This is the problem with the new definition of handball. Sometimes it's a penalty, sometimes not. I think it should be a penalty 100% of the time but that's not how it's called.
Yea, based on how handballs are called now I wouldn't have been surprised if they didn't call that one on Degenek. I have no problem with it being called, but I've seen referees decide not to give those because it wasn't deliberate and the player had no chance to avoid it.
I like my captains to fully raise their arms in the defensive box. That way, it is obvious when they want an offsides call or trying to hit an opponent in the head. Disagree. Any team with Hurtado as a viable offensive weapon is not a top tier squad.
Given how little the Dispatch cares about the Crew, they’ll recognize how good she is and she won’t be here long.
Isn't Mais already on somewhat thin ice at OSU? Not sure he nor Yeagley would be top of my list. But recruiting is different than managing professionals, so i wouldn't completely close the door on either.
This problem is compounded by Zelarayán who is kind of in the same mold as Cucho. Neither have blazing pace or extreme defensive work rate. They both floated around to get on the ball a lot. While good to get them on the ball, they were often too far away from goal to actually score. We need to figure out how to get Cucho in the box a lot more often. While scoring a lot of goals from outside the box is thrilling, it's not a method to score that you can count on. We really need to figure out how to bring the skills these 2 guys offer to the forefront while keeping a team shape and getting them both closer to goal.
Since this is offseason catchall thread Next summer, The Crew will host 2 League's Cup games at LDC based on their top 16 finish in the Supp Shield standings. That means, based on LigaMX standings, they will host either Pachuca or Club America. That would be some fun. Small consolation for the Crew, but they will be seeded in the 2023 #LeaguesCup and host games in Columbus.Below are your seeded teams. Top 16 in Shield standings, 15 will host group stage and one will win MLS Cup and go straight to Knockouts 👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/7YxyTXGoR8— Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) October 10, 2022
Good post. I think both players are best suited for a supporting striker/floating role, with Lucas obviously a great option as a CAM. You ID the problem well. Both guys float around to get the ball, do not have get behind the D speed (though Cucho has decent speed), and neither are gonna win a bunch of aerial duels. They often get the ball far from goal. We led the league in goals from outside of the 18, and still missed the playoffs. Neither guy is complimented well by our wingers. Or compliments them that well. Diaz is a classic wide winger who can get to the end line and hit a cross, but neither LZ nor Cucho are ideal guys for him to aim at, given their size. And his aim ain't all that good. Still, he does connect sometimes and Cucho's movement is good. Etienne reads the game better, crosses better, is a better finisher, and gets into good positions, but does not create much off the dribble. He is good at exploiting the space Cucho & LZ create for him, but he does not create much for them. All four guys have value. I like all four, to varying degrees, individually. But I don't think that is a championship level attacking quartet. Which is why I am a bit reluctant to hitch my wagon to the Cucho/LZ partnership up top. The most obvious solution is to get a real DP level winger who can create/pass effectively and be a goal threat. That player pushes one of Etienne/Diaz to the bench. And bends the defense and allows Cucho & LZ to get the ball in more dangerous positions. The problem is we already have 3 DPs, and Nagbe was above the buy down threshold the last I checked. Unless that changes, we'd need to either jettison Nagbe (not sure I like that idea), renegotiate the deal down (is that even possible), or secure a DP level winger for non-DP money. The latter is possible (Gareth Bale), but hard to do. The other way I see it working is to play 2 up top. A real target CF for Cucho to play off of, and LZ as a CAM. But this means only 2 in CM, with LZ one of them. Defensively dangerous, I do not see it working for long stretches, unless we land a Kante like CM/DM. Even then, we are outnumbered in CM most nights. Plus, as talented as LZ is, he is a guy who flashes brilliance, rather than a guy who controls/manipulates the game from CM AND flashes (Modric, Guille, etc). Which is why he plays almost like a 2nd forward sometimes, which means you need 2 CMs behind him. I think this only works as late game, down a goal. And we still need the CF (JRR?). I guess we could move one of Cucho or LZ wide. Porter tried some of this. But the lack of speed/work rate creates problems (though Cucho has more of both). LZ is purely a pocket winger who does not stretch the field. You need speed on the other side (Diaz). And then who plays centrally? Nagbe with Artur & Morris behind? Maybe. Molino? In either case, our best 2 way winger (Etienne) is on the bench. Moving Cucho wide only makes sense if you have a real CF to take his spot, and we don't have one. Yet (JRR?). This is why I am down on Bez, there are good individual pieces, but not sure they fit real well.
