Typically I get hot dogs with my seats, the joke on that is well known here. Occasionally they have other food, though, and have made a point of emailing us in the days leading up to the game of what the food will be. For this one it was grilled chicken sandwiches. That sounds great, right? Oh my god, no. It was boiled, not grilled, and was so dry and chewy that I felt like I was having a heart attack while swallowing. So I got to my seats (we eat up above because space in the seating at the RioT is less than ideal) I wasn't in a great mood. The cold wind was blowing in and you could see a horrible storm coming in from the southwest. I was shocked Pity didn't start. In hindsight, I don't think he would have swung the game too much. He is a talented player, but is struggling to find his feet, you can tell. Josef, on the other hand, holy hell. That dude is amazing. We moved out of our seats in 14 to section 18, I believe, right behind the ATL bench just to get out of the rain. As luck would have it we ran into someone we knew who said we could use 4 seats in that section. I recommend that. From the different angle, I was especially tuned into how the middle three were working together. Besler, as has been noted here already, had himself a really good game. He only made a handful of bad passes and was out of position only once or twice. Otherwise, he was solid. I'm still not sold on him as a starter on a top 5 or even 10 team, but the dude is growing on me. It was interesting from that angle to watch Kreilach, as well. His movement and general positioning was higher than I would have expected for this game. The pregame talks were to obviously push in the gaps for he and Albert. Also in the pregame talks had to be that ATL was a bit soft. Toia, in particular, won about 5 tackles by sheer strength - and nothing overly aggressive, honestly. It was just obvious that ATL didn't want to get into many physical challenges. The Bofo goal was dejavu from last week. And while, yes, there is a concern that other teams will defend that better, it's worth remembering that Arjen Robben made a career out of a similar move, just from the other side. I'm still not sure how Guzan gets beat on that shot, though. Did he not see it until late? It wasn't as well placed as last weeks The first half was fun after the rain stopped really pouring. Kudos to Petke for putting out a good lineup for ATL and for having instructions that made sense. However, he was the lesser of the two coaches in the second half. Especially after ATL switched their tactics a bit on the double sub. Focus was put on Pitty, but Escobar was the game changer. He blew by Toia multiple times. The best touch of the game was his first touch on the ATL goal. From our seats you could see just how amazing it was. That dude is a player. Though, its wrong to talk about the ATL goal without saying just how good of a run that was by Josef Martinez. The burst of speed that guy has is astounding. He was able to make it look simple, but it really wasnt. He cut across Glad at just the right time to nick the ball in ahead of Glads lunge. That's a pure striker. Luiz is still really really rusty, but he showed some flashes again of what makes him special. It's worth remembering that he got the assist on the last goal. It wasn't an amazing pass or anything, but he did well to settle the ball and connect to Sava. And then Sava did Sava things. I know he rubs many on here the wrong way but I love this kid. I'll take a player that wants to run at the opposing team first and pass second. Especially with how our tactics are setup - we have to create a numbers advantage and that doesn't happen by just passing unless you can really pull apart the other team. Instead, Jefferson creates that himself. In the first half he made a fool of Shea a couple times and then in the second he took advantage of the tactical change by ATL. Give me more of that, please. This game was fun. Obviously winning at the last second will do that, but even without that it was just a fun game. The weather was crazy, the crowd was smaller than I hoped, but it was a blast to be at. It sucks we dont get to be back home until June 29th.
Oh, and Plata watch... that was weird this game. He wasn't subbed on late, which I think says a lot about a potential move. However, I doubt we're "close" as he was in the 18. In fact, a weird thing happened at the end of this game. First, why the hell doesn't Petke have a radio to talk to his assistant coaches down on the end of the pitch warming up the subs? Having to point down and yell at players doesn't look too professional. The poor assistant made like 7 sprints up and down the sideline trying to get instructions. It would be a funny thing to study how much time is wasted on that part of the game for the coachign staff. Anyways, what was weird was when Petke pointed down at one point I'm pretty sure he called for Plata. Plata pointed to himself and it looked like he was the sub. But then the assistant came down to Petke and went back and the sub didn't happen. Instead, Brooks came running down about 3 minutes later and subbed on. I wonder what was said...
Yes, definitely need a radio for the trainer with the subs warming up. Of course he really doesn't need to turn on the radio until about the 80th minute so it might just be that they can't justify getting the radio if they're only going to use it once or twice a game. LOL.
The Brooks sub puzzled me, too. Didn't he come on in the 90th minute or so, and seemed to be playing a mid or forward position? Maybe it was enough of a disruption to help with the late goal.
I'm no where near an expert on futbol but my instincts tell me that Petke does not have a very good grasp on when and whom to sub in and out. For my money I think that he could definitely sub earlier and more often especially with the first two subs in the second half. Myself I think I would be inclined to hold on to a sub for later in the game and get that idea but the rest of his subs I find perplexing. For me, as always it would depend on the game and circumstances but, in general I would look to make a sub somewhere around the 60th minute followed by the second around the 70th and then see what the game holds for the last sub. Pretty obvious I know but I think that Mike holds on and subs too late many times which makes it rather difficult for the sub to have any real shot at making a difference in the match. In general I definitely think that there is room for improvement in the subbing department.
It was an offensive sub that made sense at a really dumb level of "MOAR FORWARDSSS!!!" It scares me that Petke thinks that is the way to react still.
Former players always tend to be slower on changes than non-former player coaches. There is a belief that the players will figure it out and make adjustments. It can be true at times, but I agree he is too slow to make changes.
I can see that. I would also bet that as a former player the last thing you want is to be subbed out of a game. Everyone wants to play all of the time but at some point you have to make a tough decision make a sub for the betterment of the team. I hope his subbing improves or at least evolves into earlier subs.
I still have no idea how the AR thought that was a foul. Though, to be fair, Herrera's hands are on him... this seems a weird one to crack down on.
But a flop nonetheless. I remember the crowd's reaction when the replay was shown. Never in a million years would I have expected the DisCo to move on this one but here we are. Can't say it's a bad thing.
I'll disagree here. Brooks came in and played really well on both sides of the ball, but especially defensively. He was able to help Toia who had a nightmare the last 1/3 of the game.