It's the upside of Sigi. He's a competent coach and he still cares ( in a way I don't think Arena did in his last year). I think there's limited upside beyond competent (by current MLS standards) but it's what we have, and given last year, it's nice to see people know what they should do. Good game for Bingham, too many turnovers, otherwise not much to say.
Does anyone have even a shadow of a doubt that ceteris paribus we lose that game with Onolfo coaching the team?
Very solid game from our defense. Bingham showed once again how he's an improvement over what we had last year. Steres, Skjelvik and THA were solid. THA had some rough moments in the first half and his clearances are sometimes poor (something I already noticed during the G2 game last week), but he had a good second half and I didn't remember the announcers calling his name (which is a good sign for a defender). Romney did OK, he's so reliable and so underrated. My MVPs would be the duo of Kitchen and Carrasco. Perry is so important in this narrow games, doing all the dirty work. Carrasco is a possession machine, he's very calm with the ball and almost never loses it. His passing is a big underrated reason of how we managed to limit the numbers of Caps attacks. I thought Lletget was mediocre, but very hard conditions for him. I see an improvement about Lassiter over what we saw over the past few years, he's more clever and more on pace with the team, but we're asking him too much in this type of game.
This is Hilliard Arce's first competitive game as a pro, isn't it? Had had some "teaching moments" but overall, good debut from him. Another positive. Stepped up big when the team needed him.
Just watched match and haven’t read comments yet (by the way on mls live you can watch the tsn match replay and it’s not blocked out). -great result! -brilliant switch to a 3-5-2 -ema should have scored! -we were so stable defensively, I rarely felt nervous of conceding. -kitchen and carasco killed it in defensive midfield. -Rolf had a strong game -I love how Romney never lets a relative lack of talent keep him from being useful -rookie centerback struggled early then grew into the match -Bingham performed when called upon -I love lleget. He’s getting better and better. -Lassiter has never shown me anything.
Onalfo would have tried to win. Completely failing to recognize the limitations of the squad and/or overestimating the abilities of the youngesters.
The real test will be when Sigi and co have to figure out a way to get the best out of a team with Gio, oLA, zLAtan, ema, lleget, JdS, etc.
Watched on MLSLive - thanks @mbar. Feltscher did look bad at times, but I think part of it was the absolute dominance of Davies - what a talent. I really do worry about his lack of speed though. (Feltscher, not Davies!) Skjelvik also had a couple of dicey moments. Agree that Carrasco is a nice surprise. I don't really have a lot to add - glad that one is behind us, glad I saw it, and hope for better in the future. Ema doesn't seem like forward will be his gig! Oh, and the ref was pretty terrible!
Just watched the game. Happy with the result. Team looked organized in a 5-3-2. Boetang should have scored but Kamara almost scored ad well. Kitchen holds down Hillard-Arce looked good for a rookie debut. Defense looked better. Organized and continued battling. Feltscher did well to stay with Davis who is so fast I would love to see Davis and Boetang race. Goal pup looked mad when he came out. Tough game for him
True. Davies was greased lightning and would make a lot of outside backs look bad. We are lucky that Davies crosses the ball like Ema - hit in the general direction of the goal and just hope someone is there.
Out of the players listed, only Ola and Ema are clearly match fit and ready. Lletget looks slow and still pretty weak. I don't know when to expect Allesandrini and the two Dos Santos brothers back. It wouldn't surprise me to see a similar formation against LAFC with Ola replacing Ari and Cole replacing Romney. I could see Sigi bringing in Zlatan in sometime in the 2nd half.
No, I dont care what the quality of the soccer was. We got away with a point in a situation that last year would have been a blood bath. You are absolutely correct.
Yes, the Galaxy was on the road with the depleted lineup, but it was an ugly game to watch. And I would say half of the reason for that is due to the lousy artificial turf. That really inhibits quality play. It makes the skilled guys play like they have poor control, and the average guys look just flat bad. Tripping all over themselves and the ball. It's almost predictable to get a crumby game on artificial turf.
Agree re: turf. And that was the "new surface" installed specifically for the Women's World Cup - which goes to show the lack of respect for that event.
I certainly agree that it sucks that the league has seemingly made its peace with artificial turf and seems to be allowing it as a permanent solution. I hate watching games on it no matter how improved it is over the old turf of the 70s-80's and 90's. It really does affect the game. That said, I doubt we'd have looked much better on grass this past weekend. I don't even care though. A point on the road is more beautiful then anything to me after last season.
Passmaps & xGplot for Vancouver Whitecaps against LA Galaxy. #passmap #xGplot #autotweet pic.twitter.com/K8fC5ZgCnZ— 11tegen11 (@11tegen11) March 25, 2018
Hmmm... kinda complicated. Looked it over and the main things I could discern: 1. Galaxy expected goals = .65, VAN exp goals = .56. So basically we whipped their butts ... by .09 goals. Take that Whitecaps!! 2. Galaxy had the best of play from minute 40 to minute 60 while VAN was slightly superior for minutes 10-25 and 60-80. Rest of the time about even. 3. Lassiter and Lletget were standing almost on top of each other. (Well at least for the first 2/3 of the game-- the passing graph says it covers minutes 1 -> 67??)
Other way around. Vancouver had slight better chances. Yes the pass map only takes in to account the starting line up.
Oops, you're right - everything I said comparing the teams should be reversed. I just assumed the blue line was Galaxy. And good point about the passing maps having to stop once we subbed. I always knew my '70's drug use would catch up with me some day.
Nothing to add except that I was also pleased by Hilliard Arce. Nice debut from him under tough conditions. My MOTM was Jorgen, he had some nice defending moments and judged correctly every time he was pressured. I'll take it. (Also agree on Ema and finishing drills. Hope he isn't in his head.)