Yeah, zero goals allowed from the run of play vs. NYCFC and Seattle, the latter on the road with backups playing in defense. Obviously, the red card skews the story vs. NYC, but it's a strong start defensively any way you slice it. On the flip side, think of this from Seattle's perspective. They just drew at home to a club that missed the playoffs last season.
How many more games do we have on fake grass ? We have to be more careful with Valenzuela. Let’s hope it’s just a tweak he did continue to finish the half so i bet it’s not as serious as we fear but who knows how long it will take before he is 100% I would start Jimenez or Francis whoever is healthy before moving anyone else around my next choice to start would be Keita at LB
Took a deeper look. Of the Crew's sixteen away matches left to played this year, SIX are on turf. One I counted as turf (Toronto) as it is the new hybrid stuff. Not all natural grass, so turf I say. Nashville NE Portland FCC Toronto ATL
Frankie tore his ACL, finished the game, and finished training that next Monday before he got it checked out. I’m hoping Valenzuela is okay but sometimes it’s worse than in initially appears.
Well we better consider resting certain players next time . Had the Crew rested Valenzuela nobody would blame them but if this injury details his season ( wow) So how many countries play on fake grass is it only in N America ?
No--and some countries play on fields with pointy ball lines too. For example, Eintracht Braunschweig and Braunschweig Lions play on the same field, and pointy ball lines could be seen during 1 Bundesliga broadcasts. But artifical turf was used in England for a time in the 1980s, and some countries require it due to the difficulty of growing or keeping a grass field--the Faeroes were one such place--and I remember WC qualifiers in Malta being played on clay (think tennis) many years ago. As I recall Saprissa plays on fake grass too.
FWIW, Meyers said it looked like Valenzuela jumped in the 20th minute and came down a bit hard or awkward. Non contact, and presumably, non turf related. Anyway, we're obviously sensitive about his status, but he did finish out the half. And Porter was quoted saying they'd evaluate his status early in the week, but he didn't think it was a serious issue. I'm quite sure that one message Milton has had drilled into him for the past six months was: he feel any pain, or if the knee just feels 'wrong' during a game, sit your ass down and we'll check it out.
I rewatched that part of the game several times and it did in fact appear to be a non contact injury. All of a sudden he just started limping. Unfortunately, it has always seemed to me that those are often the worst ones.
I believe Nashville is natural grass. Toronto’s hybrid grass is pretty close to the real stuff. We’ve got the depth. Get a rotation going. Be smart about who’s coming off rehab and what the playing surface is. That’s where Porter earns his pay check.
Years ago we played at Deportivo Arabe Unido in Panama. Their field is nominally grass but really they play on sand.
We used to play pick-up soccer on a clay field in Salzburg (all the nice grass fields were owned by clubs, and they don't allow pick-up soccer on those fields). Soccer on clay is. . . an experience.
The midfield of our team has improved but do we have depth ? we may not find out till Late April when the congested schedule starts. Artur and Nagbe May be able to play every game but they can’t go a full 90 every game without it affecting them. A injury to either would be a problem this is my biggest concern about our roster depth
Certainly, the Artur/Nagbe pairing is paper thin. I'm a bit surprised that Berhalter's become the presumed backup, with very little having been heard of Morris. Anyway, I just sort of assumed the club was going to see how things worked out with that central midfielder pairing before deciding what to do next. Here, I do think Milton's status plays a role, too. Cadden strikes me as the kind of player who could be slotted into either of those players' roles in a pinch, more so than some untested rookie. That's harder to pull off if he's playing left back. Anyway, welcome to MLS, where teams - smart ones anyway - use the primary and secondary windows to shore up roster inadequacies as they emerge. We may not have true depth at all positions, but who else really does, or could possibly accomplish it, in this league? As it stands, we do have decent depth at most positions, which is more than most teams can claim. Final word, and one of the themes of the season, I think: I'd really like to be able to watch players like Keita, Berhalter, Morris and so on, week in and week out, on a legitimate USL side, rather than sifting through a few tweets about some random scrimmage against some traveling college team. I mean, I'd like it, but more to the point, the club desperately needs to be able to develop its young players in this manner. The Crew is certainly MLS 3.0 in terms of where we're going with a stadium, training facility, staffing, etc. But when it comes to player development, we're bringing up the rear.
Well, I think everyone - including the people who actually matter, not just a bunch of internet layabouts and day drinkers - agrees on the need for a permanent USL setup. But it's a mistake I think to completely disregard the college scrimmage thing. The majority of a decent NCAA Div 1 side is at least USL 2 caliber, and they're well drilled, have a system in place, are very familiar with each other and are in good shape. Sure it's a scrimmage and so nobody cares but realistically nobody cares about USL 2 games either. Winning is always nice at any level but when you're in the low minors on any sport the point is not team goals but improving your individual game and catching the coaches eye I'm not saying theres no difference but I also dont think theres as much difference as people are seemingly saying
Nope. It's more like playing on carpet with dirt instead of artificial turf. We still played regular 11 on 11 soccer, but the first week you could tell who the Americans were because our legs got torn up every time we went in for a tackle. The English guys who had experience playing rugby on clay recommended we cover our legs in petroleum jelly to avoid that problem and it worked. At the end of the day we had clay caked all over our legs, but no scrapes or broken skin.
I'd also note that in the middle of the summer in Ohio one is essentially playing on clay on most rec league fields, once the grass turns brown. I wore hard surface shoes in my summer leagues for that reason. There usually wasn't much turf for cleats to get a hold of.
Keita would also be an option at left back if Milton is out for a game or 3. I agree for the most part. It's games that matter to these young players. Training only does so much. Can we get Keita, Morris and Berhalter 20 games this year? i'm fearing that answer is no. The latter 2 players would have gotten that as starters for their college teams. It's a cool public relations thing to sign these guys but making them take 2 years off of regular competitive soccer doesn't make much sense. I'm hopeful that if these guys have full MLS pro potential, that the team figures out how to develop them to that potential.
This reminds me of what Tony White said last night--he was talking about freshmen and tOSU basketball to be sure, but the point that's the same is that freshmen often "hit the wall" in February as they simply aren't used to playing that many games. They tire faster. I think the same thing can happen here as players who have not been pros for long aren't getting enough games, as "practice fit" is not quite the same thing as "match fit". Real games--USL or not--bring "match fitness". I mean, do you think the Jackets would have been able to keep in the hunt with so many injuries if they didn't have the Monsters and regular games for their players there?
So no Milton or Mokhtar in practice today (according to Myers). Valenzuela's absence isn't much of a shock. Even if his injury is very minor, why the hell would you have him practice in steady rain? I've assumed all along there was little chance he'd play this weekend. Mokhtar is a surprise in that I don't recall hearing anything about an injury. Myers didn't mention Wormgoor, which I prefer to interpret as meaning he's there. Anyway, my hope is that Milton tweaked the knee and is out a week or two, and that we have Vito back for Saturday. I can live with that.
They are playing at Nissan until their fairgrounds stadium is ready. Which will be grass. Nissan lists this: Tifsport Bermuda Sod as the surface. When one looks this up it says 'turfgrass'. So hence my assumption of turf. That is also where the Titans play, so more leaning towards turf, even though Soldier Field is grass, so what do I know.