We may not have the best goalkeeper in the league, but we have the best stable of goalkeepers in the league. When I saw Schulte was out, I wasn’t worried at all. Bush came up big a couple of times and Hagan did as well. RSL should be embarrassed that they couldn’t beat the Cew’s B and C team.
I didn’t expect a point last night, so I’ll happily take it. It was nice to see Habroune get his first opportunity. I thought he looked surprisingly comfortable and definitely wasn’t noticeably below the level on the field. He looks like a guy Nancy might feel comfortable turning to a bit more. Hopefully Mrowka gets a chance soon as well.
I missed most of the first half (was watching Incendies, great film) and was surprised to see Taha get a start for his debut. Also surprised to see him start as one of the attacking trio. For the US, he seems to run more and be more advanced up the field, but with Crew 2 he was more of a CM from what I’d seen. What was the consensus on him last night.
Good result, all things considered. I was very, very pleased to see Crew keep Chicho contained for the most part. He is a good player but that RSL team is not much without him.
I thought he was timid but that’s understandable in the situation. He was put out there to give another guy a break. He was successful in that. Taha had a good look at goal but the keeper came out fast on him. I’m sure he’ll improve in time but he’s not a wonder kid at this point and that’s ok. JRR on the other hand has until Ramirez is healthy to figure it out. I don’t see him being back next year at his current rate. The new U22s will supplant him pretty handidly.
I was trying to stay awake (my son’s birthday party was yesterday and I had 4 of his cousins staying with us) and I was in and out of consciousness. lol. He is quick and took guys on 1v1 pretty well. I felt like he wasn’t getting a lot of looks but made the most of the looks that he had. I think he will be a solid contributor in the future. JRR hasn’t impressed me much. He always seems a step behind the play and is very reactionary.
He did have a couple opportunities he created for himself off the dribble. It was not a comparison of the two. Just an observation. Matan drops back into MF to help with the buildup more and Hinestroza is a guy who stretches the D and goes off the dribble at the end of the move. Even though Hinestroza created a couple of the latter, the former dried up when Matan (and others) departed and I thought we were less dangerous, despite the game being more open.
Quinton was so bad last night. Slow. Indecisive with the ball. I don't think he sticks around MLS after the season. I think the only way he saw the field last night was because Nagbe needed a rest and Jones wasn't able to go at least 60' which forced Zawadzki into midfield rather than RCB. I'm surprised RSL didn't try to attack down his side more often.
He’s paid league min to make two or three appearances a year in scheduled losses. If he wants to hang around for that, I’m cool.
Im fully aware. But you can find better league minimum guys than him. Typically you give a guy like him a couple years and if he never proves an ability to contribute, you move on to the next guy. My point is that we will probably be moving on from him at the end of the season, and we probably won’t see much more from him throughout the remainder of this season.
I thought Quinton was fine. No big mistakes, kept the spacing right, and did his assignment. I rather you keep the minimum guy who knows the system than find a new one. And I'm not sure there are minimum guys better than him that would be on the market. If you find a higher upside and younger guy, then maybe you pick him up, but I'd be fine with Phil for a while.
Agreed. To borrow a phrase from a different sport, Quinton is an innings eater. Keep it simple to buy some rest for the difference makers. I'd say he did well enough at that. Derrick Jones had more mistakes that led to dangerous moments in his 15 minutes than Philip did over the full 90+.
Malte Amundsen had two big ones last night. He made more glaring mistakes than Jones or Quinton. Quinton was awkward a few times in space. At 6'6", how can he not? But he kept things safe & simple.
I was traveling last week, and so didn't see the RSL game. So my comments about assessing the qualities of our back-ups are more general in nature. Basically, the point I'd argue is that it's hard to get a true sense of a player's value in a match like last Saturday's because so much of the line-up makeshift. I'm certainly not making the argument that Quinton is ready for prime-time in MLS (or ever will be). But look at the other players he had around him: a back-up goalkeeper with whom he probably practices with a lot, but who was then hurt early and replaced by our third-spring keeper; our third choice RWB; a player making his first MLS start, possibly in a role he won't have long-term. Put another way, it was a line-up missing Cucho, Rossi, Nagbe, Yeboah, Farsi, Schulte. Drop him a line-up surrounded by Starting XI players, and he might look a lot better. You could make similar statements about Habroune, Arfsten, even JRR. Small add-on point: the Crew doesn't have a B or C team. It has a preferred Starting XI where I'd argue ten spots are pretty much nailed down; maybe Matan's role is a bit up for grabs, but even there, my guess is that he's our normal starter, all else being equal. Every other player on the roster is vying for time on that team. And with a 24 man roster, it's hard for us to even field a normal B team starting XI if the cub wants to run 11v11 sessions in practice, even assuming everyone in healthy: Bush Quinton Zawadksi Cheberko Arfsten Sands Jones Habroune Hinestroza Mrowka (all I know is that he's a midfielder) Ramirez Would that be it? More or less? Anyway, in a makeshift line-up, you have several guys who simply aren't as talented or developed as are players in the Starting XI, in a situation where they've not spent much time actually practicing much less paying together. Not ideal for assessing everyone's potential.
I think what makes me think Quinton is terrible and will never have a place in a good crew XI is that he is OFTEN (and I mean often) just completely lost in space. When he is tight to a player he's actually not bad but if you rewatch the RSL game you will see at least 10 times where he guards air and he's far to slow to get back into proper position after he realizes that he is in the wrong space. It's maddening to watch if you are paying attention to it.
Peter Crouch was a very tall, lanky player that used his height well. He had an above average soccer IQ and was able to use his unusual physical size to have a decent career in a top league. Quinton appears to only have size, seemingly no real soccer IQ that he demonstrates regularly. I hope to never see him on the field in our shirt unless we are up 4-5 goals. And maybe not even then.
I think he knows the game, I just think he is slow to react. I've listened to him speak, he seems fairly competent. I don't know for sure but I bet he does great in practice where practices are scripted, but when something outside that script happens it takes him that extra half second to react. Can you train reaction speed?
He's just a wee lad. At 18 years and 68 days old last night, Taha Habroune became the second-youngest player in @ColumbusCrew history to start an @MLS regular-season match (Danny Szetela, 17 years 107 days). pic.twitter.com/kGYmtrgATw— MLS Communications (@MLS_PR) April 14, 2024
Exactly. He looked lost for the majority of the game (defensively and with the ball), and we are lucky that RSL's most dangerous attackers played in the center and down the right wing. Quinton didn't have a ton of defending to do, but when he did he wasn't convincing. Meanwhile, Malte was under fire the entire night and did well enough. Not his best game, but he wasn't bad either. Fotmob actually gave Malte the player match while Quinton was by far our lowest rated defender, for what it's worth. There's a reason he went 11 months without making an appearance (half of that time he wasn't even on the bench), and finally saw the field only because we heavily rotated the team at the end of a crazy two weeks. I'm not hating on Quinton at all. He's a minimum salary guy, so not much is expected out of him. But Arfsten, Farsi, and JRR were all minimum salary guys last season. Farsi earned himself a new contract and Arfsten and JRR earned themselves a lot more playing time. Quinton hasn't accomplished any of that, and given that his contract is up this season I don't see any reason why we extend him and I don't see anyone else in MLS feeling the need to pick him up.
Quinton has contract option years 25&26 which we all would guess are the Crew’s option to make. He is in front of Hughes as the first young CB behind 4CBs and Zawadzki. So as 5-6 choice he will be here until we find a better cheap developmental CB.