Unnecessarily panicky stoppage time because Frank used his last sub to PUT ON an injured player. Misguided attempt to be more defensive, and it left Oduro way to stranded up top without Rolfe to connect. Alex with a great goal to end it though. He should start over Flaco based on today's performances. I don't know how Alvaro made it to halftime, much less full time without being pulled.
Nice win. Fernandes missed two really good chances. Alex lost the ball a lot but made up for it with that goal.I do worry that our consistent scorer paladini will be taken off the starting squad now that pause is better. Or maybe klopas will go with 3 def mids.If paladini stays in the starting lineup he is on the pace to become our leading scorer in 4 games.Seriously the one thing I worry about despite the win, is our inability to control and possess the ball.
Good to see them play a high energy game against a team in the same position and really work them. Even through the long spells of possession by Houston, they looked like they were comfortable. Flaco was not good tonight. The South Americans need to get off the ball and just play a simple passing and go from there. Oduro is a goddam supersub. Fire get more dangerous when winning and he comes on late. 1 win from the 3rd best in MLS. Can't take a breather from here on out. With the exception of 3 team, which will be the bitches of the bunch, it's all playoff potential teams.
Things appeared to sour when we took off MacDonald, Rolfe isn't a post up hold the ball player, he's a quick touch, one-two type. Playing with 6 M, 4 D it was invetitable we'd give up a goal and have to hang on. Barouch for all his problems, was young and could fill that late game post up sub when MacDonald was gassed. Alex, prior to the goal, hadn't done much right, it appeard FK spent most of the second half yelling at him. Flaco must stand for Chad Barrett in Spanish. (I think I've seen that posted here before - so I commend whoever made the comment!) Paladini deserves to stay in the lineup - he might not be the BEST DM we have, but he isn't afraid to get into the 18 - whereas I have literally seen Pause stop 2 yards into the box and step out of it, as if he'd been shocked by a dog collar. Paladini has as many GF as Pause has GA. But we all know Frank has a hard-on for Pause and he'll be back in there on the 15th. Johnson was spectacular and I'm glad to see he is no longer aimlessly punting balls forward. Also, unless I missed it he didn't take a goal kick straight out of bounds which he had been doing regularly lately.
Very enjoyable first ~3/4 of the game. Fernandez had a few good moments but for the most part was meh. MacDonald is very good, game worse after he came out. And why put Pause in? He can't be back to 100%. Attendance 17,007
As crappy as we were against DCU, we looked really good on the counter (well, except for El Flaccid) and fully deserved the three points. And these points were huge. If we can now win against DC and Cbus and play at least decently the rest of our games, we should be in the playoffs. What I liked about tonight is that we finally made a decent team pay for making mistakes. Usually, we only punish the really crappy teams when they screw up but tonight we took almost full advantage of Houston's flubs, which was important given that we had, what, like 30% possession. The only times we failed to make Houston pay was when we gave the ball to Fernandez who seems to be the bastard love child of Chad Barrett and Orlando Perez. Somebody told me he played good defense but to be honest I think he just stood in front of people and stuck his leg out. Nyarko had an outstanding night as did (surprisingly) Sega. The real shock, though, was Paladini who not only scored but was a pest in midfield all game long. And let's not forget Sean Johnson's crucial awesome saves at the end when e were bunkering hard. It feels good to have four players who played well enough to be legitimate MOTM - Johnson, Paladini, Sega and eventual winner Nyarko. We haven't had that kind of widespread excellence in a while.
Good win tonight. The good: McDonald is big and strong and holds the ball pretty well. Johnson was great (Sparky98, Sean only did it once, towards the end of the first half). Nyarko was not bad at all. Paladini was very active. Anibaba played the best game at right back since his move back there (I would still prefer Gargan, at this point). Pardo has continued to improve this season. He started slowly, but is playing and better and better. Oduro was terrific as a sub. He was the best player when he was out there. I would like to see a game or two with Oduro and McDonald starting up top. Alex looked good in his time on the field. The bad: Flaco is basically flaki at this point, which is very unfortunate. Rolfe was okay, but a bit subpar for him. The Fire had a really hard time keeping possession. The Houston goal was just something that happens. I watched the replay and Arne was all over Ching, but Ching was in front and nailed the header.
This game should have been 5-1 and it would have been a pretty dominant beatdown. Next two games will be pretty important in figuring out if we deserve the #1 seed. Toronto is beatable, but Montreal will be a good test. But I gotta say, I like this team....Klopas has coped with the loss of Grazzini admirably. A lot of people were writing this season off after we lost him, but if anything we have improved.
One thing that Flaco did right is the steal he made to start the Paladini goal. And he was trackig back on defense fairly well. Doesn't excuse missing the sitter of the year, though.
