Altruistic alert ^. But I agree. Collin is well traveled. Hes boys with Cesar. Has his own tshirt. His game is a shoe-fit for MLS. PV plucked him when others were not. And, did you see him after we won today...? Pay him.
THANK YOU. Needed to be said. Teal had little time to play and at that point, SKC was getting gassed and we weren't playing at the same level offensively as we were earlier. I thought Teal did well enough considering the circumstances. He really really did NOT have much a chance to make himself look good there. You can criticize him for not finishing that, but what about praise for the fact that he put himself in that position in the first place? Would not have made much of a difference if he shot earlier. Didn't have much room to aim on the left and had a guy on his right, he needed to get closer to be able to sneak it past Saunders. I guarantee you that CJ would not have put himself into that position. Thats not criticism, its just not CJ's game. Teal is capable of that and thats why he's been lauded. Can't judge a striker for a quick performance in the dying embers of a game where his side is looking to close things out. Thats silly. Yes, according to his tweets.
He had fresh legs and he was literally jogging so slowly he was barely moving while 50/50 balls came into his area. I know it is hard to judge a player based on less than 10 minutes of play but I expect a player with fresh legs to be out there out running people that have been playing for more than 80 minutes. His laziness at times is on par with Eddie Johnson and it is irritating. The talent is there but the work rate is not.
I didn't think he was lazy based on game play...my take was that Vermes had the team go into a turtle shell at about the 60th minute. It worked out this time, but we lost about 7 points last year with this kind of conservative crap. The defense seemed to maintain their stamina a lot better than they did at the last home game, but this time it was the mids who burned out quickly due to all the early nagging pressure. What I saw from the short shifts was that Zusi's first touch is a huge differentiator from Nagamura. Night and day difference. And what I would actually ding Teal on was his halftime warmup. He and Harrington were out there working on first touch with long passes (interesting, since that's been a weakness for both), but after a little bit of that, they seemed to just be phoning it in and getting sloppy. Neither of them seemed to exhibit the grim seriousness that is the hallmark of the Vermes style stud. At this point, Mikeymoney seems to be in the role of a guy who likes to hang around with the pros, and Teal seems like the kind of kid who has a ton of talent and potential, but hasn't yet had the lightbulb go off about how hard he actually has to work to reach that potential. He is just not as hungry as the rest of these guys. And after reading the stories of CJ's work ethic, I am not sure Teal's is even close to that level yet. If Vermes can pull a moneyball style roster, it's going to be a bunch of those grim workhorses with B+ talent but A+ intensity and work ethic. If SKC brings home a cup, it's going to be because we executed a strategy similar to the NJ Devils during their Stanley Cup runs.
He really didn't have much to do anyways. Its a myth that Teal has no workrate. He's had his moments, but it seems that people are too quick to forget how he wears out defenders and theres been games where his workrate was outstanding (i.e. NY at LSP). Its not sexy and is frustrating to watch, but its how you win games. The most important aspect of it is that it helps saves your guys legs. With our playing style, we can't handle 90+ of high press, high workrate every single game. This team was losing energy later in the game and they had to tone it down and slow things up. It may seem like we lost some games on that strategy, but not doing it has lost us much more. We've been hurt on stretching ourselves out too much late in game and getting hit hard on the counter because our guys are too tired to effectively play catch up.
re bunbury: he looked like he was off on his own while everyone else bunkered in our own half. i got the sense he was staying where PV wanted him, so if LA overcommitted, which they did, he would be able to make a run at goal, which he did, and kill the game, which he did. a goal would've finished the game, but putting the ball off saunders for the corner was just as effective. if saunders had smothered it, or caught it, or it had gone out for a goal kick, LA might have had a minute or so to equalize. teal winning a corner kick off saunders's save took that minute away.
No inside info on this one, just a guess, now that he's learned the league and what he can and can't get away with he's establishing himself as one of the better defenders in the league. And with him being from an EU country that makes it easier as well.
i like the fact that our choice for MotM is so varied... such a dominant performance from so many players... we made them look silly unable to string together more than what, 4 passes the entire game? Next game is 15 pts vs 15 pts. It will be a different type of game, but I am enjoying this greatest start in modern MLS history...
i didn't see the dead spots, but in regards to the pattern, i wasn't a big fan of it. i mean, it was alright, but it was too busy.
I was impressed with the reffing... good calls... fair... let them play... i am pretty hard to please when it comes to referees, so this is a good day...
he didn't just contain him he did what Arena can never like he forced Landy to play defense and focus on things other than break outs and service. Seth and Bobby deserve a shared MOTM, it is unrated but our flanks and fullbacks force other teams to play wider than they want, and more defensively than they want. The way our team is put together it makes it hard for an opponent to break us down if they are always on their back foot. Honestly looking at our games and those of others I think our toughest match ups this season should be- Vancouver, Portland, RSL, DC, and NY. Teams who won't be able to match up with us will be teams like LAG, Toronto, NER, Philly, and Montreal. Thankfully we have 11 games remaining against those teams while only 8 with the tougher match ups. Is Houston still in MLS? Not sure if we will have as many problems with them as I would have thought earlier in the season.
toronto and philly are looking like they'll have a hard time matching up with anyone. RSL next week should be our toughest game for awhile. vancouver, who we play on the road after RSL, were supposed to be really strong offensively than defensively, then turned out to be stronger defensively than offensively--but san jose's shown they can be broken down. NY is hot right now, but we play all three of our games vs NY in... august and september? a lot could change before then. they've got a 3 week break. everybody's going to get bye weeks with 19 teams, but houston's got the new stadium yet to open, too.
I was talking about match ups, styles and players- and it was a joke about Houston and I understand byes but 3 weeks is beyond silly
Boy I'll say!!! They think the refs cost them the game! They felt it was totally one sided, in favor of sporting.