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| No, I can't explain the W references... |
Sometimes I get strategy and tactics confused. It’s less a question of knowing what one word/concept means versus the other, so much as deciding where one meets the other on its way in the other direction.
I had a whole narrative banged out for this game. It had smart little sub-plots, intrigue between the characters, maybe even a touch of hubris. Then FC Cincinnati went and won the damn thing with a late goal by, yeah, I’ll say it, my favorite who likes to match orange & blue, Obinna Nwobodo. [Ed. - The Mothership didn't provide much for individual highlights, so you'll have to dig into the full ones if you want video on, say, the penalty calls.]
Cincy beat a rising(?) Red Bull New York team in its own house, but that’s not the important thing about this game; moreover, just naming Nwobodo opens up a path to talking about what happened in last night’s 2-1 win. [Ed. – Fuck me, man. Just spit out the final score.]
I did some preliminary research on the Red Bulls yesterday, stuff I chose not to post on the grounds that I was looking at it last night, Cincy played them last night, etc. Most of what I learned dealt with characteristics that simultaneously define and limit them as a team. Famously, they press, they play “energy drink soccer,” etc. But it’s also not that – and I have to credit Calen Carr for giving me the right thought process during RBNY’s stomping of Atlanta United FC a few weeks back. They don’t press so much as they try to dictate where on the field the game gets played; to borrow another phrase Carr uses all the time, “they tilt the field.” “Pressing” and “energy drink” soccer conjure mental images of players chasing ball and players like headless ‘roided-up greyhounds and that misses it; if you watch them, the move close to the ball, often at a walk, then they start with the chasing. They mind their Ps and Qs before setting the defensive posture to “MY BALL!”
That strategy (right?) worked very well through the first half. Cincinnati didn’t do much over the first 25 minutes of the game and they couldn't do anything for the next 20. New York (I know it’s New Jersey....just roll with it) got and scored their penalty at the beginning of that period – and, just to note, I wouldn’t have called that, letter of the law be damned; sure, Hagglund’s hand strayed to face, but Kyle Duncan wasn’t gonna make shit out of that, he didn’t really unbalance him, etc. – but they way they controlled the game struck me as more significant. Cincy barely got across the center-line until something like the 46th minute when they (don’t remember who) finally fired a decent shot from a quality chance on goal and, yes, I do think that’s how xG should work. (I’ve got issues all over...)
To shift the narrative again – and this portion starts with a confession – this is the first time I’ve watched an FC Cincinnati game all the way through since April 30. The reasons for that can be summed up in the phrase, “I figured I knew what was happening” and last night’s result bore that out, but it bore that out in a way that helped me understand the why of it a little better. A lot of that turned on personnel. Tracking Cincy through highlights, box scores, and semi-regular extended viewings made it easy to accept the absence of Brandon Vazquez and, more significantly, Matt Miazga as a quick-and-dirty explanation for the 1-1-3 record going into last night’s game. Throw in three of those games happening on the road (e.g., @ VAN, @ DC, @ CLT) and you have your theory for how Cincy gets back on track (i.e.., they get back Vazquez and Miazga).
I’m not watching Cincy closely enough to speak to the truth of either argument. After watching last night’s game, I posit two arguments:
1) Cincinnati grew into the game in direct proportion to them bringing on more regular starters – of which, of course they did; and
2) the Red Bulls are a fucking sloppy team; I’d go so far as to argue that they aren’t actually all that good, they are their record, etc.
I had a whole narrative banged out for this game. It had smart little sub-plots, intrigue between the characters, maybe even a touch of hubris. Then FC Cincinnati went and won the damn thing with a late goal by, yeah, I’ll say it, my favorite who likes to match orange & blue, Obinna Nwobodo. [Ed. - The Mothership didn't provide much for individual highlights, so you'll have to dig into the full ones if you want video on, say, the penalty calls.]
Cincy beat a rising(?) Red Bull New York team in its own house, but that’s not the important thing about this game; moreover, just naming Nwobodo opens up a path to talking about what happened in last night’s 2-1 win. [Ed. – Fuck me, man. Just spit out the final score.]
I did some preliminary research on the Red Bulls yesterday, stuff I chose not to post on the grounds that I was looking at it last night, Cincy played them last night, etc. Most of what I learned dealt with characteristics that simultaneously define and limit them as a team. Famously, they press, they play “energy drink soccer,” etc. But it’s also not that – and I have to credit Calen Carr for giving me the right thought process during RBNY’s stomping of Atlanta United FC a few weeks back. They don’t press so much as they try to dictate where on the field the game gets played; to borrow another phrase Carr uses all the time, “they tilt the field.” “Pressing” and “energy drink” soccer conjure mental images of players chasing ball and players like headless ‘roided-up greyhounds and that misses it; if you watch them, the move close to the ball, often at a walk, then they start with the chasing. They mind their Ps and Qs before setting the defensive posture to “MY BALL!”
