Monday, April 9, 2018

Two Games & 10 Things About MLS, A Week 6(?) Review


A video review of the incident....
With Week 6 (let the record show, I object to their counting), I hope to put forward the semi-permanent version of this site’s weekly review - if only to set/maintain expectations. Outside whoever it is the Portland Timbers played (Orlando City SC, written up here, and heavily), I watched two games this weekend, as usual - the Philadelphia Union’s 1-1 draw against the San Jose Earthquakes, and FC Dallas last-gasp (and, per the reputation) rather stunning 1-1 draw against the, to emphasize it, visiting Colorado Rapids.

I’ve built a different understanding with MLS this season than I have in several seasons past - and that has everything to do with MLS’s home site not posting condensed games (guys: electrocute the interns to keep them awake…we need this. And please send 20 virgins to madam’s chambers later; she needs their tears for her bath). That requires navigating a wider gap of ignorance than I have before, and making the most of any scraps I can find…in the limited time I to commit to this project (again, this came easier when it was enjoyable). That means reading a lot of recaps, parsing box scores and extrapolating from details in the highlight reels, on one hand, then putting in extended video work to try to confirm trends, opinions, and whatever the hell else pops into my head. This week, for instance, I went with two teams who achieve certain surprising things that I can't sort out. In one corner you’ve got the surprisingly sturdy Philadelphia Union, who just aren’t giving up much in terms of goals, while in the other, you’ve got the mysterious, unfulfilled expectations around FC Dallas….who should surely be able to beat the Colorado Rapids in Dallas…and yet…

And, Jesus! I almost threw out some thoughts/topics to frame Week 5, but that would just steal thoughts I need to round out the “10 Things” list on which I’ll end this post, thereby robbing Peter to pay Paul, who must share a joint bank account or something. (I mean, if you think about, if you robbed Peter, didn’t get caught, but still paid Paul with it…well, things pretty much worked out on your end. Right?) Anyway, I almost called this the weekend La Fiesta del Parity, that really only held up across the two games I watched. Starting with...and just understand that these are notes from a tourist.

Philadelphia Union 1-1 San Jose Earthquakes
It was the duel between San Jose’s (as yet unproved) revamped attack and Philly’s remarkable defensive record (still just four goals allowed in as many games) that drew me to this match. What I found, both here and in Dallas v. Colorado (down below) were surprisingly open games, with both teams allowing tons of vertical space on the field for just about anyone to play in. That made sense of another pattern I’d seen in the numbers for both of teams involved in this game: both like to possess the ball - Philly, especially.

As the numbers show, Philly really did dominate this game on the attack/possession side, and I credit the visibly superior “2” pairing for Philadelphia (in the 4-2-3-1) of Haris Medunjanin and Alejandro Bedoya over the “2” at the heart of San Jose’s 4-4-2, Florian Jungwirth and Anibal Godoy. Philly’s deep midfielders generated chances even if they didn’t produce goals, while Godoy and Jungwirth coughed up error after error any time they played anything but rugby (i.e., lateral, slightly backward passes). Medunjanin, especially, played slick, conductor-style stuff that guided Union attackers to the ‘Quakes’ vulnerable spots; it’s not on him that his teammates didn’t make the most of his gifts. Borek Dockal, new to the league/team this season, benefited from that quite a lot, if a little less so than Fabrice-Jean Picault, who, for my money, looked the most dangerous for Philly; Dockal does, however, look like he could goose a Philly attack that’s desperately in need. Jungwirth’s and Godoy’s struggles notwithstanding, San Jose got decent upside from Magnus Eriksson, who scored the ‘Quakes goal and who felt like a center of gravity for their attack. I don’t remember much from the ‘Quakes attack after that, but San Jose looked like it went defensive after the half by (perhaps) backing Jungwirth into a 5-man defensive line (or they decided, and somewhat sensibly, that Jungwirth wasn’t hacking it at d-mid), but that only built a steeper beach for wave after wave of Philadelphia attacks to pound on. After about 2 minutes’ worth of pressure around the how mark, Bedoya scored the Union’s equalizer. I don’t know whether Philly will be able to get a couple chances from half the openings they make, as they did against San Jose - like, is that their normal? - but most immovable of numbers says otherwise: with this goal, the Union has scored only three goals this season. In other words, they have an offense to complement their defense, and in all the wrong ways. Good structure overall, though, and Playing Bedoya where he belongs (deep, as a box-to-box guy) no doubt helps Philly.

