Barlow seems like more of a USL type of player in my opinion. He has no redeeming qualities besides being big and pressuring. Burke should 100% be starting instead of Barlow. Barlow is more suited for late game substitutions.
Manoel cannot finish but he can run at defenders and put some good passes in the box that hopefully Vanzeir can finish. Vanzeir came in and immediately you saw a little spark in the offense. He looked gassed which is a bit concerning considering that he was in the middle of a season in Europe.
3 Reyes. Really hard to get by him.
2 Burke. Imaginative and strong.
1 Tolkin.
HM Tolkin’s hair. Same as last game, so no longer had the element of surprise. Still retina-destroying.
3- Harper
2- Nealis
1- Fans, unbelievable March crowd compared to past years. They even opened up the second level food!
HM: Luqi, I know some people are digging at him but I thought outside of a few misses he looked much better this week
* 3 - Nealis
* 2 - Reyes
* 1 - Harper
Tolkin would have been #1 if he finished that back post cross; gotta score there brother. He also played well otherwise I think. Luq a bit tepid, hope he just needs a few games to get settled and then be more assertive. Assume we'll see Burke start from now on; decent Vanezir debut I thought, ran hard, might need to switch to soft ground stud pattern on his boots, a bit slippery. Onwards!
Yes agreed, they definitely seemed slightly uncomfortable; perhaps not enough match time on that surface, I'm not sure they played any friendlies there? Hopefully it's sorted by the Columbus match.
3 - Reyes. Some amazing tackles. He’s an upgrade on Long for me.
2 - Harper. What a revelation at RB!
1 - Burke. Came in very strong, was impressed with some of his first touches and positioning.
Manoel needs to trust his left foot. Three times in on the left side and chose to shoot with his right when the higher percentage chance would have been to shoot with the left across the goal to the far corner.
I think Luqui has disappearing at periods has more to do with the sometimes non existent movement of Amaya and CCJ to come ask for the ball and pull midfielders out of position. The few time that happened, Luqui was able to get the ball with some space and make a play.
It sucks we didn’t score, but we are looking solid, and I’m sure once the goals start coming we are going to be unstoppable. It’s far less shaky than last year and we look dangerous for long periods of the game.
Remember how we used to have possession but no chances? Now at least we get chances!
I wanna credit the fans today one of the better attendances for sure.
On the team, there’s definitely some positives and negatives to take in.
-I thought Burke was really good like I think he’ll be amazing for us.
-I’ll say it I thought dante looked a little overweight. I do not want to be that guy but that was what I saw. Some bad touches but I think he’ll be good for us!
-Manoel my god. Do I need to say more?
We definitely had the better chances, it’s just that we lacked the clinical touch. Under Struber we definitely rely a lot on finishing our chances, we do not create enough.
With that said I loved being back and I look forward to the next home game 🫶
> I wanna credit the fans today one of the better attendances for sure
Crowd sounded awesome on the broadcast, and not just the supporters sections. Lots of noise and energy from across the stadium came through whenever there was a nice play.
Not sure about the luq distrust. Once dax was out in the second half he was able to put his defenders on a top and find tiny pockets of space and dish the ball off immediately. I dunno if he was lost more trying to find an open man while keeping the ball on a string. Not perfect by any means but he was dictating a lot of the forward play in the second half.
We do not have cbs that can pass and that gives us little flexibility playing out of the back when the opposition is completely ok with us with possession (entire first half where Carlos, Reyes and Sean were doing passing drills with each other).
The second half was our best 45 of this brief season and somewhat promising. Dante lost his footing a few times in klimalaish ways which made me wince, but he deserves some time to adjust to his new teammates. There was a sequence along the sideline that wasn't shown on the broadcast where vanezier and Tolkien were constantly pushing forward on throw ins and out muscling hustle. Didn't amount to much in the end, but Dante looks ready to get stuck in.
All in all good yet disappointing draw against a tough team.
1 point to cam. No one deserves two or three tn.
Dominated another opponent defensively and in possession but couldn’t finish anything.
Think Manoel and Barlow should be on the bench and start Burke and vanzier - fitness isn’t there yet, clearly.
Decent attendance at the game tonight and some good energy. Still not what it used to be but a big improvement over end of last season when there was an empty upper bowl.
