Maybe they could put a tarp on any section of the field that gets torn up. As for the KC game. I had this penciled for a loss so a tie is a better outcome than I expected. It just feels worse because of the late equalizer. Players still making to many mistakes. In any sport, that’s a sign of poor coaching and worse still, we basically play the same system for years. Every team has figured out to attack Lade. He’s simply not good enough.
There is a gaping hole behind Kemar Lawrence, figuratively and at times literally. Still you want to limit the number of times Aaron Long has to stick a finger in the dike. This team is still learning how to play without Adams. That said, Casseres, Jr. seems to be growing into a starting role. He's not as athletically gifted as Adams, but who is? FWIW, the same can be said about Brian White, you can't teach someone to have his nose for goal, he's just more of a poacher than Brad. I'll take the point to stop the slide, but the next game (likely more), will be telling as to how this team plays without Kaku. He doesn't seem to fit in with Armas' plans. Kaku's performance issues track to Armas taking over as head coach. If I were Red Bull, it's time to move on from Kaku, but bring in another central mid with more stature/presence who can do the hard work Armas expects and will fit in better with the quick counter approach of this team. It is no surprise that both goals came from quick transitions. They need to find a player better suited for that system. Too much possession and the team bogs down.
Just back from a little vacation and catching up on news. Hear that Thierry Henry is being considered for our head coach job. Ugh. Didn't want him or year ago. Certainly don't want him any more now after his ignominious debut at Monaco. Hopefully just silly rumors.
Don't really know what to make out of this slump that the team is in recently. The defense is swiss cheese and the offense loses any idea of what to do once they reach the opponent's box. Just horrible low paced soccer over the past few games. Of even more concern is how easily the team were dispossessed of the ball this weekend. You can't win if you cant keep the ball.BWP is ineffective up front because he no longer has anyone to give him service. He's not a dribbling genius type of striker instead he's a cannon shot-- therefore he needs good service to set up the scoring play and it just isn't there right now. i don't understand why it's not there--Kaku was doign a fine job of feeding BWP last season but somehow this year it just isn't clicking the way it used to. I am no coach but i have always disliked the 4-2-3-1 lineup. Although i would venture to say that the problems seem to be more personnel issues than tactical ones. It doesn't appear as if Armas has the right guys in place for the type of soccer he wants to play.
How many foreigners have played for and coached the same MLS club? I would expect Henry to be one of the first if he gets hired.
Lade scored the only goal in the 38th minute assisted by Royer and White. White was the only starting forward because BWP has a strain. Kaku has a 2 game suspension. We started a 5-4-1, but that's with Muyl listed as a defender. We started Robles, Long, Muyl, Tarek, Lade, Parker, Royer, Rzatkowski, Fernandez, Davis, and White. Lawrence, Murillo, and Jorgensen were subbed on. FC Cincinnati hit the crossbar twice. In second half stoppage time, Robles collided with a teammate, and FC Cincinnati headed the ball to make it bounce off the top of the crossbar and continue forward out of play. They haven't scored in 341 minutes. Each club had 1 shot on target. We had only 46.3 percent of the possession. https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-04-27-new-york-red-bulls-vs-fc-cincinnati/recap is the recap from MLS. We are now at 1 point per game, which is tenth in the East. We are tied with Atlanta for ninth in points, but they have 7 games and more points per game. On Saturday at 2:00 P.M., we host the Galaxy, who are second best in MLS behind LAFC. We follow that with a midweek home game on Wednesday May 8 against Montreal, who is tied for third in the East in points per game but has a -3 goal differential. We have a 0 goal differential, and 4 of the 7 clubs in playoff position in the East have a negative goal differential.
It wasn't pretty, but it was a win, and I'll take it. Can this group perform better over time and become a team that can compete? Defensively this played a lot like a 3-6-1, with the wingbacks not only able to overlap, but also to pinch and help out as needed. It was only when FCC started overloading their left side, pushing extra players into attack that they became dangerous. At that point Armas shifted to more of conventional 4-5-1 with Murillo and Lawrence, once again solidifying the defense. It was a good tactical game plan, and some good adjustments, but this team was lucky not to give up the tying goal again. FCC might well come out of this game believing that they should have had a share in the points. But they left it a little late, and Kendall Waston is not an end-to-end player. I could swear I saw Tim Parker send in a bullet cross that tickled the goal mouth late in the game. Go figure.
We played quite well in the first half. Looked like red Bulls of old, with high intensity, high pressing. Nice to see Lade finally get a goal. It was a screamer! But he tries that 10-15 times and scores it once. We got a bit defensive in the second half, and had to rely on some serious luck. I.e. woodwork. Which they hit three times?
We were terrible. Some of the worst soccer I’ve seen us play in years. Energy was good in first half but absolutely no quality in the final third minus a wonder goal from Lade that we will never see again. 2nd half was abysmal. Woodwork saved us 3 times. This should certainly have been a tie against a terrible expansion side and should maybe have been a loss. Getting lucky doesn’t hide the fact that we can’t pass, can’t defend, and can’t stop pooping our pants in the final third. This team is a shell of what we were last year and it’s sad to watch. There is so much going wrong right now you could write a novel.
I'll never criticize a team for doing what is necessary, including getting lucky (three times). But I will say this, a shot off the woodwork isn't considered a shot on goal for a reason, because the goal itself is defined by what it isn't, the absence of physical barrier. The goal is itself the sweet space in between the posts. It's one of those areas where close just isn't good enough. All the trash talk from Mattocks and Waston won't change the fact that they didn't score, due to the fact that their shots were not on target. The tactical shifts in this game were interesting, at least with the lesser teams, like San Jose, Cincy and even SKC, there have been clear tactical delineations. I was glad to see that not only could Armas adjust, putting in the first choice defensive line later in the game. What concerns me is this team lacks a shut it down defensive midfielder who could make (some of) that tactical shift unnecessary. This team needs a true #8, a midfield general, and Davis ain't it. He's at best a complimentary player. And once Kaku leaves, presumably at a deep discount, this team will also need another #10.
