Nice points, lots of shot generation and shot-taking, defense was more stretched, not as nice. DC was able to create a ton of shots off their down-a-man possession and more particularly their counters. Surprised we didn't see D-Mid subs...again...
If that ball went a little further out on the final play it would have been a goal. We are lucky to come away with a win and we still have work to do. Also can we play the rest of our matches up 11 vs 10
I mean, I thought we would lose, because we always lose to DC when theyre the worst team in the league.
Yep. I remained pretty unimpressed with Ruiz at LB. Maybe as a midfielder he is great, but he's a major liability on the back line.
Something that we have complained about for years is our outside back's inability to remotely resemble any type of attacking threat. Instead of trying to find defensive players with offensive prowess maybe we have decided to just try to teach attacking players to defend. We're seeing the risk associated with this but if they continue to develop and get better on the defensive half then maybe the reward will be worth the risk.
Thoughts The first 10 minutes of this one were weird as hell. It was rather open with both sides essentially using the midfield as the left lane on the freeway and just passing the opposition. I was shocked that RSL hadn't scored. I wasn't shocked when DC did. A lot needs to be said of the horrendous marking by Ruiz, but also holy hell what a strike. It didn't go into the top corner or anything, so people weren't jumping out of their seats saying Golzao. But Arriola took that ball one time off the corner and slotted it home like it was a slow roller to him. Hell of a finish. God awful marking, but I've seen many a player shank the shit out of that kind of chance. Until the red card, I had zero hope for RSL to win this game. Even after Baird finished his amazing header I thought were were destined for a boring draw or to give up another goal. What the hell is Mora doing there on the red card? Savarino is at midfield going away from goal. Why foul at all? To not only foul but put your studs through his Achilles? Jesus Christ what a moron. I don't get how players can argue VAR. There is literal video evidence that you did something wrong. Arguing that is just pointless in situations like this. Sure, the offside against LAFC was a complete joke (why wasn't VAR used there, again?) but 95% of the time its clear as day. If we don't score before DC makes the sub I think we see a totally different game for the last hour or so. In fact, I would put a large sum of money on us not scoring and being lucky to draw. Kudos to RSL for taking it to DC right away on the red. I was trying to find a replay of the red card on my phone on the buildup to the goal and luckily looked up right as Rusnak received the ball. Hell of a finish The DC keeper isn't very good Rusnak's ball on the third goal was just perfect. In front of Savarino so he can sprint, but not so far that the GK has any chance to play on it. And kudos to Savarino for seeing the gap on the near post. After that goal, you could feel RSL lose their intensity. Like, the game was over for them and they were simply going through the motions. It was pathetic Oh, and then Petke pulls the most Petke of moves and takes off one of the few players that actually consistently brings energy (Ruiz) for a guy who can't run faster than a garbage truck stuck in first gear: Luis Silva. I say these mean things, but had that bike gone in I would have converted to whatever church Silva asked me to. What an incredible piece of athleticism from a guy who can't run. Why the hell won't Petke sub the midfielders on this team? I wanted to go down there and punch Petke in the nuts. SUB OFF THE MIDFIELDERS. We deserved to give up a goal sooner than we did. Kreilach was terrible with the ball at his feet. KB was a ghost on both sides of the ball. Rusnak suddenly became a non-factor because DC knew he was the only guy they honestly needed to mark in the middle of the field. In our last 4 matches we've had 3 red cards to the opponent. We won two and lost one. Honestly, we probably should have a 1-1-1 record in those games. That's pathetic.
I've increasingly been able to see what Kreilach brings to the team. He can be really dangerous if he's able to get the ball close to goal, and another attacking option up the field can relieve the pressure from Rusnak. But it is way past time for Petke to admit he's a defensive liability. He misplaces too many passes, he doesn't track runners, he doesn't cover ground, etc. We should just start routinely subbing him out in the 60th minute if we have a lead.