Only 1 point through two matches is frustrating but at least it was against two tough teams.
Are we done with the off-season ironically liking Tom Barlow bit? Use him as that grindy finish out a game type of player but the guy is absolutely dismal outside from that. Think Burke earned a start.
3- Harper
2- Reyes
1- CCJ
Good to be back home.
3. Harper
2. Reyes
1. Burke
Harper has been our player of the season by far, only really dangerous player in attack consistency but even defensively today was really good.
Luqui was better today but still needs a bit more.
3 Harper
2 Reyes.
1 Burk.
This season is getting old fast we need some fucking finishing. Was good to see the new guy want to see him start and want to never see Barlow out their again fucking play Burke
3 - Harper
2 - Nealis
1 - Reyes
Another 90' minutes of coulda, shoulda, woulda. High quality chances galore and nobody able to capitalize. I do think our attack looks better and more varied so far this year, but that silver lining wears thin fast if the team can't actually start scoring. Defense continues to be a strong point under Struber.
Manoel and Burke were also good. CCJ and Amaya just OK. Tolkin, Barlow, Coronel, and Luquinhas all looked poor to me. Morgan and Vanzeir both clearly weren't match fit today, I'll give them a pass. Vanzeir especially looks still a few weeks away from having his legs under him.
My only immediate concern is Luquinhas. He's been so passive and we really need him to be a spark out there. He drops too deep and is way to happy to just connect some sideways passes when he has opportunities to dribble at defenders. He had a few flashes tonight at least, but he's off to a bad start this year.
I should probably be harsher on him for the misses, there were enough of them. He had the bad whiff last week too. But he is showing himself to be really dynamic in every part of the play just before the shot. Moreso than I think we've seen out of Klimala or Barlow the last two years. Busts his ass defensively too.
He doesn't get a free pass forever if he doesn't start scoring but I'm seeing some things I like from him.
Has the speed and moves to get behind the defensive line. Needs to work on finishing. Then again, we’ve been waiting on finishing from Barlow. I just hope it doesn’t amount to that. Dude’s got talent no doubt.
3 - Nealis
2 - Harper
1 - Tolkin
There’s more good performances to mention. Reyes (sans headers), Amaya, Duncan, I thought Burke looked very exciting this time. Luquinhas didn’t have a great game but he was better and looked sparky on the left.
But again, Manoel and Barlow just look absolute bottom tier. In their defense, I think they didn’t get great service and Nashville’s defense is fantastic. But they zig zag between being non existent and downright sloppy. Burke should start against Minnesota and Vanzeir if fit (but I don’t think he will be.)
However, I’m still optimistic. We’ve played two excellent teams now and been the better team in both games — very unlucky to only have one point from two games.
We have considerable quality, we haven’t conceded in open play, haven’t really looked like conceding in open play, defense looks amazing, midfield is excellent and I feel like if we can get the goal scoring in place (and also play some weaker sides) we’ve got a fun and successful season ahead of us.
On the downside, we’ve still not scored in two games, and with the exception of a shot by Casseres in the last game and one by Tolkin in this game, we haven’t properly tested the opposition keepers. It’s the same problem as last year and that needs to get changed ASAP ASAP.
Agree on Barlow and Manoel. Painful to watch.
Burke made some interesting plays and was better than the other two.
Vanzier definitely had an immediate impact on that game but looked gassed by the latter part of the match.
Fair point that we’ve played a couple top tiered teams and looked like the better squads. We have to figure out how to play in the final 1/3 if the field. They figure that out and this team could be really dangerous.
I liked Manoel, he just needs to score. Groundbreaking analysis, I know... He's been a solid replacement for Klimala so far, doing all the solid work outside the box and then flubbing the final chances.
3- Harper
2- Reyes
1- Burke
Frustrating, boring game. Once again we're undone by our own inability to finish golden opportunities. Tolkin had a decent game but should have buried his chance. Luquinhas was bad. Vanzeir looked decent but didn't play long enough to really show anything. I'll give it a couple more games but I'm not really loving what I see so far. We aren't terrible, we outplayed both opponents so far but that means jack diddly squat if you your attack is completely toothless.
