Tag: Lampard

NYCFC vs DC United: Preview

Tonight we play the best team in the Eastern Conference. After a poor loss to Red Bulls and United’s top form, this game looks to be very difficult for our sky blue team.

Form

NYCFC are as eclectic as ever. After coming out swinging in the first 10 minutes of the Hudson River Derby, we sank into our normal mediocrity for the rest of the match. After Wright-Phillips hit that first goal, we all knew the game was ostensibly over, unless we had a miraculous change of form. Which we didn’t. Point being, NYCFC are playing ok, and expect nothing more and nothing less tonight.

DC are in great form, currently sitting atop the table having a laugh. For all the money spent on superstars and foreign talent below them, DC have put together a team of MLS veterans who all work hard for each other and have been playing quite well. It’s not the sexiest football ever, but when everyone does their job, it’s a well-oiled machine.

Lineups

DC (4-4-2): Hamid (GK), Kemp (LB), Boswell (CB), Birnbaum (CB), Korb (RB), Rolfe (LM), Arnaud (CM), Kitchen (CM), DeLeon (RM), Arrieta (ST), Saborio (ST)

-Fabian Espindola is out with a sprained knee, while Michael Farfan is a doubt with a hamstring injury.

NYCFC (4-5-1): Saunders (GK), Angelino (LB), Mena (CB), Facey (CB), Iraola (RB), Jacobson (CM), Pirlo (CM), McNamara (LM), Poku (CAM), Mix (RM), Villa (ST)

-Lampard picked up a quad injury in training Wednesday and is a doubt for tonight’s game. He could rebound quickly enough to start, but will most likely feature on the bench. Poku should slot in nicely.

-Chris Wingert is still out with a hamstring injury.

-The good news? Ned Grabavoy still has the NYCFC “classic”, aka a right adductor injury. The bad news? Khiry Shelton somehow STILL is injured with a left quad problem. Will he ever make the bench? Who knows. Oh dear.

Final Thoughts

Hey, we could pull off an upset. Right? RIGHT?

Oy vey. At least we get to see what’s supposed to be the best team in the conference. That should be nice.

The Day After (Red Bulls)

Well, there goes our season. With all three of our DP’s starting for the first time ever, Lampard started brightly, but ultimately failed miserably, Pirlo looked at a loss, and our team succumbed to another loss to our neighbors.

Season Of Discontent 

We’ve mentioned this before, but this is our inaugural season. Add onto that the fact that we constructed a practically new lineup in June, and it makes sense that we’ve had some trouble this season. After that 11 game winless streak, the additions of superstars was supposed to kickstart our season, and in certain ways it has, but we looked really out of sorts against Red Bulls.

Despite a bright start, we failed to take our limited amount of chances and lost to a team that’s just plain better than us. Maybe not in individual quality, but certainly in team play. We’re just not there yet. It’s the sad, sad truth.

Where’s The Pace?

Villa, Pirlo, Lampard, Mix, McNamara. Those are all our players who are meant to score goals, or be directly involved in doing so. The fact is, most of those guys are slow, and not one possesses any real pace. ‘Balance’ is a term that is thrown around in European football for good reason. You can’t have a team of only pacy tricksters or only playmakers. Our attack not only lacks pace, it’s depressingly void of it. Our counterattacks are simply too slow, but it’s not their fault. Who is Pirlo supposed to aim for? He kept overhitting passes to Villa, but maybe it wasn’t entirely either of their faults. Villa simply doesn’t have the pace to catch those long balls, but Pirlo has literally no other options. Pirlo is used to playing on teams that know how to posses the ball, on teams where you’ve got 20-something-year-olds future Balon D’or winners sprinting to get on the ends of your passes, rather than 33-year-olds and whatever Tommy McNamara is.

It’s at times like these where we miss the presence of a player like Khiry Shelton, or even Poku in a more advanced role. Yet, this entire season we’ve hypothesized over who should be starting and who Kreis is leaving out, but we’re nearing the end of this season and the plain fact that it really wouldn’t change that much. The team we fielded was pretty good, and we need more time, and hopefully a different manager, to take us into the new season. But, in that new season, someone who can actually run would be a welcome addition.

