I am a glass half full guy. A point on the road against a Eastern rival we have had a tough time with recently is a good result. Defense was excellent. Steffen really didn’t really have much to do. Artur special mention for coming out of no where to stuff a potential clear shot on goal. My man of the match. I can’t believe I am saying this but Mensah has now become a stable presence in the back. Zardes had a tough match. Just a ton of missed shots and was frequently offsides. Same with Martinez whose play can best be described as erratic. I actually had no problem with Berhalter’s subs. No one was really gassed, things were under control to secure at least a point and he had the best guys out there to exploit a counter. 2-1-0, 1-1-0 on the road all against Eastern Divison rivals. That is a great start in my book.
Maybe the best guys because our back up striker is Adam Jahn. I would like to sub Trapp out ( because I like Artur better if you have 1 cdm) and putt in another attacking player. Sosa for Trapp in a 4-3-3 or put a striker in and go with a 4-1-2-1-2 Our depth at striker is not good enough. Grella is better than Hansen and Martinez so that also hurts. Both young kids need the experience because they have potential. Grella is not Justin Meram but when healthy he should help us considerably.
I can't wait till someone....anyone...is healthy enough to unseat Christian Martinez from the starting 11.
He is young I think with some experience he will devolp and become more consistent. Love the effort and it’s not his fault he is starting by default.
I've seen enough from Martinez to be ok with him getting some starts. He's developing an understanding with the other players for sure. I'm not sure why everyone was on about a boring crap game, I saw a lot of quality soccer (finishing aside). As maddening as it is, there is not a team in the league better at building from the back. I watch a fair amount of EPL and we play it out of the back better than many of these teams over there. Credit to Gggg for instilling that ability. Trapp/Artur struggled a bit in the second half. Accam and their Dokal? were getting way to much space. We definitely looked tired after about 60-70 minutes. This is the third game, that shouldn't be happening as much anymore. No midweek game either. Glad to get a point on the road. Still on pace to be the first Invincibles team.
I welcome you, but I must warn you that around here us like-minded folks are akin to the Kelpiens in the mirror universe.
From WhoScored.com Note Crew is on the right side for each graphic. Personally I’m surprised to find over 80% pass completion, but with 77% of possession being played away from the Union goal it isn’t to surprising we didn’t have a lot of quality chances. Also check out the player average positioning comparison. The lack of support Zardes is getting is fairly clear in that graphic. It is also pretty interesting looking at the 6! Players that the Union were pushing up. This is the kind of thing that drives me nuts about Berhalter’s system. Had we overloaded the center of the field in our offensive third we would have been able to exploit a huge numerical advantage and likely created many more chances. Berhalter has a good system, just not the awareness of when to make key tactical decisions when that system is being canceled out. Teams have started really high pressing us on restarts, especially goal kicks. It is maddening to see us kick the ball to our corner flag on a goal kick where Mensah is closed down by two player immediately. Surely if a team is pushing that many players forward we would have a better chance of winning possession on a long ball forward! All in all this was an early season game in which two sides canceled each other out. Philadelphia set up to neutralize our system, and we were unwilling to take chances tactically to exploit the opposition.
The bad news for me is that I fell asleep a few times during the second half. The good news for me is that I missed most of the second half. Pretty uninspiring game, but it's a point on the road, so I don't care.
I did the same thing fell asleep sometime after halftime woke up around the 80th minute. Still have the gm recorded but not sure I’ll watch
The replay of this game is not available on MLS app. Says no video available. Condensed game is there. Every other game is fully available. Why is that?
I figured is was due to living in the blackout zone, or due to the first half basically not being in the recording. Either way just watch the highlights. Much more merciful for you eyes