PBP: Matchday 11: VAN vs ATL

Oh... and Happy Birthday Frank de Boer!

 

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(I mean, it's us getting stoned 3 times in a row by Crepeau, but whatever.)

 

Jason Longshore on 92.9 The Game said that at the end of the season if Crepeau's 3 goal denial isn't the 'Save of the Season' then 2019 will have been a wild, wild year... or something like that.

 

You are correct, he was good, I just don’t think he is as dangerous as Escobar and I think we need that to give Pity more space. The stats don’t lie, he did the job defensively.

To start getting praise he is going to have to play like this consistently. This is only his 2nd good game of the season (game in Kennedy’s was his first). He needs many more to prove it was good to get rid of Garza for him.

 

George Bello is turning out to be this year's Greg Garza. I loved Greg, but you don't do us much good if you are on the DL, so I say thank God for Brek Shea! IIRC, Greg Garza has only played in a hand full of games for Cincinnati WKRP FC and Bello won't see in a 9 stripe jersey for a very long time.

And lets not forget the 3-5-3 that the entire city was bitching about to begin the season was mostly due to Escobar breaking his collar bone on the first day of training. His return has opened up so many options for the manager.

And my comment about no one giving Brek Shea love wasn't directed at you. I was at the last home game and some fans booed when he subbed in. Classless. And I post on the Facebook AU Fan page because it gets a lot of traffic and no one there loves Brek. Of course they also wanted to fire Frank before the team introduced him, and Pity needed to be traded after his slow start and injury. I think Brek Shea is the last guy they can bitch about over there and they are going to hold on to that hate for as long as they can.

Cheers!

 

I think that is a lot of it. He is the weak link in the starting 11 so it gives people an outlet.

I haven’t liked him since he failed in England. I think his early call ups to the USMNT caused his expectations to go through the roof and it was way premature. Now he suffers wherever he goes because it.

My impression of him (and it could be totally wrong) is that he plays like he does this for a living, not like he loves it. That works for office jobs, but not in sports.

 

When young Americans with great expectations go to Europe and don't latch on I don't think it is a failure if they come back home. It is top flight over there, the game is much quicker, and it takes someone really special to make an impact, much less gain a toe-hold. Sometimes going to Europe can retard a young players growth. Not saying that is what happened in Brek's case, but I can't imagine his British adventure did much to help his game.

My impression of AU's Brek Shea is he is a journeyman willing to do whatever is asked of him. He played on some mediocre teams in Orlando and Vancouver where they unrealistically expected a lot. He seems happy here, is great with fans, and has been an asset on the field. I'll ask you what I asked them over on the Facebook fan page when things weren't go well and and we were giving up cheap goals and dropping points to teams we should be beating. Can you point to one game where Brek Shea cost us points?

 

One good thing about this insane MLS schedule compression... we get to watch two games a week though out the month of May, then they make us go cold turkey.

 

But we won’t be going cold turkey, we will be watching the Women’s World Cup, the Gold Cup, and Copa America.

 

To answer your question, no he hasn’t cost us points in that he didn’t make any of the individual mistakes that caused us to give up cheap goals. However, he hasn’t really done anything to earn us points either. He has no goals and more importantly no assists which are pretty easy to come by in MLS since they count the last 2 passes.

 

I would definitely say he contributed mightily to the goal in Vancouver. His and Josef's interplay on the left caused the collapse of the Vancouver defense over to that side (and nearly led directly to Brek getting a hockey assist). As the play developed, the misshapen Vancouver defense was unable to properly recover, and Pity turned them inside the box. The Brek/Josef interchange and Vancouver's inability to clear their lines caused them to panic and lose cohesion. They fouled instead, and a PK ensued. If Brek hadn't faded into the box, Josef wouldn't have passed him the ball. If Brek's immediate return pass to Josef hadn't been pinpoint perfect, that whole play stalls right there and there's no PK, no goal.

It won't go on the stat sheet as a goal or an assist, but he was one of four guys who made that play happen (Josef, Pity, and Escobar being the other three).

 

I am trying to get excited for the Gold Cup, but the truth is 2017 turned me off of the USMNT in a big way. Not making the World Cup and the leadership giving a big shrug until they realized the fan base actually did care soured my enthusiasm for the national team. Before I would have been excited to see my club's players on the roster; now, I hope none of them get called up so they can rest. Never thought I'd say this: Club before country.

The ladies, though, can't wait for that.

As for Shea, he seems to me someone whose technical ability never matched the physical ability (although he keeps getting bodied by smaller guys, what the hell is with that?). The Vancouver game was his best game in a United shirt easily. Vancouver away is more difficult than Heradanio at home, so that's way more impressive. I'd still like to see Bello get healthy and play though. He's the future.

 

I hear you on the Nat team. Before I had a local team to root for I lived through the national team... now I couldn't careless (well I could careless, but that would mean a call up to the USMNT).

I have tried to get excited about women's soccer, but the game is too slow and the women take resources away from the men at the collegiate level. And before anyone gets too irate at me, please table it for another thread. I'll be glad to discuss the women's game there.

Finally we come to George Bello. He isn't coming back anytime soon, so we'd better learn to love Brek Shea. So far Brek has exceeded all my expectations, but the AU fan base is a tough crowd and they seem to have an inexplainable and visceral hatred for him. Parkhurst will be starting Sunday at LB, but TBH Parky is too old, to slow to play LB. He does well in the middle as a CB where his experience and game awareness are an asset, but young guns are playing well and now Pogba is part of the CB core, so he won't see the pitch often playing in the middle.

 

The New Jersey Red Bull board is deader than Orlando's. WTF? Those guys won the SS last year.

 

Have you seen their stands during games? There's like 10k people there. There's a reason why NYCFC is taking so long to get its own stadium. League has finally realized that a stadium an hour away from downtown is a dumb idea.

 

These guys are supposed to be our rivals since Orlando can't step up. This is a FUBAR league.

 

Back to the rivalry thing... of all the games on the calendar this is the one I want to win the most.

 

As much as I loved to win and be there for MLS Cup, I kind of enjoyed the RBNY conference final more. That game was amazing.