Balogun was effective. His hold up play was bad, but we can work around that. Wright disappointed me. It seemed like the level of the opponent was a bit more than he can handle. Let’s if Agyemang gets minutes next match and can do more. McKennie as a pressing, connecting right AM was interesting. He’s played there for his club. Weah IMO was our weak link overall.
On Wright, it was less than 10 minutes. He got in dangerous positions and got a shot on goal. Big Pat wouldn't have found those spaces that Wright did.
Balo’s movement is so important to this team. With any other 9 playing we have no space for our 5-6 guys all trying to play in the half spaces.
Tillman was MOTM, obviously. Balo was perfect for this type of opponent. McKennie is obviously not a forward by trade.
Weah was a WB, not a F, but agree on the performance. I thought Balo was good all around and MOTM. In the 343 Tillman & Wes were much more like AM's/inside forwards with Arfsten & Weah providing the width. McKennie & Tillman were both good. Wes early and Tillman got going later.
Tillman or Balogun. Tillman was a boss in all phases, but Balogun needs to be credited for doing a man's job of pressing up high and doing quite a lot for himself up on an island (or maybe a "penninsula"). Nobody American really holds the ball up well. It's been ages since we've had a McHead or a Ching or even the otherwise relatively limited Alan Gordon. Agyemang is ok at it.
While there are fights for roster spots Tillman has quietly taken starting position, and, basically, CP, Balogun, and him are attacking starters without any close competitors.
I don’t know quite where to put this comment so I’ll put it here. The only place I see to put Pulisic into the starting lineup is to swap him and Wes. I don’t see Wes as a better option for any of the other roles out there last night. The only place I see getting ARob on the field is for Arfsten….though I’m not as confident as I know I should be that this swap would be an upgrade. The only place I see getting Dest on the field is for Weah. I think this would be an upgrade. The only place I see getting Adams on the field is for Morris….and I’m not all that convinced it would be an upgrade. So in summary: Poch could roll out a lineup in a must win game against a top tier opponent in a knockout match with Adams Weah Wes and some dude who starts for Athletico Madrid all on the bench and I would be arguing that it is completely justifiable. And that feels very very strange to me (in a very very good way)
Man I guess I watched a different game. I thought Balo's hold up play was the best we've seen from one of our 9s in.....like forever.
i thought balo showed why pepi is so important last night in a handful of instances he rushed/played too quickly because he cant play with contact. the first big chance is the best example of that, he needed one more step into his shot but cant shield it (and didnt get nearly enough on the rushed shot he did take). it seemed like haji was thinking too much. one of his first touches should have been a shot, but he (over)passed and it came to nothing. twice after that he tried to get shots off that werent really there. a big problem we have right now is overpassing in the attacking third, in addition to not having a "hierarchy". tillman has a great balance- hes always looking to create the best shot, and while thats primarily passing on his part he doesnt f around with an open look. luna is very similar (at a lower level) but a touch quicker to rip one. haji looks a little lost. with coventry hes the guy that takes the chances, and he will pass if theres something clearly better for a teammate. with us, like i said, hes just in his head. its oversimplifying to say when youre in the striker role pull the f'ing trigger...but im not not saying that either. i see him as direct competition for agyemang as striker 3, and hes letting himself down/is being let down by the "everyone is equal" ethos. cause puli (obv an outlier in every way as our best player) doesnt pass up a chance. he doesnt pull out of contact either. he skews a little too shot heavy with the nats because he has to. upping the quality/chemistry around him helps that, but balo, pepi, weah, wes, whoever you want to put in the mix- they cant do what he can. period. hes not a selfish player. he makes things happen. but saying he needs to reign anything in to maximize any/everyone else is ass backwards. you dont play to your mean, you play to your ceiling. haji needs to learn that fast and stop playing to make the team. pat has his obvious "strength", and had a pretty good sense of when to attack himself vs play to others (in his nt appearances). zendejas and mcglynn are similar (to each other). i think wes is ok in that 10/am role but hes purely a facilitator and its not his best role by a lot, imo. conversely, in this setup, i think it is weahs best role. so balo/pepi up top with puli/tillman/weah as the 10s is the ideal. a third striker tbd, and id call luna a lock based on fit/function. wc roster-wise one more "10" would be nice, but we put so many numbers in the back i think wes is likely the "5th" for that role.
i think there are two distinct interpretations of "hold up" play that leads to a lot of confusion. mine is a more old school/traditional "win balls, hold under pressure, bring the rest of the team into the play". i would argue balos never done that in his life. and that isnt critical, its semantic. i think youre looking at it in a "play it to them, they keep possession, bring the rest of the team into the play" way- though he plays so directly that last part is rarely the case. he gets a lot of touches and is able to get on the ball a lot, which is really important in a team such as ours that isnt the best at advancing the ball in other ways. but thats not really "holding" anything up. imo. he stretches us out vertically, or maybe the better way to put it is he is a solution to collapsing in on ourselves. thats why him, pepi and agyemang look to be our strikers, while haji and sarge dont bring that at all, really.
That’s exactly what I was getting at in my opening comment. We “work around it” in part by utilizing Tillman, and in part by threatening to get Balogun behind the defense.
I liked what I saw in terms of the passing and interchange both around and into the Ecuador box. We had some well-timed runs with good deliveries. Ecuador also did a good job of tracking those runs and making it very difficult to get off a good shot. Our two best chances came from a "look what I found" pinball during a corner kick, and our goal which came from an Ecuador give away. This is not a criticism of us, but a nod of the head to how good Ecuador's defense is, especially from the run of play. I think our level of execution in the final third today will get us more joy against most other teams.
It was certainly the best from him. But it's not an overall strength for him. But I thought it was one of his better games.