We have a long end to this season ahead of us, but we’ve gotta stick by them, and who knows, something might click. The positive from having our playoff chances diminished every game is there is more liberty to experiment. Often times when teams have nothing on the line, no threat of relegation but no chance of anything else, they let their young players get a run out, experiment with different lineups, and plan for the next season. It would be well advised for us to partake in some of those activities. With Kreis, we never really know, but maybe with nothing on the line he’ll loosen his tie, grow some nuts, and give us some reason to trust him.

On To The Next One

We play DC United on Thursday. Did we mention DC are top of the league and in stellar form? Yeah, that’ll be fun.

(on to the next one)

The Day After (Montreal)

Oh dear.

The First Half

After much anticipation for this match, the first 45 minutes was some of the worst we’ve seen. Where to even begin?

Kreis started an interesting team, to say the least, but we’ll get to that later. Our first half reminded me of some long lost memory in the freezing cold of March where our players couldn’t pass to each other and mediocre opponents waltzed past our defenders with stunning ease. Unfortunately, I was not dreaming as I saw our back line humiliated on several occasions in the first half.

Look, Mena and Hernandez tried pretty hard, which is nice. And Mena even managed to stick a foot in and steal the ball from the attackers, which was a welcome surprise. But none of that can make up for such poor defending aerially. I mean, honestly, it was impressive how easy it was for Montreal. All they had to do was kick the ball in the air towards our center backs and their strikers would easily be open, control the ball, and beat our guys for pace. It looked like high school. And it happened over and over again. It even lead to two first half goals. How can we be so helpless?

But it wasn’t just the back line. After finally being able to bang in goals (5-3 Orlando, 4-4 Toronto) our offense this game was abysmal. Pirlo and Jacobson were actually quite nice as a duo again, but there’s only so much the holding mids can do.

Calle offered little to nothing, McNamara worked hard and passed back, and Grabavoy was moving into useless positions right in front of the center mids, all of which gives Pirlo very limited options. Granted, Pirlo had an off day, hitting poor corner kicks and sending wayward passes, but he didn’t have much to work with. Often his long balls should have worked but Calle, Grabavoy, and McNamara didn’t really know they had to be there. The first half was typified by shitty passing, almost no shots on goal for us, and schoolboy defending.

The Second Half

I guess the second half was better. Poku and Mix came on and did what they could. Poku was good every time he was on the ball, making smart passes and taking people on, but he just didn’t have much opportunity to do so.

Mix was a similar story. He got into good positions on the right flank and looked dangerous but we need more from him. Most of the time he’d get the ball on the wing and just pass it back, not much forward-thinking play. Maybe if Kreis had started him he could have done more.

Oh, Lampard came on. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, since he hasn’t played a competitive match for a bit, but he looked worryingly out of sorts. He had a really poor touch, and didn’t seem quite comfortable on the pitch, which is weird for someone of his caliber. He wasn’t great, yet it’s only his first few minutes, we’ll wait until his next match. Let’s just hope it’s better than that.

We’re Not In Salt Lake Anymore

Firstly, Kreis has nearly lost any respect I have for him. Okay, MAYBE Shay Facey had a slight injury (although no reports indicate anything of the sort) so whatever, he’s on the bench. BUT Poku gets 3 assists and Mix scores on his return (at right mid, mind you) and they’re both benched? For NED GRABAVOY and Calle? Have you lost your damn mind sir? The craziest thing is, Kreis seems to understand his error, bringing on both Mix and Poku for Calle and Grabavoy once they were losing in the second half. It’s as if Kreis is 50 percent smart manager and 50 percent MLS-bred twat: half of his mind knows that Poku and Mix should be playing in those positions, but the other half, and thus far the dominant half, have decided that Ned Grabavoy deserves to play soccer. I can remember back to the beginning of the season when Kreis was talking about Grabavoy and saying how fans may not realize his worth, but managers do. His work rate, what he does off the ball, what he brings to the team. It’s only clear to me now, all these months later, that Jason Kreis loves Ned Grabavoy because of the context in which Kreis knew him before NYC.

Before NYC, Kreis was a player-turned-manager for newly fledged side RSL. With some good ol-fashioned American hard work and determination, Kreis built a team of overall decent enough players, that together, as a unit, were able to win. They were built on passing not because Kreis is a disciple of tiki-taka, but rather because you didn’t have DP’s running into defenders. Kreis’ team was built on passing because none of the players were selfish enough to keep it longer. Kreis lauds nice, cooperative personalities because that’s what won it for him in the past.

