 |
| Deck still works. (That's taking the positives, baby!) |
I’d argue that result makes the bigger, poorer statement on the state of the New York Red Bulls than it makes about FC Cincinnati. More to the point, New York absolutely needed that late, unlikely goal from Daniel Royer to win the game 3-2 and to stay one small step ahead of opening day embarrassment. Cincinnati held a fairly clear, universal edge over the game’s last 30 minutes – and, most encouraging for them, new, spendy kid Jurgen Locadia provided a focal point for forward traffic once he took the field.
As for the bad news, the Red Bulls scrambled the bejesus out of Cincy’s defensive shape throughout the first half. Their passing and movement made the Orange and Blue’s defensive midfield, in particular, about as useful to the overall effort as me sitting on my sofa quietly whispering, “dear gods, what is happening over there?” For as long as they had the energy to pull it off, New York worked their usual, preferred formula of forcing turnovers and immediately finding good, often novel ways of getting vertical toward the opposition goal.
There’s a cautionary tale for both teams in that: as much as Cincinnati’s defensive posture improved (i.e., defenders started tracking the movement and anticipating the next pass), nearly every Red Bulls’ player’s legs had given out before the game’s end. Scuffed touches saw them looking down to make sure they took the ball with them on dribbles and under-hit/wayward passes made it easier for Cincy’s defenders to pick off the strays than it had been during a first half of smart, sure touches.
As for the bad news, the Red Bulls scrambled the bejesus out of Cincy’s defensive shape throughout the first half. Their passing and movement made the Orange and Blue’s defensive midfield, in particular, about as useful to the overall effort as me sitting on my sofa quietly whispering, “dear gods, what is happening over there?” For as long as they had the energy to pull it off, New York worked their usual, preferred formula of forcing turnovers and immediately finding good, often novel ways of getting vertical toward the opposition goal.
There’s a cautionary tale for both teams in that: as much as Cincinnati’s defensive posture improved (i.e., defenders started tracking the movement and anticipating the next pass), nearly every Red Bulls’ player’s legs had given out before the game’s end. Scuffed touches saw them looking down to make sure they took the ball with them on dribbles and under-hit/wayward passes made it easier for Cincy’s defenders to pick off the strays than it had been during a first half of smart, sure touches.
They might not have won the game, but Cincinnati won the fitness battle…though it’s also worth wondering whether the Red Bulls run their collective legs off whilst building their cushion in the first half. To reduce that to an analogy, did Cincinnati push the Red Bulls to the edge, or a lactic acid burn take the Red Bulls out of the way?
With just this one game played, I’ll remain agnostic on that question for now. That said, and to pick up from something in the preview thread I posted, that…just god-awful first half (left last season flashing before my eyes on slow-motion, I tell you) didn’t kick that spirit out of FC Cincy, so I liked what I see on the “body language” side of things. That’s not always a team’s biggest first step, but it’s always a necessary one.
Things hardly went better for Cincinnati on the attacking side during the first half. After 45 minutes of grasping at straws that the Red Bulls press swiped away, however, they stunned Red Bull Arena by latching onto one with an Allan Cruz special; (think it was) Greg Garza broke their high press by punting an (think it was) Frankie Amaya outlet up-field to a wide-open Brandon Vazquez who had only one defender to beat: what better way to recover from a bad first half than by beating the beast that terrorized you?
It was good and well, of course, that Locadia got his goal – and he was more encouraging than I expected overall – but it’s the hole that New York dropped Cincinnati into that needs the closest examination. Kyle Duncan (who was massive today) scored the Red Bulls’ first goal, but he had a nearly identical (and it bears noting) equally wide-open look and just a few minutes earlier, and Royer had a least two shots prior to his painful waltz through Cincy’s central left for the ultimate game-winner (one of them, an almost certain candidate for goal of the week, had it gone in). Between that and the thoroughly catastrophic breakdown that led to New York’s second goal (see notes on location below), I’m calling the fact that it took them 43 minutes to score the third goal today’s special little miracle.
The central question to answer is why those breakdowns occurred. Because I come at this question with a theory – specifically, that an Amaya, Cruz, Haris Medunjanin middle three won’t be anywhere near stout enough defensively – I got my biases hella confirmed in that first half. The Red Bull’s Kaku was just one of several players repeatedly left free in acres of space in The Danger Zone, aka, Zone 14. Time and again, the Red Bulls would get the ball wide and Cincinnati’s defense would collapse to that side to shrink the passing space; time and again, they left an opening for a horizontal pass available into that gaping space and that pass sent everyone scrambling every damn time. Even that assumed Cincy was able to slow (never mind stop) the forward movement of the ball; often as not, the Red Bulls just pinged the ball up the channel with one-touch passes, forcing Cincy’s defense to follow the ball toward its own goal. It bore more than a passing resemblance to the inaugural season’s worst moments, and was equal parts maddening and terrifying accordingly.
I don’t have any “what it all means” sentiment to close on beyond thank gods for fitness and hats off to the entire FC Cincinnati team for not giving up on the game. Going the other way, I don’t believe the New York Red Bulls will be (or is even among) the better teams in MLS. Till other results convince me otherwise, Cincinnati will face better teams with better players and, bluntly, wiser long-term game-plans in the weeks ahead, and that hangs an asterisk on everything – including how impressed anyone should be that Cincy pulled back two goals. On the plus side, New York at their buzzing best provided Cincinnati with useful, real-game practice with managing the two things they do well – pressure on playing out of the back and quick combination play. Unfortunately, that test could only last for as long as New York could (ooh) keep it up (giggle, giggle, giggle). When that dried up, it dried all the way up. For what it’s worth, I’d rate the red half of New York as dead as anyone in the East if they can’t manage game-states more effectively going forward.
It’s hard to be happy about this result, obviously, while also acknowledging how very, very, very much worse it could have been. Still, I’d like to think I laced some positives in the above narrative – e.g., Locadia looked real out there and Cincinnati didn’t give up and they looked…competent once they got going. To close out with some notes – specifically on the new guys.
- Both Adrien Regattin and Yuya Kubo showed (literal) flashes out there today, Kubo for nice turns that bought him some space to look in the right direction, Regattin for speed and close control. Putting them in places where they can make the most of those upsides will take a while, probably, but they seem to have useful tools.
- Because Locadia arrived with what I understand as a slight deficit in confidence, it was very good to see him not just score, but to get good looks and even to have some of those shots stopped. In so many words, I want him to believe that, 1) he can score goals in MLS, while 2) not believing it will be easy.
- In case I didn’t make it perfectly clear above, I’m more worried about the defensive midfield than I am about Cincinnati’s centerbacks…and, yes, I saw Maikel van der Werff fall on his bottom on Royer’s goal.
Right. That’s it for now. Till next week, when Cincy will play…oh. Oh, shit.
No comments:
Post a Comment