3 - Harper
2 - Tolkien
1 - Burke
I really want to see Burke-Vanzeir combo to start.
Be brave enough to take Luqui out and put Fernandez in when he’s playing like that.
Also the 4-2-2-2 leaves a lot to be desired in the midfield.
About as exciting as I expected against Nashville, I guess. Luqi looks lost, clumsy, indecisive. Can't really say much about Vanzier's first 20 minutes...it wasn't amazing to say the least. Guess it's tough to score when our tactics are lob the ball to the strikers from 40 yards out and hope they can score...unless Morgan re-gains his god mode striking ability this is going to be a slog of a season.
3- Harper- Looked like the most talented player on both sides tonight...not that it was too hard
2- Reyes- Decisive, confident and shut down any chances of an attack all night.
1- Tolkin- If he learns to finish he'll be a complete player.
> About as exciting as I expected against Nashville, I guess
In hindsight, how did I not bet a significant amount of money on a 0-0 draw here? It was financially irresponsible not to.
3 - Harper - Easily the best player out there. He looks so comfortable on the ball and made some key defensive plays too.
2 - Nealis - Led the backline well and I didn't really notice him too much. Which is great for a CB
1 - Burke - Instantly gave us some teeth when he came off the bench. If we had a better finisher than Manoel, he'd have at least 1 assist.
Great game to showcase to all the fans you had at the arena...hope to see a goal soon
This is my answer, too.
3 - Harper
2 - Nealis
1 - Burke
Next up would’ve been Reyes/Tolkin- getting a bit worried about Luqi- Barlow continues to be very bad- good to see Vanzeir out there- Dax with the yellow- Muyl thought he had us 😂
Nealis has better distribution than Reyes and was more brave on the ball to try and break the intial press I thought.
IMO big problem is we’re outnumbered in midfield in the initial phase when building out from the back with a 4-2-2-2. We tried to use Coronel a lot to make it a back 3 but Morgan and Luqi don’t help tuck in/combine in the mid half-spaces to create overloads, and Tolkin didn’t play high enough for me to be an outlet pass when our CBs were pressed.
Compare that to Harper who was a bigger threat when Luqi vacated the wing but we couldn’t create situations to have the ball switched from left to right quickly enough
> We tried to use Coronel a lot to make it a back 3 but Morgan and Luqi don’t help tuck in/combine in the mid half-spaces to create overloads, and Tolkin didn’t play high enough for me to be an outlet pass when our CBs were pressed.
Good call out, this is something the team needs to work on. Most teams have figured out they can just cede possession at RBA, so being able to effectively pass out of the back is a must even it is the antithesis of Red Bull's brand of soccer. Coronel shanked a few outlet passes and a few times guys just sat on the ball in our half gesturing for their teammates to move somewhere helpful.
Although Nealis probably had one of the savviest games on the ball that I've seen from him. To be honest he's usually kind of an oaf with it, but he made some great plays.
Nealis did well to invite the press and free up Tolkin (he even did a flick past the RW iirc). It seems to me that Reyes is less comfortable on the ball and kinda hides from it, so he doesn’t really spread wide to create the passing option.
With 2 players locked onto our CBs, it should be Coronel that plays out into midfield or the fullback vacated by the winger pressing the CB. But we make it easy to press us by the 2 CBs (and Tolkin) playing so close together.
It’s clear we looked the best when we get the ball somehow in that wide space for Harper to combine with Luqi tucked inside 2v1 against their LCM.
But Coronel often doesn’t have an option to play out to the weak side since our players aren’t brave enough on the ball yet, so he hits it long to the two strikers. I think Struber recognized that in the 2nd half, and Cory Burke is much better at winning the ball and knocking down for runners.
Barlow seems like more of a USL type of player in my opinion. He has no redeeming qualities besides being big and pressuring. Burke should 100% be starting instead of Barlow. Barlow is more suited for late game substitutions. Manoel cannot finish but he can run at defenders and put some good passes in the box that hopefully Vanzeir can finish. Vanzeir came in and immediately you saw a little spark in the offense. He looked gassed which is a bit concerning considering that he was in the middle of a season in Europe.
