Yep that cross only works for freaks of nature like Zlatlan. 6 foot plus tall with crazy hops. Javier has super powers but he is a little less superhuman. So we are going to need to be more precise with crosses and service in general.
I just watched the highlights, so based on that limited info, a couple impressions. Pavons brilliant strike on the first goal would not have happened if not for the incredible hustle and skill of 18yo Adam Saldana who torched Traore. The fact he even went for the ball (Traore was 5 yards away, Saldana was 15 yards away) shows competitiveness and hustle that too many on this team lack. Speaking of lack - my first sighting of Kitchen in the video was him flat-footed and lazily reaching for a ball and getting beaten easily. Chichirito is fragile. I like Wild's activity level and his athleticism. However his touch and moves still have a college/USL level feel and need to improve to play at the top level. Hope he learns to adapt. We have a lot of terrible finishers. Despite all of this - was fun to watch. And Pavon is special.
I just watched the highlights, so based on that limited info, a couple impressions. Pavons brilliant strike on the first goal would not have happened if not for the incredible hustle and skill of 18yo Adam Saldana who torched Traore. The fact he even went for the ball (Traore was 5 yards away, Saldana was 15 yards away) shows competitiveness and hustle that too many on this team lack. Speaking of lack - my first sighting of Kitchen in the video was him flat-footed and lazily reaching for a ball and getting beaten easily. Chichirito is fragile. I like Wild's activity level and his athleticism. However his touch and moves still have a college/USL level feel and need to improve to play at the top level. Hope he learns to adapt. We have a lot of terrible finishers. Despite all of this - was fun to watch. And Pavon is special.
It looked like blue was playing a 4-4-2 with Chicharito and Zubak up top. Even though that we lost our 6’5” striker, we are still just dumping hopeful cross after hopeful cross into the box and praying it falls to one of our players. Maybe it’ll be different when it’s Pavon and (insert RM here) playing, but most of the other wide mids and fullbacks in this game were just lofting them up there. A couple personal observations: Pretty much all of the vets spent the entire game telling the kids what to do. It kind of looked more like a coaching session for them. Chicharito looks like he’s put on a few pounds. He didn’t really find the game but didn’t have a whole lot to work with. Efra didn’t do anything special but he’s noticeably in better shape and might even be quicker. At times, he was more active, defended better, and had better off-ball movement. He still looks like he has to think about it though. I’ve never been impressed with Zubak, but I thought he looked decent in this game. Araujo was brutal at the start and should have cost blue a goal on a lazy attempt at a clearance. He got better as the game went on. Feltscher had a miscommunication with Vom Steeg that also could’ve been a goal. Johnny Perez and Dunbar are raw and have to improve. They’re both small and need to get used to the physical play. But the more I watch them the more I believe they will have an impact in the future. I don’t believe in Traore even a little bit. Our defense is still horrible.
Sorry about the double post above. OTOH not a whole lot going on these days so maybe double posting is a feature rather than a bug?
Alright for everyone not keeping track: Nashville FC has had 5 players test positive for Covid since arriving in Orlando. They are set to play on Wednesday. Toronto FC was flying to Orlando yesterday when their flight had to be re-routed back to Toronto when one of the staff started showing covid symptoms. Toronto currently do not have a date on when they attempt to fly back. Minnesota UTD had a player test positive while in orlando. Their match has been delayed. Columbus had a player test positive. It's still unknown who it was, but it was someone with the team in Orlando and the team hasn't trained since. FC Dallas had 10 players and staff test positive for covid and are currently quarantined in Frisco. Their first match has been cancelled. Montreal had to pull the team off the field during training because a player supposedly was positive for Covid. The team hasn't left their hotel since. Colorado Rapids have postponed today’s flight to Orlando. Two members of traveling party, including one player, tested positive for COVID-19 on final round of pre-travel testing. Follow-up testing to occur. Aim is to travel tomorrow.
So these are on ESPN+. I just heard that ESPN+ is being packaged with Disney's new service and something else (Can't remember what) that I am not interested in. Is that package deal the only way to get it?
Are they really on ESPN + ? The games on Wednesday (or game as I think one is going to be rescheduled) are listed on ESPN. Usually the ESPN games aren’t on ESPN +.
You don’t need to subscribe to the bundle (Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu) ESPN+ on its own is $5 a month. Edit: found a better link https://plus.espn.com/?ex_cid=DSS-S...VXhitBh0Bqgm7EAAYASAAEgJBNfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
So we are literally 2 days off from the tournament. Rumors floating the first two matches set for this wednesday will be called off. Players don't feel confident with the testing, and are worried about their safety. We are set to be arriving in Orlando today sometime. Hopefully no one ruins their career over this stupid tournament.
Vela is out and our guys should be in the air right now on their way. First games scheduled for Wednesday. FCD v Vancouver already postponed because FCD has to quarantine because players tested positive. Gonna be interesting to see how this works out.
Yes, none of these games will be on ESPN+ until 24-48 hours later or something like that. This tournament was really made to give our 3 tv partners something to air....
Sporting KC had someone test positive but then found out it was a false positive. Feel terrible for the player that had to go through that - though thankful it ended up negative.
Grant Wahl tweeted that the tests are being discovered upon initial entry rather than inside the bubble. I don't know how he knows this, but he's pointing out it's not to do with Orlando. I'm not saying it's good/bad, I just didn't know that was the case and thought it was inside the bubble. It's also not about the tournament - the tournament is trying to make up for the lost season. If they are going to call this off, the whole season should be done along with sports in general for 2020. It's sad that we've come to this versus how Europe has handled it. 4. If MLS starts getting positive cases that are being transmitted inside the bubble (and not just detected upon initial entry), that would be a giant problem. https://t.co/cmNPYaWA5M— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) July 5, 2020 Regardless of how I feel about the virus, I will be watching the games to support the players and the effort they are making to be out there for us. Aka, I'll be watching more than the Galaxy. Hope the ratings help the league during this time. This sucks. I want to support, and I want everyone to be healthy.
Official. News: FC Dallas withdrawn from MLS is Back Tournament. https://t.co/UFU1gB0cVQ— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 6, 2020
Yeah, didn't see how they were going to continue with the amount of players impacted. A couple of interesting nuggets in the article: 13 MLS players tested positive (so far) - this is lower than what Skevin has above, wondering if some were false positives or staff? 10 of those were FCD, 1 Columbus. That's a high percentage from 1 team, which leads me to believe they passed it around before they left. Of the remainder, they were discovered upon entry or within a couple of days like Wahl reports. Which means they are not spreading it within the bubble based on incubation time. Which hopefully supports all of the precautions they are taking. All bets are off if they start to spread within the bubble. That's a percent positive rate of 2.3% overall, though within FC Dallas it's clearly not that. I hope all of those players recover and stay healthy. Bummer to the team. I haven't seen how they are rebalancing the groups if at all.
Sources with knowledge of the situation tell me other MLS teams wanted FC Dallas out of the bubble tournament after not doing what was necessary to be virus-free and ready to play. Similar feelings about Nashville right now.— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) July 7, 2020 Worth noting the language in official press releases: Dallas "was withdrawn" from the MLS tournament, not Dallas withdrew. Other clubs wanted FCD out. https://t.co/uJ8GSrGnfp— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) July 7, 2020 Oh boy. Based on the above, the other two players are probably from Nashville. EDIT: I see the news about the Nashville players, not sure why the numbers are so off.