I think the Cubo deal was all about getting out from under the investment at maybe less of a loss and did he really want to be here? It had little to do with what was best for the on-field performance in 2018. It’s kind of the point with this organization that you don’t really know whether they’re just going through the motions to try to stay respectable or if they’re really out for a title. There was an interview with Brenner last week where said he would not make any “capricious” signings or some term like that, Which I took for shorthand to mean “I’m not going to do what Atlanta or any of the other big spending teams do” I sort of feel bad for Cabrera he’s the guy probably putting in the most effort
I think I can speak for everyone still (left) here that we'd be more than ok with a wall of text, a la JC, from you on the topic of Chris. It'd be preaching to the choir but praise Waibel away!
I went to the opener then stayed home for the Vancouver game. Someone offered me a tix for $30 then later in the week said “i’ll take $20 for it” because he had no other takers. The day before the game another friend texted me and offered me a free ticket. Even with the free tix, I still stayed home with my 40 something inch tv and my $8 six pack of beer. I just didn’t feel like driving downtown paying $5 to park, $10 gas, $35 for beers and salty snacks, and a future favor to a friend. There’s no one on this roster that excited me to go and spend $50. ...and this is problem because I’m someone who in the early years never missed a home game, traveled to 5ish away games per year, and even flew to Pachuca for a CCC game. I’m far from a fair weather fan. Now if we had a Carlos Vela or a Giovinco or a ATL South American or a .....
I’ve had 3 different people come up to me and complain about Canetti this past week. I was like “guys you know I’m not on the radio anymore so there’s nowhere I can disseminate all this disfunction or least pass along the info along to a real journalist”.
I agree with your post, good example. Exept that I would say that Cubo was the steaming turd, and many of the other players (not all) were the dingleberries, and the FO was the dog that could never learn to wait until you opened the door.
It's sort of hard to articulate the reasons for losing intensity - and sometimes it's just a matter of time and staleness and then it gets rejuvenated for each individual fan - but the last 3-4 years under Brener/Canetti/Jordan feels like this team is run by a bunch of bumbling actuaries that have determined the bare minimum they need to do to be passable as an MLS franchise and it leaks thru to the game environment and fan intensity, to say nothing of the poor customer service.
Ok, I am with you on your overall point. I gave up on Jordan when I saw Raul Rodriguez play for the first time (in my opinion one of the worst acquisitions in the history of MLS), or that young Argentine winger he brought in that so clearly lacked the tools to compete in MLS. I dont like to publicly criticize the roster because its not the players fault and I want to support the players as much as possible. I’m not too bothered by last Saturday. Team did enough to win. We saw that back in the glory days too. Just how footy goes. But we lack depth. Opponent brings on Brek Shea and we bring on Garcia. I told the guy I was sitting with to watch out for that matchup — we could get hurt.
Leonel Miranda? I don't have the data in front of me, but off top of my head we did better with him than not. Of course that's like being a diminutive person who wears heels thinking they're substantially taller now.
Yeah. It was Miranda. That guy needed to be blazing fast with his size. And he wasn't. Not pacey at all.
He didn't need to be. Being good on the ball, and especially off the ball movement, can more than compensate for lack of pace.
You agree with more than half of what JuveChelsea says and yet you wonder why we all don't agree and are disappointed in us??
I put Cubo more in the category of "Bruin" after 2017. For a period he would have been "Landin," unsuitable, unproductive. After last year I think fairness is, has some attributes, can produce, but not in big games, and not really suited to the position where he gets played. "Misfit." Kind of like Bruin in the sense that in a big game he wouldn't score and you couldn't find him for an outlet from the back. Just not a 9. He was somewhat useful top of the D when the break got halted and we had to work it in, but that's almost more of midfield positioning and he's abandoning the garbageman location to do it. In that sense, kind of like Barnes who we turned into a forward but seemed to want to attempt midfielder style longer shots. Quioto does that as well if you've noticed. It's all that curling long distance Kljestan stuff. Not easy but also not "banged your cross in" true forward stuff.
To me the telling difference in a team is usually a few players. Maybe a team like TFC has a few more than others. But in terms of separation from the pack, as long as you don't have the absolute trash we had in '16, it comes down to top notch gamebreakers. Elis is the big difference. The problem Jordan has had for years is either getting trash that was not even midtable competitive, or not enough Elises. The reason we have risen to where we have is his pickups became mostly competent, if old, if sloppy, as opposed to complete bottom of the barrel crap, and then Elis is what elevates you in a playoff situation or an individual game. To the extent payroll matters it's that at our spending level you are not basically "buying" the gamebreaker outright, you are guessing. You pay for Tim Howard and it's no longer "what did I get" like Xmas, but instead "is this still Peak Howard." We buy people "and see." If you want guarantees -- or as close as we get to them -- pay for it. Like I've said for years, the lack of HGP plus the lack of premium payroll puts you in a situation with a premium on scouting, and in all these years he's found one no doubter. So while I grant that payroll puts us in a position, he's hardly a maximizer within that situation. His draft picks don't wow. A fair amount of the veterans are like Quioto, and some are like the pile of crud we signed for two years. In fact, there is the ever-recurring question of whether this is the coach finding people or GM scouting. You get a well known hispanic coach in and suddenly we find a slightly more competent bunch of free agent hispanics. The years before we looked like a MLS castoff team with a different demographic mix. Jordan goes to France and then we trade for people from El Salvador or sign other hispanics. Hmmm. There is no reason to do a chicken little over a playoff team. But I think it still merits critique because MLS slight differences between talent levels you can find and you're either in postseason or tail end of the league. So the heat needs to stay on to address the right areas and get the right people. For that matter, we added a ton of people, remade the team, and didn't win the whole thing. Until we're lifting a trophy keep pushing. Even when we are winning, there is always a Kelly Gray or Cerritos who can be improved upon. To me the "whatever they do is best" crowd can provide them excuses to not make the changes that are needed. Kind of a status quo bias. 2010 should be the object lesson in sometimes you bring back the same decent team and the league has progressed around you and you get clobbered.