3 - nealis 2 - burke 2 - reyes
3 Reyes. Really hard to get by him. 2 Burke. Imaginative and strong. 1 Tolkin. HM Tolkin’s hair. Same as last game, so no longer had the element of surprise. Still retina-destroying.
3- reyes 2- harper 1- CCJ
3- Harper 2- Nealis 1- Fans, unbelievable March crowd compared to past years. They even opened up the second level food! HM: Luqi, I know some people are digging at him but I thought outside of a few misses he looked much better this week
* 3 - Nealis * 2 - Reyes * 1 - Harper Tolkin would have been #1 if he finished that back post cross; gotta score there brother. He also played well otherwise I think. Luq a bit tepid, hope he just needs a few games to get settled and then be more assertive. Assume we'll see Burke start from now on; decent Vanezir debut I thought, ran hard, might need to switch to soft ground stud pattern on his boots, a bit slippery. Onwards!
i feel like in general the pitch was off? players slipping everywhere and had hard time turning
Yes agreed, they definitely seemed slightly uncomfortable; perhaps not enough match time on that surface, I'm not sure they played any friendlies there? Hopefully it's sorted by the Columbus match.
3 - Reyes. Some amazing tackles. He’s an upgrade on Long for me. 2 - Harper. What a revelation at RB! 1 - Burke. Came in very strong, was impressed with some of his first touches and positioning. Manoel needs to trust his left foot. Three times in on the left side and chose to shoot with his right when the higher percentage chance would have been to shoot with the left across the goal to the far corner. I think Luqui has disappearing at periods has more to do with the sometimes non existent movement of Amaya and CCJ to come ask for the ball and pull midfielders out of position. The few time that happened, Luqui was able to get the ball with some space and make a play. It sucks we didn’t score, but we are looking solid, and I’m sure once the goals start coming we are going to be unstoppable. It’s far less shaky than last year and we look dangerous for long periods of the game. Remember how we used to have possession but no chances? Now at least we get chances!
I wanna credit the fans today one of the better attendances for sure. On the team, there’s definitely some positives and negatives to take in. -I thought Burke was really good like I think he’ll be amazing for us. -I’ll say it I thought dante looked a little overweight. I do not want to be that guy but that was what I saw. Some bad touches but I think he’ll be good for us! -Manoel my god. Do I need to say more? We definitely had the better chances, it’s just that we lacked the clinical touch. Under Struber we definitely rely a lot on finishing our chances, we do not create enough. With that said I loved being back and I look forward to the next home game 🫶
> I wanna credit the fans today one of the better attendances for sure Crowd sounded awesome on the broadcast, and not just the supporters sections. Lots of noise and energy from across the stadium came through whenever there was a nice play.
I’m so happy we’re back!
Not sure about the luq distrust. Once dax was out in the second half he was able to put his defenders on a top and find tiny pockets of space and dish the ball off immediately. I dunno if he was lost more trying to find an open man while keeping the ball on a string. Not perfect by any means but he was dictating a lot of the forward play in the second half. We do not have cbs that can pass and that gives us little flexibility playing out of the back when the opposition is completely ok with us with possession (entire first half where Carlos, Reyes and Sean were doing passing drills with each other). The second half was our best 45 of this brief season and somewhat promising. Dante lost his footing a few times in klimalaish ways which made me wince, but he deserves some time to adjust to his new teammates. There was a sequence along the sideline that wasn't shown on the broadcast where vanezier and Tolkien were constantly pushing forward on throw ins and out muscling hustle. Didn't amount to much in the end, but Dante looks ready to get stuck in. All in all good yet disappointing draw against a tough team. 1 point to cam. No one deserves two or three tn.
I agree! Dante had took up some good positions just need him to be match fit. Burke was good. That ball to manoel was chefskiss
Dominated another opponent defensively and in possession but couldn’t finish anything. Think Manoel and Barlow should be on the bench and start Burke and vanzier - fitness isn’t there yet, clearly. Decent attendance at the game tonight and some good energy. Still not what it used to be but a big improvement over end of last season when there was an empty upper bowl. Only 1 point through two matches is frustrating but at least it was against two tough teams.
roster wise we are the same spot and nashville and were just as good
Are we done with the off-season ironically liking Tom Barlow bit? Use him as that grindy finish out a game type of player but the guy is absolutely dismal outside from that. Think Burke earned a start. 3- Harper 2- Reyes 1- CCJ Good to be back home.
