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Disaster. Was it Watson and Pizz?


massimo

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In my opinion these two guys didn't gel at all.

From what I saw yesterday, both goals were due to mistakes made by Pizzolito. He didn't look like he was in the game at all. It was just sad.

Maybe would have been better to put Pizz with Gervais..at least they together regularly. But its easy to say that now looking back.

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I've only seen Gervais play once (so I don't know him well), but I would put him ahead of Watson.

ALTHOUGH, as you say, it was Pizz at fault on both goals last night.

Adding to the "DISASTER" theme, Onstad is a disaster. He will NEVER win a game for us by making the big save. He has HORRIBLE distribution skills. I have never seen anything valuable in his contributions to the NATS (except his dedication). I shake my head every time I see his name on the team sheet.

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I would say that the whole game was pretty quiet for the Canadian defense except for those 2 goals.

These guys simply didn't have it!

Another obvious reason is that the finishing wasn't at all. However Occean did have a couple of good chances.

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Okay , I'll paint with the broad brush . I saw a bunch of guys who have made it to the top 2 tiers of pro soccer and didn't give a rats arse how this game went 'cuz it ain't gonna make them any more $$ in the leagues the play in . There's no endorsement dough for them here .

I've seen many Mt. A v U de Moncton games where players had more heart.

And we wonder why soccer is a hard sell in this country. Kudos to RSN for showing this fiasco.

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quote:Originally posted by François

Nevio was awful. I see him play all year and I'm telling you, that's not the real Pizzolito.

I still thing Gervais is a better defender than Nevio...He didn't seemed focused on the game. He was always a step behind...I'm depressed...

I feel your pain Francois... I agree totally. i just don't understand how his play can change like that within a week's time.

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quote:Originally posted by Mimglow

Adding to the "DISASTER" theme, Onstad is a disaster. He will NEVER win a game for us by making the big save. He has HORRIBLE distribution skills. I have never seen anything valuable in his contributions to the NATS (except his dedication). I shake my head every time I see his name on the team sheet.

I'm with you on that one... Onstad can win all the accolades he wants in the MLS, 'keeper of the year, etc.. but he simply doesn't make the big save when we need it. The fact that we were passing back to him gave me chills every time too. Even when he wasn't under pressure he'd hoof the ball on the roll instead of stopping and controlling it - usally shanking it way out of bounds. I like Onstad, I think he's a great guy and I don't question his dedication at all, but I think he's cursed.

Passing back to our keeper in this game was worse than useless, the players could've just knocked it out of play themselves. Onstad can't kick a moving ball... it shanks out or goes straight up. The other thing that bothers me about him is that he doesn't even seem to want to _try_ to stop shots. I haven't seen the tape of the game, but to be honest the first Ruiz goal looked to be onside at first viewing. The fact that Onstad was standing there with his arm in the air instead of making at least an ATTEMPT to snag the ball off Ruiz is just plain idiocy. Try to make the save first, THEN you can argue for offside.

Same for the second goal... seemed to me that the camera view was in tight on Ruiz so I couldn't see where Onstad was, but despite the defence letting Ruiz in alone, Onstad was clearly out of position and was really very easily chipped. I think Sutton probably would've been a better choice... but bring back Lars. Either way, Onstad MUST have played his final game for us.

Like I said, I'm not questioning his loyalty, only his ability. Hell, call me up to the MNT and I'll show up every single time... no one will question my loyalty either. I can't say the same about my ability though.

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Overall he played better than Pizz, but come'on he has 72 caps hopefully he'd play better than Pizz since he is used to playing internationally.

As the "Experienced" central-D of the two, he should have been commanding from back there. Deploying the troops, whatever you want to call it. However that wasn't the case and the D was looked shaky all game long.

So in my opnion he didn't do his job at all.

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Just rewatched my videotape of the match. I watched both Guatemala goals over and over again on slow-mo. Here's my take:

First Guatemala goal

1) Stalteri got burned by the Guatemalan winger who set up Ruiz. If any defender was at fault for that goal, it was Stalteri.

