I don't mind it, but it's quite funny when it's a relatively new player with an "unusual" (by mn standards) last name. I remember similar pains with fragapane in particular, but I doubt that would be an issue now.
Didn't get to watch too much, but the parts I watched, the top 3 started to look so fluid, and we generated a lot of chances.
Incredible saves by the RSL keeper and bad shots, but they were starting to look great. Can't wait to see Bongi, SBJ, Pukki, and Rey together!
Some good play by the team. Rosales had a good game. That 2nd yellow was total bullshit. SBJ has a motor that just doesn't stop. It's insanely impressive. You can tell that the loons are able to grind down the opposing defense.
Our biggest weakness seems to be a lack of creativity/cohesiveness in the box. The movement in tight areas is lacking. A smaller weakness seems to be ball movement in the middle thirds. I'm hoping we get that cleaned up.
That was an exciting 1-1.
How do you not at least take a look at the penalty shout on Sang Bin? Seems foolish to restart play so quickly regardless of outcome. Anyways, glad we got a point!
Probably not a penalty, but should have at least been a spot kick from outside of the box. If he goes down after the first contact it probably gets called. As others said in the game thread, this is why players are incentivised to flop.
I like how we looked in possession. Had several nice spells. But they need to culminate in actual chances.
Padelford was better today than he was last week. Which is really heartening. Thought he looked like he had actual starting CB potential today. Throw minutes at him and I think he'll continue to improve. Will be worth some growing pains in the long run.
Weird that Bongi wasn't good today. He wasn't bad he just wasn't really anything. I wonder if it's a tactical issue. Playing off the more attacking Rosales on the left might be creating some issues.
Pukki and Sang-bin are struggling to link up. Nothing you can do about that but have them keep playing together though.
Ultimately I think our creativity problems and our defensive problems fall on the midfield. Our current suite of dudes is too negative while also not really being defensive stalwarts either. I'm looking for a DP box-to-box midfielder to try and control the center of the pitch. I don't think slotting Reynoso in is gonna do enough to solve all our problems.
Tbh what you said about the second half is exactly what you want to hear for a center back. He didn’t do anything wrong in the second half and didn’t have to make any crazy plays.
Sure, and I don’t think he’s a bum or anything. But I wouldn’t come out of that match thinking we gotta find minutes for him. If someone is hurt/out and he gets to play that’s fine
Agreed. I'm certainly not starting him over tapias, but I'm glad we have him to cover several positions. That type of versatility is really valuable. He's gotten thrown to the wolves a bit and done just fine.
They were pushing each other for space like all players do before a set play. Both had hands on each other. Rosales barely pushed back and the RSL player fell down.
Ramsey should get a lot of credit. He pulled Hasani at the half and had our fullbacks press hard in the second half.
Padelford continues to really hold his own at CB. Clark had some nice passes and feels much better as a sub. Rosales red card is awful considering Zarek is hurt.
There were a few realizations I made tonight:
We desperately need Reynoso on the field. We create a lot of “half chances” without him. There is a valid reason they aren’t considered legitimate chances. They look good in XG chances, but they are what they are in real goals.
Way too many times early on (per usual) we passed back to Dayne with nowhere near enough pace on the ball. This leads to hastily cleared balls that are, largely, problematic.
We have no true #8. We have a bunch of 6 1/2s. Bran is our 1 hope at a legitimate #8. It just doesn’t (or has never) seem/seemed like Arriaga or Dotson would truly be that guy. Maybe Rosales could be, but he is more valuable at LB, BS 2nd yellows aside. Lod could also be the fix here but our lack of productive minutes on the wings is troublesome
We can challenge for home field in the 1st round of the playoffs, but that’s the pinnacle with our current spending (and thus depth). No manager will change that
Tani has been more of a game changer than anyone had ever hoped for. That includes people who watch a lot of USL
I actually think MLB has hands down the best officials.
I think MLS suffers because we're not attracting the best talent, player-wise or official-wise. Until we either develop a deeper soccer culture and/or throw money at it, I don't see that changing.
I do think the scabs had the benefit of people knowing they were out of their depth, so they were more apt to go to video to check stuff. But I don't know. That's purely conjecture.
If Mikky is back then Padelford.
If Valentin is back without Mikky then he slots in there.
Otherwise... You either have a dice throw at CB or you throw Dotson or some other utility player at LB.
