11/22: P***Off: Portland vs FCD [R]

We've all seen this movie before. Remember when they broke the mold a few years ago and won on the road in LA? Anyone think this is the version of this team in this year that will do it in the PNW?

 

love this list... may I share it elsewhere?

 

We only lose to the US PNW teams.

 

Hey, at the time that was "new school." I still like the live ball shootout idea better than the PK shootout. The details of the execution could use some work, though.

 

Not me. Too many memories of MLS and high school shootouts on bad artificial turf with football lines. Only really good memory is of Hugo Sanchez in his first attempt watching while the opposing keeper edged out to cut down angles and he puled the ball back slightly lifted it slight so it bounced and lofted a shot over the keeper into the net. I remembered thinking why has no one else done that? Answer was no one else was good enough.

 

Dreading our likely annual disappointment. But optimistic!
Sure miss a healthy Pomykal in the mix right about now.

 

Man, that old turf would shred the legs.

I have a lot of good memories of Alain Sutter too.

On that note, congrats to FCD...it looks like you all were cautiously optimistic here.

 

what an odd game. winning is fun, but I don't like or understand Luchi's work last night. i suppose it's all a reflection of how crappy they'd been on the road all season, much less historically at PDX, but that all felt very "hope and a prayer".

you do what you have to to win games, at all costs, OTOH, such poor performances from Ricarte, Jesus and even Jara continue to make you wonder if it's the players or how they're are being used.

maybe it should be admirable to utilize such an odd selection as he did last night. much of this is the lack of context we're normally provided by Buzz being able to attend practice and talk to players and staff. Why Barrios didn't start, what about that surprising sub of Tuamasi, pulling an attack minding Jesus for a more defensive-minded Tessman and the odd resulting formation. It all just seemed he was seriously working to get to PK's up until PDX scored and then it was ok to go "all attack".

Sometimes I think the attack malaise his team suffers is self-inflicted by Luchi. That team can "get after it" when it wants to, but is so scared of its defensive shadow, it just rarely wants to. Dallas had one SOG in the 1st, three in the 2nd. of those three, two came at 89th and 92 minutes by Pepi. that's it. Their next SOG was a Jara header at 105.

i don't get it, but it worked and on to the next round they go.

 

I think that because FCD has so much trouble with teams that stay back and counter like Nashville this was actually a good plan on the road at a crowd less Portland. It was ugly but so what? last year we played sexy at Seattle and lost. I felt if they went all out and got countered again it would show that Luchi is a naive coach. He showed a pragmatic Pareja like style last night and we move on. If they go to Seattle it will probably more of the same but with FCD killer Jordan Morris I doubt it will work. If Valeri was a year younger that last shot would have been a 1/2 inch to the left and gone in. Such is playoff luck.

 

Ugh, such a hard game to watch. I was also surprised by the weird lineup selection on this one. Start Nelson and push HoHead up, benching Barrios? What was the goal there, to get HoHead further forward, rest Barrios after two weeks of rest, or get Nelson onto the field (right, none of those make a ton of sense really)? That swipe of the brush appeared to disconnect everything else. At one point I wondered if the low-block/bunker was on purpose or a result of so much confusion. Minute 55 to 80 was so hard to watch, it just felt like we were getting beat everywhere in the box and goal was coming at any second.

While I'll bash the first 80 minutes, what a masterful stroke of subbing by Luchi. Tessman changed the match. Pepi had been inches away from a goal the last three appearances and he finally got back over the hump. Twumassi even looked good, boardering on great despite not really knowing where he was playing.

• I thought Ricaurtte had his worst match. It just looked like he was forcing everything. High motor/effort, just not a good night for him.
• Jara's first touch sucked, which is not normal. He failed to get that great hold up play working.
• HoHead was useless until he started pinching in more centrally.
• The back four as a group was real, real good, considering the multitude of slashing, dynamic runs PDX threw at them in the box.
• Reynolds might have been all we had going forward until Tessman and Pepi came in, save for Picault from time to time.
• Mauer had the best game I've seen him play. His only weakness (snap reaction saves) was exposed on the goal, and he damn near had that one too.
• Pepi was an awesome spark, what a goal. Well deserved. I'm going to have to go dark on social media for a while now cause the internet will never let Luchi start anyone over Pepi (unless it's Kobra) from here on out.
• Twumassi really surprised me, great sub from the young man.
• Tessman is a man-child in the center of the park. The skill, size, and swagger is awesome!

 

Man of the match was Jimmy Maurer--and that's a problem. The bend-but-don't-break strategy worked for 80 minutes.

Poor performances by Ricaurte and Ferreira. Hollingshead and Reynolds have also played a lot better. I was surprised Jara lasted the entire 120 minutes; not much out of him, either.

In addition to the goal, Pepi preceded it with a great header that required a nice save. He came to play. Tessman was an improvement, but it looked to me like he failed to track Villafana on the goal.

The kicks from the spot were a whole 'nother story. I don't recall Clark getting anywhere near more than one of the eight converted. Clinical.

All in all, it was ugly, but it was the result needed to advance. We live to fight another day...

 

That was probably the best set of PKs I've ever seen, including MLS, World Cup, English FA Cup, Euros, UEFA CL.
I had pretty much the same observations as everyone else here.
On their goal, it looked to me like Hohead let Villafana go, possibly expecting Tessman to pick him up, which he didn't.

 

Seattle/LAFC looks like a very interesting game and whatnot, but a 9:30 broadcast start time is a big disincentive for staying awake to watch it. The bourbon I drank is another one.