2) Once the winger was past Stalteri, Watson did the right thing by peeling off of Ruiz to take the man with the ball. If Watson hadn't started closing him down, the man with the ball would have had a clear path to the net and an easy goal. This left Pizzolitto to cover Ruiz. (There was also a trailing Guatemalan attacker but Jazic had him covered.)

3) Pizzolitto made a smart play on Ruiz by pulling up and putting Ruiz offside. The Salvadoran linesman just f*cked up the call. Pizzolitto's only other option besides pulling up to put Ruiz offside would have been to stay on him and try to tackle the ball when it came to Ruiz, but that would have been risky because of the possibility of Ruiz going down and drawing a penalty. In the circumstances, I think pulling to put Ruiz offside was Pizzolitto's best play and he was unfortunate to be burned by the terrible call.

4) Onstad was playing the man with the ball, as he should have done, and couldn't really be expected to cut out the pass to Ruiz or stop Ruiz's shot.

Second Guatemalan goal

Ruiz totally burned Pizzolitto on this one. He just turned on his jets and blew past him to get to the long ball before anybody else. Onstad started to charge out to challenge Ruiz but then, oddly, pulled up. This gave Ruiz the easy chip shot opprtunity since Onstad was stuck in no-man's land.

I don't know whether to blame Onstad for this or not, since it's kind of a chicken-and-egg problem: did Onstad pull up because he saw that Ruiz was going to try to chip him or did Ruiz chip him because Onstad pulled up? What I do know is that Ruiz burned Pizzolitto badly.

Overall, I thought Watson had a decent match. Pizzolitto had two problems: a) he couldn't handle Ruiz and B) I hated the way he kept giving the ball away every time he got it with long balls that went straight to the Guatemalan defenders. Onstad's distribution was crap as well.

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quote:Originally posted by MikeD

I don't know whether to blame Onstad for this or not, since it's kind of a chicken-and-egg problem: did Onstad pull up because he saw that Ruiz was going to try to chip him or did Ruiz chip him because Onstad pulled up? What I do know is that Ruiz burned Pizzolitto badly.

It would've been nice if he made his decision earlier and did one or the other. A whole-assed attempt at the ball would've been better than the half-assed attempt that left him stranded in no man's land.

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quote:Originally posted by Mimglow

Adding to the "DISASTER" theme, Onstad is a disaster. He will NEVER win a game for us by making the big save. He has HORRIBLE distribution skills. I have never seen anything valuable in his contributions to the NATS (except his dedication). I shake my head every time I see his name on the team sheet.

Although I am a supporter of Onstad, (we have had this discussion before), I have to agree that he was dreadful last night[xx(]. I am going to jump on the bandwagon and say that it is time to put someone else in goal. We cannot afford another loss like this. I vote for Sutton, as he is having a terrific year, but I am also open to bringing Lars back. Yallop has got to be concerned with the play of Onstad (and the horrid defense). It was too easy against Belize and the faults were not so glaring, but now against a better team, we looked like a bunch of amateurs.

Damn, I thought that venting would help....but no, it still hurts.

A word to De Rosario: Shoot, tabernacle!!(French swear word)

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quote:Originally posted by Alberto7

[A word to De Rosario: Shoot, tabernacle!!(French swear word)

Exactly...what was up with that..even though he was playing mid...

He's a friggin' striker!! Shoot, shoot. I kept on rolling the video clip of that amazing goal he scored..was it last week. and last night...well, you know!

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The central D weren't good, but I didn't think they were that bad. Pizzolitto got burned on the second goal. His distribution was bad. Other than that, he was okay. Watson wasn't bad. He was better than I expected. Pessarozzi is the second best player Guatemala has and he was invisible last night. someone did a very good job of marking him and frankly I think it was Watson.

Maybe Nevio shouldn't have tried to play Ruiz offside on the first goal, but honestly, name me a Canadian central defender who is going to run stride-for-stride with Ruiz for 20 yards as Nevio had to do? I got no one.

cheers,

matthew

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The central D weren't good, but I didn't think they were that bad. Pizzolitto got burned on the second goal. His distribution was bad. Other than that, he was okay. Watson wasn't bad. He was better than I expected. Pessarozzi is the second best player Guatemala has and he was invisible last night. someone did a very good job of marking him and frankly I think it was Watson.

