I'm hoping he and the team realize he doesn't have to do it all. He'll attract attention and create room for others.
Feels nice to win, but I'm not sure we demonstrated that we're good enough to make the 2 ppg necessary through the rest of the season to make the playoffs. We should just be playing the kids from here on out.
The post match interviews with Pablo were so thirsty to say this is the turning point for the season. It very well could be, but beating one of the worst teams in the league at home isn’t what I’d typically hang my hat on for performance of the season. also needs to be said: it sucks to play well and then have a massive break.
Also, no Benteke and no Herrera for them among others. I know we were missing Luna, but the step from Benteke to Badji is pretty freaking severe.
Lastly, I got the 2 VAR offside calls wrong in the stadium. Gozo looked 5yards off to me. I didn’t even celebrate when he put the ball I the net. 2nd one, Piol seemed to me at least 2’ behind the last defender he ran passed. Oh well.
I don’t think anyone has even mentioned Diogo. He quietly put in a pretty great game. Still not as exciting as I would hope, but he was really good in possession and passing. I noticed he got bodied off the ball still, but he did fight through a few of those. Got an assist too.
I thought he did well Nothing DP game changing but certainly a (rather big) step in the right direction. He still disappears far too much for my liking
One thing I saw is that he was trying to occupy the space between their high line and their mids, but our guys weren’t getting him the ball in those spaces enough. Oddly, Willy Agada was getting those passes, but his touch was no bueno, and he couldn’t turn. Johnny Russell and Diogo already have better link up play than Diogo has had with anyone else. And let’s reiterate again that this was a test against a really poor DCU team. I don’t think that you could use this game to draw a trend line.
Diogo played at least 3 "final balls" behind the back line. One lead Johnny Russell to open up the scoring. He fed Agada and Gozo as well. He had that technical spell juggling 4 consecutive balls in traffic. Diogo also had 2 heel flicks that nearly got behind the back line. Whenever diogo had the ball with time and space we made runs for him. It was clearly strategic and I was thrilled to see SOMETHING out of Diogo.
Also, I LOVED that after the Johnny Russell goal, Captain Barbosa Cabral sprinted the length of the field to go give Diigo a huge hug for the setup play. It was exactly WHAT a captain should do and Diogo built off of that moment. This may or may not be a turning point for RSL but it felt like a turning point for Diogo.