Tampa at Montreal Aug 10

[mtlfan]

Montreal blow two goal lead in final 5 minutes to finish with a 3-3 draw.

Meanwhile Fort Lauderdale win 1-0.

Edmonton drops to 6th place.

Montreal are 9 points behind Edmonton.

[Trident]

Sutton!

Sutton!

[the biologist]

^ Hope we don't get to see him ever again in goal for the Impact.

[Keano]

German style! Just because. 6 = terrible, 1 = man of the match

Gatti: 1; near perfect, winning balls all over and with some nice distribution.

Gerba (sub): 1.5; set up 3 goals and was dangerous out wide which is unusual for him.

Sebrango: 2; just a machine for his age, was just denied a hat trick by a close offsides call. Doesn't run after long passes or go hard into challenges anymore though. Not that I blame him.

Camara: 2.5; absolutely a class above in terms of touch and delivery, also anticipation and headers away... tended to make spectacular solo possession efforts that resulted in little, though. Has tentacles for legs and is very fun to watch.

Westlake: 3; no nonsense performance with a careful finish on his goal.

Aboubou: 3; largely invisible which is good.

Ubi (sub): 3; some nice passes, a couple of clattering challenges.

Pizzolitto: 3.5; ditto, but with one or two of his Special Long Balls to No-one. Had some good challenges though.

Billy: 3.5; effective but with one major coverage lapse that led to the second goal against.

Lowry: 4; some nice ideas and challenges, but lacking some touch.

Pore: 5; once again invisible except when making a strange pass to no-one.

Diouf: 5; nothing

Sutton: 5; rusty, soft on all 3 goals, seemed to have maybe gone to sleep a little due to long stretches untested.

LeGall (sub): 6; ran the ball out of touch a few times, did some beautiful Ronaldo footwork for no reason, wasted a golden counterattack that could've put it away 4-2.

DeSantis: 5; responded well at first to Diouf's lethargy by changing him for Gerba at the half which resulted in 2 quick goals. Inexplicably brought LeGall on for Pore when we were up 2 or 3 -1 and had holding options like Testo or Knowles which made zero sense and ultimately cost us the game IMO.

[Grizzly]

I have to disagree with your overall rating of the defenders. Unlike Minnesota the week before who put a lot pressure on them that they were unable to deal with, Tampa played terrible and scored 3 goals on something like 5 chances. I would not give any defender anything higher than a 4. Sure Gatti and Billy made a couple of decent plays on the attack but when it came time to do their job, defending, they proved incapable.

Also Billy was not the only one responsible for the 2nd goal, I would say Pizzo, Aboubou and Gatti and probably a midfielder were far more responsible (have you seen the replay? http://www.montrealimpact.com/News/News.aspx?language=EN) . On the goal the eventual goal scorer, King, is given the ball in the middle of the pitch and Pizzo moves up to close him down. At this point I think Billy is reasonably well positioned as LB. However, Tampa sneaks a guy down the pitch along the sideline away from the action. This player almost certainly should have been picked up by a midfielder as if Billy leaves his spot it will leave the left side too open. King passes the ball off to this player on the left at which point Billy runs over to close him down and Pizzo just ball watches, staying where he is and letting King go completely free towards the net. Billy shuts down the player with the ball so he has to pass it so he makes a soft pass in front of the net. The first Tampa attacker is being marked not very closely by Aboubou, Pizzo is way behind the play and Gatti decides to go over to mark that attacker instead of staying where he should be and where he could be effective (he is behind this attacker and unable to do anything, Gatti is guilty of following the ball instead of playing his position). Additionally, Aboubou could have easily slid and blocked the pass but did not. Because Pizzo was way behind the play and let him go, and Gatti let the whole right side of the net open, King has an easy tap in. Horrible defending. I don't think you can blame Sutton on this goal although he did not look very good on the other two goals.

The only defender on the Impact I could see making the jump is Billy and that is only because I think he has the skill level to play MLS. He has certainly played terribly this year and has been barely passable as a NASL defender. However, if he were to start playing better he does have the skills for MLS.

I also don't think Pore was quite as bad as you say though he was not very effective when he had chances to do something. However, he is really fast and did create at least one opportunity early on with his speed. Also there was another play where Gatti lost his man and was not fast enough to catch up to him but Pore was able to run him down and negate a scoring opportunity. Still one would expect more from Pore but it is only his 3rd game and Westlake did not look that great in his first three games but is starting to play well now.

PS. I think I forgot to answer you in another thread about your namesake Keane. I don't really have anything against him so maybe you are mixing me up with someone else. On the other hand I was not very impressed with his behaviour with Ireland in the famous incident in 2002 so I may have posted something critical about him at the time. He had some success as a coach with Sunderland but was not so successful in Ipswich. I am sure he understands a lot about the game but I think he is probably too hot headed to be a great manager over a long period of time. Could be a good manager for a team on a short term basis, ie. a team that is underperforming and needs to be shaken up/motivated for a year or two.

[the biologist]

The only defender on the Impact I could see making the jump is Billy and that is only because I think he has the skill level to play MLS. He has certainly played terribly this year and has been barely passable as a NASL defender. However, if he were to start playing better he does have the skills for MLS.

