It wasn't the most convincing performance, but it was a win. With the way the last three weeks have gone, we'll take it. With the way the last two years have gone, I'll take something to cheer for and the chance at a trophy. There are many things I like about the USOC, but mostly I just like winning. There were some good things, some bad things, and some ugly things. But at the end of the day, the Good Guys won and advanced on to the next round of the Lamar Hunt: U.S. Open Cup. It was encouraging to get the win without heavy use of some of the starting 11. While I'm worried about Sebas' availability for all the games #Naranja have coming up, being able to pull one off without the use of DQ, Parker, Hadebe, Coco, and Lundy is tremendous. To get a clean sheet with a heavily rotated backline that included Zarek Valentine is even better. We all would have loved for it to be 4-0, but we'll just take the win.
The Good:
Michael Nelson
I thought Nelson did a good job helping keep San Antonio off the score sheet. Nelson stopped their best chance off a set piece 38 minutes in by Dominick Hernandez. somehow managed to knock away a shot after Ethan Bartlow's errant backward header in the 71st minute. Nelson broke on a couple of balls in the box, and although he wasn't perfect and definitely had a few plays that left you holding your breath (and me screaming at my television). Credit due, however, as he did enough to earn a clean sheet.
Finding Sebas in the box:
It was nice to see Sebas get up in the box and bang home a header. It was a nice ball into the box from Sam Junqua, and Sebas timed it well. I was beginning to think it was going to go to PK's after Memo's miss. We saw it in the preseason, if Sebas gets the ball in the box he can and will finish. He hasn't gotten enough service this year, but they have found him off of two set-pieces now, and hopefully, they can start to find a way to unlock him in open play. He did manage to get off 4 shots in this game which is a season-high, 2 of which were on target.
Brooklyn Raines
I thought Raines had a really good showing, but he was the lowest-rated starter by
SofaScore.com. He was highly active on both sides of the ball and was effective against San Antonio FC's press by taking people on. He hit Thiago and Pasher down the flanks on some really nice through balls, though nothing really came out of it. Raines runs plays through, he doesn't give up on balls no matter how far away from them they are which is a welcome sight. He shut down several SAFC attacks simply through body positioning, and he angles his body really well in defense. Brooklyn won the corner that led to Sebas' goal. While he had a couple of bad mistakes in his own half, they (luckily) didn't come back to bite him. There are rumors about his eligibility to play with the first team, but Raines definitely looked like a guy who will be a contributor here in the future. Excited to see where the young fella goes from here.
The Bad
The Quick/Short Passing Game:
Once again, there were some terrible passes by guys who are first-teamers and several extremely bad give-aways that luckily didn't turn into goals. Early on, Sebas had a nice flick on to Fafa for a run, but Fafa took a bad touch trying to get back on his right foot. Dorsey had several passes to the touchline video board, and the overall passing efficiency was 77%. Houston dominated possession stats (61%). Thiago had a couple of flick-ons that went into a crowd instead of the space players were running into. Memo had some really sloppy and lazy passes trying to be quick when he had time and no one on him.
Griffen Dorsey
Dorsey wasn't on his best game. Picked up several really bad fouls in dangerous positions, like the one 13 minutes into the game that SAFC almost capitalized on. What's funny, is
SofaScore.com actually rated him as the highest-rated starter. For a guy who's been in the starting 11 for most of the early season, this was a disappointing game. He did get forward and overlap quite a bit, but never really threatened. He lost 15 of his 62 touches. He did some good things, like winning 3 fouls, completing two key passes, and winning 6 of his 9 duels, but Dorsey needs to be more assertive against a USL side.
The Ugly
Memo Rodriguez.
Everyone is going to remember the shot he missed. A veteran of his ilk, Memo has to put that away. Memo wasn't all terrible. He won a ton of possessions for the Dynamo and made some good decisions on the ball. SAFC gave him a huge pocket in the midfield for most of the night, and he did some really good things with the ball. He had a really good chance through traffic at the 66-minute mark that was saved. But when you are in behind the defense, 1v1 with the keeper and the left side of the net WIDE open, you have to put that home.
Marcelo Palomino
Everyone on social media was calling for this, and Palomino actually came on and was greatly disappointing. He touched the ball 13 times and lost 9 of them. Had a freekick at the 76th minute he hit right into the wall, recovered it, and gave it right back. He was 0-4 in duels, only completed 43% of his passes, and looked fairly out of sorts the whole night. Had a terrible one-touch pass directly to a streaking guy in the wrong shirt deep in his own end that led to a back corner chance in the 80th minute. I was hoping he'd come on with the same energy as Raines, but I'd seen this before in MLSNP games. Palomino can really strike the ball if he has time and space. He's not great against pressure and lacks poise in the final third. Palomino has to get better with the ball at his feet. I'd like to see him again, but he's got a lot of growing to do.
Presentation on ESPN+
The video quality was terrible, and it seemed like they were shooting a Michael Bay movie.....((insert "shaky cam")). Seriously, was the guy filming holding an iPhone 6 or something? I'm not kidding when I say that our high school games shot on an iPad look better. Not only was the quality bad, but there weren't even replays to look at some questionable calls. There were three times that a ball hit a defender's hand in the box. There was never a replay angle on any of the three that showed a definitive picture of any of them. The game wasn't in a USL stadium, it was at PNC. Surely we could get some better video equipment there.
On Coco Carrasquilla.
I see people that are fairly upset at this signing, I see people out there that are ecstatic about this signing. I'm actually happy about it, because it shows to me that ownership and the FO are willing to spend money. For years we bemoaned both for lack of investment and spending $2million to make Coco permanent shows intent. As much as I have criticized Coco for not being good enough recently, he's also undeniably our best all-around midfielder. It's not even close. Coco leads the team in balls recovered, is third in tackles and second in interceptions. He can put the ball at his feet and take people on, and he can (at times) make passes downfield to Sebas in pockets or to Fafa on the run. He needs to be more consistent, but I think he's the best partner for HH in the midfield given the way that we want to play. He's also 23, and if he continues to grow he's a player that we can sell on for more than we paid. While I don't care about investment deals with my soccer team (I want another star above the crest), that's also the business of professional soccer and a piece we've been missing for years.
Coco settled in against Austin FC and actually played fairly well from minutes 60-80. He needs to be able to play like that for a full 90 minutes. He's got abilities nobody else on this team has, but he has to be more composed in the attacking third. He's got to link up better with the top 4, and it would help if he could find the slot trailing the ball and bang home a couple of goals from the top of the box. However, I'm never going to disparage this team for spending money (especially after the last seven years). It's not my money or my budget. To me, they still don't spend enough money. I understand it's a salary cap league, but this should be an exciting story, not a frustrating one. Still a long way to go, but:
Next Up:
Nashville F.C.
Need to pick up at least a point in this one, but more importantly we need to play well.
Also, first 2,500 get this sweet flag. Please be late so I can bring one home :)
Thanks again for reading, remember to #HoldItDown and stay #ForeverOrange.
Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment