DCU@Van 5/27: the search for goals

NicktheGreek · May 29, 2017

bigredfutbol said: ↑

On the one hand, I agree with this. On the other hand, Vancouver were clearly the better team start to finish.
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I'm glad you specified Vancouver it would have been a chore sifting through the league to figure out who wasn't better

Funkfoot · May 30, 2017

dcu n bntwn said: ↑

The Sam and Nyarko of last year looked dangerous and confident. Nyarko in particular was able to take on defenders 1v1 and frequently win those battles. He created scoring chances himself and forced opponents to cover, creating more space for teammates in the middle of the park.
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Another thing Nyarko does (or did last year, anyway) is draw a lot of yellow cards, which must affect the other team some on defense. Sam is not having a great year statistically, but he and Acosta have been our most dangerous players. They need help, for sure.

dcu n bntwn said: ↑

Not to be a dick, but the Jeffrey-Harkes tandem is simply not good enough. It's great that they are getting real game experience and maybe this will pay dividends in the future, but they are not good.

They are neither strong in defense or attack. They are not particularly gritty, they aren't hard or aggressive, they don't play with exceptional soccer IQ (not great with instinctive defensive positioning/anticipation), they don't play with exceptional speed of thought or speed of foot, they aren't particularly good at distributing out of the back, and they don't contribute much on set pieces. Jeffrey occasionally takes a decent long range shot, but that is not enough.
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I agree. Either one could slot into a good team without disrupting everything, so they are competent to that extent, but you can't have a whole team of guys like that - you need the good players as well.