They will be led by a man called El Burro. some young 'uns in the team of the week. Lennon, Sands , Herrera, Pomykal.
NYCFC's James Sands was IMO the most impressive new MLS flavor on match day 2. Great reading of the game, won a lot of balls ( 5 tackles, 4 interceptions) and was very calm on the ball from the #6 slot in a 4-1-4-1. The 18yo clearly outplayed Russel Canouse in the middle of the pitch. No way Keaton Parks gets on the NYCFC field as a #6 ahead of Sands. Bill Hamid made some saves that reminded me why Howard recommended him as the US backup in 2011. S Johnson matched him save for save!
More detail on Sands. Some think he may grow into more of a CB. If true he may be a Geoff Cameron CB/CM hybrid. 🔵 James Sands (18) vs DC United:75 touches49/59 passes7 ball recoveries5/6 aerial duels5/6 long balls4 interceptions3/5 tackles3 fouls1 key passGrowing into his starting role. pic.twitter.com/lHm6wYQFVG— SCOUTED (@scoutedftbl) March 10, 2019
Remember that we are internet fans of a sports team with day jobs that we're already underperforming at because of this sport. Let's keep expectations reasonable.
Like eating fries without ketchup or drinking powdered milk. I tried but disliked the experience. b.t.w. Miles Robinson is acquitting himself in his match-ups v. Mexican teams in CCL. We could put him in against Costa Rica and likely be just fine. Jonathan Gonzalez is a traffic cone.
Robinson and Nagbe have both been excellent. Sick pass from Nagbe. What a pass ✨What a finish 😡@JosefMartinez17 can’t stop scoring!(🎥 @UnivisionSports)pic.twitter.com/UVw1EViOMS— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) March 14, 2019
I posted this info before but it beard repeating. Miles Robinson is an athletic stud and is the only player through 2018 to measure top 5 all time in 2 of the 3 MLS Combine events. He was 5th all time in the 30 at 3.88 secs and 3rd in the vertical at 34.5". The only performance test that was not stellar was his 5-10-5 agility time. The confidence and ease he displayed in skipping past pressing attackers with the ball at his feet and his passing touch were very impressive. FDB seems highly impressed and has made Robinson his preferred starting CB. Bright future!
Perhaps Robinson enters the conversation as a preferred partner of Brooks who needs a speedy right back to cover for his occasional lapses by small quick players.
I was curious about his passing chart for yday - they don't have the opta stats up at MLS yet. His positioning playing the middle guy was very good. I don't think you see concacaf running circles around him like they did Brooks. It seemed like Atlanta were using Larentowicz and Parkhurst on either side of Robinson giving a freer role to Remedi and Nagbe to advance into the attacking half.
Ideally, Robinson's passing would be good enough to replace Brooks outright. Robinson, Long and Miazga sounds good. Miazga has always done well for us at a high level like against France, Brazil, Mexico, et al. I'm not totally sold on Long's distro. Miazga has improved a lot.
He's not David Luiz, but he's fine in the area. Monterrey is adept at applying pressure and his teammates passed the ball to him in positions where they were asking him to beat his man to keep the momentum going forward. And he often did that, instead of just playing it safe to the keeper. Evade and play square, sometimes bypassing a teammate for a longer switch, or hit some line-splitters. He occasionally hits a testing long ball as well. And can dribble into space and lay off. He's more than sufficient and keeps getting better. But I like the suggestion of being part of the pairing with Brooks. They complement each other well for reasons previously stated. You just have to keep an eye on Brooks. If he mentally loses it in a game again, preventing the team from winning, he may need to be relegated to luxury player/backup who helps you in a pinch when the more consistent Long and Miazga aren't available. You're in do or die situations a lot more internationally than for your club. Consistency matters.
That was nice, flowing soccer by SKC in the 3-0. In terms of half-court offense, they are the best I've seen in MLS---'like Barca' as the then coach of Toluca had stated. Not the level, but a bit of the style and effectiveness.
Add Miles Robinson to the list of Olympic eligible centerbacks................EPB, CCV, Trusty, Glad, McKenzie, Robinson (LB/CB). All of those 6 already have full USMNT callups. Plus Chris Richards of Bayern Munich, who has huge upside. [Then there are all of the not-so-old options that'll be in their primes come WC22 qualifying: Brooks, Miazga, Zimmerman, and company.] We have sheer numbers there. We need a couple of them to really take the "next step." Some days Brooks like that player in the Bundesliga, and some days he looks like a flamingo on ice skates. We knew Robinson had a lot of raw materials. Hence why he went #2 overall in the draft (just ahead of recent USMNT callups Lewis and Ebobisse). It seems that he's really been molded nicely by Atlanta now.
I don't believe that MLSSoccer purchased the analytics package for those matches from OPTA. Nothing is free, we are not communists!
He has plenty of motivation from people blaming him for losing games he wasn't even at because Jermaine Jones told a story about him and his dog so everybody grabbed onto that to make him the scapegoat for missing the WC. People can't think for themselves and have to put themselves in camps. He was the face of the MLS camp for Europhiles, and as we know MLS is to blame for everything that's wrong with USS to them, so Morris in turn was as well.
What a start for Seattle and Jordan Morris! First, he sets up Victor Rodriguez for the opener against Chicago (via @SoundersFC) pic.twitter.com/tRMEOVzE8H— SI Soccer (@si_soccer) March 16, 2019 @NewHorizons_SB ⚽️#MLS: Jordan Morris has done it again! How can you not love this guy? #cf97 0-2 #SoundersMatchday | 35’pic.twitter.com/JhLD7poNxK— • (@thatNSCfan) March 16, 2019