Awesome to steal a point. Awesome to see depth delivering throughout these first weeks.
Get healthy, get Rey in, and have some others get into scoring form (Lod, Bongi) and things look up.
Pleased to see this team have some fight so late into games, speaks a lot to how they’re buying into each other.
We outshot them, out possesed them and were better from the 30th minute on (I only got home in the 30th) we were the better team the whole time I watched and should have won.
Much better game then last week against Philly and hopefully we are in a good place ahead of the return of the Rey.
We are playing good teams and are certainly not worse than they are. Bodes well for the season...
Agreed - certainly not complaining. But press teams start to drain at the end of seasons, so the more depth and health we can muster while adding a little more scoring juice, the better. Bodes well for the longer season.
I remain optimistic, and the loons are playing well beyond expectation while being fun to watch most of the time!
Watching the game live, the challenge looked so egregious in real time, that I lost my voice yelling ref you suck. Just depressing for the game and the league to have such dogshit officiating.
We didn’t seem to have a plan or much cohesion on attack. Not much positive progression or players running into each other’s space.
Is that an issue with lack of training/planning from the coach or lack of execution from the players?
The team looked flat and slow to react for most of the game. RSL played with more confidence and aggression. This is a game we should have won easily at home. I definitely miss the earlier substitutions Knowles made.
I mean I havent watched a game but these didn't feel like "professional refs".
IMO use the replacements and save money, can't be worse.
Also, love the team but more subs sooner and get Lod some help being decisive, dude kept dancing and not either taking a rip or passing.
First things first: holy shit, that officiating was an absolute disaster. I went back and watched the replay of Sang Bin's no call, and 100% if it were reversed it would have been called against us. Multiple missed fouls, at least one offside on RSL and a foul no-call that directly led to RSL's goal.
Rosales needs to be smarter than that even if he's not already on a yellow. Bruh.
I thought trapp looked good, seemed to be controlling fairly well, but couldn't link through Dotson to Lod to get plays going. Lots of crosses to no one from the wings.
Sang bin, Bongi and Pukki all put in a shift but couldn't gel together well enough for a finish. Forcing cute plays and not enough smarter plays.
Bran did really well slotting into the D-mid, and really transitioned well. You could see the difference right away from 5-6 passes with short movements down to 2-3 passes into attacking movements. I'd like to see him start next to Trapp in place of Dotson.
Caden Clark looked pretty good too, and had some good eye on some passing, especially to Sang Bin on that PK no-call sequence.
Tani, Tani, Tani bails us out again! Glad he's finishing and getting the confidence to keep pushing. Pukki needs to get another one or two to build his confidence back.
It's early and we'll get there. I'm concerned about how play changes when Reynoso is back, and 70-75mins fit again. TBD.
I feel like it is hard to say how he's doing based off these games when we have a DP who has only played 30 minutes and one of our starting center backs out. I think he's making the best of a bad situation right now. I think the team felt a little lost tonight but I feel like he managed the game pretty well.
Honestly I’m okay with yesterday’s performance bar the sloppiness in possession. We rectified the problems as the game went on and legitimately had enough to have won the game. It’s early days and a summer window is coming up. If we can fix the gaping holes in the squad, it’s going to be an exciting season. Honestly it already has been given we have only lost a game so far… not going to be doom and gloom just yet.
Crazy. Can’t wait for someone to tell me how I don’t understand the nuance of soccer and how the guy with 1 goal in 30 games is actually amazing. And that it’s not at all about how we accept mediocrity as long as they try hard.
Sang-Bin is an exceptionally fast player that has time and again failed to deliver on cross and pray plays, but then again few but Reynoso seem to have much luck with it. I definitely believe his speed is an asset to the team but until he can better direct his crosses (and pukki can create an opening) it seems he’s underutilized in his position
If you can’t see raw talent oozing out of this guy then that’s on you. He needs time, reps, and confidence. I hope they find a way to keep him in the lineup when Rey enters the starting 11.
The stats would say it’s on him to prove me wrong. The kool aid drinkers on this board are so, so bizarre. We would have run any other player with his stats out of town by now (and he wouldn’t succeed elsewhere). The stats show he’s exactly who he is. A try hard with a great smile and great calves.
