Mike Petke takes responsibility "I apologize to the fans." pic.twitter.com/3DKOE46j3w— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) March 10, 2018
His biggest weaknesses are that he often keeps strikers on-sides, and he reacts a bit slowly to runs from his outside shoulder.
My late at night and under the influence observations: 1) The late LA goals don’t really bother me. They came when we had everyone pushed forward. What bothered me was our lack of ability to truly be dangerous when we were pushed forward. 2) The score makes the game look closer than it actually was. We were completely out-classed across the roster. 3) LAFC was dominated by Sounders last week. 4) We need to upgrade at left back. 5) The quality of depth at CB and right back drops off significantly after the starters. 6) There was a moment in the first half where one of our defenders had the ball between our box and midfield stripe looking for someone to pass to and literally no one else was moving. 7) L Silva was a no show for almost all of the game. 8) They out hustled us for much of the game. We became tentative on defense and that transferred to the offense. 9) I cannot offer any solutions or point out anything Petke could have done to prevent this. Maybe sub in Ortuno earlier? M Silva’s absence was huge, but I’m not convinced his presence would have made the score much better.
After games like this, I realize how little I truly understand about soccer tactics. It was clear the teams were not evenly matched, but if I put myself in the place of the coach, what would I do? I am not sure any subs would have changed that "display" yesterday. Acosta instead of Phillips? Random USL guy instead of Barry? Ortuño instead of Silva? Really don't see any of those making a significant difference, with maybe the exception of Ortuño. So, what does Petke do?
Just following up on your question and the last point in my post above your’s. At halftime it was obvious that their attackers individually and as a group were better than our defense. So, beyond minor tweaks there were 2 strategic options: bolster the offense and try to match them goal for goal (which is consistent with the Organization’s overall philosophy) or park the bus and hope that we can get another counter against the run of play. If going with the former, Ortuno in for L Silva at halftime would be the move. For what it’s worth, imo nothing we did would have prevented a lopsided loss against that particular side the way they were playing. But, in retrospect, I think doing nothing was not the best way to handle it.
The entire backline. Beckerman and Kreilach were also awful. They were repeatedly schooled by the positioning of LAFC attackers. Start Luke and Sunny next match.
One thing that may have been worth considering would have been to sub off Kyle instead of Horst for Bofo. Going to 3 in the back was suicide yesterday the way LAF%C was carving up RSL like they were ham on Easter.
This one's on me. I started the thread, made bold predictions, overestimated our abilities and underestimated LAFC's. I still say Bennie's a dick.
One more thing to note: Beckerman now has to be considered past prime. While we can show examples of the back line being out of shape, where the F was Beckerman? He had the worst Audi Index of any player on either team who started the game.
Is it too early to worry about what seems like lack of coordination between Beckerman and Kreilach? It's either early on the learning curve playing together, or its competing gameplay insticts. I seem to recall several moments where spacing between the two seemed way off while playing defense.
I don't think many would agree with the first statement, but I believe everyone would agree with the second.
I think everyone will agree he is past his prime in terms of quickness, speed and reactions. Nonetheless, he had a good second half to 2017. In the LAFC game I wanted to point at him for not marking Feilhaber on his goal. My son said, “Look, what was he supposed to do? Feilhaber was already at full speed. It’s going to be very hard for anyone to mark him closely. And, besides, the service was perfect.” So, I’ve backed off a bit. KB’s worst moment to me was on the offense when he was at the top of the box where he historically has loved to shoot from. Someone served him a golden ball in space 2 yards in front of him, and he just looked at it. By the time he realized what it was it was too late, a defender had already reacted.
Yeah, but he cut his hair... I think maybe he's like the legendary Sampson... and all his strength is gone. If the Audi Index existed when Sampson hair was cut.... like falling off a cliff!
I was on a golf course during the game. The KSL app worked but was spotty so I didn't get a consistent feed. Given that, and the horrendous result, I'm not doing my 15. I will say this though: in looking at the highlights, the spacing of KB and Kreilach needs to improve drastically. It was bad against FCD and only got punished (with a goal) the one time. LAFC took the chances FCD didn't. For me, the most important part of the pitch is the midfield. If you have a solid midfield, you'll stay in games you shouldn't and win the close ones. Our midfield was, on paper, considered to be great. It hasn't shown up yet. I'm not sold yet on massive changes (like starting Luke and Sunny) but it's where I'm going to focus most on NYRB this coming Saturday. Speaking of which, this NYRB team looks legit and young and fast. You know, the things that have killed us so far.
Was so excited for that game... Simply could not wait to watch 90 minutes of RSL soccer... I only needed about 50 minutes before I was sick to my stomach and could watch no further. I'll do better than to get my hopes up like that again.
I was convinced you were going to go full Petke, “I got nothing.” But you then gave us your KB/Kreilach observation. With them, is it a matter of having more playing time together, or is there uncertainty as to respective roles/responsibilities? Petke said he even sent paper out there explaining what he wanted, with the unstated implication that even that was ignored. I assumed that the instructions went to KB, but am not certain. One of the silver linings to a game like this one is that it savagely reveals chinks in the armour. Film study should help those two acknowledge there is a problem.