I'm worried the opposition has found our Achilles heel. Midfield possesion doesn't mean much when it doesn't draw the defense out and there's no room for long, precise passing.
When you have chances but you either kick it over the crossbar or a weak shot right at the goalkeeper you're not going to score.
Championship drought continues under the leadership of Mr. Hauptman. That's 0-29 2007.....0-1 (MLS CUP) 2008.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2009.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2010.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2011.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2012.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2013.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2014.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2015.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2016.....0-3 (USOC, SS, MLS CUP) 2017.....0-1 (USOC)
This is the type match where fans of "the beautiful game" thought it an absolutely thrilling 0-0 draw and non fans would say, "zero zero? Soccer is boring!" It just goes to show you why games are played because this game was lopsided before it began and the possession, shots and corner kick stats were heavily one sided but a scrappy team defending with guts and heart and body and soul can put 10 guys behind the ball, throw a monkey wrench in a machine and counter attack for a win (or almost since it was called back). This game reminded me of the last UEFA Champions League final Chelsea won in the 88th minute off a Drogba header after parking the bus for 92:30 minutes. Congrats to Cincinnati... a well deserved win. I shall be visiting your stadium July 9 versus the Richmond Kickers with my Austin Berry bobblehead en tow. I hope these guys can recover and pick up 3 against Vancouver because they looked dog tired at the end and I was pissed about the lack of subs used. Why did Basti play 120? Not good.
She shots on Cinci weren't great but their GK did the job. Fire have a tough time breaking down bunkering teams. Their back line is also iffy on the counter. Cincy won the game in ET off Corben Bone's assist no less but the Fire got lucky. I might have swapped Connor for Polster instead of Solignac and added one of the other 2 kids for Juninho or Alvarez. Pauno only used 2 subs because he wanted his best players taking PK's. I knew they'd all miss theirs tho. Their GK chose to dive away and the Fire shot away(except Basti). Lampson chose to dive away and FCC shot across. The best almost always miss in PKs. Normally the manager asks who wants to take them. I would have put every U26 in the first 5 but that's me.
is Meira hurt? Did somebody get hurt in warmups? Is Bava hurt? I mean, Arshakyan and Doody aren't going to impact the game, so short of Meira and Bava, Pawno did bring the best 17 players he had. The deployment was questionable, for sure, though. Might have been better to show less respect with the opening lineup and have some hammers to drop in the 2nd half.
Foreign player limit left Meira out. Deadweight like Arshakyan, Bava, & Harrington left Pauno with a bench in which he had little confidence. Like you, I would have wanted more firepower on the bench, but there were no options.
Rewatching and its almost done. We played better than I remembered and had more good chances than I thought. I think the offside call on the potential Cindy goal in extra time was close enough to be fair. We were certainly the better team.
Actually, I would flip this and say it was close enough to be unfair. The rule is that "even is on" and there is no evidence that the player was not even. It happens, particularly without VAR. It was a very close call that, in real time, is difficult to get right, particularly since she had another player in her view (also not uncommon on a very close offside call). But with the advantage of technology, it seems pretty clear that he is at least even, and therefore on-side. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the VAR. I have always liked the idea that soccer is not so exact. You get calls and you don't get calls. The clock runs for 90 minutes on the referee's watch, but if a team is in the middle of an attack, we let it play out. The delays we saw at the Confed Cup were more annoying to me than this type of call in Cincy where I believe the AR got it wrong.
On the broadcast they discussed when and how the VAR can be used. They were very clear that the VAR can only overturn a call if it was very clearly wrong. In this instance, it's too close to overturn and in realtime an official is going to make a similar call half the time.