Also, re: Courtois, we probably can't read much into him running team practices for a month or so; it occurs to me that since they fired the entire senior team staff, he's the only coach left in the. building
I guess if Diaz makes a leap, and gets you 8-10 goals (instead of 3), and makes a leap with his decision making, it would help. But I am not sure Cucho yelling at him all the time helps.
I respectfully disagree. It's kind of like saying if the Titanic doesn't hit that one random iceberg, it has a great voyage. They dropped those stoppage-time points for reasons. Close doesn't count, even if if it's consistently close. . The Crew is out of the playoffs again because the current roster is just not good enough. Porter was clearly part of the problem, but to say everything else is fine just doesn't make sense to me. If these guys were as good as we have been told, we could have made the playoffs with any random fan on the sidelines. Until the organization accepts the evidence and begins the essential rebuild the Crew will continue to flounder around as a below average team. Using salary as a gauge of quality in sports is not supported by any correlation between salary and on-field success, at least none that I am aware of.
I am hoping NT coaches are in the mix (Perez), but the Salvies are not WC bound, so waiting until Dec makes no sense for him, despite my wishin' & hopin'.
Yeah, and you'd think "team practices" right now are probably a little short on intensity. And maybe attendance.
This team is the antithesis of the 2008 team. The 2008 team would go down a goal but you knew in the back of your mind that the team would bounce back and equalize and eventually win. That team had swagger and a kind of magic. The 2022 team had the talent but was missing that magic/swagger element. I don't think we had someone like that on this team since Wil Trapp. Zardes was likeable but I don't think he quite filled that talisman requirement. Every team needs a Frankie Hejduk/Danny O/Duncan Oughton to provide that emotional leadership on the field. Was Porter too big of a personality to allow someone like that to exist in the locker room? Did a player like that not fit into Bez's wizardry spreadsheet of moneyball numbers? Bez is going to have to work with the new coach to find that veteran leadership that this team has lacked for years now.
I agree he's a likely candidate. I had hopes for Josh Williams but he never quite stepped into that fully.
"those who were responsible for sacking the people who were supposed to sack the other people have been sacked"....
Hard to think of news that could discredit the League's Cup more than this year's Columbus Crew team earning a seeding in this competition. ******** it. Let's win the thing.
Exactly. Guys like Nagbe and Lucas should be considered for the role - based on salary alone - but just don't seem to fit. Pedro's been a consummate professional, but is too quiet to have filled that role. Artur seems like he could be, from time to time, but then disappears. That 2008 team was stacked with players with swagger, who just knew how to win, whatever it took. Hell, you didn't even mention Moreno, GBS, Marshall...
We dropped 22 points from winning positions. So we were good enough to get a lead but not to keep it. If we were ruthlessly efficient at closing out games and didn't drop any of those points, we'd have won the Supporter's Shield. It's unrealistic to never give up a lead over the course of a season but if we'd only dropped half of those points, we'd have been the #3 seed and hosting this weekend.
Marco, Parente, and Zawadzki all seem to have those qualities on crew 2. Morris, Artur, Pedro, and Cucho have the qualities, but have not shown them consistently.
I wouldn't use Trapp as an example of swagger. His replacement, Nagbe, is a much better player but not swaggering either.