The following Saturday is the first home game of 2014, and we'll be celebrating that we won the Shield before the game against Colorado. Once again, our pre-game home is El Pastor Bar & Restaurant (570 Market St. Newark). Kickoff is at 4pm, but you'll want to be at the stadium early for all the pre-game festivities. ESC members will be receiving a separate email soon regarding the procedure to purchase single game tickets for this game. Keep an eye out for that.
Something new for 2014: our friends at The Football Factory at Legends are now running TWO buses to the game from Manhattan. The first will leave Legends 3 hours before kickoff and drop you right at El Pastor! The second will leave 90 minutes before kickoff and take you directly to the stadium. Both cost $20 and include beer on board. It's a great way to skip the usual mass transit experience and ride in comfort. Full details are available here: http://www.footballfactoryny.com/trips The team is also running a blanket drive to help those less fortunate. If you'd like to help out, we'll be accepting donations at El Pastor before the match. For full details, please check out the information here: http://ht.ly/u6uF2 FYI, you can also purchase your tickets for the Montreal game at the ESC table.
So, lineup thoughts, assuming nothing changes throughout the week. Henry-Cahill Convey-Luyindula-McCarty-Sam Miller-Olave-Armando-Eckersley Robles 2 alternatives, 1) Miller out, Convey at left back and Steele in. 2) Cahill back, Luyindula out, BWP in. I say Sekagya out and would prefer Eckersley to Kimura in general, let's see what he can do.
I wouldn't change the lineup from last year any more than necessary. If anything to send the new guys a hard message that they weren't brought here as a starting 11 replacement. Either: Henry-Cahill Steele-Peggy-Dax-Alex/Sam Miller-Olave-Sekagya-Kimura Robles or Henry-BWP Steele-Cahill-Dax-Alex/Sam Miller-Olave-Sekagya-Kimura Robles I prefer this one with Sam and Peggy on the bench. I'll be there! When I called for tickets in the upper deck a few of the areas I wanted were already sold. So I'd guess a healthy 20k is probably in order.
Interesting. I don't see it that way. I think they were absolutely brought here as quality for the starting 11, especially Eckersley and likely Armando. Convey is a little harder as he might function really well as a versatile substitute. But regardless, I feel like even with your opinion, they need playing time before we can write them off. All three are at least potentially starting 11 material, and if they are a potential upgrade, how will we know without them on the field? Maybe a compromise is in order. Put in Eckersley on the right and substitute Armando and Convey in throughout the game. See if they can fit in slowly. Thoughts?
Agree almost entirely with this one, but what's your thought behind starting Sam on the bench? I thought he was our best player not only against Vancouver, but throughout the preseason as well. For me he's earned that starting spot whether we're home or away, its his to lose. And as all of our beat writers have picked up on this week, he's got great chemistry with BWP. I think at this point its a toss-up whether you have Peguy in the middle and Cahill up top, or Cahill in the middle with BWP up top. But considering how atrocious Alexander was defensively against Vancouver, it'd be great to have Cahill add some grit to that area of the field. Use Peguy as a second half sub if we need a goal, or if we're winning then bring in some of the new guys like Convey or Eckersley to slowly integrate them into the team.
My starting 11 would be this... Henry-Cahill Convey-Luyindula-Dax-Sam Miller-Olave-Sekagya-Kimura Robles I'm fine with Eckersley at RB but think that Kimura played pretty well in the preseason. That one is basically a toss up. I prefer Convey to Steele at LM for a home game. Steele is probably better defensively, but I think we need to go into every home game looking to relentlessly attack the opponent. I would save BWP as a potential second-half impact sub if we need a goal.
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That is probably 100% correct, but I would still send them a message. Not bench them permanently mind you, but just let them know that giving up 4 goals in unacceptable and if they are going to allow that to happen we have other guys on the team that will take their spot. Harsh to single guys out, but what can I say? I think bleeding new players in slowly is a great idea when you can do it. And I think we have the depth.
To each his own. I also really like Sam, but I think Petke did Alexander a disservice in the last game. He spent all last year playing as a winger and now you throw him at CM for the season opener? Whaaaaa???? I also really like having Sam on the bench in games where we should be able to control the first half no matter who we throw out there...which I think this game qualifies as. He's a DEVESTATING change of pace as a 2nd half sub. Just need to get him in early enough. Dax, Cahill, Peggy are the CM options. No one else. Sam or Alex I won't be upset with either at RM. Henry, BWP, or Cahill up top. No one else. Miller back in at LB and possibly Kimura at RB. Sekagya at CB with Olave (Convey, Armando, and Eckersley should be fine, but these guys all know each other and got us a lot of points last year).
I gotta say, I kind of loved the weather in the home opener last year. There was something very picturesque, almost surreal about being covered by the roof but seeing the snow fall in a perfect rectangle on the field. But even so, I think we're all plenty sick of snow this year....
This help much better palate all this years (19) shenaningas.... http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...-usl-pro-side-2015-we-see-it-big-big-advantag
Do you think the result last week would have been different if Statue was still with the team? Over the years, I've gotten used to the idea of having an impotent offense (unfortunately), but seeing the defense leak so many goals and be so disorganized was an unpleasant surprise. Hopefully the defense will step up for the home opener.
I honestly don't think the back line, especially the center backs, were the problem last week so I'm not sure how much more Holgersson would have helped. Maybe Olave could have prevented one of the counter attacking goals with a signature miracle tackle, but it'd be nice not to have to rely on those... The problem for me was almost entirely in the midfield, where both the game plan and execution were awful. Vancouver already had a numbers advantage in the middle of the field with their 4-3-3 formation, and on top of that they regularly had their wingers (Teibert especially) pinch in. This left Dax and Alexander with too many guys to cover, and they weren't getting enough help from Peguy or Steele who should have been dropping into the middle. Sam was the only one who actually pinched in to help defensively, kudos to him. This is the chalkboard map for all of Vancouver's key passes (passes that lead to a shot), assists, and shots: Not a single scoring chance came from out wide, they ran right down the middle all game and we had no answer for it. It looked like we were playing with 9 men out there. Check out how many of these plays came from ~10 yards outside our own box, the area that our midfielders should have been applying pressure. Colorado plays a similar formation so hopefully Petke and Frasier spent a lot of time at the drawing board this week, although to be fair Vancouver's midfield is much more talented than Colorado's.