The overall team speed is problematic. Flores, Gressel, Asad, Moreno, Canouse are all on the slow side. Flores/Asad/Canouse might be average I guess. They seemed a step late all night, I think it's b/c they are a step slow. Flores and Gil had almost the same transfer fee (5mil for Flores v. 4mil) and almost identical annual salaries (2mil v. 2.4 mil for Gil) but they are world's apart.
My hope is that Lucy Rushton's presence will prevent future mistakes like that. I didn't realize the transfer fee on Gil was actually lower than Flores. Flores is a bigger bust and failure on the part of DCU player acquisition than I realized.
We really didn't press as well as last game. The energy from last week was gone. Maybe Losada pulled on the reigns a bit because we were playing on turf, we already have a full side of injuries and he was trying to avoid more. It definitely gave me deja vu in regards to an Olsen team. We knew there would be bumps in the road. Hopefully we see a different starting eleven next match, some of the subs deserve a shot.
Correct. The style of play was different and hardly any chances were created. We had possession, but it developed so slowly that the Revs had numbers back every time. I would agree that I would say that Sorga and Flores had particularly poor performances. Would like to see what Robertha could do with a start.
I thought the best thing about the game was that the press was more miss than hit but the backline held up really well. With just three in the back, and some questionable pace, I always worry a little. But those guys were damn near imperious, great game. Shame on the own goal, just bad luck there.
There were moments when I thought I was watching Bennyball. I think it was because most of our offensive forays ended rather quickly, while NE's seemed to go on for some time.
I think our strategy was to press for a shot on goal whenever and however soon the chance came. New England had 2/3 of the possession, but rarely did anything once they got to the top of the box. Ray Hudson, where are you?
The possession time was even. The Revs just looked a little bit more like they knew what they were doing with it than us. Would love to see how we look with Moses starting
I was hoping for much more from Flores this season but it looks at this point (after watching the preseason and a couple of regular-season games) like a repeat of last year. Given we can have up to 3 DPs and our guys are a Flopping Flores, a potentially injured for the year Arriola, and an open slot that is not much to build on. In addition, the style of play Losada wants to play does not seem to match Flores or many of the players DC currently has on the roster.
Actually, Losada's style of play is quite different from Olsen and it shows in the attempt to play quickly and vertically with few lateral or back passes. The problem, however, seems to be that we don't have the speed or fitness to play his style. Olsen also had a counter-press but not as high up the field or as aggressively staged. Olsen's buildup tended to be much more ball possession-oriented with lots of back and lateral passes. With Olsen, we had a fair amount of possession but it was so slow that teams had lots of time to set up to defend. Our forwards were not technical enough to break down tightly packed defenses. Losada's team has a hard time controlling and quickly moving the ball to provide service to the forwards. And the forwards are too slow to create chances in a vertical game that depends on finding space behind the defense or out wide.
The high press last game was definitely different from game 1. Against NYC we anticipated the pass and forced the ball to move to the middle. Our dmids pushed high and anticipated the passing lanes. I think NE anticipated that because they broke our pressure in a variety of ways and we did not clog all the passing lanes. I'm looking forward to game three to see how we respond.
Preventing future mistakes is one thing but these mistakes will take some time to recover from. $7.5M combined for Kamara and Flores with literally nothing to show for it. The club is bringing in no TV money and there are very small ticket sales to recoup said costs from. I'm not sure about Kamara but Flores has 4 more years on his deal (including this one) so if he doesn't turn it around that is $2m wasted every year.
I agree, good game-planning by the evil Mr Arena I am almost happy it only took until the second game for an opposing coach to out-think what they saw us do the previous week - this will force the players to notice their own different approaches and what it was that made them not as effective. That it wasn't all that "once I learn to pass better, this will be perfect". Like you, I really look forward to the next two games to see if they continue learning, or just give up and revert to too much back-passing (which I saw a lot of this weekend). I hope they figure it out before July, then the new coach can learn and slightly alter what they are doing until September when it's possible to run hard like that again.
That's one big question for me: Losada's played and coached in northern Europe from Fall to Spring. Has he ever experienced a Washington Summer? Can he adjust and keep his players mobile week after week in 90+ heat and humidity? Time will tell, I guess.
He wouldn't be the first foreign coach from Europe who is not familiar with the challenges of playing in a continent-sized country that has various climates and plays through a very hot and humid summer. It's one thing to play a high-tempo counter-press in Northern Europe over fall, winter and spring, but something else again in Florida in the middle of summer.
Their Spring to late Summer actually. Argentine league begins in early August (which is their Spring) and ends in March (end of Summer)