Fools gold. This team will struggle in the back. We won’t win another game until late March/early April.
That's not what I'm seeing. I suspect Instant Replay will go easy on the refs because 1) it's MLS and 2) I mean, give them a break. But I thought they missed a few in our game, and some of the other games - oof. I cannot see an offside on that goal called back at Houston.
Yeah, well, I still think refs are terrible. It's good to know the replacement refs are equally bad as the regular ones. They should be proud. Also, why oh why does this team 1-continue to pass at or behind players rather than in front of them, and 2-not f$#king shoot at the first opportunity? But, at least there were WAY fewer back passes than we have been accustomed to.
To your second paragraph, god help us all if they don’t improve greatly with their passing from the first match, and as far as shooting, they took 30 shots!
We're winning the Copa Interamericana! We're bringing it back, and THEN we're winning it! In all honesty: NE looked awful, we were up a man for much of the match, and we CAN'T waste that many chances in the future. But for week one? A win will do.
The passing from both teams was preseason. We often can't anticipate our teammates' movement well enough to properly weight a ball into space for them, so we are playing to feet a lot. I think it's fine for the first game, and we were in a better place than NE. That will improve. I like Peltola, and I think the spine did well defensively. We will have a Pines level brain fart every other game from the two CBs who started, but our style of play allows for that. Santos has the will and the brains, but he will struggle at this speed. I think others here are right in pegging him as a 45 minute player.
Nice win, for the team. I was probably too grumpy during the game but the missed chances were infuriating! The good news is the press worked to create tons of chances. Just need to be more clinical going forward. Up a man we needed to be better at keeping the ball in settled situations. It's early but something to be concerned about. The defense will definitely be challenged this year as well, should be exciting but I expect a few bad losses. Pirani struggled hopefully he's just still getting up to speed under a new coach. I liked him last year but he didn't look great yesterday. Obviously concerned about Santos. If you are going to be the slow veteran defender then you can't turn the ball over. He had a few great corners though.
Benteke looked like he did last season, worked hard, got into good positions, isn't the best player, and got the goals the team needed. Ku-Dipietro looks better than last season. Still makes some mistakes but his hustle is great. If he passed that ball to Klich in the first half and it is a great team goal. A threat with his speed and willingness to run. Stroud started well and his hustle made things happen. He had a few good runs but by the second half seemed out of ideas and gas. Ran into so many blind alleys in the second half, probably because Revs adjusted and baited him into bad choices. Pirani looks out of sorts. Passing was off, shooting was soft, and his positioning questionable. Seemed like the team avoided giving him the ball at times. Klich is Klich. Seemed a bit more energized than last season, probably because of his time off. It was his brains that got Vriani the first yellow in baiting the forward into a stupid mistake. He made some good runs and also tried to keep the temp high when NE was trying to slow it down at 1:0. Peltola looked good with the ball and in the first half his positioning was good. He seemed to drop off in the second half and sort of lose his position. Santos is a 45 minute player at.best. He will be the weakest link in the defense. Too bad because he clearly has skills just no speed and his quickness is going. Herrera put in a good shift. Made some good defensive moves and got up the field well. Solid. McVey and Bartlett did mostly ok. Some of the one vs. one defending was great and some of the anticipation play at midfield was good. However, later in the match they seemed confused about roles and were ball watching too much. Hopefully, they get 90 minute concentration soon... All in all, a reasonable start to the season. I expect we will do better early as teams are learning how we play and building their own cohesion. Then we will have a long struggle period. I hope we can either improve our players enough that by mid-season we can be a reasonable MLS team.
First time I wasn't at a home opener in a quarter century. Caught the game on tape after dinner at a neighbor's. Very pleasantly surprised. At one point the xG for DCU was something like 3.73 -- that used to be the xG for an entire season here. Obviously Benteke was in beast mode, but I was also impressed with Peltola, Herrera and Stroud. Peltola handled the pace of the game and more importantly, threw his body in there a number of times. The bad -- Pirani -- he looks no better than last year and he was dreadful last year. Seriously, I would rather have Hopkins out there than Pirani. Nice to enjoy a win, the next two matches on the road will be tough.
That was a f_ck ton better than I'd ever hoped. They were clearly shooting everything that was even remotely inviting, that's a change. Is NE worse than I thought? I'd expected they'd be a solid contender for a playoff spot. Granted we played the last hour+ up a man, but it felt like we were on the front foot most of the game and the possession stats were surprising, I didn't feel like NE had much sustained possession at all, I was expecting a much bigger difference. I can see some quality issues and not all these guys are going to be depth, so at some point this is going to catch up to us, but I liked it.
I put the NE poor play down to them having a midweek match on non-game fit legs, limited information about DC United's play style and players so the game plan was not exploiting our weaknesses at the start, going down a man in the 25th minute, and their own struggles to get on one page with Porter's game plan. DC United had a much better idea of how NE was going to play and Lesesne had the team very active from the jump with high tempo play.
Some one also needs to tell Fletcher not to jump in when on defense. He was beaten so easily so many times... Hopkins needs to find some confidence. Dàjome was active... Antley seemed ok. I'm not sure he is an MLS journeyman but he did have some good moves going forward.
Agree on Fletcher, jumps around like spit on a griddle. His first job was shut down on defense and then and only then, move into the attack. Lot of headless chicken running from him. He's young and coachable, but jeebus kid -- just slow the ******** down a bit.
We're now enough generations beyond the Olsen era that the DNA for backpassing has become recessive. I hope.
I was encouraged by the number of players that consistently ended up in the box on attack. They really flooded that area and it resulted in chances, goals. There were three other chances (Stroud crossbar from 2 feet and Benteke missing two layup headers) that go in on a better day. I liked McVey, less so Bartlett, though both did well in their first games here. I do shudder when thinking about some of the league’s best wingers going at Santos. My favorite part of the match was rattling Nee England. For once, they were the frustrated team searching for answers. Carles Gil of course scores a wonder goal but he also showed his ass crying to the ref all match.
Some positivity: New England is terrible. Three points against a rival for the last playoff spot is great. Some red flags: DC is garbage without Benteke. Nearly every good thing that happened in offense was a result of the big guy, who's dominance of highballs and set plays continues to be astonishing. But when DC has the ball at rest in attack, they seemed mostly clueless. Once things start going badly, most any sane coach will lean on that crutch. That's a short-term sugar fix that needs to be avoided. For this team to not be terrible, Pirani has got to find a way to not suck at playing soccer so badly. I continue to not see what other people see in him. Having watched most St. Louis games last year, I can safely say that if Jared Stroud is your second most valuable player, you have big problems. DC's bench is not good.
NE will improve once Porter realizes old man Andrew Farrell is an upgrade in their back line and sit Romney or the other guy. Those guys sucked last night. And of course NE would kill for a 9 like ours. But yes, no Benteke, no winning. There was a lot of activity from Ku, Stroud and Pirani, but a lot of fumble feet around the goal. This team needs the cool heads of Benteke and Klich.
Oh, they took plenty of shots, no doubt, but 3/4 of them were after the first or second touch opportunities had passed, as they looked for a better touch or pass instead. Believe me, I'm thrilled they actually shoot more.
Wait. A team is less good without their leading goal scorer and DP? Shocking. We pressed the crap out of them prior to the Roja. We generated chances. It was fun to watch. Portland will be tough but let’s try and enjoy a win for at least 24 hours.