That strategy (right?) worked very well through the first half. Cincinnati didn’t do much over the first 25 minutes of the game and they couldn't do anything for the next 20. New York (I know it’s New Jersey....just roll with it) got and scored their penalty at the beginning of that period – and, just to note, I wouldn’t have called that, letter of the law be damned; sure, Hagglund’s hand strayed to face, but Kyle Duncan wasn’t gonna make shit out of that, he didn’t really unbalance him, etc. – but they way they controlled the game struck me as more significant. Cincy barely got across the center-line until something like the 46th minute when they (don’t remember who) finally fired a decent shot from a quality chance on goal and, yes, I do think that’s how xG should work. (I’ve got issues all over...)
To shift the narrative again – and this portion starts with a confession – this is the first time I’ve watched an FC Cincinnati game all the way through since April 30. The reasons for that can be summed up in the phrase, “I figured I knew what was happening” and last night’s result bore that out, but it bore that out in a way that helped me understand the why of it a little better. A lot of that turned on personnel. Tracking Cincy through highlights, box scores, and semi-regular extended viewings made it easy to accept the absence of Brandon Vazquez and, more significantly, Matt Miazga as a quick-and-dirty explanation for the 1-1-3 record going into last night’s game. Throw in three of those games happening on the road (e.g., @ VAN, @ DC, @ CLT) and you have your theory for how Cincy gets back on track (i.e.., they get back Vazquez and Miazga).
I’m not watching Cincy closely enough to speak to the truth of either argument. After watching last night’s game, I posit two arguments:
1) Cincinnati grew into the game in direct proportion to them bringing on more regular starters – of which, of course they did; and
2) the Red Bulls are a fucking sloppy team; I’d go so far as to argue that they aren’t actually all that good, they are their record, etc.
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| A metaphor for "in over one's head." |
To close the second thought first, the Red Bulls straight-up broke Atlanta, kicked them into (largely deflected) submission and so on. And yet you rarely see a team mis-hit that many passes, fail so often at basic skills like trapping, and generally and repeatedly thwart their own attacks and betray so many good ideas – something they did for as long as they had any kind of advantage last night. Plenty of Red Bull players had good games – e.g., Cameron Harper was a terror up the right, they looked for Duncan all night and that came good, Sean Nealis defended his socks off, and the Daniel Edelman/Frank Amaya midfield had 60 very good minutes – and I understand they have some key players absent – e.g., Corey Burke (...really?), Jon Tolkin (sure) and, the one they’re missing most in my distracted mind, Lewis Morgan – but they’re just not a good team. They can bludgeon plenty of teams with effort, and they did that to Cincy for somewhere around 60 minutes last night...but that’s the rest of the story.
Junior Moreno coming on gave Nwobodo a sharper and wiser foil in midfield and subbing on Sergio Santos for Marco Angulo and Santiago Arias for Raymon Gaddis gave Cincinnati the forward momentum that unsettled the Red Bulls and, even if I don’t buy the timeline on The Mothership’s xG chart, Cincinnati went from doing something close to nothing in the attack to catching up to New York’s lowly total of shots by game’s end - i.e., this game wasn’t “fun” until Cincy made it fun. It took them 20 minutes past the attacking subs to get the equalizer, through a justified penalty call (at me all day, Red Bull fans) by the way, and until stoppage time to win it – and on the kind of Chaos Death-Trap the Red Bulls often use to score.
To close the first thought, FC Cincinnati has solid players all the way down to...oh, the 17th or 18th roster spot and they have enough cover at most positions to carry them through a crowded or broken stretch – and, for the record, I arrive at those numbers without one goalkeeper or Aaron Boupendza in the numbers. My big question about last night’s game circles back to the whole strategy versus tactics question: did Dominic Kinnear/Pat Noonan line up in the first half with the focus on sound defense and then insert the subs to actually win the game...and, if they did, isn’t that the strategy for the game – i.e., weather the storm, contain the threat, them play for the win on rested legs - which makes the substitutions the tactics?
That’s it for the summary and, to acknowledge it, I’m not the best on game summaries. Here’s to hoping the rest makes up for it. Now, some talking points...
