Pre-Match / Match / Post-Match Thread - Toronto FC vs. Philadelphia Union - June 1, 2013 (R)

Oh, yes Mr. Nelsen..., EVERYONE can see Doneil Henry's quality. He's so much better than...., well, you know.

 

I'm hoping that's Henry's last game for a while. And I mean longer than the one game he'll miss through suspension.

 

Based on the last two games, Nelsen clearly feels the CB depth chart is 1) Caldwell, 2) O'Dea, 3) Henry, 4) Boss, and 5) Califf. With Henry suspended for next match, Boss will start (or be on the bench if O'Dea and Caldwell are the CBs).

 

This game may be decided by a non-call of an obvious foul. Lots of players out there playing for the whistle.

 

OSORIO!!! 1-0 TFC!!!!!

 

Osorio with the diving header!!!!

 

And here comes the rain!

 

Give Osorio credit for switching his run from the front side of the defender to the back side. Nice passes from both Hall and Brockie.

 

We are now entering..., the twilight zone.

 

80 min mark. It begins.

 

Dumb play by Parke.

 

Defense!!

 

Welcome back, Koev!!

 

To be fair, TFC has 10 men of the field for 50+ minutes.

 

And that was it, TFC 1-1 Union.

And, again, TFC gave away points at last minutes. It looks a bit better though TFC was down a man because of Henry's second yellow. Still.....

 

Not surprised at all. Clock struck 90 and the ball ends up in TFC's net.

Seriously...how does nobody cover Jack McInerney on that play?

And why did Nelsen bring on Koevermans when he needs to protect a lead? Agbossoumonde was available. Might as well have put 5 D-men to protect the lead.

 

Worst substitution of the season - an earth-bound Koevermans for Brockie. Who would you rather have on the field while protecting a 1-goal lead? Koevermans in his first game back? REALLY?

 

I've never been less surprised at a goal in my life.

Nelsen has some serious questions to answer about his last substitution. As kaiteng says, we were playing with 10 men for 50 minutes. Naturally everyone was tiring, and one of our starters should have been replaced by someone with fresh legs. Instead Nelsen takes off Brockie, who played for 20 minutes and created the goal, for a lumbering 35 year old forward coming off a major ACL injury who hasn't played in a year.
That's a shocking, shocking decision by Nelsen, O'Leary and the TFC coaching staff. This late goal is on them IMO, even more than on Henry or whoever was supposed to mark one of the leading scorers in MLS

 

That was a pretty solid game and its a shame that they let in a 90 min goal, but ya can't shit on a great first 45 and solid second half with a man down. Osorio should never have been coming off the bench and him and convey offer better speed and off ball movement as well as better marking/tracking back.

Henry made some inexperienced calls but not too worried when the guy is honestly 4-5 years away from even starting to be in his prime, and has to go through these instances for it to sink in. I'd imagine he'll be back in the lineup within a couple games after his suspension(maybe boss fills, or morgan is given a start and o'dea to cb?).

Yea it sucks we didn't get the full points but screw it. You'd be hard pressed not say we're not making progress. Tough luck, maybe we'll get our win next match.

 

But I was thinking the same thing as Brockie was being subbed... doesn't this guy have more piss and vinegar and able to track back faster... ah well

 

This.
.....and whoever still thinks zonal marking on a set-piece is a good idea, let alone in stoppage time, ought to be fired.

 

Great game. Probably the best one all year. Tactically that sub didn't make sense, but there wasn't one of us there at BMO who wasn't cheering when Koevs came on. We were up 1-0, feeling confident, felt good to have him back. It backfired, yes. But sometimes you go with your heart. Odds are Philly would have scored regardless.
I know its a tired cliche, but there are some positives to take from the game today.

 

The real failure was in not scoring earlier. Particularly knowing our dreadful tendency for giving up a late goal, the positive play should have generated a two or three goal lead. Silva's definitely one of them at fault but there were a number of occasions where a shooting opportunity was there and they didn't take it. It's as if they think there's some sort of rule against shooting from more than 10 yards out. It's a big net, just shoot and force the goalie to make a save. All that possession and they only forced Philly's keeper to make THREE saves in the entire game. The first half alone should have generated seven or eight shots on target. They dominated the first 45.