Reasons why RSL won Despite dominating early, NYC was tactically naive. They pressed hard and high and while it resulted in a goal, they wore themselves out on the road at altitude. Rookie move. RIOT attendees have seen this movie before. NYCFC's coaching staff may not have. RSL pushed Beckerman into a more advanced position to disrupt and relay, and used the wings to attack. Which enabled Savarino to do magic on the wings. Savarino played the 2nd half on another level. Ridiculous. He was dancing around people. Faster, quicker, more skilled. He was the Jesus. Great finishing Give credit to Rusnak's volley cross for Sava's goal...and Kyle's redirection. What a move and a roofer. Give credit to Plata for smashing something into the box that eventually created the goal for Besler. Clever flick... Give credit to Rusnak for wonderfully cutting one way then shooting back against that movement, freezing Johnson. Goal of the Week nominee. Both of our Centerbacks were strong in the air...and consistent. I expected more shakiness from them, they were pretty good. Outside backs and Kreilach and Baird...they absorbed the teeth of NYC let's say. Beckerman had a good game, and a very smart yellow, but Everton was tireless and fast and active (outside of the first goal....) and Besler disrupted NYC repeatedly as he played meaningful minutes (goal aside) at DMid. Great DMid day, I think Freddy deserves credit for how he had the DMids line up. They were in useful disruptive positions all game long. Nick Saves. Fun night. NYC showed a ton of skill on the ball and great movement, but were just out run as the night wore on.
Everton got a yellow tonight and if I'm not mistaken, means he's out on accumulation. If Kyle came out hurt and if he's unavailable next week, we might be in some trouble there.
Nice analysis! Now the question...were Freddy’s tactics better than what Petke would have implemented?
I dunno. Maybe. I watched the game on TV at home and during the Mic'd Up segment, they showed him talking in Spanish to one of the RSL players (Silva? Savarino? Everton Luiz?) which I thought was interesting. Because of this. maybe he was able to relay his message to some of the players better in Spanish than English and as a result, better RSL play.
I think it's clear that while we saw some long-balls, Freddy tried to push the midfielders higher up field against NY's shape which had several effects. It disrupted NY (RSL intercepted a lot of passes), it allowed us to work the ball up-field more incrementally and then go wide on NY - which made them run a lot. Kyle in particular looked like he'd been advanced to match NYC's numbers centrally and he acted as a really good relaying mid - he was the middle man on two goals...I would have rated this match a 7.5/8 for him...and Everton ran like a dog and mopped everything up behind. Kreilach and Rusnack came back a lot too - I wasn't watching their movements as much. So...yeah...I think I liked this approach tactically. It didn't suit Baird's style but it certainly did Jefferson's...and NY's injuries etc aside, RSL was the better side last night.
For much of this game, we appeared to be playing a 4-2-4 with both of the midfielders lying deep and sending balls forward. Scouting NYCFC obviously told us two things: pressure Sean Johnson every time he has the ball, and run people through all of the channels between NYCFC defenders simultaneously. The four forward just picked different channels (rotating throughout the game) and went at 'em. Kyle ended up with two assists and played several other balls that on another night would have been as well. Then we played through Savarino so often that he was essentially the playmaker, even way out wide. Those first 30 minutes were indeed rough for him, but there's something to be said for keeping your head through that sort of period and refinding your game. The last sixty minutes were fantastic from him, and if the Europeans were watching, his price tag is steadying in our favor for sure. He was subtly juking the NYCFC defenders in an impressive way that was very fun to watch. The spaces that New York took advantage of in those chaotic first five minutes were there again several times later in the match, but they didn't move the ball like that again really. I didn't see much in the way of adjustments on our end except to keep stretching the field so they could only rarely commit the numbers to make it work. The one thing they did well all game was bamboozle Toia (and others, but especially Toia) when he had the ball and was deciding which way to pass it, and they jumped on balls passed back for quick turnovers. Aaron Herrera had his worst game in quite a while. He was fine on defense but his touches forward and his passes and even his decision making upfield were lousy. Baird now . . . yikes from the early turnover onward. Early in the season his runs and passes so disrupted defenses that even with no goals he was value-added, but it has been several months since that was the case. Joao Plata was a fantastic late-game sub. He was on fire and caused real problems. Good three points; glad we were there. We had been up since 3 a.m. for travel and there were times late in the second half where my fogged brain lost track of the ball completely, so take my observations with that consideration in mind.
Baird needs to see the bench for awhile. Make him watch the game and sub him in later if at all. Give Schmitt some minutes. Toia was used and abused all night. I thought for all of his good play in the game Kyle was lucky not to be sent off. I think it was Ring that bowled him over and then clipped him with his knee that had Kyle down for a minute. Then, right in front of the Ref, he punched Ring in the side or leg it looked like. I know the crowd made an audible gasp at his behavior. A less "seasoned" or tenured player would probably have been sent off. I think I also saw him try and clip Ring with his leg running by him when Ring was getting up of the pitch. Anyway, 3 points are 3 points.