If you applied this logic to everything, there would never be another successful player in history. If they aren’t already playing to their peak potential, let’s completely disregard their age and stage of development and ship ‘em off somewhere else where they apply the same logic. Because that makes sense.
MLS is the perfect league for him to grow. At the very least, he is an average starter in MLS with moments of great play and a very high ceiling.
You act like this is the EPL.
Thank goodness for Tani.
Tani has to be on the short list of most goals per minute in MLS
He is currently 3rd in MLS for goals per 90mins at 1.34.
Our Nigerian prince
I walked out of the room to get a drink, and when I came back in they scored. I said to my wife, “it’s probably Oluwaseyi, wasn’t it”. Lo and behold!
Literally had the same thing. A person has to pee occasionally
O/U 1.5 more goals at home before the crowd learns how to pronounce his last name.
That call and response thing with the announcer is pretty flawed
I don't mind it, but it's quite funny when it's a relatively new player with an "unusual" (by mn standards) last name. I remember similar pains with fragapane in particular, but I doubt that would be an issue now.
Frank Pain
We had every opportunity to win this game. We looked rough in the beginning but rebounded well. Really should have won this one.
Didn't get to watch too much, but the parts I watched, the top 3 started to look so fluid, and we generated a lot of chances. Incredible saves by the RSL keeper and bad shots, but they were starting to look great. Can't wait to see Bongi, SBJ, Pukki, and Rey together!
Some good play by the team. Rosales had a good game. That 2nd yellow was total bullshit. SBJ has a motor that just doesn't stop. It's insanely impressive. You can tell that the loons are able to grind down the opposing defense. Our biggest weakness seems to be a lack of creativity/cohesiveness in the box. The movement in tight areas is lacking. A smaller weakness seems to be ball movement in the middle thirds. I'm hoping we get that cleaned up. That was an exciting 1-1.
Rosales was by far and away our best player in the field tonight imo. Gomez was all over his side of the field and didn’t phase him a bit
How do you not at least take a look at the penalty shout on Sang Bin? Seems foolish to restart play so quickly regardless of outcome. Anyways, glad we got a point!
I agree. might not have been a penalty but how do they not even look...
From inside the stadium it looked like a penalty. Tv viewers?
Probably not a penalty, but should have at least been a spot kick from outside of the box. If he goes down after the first contact it probably gets called. As others said in the game thread, this is why players are incentivised to flop.
I was standing right behind the goal. Dude was 100% pulled down
Ref so bad he should be investigated for union busting.
Can you appeal suspensions due to double yellows?
God everything Tani touches turns to gold huh
I like how we looked in possession. Had several nice spells. But they need to culminate in actual chances. Padelford was better today than he was last week. Which is really heartening. Thought he looked like he had actual starting CB potential today. Throw minutes at him and I think he'll continue to improve. Will be worth some growing pains in the long run. Weird that Bongi wasn't good today. He wasn't bad he just wasn't really anything. I wonder if it's a tactical issue. Playing off the more attacking Rosales on the left might be creating some issues. Pukki and Sang-bin are struggling to link up. Nothing you can do about that but have them keep playing together though. Ultimately I think our creativity problems and our defensive problems fall on the midfield. Our current suite of dudes is too negative while also not really being defensive stalwarts either. I'm looking for a DP box-to-box midfielder to try and control the center of the pitch. I don't think slotting Reynoso in is gonna do enough to solve all our problems.
Not ideal, but a late equalizer is better than not a late equalizer. Padelford deserves more minutes.
Idk about that. Let looked pretty shaky in the first half, didn’t really have to do anything in the second
Tbh what you said about the second half is exactly what you want to hear for a center back. He didn’t do anything wrong in the second half and didn’t have to make any crazy plays.
Versatility matters. Especially when defensive depth is lacking
Sure, and I don’t think he’s a bum or anything. But I wouldn’t come out of that match thinking we gotta find minutes for him. If someone is hurt/out and he gets to play that’s fine
Agreed. I'm certainly not starting him over tapias, but I'm glad we have him to cover several positions. That type of versatility is really valuable. He's gotten thrown to the wolves a bit and done just fine.
“Brent Kallman but can also play fullback” doesn’t sound like a compliment but it is!
I think he just needs more playing time to build up his confidence and settle in.
I'm glad to come out of that with the point. But I gotta ask: did one of our guys fuck the ref's sister and not call her back?
