We must learn to start better on the road. Go talk to Sigi, find out his secret. One of my main criticisms of Kreis is that we constantly field a team which looks surprised to find their game plan ineffective in the first part of the game. RSL attacked without commitment, and showed very little attempt to dictate the flow of the game until the second half. The second half looked like an entirely different team. Morales looked phenomenal in the second half and was all but invisible in the first.
We must learn to be patient with the ball when we are behind. Draw them out of their shell and shape the defense. Give your midfielders space to create by utilizing your defenders in the attack. In fairness, there were several times RSL pulled the ball back out, favoring possession over a poor opportunity, but our solution for the most part was to continue to stack more and more people inside the 18. If the defense is willing to commit that many men inside the 18, you need to force them to over-commit to a side to generate space. Let the ball do more work.
It sucks to lose, and it sucks to leave points on the field that you could have taken home. RSL has never been a very good road team. This is something which Kreis has to learn to change. At the same time, it’s difficult to get very upset about this game. Had they played like that in Salt Lake, I’d be furious. The goal was a clever shot. RSL didn’t give up very much despite looking anemic before half-time, and actually played some of the best soccer I’ve seen out of them for short periods in the second half. They clearly wanted the point, and were willing to do whatever it took to get it…except obviously playing a smarter and more cohesive first half.
It’s a long season and I certainly never pegged RSL to be in contention for the supporters’ shield this year. Clearly a disappointing result, and RSL needs to make a more concerted effort to take the easier points in their schedule. All the same, I’m heartened by the change I saw at half.
OK, I’ve done my bit to try to put the game in perspective. Something continues to worry me about the way we play defense. Joy and to a lesser extent, Wingert are both playing out of synch with the way we are playing central defense on wider fields. We are playing too tight wide and forcing ourselves to make too many plays too early on the outside. We are committing too early in transition to the tackle on the wing which puts too much pressure on our central midfield to cover. RSL would give up fewer dangerous opportunities by not playing as wide and forcing their opponents to slow their attack rather than getting beat on a bad early challenge. Let your midfielders help you defend by giving yourself the time…it will put you in a better position to counter when you dispossess the other team. Contain more, stab less. By the same token, our outside defenders have looked positionally weak on crosses. I’m beginning to get concerned about the number of bullets RSL has dodged in the way of dangerous crosses which have rolled clean through the box without a player in position to make a defensive play on it. I’m beginning to think there’s a lack of communication between Mantilla and our outside backs.
On a more promising note, RSL looked great shifting into a 3-5-2. I expected mayhem, but it was surprisingly seamless and Borchers came out of the corner deep several times smelling like roses. Our push to a 3-4-3 was substantially less effective, and actually resulted in fewer rather than more opportunities. I can appreciate that Kreis was looking to bring in fresh legs to shake up TFC’s defensive stack, but Kovalenko was actually more effective at creating opportunities on the outside than Movsysian was at getting to balls in the box. Besides, with as collapsed as TFC was, an extra midfielder seemed more useful than an extra forward. I can’t fault the desire to add another player to be concerned about, just the logic. Obviously hind-sight being 20-20 I get to say “I told you so” on the issue…
The upcoming game in DC will be a far cry from their under-performance last week at RES. If RSL thought TFC was a hostile crowd, they’d better reset their meter for this weekend. DC is a notoriously difficult place to play, and while I suspect RSL will effectively defend the Ben Cup on aggregate, I would be VERY shocked if RSL managed a road win. All the same, I’d like to see them extend some of the good decisions they made in the TFC game, and work towards a more cohesive defensive unit. See you all at the pub on Saturday.
-Heretic
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