All frustration, complaints with the team at all levels aside, I'm always excited for the home opener. Philadelphia played 120 minutes on Tuesday in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. The likes of Gazdag, Carranza, Glesnes, Wagner went at least 85 minutes. Blake has missed the last 2 games.
I'm assuming our injury report looks similar to last week? Odd that the new one isn't up yet, at least on the MLS site, though last week they posed on Saturday, so maybe that's their style?
Philly: OUT: Leon Flach (left shoulder) OUT: Isaiah LeFlore (right knee) QUESTIONABLE: Andre Blake (right adductor) QUESTIONABLE: Julian Carranza (thigh) SKC: OUT: Logan Ndenbe (ACL) OUT: Khiry Shelton (ankle) QUESTIONABLE: Johnny Russell (groin) Though from the sound of the pregame stuff, JFR seems ready to go, while their guys not as much.
Also, the pre game analysis from MLS. To save a click, not a single word about SKC. A bit of their take on Philly: "While the Union slipped from first in the Eastern Conference in 2022 to fourth in 2023, their opening performance last week led us to think they'll climb once more in 2024. My reason is simple: They know who they are, and they embrace every ounce of it. They produce young talents that know the Philly Union way, so we’re not surprised when Jack McGlynn plays like a veteran or Quinn Sullivan’s level on opening day screams future national team star."
Yup, I think we all did. While the team played fairly well throughout most of the game, the glaring weakness I saw was Pulido. He is slow, clumsy on the ball, and loses possession much too often. The one point in the game that I can point to that should have been a guaranteed goal was when they had a 3 on 3 breakaway with Pulido leading the charge, and instead of passing to a wide open JFR, he passes it back into double coverage and lost possession. Pitiful. The replacement refs in the game did a poor job, especially when rewarding Philly the ball on an obvious out of bounds play. But, that doesn't alter the fact that SKC should have put the game away and not allowed them to score on that corner. So far 2 games in and SKC is still winless and on track with last years ugly start.
Why can't PV call out his team for scoring only one goal. No, he has to complain about the calls and no reporter dares to ask why they did not score another. The last few minutes of this game would not have mattered had they scored just one more goal. If the team played better than last week. like he said, why only one goal?
classic. terrible reffing, but that's two points dropped on skc. philly still had 50 yards to travel with the ball after the missed call on the throw-in, and just had to defend a corner. melia muffs the clearance, and skc lives up to its billing as not good enough. we were straight garbage in the final third. we're so goddamn slow.
Thinking back, I'm pretty happy with the crew I'm usually pretty happy with: Davis, Salloi, Walter, Radoja. Fontas and Rosero did pretty much fine as well. I am very frustrated with the decision-making from Pulido and Thommy - particularly since they should be producing the bulk of the creativity through our center. I'm struggling for optimism here.
The team looked very good for long stretches of the first half. Even the announcers were remarking how well SKC was passing and moving the ball and went into the half with the lead. There was a lot to be optimistic about. Sadly, they just can’t seem to hold on to a lead because there is no one sitting on the bench that can come into the game to help push them successfully across the finish line.
Pulido looked fat and slow. Guy just jammed up the channels and literally helped the back four defend. Worse than nothing. On the stupid corner at end of game, Melia’s lame punch wasn’t helped by Uhre’s arm. The blinky lights were cool. But I’d rather they spend money on speed along the front line or a left back with speed. Philly was bad tonight, and we should consider that. I thought Rosero showed a lot of range and played really well.
Painfully slow is exactly correct. If we're going to be this team, we have to score goals. Pulido didn't look like making that happen. JFR didn't look like making that happen (aside when he was ignored on the breakaway). Salloi didn't, Thommy didn't. We just look toothless. This is appropriate, given our age. But right now we are a very slow, deliberate team, without much creativity in the final third. we out-passed, and I believe out-possessed them (mls stats didn't include that this morning) but our goal came on a .05 xG chance and we failed to threaten across the board. Their goal was also a should not have scored xG thing (.21), but Bedoya stepped up to the moment, when we did not. So, this feels as if we're going to finish our first 10 games with something like 10 points, a win or 2, some losses and more ties. And despite last season's heroics after a horrible start, we will struggle thoughout the season to get into playoff spots.
Yes. Walking back to my car last night i was not fuming about the refs or the result. My agitation was that SKC could not get a second goal. I get that you can win a game 1-0 and scoring goals (despite the cauldron chant) is not that simple. But dammit can we just score 2 and not leave the door open like we did.
Oof, yeah. We are in 'full toolbox' territory to start the season. There is no inflection point we can look ahead to when guys will suddenly become available and spark a surge.
Almost like running it back with a team with less talent than last year (no offense to Rodriguez, but he's not as good as Kinda) isn't a good idea.
It's not shocking. We've all been talking about this all off-season, but we look old, and old looks slow. we look like a side that is right on the edge of needed a total renew, and yet we are signed up with this crew for a while. We have talent. It's just that it's old talent, slow talent. There will be nights when we look really sharp.But those nights will not be the norm, and while I do expect a bit of a surge this summer, I think we all know that come Autumn we will be in free fall. As Doyle noted, and we have quoted, the reason we were somewhat sharp at the business end of 2023 was the early season injuries. BTW, does anyone think that what we're missing is a Kinda type?
Several random observations. Philly played a number of homegrown players and a super draft keeper in the first half. SKC was dominant. When they brought on their better players the game was competitive and Philly were probably the better team. PV said this year they have lots of options to bring off the bench. Where was that bench strength last night? PV blamed the refs because thats who he is. How Pulido plays the 9 can be infuriating. He drops back so far and is rarely the top of the spear during the attacking phase of play.