Pre-Match / Match / Post-Match Thread - Toronto FC vs. Houston Dynamo - April 20, 2013 (R)

Well, I just said it.

 

OH MY GOD!

 

Oh my God. I'm done. WTF.

 

"Unbelievable the way happens time in and time out."

- Gerry Dobson

*ducks*

 

Unreal .. I can't believe it .. It's almost supernatural .. Why would they bring in Wiedmann .. he's very slow and easy gives up the ball.. you want fast guys out there in the dying minutes in my opinion. Anyway .. at least TFC is giving up wins, in the old days they were giving up losses..

 

Henry and O'Dea didn't want Houston to fly home empty-handed.

 

Seriously....WTF???? How does TFC allow this to happen?

Constant turnovers in stoppage time. Everyone watching knew that equalizer was coming. Pathetic. Justin Braun was the only one trying to maintain possession, and he had no support around him. Everyone else keeps booting the ball down the field and handing possession to Houston. Doneil Henry had enough time and teammates around him, but instead boots it right to a white jersey. Which of course ends up w/ Houston scoring 30 seconds later.

This is definitely 2 points squandered.

Nelsen has to teach the team a thing or two about maintaining possession when you're in the lead. You can't keep giving the other team possession and let them attack.

 

Henry has to shoulder the blame for the equalizer. His turnover was what lead to the corner. He had 4 red shirts around him. He shouldn't have booted it down the field like that to a bunch of white jerseys.

 

I think this one is on O'Dea. I don't what kind of crap he was trying to pull off near the corner the flag but he should've kicked it out for a throw.

 

Before we panic too much, after 8 matches we are W-1, D-5, L-2 with GF 10 and GA 11. Still substantially better than 2012's W-0, D-0, L-8 with GF 6 and GA 18.

 

I'll give him partial blame. However, Henry booted the ball right to a bunch of white jerseys when he had 4 teammates around him. The ball goes back up field and ends up in O'Dea conceding the corner.

The way TFC kept giving the ball away in extra time and allowing Houston to attack, that equalizer was coming one way or the other. This sh!t has to stop. Especially when you're up a goal and the opposition is down to 10 men.

 

This team has to stop going into panic mode after 90 minutes, they are just throwing away points.

That said, they are light years ahead of where I thought they would be at this point of the season.

 

If you want to take a broader perspective, we blew chances to go up 2, 3 maybe 4 goals on them. It shouldn't have had to come down this.

Yeah throw. He acted like he was holding the ball up on the opposing end.

 

We also had the lead going into second half injury time in 4 of those games, and only once did we keep it.
I agree that we should take into account how much of an improvement over last year 2013 has been, but the old habit of conceding late we wanted to be rid of has come back stronger than ever.
Honestly, leading against a Houston team that generally blows whenever they're on the road, without Brad Davis, down to 10 men, on the back foot the entire game, didn't create anything for 90 minutes, were completely contained for 90 minutes, were very very lucky to only concede once during those 90 minutes. And then all of a sudden Henry thinks it would be a great idea to just give Houston the ball under no pressure at all and with plenty of better options there (like, say, passing to one of his team mates). And O'Dea thinks it would be swell to avoid a throw-in and just concede a corner instead. And the entire defence thinks, oh might as well not mark anyone wearing a white shirt. And boom Houston get two free headers and score.
There have been a lot of ridiculous late game TFC chokes through the years, but this is one of the most baffling, ludicrous ones ever. They actually looked like they were trying to let Houston score. If ever there was a game where TFC gifted their opponents a point to their opponents, it was this one.

 

that's the problem he doesn't hold up the ball well to begin with considering that's what he's supposed to do, his touch is horrid, additional foot skills just as bad. that great ball wasn't even deflected he just missed it. gave up possession a few times. cardio not up to par. really bad 1st half for him it took a 10 man opposition for him not to look out of place.

he was also part of that 5-6 person f*** up in the 94th minute. Weidemann would be more useful and that's saying a lot. deserved goal from Hall he is noticeably improved this year (very poor in 2012).

 

My mistake on the record.

OK, Henry is primarily a CB, right? Not sure what I think about putting a 20 year-old in the line-up, (potentially) out of position, with the game on the line when you have a more experienced defender sitting on the bench. You don't need another goal. You need a level-headed defender that is either going to find a red jersey to pass to (for possession) or is going to boot the ball down the field 60-70 yards for a Dynamo throw-in deep in Houston territory.

 

I was thinking the same thing, later. They brought on two 20 yr-olds in the last minutes to hold the fort, and the other guy, while the best finisher in the world, is also one of the slowest runners in sports. This is a depth issue too ..

 

even in the 1st minute that would have been a strange play by O'Dea, he is extremely conservative.

 

Henry does have experience at fullback though. Having said that, Califf probably does as well. But it's difficult to see him playing fullback, especially with how slow he is now. And really, no player, whether they're 30 or 20, should ever be expected to give a ball away just as easily and as needlessly as Henry did there.
I dunno. Feels like TFC are always going to find ways to concede late no matter who plays.

 

TFC should loan Henry or just cut him loose, his non-improvement from 18-21 is not a good sign, especially when he's been with an MLS team and various national teams the entire time. given every chance to succeed and his game hasn't developed.

apparently he does well in training but that's irrelevant because he has significant tactical, distribution and composure problems that will only be worked out with regular playing time.