I know. Somewhere in the world — probably a bar, a mental ward, or the back of a stolen van — Hope Solo is reading that going “damn. That’s a harsh thing to say about a teammate.”
I am by no means a Nagbe stan. He is an MLS elite #8 as Parkhurst says. What he does for his team is largely what our team is missing. He gets the ball in the defensive third or middle third, turns quickly and drives the play forward at pace. He can dribble comfortably in the middle of the field and find the attacking players ahead of him. That's it. People have clamored that he doesn't get goals or assists and that with his skill level he should be more of a #10. He is not that player. I've harped on the fact that Trapp and Artur do not do this well. Both seem alergic to turning under pressure and don't get me started on how bad they are at connecting vertical passes with the attacking players past midfield. Tchani (I know he has faults and haters here) was the last player we had that did this with any frequency. Guzman did it some but was so bad at other soccer related things that it did us no good. I don't want Nagbe, He's too old to build the team around at this point. If we can't get Artur to pull his head out of his ass and figure out how to complete a 20 yard attacking ball then we need an upgrade. I wanted Artur to be the guy; he's young, cheap and has a very good defensive sense. And sense Trapp is a lock to start, Artur is the only one that can be upgraded. I'd happily slot Artur into Trapps spot and find a Nagbe/Tchani/Bradley type to play ahead of him. I also think as we rebuild that we might be moving away from the 4-2-3-1 to 3-5-2 or 4-3-3. We'll see how that shakes out.
I'm sorry, but when I hear the name "Issa Tall", I cannot shake the thought of Jar Jar Binks describing the Empire State Building...
That thought never occurred to me, and I'd 100% forgotten about the existence of Jar Jar, but now that you mention it... I had to go get some paper towels to clean up the coffee I spilt while laughing so hard.
Room with a View..goal after goal..at least he sees what's coming even if he can't stop it. A questionable signing indeed? Yes, do something quick, we lost Stephen signing. Certainly he needs help in front but it's not looking great. He his fine with the ball at his feet.
Today Room had a much better game than Steffen in Germany. Steffen allowed one goal, gave up two rebounds of which one should have been buried and made a good save. Room allowed two goals that no keeper in MLS would save and you're complaining about him? Dude, you're barking at the wrong tree.
Room has 5 starts and has has given up 8 goals..Eight! Room gave up 2 goals Saturday night and Steffen 1. Do the math, you may want to correct your statement.
Go back to the 8 he's allowed and tell me which ones he's supposed to have saved. I can think of one where he might have had a chance - the first one last week against Cincinnati. Take the other 7 and tell me which ones of these Steffen would have saved. If you believe Steffen would have saved a header from 3 yards out by Altidore then you're dreaming as he couldn't save one from 6 yards out yesterday. If you believe he would have saved the first one I can take you to another long goal from 35 to the opposite corner that he allowed.
Exactly. A soccer net has 192 square feet to shoot at. A goalkeeper can only cover so much. If you give guys all day to shoot, or leave them unmarked from in close, goals are going to happen. As DGA alluded to, the last goal Steffen gave up for us in his last game for us was a long-range blast that had people wondering if he should have had it.
What i like is the possibility of adding a DP or two comment . I know we will get one for sure and the type of CAM//CM we get May speak volumes of future formations. I can’t wait until the winter transfer window opens .
Seems like Room is a decent shot stopper, but he lacks command of the box and is severly lacking when it comes to dealing with crosses.
I'd love to get one of each or two CMs or whatever. Then have Trapp and Artur fight over being the 6. Let Ricardo Clark move on or retire respectfully. Drop Guzman unceremoniously. Use your first draft pick on a DM to be the backup to Trapp and Artur. Go out and get a badass duo of central midfielders who will attack. One on a DP deal and the other on TAM. Maybe have one be a highly rated young guy from South America and the other a more experienced player, maybe upper twenties or even 30, who's been doing it well for a bit in Europe but still has plenty of gas in the tank. My optimism would raise a lot then.
I do wonder how many current players are really locks for this roster, or at least penciled in as being a starter, for 2020. Every time I think about it, the number gets smaller: GK - Room LB - Valenzuela CB - ?? CB - Mensah? RB - ?? MF - Trapp MF - ?? CAM - ??? RM - Diaz? LM - Santos?/Mokhtar?? F - Zardes The only players I'd be shocked not to see in the Starting XI in March (barring injury or, in Trapp's instance, international transfer) would be Zardes, Trapp, Room and Valenzuela. Behind that tier, I honesty have no idea. To hear Bez talk about center back being such a vital position, the hardest to fill, I do wonder if they see Mensah as being good enough, especially if they intend on slotting in a very young Keita in the other CB position. I'd not be surprised if the club targets a different CB and parts ways with Mensah. I wouldn't lose any sleep over this decision if they did. RB? Hey, there's no bigger Cadden groupie than me, but as well as he's doing in England (and the next issue of Cadden Watch is just about to go to press!), he's plying his trade right now in the English 3rd division, and I won't fully believe his performances there will translate to MLS until I see it. Artur? Guzman? Maybe Artur starts, maybe he's not even on the roster. But certainly there's room for improvement at DM. Right and Left midfield are areas where we now have a lot of "depth," but by next March, who knows? if I had to guess, I'd say Diaz and a re-signed Santos start the season. Then there's Mokhtar, Argudo. There's promise in these names, but no guarantee of performance. It's been nice to see all of the changes this season, nice that the club isn't satisfied with month after month of sub-par performances. Great. And I think it's made us better, just not good enough.
What if they resign Pedro as more of 10/ back up winger ? I seen Pedro day he likes playing more centrally and that he thinks it has helped him. Maybe he could play LAM /LCM as we change formations and still play winger when needed ( hopefully in a 433 not a 4231) The future is much more exciting than the rest of this season
I shan't make a judgment on a handful of games here, especially with a revolving door defense due to injury. Let's see him over a whole season.
I hope we don't use the 4-2-3-1 next year. I'm tired of playing with two holding mids. If Porter is going to blow up the roster, then blow it all the way up.
Has anyone heard anything lately about Valenzuela? How's his recovery going? Is he in Columbus or Argentina? At this point I don't think he's a lock for the opening day lineup in 2020.
I asked this question to Jacob Myers- the Dispatch beat reporter. He said Milton has been in Columbus the entire season, attending a lot of practices (just not practicing with the team, but working on recovering). I have to thing the mindset of playing soccer for most of your life, moving away to another country, and then being out for the year has to be really tough mentally for someone as young as him. I hope he recovers because I think he can be a dynamic player. But as we saw with Sauro...it's far from a guarantee we get him back at 100 percent of what he's capable of.
I believe they announced a gameday deal of free customization with a jersey purchase during the Toronto match. I told my friend that I have no idea who I would have picked to get on a jersey at this point. We have lots of unknowns on who is returning, some of my more favorite players are aging out, and my friend already has a Milton jersey, which would have been my choice, but I don't want to copy him ha. Maybe just Crew Cat and Number 9.