For all that, San Jose earned this draw. Their central back pairing of Yefferson Quintana and Harold Cummings rarely broke down yesterday and Nick Lima played a big, visible role in holding onto a point for his team. Both of these rosters have talent, but the fact that neither team managed a break-through this weekend says plenty. Until further notice, the basic script doesn’t change for either team. I’d be very surprised to see anyone even in each team’s fan-base who’s saying, “watch out for Philly this season,” or “watch out for San Jose.”

FC Dallas 1-1 Colorado Rapids
Watching this game as a neutral, if one with a tortuously earned understanding of this league, I’d be happier with what I saw in this game as a Rapids fan than I would be as a Dallas fan. Again, both teams allowed for an open game, but this might have been accidental for Colorado. Whether they planned it this way, they really only pressured the first pass (i.e., between the opposition’s defense and midfield) and, once that line gets breached, they collapse into a 7-8 player bunker spaced about 10 yards apart, and with the deeper line in their own penalty area. That turned out to be pretty damn impregnable when collapsed, and it took Dallas days to do it (if measuring days in minutes; also, almost all the days in the context of a game). And that has a lot to do with Dallas not looking good…pretty much anywhere on the field. I have yet to see a ton of talk questioning Dallas’ talent, but I assume that time will come after too many games of, say, only Roland Lamah standing out (and I think Dallas has something legit between Lamah and Anton Nedyalkov on their left). Mauro Diaz played nervy and, generally, I wonder if the Rapids’ didn’t outplay Dallas. Dallas got their goal all the same, and with the player I called “nervy” (and thought “constipated”) delivering the decisive pass. Whatever you think of Dallas’ talent, it indisputably has a ceiling until further notice…and, man, am fond of that phrase tonight…

As for Colorado, they might be a different team this year (and that’s not helping). Apart from their defense looking settled (and across a couple iterations), having Jack Price and Johan Blomberg in midfield brings a little more coherence to what they (generally) want to do (spread the field to let guys like Dominique Badji, or even Edgar Castillo, get into space/isolation. Speaking of…), and the team looks more effective as a whole, as a result, etc. Price, especially, runs all over the top of the defensive third (or did against Dallas), to keep shifting the point of attack. He looks like a good piece, and maybe Colorado can do something, and this season too. That’s not saying the will lay waste to all that’s before them, but they’ve picked up solid results against Conference rivals over the past couple weeks...and one of them (this one) on the road.

I can’t (and won’t) pretend either of those games count as inspiring and, moreover, I don’t think either game shifted the general calculus for all the teams involved. I think Dallas had the most to lose reputationally, and I think they did lose it; Colorado really did own them for large stretches of that game and that goes against a couple scripts.

And, with the idea of scripts in mind, I want to wrap up this post with “10 Things of Note” for the weekend just past. These will be things I’ve noted in the rest of this week’s MLS games - that’s besides the two discussed above and Portland’s…just bewildering loss to Orlando. And, so, without further ado, and in no particular order….well, maybe except the order I reviewed them in:

1) Game(s) of the Week
I haven’t devised a proper formula to decide this, but, generally, I’m thinking an equation something like: trend confirmation X entertainment = [score]. With that in mind, I’d call this a tie between New England running all over Montreal (with the first assist to Saphir Taider for that red card) and Sporting Kansas City’s point-robbing raid to the Los Angeles Galaxy; Colorado drawing Dallas gets honorable mention for exposing Dallas’ ongoing non-super-team-ness, and so does Real Salt Lake hanging on against the Vancouver Whitecaps, because I have this thing about Vancouver sucking this season that I really don’t want to let go of.

2) Columbus & LA- Robb’d, Deni’d, Abus’d
By most indications (video, statistical, etc.), both Columbus and the Galaxy outplayed their opponents, but got utterly buggered (by Zac Steffen, in Columbus’ tragic case) and blinked (for about two, three minutes) long enough for the game to fall apart (LA). Picking through the scraps makes a game like this hard to read, but I’d hold stock on both teams for the time being.

