It's time. A tumultuous offseason is over, and we're ready (?) to see what the retooling has gotten us. Welcome to the new players, best wishes to the old players, and let's go.
At least we don't have to see the new white t-shirts. My lineup prediction: The GOATlie (at least the greatest # games played, shutouts, and wins) Beltron, Horse, Shoe-ler, Demarred Rusnack, Always Sunny, Luuuukkee Yuri, Jo-wow, J-allen
I think the ugly people are insulted by equating RSL to them. Low blow. The frustrating bit is I like/have optimism for the individual players on the offense. I realize now I have felt this way about RSL for a long time. But I no longer have hope they will "figure something out" and work together to break down opposing defenses. (because working together is largely directed by a coaching staff) Please let me be wrong! I was wrong all the time before! I thought Seba and Garcia could turn into something great! Sigh.
I wouldn't expect much in the way of teamwork. At the STH event yesterday Jeff kept saying that he wants to get more one on one opportunities for players during the game. We shall see how that thought process works out.
I actually think that's a good approach with our front four. If they can create isolation situations, it means movement off the ball is happening and players are getting into dangerous positions. Weather should be better than it is right now in SLC (snowing) but not by a whole lot. The weather on the golf course, on the other hand, looks very very nice
"One on one opportunities" sounds like Cassar is just throwing up his hands. There's no system, no direction, no strategy for how the team should work together. 10 Olmeses running around, playing completely independently of each other, looking for that one-on-one opportunity. I so hope I'm wrong.
The hopeful part of me wants to believe that he's creating a system that is quick in transition that would create those one on one situations. The realistic part of me believes he thinks playing route one soccer will suddenly open up space
Doesn't transition soccer depend a lot on the back line connecting with mids/forwards accurately and quickly? That was a big issue last year and I didn't really see any personnel changes that will improve it. I guess that having more speed at the Javi and Burrito positions has the potential to help. I'm just not convinced our back line, other than Rimando, can distribute the ball.
If the preseason games were any kind of indication, I'm not expecting there to be much in the way of transition between the defenders and the mids. I'm expecting a lot of over the top balls.
Agreed This is another knock on the "we don't need a CB" bullshit. Outside Glad, none of the center backs have even average distribution skills. They win the ball and promptly give it away with a long hopeful ball or allow the defense to reset with a square ball to the outside back. My fear is that Cassar says "transition" but means "hoof it up the ********ing field". Are we gonna play some smash brothers ball this year? Because we'll suck major ass at it and it'll be ugly.
I disagree. There will be plenty of transition play between defenders and mids.....just may not be the same team's mids.
TFC got their asses handed to them by Chicago to end preseason 4-1. They fielded what is assumed to be as close to their starting lineup as possible. So... who the hell knows? We barely beat some ********ing Armenian club team. The way TFC lost, though, is interesting. According to multiple publications, they dominated the possesion side of things but were careless in turnovers. If RSL wants to play a "high press" game, it sounds like this is the team to be successful with it against. Still, I'm not putting a lot of weight into that TFC performance (or honestly RSL's). On paper, this should be a tight game that probably favors the visitors. Our backline is going to be tested early and often and the midfield is a mystery to me in tactics. The despressingly sarcastic lineup above is what we'll likely see. No way in hell we keep a clean sheet.. Prediction: RSL 2 - TFC 3
Given your record, if that's the final score, I'll buy you the dog of your choice at the watch party at Legends. BALL PARK DOG Served with your choice of sweet or dill relish, fresh pico & sauerkraut. STADIUM DOG Served on a pretzel bun with nacho cheese, jalapeños & topped with crushed tortilla chips. CHILI CHEESE DOG Topped with our homemade chili & cheese. All those condiments and flavors will probably be a bit of a shock to your system, but I'm sure you'll manage.
part of me wanted to predict a 2-0 RSL win because of my track record. That way, should RSL somehow pull that off, I would look like such an amazing person for thinking RSL could actually keep a clean sheet. But no I bet we get scored on in the first 15 minutes
If the game plan is to sit back, absorb pressure, and try to counter by having the defense hoof the ball over the top, we'll get killed. If the game plan is to high press, force sloppy turnovers, and get the ball quickly up the field with TFC put of position, we might have success. Everything I've seen from the last few years and this preseason leads me to believe we will employ the former as our strategy instead of the latter. For the latter to work we need to have great fitness, something I haven't seen from this team in, ohhhh, about 5 years or more. Game fitness is acquired by playing game minutes, remind me again how many full or near full games our first choice XI (that were available) played in the preseason? Zero. Did they even play more than a half in a single match? It also requires the team to come out of the gates with a fire lit under their ass, something I've never seen from a Cassar lead team. Without a hot start and a goal in the first 15 this team won't have much success this weekend. We don't have the legs to generate pressure over 90 minutes, but we have a weak defense that gives up a lot of first half goals so we are always chasing the game. I'm struggling find something, ANYTHING, that Cassar has gotten right in terms of strategy or choices so far.
Keep in mind with point #1, there is a new fitness and conditioning staff - so the first two games will tell us if they are more focused and have more sway. #2, well, that's on the team, as Cassar will be proud either way.
I think Waibel at one point said that the lineup they had put together would allow the team to press the ball more all over the field. I am very interested to see if we actually see that. TFC had really low turnover in their roster during the off-season. We've seen some pretty pathetic pre-season performances from RSL in the past when that's the case, but they have often managed to turn it on when the season started. This year RSL has been putting some new pieces together, and so it's not surprising that at times they've not appeared to be cohesive on the field. Perhaps things have been going much smoother in training, and a real game will bring that out. I think it's probably more likely that we see a few shaky games as the team tries to build a new identity. The opener will obviously be a huge sign of where the team is at currently, but I expect this team to have significantly more improvement from Game 1 to Game 10 than we've seen in recent years.
I've been saying TFC gets 6 on RSL so if that happens... 4-1 TFC over RSL I have little to no faith in what Cassar can do to make RSL a consistently winning side. As always, I hope that I'm proven wrong. If I recall I pretty much nailed the points earned by RSL over the last 9-10 games last season and I don't think much has changed other than RSL possibly having even less cohesion to start the season than they ended with last year. EMBRASTU?