Any good look on net I consider a defensive failure. There were way too many good looks for a terrible expansion side last night. I disagree and think that Davis is a very good #8. In discussion for best 8 in the league? No. But he’s very good. I agree about the shut down defensive mid. But we have that player. Armas is making a huge mistake not playing CCJ as a dedicated 6. There might be a few “learning curve” moments but that’s where he should be playing and I think he is going to be an EXCELLENT player. Yes if Kaku leaves we have a roster problem. But I’d say we already have a problem with him based on how Armas has this team playing...which is awful. Kaku thrived under Jesse because Jesse threw the kitchen sink almost every game for 90 minutes and asked his triangle of 2 CBs and his #6 to clean up the mess. The roster was built for that and once we got the missing piece in Parker we were DAMN good. Armas came in and took his foot off the gas. Which would be fine if you had a different roster makeup. But he didn’t make any moves in the off season to build his team in his way. Now Kaku is being asked to do something that he isn’t suited to do. The team isn’t suited for it either. Thus the team is struggling, Kaku is struggling and although I don’t agree with his attitude of late I understand why he’s acting the way he is. I’m not taking excuses for last nights game and pretending it’s an improvement. It’s isn’t. This is EXACTLY the type of game that gives false hope. It was a terrible performance and we should have dropped points. We had ONE shot on target and Connor Lade is never hitting that shot again. We lost the possession and passing accuracy battle to a terrible expansion side. We set the single season points record last year. Yes Adams was one of our most important players but you can’t explain all this with only the loss of him. Armas needs to go. Right now.
Anyone bought tickets to matches this year? I usually do that 3-4X per season but haven't yet this season. I usually have been able to get resale tickets a few days before each match, somewhere in the upper tier of south end for $25-$35, even for playoffs. Then I typically relocate closer to the front row of the upper. Now with the severely low turnouts lately, and all this new upper tier tarping, I'm wondering if I will still be able to do this? If the tarping has the devious effect of forcing us to buy more expensive lower tier seats, that IMHO would be a mistake, for a team which is desperate to attract bodies. The relatively cheap ticket pricing is part of the reason I can rationalize attending as many games as I do.
Wow, that was quite an entertaining match against LAG! We came out and played our old game of high intensity, high press. YES! We went behind but fought to come back, then go ahead. We produced lots of good chances. It didn't seem to matter much that BWP was out of the squad (perhaps that shouldn't surprise anyone, given his recent form). Our defense was solid. Many positive player performances and substitutions by Armas, plus a shape-change right before the game winning goal. Lade had a scare when he seemed to tweak his knee as he was pushed into the advertising boards. Luckily it was not the same knee that he blew out 2 years ago, and he soldiered on. In the end it was a just result I thought. For several reasons, including that VAR made the right calls, except perhaps that Ibrahimovic should've probably seen red in the first half, for not one but two dangerous elbows to Aaron Long's head. The only real negative I took from today was the paltry crowd. Lovely sunny 70F day, with the league's biggest superstar visiting. Remember what it was like when Beckham brought his Galaxy to Giants Stadium all those years ago? NYRB have a glaring problem in this regard... and maybe MLS in general.
Yeah I wasn’t expecting a win either but strange. I thought we made too many bad passes, got dispossessed easily and seemed to play MLS 1.0 long ball. Then at other times we were our old self and and looked dangerous in the final third with our passing combinations. As for attendance. It looks like we sold out the areas that weren’t tarped off with the usual no shows. Seems like that’s the configuration they want for a downsized attendance. Just wish I could see another real sellout there.
We're eighth in the East in points, but sixth in points per game. We host Montreal on Wednesday at 8:00 P.M. We have 11 points from 9 games. Orlando has 1 more point from 1 more game and doesn't play midweek, so we will pass them for the seventh and final playoff position with a win (making us 2 points ahead) or draw (we would have a better goal differential than Orlando). MLS says the attendance was 20,128. Wikipedia says the capacity is 25,000, and that's without tarped off seats, so almost all tickets were sold.
If anyone had any illusions that the official attendance numbers were based in reality, they should read the above.
Wow. Really bad game by us. Started pretty well but we let them back in the game big time. Then lost Long at the end to what I bet will be an extended hamstring injury. And Robles hobbled off after FT. Oh joy! And both of my teams are sucking at the same time the last few months. That better turn around tomorrow!
That was probably the worst loss of the season. No red cards, which would have been the cherry on top of the shit sundae, but everything else that could go wrong, did. I was sitting there in the first half wondering how Amro Tarek could have been gotten for a relatively low cost. Then he went charging ahead into a very questionable challenge, and was lucky not to be sent off. Just about everyone shat the bed at one time or another. At a point where the Red Bulls should have been gaining momentum it all went pear shaped. After this one, including the poor tactical choices made by Armas, the handwriting may be on the wall for his job.
May be?!?!!? MAY BE?!?!?!?!?!? I sure to f#ck hope not! The guy has completely gutted whatever this team had. And don’t tell me about Tyler Adams blah blah blah. Kid is good but he ain’t “hero to zero” good. Armas has left us totally f#cked. Him and the entire front office can be wiped out for all I care. The only way you go from the points record to absolute $hit show is through poor management. Poor player acquisition and poor management. Blow the whole thing up. Please dear god.