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Metro - Dallas Game Thread


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#181
Koko

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I get it, on paper this team does not look like its set itself up to succeed defensively. We've taken a lot of risks on players a little too young or a little too old, and as a whole have gone through too much turnover in personnel.
 
But even if you want to argue that we've been playing with house money, letting up goals hasn't been a major issue over the last few years. Even this season where the injury bug has bit especially hard, we currently have the 7th best defensive record in the league!  8th best in 2016, 6th best in 2015...
 
We rolled out 2/5 of our actual starting defense yesterday. Our goals conceded came through errors by Lade and Zizzo who should never see the field in a playoff game. I still can't figure out why so many people are turning this draw into a damnation of the entire season.


Turning THIS into a damnation of the entire season? Absolutely not. But these "random" losses that happen throughout each season all happen in a similar fashion and just help to remind us that the team has a glaring weakness that opponents will be game planning for in the big games. People always makes excuses for these performances saying $hit like "well 9 times out of 10 such and such goes our way so we'll be fine."

I remember watching the Philly open cup game a few seasons back and thinking "boy we really don't have a plan b if teams park the bus. That's gonna be a problem in the future." People thought I was crazy to look at one result and say that. Our season ended in disappointment.

KC is gonna pack it in for the open cup. They'll hit us on the counter and score goals.

Another team will do the same in the playoffs. Hell it will probably be the friggin blue team.

#182
Eleazar

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but doesn't SKC press high like we do? if it's 2 teams that are similar and excel at the high press, i like our chances with our lineup, if our Panamanians are available and Royer's back. 


RIP Guillermo Romulo, Alexander Francis Orig, Celenio Eleazar, and my Mom, Resurreccion Eleazar.

 

RIP Cesar Castello, Mike Vallo, Glenn Stampiglia, Bob Paquette, and Warren Lee

 

 

 


#183
JBigjake54

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watching the Philly open cup game a few seasons back and thinking "boy we really don't have a plan b if teams park the bus. That's gonna be a problem in the future." People thought I was crazy to look at one result and say that.

A lot agreed with you, then & now.
Live by the high press, die by it.

We are good enough to beat the best teams, and bad enough to lose to the worst teams. 


#184
iced1776

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I remember watching the Philly open cup game a few seasons back and thinking "boy we really don't have a plan b if teams park the bus. That's gonna be a problem in the future." People thought I was crazy to look at one result and say that. Our season ended in disappointment.

 

The one where we out-shot them something like 30-3 and lost on penalties? 

 

I guess where I'm going with all this is, what are your expectations here, never give up a goal? Have a top 3 defense and top 3 offense every single year? We see an MLS team able to do that maybe once every 5 years or so (~2011 LA, this year's Toronto), and its incredibly difficult to sustain. MLS parity is still a very real thing even with more roster resources being rolled out.

 

We could go with a Plan B that's lighter on the high press, but odds are almost certain that we'd just open up a different defensive vulnerability. We could be KC or last year's Colorado and dump all our energy into defending to try to win 1-0 every game, but that's gotten those teams fewer trophies than its gotten us over the past few years, all while being a hell of lot more boring to watch every week.

 

Ultimately I don't really care how we concede, if its all on the counter so be it as long as we aren't giving up a ridiculous number of them, which we haven't been.



#185
MetroFanatic

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The one where we out-shot them something like 30-3 and lost on penalties? 

 

I guess where I'm going with all this is, what are your expectations here, never give up a goal? Have a top 3 defense and top 3 offense every single year? We see an MLS team able to do that maybe once every 5 years or so (~2011 LA, this year's Toronto), and its incredibly difficult to sustain. MLS parity is still a very real thing even with more roster resources being rolled out.

 

We could go with a Plan B that's lighter on the high press, but odds are almost certain that we'd just open up a different defensive vulnerability. We could be KC or last year's Colorado and dump all our energy into defending to try to win 1-0 every game, but that's gotten those teams fewer trophies than its gotten us over the past few years, all while being a hell of lot more boring to watch every week.

 

Ultimately I don't really care how we concede, if its all on the counter so be it as long as we aren't giving up a ridiculous number of them, which we haven't been.

They have tried to be lighter on the high press recently, but it's clear that we struggle offensively when they do so. KC has proven in the past that you can use the high press effectively for a long time, but they had a very locked-down, structured defense that was used to playing together.

 

We don't.


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#186
Koko

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The one where we out-shot them something like 30-3 and lost on penalties? 

 

I guess where I'm going with all this is, what are your expectations here, never give up a goal? Have a top 3 defense and top 3 offense every single year? We see an MLS team able to do that maybe once every 5 years or so (~2011 LA, this year's Toronto), and its incredibly difficult to sustain. MLS parity is still a very real thing even with more roster resources being rolled out.

 

We could go with a Plan B that's lighter on the high press, but odds are almost certain that we'd just open up a different defensive vulnerability. We could be KC or last year's Colorado and dump all our energy into defending to try to win 1-0 every game, but that's gotten those teams fewer trophies than its gotten us over the past few years, all while being a hell of lot more boring to watch every week.

 

Ultimately I don't really care how we concede, if its all on the counter so be it as long as we aren't giving up a ridiculous number of them, which we haven't been.

We have one clear problem preventing us from being unstoppable and that is giving up goals against the run of play.  I want that cleaned up.  That's all.

 

In the playoffs anything can happen.  If our bigtime players don't put away their chances (like last year) and we lose on penalties or whatever at least we can say the defense did it's job.

 

Defend better.  That's all I want.






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