This is a difficult field to play on, NYC is still a pretty good team although I think that without Villa they will struggle a lot more, their goal is going to be to clinch a playoff berth, not try to win the SS.
James Sands went the full 90 for NYCFC. He is the same age as Chris Durkin, and not considered as a good a prospect. Kind of disappointing Moreno went the full 90 for DC, with Durkin glued to the bench. You honestly can't tell me that the difference between Durkin and Moreno is there is a noticeable drop off when Durkin comes on. If the rumors of European interest for Durkin are true, him sitting on the bench does nothing but hurt his value.... And thats value DC could potentially turn around and use to fund/make their academy free! Play the kid Ben!
Olsen doesn't make substitutions. Of the new guys, Jara is a great pickup but Rodriguez is not impressing me.
I'll take the result. Any points from that disgrace of a pitch is a bonus. It just doesn't suit our style of play. Acosta couldn't find space. And Arriola just needed the pitch to be a few feet wider so he can unleash his speed. Hamid was MOTM for the last 10 minutes, but overall I might have to give it to Brillant who made several great plays and avoided making turnovers, which is tough in this stadium. Similar performances from the other 3 guys on the backline. My only complaint was Mora being offside twice, which is inexcusable for a left back when you have the whole defensive line in your view. As far as offense, I'm not worried about being shut out. Part of our problem was that NYCFC has an amazing midfield and they just weren't turning the ball over. But most MLS teams won't be able to out possess us like this. In fact I'm looking at the bright side, I think at halftime we only had 30% possession, but we were still able to create a handful of clear cut chances. That's a sign of a team that knows how to be dangerous. And perhaps the biggest silver lining for me was how dangerous Segura looked when he came on. At this point I'd start him over Rodriguez. My biggest frustration again is Ben's sub pattern. If this is the way he wants to manage the team, you can't expect someone like Stieber or McCann to be ready physically and mentally in June when you're suddenly forced to use them due to an injury. And for players like Durkin, you're just stunting their development.
Benny made it clear to me that he considered his failure to give Boskovic more playing time one of his biggest regrets. I, too, wish to see more of Stieber, but right now Segura is the first MF off the bench.
Such language I think Segura might have been the right sub there for this field - but I'd have had no problems with their being one or two more and Steiber for Acosta in the 75th would have been one I would have made. I remember one of those and it was a late pass that was to blame for the offside. I noticed that a few times but didn't always pay attention to who it was that ended up off. Rooney had one late that was way obvious and should have been easier to avoid.
The draw is fine in the grand scheme of things though I hate not scoring goals. Hopefully this was just Johnson having a great game, though I'm remembering Acosta's first year when he'd create great chances and then shoot weakly into the keeper every time. I'm not too concerned about the lack of possession since whenever we did get the ball we tried to attack with it, unlike previous years. Acosta seemed pretty frustrated by the gameplan, though. I won't pretend that my 35 years of recreational soccer and watching on TV gives me more insight that Olsen, but surely a game at home vs Atlanta and a game on the road at NYCFC cannot be coached the exact same way? I imagine we will see the same lineup and sub patterns and tactics whether we are playing a counterattacking Montreal or a NYRB team that presses all over or Seattle or Colorado. Why change anything ever? I almost look forward to national team call ups or falling behind early so I can see Ben actually put some thought into what we are doing. But I guess we're off to a good start.
Getting a draw out of the other team's home opener is a good result. A shut out on the road is a good result. Given our horrible road form last year, this appeared to be a step in the right direction.
I think any result is a positive against a still decent NYC team, on that clown car of a field and especially based on how bad that field looked. A point a great result there. They'll hold serve most of the season on that pitch which creates a tremendous home field advantage. Agreed, Durkin must play more. Just like last weeks horrific conditions makes it tough to grade anyone, I'd say the same thing about playing on that field. I followed on Twitter and it definitely seemed like Titi was less influential, but lets not forget how we got beat against Columbus, by crowding Lucho. I think Rodriguez takes that option away so I think our sample size is small and not necessarily of the best quality to judge him or really anyone yet, but I think he bring more offense and creativity than Segura, whose (buzzword)grit(/buzzword) absolutely has its place and proper opponent. They've gotta find minutes for Steiber. A million bucks is a lot of MLS player, never mind spending the whole season on the bench. Again, its 2 games in, we've seen no schedule congestion to get people minutes and this was probably not the game to play around with when you have road point in hand against a decent opponent. Hamid looked really good in the YES Network highlights the team was Gifing on Twitter.