1) Heckuva Signing, Brownie
Yerson Mosquera played man-of-the-match defense last night. Omnipresent, decisive, shutting down everything within 10 yards of him. As someone who watches another team/defense struggle (hi, Portland Timbers!), seeing the Chris Albright brain-trust land a player that freakin’ good...well, it just hurts.
2) The Other Side of the Learning Curve
Arquimides Ordonez had a couple smart dribbles and about as many good moments, but after that, the kid was the mirror image of Mosquera – indecisive, a little aimless and not playing so well with others. I think everyone could see Luciano Acosta’s frustration and a lot of that followed from having nowhere to go to keep the attack moving forward. It was Acosta v Alvaro Barreal in too many ways until Sergio Santos came on...and I don’t know why he didn’t start, but assume there’s a reason.
2a) A DP’s Hubris
How do you tell a player in the league MVP conversation to stop doing something? What does that argument even begin? And yet, I wanted someone to tell Lucho Acosta to stop trying to do everything up top last night, not least because virtually all of his forays ran into a Red Bull triple team. I’d rather see him run the risk of losing the ball in an attempt to find a friend then to watch him play Red Rover for the 12th time, but, again...how do you tell a player in the league MVP conversation to stop doing anything?
3) Players for Playing Not to Lose
To address the other side of the substitution argument, Raymon Gaddis and Alvas Powell won’t give any team much going forward, but make me feel very comfortable, even content, on the defensive side. Gaddis has priceless grizzled-vet, “I’m too old for this shit” vibes, while Powell is just a blast to watch in one-v-one defending.
Junior Moreno coming on gave Nwobodo a sharper and wiser foil in midfield and subbing on Sergio Santos for Marco Angulo and Santiago Arias for Raymon Gaddis gave Cincinnati the forward momentum that unsettled the Red Bulls and, even if I don’t buy the timeline on The Mothership’s xG chart, Cincinnati went from doing something close to nothing in the attack to catching up to New York’s lowly total of shots by game’s end - i.e., this game wasn’t “fun” until Cincy made it fun. It took them 20 minutes past the attacking subs to get the equalizer, through a justified penalty call (at me all day, Red Bull fans) by the way, and until stoppage time to win it – and on the kind of Chaos Death-Trap the Red Bulls often use to score.
To close the first thought, FC Cincinnati has solid players all the way down to...oh, the 17th or 18th roster spot and they have enough cover at most positions to carry them through a crowded or broken stretch – and, for the record, I arrive at those numbers without one goalkeeper or Aaron Boupendza in the numbers. My big question about last night’s game circles back to the whole strategy versus tactics question: did Dominic Kinnear/Pat Noonan line up in the first half with the focus on sound defense and then insert the subs to actually win the game...and, if they did, isn’t that the strategy for the game – i.e., weather the storm, contain the threat, them play for the win on rested legs - which makes the substitutions the tactics?
That’s it for the summary and, to acknowledge it, I’m not the best on game summaries. Here’s to hoping the rest makes up for it. Now, some talking points...
1) Heckuva Signing, Brownie
Yerson Mosquera played man-of-the-match defense last night. Omnipresent, decisive, shutting down everything within 10 yards of him. As someone who watches another team/defense struggle (hi, Portland Timbers!), seeing the Chris Albright brain-trust land a player that freakin’ good...well, it just hurts.
2) The Other Side of the Learning Curve
Arquimides Ordonez had a couple smart dribbles and about as many good moments, but after that, the kid was the mirror image of Mosquera – indecisive, a little aimless and not playing so well with others. I think everyone could see Luciano Acosta’s frustration and a lot of that followed from having nowhere to go to keep the attack moving forward. It was Acosta v Alvaro Barreal in too many ways until Sergio Santos came on...and I don’t know why he didn’t start, but assume there’s a reason.
2a) A DP’s Hubris
How do you tell a player in the league MVP conversation to stop doing something? What does that argument even begin? And yet, I wanted someone to tell Lucho Acosta to stop trying to do everything up top last night, not least because virtually all of his forays ran into a Red Bull triple team. I’d rather see him run the risk of losing the ball in an attempt to find a friend then to watch him play Red Rover for the 12th time, but, again...how do you tell a player in the league MVP conversation to stop doing anything?
3) Players for Playing Not to Lose
To address the other side of the substitution argument, Raymon Gaddis and Alvas Powell won’t give any team much going forward, but make me feel very comfortable, even content, on the defensive side. Gaddis has priceless grizzled-vet, “I’m too old for this shit” vibes, while Powell is just a blast to watch in one-v-one defending.
That’s it for this edition. Happy to be back on the beat. Till the next one...
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