Better than the Orlando fiasco, but still -- not good enough. Lesesne saying the post-game that he was encouraged by DCU's ability to get into the final third --- well here's a quote from the Ray Hudson file of soccer truisms: "Possession without penetration is masturbation." Of the performances: I fully agree with @Winoman, Peltola was poor. Slow of thought and slow of foot. Rossi's second goal was a deflection off Kijima's foot because he had to lunge towards Rossi because Peltola failed to step up to Rossi. Rossi was at the edge of the box, there were no runners in the box and Peltola just stood there as Rossi lined up his shot. Peltola's just not good enough for MLS, another Markus Halsti swing and a miss. Either Stroud is carrying a knock or he is regressing to what he really is and last year was the outlier. Murrell isn't the answer out there either, he's much better inside -- although Jacob shoot the ********ing ball and don't look first to cross it to Benteke. Pirani was Pirani -- he did some interesting things until he had to make the final ball or decision and then just screwed the pooch. The 2 on 1 that he flubbed was vintage Pirani as was the ball into the middle of the pitch to no one that led to the first Columbus score. This team just doesn't have the talent to win consistently. That Badji overhit cross at the death just sums up this team -- not good enough to execute when it matters.
It's not just that the team doesn't have talent, it's that if 1-2 specific guys get hurt, we go from 'bad' to 'horrific' instantly.
The U16s I coach know better than that, and I can remember the last time one of them just played a ball into the middle of the field like that. It was one of our weaker kids trying to get out of the box when the corner kick knocked around and came to him, and instead of turning and going to the outside, he just booted it, and he didn't have the leg to get it where he was trying to go. That was u13. Not sure what you saw, but I saw him giving away the ball too often. And the one time he didn't give it away, it was some kind of outside of the foot stab at the ball that again, I have taught my u16s not to try and play that almost induced a red card foul, which I still have no idea how it wasn't. You can't follow through and put the sole of boots onto someone's leg like Bartlett did, but he had little choice other than to lunge desperately at the ball. Benteke has been supremely good. I'm just not sure that we're creating the kind of opportunities that best suit his abilities. I set the bar at 15-17 in the preseason to call it a good year for him. Four in 6 games is a good pace. However, looking at our schedule, we have played the softest part of our schedule, so it will be interesting to see if he maintains that kind of pace, which would put him right around 20 for the regular season. The boo birds have been out early and often this season. Our decision to take an eastern Carribean cruise instead of DCU tix is looking and sounding better every day. When I take another look at the list of "TAM" players, I am really starting to question the talent evaluation. Enow wasn't a standout last year, and so far this year, he looks like a USL player. Peltola has had his hiccups... Montreal last season... and now that hospital ball he fed Bartlett that almost got him sent off. I was sus when he was available on a free, injured, or not at the time, he's done very little to reverse my initial instincts. The decision to convert Pirani was a bad choice at the time and looks worse every day. 20 minutes a game vs an opponent already 60-70 into the game is what he can handle. I have no idea how he is in the Brazilian u23s. Are you really telling me that there aren't 30 U23s in Brazil who are better than him? No wonder the full NT is struggling and just fired their coach. Guess what? It's not the coach. Bring back Pedro Santos, he speaks Portuguese and will play within himself for half the price. Schnegg at least looked decent, although it might have been the surrounding talent I had to compare him to. Aaron Herrera going off in the first half is stroke inducing. He had 9 goal contributions last season. We'll miss those if he's out for an appreciable amount of time. He keeps the opposing left back pinned back, too, which is going to cause problems for whoever we drop in there in his place.
The equipment guy didn't have the heart to ask for it back since he didn't have anyone else to give it to, and in today's don't hurt anyone's feelings world, sticking it in the closet wasn't worth the drama because I am sure he'd pack up Lucho style. Did one of them go off in the middle of the first half? ' He didn't flub that, he dribbled right into the defender's chest. That's a youth rec player's mistake.
Pretty sure we committed a roster spot to him for next year too. Pretty sure you can't un******** Kapser like Olsen was.
Following up on @PSURoss ’s point, yes, specifically, the DPs other than Herrera and Benteke are just godawful. Like, we could replace them with any random American or Caribbean MLSer and not lose anything. The scouting is just unfathomably bad.
Well, it was honestly better than I expected. Wish we didn’t have that early goal which gave me a slight beacon of hope. Just not quite good enough all around. The top down better all around team and organization won that game. I think most things I’d touch on have already been covered. Pirani was Pirani. Peltola was slightly better than Enow vs Orlando but both are underachieving mightily. Herrera’s injury sucks but I will say I thought Dodson was one of the better fill ins we have. Don’t recall any major lapses/mistakes on his part. Rossi was the best attacker on either team, though the 2nd goal was a bit lucky. Almost everyone who showed glimpses last year have regressed. The pressure is on Lesesne now. Two coaches(Cortois and Vermes) have been canned. I usually would give him the benefit of the doubt. This isn’t the best roster at all, but it should be doing better than this.