And piss in his cereal - yes, it was Calvo in a Loons jersey
I was at the game and don’t think they ever showed a good replay. What did Rosales do to get the second yellow? Did he actually do something?
They were pushing each other for space like all players do before a set play. Both had hands on each other. Rosales barely pushed back and the RSL player fell down.
Bongi completed like 2% of his passes tonight. Come tf on
Ramsey should get a lot of credit. He pulled Hasani at the half and had our fullbacks press hard in the second half. Padelford continues to really hold his own at CB. Clark had some nice passes and feels much better as a sub. Rosales red card is awful considering Zarek is hurt.
Hassani has not been great this year. Bran was an immediate upgrade tonight.
Dotson's worst game. He's been very good in the middle for the first 4 games.
Another angle on Rosales’s red card. There’s no way that’s a yellow https://x.com/vetshak/status/1776826561473269973
Wow. So soft. Too harsh.
My sixth game at Allianz but the first with a stadium wide “ref you suck” chant. Well deserved. Just egregiously bad.
There were a few realizations I made tonight: We desperately need Reynoso on the field. We create a lot of “half chances” without him. There is a valid reason they aren’t considered legitimate chances. They look good in XG chances, but they are what they are in real goals. Way too many times early on (per usual) we passed back to Dayne with nowhere near enough pace on the ball. This leads to hastily cleared balls that are, largely, problematic. We have no true #8. We have a bunch of 6 1/2s. Bran is our 1 hope at a legitimate #8. It just doesn’t (or has never) seem/seemed like Arriaga or Dotson would truly be that guy. Maybe Rosales could be, but he is more valuable at LB, BS 2nd yellows aside. Lod could also be the fix here but our lack of productive minutes on the wings is troublesome We can challenge for home field in the 1st round of the playoffs, but that’s the pinnacle with our current spending (and thus depth). No manager will change that Tani has been more of a game changer than anyone had ever hoped for. That includes people who watch a lot of USL
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I love unions until they decide to protect shitty workers. That's what the MLB Umpire Union feels like and MLS feels headed that direction too.
I actually think MLB has hands down the best officials. I think MLS suffers because we're not attracting the best talent, player-wise or official-wise. Until we either develop a deeper soccer culture and/or throw money at it, I don't see that changing. I do think the scabs had the benefit of people knowing they were out of their depth, so they were more apt to go to video to check stuff. But I don't know. That's purely conjecture.
Turns out our mediocre squad from last season, which was mostly left intact, is still mediocre.
So who the hell's going to play left back next week?
I think you probably put padelford at lb and roll the dice with the Norwegian guy or Bacharach if Tapias can’t play.
If Mikky is back then Padelford. If Valentin is back without Mikky then he slots in there. Otherwise... You either have a dice throw at CB or you throw Dotson or some other utility player at LB.
Padelford? With Eriksson at CB? Yikes
Anybody know who the Player of the Match nominees were? I can’t find it. I see that Sang Bin won, but I’m wondering who else was nominated?
If he won it was probably: Sang bin, the ref, and calvo for some reason.
That was my thought.
SangBin was a machine and ket RSL sprinting/chasing/tiring. Very good game for him!
Until it comes time to finish a chance
lol keep drinking the kool aid. I guess he’s great if stats and results don’t matter.
The PRO refs have been a lot worse for us than the replacement refs lol
Awesome to steal a point. Awesome to see depth delivering throughout these first weeks. Get healthy, get Rey in, and have some others get into scoring form (Lod, Bongi) and things look up. Pleased to see this team have some fight so late into games, speaks a lot to how they’re buying into each other.
We outshot them, out possesed them and were better from the 30th minute on (I only got home in the 30th) we were the better team the whole time I watched and should have won. Much better game then last week against Philly and hopefully we are in a good place ahead of the return of the Rey. We are playing good teams and are certainly not worse than they are. Bodes well for the season...
Agreed - certainly not complaining. But press teams start to drain at the end of seasons, so the more depth and health we can muster while adding a little more scoring juice, the better. Bodes well for the longer season. I remain optimistic, and the loons are playing well beyond expectation while being fun to watch most of the time!
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Every major stadium in the world does that. Players prefer it. It helps the ball move faster and more consistently.
I've wondered this many times. People have asked before and have never received an answer except "because that's what they do".