Miranda my complaint would be the Escalante/ etc. critique where 1 year loan should be enough. You see it with Elis/Cabezas. They either turn out or not. Sign or move on. If you aren't blown away cycle to the next one because it might be Elis. If you give Miranda another year that's one fewer real roll at the craps table. That's doubling down on a mediocre hand. He wasn't bad. Most soccer players at this level aren't -- something people goofy in love with one showy isolated play tend to forget. He just wasn't even Quioto. People need to remember you are looking for studs and not for mediocre filler. You replicate a team of studs you lift hardware. You settle for people and cumulatively you're headed to the cellar. People think I'm an overwrought jerk on Willis but him starting correlates to missing playoffs. People tend to try and say he's a good player somehow stuck on crap teams but my sense is the opposite, he's the sort of keeper an unambitious team settles on. To be fair, maybe no one on the roster right now is really a star keeper who could stand on their head and win you games by themselves. I felt like Seitz vs Shea was weak sauce. Not his fault but nor did he pull something special from the hat on a saveable shot. But then maybe that might be the point.
I'm concerned about our financial state. I'm concerned whether we're stuck with low budgets. I think the fact the academy sucks is like Neon Sign obvious. I feel like it's fine to critique a team I do like, hoping it improves. This is pro sports, pay to watch stuff. But the idea that just because I can walk you around the field pointing out mistakes, means I am like harsher on the team than the people posting empty seats, etc., pfft. Last season I had us marginal playoffs and that might have even been understating. The people all like ignore this twit had us below the red line. It's not that I am more negative than others, it's that I am willing to openly disagree as soon as I see my signs on the field of where it's headed, and I get bashed for bucking conventional wisdom. In the late Kinnear years I thought it was faltering and got bashed for it. When I got bashed last season for being "too optimistic" it underlined it's political and departure from convention -- in any direction, up or down -- and not that I am always the brooding man in black on here. Right now, I think marginal playoffs again. But we have a slot or more in our back pocket for the summer. I will be interested how we hold up to the summer, which side of the line we are. And then whomever the transplants are is going to decide the season. If they are more like Elis we will elevate. If they suck we will stay put or perhaps even decline. It's more of an analytical purity and perfectionist thing and not that I see an orange door and I want it painted black. Other than the potential financial issues from cratering attendance I am somewhat lost where the anger on here comes from. I think they broke the STH base over about 3 years. People are wondering how to get it back. Astros are one thing we cannot control. But part of it is right in the mirror in the sense of all the p*ssed off people on here who still aren't over it. Objectively the team has improved. Despite saying vague things about game presentation none of you support any of the ideas I throw out, get everyone involved, etc.
Well, he wasn’t great there either. I dont disagree that extremely crafty can overcome small & slow. But that is a rare bird. And L Miranda was not extremely crafty. I still never saw in him the characteristics necessary to compete in this league.
It's a running game where teams often have team defensive schemes, and where raw speed can overwhelm a defense. We routinely get to see this in both directions with this team. The poor dumb bastards trying to stay with Elis. And then Shea going by Machado like he's not even there. One of the flaws in Boswell fandom was that if Lightning had to run more than 5 yards in any direction he was toast, which is why despite high quality soccer IQ he was barely capped, and why he was not part of our trophy years. If you are EXTREMELY GOOD or your team is staffed up a la Eredivisie to play 6-4 no-defense games, fine. But that has never been us. We are set up to defend and counter. Valderrama was slow and rarely played defense. He got to stay here doling out tens of assists a year. (He also never won a title here.) This league does not play like the Eredivisie, it requires team defense. Most teams are not going to do 10-v-11 on purpose, and particularly not for 1-3 assists a season. There were a series of players for a few years there like Lopez and Miranda where we tried "kinda technical and not much else." The reality is that there is technical and then there's HELLA TECHNICAL, and they weren't the latter. In terms of productivity they weren't that much better than bench level. And then on the balance, I know I am getting no defense, I may give up goals as a result, how does that all balance out. I mean, Ashe might "get forward" but he had single digit assists in his career here due to sh*t crossing, and he would actually cost you some goals each season. You net that out and it's net negative. What got Davis on the field for 90 and a key player, rather than the 60 minute role player he started out as, was bolstering the technical bit with fitness and some team defense. Once he did that you can leave him out there all day, the goals allowed are rarely his fault, and those assists are positive gravy. But if you give me a goal and an assist all year, and then maybe allow 3 goals from laziness, what good are you really, on the whole, even if you have 1 flash highlight play. I am glad we have gone in the direction of more pure speed because we are tougher to defend and don't have to bunker as strategy just to keep up. I also think last weekend you saw where some height can be useful. Skill matters and a couple years ago I'd buy saying a team can be too crude and clumsy. We were. I'd even buy a highly technical side can slice and dice, but I think it's under-estimated how technical that means.