3) Julian Gressel & Atlanta
If I had to name the outstanding player for Atlanta so far, I’d go with Gressel. I think I’ve watched Atlanta only once (look, I have a deadline for that sidebar…I’ll explain later), but he keeps popping up in highlights, just everywhere. He looks like a good box-to-box player based on what I’ve seen of him, and, to speculate a little, I’d bet he gives Atlanta good balance.

4) LAFC’s First Long Day at the Office
Gressel played a role in both goals that came before La Deluge in Atlanta’s 5-0 romp over LAFC, but this was another game where the box score sent a signal. I wasn’t surprised by the possession and/or passing total/accuracy numbers - Atlanta, based on what I know, doesn’t like to possess the ball (they like to fly, baby, you dig?) - but LA taking more shots does catch the eye (if badly…1 shot of 17 on goal? Damn…) This one strikes me as an outlier, if more for LAFC than Atlanta - by which I mean Atlanta might do this again, but I don’t think LAFC will let it happen again.

5) I Love It When a Revolution Comes Together?
I haven’t caught word of a New England Revolution bandwagon getting rolling so far, so I’ll start one. Just…watch them. Diego Fagundez might have kicked off a career season and Scott Caldwell looks the same. Their two sometimes fitful forwards - Teal Bunbury and Juan Agudelo - have both scored this season, so this could be something simple as a bunch of long-simmering talent finally coming together. Their third goal looks like this team’s potential at the end of a really kick-ass montage. Finally, seeing a defender scoring the first goal of his/her career is one of those rare perfect moments in sports.

6) Montreal, Fragil-ay
(I couldn’t find the accent aigu). Montreal is having a literally hit or miss season, as in they either win (twice) or they lose (that’s, uh, three times now). I have always seen the Impact as a cunning club - think the Ignacio Piatti thing - but there’s always been this defensive fire-wall that held them up till the day’s individual brilliance did, or didn’t show up. This outing was some kinda horrible; I can’t choose between the first and fourth goal allowed for Montreal's low point of the afternoon. To think this loss came right after consecutive wins over last year’s MLS Cup participants…

7) Russell Sits on the Ice Cream Cone
(It’s a really old, deeply personal reference, but I can think of nothing more humiliating than a Yeti sitting on my ice cream cone). Montreal didn’t give up the most shameful goal of the weekend: the honor goes to the Galaxy’s Daniel Steres and Ashley Cole, the two players SKC’s Johnny Russell split right through the tenders (of their egos). That moment kind of sums up LA’s Sunday afternoon: had the right people in the right place, only to have two (count ‘em, two) defenders do everything but defend.

8) Jolly Gyasi!
I crap on Gyasi Zardes more readily than most, so it brings me real joy to say that he’s lookin’ good over there in central Ohio. I’m only catching Columbus here and there (two games, I think; swear to god, I’ll catch it up), but Zardes has been all over every highlight reel of the season, and he stood out even more than usual this past weekend.

9) SKC: How Are the Shields Holding?
They opened 2018 strong without question and, based on everything I’ve seen, they’re good for their lead atop the Western Conference. All the same, and before anyone takes the zeroes they posted over the last two games at face value, just keep the fact that SKC has leaked a lot of goals this season somewhere in the back of your mind. By the same token, please note that LA took 22 shots at SKC, 10 of them on goal. 10. Tim Melia has the saves to show for every one.

10) Bogey-Team v. Bogey-Team
I think the Vancouver Whitecaps will be that one-trick-pony team that steals points this season. They’ll never play particularly well, or attractively (barring new (please!) signings), but they’ll do something like, say, find Brek Shea in space and, depending on the score at the time, that’ll be either a goal you mock or rue. RSL’s even trickier, in that they actually try to play (i.e., taking steps toward being high-percentage), but can only enjoy a good day at the office when, say, Luis Silva (this weekend) or Jefferson Savarino (past few weeks, but also this one) have put in a good shift. First of all, thank god they beat Vancouver, because I want that team to change. As for RSL, it’s hard to get too invested because I’ve seen them fall apart. And recently.

OK, all for this week. Hopefully, this worked better for anyone who reads it. And, hopefully, I get it posted in time next weekend. Till then!

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