The issue is, we’re not in Salt Lake anymore. The question handed to Jason in this new stage of his managerial career was: can he handle a team with superstars? Can Jason Kreis, the sweetheart from Utah, handle putting together a team with Manchester City youth prodigies, Villa, Pirlo, Lampard, and a billionaire Sheikh breathing down his neck? The answer so far has been, no.

The fact is, I’ve been defending Kreis for a while. At least, amongst friends. The truth is, I believe in patience, in letting the manager figure things out. And I would be doing that with Kreis, but this game serves as the perfect example. The fact is, for all the patience and waiting for the team to gel, Kreis dropped Poku, a player who had been instrumental in orchestrating a win over Orlando, for Grabavoy, a hard working sub-par footballer who contributed little to nothing in this game and has continued to be picked by Kreis despite consistent anonymity on the field.

Kreis is a nice enough guy, but there’s nothing I’ve seen to serve as evidence that he’s the man we need at the helm. Tactical errors are still made in spades, our defense is pathetic, and half our players seem unsure of what they’re supposed to be doing.

I guess there’s always next season.

On To The Next One

We play the Red Bulls. Let’s hope we can give them a run for their money. Should be interesting, at least.

Whatever.

The Day After (Orlando)

My lord. 5-3. Another 8-goal thriller. Where to begin?

Yes Pirlo, Yes Party

Amazing.

We all knew that Pirlo was a world class footballer, but he’s also proven to be a real gentlemen when most footballers act like children. In the weeks leading up to this game, there was so much talk about him, and he was always quick to sidestep it all. He was asked about age, about heat, about travel, about physicality, and his answer was always the same: People can say what they like, you’ll see on the field. And we did.

While warming up, Pirlo was as relaxed as possible. As he was about to come on the field, he was casually stretching as if it were practice. And when he came on the field, there was no smile to the crowd, no rushed first touch or tackle, just relaxed composure. It was truly ridiculous to have watched this team play for the past season and see just how much better Pirlo really is.

Every pass looked like it had been rehearsed to perfection prior to the match. His touch was gorgeous, gently cushioning the ball into his path. And his measured passes over the top made all of our players look better. That’s really what he brought last night, he made everyone look good. Even when players weren’t in great positions, he made them get into those.

When we’re watching a match on TV or in the crowd, we have the luxury of seeing the entire field, thus we’re constantly disappointed when a player doesn’t pick the right pass. It’s kind of unfair of us, seeing as they’ve got top athletes running full-speed at them and they’ve gotta make a split second decision with a much, much worse view of the pitch, but we do it anyway. What’s truly remarkable, what’s really fucking amazing, is that Pirlo makes every pass that we can see, and even ones we can’t. Case in point was a pass to Mix last night. Mix was lost in a sea of three defenders, and there were several other options that looked better to pass to. But Pirlo saw it even though we didn’t, and he chipped a ball over the top for Diskerud, who did well to try and control and almost won a pk.  But you get the feeling that afterwards Mix was a little surprised the ball even got to him in that position.

Unlike Villa, Pirlo doesn’t have a temper and doesn’t feel the need to dribble the entire team. Unlike Lampard, he plays and hasn’t had the biggest PR shitshow since Urban Outfitters decided to be nazis/Kent state shooting advocates. Simply put, Pirlo is already the best player on our team. And probably the best passer of the ball in the MLS. Holy fuck.

Villa

For all the shit we give him, he managed two goals last night. Granted he made me scream like a wildebeest on several other occasions for just general stupidity, but he made up for it. Particularly the goal where he received a ball over the top from Angelino, took a great touch, and brilliantly smashed it into the near corner, giving no chance to the keeper.

But still, he’s not completely impressing me. How ’bout that great run by Mix where he played it to Villa in the box and he hit it over the bar? Or the countless occasions where he’d hold the ball too long for no reason? Or how he doesn’t seem to understand hold up play, and on the rare occasions when he wins a ball in the air he decides to run at the back line by himself and lose the ball rather than wait for the rest of our team to help out? Goddamit.

