Chasing a game in TX in 93 plus doesn’t seem like much fun. I’ll still complain about JRod not hitting sitters. He’d have multiple braces and we would be burying teams but he contributes regardless. It seemed like Anthony reappeared for this one. I’d still like a goal scoring winger on the right side in the summer transfer but a young 9 would help the depth.
If anything but defense is bought in this particular window, the entire front office should be fired. There will be time this winter to upgrade the attack, which is doing fine; defensive depth and shoring up the back is and should be the priority this summer.
"I’ll still complain about JRod not hitting sitters"
A guy like him will take 342307 shots/game; some games a bunch of them will go in, some games they won't. As you say, he contributes regardless, and I'd rather have him take all those shots anyway, since that's why they brought him here. He's a bit off right now, for sure, but I have faith that he'll dial it in and some of those sitters will turn into goals.
So far we’ve been linked to a young Uruguayan central defensive midfielder from Nacional Lucas Sanabria, and 20 year old center back Finn Surman from the A league in Australia. Neither of the reports have been corroborated by MLS journalists yet so who knows if there’s any legs to them. But I wouldn’t expect much on the back line besides depth, we’ve spent a ton of money there and our roster is pretty full (and I believe our defensive problems are more tactical than personnel). Neville said we’re going to be aggressive this window and that ownership is willing to invest as MLS gets better and better, so I’d definitely expect at least one attacking piece. At least a winger to replace Asprilla, and probably a young forward
Back line depth is fine by me. I truly believe the offense is fine for this season; upgrades can and should be pursued there this winter. The defense - defensive midfielders or straight up defenders - should absolutely be a priority this window, depth or otherwise.
I feel like Aspreesha would have gotten us a result late. JRod seems much more comfortable at left forward. I can often sense when a goal against is about to happen, but when the defenders are giving 10 yards of space from midfield to the box and allowing uncontested passes / crosses, it becomes a flashing neon sign. I'd like us to get a scrappy defender with an off-the-charts workrate as a late-game sub and occasional starter if nothing else.
When will we ever get a really good defense? That takes both good players and good coaching. I don't know which of those (if not both) has been missing, but we've been this way for many years.
They've both been missing for a while. The defense has looked better in previous games, but "better" is a relative term, and every single bad defensive habit of this team reared its ugly head again last night for the first time in a while. It was disappointing, because the team as a whole had legit been playing a lot better in the last month-plus, and I don't know why they chose last night to revert to what they were doing in April and May.
Both Evander and Phil are suspended for YC accumulation for Sunday, as well, so we could be in for another wild ride in the heat this weekend.
I don’t know if they reverted back into old habits as much as they just couldn’t handle the heat. The team started well but then gave up possession once we scored, and once the team was chasing for so long we just got tired. The players weren’t making the hard runs to close players down, they just looked like they wanted to leave. And in 100 degree Texas heat? I’m not happy about it (both teams played in the same conditions), but it makes sense, and hopefully that means it’s just a one off. Even with that performance it was still better than how we’ve looked in Dallas the past many years
That could be, and I hope you're right, but it's gonna be about 100 here on Sunday as well (and turf is always far hotter than grass, it stores heat like crazy, so it may feel a whole lot worse), so we'll see how they handle it and if they can eliminate or reduce those mental mistakes they were making on Thursday night.
Chasing a game in TX in 93 plus doesn’t seem like much fun. I’ll still complain about JRod not hitting sitters. He’d have multiple braces and we would be burying teams but he contributes regardless. It seemed like Anthony reappeared for this one. I’d still like a goal scoring winger on the right side in the summer transfer but a young 9 would help the depth.
If anything but defense is bought in this particular window, the entire front office should be fired. There will be time this winter to upgrade the attack, which is doing fine; defensive depth and shoring up the back is and should be the priority this summer.
"I’ll still complain about JRod not hitting sitters"
A guy like him will take 342307 shots/game; some games a bunch of them will go in, some games they won't. As you say, he contributes regardless, and I'd rather have him take all those shots anyway, since that's why they brought him here. He's a bit off right now, for sure, but I have faith that he'll dial it in and some of those sitters will turn into goals.
So far we’ve been linked to a young Uruguayan central defensive midfielder from Nacional Lucas Sanabria, and 20 year old center back Finn Surman from the A league in Australia. Neither of the reports have been corroborated by MLS journalists yet so who knows if there’s any legs to them. But I wouldn’t expect much on the back line besides depth, we’ve spent a ton of money there and our roster is pretty full (and I believe our defensive problems are more tactical than personnel). Neville said we’re going to be aggressive this window and that ownership is willing to invest as MLS gets better and better, so I’d definitely expect at least one attacking piece. At least a winger to replace Asprilla, and probably a young forward
Back line depth is fine by me. I truly believe the offense is fine for this season; upgrades can and should be pursued there this winter. The defense - defensive midfielders or straight up defenders - should absolutely be a priority this window, depth or otherwise.
I feel like Aspreesha would have gotten us a result late. JRod seems much more comfortable at left forward. I can often sense when a goal against is about to happen, but when the defenders are giving 10 yards of space from midfield to the box and allowing uncontested passes / crosses, it becomes a flashing neon sign. I'd like us to get a scrappy defender with an off-the-charts workrate as a late-game sub and occasional starter if nothing else.
When will we ever get a really good defense? That takes both good players and good coaching. I don't know which of those (if not both) has been missing, but we've been this way for many years.
They've both been missing for a while. The defense has looked better in previous games, but "better" is a relative term, and every single bad defensive habit of this team reared its ugly head again last night for the first time in a while. It was disappointing, because the team as a whole had legit been playing a lot better in the last month-plus, and I don't know why they chose last night to revert to what they were doing in April and May.
Both Evander and Phil are suspended for YC accumulation for Sunday, as well, so we could be in for another wild ride in the heat this weekend.
I don’t know if they reverted back into old habits as much as they just couldn’t handle the heat. The team started well but then gave up possession once we scored, and once the team was chasing for so long we just got tired. The players weren’t making the hard runs to close players down, they just looked like they wanted to leave. And in 100 degree Texas heat? I’m not happy about it (both teams played in the same conditions), but it makes sense, and hopefully that means it’s just a one off. Even with that performance it was still better than how we’ve looked in Dallas the past many years
That could be, and I hope you're right, but it's gonna be about 100 here on Sunday as well (and turf is always far hotter than grass, it stores heat like crazy, so it may feel a whole lot worse), so we'll see how they handle it and if they can eliminate or reduce those mental mistakes they were making on Thursday night.
Yes, Dallas maintaining possession had an effect on the game. I think the ref had an effect as well.