MLS instant replay review an NYC foul and thought it should have been a red card for heavy challenge studs up into Bofo ankle area. Starts around 5:30 https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019...-seen-red-tackle-instant-replay?autoplay=true
A lot of actual soccer content has already been covered so I'll just make some notes here in my 15: Whatever we do for pregame needs to change like 5 months ago. This team consistently comes out slow and is made to pay for it. We were honestly lucky to not be down multiple goals in the first 15 mins Donald Duck Toia at left back is becoming more and more of a liability. He makes up for his lack of defensive ability with effort, but word is getting out on how to beat him and what he'll do to recover. He made some strong tackles earlier in the season to make up for getting burned and forwards know it now. In the next few games he is going to go into one of those heavy tackles and end up on the floor because the forward stops their run. I talked a lot of shit on Marcelo Silva earlier this year and he's making me eat crow the last few games. Right now he is playing up to his salary cap hit. Kudos to him. Glad also seems to have flipped a switch. Maybe someone finally got it through to him that he went from being on the world cup roster, possibly starting, for this next cycle to completely out of the picture. Play like this, though, will warrant another callup. KB should have seen red. That punch warranted a red, IMO, and he thought he was getting sent off. Then he proceeded to be very KB and just... annoying. I'm curious how this team will perform without him out there doing that. Are we worse without it? Does the officiating change? Anything? I was also a bit nervous Everton was going to be sent off for his yellow card tackle. Not for the tackle itself (it was very much a yellow) but him standing over the guy afterwards and having words so much the 4th official and AR had to get involved. I've seen those be grounds for a red card and/or after the fact suspensions/fines. I'm not convinced Savarino meant to roof his first goal. It doesn't much matter because good god what a hit, but I think he was looking to go across the ball more but he's much less savvy with his left foot. Regardless, he's on fire of late and should be sold if that number gets above 10MM, for sure. Baird, on the other hand, has completely lost his game. He's a liability on the pitch and needs to be rotated. Some time with the Monarchs might do him well. He needs to score again. Rusnak's injury is worrisome. This team is so much more dynamic when he's on the pitch and asserting himself like he was for the last 60 minutes of this one. Without him, I don't know what the solution is given the other injuries. Scmitt up top and Kreilach to the 10? Not a fan. What I was a fan of? Freddy subbing off KB. I don't think Petke knows he can do that. That sub solidified the midfield and eliminated the (high) risk of us playing with only 10 men. Like Savarino, I don't think Besler meant to score how he did at all. In fact, I think Besler was meaning to get out of the way of the shot, no redirect it. It was a hell of a flick, but it reminded me of when a guy scores an upper 90 OG - not intended to be as good as it was. New York didn't care much after the first 15 mins, but they especially couldn't wait for the game to end after that Besler goal. You could feel all of the edge leave the game - I've been to friendlies with more edge to them. In the end, this was a much needed 3 points but just added to the perplexing trend of RSL being so very good against the East (and the East being just not very convincing overall) but pretty awful against the West. I don't think there was enough time for things to really change to be more of Freddy and less of Petke. In fact, I don't think this is enough time at all to see anything like that. Oh, and lastly, the "Free Mike Petke" sign and subsequent ovation was nauseating. I was going back and forth in my head about making a Petke Out sign. Curious if I would have got the same amount of air time.
<snark-mode = ON> I dunno, I can get behind "Free Mike Petke" - he could be freed from his contract at RSL and allowed to find a job elsewhere. <snark-mode = OFF>
I think it's important to remember that a fair number of people in those stands voted for the current racist-in-chief, ableist-in-chief, homosexual-slurer-in-chief, there-are-good-people-on-both-side-in-chief. So, they probably feel completely justified and supported in their justifying and supporting 'the coach who's saying it like it is fighting for our team' by his spewing of racist vulgarities and homosexual slurs. You probably would have been called a snowflake. Just a thought. Not one to argue over... at least, I won't be arguing about it.
Wow! Our coach likes to spew obscenities and indulge in boorish behavior and somehow it's our current president's fault. You must be a load of laughs at parties.
He didn't say it was Trump's fault. He said that people cheer Trump on for saying much worse things, so it's no surprise that people would cheer Petke on. Ergo, you failed at reasoning, or you read into his statement what you wanted it to say and not what it actually said. EDIT: The "fun at parties statement" still applies.
Hey, if Balance wants to make snide remarks about President Trump or Trump supporters, there are other forums for that. Keep it out of this forum.
I agree. We have BOTH been guilty of doing this in the past too. Your reasoning still failed. Changing the topic doesn't change that fact. I'm doing this partly in jest, by the way. Please don't take this as an attack. Just poking your ribs.
Side note...under the "my sister's girlfriend's mom heard that" category (which I have reason to believe is 100% accurate): The explanation that has been going around as to Petke's behavior was true. Perhaps that is not a surprise. DeLoy intended to give Petke a "talking to" only and MLS made it very clear that this was NOT an option, so RSL added in the suspension. To me, that was a surprise. I just have a feeling that if the whole fan base was informed as to exactly what he did, Petke's support would dwindle.
Oh, and I will say, without taking any side, that being on this board is a welcome relief from some aspects of the current political environment. If I would like to debate politics, I have many opportunities to do so. Respectfully to anyone's views, I would prefer NOT to do it here unless it is relevant to RSL.