Going into the match I would have taken a draw while having created 3 very good chances, but I still left the game disappointed. In addition to the substitution misses already mentioned, I just don't understand how we cannot do more to hold the ball. We rarely played the ball from the back on GKs and almost always lost the long ball up the field. We are not very strong in the air so I just don't understand that decision. Additionally, we must never practice throws. We should be able to control at least 50% of throws, but Olsen's teams have always won far less. It drives me absolutely bonkers. I appreciate Olsen's counter attack strategy at NYC, but we should be able to do better than 30% possession. You're putting yourself in too risky of a position when you do that. Glad Hamid stood on his head.
That pitch is a disgrace both in quality and size. You take a result there anyway you can -- there are no strategies or tactics for playing human pinball. I thought Segura was exactly the right choice. The game was chippy -- Sands should have received a yellow by the end of the first half for persistent infringement -- an Titi was the wrong guy for that type of game on that small field. I'm not sure what Stieber would have brought other than service on corners in that game. He certainly would not have brought Segura's physical presence. In other words Stieber would have equaled Titi's ball skills with the same physicality but less speed. I think Stieber either gets moved within MLS for a CB or he and the team mutually terminate his contract and he goes back to Europe or to some Middle Eastern or Chinese squad. Absent a long term injury to either Titi or Segura he's just too expensive depth. As for Durkin -- it's hard to give him minutes given that Moreno and Canouse are so good together. Maybe in NY, he comes on for Acosta or Rooney in the last 10 minutes, which means Olsen is then clearly going for the draw. Problem is that pitch is so effing small, a goal can literally come from nowhere quickly regardless of your overall defensive shape. So, playing for a draw is a low percentage move there. Maybe you bring on Amerikwa to cause havoc, but does he replace Rooney? Maybe given the pinball conditions, that might make sense. In other words, given the early season and lack of fixture congestion, I don't think Olsen made any glaring errors in his substitutions or lack thereof.
If the club won't play Durkin then they should look to sell him after the U20 world cup. No point in losing him for a free after Acosta rolls out for free too.
For me, this was all about the width of the field and NYCFC's ability to defend that width and take advantage of teams who try to play out of the back too much. It's hard to create space vertically when your DM's aren't incisive passers. Playing Durkin would have been a risk, but maybe one worth taking. TBH, I think the lack of possession was an expected side effect of what our normal tactics could bear on a field of that size, and I think we went in knowing it. Basically, it was our normal possession numbers minus the possession we get from switching fields and being patient, which we did little of. Probably because it would have put us in more danger than the good it would have done us. Our strategy was designed to not lose on a postage stamp, and we achieved our goal.
tuvimos que no perder .... just doesn't have the same ring ........ disclaimer: I don't think the original has much ring either as even though I get what the whole chant means I can't translate word for word Also in a related disclaimer, blame imtranslator if this is a garbage translation (and a little bit me for not knowing enough to know better )
Another tactic that worried me was us falling back into our old habit of falling back. We were so quick to set up a Maginot Line around the penalty box that we allowed NY to pass the ball around with impunity, giving Ring plenty of time to line up rasping shots with no pressure. Thanks to BH that wasn't successful, but on a more ordinary day it could have cost us the point.
Solid day at the office to get some great chances and get out of that place with a point. That field is a black eye on the league. Boy do I hate that field. The surface being lousy isn't even the worst problem. The big problem is the alleged, though probably smaller, 110 x 70 dimensions. It makes me wish for some rough and tumble Friedel-ball at Gillette Stadium. While that field is hard and very fast, it's at least an appropriate size for soccer. Playing on the Yankee Stadium alleged soccer field as a pro isn't really about things like formation, talent, shape, or tactics. It's just about making the right individual play at the right time in reaction to random ball movements. It's about making the right reaction to the human pinball game. That field also completely skews risk/reward incentives. It almost makes you not want to take a corner kick because the field is so small that a counter off a cleared corner is a serious goal-scoring threat. Because of the small size of the field, passing lanes are completely screwed up. Killer through balls become killer counterattacks while harmless square balls become killer through balls. Your teammates are under pressure before you can even play the ball because the opponent doesn't have to move to put them under pressure. Referees lose track of whether something would be a material call vs. a trifling call because there is non-stop contact. Balls you would normally win become turnovers because the next line of defenders is right behind the guy you just beat out for the 50-50 ball. Passes that are normally not contested become turnovers that lead to counterattacks. I can go on and on. Good job getting a point and denying NYCFC 2. That may come in handy in the playoffs when the game is played at Buzzard Point rather than on the most f#cked up home field advantage in the league. Forget about any sort of tactical lessons that can be learned from the game and be thankful that everyone came out healthy.
We saw that over and over Sunday as our corner kicks all went long and no-one in a DCU uniform has made a back-post run since we cut Devon McTavish.
OMG, you've just hit my hot button item of all time. I can't tell you how many times I see an over hit corner and the ball rolls out or is collected, unopposed, by the defense. I just don't get how you don't plan for that when its a decent probability that ball is going to come through a couple times a game.