Kreilach can be way too casual on the ball as well. There was a point in the DC game where he trapped the ball with his back to goal in the midfield and the DC player just stepped in front of him and was gone with the ball and Kreilach didn't even seem to react.
this is what is the most infuriating with (a) starting him next to an aging KB and (b) not rotating EITHER player during the game, lately. I agree, Kreilach is what we've really wanted from an 8 in terms of offense in the past few years. He's everything we would bitch about with Grabavoy and Mulholland and their inability to actually be dangerous in the final third. However, he is piss poor on the other end of the ball way too often. To start the season Petke would regularly sub Kreilach (who would still lead the team in possession, which was WAY telling of his impact) but now he seems to be completely against the idea. And, unsurprisingly, our midfield in the last 20 mins of games has been horrendous.
My preferred midfield rotation at the moment would probably be to start Sunny and Kreilach, and sub out Kreilach for Mulholland in the second half. Beckerman would get spot starts and subs if we need to protect a lead late. What I'm sure we WILL see is more 90 minute games for Kyle and Damir.
Was Sunny on the bench for this one? I've seen him listed on the stat sheet as an unused sub but when I was looking down at the players warming up I didn't see or at least recognize him.
Stats yo We only won the shot battle 17-14 in this one. We had 8 on target to their 7. We had 3 off target to their 2. And we had 6 blocked to their 5 More telling here, though, is that 12 of the shots for DC were inside the box (4 inside the 6) while we only had 7 in the box (none of those inside the 6) We continue to be the most right footed team around with 13 of the 17 shots coming off a right foot. If I'm doing tape on this team I just say give them their left side, it's garbage Despite having a man advantage for nearly an hour, our passing numbers were pretty ordinary. We only had 58% of possession, we had 582 total passes (a season high, just barely) but only completed 506 of those for an 87% rate that in normal circumstances would be good but... I dunno, the numbers in this area just didn't impress me What is really concerning is how these numbers happened. Whoscored has a graph of the statistic you're looking at across time. Our passing essentially dives to nothing at the 70th minute while DC spikes up. Who was the home team playing at altitude up a man? DC looked to break us down on the dribble A LOT in this one. They attempted 25 but only had 9 successful dribbles. We had the same number of successful dribbles (9) but only attempted 11. We lost possession 23 times this game. That's nuts to me. 15 of those were simple self inflicted turnovers. Against a team down a man, that shouldn't happen. Honestly, there isn't anything glowing here and I think that's the scariest part. We were given an hour man advantage at home at the stats were just slightly above the norm.
Well done. That last point is the main take away. I actually thought DC was the better team the entire game. But, I don’t want to minimize the 3 goals we scored...they were all earned. Would we have scored 3 without the man advantage? Who knows? Probably not. But the guys did put together some good combinations on all 3
I can not remember the last time I made the trip to SLC and drove home with three points. But this last week was even better, I got to drive home with Six points after watching the Monarchs win also.
I think we at least get two. As quick as Rusnak got that second goal it felt like one that could've happened regardless. It's good that he did, because if it went any longer I'm sure DC would've been playing a lot more defensive and at that point we likely don't get that second goal.
I didn't see any of the RSL goals. Caught the last 30 minutes of the game. I was sorely disappointed in the lack of urgency with them being up a man. They were playing like the game was already done and dusted. Not what championship/playoff teams do when playing with an advantage. Good teams put it to their opponents when they have the advantage. That game should have ended 4-1 or 5-2, something along those lines. If DC United scored on that last corner of the game I would be for benching Glad for the next game. What a boneheaded play. As it sits with my lowered expectations if this team even comes close to making the playoffs this year I will be happy.
Glad's play on that last sequence was a pretty good summary of the entire team's performance after the 3rd goal. Which is really really sad. Currently we have goal differential of minus 8. This game could have gone a long way to fixing that. Instead we just made it go from -9 to -8... wow
It’s certainly possible. At the time I felt it was because DCU was a bit confused on defense due to suddenly being down a man, thus giving up the quick goal.