Brooks' situation, Miazga's situation, Robinson's injury, and Long's form.............................should mean Palmer-Brown and Carter-Vickers are next men up. Long may get a chance to prove himself at the September camp. I don't know why anybody would think he'd start over the likes of Zimmerman and Richards for the USMNT. Zimmerman just went beast mode in qualifying, and has earned the spot. Richards may be the most talented of the bunch. He may be the top guy now and the one with the highest ceiling. [The guy who's totally fallen off the face of the planet is McKenzie. I'm not sure we saw that one coming. Is Long ahead of McKenzie? I guess so.]
It looks like Long kept the attacker onside before not closing him down and providing little defense. And the go-ahead goal just three minutes later! 🤯@ColoradoRapids take the lead! pic.twitter.com/yw9oawgNnq— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 3, 2022
What are you watching here? You're right that Long kept Barrios onside (he should have held the line his CB partner had, and he failed there for sure), but he closed him down appropriately after that, and he then deflected the shot even though it ended up getting by him and beating the keeper. This is not a good example of a massive failure, which you seem to be stating occurred here. If JAB had a club to call home, then maybe we'd see similar clips from him (of course, they wouldn't be posted by you). It seems that most fans here, myself included, don't trust Long a whole lot and really hope that Richards establishes himself at Crystal Palace, and soon. But, nonetheless, your anti-Long rampage is way over the top.
Agree with you. But on the more macro level, Long has been quite poor. We have to call a spade a spade. We had better hope for someone to step up, or we may find ourselves in some big trouble come November.
Totally agree. It's the nitpicking of every Long play that's obnoxious. Goals get scored in most every game, and one could find fault in every defender on every one of those goals, if that's your goal as a poster.
So it looks like the NYRB defense anchored by USMNTer Aaron Long gave up 10 goals over their last 2 games, and 13 goals over their last 3 games? Really hope England Wales and Iran are not as good as the Colorado Rapids...
I think we'll be fine with Zimmerman/Richards. But CB was seen as a really deep position a little while ago, and there's been a lot of drop off from guys recently (plus the Miles Robinson injury was a killer) . But heck, maybe EPB and CCV provide the depth to those starters. We could still be just fine there. I mean, people keep posting on this thread as if there are vehement defenders of Aaron Long out there. Its fine that Berhalter gave him a chance after coming back from injury. He was an important part of the squad prior to that injury. But Berhalter sees what we see. He's a CB himself.
Huh? He closed him down appropriately? He never got within a few yards of the attacker. What did he do to slow the attacker and prevent a shot on goal? What did the attacker do to beat him? My answer to those last two questions are "nothing". Help me understand what I am missing.
Did you really cut off the bottom half of my post that would make it obvious to anyone who isn't braindead that the comment was sarcastic... so you could respond to it as if it was serious?
I apparently really screwed that post up to the point it couldn't be quoted. I didn't think anyone would think your post was serious, so didn't think anything of it. I assume there are people thay could make thay argument seriously though. i just wanted to make this point.... It really isn't unfair as most folks weren't honest about his play in in 2019. There are people, including the coach, that are acting like he just needs to get back to his 2019 level. This guy has never played well for the usmnt and yet many continue to ignore how poor of a soccer player Long is while just making things up about Brooks.
It's like they crowd being chased by a lion. You don't need to be faster than the lion just faster than the slowest person being chased. Unfortunately center defense, keeper and forward are spots where being older and more experienced are important and while we have a lot of talent at those spots its mostly like a loaf of bread in the oven that's not ready yet. Long isn't that good but with Robinson out he has a chance at that speedy, covering CD because the other contenders other than Richards aren't any more convincing than he is. His poor play lately could be actually take him out of contention if it keeps up. Is he trying to be the slowest guy in the crowd?
Not sure why you would assume I thought it was a "massive failure". What I wrote was that the play showed multiple areas of weaknesses. I dont think a play or two define a player, but saw this as a pretty bad play in terms of how I rate him as a player. The fact that it showed his poor positioning, awareness, decision making, closing attackers with the ball, and 1v1 defending makes it worse. There would be no reason for me to need to post them. There are enough folks that hate dual nationals that there are multiple threads where everything Brooks does or doesn't do is scrutinized. What is over the top about trying to bring awareness about a player that the USMNT coach clearly believes is a critical player to the team. People have been defending Long this whole cycle so not sure when everybody became uncomfortable with him. Of course, our views on the player still differs quite a bit. I dont see how anybody who has actually watched this guy play would think he belongs anywhere near this team.
Where is the nitpicking? My views on players is based on of the their play and isnt defined by any play or two. I am not like the nut jobs on here that have justified getting rid of Brooks for a couple of plays, argued against ARobinson for one play, etc. There were other plays in their recent game that folks have been criticizing Long for as well. I focused just on the one play for the reasons I already stated. Id be curious to have someone explain what Long was doing on this goal... COLLEN WITH THE EQUALIZER!!!#RBNYvCOL pic.twitter.com/ZJCWPbHMg4— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) August 3, 2022
Pretty interesting to see these guys criticizing Long without actually talking about his specific play. Conrad talks generically about his role in the team that has given up a lot of goals, but nothing specific. I guess it is a step forward for such an MLS friendly podcast.
Unpopular opinion: Aaron Long = Steve Birnbaum. Same guy! Read and react center backs with decent athleticism, average passing from the position, block a lot of shots, beat you in the air and lose off the dribble. Both good center backs in MLS, but ready to be exposed at high levels. I'd feel a lot better about someone who's played in a top league or shown out with the Nats. I worry about Zimmerman, I do, but he's played great for the US so far. If Brooks doesn't have a team, you can't pick him, so that's an issue for sure. Still, I'd rather EPB, honestly. Or CCV, or Miazga, or even Tim Friggin' Ream. Hopefully he'll just be a backup and we don't have to see him at all. I hope everyone understands it's not personal with him, he gives it his all and guys seem to like him, so nothing wrong on his end. I only want the best chance to win against this particular quality of competition.
Not sure how anyone would think that Long did a good job defending the goalscorer, but even without that, his positioning and reactions to keep the guy onsides is a problem. It reminded me a lot of this goal vs Mexico in 2019. IT'S THREE FOR MEXICO! 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽 Lozano sets up Antuna, and it's good night for the USMNT. #USAvMEX pic.twitter.com/vDggCr1zIY— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) September 7, 2019
It looked like he was preparing for the number 4 player to attack the cross, and the ball was deflected (maybe even two times). To be honest, I just watched that clip about 20 times and I still can't figure out what the f*ck the entirety of NYRB's defense is trying to do. The whole thing is a mess, and I wouldn't know where to place blame (though, given how miserable their defense has been, the coaching staff would seem a reasonable guess).