I completely agree with that statement. Other players I'd give a try to are:

• Bush (like his poise and knack for the ball, his decision-making is improving as the season goes)
  
• Gaudette (if back to his PR form)
  
• Camara (best naturally skilled MF)
  
• Diouf (shows flashes of great skill but follows that up with flashes of disappearance)
  
• Gerba (we HAVE to give him at least one chance)
  
• Le Gall (shows he can keep the ball and make great passes at times)
  
• Westlake (average overall skills but man I really like his attitude, the kind of player we'll end up with because 1) we're an expension team and 2) the coach is Jesse Marsch)
  

Not sure about Sinisa-my-name-looks-like-a-rainbow-on-my-jersey-Ubiparipovic, doesn't look bad but boy this guy was hated by NYRB fans and all there's left on the boards since he left is "GOOD RIDDANCE". Looks like a guy whose competence level falls between the 2 leagues, better skills than the average NASLer but too inconsistent and not effective enough to be a starter at the MLS level. Maybe as a bench guy ?

Finally, a sentimental choice (I know he won't make the cut and understand the reason why, couldn't even make the roster of a mediocre San Jose squad), now you see it coming, Antonio Ribeiro. Not skilled enough, yes, gets carded and oft-injured, yes and yes, but I said it was sentimental. Like Westlake, I really like his attitude and has a knack for the drama (remember him in that famous playoff victory over the Sounders in '08, was just subbed-in and on the field for like only two minutes when he scored in the 90th minute to give the team access to the semi-final round, since then he's Mr. Drama to me). I'd give him a try.

As for Mayard and Agourram, they both never really convinced me in a longer-than-a-couple-games span. Don't know what it is, I know they tend to get injured, but it's a personal feeling. The word opportunist is out of their vocabulary. They never get the most out of there chances, both generally speaking when they get playing time and when they have a real chance to bury it in, looks like they lose all composure and panic then they lose the ball or shoot 10-feet wide (speaking more of Agourram here, but Mayard doesn't look better most of the time). I'd make 'em stick with the club for another year to be patient, they both have potential, but they MUST show both their form and results are improving, they're kind of stalling lately.

[Keano]

I have to disagree with your overall rating of the defenders. Unlike Minnesota the week before who put a lot pressure on them that they were unable to deal with, Tampa played terrible and scored 3 goals on something like 5 chances. I would not give any defender anything higher than a 4. Sure Gatti and Billy made a couple of decent plays on the attack but when it came time to do their job, defending, they proved incapable.

Also Billy was not the only one responsible for the 2nd goal, I would say Pizzo, Aboubou and Gatti and probably a midfielder were far more responsible (have you seen the replay? http://www.montrealimpact.com/News/News.aspx?language=EN) . On the goal the eventual goal scorer, King, is given the ball in the middle of the pitch and Pizzo moves up to close him down. At this point I think Billy is reasonably well positioned as LB. However, Tampa sneaks a guy down the pitch along the sideline away from the action. This player almost certainly should have been picked up by a midfielder as if Billy leaves his spot it will leave the left side too open. King passes the ball off to this player on the left at which point Billy runs over to close him down and Pizzo just ball watches, staying where he is and letting King go completely free towards the net. Billy shuts down the player with the ball so he has to pass it so he makes a soft pass in front of the net. The first Tampa attacker is being marked not very closely by Aboubou, Pizzo is way behind the play and Gatti decides to go over to mark that attacker instead of staying where he should be and where he could be effective (he is behind this attacker and unable to do anything, Gatti is guilty of following the ball instead of playing his position). Additionally, Aboubou could have easily slid and blocked the pass but did not. Because Pizzo was way behind the play and let him go, and Gatti let the whole right side of the net open, King has an easy tap in. Horrible defending. I don't think you can blame Sutton on this goal although he did not look very good on the other two goals.

The only defender on the Impact I could see making the jump is Billy and that is only because I think he has the skill level to play MLS. He has certainly played terribly this year and has been barely passable as a NASL defender. However, if he were to start playing better he does have the skills for MLS.

I also don't think Pore was quite as bad as you say though he was not very effective when he had chances to do something. However, he is really fast and did create at least one opportunity early on with his speed. Also there was another play where Gatti lost his man and was not fast enough to catch up to him but Pore was able to run him down and negate a scoring opportunity. Still one would expect more from Pore but it is only his 3rd game and Westlake did not look that great in his first three games but is starting to play well now.

PS. I think I forgot to answer you in another thread about your namesake Keane. I don't really have anything against him so maybe you are mixing me up with someone else. On the other hand I was not very impressed with his behaviour with Ireland in the famous incident in 2002 so I may have posted something critical about him at the time. He had some success as a coach with Sunderland but was not so successful in Ipswich. I am sure he understands a lot about the game but I think he is probably too hot headed to be a great manager over a long period of time. Could be a good manager for a team on a short term basis, ie. a team that is underperforming and needs to be shaken up/motivated for a year or two.

Yes I ranked them based on my memory of seeing the game live, and upon viewing the replay I can see that Billy was not alone responsible for that goal. I would probably knock a point or two off of both Gatti and Pizzo accordingly were I to redo them.

On Keane yeah I must have wrongly remembered that conversation. Yes 2002 was disappointing as an Ireland fan.... until the team went on to all-time WC success without him which was funny and quite an "in your face" to him. Who knows what kind of manager he'll turn out to be; as you point out he's been a very good one and a very ordinary one in his two assignments.

[Keano]

Honestly LeGall and Gaudette I don't think so. Far too many apparent braincramps and inconsistencies. Bush and Camara to me are shoo-ins, with Gerba probable depending if he really regains form to close out this season. Diouf is tantalizingly talented but did absolutely nothing last game. Hopefully that was an anomaly. Westlake looks to be adapting and contributing faster than most imports do in their first North American experiences, so hopefully that's a good sign. I like his calmness on the ball which contrasts with the typical NASL panic attack when receiving a pass.