I was on Espindola for trying to do too much by himself, but then realized, as he did, that no one else was doing much of anything. But at least Doyle got off a cracker of a shot that curled wide. But it's a start!
My sub pattern would have been : Aguilar for NDL … NDL looked gassed. I saw no benefit in taking Arrieta off yet. Coria for Arnaud … If the offense still wasn't clicking by the 65/70th minute this just seemed like a no brainer. Take a defensive minded player off who wasn't having a good game anyways and see if a midfielder with more attacking instincts could help open things up Silva for Korb … ffs if it's still not working in the 80/85th minute what the hell do you have to lose? Throw the damn kitchen sink and see if you can find a goal. Every week in the top leagues around the world I see teams switch from a 4 man back line to 3 man back line late in games when they need a goal. If that empty bucket 4-4-2 hasn't worked for 80 minutes what makes you think it'll work at the end when the other team is committing more defenders? "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"
I think Ben is a very conservative coach. If it's 0-1 on the road, he's pretty happy to let it ride and see if we can get something out of it, by skill, or by luck. I think he's very reluctant to make those kinds of changes because he hates to see that result in a 0-2 scoreline. He's a player's coach, he believes in them and doesn't want to tinker too much. I think he's also still young and, believe it or not, lacks some confidence to take those chances.
Coria was left home injured. Olsen was missing Coria, Pontius and Farfan as offensive subs. After Aguilar entered (and I agree it should have been for NDL), Doyle was the only "offensive" sub left on the bench. (Note: I'm beginning to appreciate Doyle's strengths, the problem for him is that playing forward is not one of them.)
This is true … Like I said it's not a ridiculous approach from a results POV over the course of a season. Ben always has this team positioned close enough that if the opponent makes a big mistake we have good odds of capitalizing. I bet Ben is more pissed that we gifted them an easy goal over the fact that we were so impotent going forward. This cynical negative approach is only successful if we don't make any mistakes ourselves. I'd love to see Olsen coaching in the NFL … Something tells me he's the guy that runs the ball on 3rd and 10 at midfield just so he can set up a marginally better punting position Yikes … didn't realize Coria was hurt. He's one of us now. Still would have subbed Silva for Arnaud … Silva used to play a decent amount of attacking midfielder in his Toronto days. And maybe Doyle for Korb at the very end … I just feel we would have been more dangerous down the stretch if Arrieta and Rolfe would have stayed in longer.
They did. As a rookie, Aguilar's strengths of energy, attack and decent footwork are useful in a substitute role. When he is forced to play a complete game for the full 90, he suffers because his game (especially defense) isn't yet complete.
Arnaud was 41/50 passing for 82% completion, slightly above the team average. Kitchen was 52/58 for 90%, that's more like it. The thing is though, Arnaud and Kitchen almost invariably pass side to side. If you go back and look at Halsti's Opta chart from Chicago, he played at least ten balls vertically and connected on about half. The team needs this presence, this ability to split the defense. Guys make the runs, Kitchen/Arnaud rarely reward them. I'm for Kitchen/Halsti all the way, even if it's a step back defensively at first. The team needs to be able to create from midfield to have any shot of success in the playoffs.
I can't argue with the stats people because I don't keep track but I'm not quite sure how they come up with those figures because I counted at one point that Arnaud missed six straight passes, made a lateral pass to the left side, received the ball back, and promptly passed it to an Orlando player. I'm not sure what the criteria is for a "completed" pass but it is really hard for me to believe that Arnaud completed anywhere near 82% of his passes. I'm not disagreeing with your comments--I obviously don't understand how those stats are calculated. Thanks for the info, though.
Go to MLS.com and click on the score of the game. Then click on the box score tab. At the bottom, the Opta stats will appear. You can select passes completed/not completed for a particular player. Not only that, if you hold the cursor over a particular pass, you can see the exact time it occurs. So while it may not jibe with what you saw, they do put a lot of detail into their calculations, so much so that you can rewatch the game and follow what they saw via the time in the game and draw your own conclusions.
I think it's perception more than anything. Easy boring lateral passes and back passes hardly register in our memories since a typical game can have anywhere from 200 to over 500 pass attempts for each team. The ones that stick out is when you see an open man in a forward position and the pass fails. That's probably where you're remembering the "6 in a row" … I too remember a period of about 5 minutes late in the first half when he squandered at least three very good forward passing opportunities
Just out of curiosity, were the Orlando fans (ultras, I mean) loud on TV? Because from where we were we could hear almost nothing coming from their side.
There was crowd noise and shots of rhythmic clapping. However, given that broadcasters can "augment" sound and focus on specific parts of the stadium, my TV perception probably isn't reality. Also, given that Fox was consistently fellating Orlando in general and Kaka specifically, who the fcuk really knows if there was anyone at all in the stadium. Maybe they were holograms like the crowds in Gladiator.
Thanks. I think Boloni86 has it correct for me. I tend to be looking at the attacking movement more than the more routine lateral/back passes that are also included. It would be good if we could just measure completions moving forward--I think those stats would be more revealing. Appreciate the input.
How could you hear nothing from where you were in the stadium? You all weren't that far from where I was sitting, and I heard them clear as day all match.
Prob cause we had the drum going within 15 feet of us over there, and we are in our own sound bubble. I feel the same as Theo, The only time I could really hear any chanting was the OC clapclap SC clapclap chant, which I think was mostly because too most of the stadium joined in on that one.
I did hear you guys throughout the match, but couldn't really see you (just the first row or so), so I had no idea how many of you there were. How many were there? And yeah, that OCSC chant was the loudest because the whole stadium gets involved, but they were doing some rather long songs that could easily be heard (and I was pretty impressed by a couple of them).
I've found that the 2 places where you get the most distorted sample of what things sound like in a stadium are from within a supporters section and on tv.
DCU and the USA women share the same problem: an inability to go to goal from within the penalty area. Both teams are relying on crosses from the wings, but have been very weak in making penetrating runs into the box to receive a pass or play a teammate in. Rolfe and Espindola can do this, but maybe they need someone else to divert and occupy the central defenders. Pontius? Doyle (don't laugh)?
The real stark contrast between DCU and how a lot of other teams play is how many people DC throws into the box. At a couple points during the game on Sunday, during the second half no less, United had ONE player in the box for a whipped in cross. ONE. Regularly, it might just be two or three, as Arnaud and Kitchen hang too far back, and the winger on the side of the fullback usually swinging in the cross is playing deep as cover. Watching other teams (in MLS and in other leagues), you regularly see 5 or 6 guys bombing into the box for a cross. United really need to do better at this - there's a better chance of turning an open play cross into something with simply more targets in the box!
My seats were originally below the Ultras (131), but the sun was blinding and hot so we were moved to the handicapped seating across from the DC supporters and could see them (and often hear them) all game. I thought they represented quite well.