Glad seems to get closer and closer to putting a corner into goal with each passing game. He's gone from just a foot wide or high the last few games, to whipping one right at THo tonight. Hopefully, this means we are good for a goal from him soon.
There are a lot of reasons to be excited by the team's turnaround. Young players, getting a chance and capitalizing is a big one.
What in Brooks Lennon's experience leads him to believe that he can beat multiple defenders off the dribble? From what I've seen, he can't, and he should stop trying.
If Lennon had somehow not scored that goal like he had whiffed on so many others recently, I would be calling to not fight to lengthen the loan or buying him out. He needs a lot more development.
Dissent during the Plata sub. I guess he was upset with how long it took. Really stupid yellow to pick up.
He should have shot earlier from the corner of the box. That said, he didn't have a very good look and probably wanted to dish it off to someone making a run...the problem was that only one other RSL player was on that end of the field, the others were staying back and defending (rightly so). The one teammate was thoroughly marked and Brooks' only option was to try to dribble at that point.
Is that happening every time? I guess it's possible that his speed, combined with the tired teammates he's playing with at the end of games, puts him in the corners with no other options. It's frustrating to watch, given how easily ye seems to be able to get open.
Guessing he's not comfortable shooting from the left. That being said, it was still the better option given how many defenders were back at the time.
Here's what Petke said about it: “He’s a young, eager kid,” RSL coach Mike Petke said of the 19-year-old defender, “and him, Justen [Glad], Brooks [Lennon], [Sebastian Saucedo], guys like that are going to have moments in their learning curve. So when we look at the video, we’ll have a conversation with him. It’s happened to me many times as a player.”
Solid comments. The nice thing is, you could tell he knew it was happening and tried to pull out of the challenge. Too late in the end, but it was nice to see he realized he messed up mid tackle.
This game was a weird chess match for the first 40ish minutes. Both teams were willing to sacrifice certain parts of the pitch defensively to spring counters in other areas offensively. the cRapids essentially let us waltz to the edge of their 18 down the middle, we let them burn us on the wings (especially on a switching cross) with ease. Because of this, the midfield play was hectic as ********, I thought. We lucked out that they had Gil in there because some speed would have really exploited our pushing forward. On the flip side, I was left pining for Javi-like runs through the middle of the defense with some wall pass combo type play. The first step of every single cRapids player, when an RSL player won the ball or received a pass was backwards. It was shocking and, in a way, a bit sad. So many of the problems we made for the cRapids started because they allowed time and space to our midfield and attacking players. Albert Rusnak has a hell of a long distance shot. On another night (against a less skilled GK) he gets one of those 25+ yard shots in. Joao Plata scuffed the shot he scored on. They all count the same, but I found it kind of funny. The quality of service from Rusnak on corners in this game was fantastic. Really wish Glad would have put that header pretty much anywhere else on frame. Can someone explain to me why the crowd decided to boo the outside back for the cRapids? Because Glad should have probably gotten a second yellow for his foul on him? Because Acosta nearly killed him? It made no sense Luis Silva is the forward this team deserves. There are still a lot of flaws in his play, don't get me wrong, but his combination play and level of confidence right now are really fun to watch. Kudos to him A question on VAR: If we're going to prevent the game from resuming while we listen to the VAR, why not just go over and look at the video yourself? Like, after 15 seconds shouldn't the center get the point that they need to look? That was a really tight call, I'm happy they got it right, but it took way too ********ing long. I wonder if we'll see Acosta again this year. I really like what Petke said, but I've also seen how quick he was to pull time from Danny. I wouldn't be surprised if an additional game or two was added to the suspension. Unless Wingert really shits the bed, he's probably the LB for the rest of the year now. Alan Gordon is a ********ing moron It was fun to be leading a game and feeling nervous but also confident that your team could score and put the game away. A feeling I hadn't had with this team in quite some time. After the LA thrashing I thought our big break was going to kill momentum. I was wrong. I'm worried the break we're going into will kill the momentum again. I hope I'm wrong again. I love the confidence the offense of this team has right now. I think we're below average on the other side of the ball still, but we're going to be in for some fun games. Playoffs. They aren't such a far fetched dream anymore. Hell, I'll make the chase thread just to jinx the ******** out of it here in a second. Still, to even be in this spot is a big ********ing golden star for Mike Petke. I'm sure he has some form of a bonus if he gets us in so I fully expect him to go for it. Hard to argue against that
