You can't take that chance. An early red card means all bets are off. You have to step on your opponents necks when you have them down.
Gotta say for those that moan about these first legs being boring I'd say both games got a little intense in the 2nd halves.
it DID backfire on them to do what they did. They stopped creating chances and gave up a goal. And but for poor finishing by Dempsey, they would have given up at least another one ... maybe 2. It was a bad move that didn't pay off this time, and usually doesn't.
Playoff coaching. It's a different animal. Kinnear gets up 1-0 v. SKC last year, does he pull forwards and bring on defenders? Nope. Keeps the starting XI in (Hainault replaced Taylor in defense earlier I think) for the most part and then subs in two forwards for two forwards. Result - Dynamo win 2-0 in first leg. The second goal was scored before the forward subs, but even getting up 2-0 - he did not let off the throttle.
NBC makes mentions of Portland's last home loss: 0-1 to the Montreal Impact in March. Seems like an eternity ago.
They were creating very few chances as it was. The only "negative" sub was Zemanski for Nagbe. Valeri was coming off no matter what 'cause he's coming off his injury.
This is a common miscalculation to think that if we would of just kept doing we would continue having the same result and go on to win 4-0. That doesn't take into calculation the level of desperation that goes into your opponent at 0-2. With that scoreline you know they will throw numbers into the box. Now you can leave your defense thin and gamble that you'll make them pay on the counter, but that's a pretty big gamble to take on the road in a hostile stadium like that. Keeping things wide open could of just as easily ended at 2-2
You think so sitruc? I honestly don't. To me, he went for it in OQ. The problem was that both his keepers imploded on him in the final game, giving up 2 poor goals. Nothing a coach can do about that. i still think he personally did a good job there.
Desperation causes mistakes as it opens up holes that can be counterattacked effectively and easily. If it was so easy to just score goals by being desperate, then every team would just throw massive numbers forward and do it. They don't, because it's foolish to do so. Sitting back and allowing a team to attack you desperately without the threat of a counter is what causes problems .... and Porter played right into Seattles hands in that regard.
Life and hope. I am a Sigi fan, but he should have sacrificed Neagle to Clint, not Rosales. Portland is good at all positicns, and they have the speed to expose us. I am worried about next year because of this loss. Joe is going to go with Clint, who thinks he is the bees knees at the top of a diamond, despite zero evidence in support. Sigi should have given Clint the Cobi treatment; play underneath the striker when you still have the pace, otherwise use your "veteran guile" on the wing. Portland are a very good team with a very good coach.
I don't think taking Nagbe off was a good idea. One thing that I have noticed after watching Nagbe play a lot is that he is much better when he gets to play centrally as a CAM than he is when he has to play on the right. Unfortunately, Valeri is also at his best in the center, so Caleb Porter usually plays Nagbe out of position to accommodate Valeri. It's only when Valeri isn't on the field and Nagbe gets to play in the center that he shows what an amazing player he really is. He proved that again in this game by scoring a goal shortly after moving to the middle. So the sensible thing to do would be to try and get Nagbe as many minutes as possible at CAM. Playing him out wide most of the game and then subbing him off not long after he was able to move to his best position is a waste his abilities.
Alonso's goal changed everything. Maybe it doesn't come across on the TV broadcast, but the stadium was insane... So much hope leading up to every failed attack -- hitting 3 crossbars, Dempsey's miss inches wide, Dempsey's open header to Ricketts at the death, Evans wide-open volley to Ricketts, EJ's wide open header wide... All that hope turned into an increasing rabid (and increasingly drunk) frustration. Then Alonso scored. He actually nutmegged Ricketts on a lefty volley from the spot. There was this euphoria. Like-- "Oh, just ONE goal? No problem." And who knows-- among the players who didn't start but are "day-to-day" are Obafemi Martins, Deandre Yedlin, Mauro Rosales, and Steve Zankuani, The sad news is, at least from what I witnessed, I don't think Zach Scott or Leo Gonzalez (both outside backs) will be available. They are backed up by Yedlin and Burch, so not a nosedive, but a problem. Anyway, thank god for Alonso. Thursday night will be... very interesting.
Donno if anyone noticed this but the throw-in that led to the Alonso goal was a foul throw-in. Whoever threw the ball in clearly had their foot planted in the field of play. Just as bad as a missed offside call IMO.
The best angle I saw available made it look like his foot was on the touchline. Even if the front part of his foot is in the field of play, having that foot on the line makes it a legal throw-in.