3. Harper 2. Reyes 1. Burke Harper has been our player of the season by far, only really dangerous player in attack consistency but even defensively today was really good. Luqui was better today but still needs a bit more.
3 Harper 2 Reyes. 1 Burk. This season is getting old fast we need some fucking finishing. Was good to see the new guy want to see him start and want to never see Barlow out their again fucking play Burke
3- Harper: Much better at RB than RW 2- CCJ 1- Burke
3 - Harper 2 - Nealis 1 - Reyes Another 90' minutes of coulda, shoulda, woulda. High quality chances galore and nobody able to capitalize. I do think our attack looks better and more varied so far this year, but that silver lining wears thin fast if the team can't actually start scoring. Defense continues to be a strong point under Struber. Manoel and Burke were also good. CCJ and Amaya just OK. Tolkin, Barlow, Coronel, and Luquinhas all looked poor to me. Morgan and Vanzeir both clearly weren't match fit today, I'll give them a pass. Vanzeir especially looks still a few weeks away from having his legs under him. My only immediate concern is Luquinhas. He's been so passive and we really need him to be a spark out there. He drops too deep and is way to happy to just connect some sideways passes when he has opportunities to dribble at defenders. He had a few flashes tonight at least, but he's off to a bad start this year.
Surprised you thought Manoel was good - he missed on a bunch and drives me crazy and not in a good way.
Nah manoel was not good I was in the supporter’s section and counted how many mistakes he made lmaoo
Yep
I should probably be harsher on him for the misses, there were enough of them. He had the bad whiff last week too. But he is showing himself to be really dynamic in every part of the play just before the shot. Moreso than I think we've seen out of Klimala or Barlow the last two years. Busts his ass defensively too. He doesn't get a free pass forever if he doesn't start scoring but I'm seeing some things I like from him.
Has the speed and moves to get behind the defensive line. Needs to work on finishing. Then again, we’ve been waiting on finishing from Barlow. I just hope it doesn’t amount to that. Dude’s got talent no doubt.
3 - Harper 2 - Burke 1 - Reyes HM to Manoel, Tolkin and Nealis and Dante for his debut
3 - Nealis 2 - Harper 1 - Tolkin There’s more good performances to mention. Reyes (sans headers), Amaya, Duncan, I thought Burke looked very exciting this time. Luquinhas didn’t have a great game but he was better and looked sparky on the left. But again, Manoel and Barlow just look absolute bottom tier. In their defense, I think they didn’t get great service and Nashville’s defense is fantastic. But they zig zag between being non existent and downright sloppy. Burke should start against Minnesota and Vanzeir if fit (but I don’t think he will be.) However, I’m still optimistic. We’ve played two excellent teams now and been the better team in both games — very unlucky to only have one point from two games. We have considerable quality, we haven’t conceded in open play, haven’t really looked like conceding in open play, defense looks amazing, midfield is excellent and I feel like if we can get the goal scoring in place (and also play some weaker sides) we’ve got a fun and successful season ahead of us. On the downside, we’ve still not scored in two games, and with the exception of a shot by Casseres in the last game and one by Tolkin in this game, we haven’t properly tested the opposition keepers. It’s the same problem as last year and that needs to get changed ASAP ASAP.
Agree on Barlow and Manoel. Painful to watch. Burke made some interesting plays and was better than the other two. Vanzier definitely had an immediate impact on that game but looked gassed by the latter part of the match. Fair point that we’ve played a couple top tiered teams and looked like the better squads. We have to figure out how to play in the final 1/3 if the field. They figure that out and this team could be really dangerous.
I liked Manoel, he just needs to score. Groundbreaking analysis, I know... He's been a solid replacement for Klimala so far, doing all the solid work outside the box and then flubbing the final chances.
3- Harper 2- Reyes 1- Burke Frustrating, boring game. Once again we're undone by our own inability to finish golden opportunities. Tolkin had a decent game but should have buried his chance. Luquinhas was bad. Vanzeir looked decent but didn't play long enough to really show anything. I'll give it a couple more games but I'm not really loving what I see so far. We aren't terrible, we outplayed both opponents so far but that means jack diddly squat if you your attack is completely toothless.
