Sjoberg looked bad on those two plays, for sure. HOWEVER: Sjoberg is the central back in a back three, why the hell is he tasked with hanging the speed guy on the outside? Rosenberry's the true walkabout guy. Does he know he's in a back three and not the fullback in a back four? Rubio lost his cool again and really hurt them.
I knew nothing about the Whitecaps coming in. The left back Adnan is apparently Iraqi. There were some folks in section 127 who brought an Iraqi flag (not seen every day in the US!) cheering for him. Then the d-mid--he's a South Korean, and a DP. Though the "young DP" variety. Still, you don't see that for a center mid all that often.
This. Exactly. Sjöberg doesn’t have wheels and was caught in two foot races because Rosenberry left him hung out to dry. All three of their goals (and the fourth that was called back) our defenders were pulled way out of position. Rubio needs discipline. I like his heart and hustle...but...He’s a hot head and loses control of his emotions in almost every game. All of this is a perfect example of why this team needs coaching and discipline. Give this lineup to say, Peter Vermes or Bob Bradley for example and you’d have a much more disciplined team that actually played in positions they needed to play in. Heck, Mathias Almeyda has the quakes looking better than us - and no one can argue that they have better players than us. We are a lot more talented then San Jose and yet here we are. The rapids need what they’ve always needed. A good coach and a system of support for that coach. Casey had a short week sure. But he’s got a long road ahead - and any other coach that walks into this franchise
Unless you count playing fifa in the mix. Which clearly is not the same but allows to enjoy the game without watching other games Or if the RFO, you would use football manager.
I've been calling for more Sjoberg all year. My bad. He's an error machine. In the same vein though, can we just go back to a four man backline? Of course ,the problem is you need two decent CBs and we have none. Smith was out yesterday but he's no good either. But please, just go to a four man backline that a majority of the players grew up with. They may stink, but they won't be confused. I'm sick of Rubio. You can whine like that if you are producing and winning. But to watch Rubio complain game in and game out is annoying. Just once I'd like the ref to say, "Oh, I missed a call? I've noticed you've missed the net all year." I watched the game on TV. They'd flash shots of Connor Casey every now and then sitting there like a potted plant. Now I often thought that we'd be better off with a potted plant as coach than Hudson, but it turns out we're the same. I understand Connor only had a couple of days, but wouldn't you be out there engaged with the players? Every time they flashed to the Vancouver coach, he was standing, yelling, etc., like Pablo used to do. Then we'd see Casey with his Bill Belichick impression.
One would often hear about Roy Hodgson's methods--strenuous, repetitive practices stressing shape, the player's role within the scheme and how he supports the other roles. Makes me wonder if Pablo's practices were the similar, given the strengths/weaknesses and peculiarities of his team, the remarks on people putting in the work in practices, and the personnel choices (Gabby Torres not seeing the field due to being out of shape, etc.). They were decent defensively despite have few defensive stars but we all remember how stiff and ineffective they were on the attack...it seemed they couldn't break their defensive shape even on the attack. Is there just some degree to which this approach is mutually exclusive to an approach (like Wenger's?) where you basically have the players practicing and improvising pass and move combos over and over? Despite Pablo's tenure, did the Rapids set off in the wrong direction with their long time emphasis on "free flowing attacking football"? It's like the club has been paying for 8 years for being embarrassed about the workmanlike way they won their MLS Cup. It wasn't pretty enough, it wasn't Barcelona enough, it wasn't Latin American enough. Now the Rapids can't defend, they can sort of attack but mostly this is due to Kamara's aerial dominance, and they foul more than they did in the Pablo-as-player days with far more stupid cards for violence and excessive tackles.
It's tough...if your centerbacks are not mobile or otherwise good, the more they show the effects of having poor defensive central mids and fullbacks. And that's exactly what we have at those positions. Well, Rosenberry doesn't seem to be that bad when he's at right back, though overall shape is a problem--when at right back he's often forward when things hit the fan. On the other side, Vines and Serna are basically green and/or more wingers than defenders. On the 2nd goal Sjoberg went to ground and didn't get the ball out of play, which was bad. but then as Wynne rotated over Vines allowed the runner to go right in front of him. Price's best asset as a "D-mid" is he mostly stays put. But he's nothing close defensively to the d-mids we've had around like Cronin or even Azira. Do they need to put Acosta back there and let Mezquida or Feilhaber be the one free to move forward? There aren't a lot of options on the roster. It would be a good time for a trade, though I'm not sure who on the Rapids has value at the moment.
Exactly. Rosenberry is pushing forward because the midfield can't hold possession and the attack all too quickly turns into a counter. He's stuck in the never-never-land of risking disaster while contributing to an attack or enduring the onslaught of the entire game being played in the defensive third. It's ugly, and there isn't a fix for it right now. The Cronin trade started the team's death spiral. Sam couldn't disrupt the attack as effectively as Pablo, but he could hold possession and distribute. It's taken only three seasons to go from the best defense in the league to possibly the worst defense in league history. That's an epic front office failure.
I'll say this much about our defense last night. There didn't seem to be as many systemic failures where players didn't know where to be and multiple players were unmarked in the center of the box as we've seen this year. Our player just got beat, repeatedly, but they were largely trying to make the correct plays. Turns out they're just not good enough to make them.
I get the feeling that Conor Casey has been told that he's not under consideration to coach the team next season. He's a caretaker manager and even in the unlikely possibility that the team gets better and starts winning a few games, there's going to be a total makeover and completely different regime next year. It's a thankless job. Hopefully, he's getting paid extra for it.
Totally agree. Watching Axel get beat (in person) by not timing correctly or having the athletic ability to make the play was rough. For the most part, I thought Wynne did a very good job 1 v 1 last night. In the future (and perhaps in the next few days) the Rapids need to begin to acquire center backs that are athletic as well as tactically aware. This is especially true when they are putting a lot of bodies into the attack.
Got home after a weekend away and sped through the game last night. Observations.. Our defenders make mistakes. The fact that other guys don't cover for those mistakes - is that structure and setup, or just that they aren't good. Or are these mistakes just too bad to be made up for? We only scored from penalties, not encouraging. The red card was deserved and stupid; and we will miss Rubio while he is suspended. Crowd was small. I'm looking forward to going to the game next weekend. The Rapids are comical and I'm curious to see how bad we can get.