game down at the end. Granted, the goal came before they were subbed, but the Crew really started getting hammered after they both went off.

 

We looked dog tired out there and there are still five games scheduled in the next 14 days. Robert isn't running them full-go in practice is he?

 

I'm not sure about that. When I was growing up my friend had to take his irritating little brother with him. Sure we pummeled the kid when playing smear the queer but he was still an obnoxious runt. TFC and their fans are somewhere between that kid and a case of athlete's foot. Just enough to be bothersome but never anything threatening.

 

Careful. You might want to ask Mexico how that's worked out for them for the past, oh, 15 years or so against the US.

You're not wrong, because possession does help tire out an opposing team if not physically, then mentally. But...needz moar qualifiers.

 

I really like your rhetorical question there.

...I remember on 3 specific occassions Higuain putting the hands up to indicate to Renteria and others to slow it down. Possession.
Literally coaching on the field.

Ever wonder how Barca gets away with playing 60+ games a season and how their starting 11 is mostly static?
They possess 60% of the game. We dont have the talent they do, but damn, we can mirror their concept.

You bring up a good point.

Mexico is usually a possession team.
Look at their Olympic team, they out possessed their opponents by a large large margin.
Then their gold medal game. Brazil who are masters at passing the ball around actually possessed the ball a higher % but it was Mexico who won the day...how?
They changed their play to a High pressure and a good counter.

While this method can be used for success, in the long run it is not a viable option for winning tournies.

1 time is all I can recall that working long term. Greece in the Euro Cup. They played 100% defense and countered through out that tourney. And what does EVERYONE say about that, "what an anomaly"

 

Granted, but that talent is also used to press the living shit out of teams immediately upon losing possession so that they can get the ball back super-fast. That takes a shitload of energy, talent, and tactical awareness.

If you don't have all those tools (in greater magnitude relative to your opponents), you'll become a sieve on the counter. And don't discount the amount of work required to maintain those triangles while actually in possession, and the mental fitness required to constantly be looking to form them in all situations. It's not a small thing and you can't really do it unless you have all the right players and those players are tactically aware above and beyond their opposition.

It's how Akron and the top ACC schools can be so dominant in college soccer - they emulate that style, but it takes some serious talent and coaching, things we don't have relative to the rest of MLS.

 

I'll agree except for this part.

 

Each of the players that was subbed in is usually very good at possession and have good technical skills. Of the people on the bench they best option. James, O'Rourke and Grossman are better than Meram and Tchani but not Duka, who I think was being saved for NE. In addition Arrieta, Birchall, and Gaven were already out there and they are pretty good at possession too.
I am not saying RW is was perfect (I probably would have put in Duka) but to compare the Crew to a teams with the skill and depth for team like Barcelona and Mexico's national team makes is terrible. Barcelona can play 60 games a year because half the La Liga teams they can send out there B team and still win. Be realistic in your comparison and you might sway me.
There are only a few ways out when pinned back in a compressed defense, like fast passing or bombs to the corner flags. It seems like we had the best players, that the Crew has, out there to do both.