Olsen (or was it Kasper) said in the off season that they were looking to develop some tactical variety this year. Seems to me from the results, they picked the right games to do that. I'd agree it won't work against the cream of the crop, but against mid-to-lower table teams on the road... it has to be executed better, but it's gotten us results. And, I'd argue, there's no way adding Mora to the mix makes this formation worse. It's possible injuries opened the door for this, but it's equally possible they planned to give this a go anyway. Ya, we need more centerback/cowbell. But in this formation, Jara and possibly Durkin could serve there. Yesterday I noticed we didn't do well positioning for second balls. If we're going to play the scrappy underdog that wins with 40% possession, we've got to do that. Otherwise, Bill has to stop launching long balls to the other team. That element alone could be the difference between parking the bus and going for the jugular
the gd long balls are one of the things that annoys me about MLS and USMNT ball. and it has been this way for decades. I remember watching a MNT game at summers with the bruce. I asked why do we always do that? he said because the us/mls just doesnt have anyone good enough to bring it up from the back. 20 years later nothing has changed.....
Plenty of long balls are played in the best leagues in the world. Maybe a little more for the reason the Bruce mentioned, but overall I think just like mixing passes and rushes in football spreads a defense and keeps them guessing, the same is true by mixing long balls and small pass combinations.
One of the things that most impressed me about Pines was how good he was with the ball at his feet and his ability to pick out passes.
Duh, this is next weeks game, the thread title threw me off. Anyway, just got done watching the game. Please tell me the Rooney fan girl wasn’t with our traveling support. Made it sound like a WUSA game “I love you Rooney.” Thx, Jay!
Obviously a lot of knowledgeable people posting, but what I see is teams high pressing all over the place and giving Hamid little choice but to kick long. I'm not keen on seeing Birnbaum or Brilliant trying to control and turn on very quick and skilled forwards and midfielders.
What about Durkin? Also, Rooney isn't bad at winning the ball or odd the air when Hamid had to play long.
Unfortunately, Hamid gets under the ball too much and the ball then drops like a lob pass, and its generally up for grabs. And unless Rooney has excellent positioning, the taller defenders win the ball.
At this level, you coach yourself on your weak points. Maybe somebody needs to point some finer points out to you, but its up to you to put in the effort in the off-season and in the off hours. When I did game-day volunteer work for DC United home games in 2012, I would always - ALWAYS - see an rehabbing Bošković practicing free kicks on goal. Maybe with an asst coach, sometimes with just other players. But he was doing this all the time. And its very easy to point out players who we fall in love with their first year or so, but who then seem to regress. Thats on them. Not the coaching.
I hate to be reminded of Boskovic - Olsen's biggest blunder IMO was not recognizing his quality. And Ben admitted this to me after the fact.