Schulte was better than Kim, and that's a big reason they won. Kim should have done better on the first. I can't blame him for not getting the deflected shot for goal 2, but there are certainly goalies who get to that one, since the deflection came at the point of contact. He did have a couple of good saves, but Schulte was outstanding for Columbus. We had an advantage in XGoals of 1.7 to 1.0. So yeah...goalie. In the prior game, Orlando scored four goals on 2.8 XG and Kim let in a couple of soft ones. Over the course of the season so far, I'd rate him just a hair below Bono, but he is younger and should have more up side. When Luis Barazza was at NYC, I thought he was among the worst goalies in the league, so I'm not clamoring for a change. NYC's defense really settled down in 2023 when they benched Barazza for Matt Freese.
I get the vibes are never going to be good with 1 win in 6 games but after watching the game live and rewatching it at home yesterday I’m surprised at how negative things are here. Just looking at the most recent comments, Kim is a clear step up over all of our keepers from last year, with a substantially higher ceiling.
Pretty much agreed with everything you said until this point on Herrera. He's been a non-factor this season. Dodson did more in the attacking half in 60 minutes than Herrera has done all season. Keeping players pinned back? Unless your definition of pinned back is what i think it is, Herrera does NONE of this. Players get past him with regularity and i think Lesesne finally had had enough and made the switch. all-in-all it's been a very poor start for a very poor roster. That they have 5 points now is a minor miracle and playing a weak schedule has everything to do with that. i just can't get past the fact that there was a real opportunity to retool the roster and they made minimal effective changes. not one of these new players is head and shoulders above their admittedly weaker replacements from last season. we trudge on...
Herrera was 100% playing hurt on Saturday. He also is tied for the team lead in key passes, so to say he's been a non-factor this season is demonstrably incorrect. Also, as a general comment, for all the Pirani bashing, guess who's second on the team in both shots and shots on goal?
Pirani racking up a lot of xG, not so much in the actual G category while giving a lot away. 1 assist from our #10. I have to genuinely have to wonder what the incremental difference would be and whomever we could scape together to play his spot.
I agree and disagree. I thought DCU played well enough on Saturday, generally speaking. They created chances enough that a couple of bounces could have changed the result. But soccer is a sport in which a weak link is punished. Pirani is the big problem they need to sort out, but Peglow, and Enow are not MLS-level starters either. If you replaced those three with MLS-average players, United is comfortably a playoff team IMO. I don't know if Kim is the answer. But at this point, he's no better than Bono and more expensive. Bono would generally make the saves that one would expect him to make but never more. Kim hasn't even made the saves that he should make. Should we give up on him after six games? Of course not, don't be silly. But for me his honeymoon here is over.
Kim is only 22 years old. That’s really young for a keeper. I like the signing, or at least, I’m not writing it off yet. I wonder if the thinking this offseason was, let’s wring one more season out of Benteke and then do the rebuild. It’s either that, or they have Big Doings coming July 1 when Euro contracts run out, or this GM is the worst in pro sports.
Kim is making a handful of spectacular saves per game it feels like. His double save in the first half was huge. He could have done better on the first goal, but his talent level is there, he’s good with his feet, and his distribution is a huge step up from anyone we’ve had in a long time. As for Peglow, that’s another one I don’t understand the sentiment in here. He’s started 4 games and has set up 3 goals (2 assists and drew a PK) so far. I wonder if Pirani should play out on the wing and Peglow through the middle. Our goal on Saturday came from a great run from Peglow playing through the central area. Pirani’s profile seems to fit the wing more as well. He’s very good 1 v 1 on the dribble but struggles with the physicality of stronger players in the middle of the field. This would also simplify his passing options as it’s clear he’s having a crisis of confidence in that regard at the moment. The rewatch of Saturday’s game was interesting to me with regard to Pirani. He made two mistakes that led to both goals, which is awful. He had a couple of misplaced passes which should’ve generated scoring opportunities. At the same time, he had a number of good dribbles and take-ons. If this is a player on the brink of turning the corner, he could really make an impact. If that’s his ceiling, his minutes are limited. To me the biggest liability is Stroud. Not sure if he’s playing through an injury but he’s a shell of himself so far this season.
I'm certainly willing to give Kim the entire season. As you noted, he is very young for a GK, he's also learning a new language and is playing far away from home. I think the Gass Theorem will apply to him next season. I also believe Peglow is a useful MLS player and I guess you "could" put him inside. Pirani is the enigma. I hope he's on the cusp of a breakthrough, because right now he's more of an anchor than anything else. Acosta was up and down until Rooney came here and then he just took off. Problem for Pirani is that he has had his "Rooney" in Benteke for the past 2 seasons and he still struggles. He's not a winger, he called for the "10" shirt so he needs to play like one. Time is very short for him as an MLS player. Fully agree about Stroud, maybe he's still carrying the knock from preseason but why he remains a starter over Murrell, Barajas or OTC is a mystery.
The thing about Pirani is, if you play him in the middle, it’s easier for defenders to body him up. Since he has the solidity of a 10 year old boy, he’s very prone to turnovers. And if you play him wide, he has the passing range of a 10 year old boy, he’s too weak to get an assist from there because he has a hard time kicking the ball over 20 yards.
I think the tactical play with Pirani on the wing would largely be inverting from the left onto his right foot with Schnegg typically overlapping on his left.