Thinking about formation. It’s weird isn’t it? With three in the back and Cole as left wing back but a more attack minded right wing back in pontius it’s very unbalanced. More like 4 in the back (with Cole) at times. Pontius has delivered offensively from this position. Yet somehow defensively we still look a bit fragile. It seems like we have two dms in kitchen and JDS but I lost count of the number of times JDS just let someone run by him instead of defend and kitchen had to come all the way across to cover. It was weird. S. Williams seems a natural balance on the right side but I’m not clear on his capabilities yet. Can he get forward effectively like Cole does? But then you have to take pontious off who’s done well. And there is no place for wingers like RA or EB. Still, I think this is the best formation for us this year.
I am a big proponent of stats, so I'm not discounting the shots, but indeed in this case the "their shots weren't indicative of a majority of the game play" should be applied to the shot totals- it is no doubt true that not all shots are created equal and difficult to quantify, but, one thing that is easy to check is that Columbus had something like 1/3 of their total shots and 4/5 of their shots on goal after we were up 3-0. Also a large number of their shots were blocked, which I would contend probably is correlated with shots that aren't as good. So overall the stats don't lie, but taken in context we had the better of the play (maybe something like 4 to 1 on shots on goal before the game was decided), but 4-0 was probably flattering. The reason that I wouldn't get too excited about the results (although I was cheering up a storm at the game) is that you're right, goal differential is a great metric, and it points to idea that Columbus isn't an MLS elite team this year - they are solid team, but with a +1 GD they are more like our LA Galaxy (+3) than say ATL at +19. By the way, a quick glance at the table shows GD ranging from -16 to +19 with standard deviation ~9. And sports club stats has us at 57% chance to make the playoffs, which seems about right for a middle of the pack team sitting around the bubble.
Ok for a visual representation of the point I was making - here is an Opta map for all of the key passes, shots, assists and goals for each team. First CLB - the map shows they had way too much activity going on at our end of the field. I wouldn't count on getting too many shutouts when our defense is under this kind of pressure: Now LAG - we were much less active at their end but extraordinarily efficient when we got there. When you get 5 shots on goal and 4 go in you are in rarified air: For me the big picture from last nights game was similar to previous games but with some good fortune thrown in. That's not a narrative LA fans want to hear but it's clear that we still have a porous midfield and still leave too much open space in our defensive third. The result is that we are forced into emergency defending way too often. We survived long stints of emergency defending during this particular 90 minute span but how well do you think it will do over the remaining 1440 minutes left in the regular season? Add in the fact that the nine of our remaining sixteen games are on the road and you can see why I'm still not optimistic after last night's game. Nothing I saw changes my view that this team sorely needs mid-season defensive personnel upgrades.
So now that I have watched the game again in hd and not that lego-like raw feed I found last night I can see where Crew controlled most of first half and all their shot which seemed rushed and by extension inaccurate tho Bingham did stop a few key shots. He had a good night. Yeah it could be a one-of but thats beside the point. It's been a long time since the team won in this one-sided fashion. We still have lots of work to do as the sloppy passing, constant long balls and ticky tac side to side and back passes will attest to but the shot of adrenalin to the morale is just in time and very timely as we prepare to take the show on te road. I think everybody, fans and club, were starting to believe the writing on the wall, yet another lost season. I know I was. It could still be true but this game was a great jump start. Will the center (formation) hold? too early to say. Will RA be coming off the bench or starting? too early to say but I hope not. I want Allesandrini on the pitch at all times unless something specifically tactical suggests otherwise. Now, its back to the heatwave!
Hadn’t realized Columbus is in a bit of slump. I thought they were still killing it in the East. Still a credible result when measured against the capitulation of the previous two results.
RE: 4 goals on 5 shots. Didn't we go thru a spell like this last year where there was deceptive and unsustainable efficiency? And how did that end up when the law of averages caught up with us? I enjoyed this game but will wait for a few more results before I get too excited.
Now, THAT'S the Zardes I remember so well. Failing at the little basics, like keeping the ball in play...
What these maps don't show are game states and the position of each defense, which is important. What they do show is most of the Crew's shot, even those in the box, were fairly poor quality (either missing the target completely or blocked) meaning our defense was well organized in and around the danger area. By contrast, Alessandrini scores from a shot outside the box, which would normally be a poor shot except that he was all by himself as the Crew was caught forward. In general, I agree, we were significantly missing midfield presence, particularly in the first half, which would have been punished more by a better team (or perhaps, if Higuain started). That's been an ongoing trend we've all observed. I think we're also fortunate that Kitchen is able to usher Zardes out of bounds and that goal doesn't stand, which changes everything. Having said that, there were material improvements that contributed to the outcome of this match: 1) The return of Ola, Gio, Jona and Boateng. When those players are in form, we are more talented than most teams around the league, including Columbus (especially without Higuain). 2) Gio and Jona specifically help contribute to maintaining possession when we're protecting the league. So I think there are solid improvements we can build on, but I agree that all our problems have not gone away.
It's become a taboo, but I would not hesitate to put Gio out wide. He spent some time there when Keane was still around and was fairly effective. I think cutting in from outside he is actually better than in the middle, where he struggles to find space. I'd try: Gio-Zlatan-Ola Jona-Kitchen-Romain Cole-Skjelvik-Ciani-Romney
I’d like to point out that the first goal was just about our nicest worked goal of the entire season. Nice build up, involved 4 players.
It was interesting to get back to watching league games, I had forgotten what horrible defending looked like. I mean that all around not just us. But 3 points is all that matters go Galaxy.
I think some of that can be chalked up to salaries. Teams will spend big DP and TAM/GAM money on attacking talent but not on defenders. Except the Galaxy, who's got the worst of both worlds on D.
It was the buggiest I’ve ever seen the stubhub center. Blame the freak heat storm and be happy again where we live.
But Cole is better at left back than Romney both defensively and offensively. As we saw on the 4th, Romney can get lost regardless of the side he is on. I know you don't like him, but Cole is a much better all round player and is the best passer on the team.
They weren't gnats as they didn't bite and if you looked up at the floodlights on that side of the stadium their were masses of whatever they were and I don't think flying ants swarm in those kinds of numbers but they did look a bit like them - though I think they had tails (can you tell that I had a lot land on me?). Mayflies perhaps?
Are there mayflies in SoCal? When I lived in Cleveland, we'd get a mayfly swarm everyso often at Indians games.