Week 5 is here. Only kidding about the title......we are not as far down at the beginning of the season as they were in the EPL....but it would be nice if a team that some experts predicted as the first team out of the playoffs can grab a hold of first and keep it season long. As for the starting lineup? Who knows....with no Shea, and Larin and Redding questionable, no telling, but I will guess: Bendik Ramos/Collin/Hines/Bolton Higuita/Ceren/Nocerino Winter/Moleno Kaka
On a side note...man Collin is out of form right now. When he came in the second half against Portland, he looked rough. Basically just run and either kick or head the ball as far as you can. You really notice a difference when Redding is in. He actually tries to play the ball out of the back. I really do not see a scenario where Collin is here past mid season. Problem is his salary, but I guess OCSC will trade him (if only for allication money) and eat half his salary.
I agree on Collin. I'm not sure if we will let him go this season. The roster is pretty much set so we don't need the cap space at the moment. If Donovan becomes healthy and in form then we might have the flexibility to trade him. The other option is that we re negotiate a lower contract. A little part of me wonders if we have done that already. If Redding is unavailable I think we will see Mateos start in his place, though.
By the way, I think there is a chance we could see Alston instead of Boden at LB. I found it curious that he was on the bench this past week. It was Boden on the bench for NYFC.
When they brought him in the team said he could play both. There was one friendly that Ramos spent some time at LB, though. So who knows which way it would go. Boden could certainly get the start, but I think there may be some significance to Alston being in the 18 on Sunday.
Hey, if we own the Supporters' Shield at the end of the season, we don't have to worry about the MLS Cup. We'll already have our in for the CCL. And if we win tomorrow night, we'll be in that spot for at least a day.
Well Adrian, I think you just got schooled by Curtin. 90th minute and no subs, playing on the road. Even if only to grind the game down in the final 5-7 minutes by doing slow substitutions. As the Unimas annoucers said, Philadelphia made the offensive moves to win this game. Ramos and Nocerino had really rough nights on the field. Nice goal by Winter.
Who was he going to bring in exactly? Baptitsta just joined your team, and is likely not fit, Rivas has barely played and has largely been a disappointment, Hadji Berry who is a MLS rookie and the rest of the players on your subs bench last night were defenders. Slim pickings really. Plus you only lost the game because of this: The Union controlled large portions of the match, but it's not like they were putting Bendik under siege or anything. Even with being in control, they still needed that world class free kick by Barnetta to get all 3 points. Man, it must have felt like groundhog day for Bendik.............he got beat on an almost identical free kick when he was with TFC back in 2013. Almost the same exact spot too!!!
Around the 65 or so, I would have pulled Nocerino, and put in Rivas up top - reverting to the 4-2–3-1 line up, allowing Kaka to fill in underneath Rivas. Rivas has the pace to streachout the Union on counter attacks. Then in the 75 or so, pull out Moleno and put Baptitsta up top and put Rivas in the left side (or just keep Rivas up top and leave Baptitsta on the left). I felt OCSC controlled the game until around the 60th, when Curtin started to make changes and the Union took over control for the final 30.
Seriously? Rivas was very dangerous late last season, and he had a great camp and preseason. The exact way to use a guy like him is to bring him on in the 60 to 70 minute mark and let him fly past the tired opponents and put them on their heels. Baptista could easily handle 20 minutes of work, and has apparently been brilliant in practice at putting the ball in the back of the net. This team has depth, but it doesn't matter if the gaffer won't use it.
One thing that I've had to come to grips with is that Inchy is a gambler and gamblers sometimes don't play it safe as I think bringing Baptista & Rivas on much earlier would have been.
Not that it matters now, but apparently, the Unions winning goal against the Lions, was off sides. PRO came out today and said the AR should have waived it off as off-side. Interesting read on the rule. http://www.proreferees.com/news-play-of-the-week-2016-week-6.php