I think for me the best goal was the last. I don't think I've seen Bofo give up a chance on goal all season. I was shocked. It looked like the Monarchs for a second. This team is still a long way from the playoffs but they do play Vancouver next and win, knock on wood, puts RSL tied with Vancouver. A loss might be a nail in the coffin for their playoff run unless SJ and FCD struggle to find points the rest of the season. If RSL doesn't make the playoffs, despite all of the crap that went on at the start of the season, they only have to look at the 3 game home stand at the end of July and first week in August where they could only manage 3 points. They win them all their in 2nd right now. 6 points out of those 3 and they are above the line. I think it is amazing that they are even at this point where they could play themselves into the playoffs. The next 3 games with the Cascadia teams, all above the line at the moment, should be telling. We should definitely find out if they are a playoff contender or pretender for 2017. 2018 I have no doubts. Unless Waibel.
I am really happy for Silva who is finally finding his goal scoring form. The guy scored plenty during one of his seasons in DCU (11 in 1 season I think?) so I knew he could do it. Playing out of position can be tough though, add in the fact that he hadn't played with any of these guys before also didn't help the gelling process as much. He still won over the position at first by basically playing more of an attacking midfield role and working well with the other attacking players. The guy seems to have learned the position now though and things are clicking. He ironically has similar weaknesses to Yura, (lacks pace and doesn't win in the air) but the rest of his game fits the teams needs well, and he is capitalizing on what he is good at. His willingness to come deep to link up while also trying to push the defensive line, keeps defenses unbalanced a bit. His ability to be creative from deep means that someone HAS to pressure him, creating holes for Rusnak and the other midfielders. We need a striker addition in the offseason as currently we only have 1 that is working. But I am slowly coming to accept Silva as the teams starter at that position. Use DP money and other resources for other positions. And to think that not long ago, we were all pretty upset about even bringing Silva back to the team. Thinking back to his coming back to the team, at the time he was pretty humble about it and along with Barrett, they were both talking about being ok with the supportive backup role. Silva is a team guy, and that definitely helps the starting lineup the way he plays.
Credit needs to go to Petke for a change in tactics on this, as well. During that 3 game home stretch we kept whipping balls in hoping Silva would suddenly become Sabario. It didn't work. Petke obvious had talks with teh guys about how to attack. Suddenly we're a really fun team to watch with our interchanging play. Because of this, you're also seeing Rusnak look ********ing amazing again. Savarino has his moments of brilliance, too. But more than anything, we're playing to Plata's strengths. The more and more I watch this team, the more I want them to invest in some outside backs that truly are threatening on the wing and some better box to box midfielders. All that assuming we don't have to play David Horst anymore
I was at the game and I still am not sure what that was all about. My best guess is that they thought he: 1) Dove on the Glad challenge to bait the ref into a 2nd yellow and 2) Embellished his pain on the Acosta challenge to bait the red I think he did embellish the Glad challenge but anyone that doesn't think the Acosta challenge wasn't a straight red needs to take off their homer glasses.
I'm perplexed that the ref called that foul on Glad but didn't give a yellow. If you call that foul is has to be a card. He was in. Either book the embellishment or send off Glad. We honestly dodged a huge bullet there.
that makes one of us. I think his positioning and speed are going to kill us if we don't get Marcelo back. Also, why the hell can't he defend a forward with their back to him without mugging them?