Reds Lose To DC
In this post game video blog I take another look at the current state of MLS officiating (here is a hint… the word POXY is used often!), the apparent tactical ‘stubborness’ of coach Ryan Nelsen and again how the depth the front office has accumulated finally gives a TFC head coach the flexibility to do things better.
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Your comments are always welcome and appreciated in this space. Let us know what You think.
I’ve noticed in the last couple of games that it seems like Nelson heavily relies on Bradley to control the game. That seems to be his tactic.
Agreed on the refs, seems to have been this way since day 1 for some reason. Even the wife who only casually watches has mentioned this.
One thing that came to my mind watching this game… It was probably one of the “prettiest” losses we’ve ever had as a team. By that I mean that all the players looked to be giving it a full effort and actually care about the result. We put a lot of pressure on at the end to try to get that 2nd goal. We ran with the ball and used skill to move it up the field as opposed to 200 ft in the air and hoping for a good bounce. A loss still sucks, but I’ll take this loss over most of the ones we’ve had in the past and at least feel confident that the team gave it their all.
Good clip Tim. I look fwd to these, especially when I miss the game. I feel like I always get a good breakdown of what happened.
Cheers!
-rick
I’d say your assessment is fairly accurate. Although this is probably the first game that Nelsen actually did show diversity. He started Orr and Warner as defensive MFs and went with Jackson, Bradley and Moore on the attack behind Defoe. I think it was a good move and he built the formation around the players he had in the starting XI. In the second half it looked like they went back to the 4-4-2 (No idea why though)
I think they just need to find better service to Defoe and most of our problems would be sorted. With Bradley back I can see that happening soon. Too often they were dribbling the ball outside the 18 yard box hoping for a through ball. They need to setup Defoe in stride, if they can figure that out we’ve got a good shot at doing something this season.
Keep up the good work on the blogs!
i have seen Nelsen throw games to Montreal in the canadian championships two years running why do we enter if Nelsen is just going to play reserves and give the games to Montreal without a fight??
Cute haircut.
Sorry Tim, have to disagree about the Hagglund card
Stoica is/was and always will be a terrible ref. He has proved that time and again as have many others. You of all people know how critical I have always been about MLS refs and will continue to be, but Gantar – despite previous bad games – is one of the best (in MLS) at the moment and the red card actually shows why.
Hagglund hauled the player back, of that there is zero doubt. Hagglund was the last defender the player needed to get past to be in on goal. the covering defender only arrived several seconds after the foul. Gantar made a decision to yellow card the player and that – to me – was the surprising part.
Perhaps from his viewpoint it looked like the player was moving away from goal so he didnt deem it a clear goalscoring opportunity, or maybe he thought that the covering defender was closer than he was and he hauled out the yellow … but this is one of the only refs I have seen to have the balls to reverse his decision after talking to the assistant referee who had a better view. Obviously his colleague told him his version of events and unlike some refs (*cough* stoica) he didnt go for a flamboyant flashing of the red card … he went to our captain, looked like he was calmly explaining to him that he made a mistake and you could make out the words ‘its a red’ even if you cant lip-read, then he flashed the red. that – by MLS standards – was a classy and correct way to do it.