Well, nice to see choosing to go to Wheeling to pick up an inflatable pontoon for fishing was the right call again. Man, I might just not watch any more Crew games. Oh - Ben Sweat, 1 assist apparently. Nice to see Crew Rejects contributing against us...
Against a B NYC team at home. Not all impressed with our DB Mensah. As a pro, how are you playing the ball back in the middle of defense?? Needs to be better.
This team ********ing sucks. The only reason they got to the top of the table was by playing way more games then any other team. It's year 3 and the defensive mastermind still has a terrible back line. Mennsah is flying up the list as worst DP in league history. Yet another bad game from Trapp. He wouldn't make any other 18 in the league, but he's from Columbus so he gets a huge extension and is gifted a starting spot every night
People continue to ask why fans to show up to home games. Its hard to justify the price vs the entertainment value. I dont mind losing, you cant wint them all usually. This just isnt an exciting team to watch OR have any players exciting to watch. I could go to a local high school and get similar value especially with some of the passing errors I see.
Why does everyone think so highly of Harrison Afful? He sucks. He doesn't suck like Abu in that he is probably an MLS quality player, but I can't think of a more overrated player in our club's history.
That one DP, Mendoza I believe. He was right up there with over rated. Though Mensah is giving him a run for worst DP.
MANY people felt like you did about Mendoza. Many many people. I think I'm the only Harrison Afful truther.
Cant say I completly disagree but I know few people liked Mendoza because his goal tally (PKs..) Afful was less of a liability when we played the 3 man back against DC. He fits GGG system cause he has the ability to run up and down. Though I would prefer a change in system over having a player that thinks its ever a good idea to play a ball back to your central defense during a high press situation.
Afful pass cost us a disappointing draw or chance to win. Worst pass I ever saw a RB make it's a cardinal sin to make that pass. We have no other decent option at RB. He should be held accountable it was a horrible decision Abu was better but stull below average performance. Mensah still not DP quality
I don't really have a comment on Mensah one way or the other in this match. Not impressed, but he wasn't exactly terrible either. I don't know why anyone would be focusing on him when Raitala basically gave away two goals, and Afful handed the ball away carelessly for the third. Jukka Raitala turned the ball over at midfield and then was ballwatching as his runner went right past him to score the first goal. Then, he was close enough to get run over and have his head split open by the goal-scorer on goal #2; he just wasn't close enough to defend anything. And that cross to the middle of his own end of the field by Awful was just plain afful. Awful. Afful -- you get the point. Naess didn't do him any favors by hesitating to jump on that ball, but you can't make that pass to begin with.
Which they didnt have their major players and 3 people getting their first ever MLS starts. Inexcusable to lose on home turf in the manner that we did.
I see you've been waiting 5 months to make your triumphant return and live up to your username. I think pretty much everything else you posted last night was crap (no offense haha) but this post is 100% correct. NYCFC was without Villa, Pirlo, and Matarrita. Pirlo being out maybe isn't that big a deal, but Villa and Matarrita are. Okoli did nothing. Sweat was actually decent, fair enough. They still had some very good players on the field though: Harrison, Wallace, Moralez, Ring, Callens, Chanot. There is a reason they are one of the very best road teams in the league, and they showed it again last night. That being said, you'd expect a draw at bare minimum. A loss is unacceptable.
I was at the game and just watched the condensed match this morning. Before I park the Abu Hate Train in the garage this week, because Abu stepped his game up and was semi-competent this week, I need to make one quick pit stop first. That first goal, the entire time 5'2'' Moralez had the ball, Abu was 2 yards behind him. Instead of, at any point, hustling and sprinting for about 2 or 3 seconds to catch him and knock him off the ball, he decided to just jog and watch instead. Pathetic. Two guys from MLS Extratime Radio even publicly shamed him for his lack of effort on Twitter. Nobody's gonna stop the ball? Ok. #CLBvNYC https://t.co/nLcUHrgIWf— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) April 29, 2017 Watch Abu throughout this sequence. Straight up cruising, not a care in the world. https://t.co/qI7Zs5uMgi— Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) April 29, 2017 That being said, Raitala deserves twice as much blame. His original giveaway was poor, then he fails to defend the single guy on his entire side of the field that could possible receive the ball, and he just happened to be leading the line and making a backpost run. Sure, Raitala then made up for it with two nice crosses, one resulting in Pipa's goal, but then he got beat for the second goal. It might be time to dust Francis off and let him have another game. Mensah was, ok. Let me be clear, he is NOT a DP. You can't really blame him for any of the goals though. I did however find it odd that between goals 2 and 3 he somehow let 5'2'' Maxi Moralez win a header on the penalty spot. For a guy making, what, $800,000 a year, this is unacceptable. Sauro would never allow that to happen (though sadly he has the knees of a 90 year old). I'd rather start Crognale over him, or play three at the back. Afful has been awful this year. Not sure what happened to him. Finlay continues to not really impress me. Great work on the second goal, but did literally nothing the rest of the game. Our savior Manneh came on late and.... well, I'm not gonna shit on him since GB only gave him 10 minutes (WTF) but that being said, he didn't make great use of that time. GB... waiting so late again to make subs. Again showing he can't make in-game tactical changes. At this point, I think the debate is 100% over about his ability to influence the game once the first half kickoff happens.
I've come around this season. I used to like him a fair bit. And I have always said that he's the reason Ethan went to crap. Before him, we didn't have a player (besides Grana briefly) who could/would get forward as GGG wants. When Grana did, he liked to cut inside. That gave Ethan the sideline or occasionally diagonal lane towards the goal. Now he is forced into a usually straight lane across the field or straight between the 6 and 18. He sucks there because he isn't skilled on the ball. Afful was never a good crosser, but he was less of a liability on defense and he would. Are clever passes or dribble out of tough situations. But he hasn't improved a lick offensively, and is getting worse in other aspects (or the league is improving, maybe both).
Yes, however I could argue that missing Crognale, Artur, and even Sauro has hurt our play in the last two games. In no way should we be starting Abu...
I love Sauro, but you can't include him as an excuse. We've literally brought in Naess, Crognale, Mensah, Williams, and Abubakar all to replace him and fill our the center of defense.
It's sad that Ben Sweat gets his first career MLS start, is carded in minute 2 and still has a better game than our experienced international LB. I hope Crognale is available next week. We probably should try Naess in place of Abu for a game. Why did Gregg wait so long for subs? And sending Raitala back into the game instead of subbing in a fresh Francis is mystifying.
Sweat and Johnson miscue is how Finlay assisted Ola . I didn't think Sweat was very good except the one nice cross that we should have defended better