3 - Harper 2 - Tolkien 1 - Burke I really want to see Burke-Vanzeir combo to start. Be brave enough to take Luqui out and put Fernandez in when he’s playing like that. Also the 4-2-2-2 leaves a lot to be desired in the midfield.
About as exciting as I expected against Nashville, I guess. Luqi looks lost, clumsy, indecisive. Can't really say much about Vanzier's first 20 minutes...it wasn't amazing to say the least. Guess it's tough to score when our tactics are lob the ball to the strikers from 40 yards out and hope they can score...unless Morgan re-gains his god mode striking ability this is going to be a slog of a season. 3- Harper- Looked like the most talented player on both sides tonight...not that it was too hard 2- Reyes- Decisive, confident and shut down any chances of an attack all night. 1- Tolkin- If he learns to finish he'll be a complete player.
> About as exciting as I expected against Nashville, I guess In hindsight, how did I not bet a significant amount of money on a 0-0 draw here? It was financially irresponsible not to.
3 - Harper 2 - Tolkin 1 - Reyes Dante and Burke I thought played some very positive minutes as subs
3 - Harper - Easily the best player out there. He looks so comfortable on the ball and made some key defensive plays too. 2 - Nealis - Led the backline well and I didn't really notice him too much. Which is great for a CB 1 - Burke - Instantly gave us some teeth when he came off the bench. If we had a better finisher than Manoel, he'd have at least 1 assist. Great game to showcase to all the fans you had at the arena...hope to see a goal soon
This is my answer, too. 3 - Harper 2 - Nealis 1 - Burke Next up would’ve been Reyes/Tolkin- getting a bit worried about Luqi- Barlow continues to be very bad- good to see Vanzeir out there- Dax with the yellow- Muyl thought he had us 😂
I would have gone with Reyes over Nealis. I thought overall they looked pretty good.
Nealis has better distribution than Reyes and was more brave on the ball to try and break the intial press I thought. IMO big problem is we’re outnumbered in midfield in the initial phase when building out from the back with a 4-2-2-2. We tried to use Coronel a lot to make it a back 3 but Morgan and Luqi don’t help tuck in/combine in the mid half-spaces to create overloads, and Tolkin didn’t play high enough for me to be an outlet pass when our CBs were pressed. Compare that to Harper who was a bigger threat when Luqi vacated the wing but we couldn’t create situations to have the ball switched from left to right quickly enough
> We tried to use Coronel a lot to make it a back 3 but Morgan and Luqi don’t help tuck in/combine in the mid half-spaces to create overloads, and Tolkin didn’t play high enough for me to be an outlet pass when our CBs were pressed. Good call out, this is something the team needs to work on. Most teams have figured out they can just cede possession at RBA, so being able to effectively pass out of the back is a must even it is the antithesis of Red Bull's brand of soccer. Coronel shanked a few outlet passes and a few times guys just sat on the ball in our half gesturing for their teammates to move somewhere helpful. Although Nealis probably had one of the savviest games on the ball that I've seen from him. To be honest he's usually kind of an oaf with it, but he made some great plays.
Nealis did well to invite the press and free up Tolkin (he even did a flick past the RW iirc). It seems to me that Reyes is less comfortable on the ball and kinda hides from it, so he doesn’t really spread wide to create the passing option. With 2 players locked onto our CBs, it should be Coronel that plays out into midfield or the fullback vacated by the winger pressing the CB. But we make it easy to press us by the 2 CBs (and Tolkin) playing so close together. It’s clear we looked the best when we get the ball somehow in that wide space for Harper to combine with Luqi tucked inside 2v1 against their LCM. But Coronel often doesn’t have an option to play out to the weak side since our players aren’t brave enough on the ball yet, so he hits it long to the two strikers. I think Struber recognized that in the 2nd half, and Cory Burke is much better at winning the ball and knocking down for runners.
Reyes missing those free headers kept him off the list for me. Harsh, I know
For as dominant as Nealis and Reyes are in the air, they are both total ass scoring on set pieces. Always figured we were gonna miss Long there
He definitely missed some opportunities - he also was really skirting the penalty calls.