Game 1 of 2 (sort of three - the other one being three weeks from now) of our Eastern road swing is two days from now at Montreal. Petke said over the weekend that prior to the Atlanta game that the staff laid out three lineups to use against Atlanta, Montreal, and NYRB, so we'll have some rotation for sure. Montreal is alternately disciplined on defense and totally breachable, game to game. Here's hoping we get the latter version.
So we're going to see player rotation? Curious who that means and who gets the bench. Have to think Johnson gets the start up top. Is Plata back in the lineup and the transfer rumors all bunk? Lennon? I have no idea. If it were me, and the Plata stuff really wasn't true, I'd go: Johnson Bofo Kreilach Plata Besler Portillo Toia Glad Silva Lennon Putna Bench: Rimando, Onuhoa, Herrera, Luiz, Rusnak, Savarino, Baird Kreilach and Bofo are the two you have earmarked to sub around the 60th minute. Depending on the game situation, you either go like for like with Baird and Rusnak, or you go defensive and put in Luiz and clog he midfield. I also think Scmitt will be in the 18, I'm just not sure who to drop.
Don't get me wrong, I like Holt, but what does it say that one of the highest paid CBs in the league (Silva) is behind Holt in the starting XI?
Rimando Lennon Glad Holt Toia (that's an all-HG defense, yes?) Portillo Kreilach Rusnak Savarino Johnson Plata Subs: Putna, Onuoha, Herrera, Luiz, Besler, Saucedo, Baird
Toss it on the pile of bad contracts I guess. He's started for the Monarchs so it's not health related.
didnt Waibel sign him to a new deal recently, too? Jesus. What is weird there is that Silva was in the 18 against ATL while Holt wasnt. I thought Holt was still injured but thats obviously not true oh, and look, Plata is in the starting lineup. Trade rumors are dead
I like what I saw from Holt in his two starts - getting your first MLS minutes against the LAFC attack and performing well is remarkable. But I don't think him as a steady #3 option behind Onuoha and Glad is a good idea yet.
They both started for the Monarchs on Saturday, but Holt was subbed at halftime (presumably to save him for this game) while Silva played all 90. Honestly just looks like Holt is preferred to Silva.
I am not confident in the defense side of this game. We don't have the bite in midfield. We're starting a new CB who will be supported by an out of position outside back and a serviceable outside back. That all before considering Glad will likely make his couple of errors that he's been making per game this year. Yeah, we won't be shutting anyone out today. Also, will be interesting to see if Plata can go for 60 minutes. He's seemed fairly listless this season so far.
Impact put a solid 10 minutes of pressure on that HG defense and they held up to the challenge... barely, but held up they did.
If luck counts as holding up, then I agree. We were lucky not to be down 0-2 by the 5th minute. At the 19th they seem to have settled down a bit, although Glad is doing some weird things.
All shut out score lines look the same after the game. Of course, we aren't after the game yet, are we? EEK!
It’s not your imagination. The thug named Piette was fully committed to wrecking Rusnak until the ref carded him. As I’ve stated before, part of game prep has to be knowing the tendencies of the referee. Bazakos always allows physical play early, then he tightens up on later in the game when play crosses whatever imaginary line he has drawn in his mind. I actually prefer his style over the referees who blow the whistle too often. But there should have been 3 Impact yellow cards and one RSL (Kreilach) in the first half.
Referees generally are slow to award yellow cards due to the calibration effect, a tendency to avoid extreme evaluations early in a series of decisions. https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/jsep.30.1.95
Our offense is greatly missing Bofo’s creativity and aggressiveness in this one. (At the beginning of the season I never thought that I would write that sentence).
Differently this time: he lined up there while looking back across the defense, so he knew he was off.