We have no midfield. I feel bad for our D who has been under constant pressure for a majority of this game. We’re giving up another one soon. Inevitable.
These last few minutes really show what’s up with our midfield. We won the ball back 4 times and gave up possession 4 times. no composure.
How do you all feel about Katai? Thought he was piss poor today. It hurt us that GBS switched Pavon and Katai when GBS realized Katai wasn’t going to defend. pavon vs valentin was a favorable matchup for us.
I’ll take that result. Last year if we were as under pressure as we were today at 1-1 in the 50th minute or so we’d lose for sure. Today we turned the tide and actually had best chances in final 15. Something to build on. Insua looks a hell of a player. Hope he stays healthy. I’m not going to pass judgement to early on Chicha but he didn’t do much today. His fault or not his impact was minimal.
Watched on Twitter - quality was only OK. But grateful to see most of the game, although I missed the beginning because I thought it was on at 3:30 PST. So, we had some good periods in the first half and fewer in the 2nd. Our defense, including midfielders, seemed too open and haphazard, and sometimes downright lazy. I found the goal discouraging, and I blamed it on Gonzalez, who was wandering around, and forced Bingham to scramble and DePuy to try to cover his area.
Random thoughts: Katai was a disappointment but Insua was a pleasant surprise. Tiny sample size but looked like we might finally have an outside back who is good on both sides of the ball. Their goal exposed our known weaknesses - Gonzalez at cb and gk. If we get a good cb it will go a long way to improving our team. Pavon was awesome. Midfield very disappointing.
For me, a good performance and with a good result -- tie on the road. For comparison's sake, here's how many goals we've given up in our last 5 match-ups vs. Houston: 4 (Loss @ Houston) 1 (Win @ Home) 3 (Loss @ Home) 3 (Loss @ Houston) 3 (Loss @ Houston) This is the best result we've gotten in Houston in literal years and big defensive improvement. We can all see some holes still, but the team should hang their hat on that. We also had the better of shots on target (which doesn't include the one that hit the post).
One game in and I'm convinced that Katai should be coming in off the bench for us... Replace him for Alvarez (once healthy). Move Lletget to the wing and have Alvarez play CAM. Kljestan to the bench, start Corona. Steres in for Pipo (BTW what a drop in form since Costa Rica's run in WC 2014) and obviously Jonathan in for Kitchen. I want to see that team next week vs Vancouver before I start to worry. I think we'll be okay... But we definitely could use some depth and upgrades at certain positions! Where's Franco?!
Making a classic beer league keeper mistake: coming charging out of the goal, and losing his bearings of where the goal is when he didn't need to because a defender was in position to force a long shot from a poor angle. If he had just stayed put, the ball would have come right to his chest. As pathetic as the Galaxy looked most of the game, I pin the loss of these 2 points on Bingham.
I’m with Trickhog. I think he had some really great runs throughout the game. The problem—and I won’t let up with this— is that our midfield was overrun after our bright start. Around minute 20, we could not keep the ball. If the midfield can’t keep the ball, we can’t create. Do I think Chicharito could have done more? For sure. But I also think we should have started Corona to help balance the midfield, and I think GBS needs to run some passing drills this week. Chicharito needs to score, and he needs to score soon.
I didn't think he was worse than anyone else, save Pavon. Hit the post with a header and made a nice play to save a potential goal when he got a yellow.