Maybe Nevio shouldn't have tried to play Ruiz offside on the first goal, but honestly, name me a Canadian central defender who is going to run stride-for-stride with Ruiz for 20 yards as Nevio had to do? I got no one.

cheers,

matthew

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our central defence was terrible. from where i sat in section b everyone - even the guats - knew that it was our two central defenders that are the weak link. everyone agreed that outside of bircham and stalteri everyone else played very well with poor finishing. onstad was useless and hirsch MUST get called up for the next matches. even if it's to backup sutton.

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The Central Defence was horrible. Slow footed and slow to react.

I had the misfortune of watching a Stampede (Calgary variety) parade once where a young aboriginal girl fell out of a wagon right in front of me. I was stuck 5 rows up some temporary bleachers and I could tell that the loaded trailer was going to run over her but there was nothing I could do about it except call out. Mean while, the drivers and the four guys walking alongside of the wagon were so wrapped up in waving at the crowd, they did not notice the danger that threatened.

That was the way that Watson and Pizzolitto played Central Defence last night. They did not recognize danger fast enough to avert the tragedy. Yeah, Stlateri got burned on the first goal, but Watson was slow to react as was Pizzolitto. Central Defenders have to be ready to cover for an outside back if they are playing high...they just have too. And pulling up to try the offside trap when the ball is going to the only dangerous player on the other team? Especailly when everyone and his dog should know that the Assistant Ref can't possibly keep up with a couple of fit 25 years olds racing down the sideline (Stalteri and trhe Guate who beat himm)...of course he was going to be out of position and not make the call. Mental error there. It was like that all night.

Once the ball was thumped into our zone and Watson, the last man back, was fricking well strolling back to get it...2 Guatemalans saw that and hustled to put him under pressure (they were not coming until they saw Watsons slow dance to the ball). He ended up having to hoof the ball out of bounds under pressure. It was a bloody awful display back there. Stalteri had an awful 20 mins then got it together to play so-so for the rest of the game. That made him the second best defender for Canada.

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I am not an Onstad supporter. However, I can't pin the first goal on him at all...the call was missed, and, frankly, our defense wasn't even remarkably bad on the goal. Stalteri got moved into the third deck, as has been said, but that was just superior style from the Guatemalan and no special failure on Stalteri's fault. It happens to the best of us. Pizzolito might have been trying to put Ruiz offside but he didn't seem to be trying very hard, and Onstad had no prayer. Fine. Everybody gives one up. The save was there, but it would have been an unbelievable stop and I can hardly say 'oh, Onstad sucks, he didn't rob Ruiz on an offside goal at point-blank range'.

The second goal, Onstad buggered up in a big way. Not the usual semi-indifferent sort of mistakes that we usually see from ol' Pat, but he simply tried to go both ways on challenging Ruiz vs. staying back. A blatant mistake, and it happens. Onstad was not good keeping the ball out last night, and, as has been discussed, he was woefully, horribly, unbelievably God-awful when it came to actually touching the ball with his foot, but it was not his loss to bear.

The defense as a whole, especially the central defense, has to eat this one. They weren't able to get the ball up to the midfield, and though they had moments of competence and strength, they cost us by folding like cheap tents under a usually-uninspiring Guatemalan attack. It's not like Ruiz was on a second plane, dipsy-doodling past everybody in Maradona-ian fashion. They just got past our defense without breaking a sweat. So, the four guys on defense take this loss in equal measure in my books. Onstad gets an assist, but no more. And remember: I don't like Onstad. I'm trying to be impartial here. :P

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Onstad gets a big assist because his clearance attempts gave the ball right to Guatemala and put them right back on the Attack.

But at the same time our defenders went back to Onstad way to much, but that was because the other guys weren't trying to get into a position to help and they arn't comfortable with the ball.

people trying to put Brennan into our mid should consider him playing at the back, on the left side, thats where he plays mostly for Norwich when healthy. Devos and Mckenna in the middle and Stalteri on the right.

Lots of scenarios but all of them require these guys to play more often together, friendlies in Europe I suggest.

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