Trying to stay positive. When we miss the POs (or go out in round 1) at least I save some money. We need to play 352. We get nothing from our wingers offensively anyway. Play Santos as WB on one sude & Afful on the other. Or Valenzuela/Jimenez. Put Meram or Mullins up top with Zardes. We have 1 game left & 3G does not aopear to know who Mensah's CB partner should be.
I didn’t see these quotes. Is that accurate? If so, one has to wonder when exactly Gregg told Meram about this “gentleman’s agreement.” If he waited to tell him that’s pretty piss poor from Gregg.
I'd be willing to bet that GGG thought they could talk Orlando into letting that agreement slide, given that the game had no importance for Orlando....
I still think that the majority of the team is good MLS quality and can play with any other team in MLS. The problem is our DP's. I am glad that Pipa scored but I would love to see him do it from run of play. Don't get me started about the falling man. I would like to have someone explain to the other attacking players that the big rectangular thing with a net on it is where you shoot the ball. Not at the goal keeper and not at the post. There were plenty of opportunities to put the game away in the first half.
Come on, Coupe, you're not supposed to demand production and superior quality from our DPs. Rather, you're just supposed to recognize Precourt's ambition that he deigned to secure the maximum number of them!
And if you really want to be technical, we've got 5 DPs. Mensah's been bought down and Sauro was of "over max salary" skill when we signed him. Five DPs. FIVE! They were all on the field yesterday.
I'm being hyperbolic. It does baffle me that we have struggled so mightily to create looks at goal, especially the last couple months. Our spine is nearly identical to what it was last year. Steffen, Mensah and a parter, Trapp and Artur, Higuain and a striker. I can't put a finger on why this team sucks so much. Santos is obviously a big one. Quantifiably the worst finisher in MLS history. But he also doesn't seem to be making off the ball runs. He disappears when Valenzuela pushes forward. I don't know if that is by design and he's supposed to drop deep to cover. And it makes sense to us because he sucks. But if you're GGG and you're not asking your DP winger on whom your offensive production hinges to get his ass in the box, then why is he out there? Same goes for the other side, though a little less glaring. Meram has combined a bit with Valenzuela when he was on left (Santos was there most of the night). Niko combined a bit with Afful but he wasn't pushing into the box when Afful got deep towards the corner flag. Trapp and Artur rarely if ever make it all the way up the field in support, they're not box to box midfielders. The edge of the circle seems to be where they stop or maybe 10 yards beyond. Now, I don't think both of them should be bombing forward and hitting the penalty spot for crosses, but SOME final third play from a central midfielder would be great to have 5 or 7 times a game. Pipa is SLOW as molasses when we transition from defense to attack. He get's gobbled up by defensive center mids when he plays in the center circle. He just doesn't let the play flow quickly when he drops deeper to find space. Those off the ball runs is the most obvious thing to me that's missing. A winger slicing to the center on a diagonal run to pull defenders and make space for the full backs to attack the vacated space. Then winding up in the box for the cross from that back so that we have 2, 3, or even 4 guys in the box for the cross. Doesn't happen. We get 5 guys doing a passing drill around the box while Zardes is in there with 8 defenders. Win a corner or give it to the keeper via missed target shot or easily saved blast. We're also pretty lousy at winning the 2nd ball in the middle of the park, either off of our or the opponents' loose clearances. Those turnover situations are prime for exploitation. We either don't win the ball and get exploited ourselves, or if we do, we take 3 or 4 touches between 1 or 2 or 3 players before we get a forward pass or ball into space. By then, it's not playing in transition, it's playing against a set defense. It's hard playing against a set defense and we're particularly bad at it, so doing so less often would be helpful. Anyway, we suck and we'll be lucky to make the playoffs at this point. I love that I can say this now: There's always next year!
https://www.dispatch.com/sports/20181020/crew-sc--for-justin-meram-time-in-orlando-had-value "Emotions will be high, Meram said, but he’s not losing sleep over the reunion. “I’m excited to play the game, and I’m sure that club’s excited for me to play the game. It’ll be interesting,” he said. “For me, it’ll be another game, another opponent. I know some of the guys, but I’m not too worried about it to be honest. I’m honestly not worried about it one bit.”
That article was posted on the 20th. Justin Meram was quoted as believing he was going to play in that game as recently as the day before the game. This story just seems so odd. There was an agreement not to play him, and he didn't know about it the day before? I smell a rat here. I'm starting to wonder if there's some double-secret issue going on with Meram, and this "agreement" is being used as a convenient scapegoat so they don't have to get into details. It's just weird.