But that’s a whole ‘nuther problem. How the flying fuck are we still kicking the ball upfield and hoping for the best? Seriously, at this point in the season it’s painfully obvious that Villa CANNOT WIN AERIAL DUELS. Every single damn time he just fucking HOPES that the defender will make a mistake. Seriously, watch Villa every time a ball is sent to him high in the air. He just waits BEHIND the damn defender and prays to some higher power that the guy will fuck up. But it’s not even his fault. Aerial duels are not his game, they never have been. He’s just forced into this because we’ve still got fuckheads like Chris Wingert who’s dumbass American coaches told him to kick the ball as hard as he can every time he sees it. Motherfuckers.

The good news is, Pirlo is here. And he didn’t ply his trade a St. John’s. With him on in the second half, there was almost no kick & pray mentality. And that will help us more than we know.

A Team In Transition

There are so many new faces on this squad. Mena played a decent game, but will look to improve. It’s crazy, actually, our back line after the poor excuse for a footballer named Wingert came off last night had no players from our first match.

Point being, building a team takes time. And while we’re all getting our panties in a bunch for Pirlo & Co., don’t expect anything real until next year. Shit takes time and patience in a virtue. We might make a last ditch run for a playoff spot, but that depends on a lot of things. Will Kreis bench Poku for Ned “I’m so useless that soccer blogs have stopped coming up with fictional nicknames for me” Grabavoy? How will he accommodate all his new toys?  Is McNamara actually good or does he manage to keep scoring while doing little else? Will Kreis ever play Mix as a winger? So many questions, time will tell.

On To The Next One

We play Montreal at home on Saturday. We’ve already beaten them twice, and that’s without Pirlo and possibly Lampard. While they recently signed Drogba, we doubt he’ll play by Sunday. And even if he did, Montreal may have gotten a win this weekend, but they’re a really poor squad. We should be able to beat them easily.

Well, maybe not easily. It is NYCFC, after all.

On to the next one.

NYCFC vs Orlando City: Preview

On Sunday, July 26th, Orlando City visit Yankee stadium for the second meeting between the two 2015 expansion teams.

Form

Orlando’s has been poor, but as we saw versus New England, poor form doesn’t mean that NYC will do anything. To be fair, though, Orlando have lost consecutive matches at their home stadium, both losing two-nil. Not the best form we’ve ever seen.

NYC are alright. Still adjusting to all the fresh faces on the pitch, NYC are very much a work in progress. With Iraola and Angelino starting to gel with their teammates, it will take time for Pirlo and, if he ever decides to play, Lampard to settle in. However, progress is better than the shit we had only a month ago, and every game should improve for us.

Lineups

Orlando SC (4-2-3-1): Hall (GK), Ashe (LB), Collin (CB), Hines (CB), Ramos (RB), Avila (CM), Ceren (CM), Rivas (LM), Kaka (CAM), Neal (RM), Larin (ST)

-Cyle Larin was supposed to be suspended with a red card from the previous match, but Orlando have successfully appealed the decision, thus making him eligible.

-Brek Shea has been a staple in this Orlando team since their inception, yet after successfully undergoing sports hernia surgery he will be out for a chunk of the remaining season, including this match.

NYCFC (4-4-2): Saunders (GK), Angelino (LB), Wingert (CB), Facey (CB), Iraola (RB), McNamara (LM), Poku (CM), Jacobson (CM), Ballouchy (RM), Mullins (ST), Villa (ST)

-With Grabavoy suspended (woohoo!) Poku should get the nod at centre mid, unless Pirlo is somehow ready to start after training for only a few days, which is always a possibility, seeing as Pirlo is all-powerful.

-Hernandez is suspended for yellow card accumulation and Diskerud is still out with the Gold Cup crew. Let’s go fourth place!

-Lampard won’t play, which is something we’re used to by now.

Final Thoughts

The high probability of seeing Pirlo at some point on the Yankee stadium pitch is enough to make the most cynical of fans at least consider deleting their angry-nycfc-reddit post.

But the main focus of this game should be beating the other expansion team so that 1. we get a valuable three points and tie them for sixth and 2. show that we’re the cool expansion team and their purple-colored-Orlando “SC” bullshit can go back to fuckin’ Universal Epcot Sea World or whatever the shit they do in that fucked up place.