I agree with everything but McDonald. He looked as creative as Oduro with the ball at his feet. (Oduro was exceptional tonight.) And he gave it away easily. I was glad to see him leave.
Except after getting more acute in his 1v1 on the right he made a beautiful cutback for the 2nd goal... or do you think this was maybe just an incredibly bad shot that happened to be perfectly timed and placed with Paladini's run?
It might have deflected, but I doubt that was a shot. Awful position to shoot from and that's not what it looked like he was trying to do.
Houston has dominated possession in all but 4 games this year...not a big deal... Our early goal was huge...great awareness from Nyarko...perfect touches to get in position...and a great nutmeg for the goal...(when the ball went through the goalie's legs on the way to goal I yelled "Tally Hole!") because I'm weird like that... I agree with the posters about the commentary...painful at best.
Yeah, he definitely put his foot through it like he was going for goal. But he also made the dummy that should have let Flaco score. Where was Alex positioned tonight? It seemed like he was playing as a forward, but I could be wrong. If so, I'd say it didn't work. He's too small for that. Should have come on for Flaco instead of Mackie, and played out on the wing.
He's too small? Aren't you one of the posters that keeps clamoring for Rolfe up top? I don't think Alex played well, but size had nothing to do with it. Besides, I believe he was in a midfield role, at least after Oduro came in. I'm very happy with the night. A huge three points. Flaco was one of the only disappointments. And by the way, he didn't miss a sitter. He missed TWO sitters. . He also lost the ball a lot. He needs to step it up.
Well first off, yes I am. But Rolfe's primary position is playing as a forward. So its the position he is most used to, whereas Alex has looked best playing out wide left. But also, I would never want Rolfe playing up top by himself. You need a big forward to compliment a small guy. Or else you lose out on every aerial battle (we were just booting the ball up field at the end, with nobody able to go up and retain possession. It would also work if we played on the ground through the middle, but our formation attacks from the wings, which means lots of crosses. That said, it's all moot if he was in the midfield, it just seemed like he was furthest up field a lot, even after Oduro came on. Tough to tell from a tv screen though,
I'm just giving you a hard time while everyone is happy. But the above statement has been my point all along. His primary position has not been as a forward for quite some time. Perhaps its a bit of semantics as some like to call him a "withdrawn" striker, but he's really not. My son and I were watching him and Brad Davis off the ball a lot last night as he has been playing in that role at his club. Rolfe played very much the same as Davis. Perhaps just a bit higher, but not unlike the spot Nowak played for us back in the day, or Blanco more recently. My understanding was that he didn't play too much at forward in Europe either, and we all know from the teeth gnashing around here that he didn't play as a forward in the couple of years before he left for Europe. So, it has been a long time since he has played that role and I would say his "primary position" has been as an attacking midfield player for some time. Now, primarily from a central position and some times on the wing (which I hear is what he played in Denmark.) For what it is worth, I have been beating this drum for a while now, and for the reasons that you mention with Alex. He's not built to play in the box, and even when you try to press him up high, his natural instinct is to sag back a bit. Regardless of semantics, he has been a big part in our success. I'm not sure I would go as far as radmonkey and say that we are playing our best right now. We looked awfully good in June. But, I did say from the time Rolfe got here that his overall game in this spot will be much more effective than Grazzini, even if he doesn't do quite as much creating from the top of the box. He actually works back in the midfield when we have the ball to run the midfield show and that is something we really have needed since Blanco left. Having said all of that, I do wish we still had Grazzini and Pappa for the stretch drive. With them, we would have fantastic depth. Now, we have a good 11 with a few good subs, but there is little room for injury (as with most MLS teams). By the way, as someone who loves Sega but has said that he has slowed a bit, he has been playing really well lately and last night was no exception. I don't think he will ever get back to his pre-injury, pre-Cyprus days, but he is really key right now. If we could solidify the right back spot, we are in good shape in the back. Hats off to Paladini as well. A month ago, I thought he had no business being on the roster, and now, he looks to be a reliable player that gives us more depth.
Someone else will have to chime in on Alex. I wasn't focusing much on him. I believe he may of played up top for about 15-20 minutes until Oduro came in and then he and Flaco were our wide midfield players? To be honest, we were kind of defending/counter-attacking for the whole second half. Other than a few times where it was two on five or six, however, we did look to get 3, 4, 5 forward on the counter attacks, so they were pretty effective.
This game (up 2-1) was perfect for Oduro, he had two great plays pressuring their defense and using his speed to get behind their D, one should have been a goal by Fernandez the other ended in a goal by Alex. Great 20 minutes by Oduro.