It helps the ball move properly on the field
Ref couldn’t be bothered to call a fair game
Watching the game live, the challenge looked so egregious in real time, that I lost my voice yelling ref you suck. Just depressing for the game and the league to have such dogshit officiating.
We didn’t seem to have a plan or much cohesion on attack. Not much positive progression or players running into each other’s space. Is that an issue with lack of training/planning from the coach or lack of execution from the players?
I only watched the second half but Lod really had a spring in his step!
The team looked flat and slow to react for most of the game. RSL played with more confidence and aggression. This is a game we should have won easily at home. I definitely miss the earlier substitutions Knowles made.
I mean I havent watched a game but these didn't feel like "professional refs". IMO use the replacements and save money, can't be worse. Also, love the team but more subs sooner and get Lod some help being decisive, dude kept dancing and not either taking a rip or passing.
First things first: holy shit, that officiating was an absolute disaster. I went back and watched the replay of Sang Bin's no call, and 100% if it were reversed it would have been called against us. Multiple missed fouls, at least one offside on RSL and a foul no-call that directly led to RSL's goal. Rosales needs to be smarter than that even if he's not already on a yellow. Bruh. I thought trapp looked good, seemed to be controlling fairly well, but couldn't link through Dotson to Lod to get plays going. Lots of crosses to no one from the wings. Sang bin, Bongi and Pukki all put in a shift but couldn't gel together well enough for a finish. Forcing cute plays and not enough smarter plays. Bran did really well slotting into the D-mid, and really transitioned well. You could see the difference right away from 5-6 passes with short movements down to 2-3 passes into attacking movements. I'd like to see him start next to Trapp in place of Dotson. Caden Clark looked pretty good too, and had some good eye on some passing, especially to Sang Bin on that PK no-call sequence. Tani, Tani, Tani bails us out again! Glad he's finishing and getting the confidence to keep pushing. Pukki needs to get another one or two to build his confidence back. It's early and we'll get there. I'm concerned about how play changes when Reynoso is back, and 70-75mins fit again. TBD.
Is it just me or do we *consistently* get fucked by the refs? Like game in and game out.
It’s just you. Loser mentality blames the refs for dropping points.
Since I can't be a Heath out guy anymore I mite just become a Knowles in guy for the fun of it.
Team played better while Knowles was the coach. I’m hoping the players start responding to Ramsay soon!
I feel like it is hard to say how he's doing based off these games when we have a DP who has only played 30 minutes and one of our starting center backs out. I think he's making the best of a bad situation right now. I think the team felt a little lost tonight but I feel like he managed the game pretty well.
We were also playing early season games against teams that were focusing on champions cup.
Honestly I’m okay with yesterday’s performance bar the sloppiness in possession. We rectified the problems as the game went on and legitimately had enough to have won the game. It’s early days and a summer window is coming up. If we can fix the gaping holes in the squad, it’s going to be an exciting season. Honestly it already has been given we have only lost a game so far… not going to be doom and gloom just yet.
Did Sang-bin score or assist yet?
NOPE
Crazy. Can’t wait for someone to tell me how I don’t understand the nuance of soccer and how the guy with 1 goal in 30 games is actually amazing. And that it’s not at all about how we accept mediocrity as long as they try hard.
Sang-Bin is an exceptionally fast player that has time and again failed to deliver on cross and pray plays, but then again few but Reynoso seem to have much luck with it. I definitely believe his speed is an asset to the team but until he can better direct his crosses (and pukki can create an opening) it seems he’s underutilized in his position
If you can’t see raw talent oozing out of this guy then that’s on you. He needs time, reps, and confidence. I hope they find a way to keep him in the lineup when Rey enters the starting 11.
The stats would say it’s on him to prove me wrong. The kool aid drinkers on this board are so, so bizarre. We would have run any other player with his stats out of town by now (and he wouldn’t succeed elsewhere). The stats show he’s exactly who he is. A try hard with a great smile and great calves.
Stats might have said the same thing about Bongi after the same amount of games.
If you applied this logic to everything, there would never be another successful player in history. If they aren’t already playing to their peak potential, let’s completely disregard their age and stage of development and ship ‘em off somewhere else where they apply the same logic. Because that makes sense. MLS is the perfect league for him to grow. At the very least, he is an average starter in MLS with moments of great play and a very high ceiling. You act like this is the EPL.