NYCFC vs Toronto FC: Preview

As I’m sure most of you are aware, Frank Lampard pulled his old-man-muscle and is out of contention for this Sunday’s match. Seeing as they were billing this game as his grand debut, it’s understandable that fans (myself included) were a little disappointed. But let’s change the subject, otherwise I’ll burst a blood vessel.

Good News

They have to play my boy Andoni Iraola. They said so. If they don’t I’ll sue. As a right back it makes much more sense to simply start him rather than sub him on, but who knows who really makes the decisions behind the scenes. Seeing as Ned Grabavoy continues to play my bet is a bunch of nut-less monkeys are throwing feces at a switchboard which controls our starting 11 every match. Just a thought.

AND we could see Angelino. The super talented 18-year-old Spanish wunderkid (he’s good, is what I’m alluding to) has been training this week along with Iraola and Lampard. They haven’t made any “debut” promises for him, but he might be worth bringing off the bench, especially given Kreis’ absurd propensity for making full back substitutions.

AND Khiry Shelton is back. He was on the bench for the entirety of last week’s Montreal game, and that understandable, as we fielded two strikers to begin with and wanted to hold onto our slim lead near the end. I’d love a Khiry start, but he’s actually far more effective coming off the bench. We hope to see him, it’s been too long.

AND Poku should start. While he hasn’t been in the form of his life, he’s still better than whatever else we have. With Lampard out, it would be a shame to bench Poku, as he’ll bring the creativity and skill we so often lack.

Form

Toronto are a team full of individually talented players. Giovinco is probably going to get the MVP, Bradley could find Waldo with a long ball, Cheryou is a class midfielder who used to play for Marseille, and people seem to like Jozy Altidore despite the fact that he’s kinda bad at soccer.

Yet, with all this, Toronto are as consistent as a presidential candidate’s opinions (yeah, we make political jokes too). After losing two starters in Bradley and Altidore to the Gold Cup, Toronto were mauled in LA, losing 4-0. It was not a pretty sight. Without Bradley marshaling the midfield, it seems hard to imagine Toronto playing well at all. They are dependent upon him, and this all bodes well for us.

NYCFC are alright. We lost a huge derby match at home to Red Bulls, then we proceeded to win an away match against Montreal. It’s funny to listen to interviews from everyone saying how we’ve been in great form and have won 4 of our last 5 games. They seem to forget that two of those win have come against a generally subpar Montreal team and that we got absolutely hammered by our biggest rivals in our home stadium.

But anyway, we’re doing okay. With these new reinforcements there’s certainly a buzz around the training camp and going into a match against a Bradley-less Toronto doesn’t seem like the hardest thing in the world.

Lineups

Toronto FC (4-4-2): Konopka (GK), Creavalle (RB), Zavaleta (CB), Hagglund (CB), Morrow (LB), Delgado (CM), Cheryou (CM), Warner (LM), Jackson (RM), Giovinco (ST), Moore (ST)

-Cheryou is still a doubt with a niggling injury, but should make the starting 11.

-Toronto has a decision to make whether to play Luke Moore or Robbie Findley up top partnering Giovinco.

NYCFC (4-5-1): Saunders (GK), Iraola (RB), Facey (CB), Watson-Siriboe (CB), Wingert (LB), Jacobson (CM), Poku (CM), Grabavoy (CM), McNamara (LM), Ballouchy (RM), Villa (ST)

-Jason Hernandez is fighting off an injury and could start over Siriboe.

-We’ve given Iraola the start, simply because he’s twice the man RJ Allen is. It’s very possible Iraola would come off the bench, but we’re crossing our fingers.

-Kreis may opt for 2 strikers, whether that’s Mullins again, or Nemec who came off the bench last week and scored in a friendly exhibition on Thursday. If he does so, Kreis would have to sacrifice a midfielder, most likely Ballouchy or Grabavoy. Frankly, NYCFC play far better with a five man midfield, so we’re hoping Villa is our only striker.

-As we said earlier, we’d love to see Shelton and Angelino at some point, we’re crossing our fingers. We’re crossing our fingers for a lot in this game. Most of which will probably end in disappointment. Yay!

Final Thoughts

Toronto have just been thrashed four-nil and come into this match without the heart of their team (Michael Bradley). With NYCFC in decent form and some quality reinforcements coming in, we should fair pretty well.

But for us who knows what that means.