jonovision Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Worst game I've seen from Froese. Hopefully it was just a one off for the team. Hard for me to evaluate individual players when the whole team was so sloppy. Missed passes, for instance, aren't always on the passer if the receiver is making the wrong run. For instance, Teibert looked worse than he has in other matches, but I put a lot of that on Flores. Froese, though, was disappointing relative to some other performances. Bustos, for me, was bright in his time on the pitch. I like Adekugbe better at LB than LW but he was ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 I was just glad to see Sam finally get back. Long time for his ankle injury to heal. Ben just had his "successful" knee surgery so he will be out a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted August 8, 2015 Share Posted August 8, 2015 Hurtado going to a team trying to stay in top flight, first time up in over 20 years. So should be competitive. I said out loud to those I was with that neither Hurtado nor Rodriguez would be with Caps next year, two weak links, the first after doing his role last season, the second always a bit uncertain and, for me, not good enough for this level. Diego has serious defects (he does not even come out for offside trap as he needs to hold back to feel more secure defending), which even show up playing for WCII. A good case of a nice looking big guy who is actually a lot worse than you think he should be. Morales also was rusty, way off form, on Wed vs. Sounders. Teibert and Flores looked bad, esp Russell, but that was mostly Robbo's fault, had to give one more range and have the other hold, or else play them side by side and alternate. Neither moved to cover out wide and we were regularly at a disadvantage deeper into our end. Agree about Froese, poor match. No concerted effort getting ball back and weak side to side movement covering. Mattocks was not sharp and did dumb backheel passes, still positioned terribly on high balls no matter how well he jumps, Rivero is really way better. Only players that stood out well all game were Parker, excellent and really coming up well, and Tornaghi, nice to know your sub keeper is experienced and ready. Dean was also pretty good considering he was out of position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 9, 2015 Share Posted August 9, 2015 4 to zip against RSL's B team. Okay the teams we have faced recently are not at top form but it is great to see us just killing them. That is exactly what we should be doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 In the "That sucks royally" category we have the Caps giving up a 3-1 lead with 10 minutes to go and losing 4-3 to Kansas City. Uggg. After playing a near perfect counter attacking road game we melt down in the last 10 minutes and lose. Ouch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 In the "That sucks royally" category we have the Caps giving up a 3-1 lead with 10 minutes to go and losing 4-3 to Kansas City. Uggg. After playing a near perfect counter attacking road game we melt down in the last 10 minutes and lose. Ouch. Doubly sucky after the Montreal meltdown mid-week. Will Wednesday be redemption night or part of a tragi-comic three game slide?. Personally I feel like this team is on the cusp of something great. It might be now or never as I feel as the likes Morales (not at his payscale and injury rate) and Rosales (and Earnshaw) are not useful enough to keep around for next year and the Caps are bound to sell Manneh and Mattocks sooner rather than later. Can't expect the Caps to atop the west and genuine contenders very often over the years, even with a current brilliant young core. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soccerpro Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Doubly sucky after the Montreal meltdown mid-week. Will Wednesday be redemption night or part of a tragi-comic three game slide?. Personally I feel like this team is on the cusp of something great. It might be now or never as I feel as the likes Morales (not at his payscale and injury rate) and Rosales (and Earnshaw) are not useful enough to keep around for next year and the Caps are bound to sell Manneh and Mattocks sooner rather than later. Can't expect the Caps to atop the west and genuine contenders very often over the years, even with a current brilliant young core. I agree with the roster moves. Morales seems like a liability out there, aside from his free kicks and odd long driven pass. Rivero has been awful in front of net after his hot start to the season. It would sure help if he could score once in a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 I agree with the roster moves. Morales seems like a liability out there, aside from his free kicks and odd long driven pass. Rivero has been awful in front of net after his hot start to the season. It would sure help if he could score once in a while. And just like that Morales is signed to a multi-year extension: http://www.whitecapsfc.com/post/2015/08/17/wfc-re-sign-morales You'd think missing half of your season injured, missing nearly every non-dead ball shooting opportunity despite being nominally a ball placement expert and being outplayed by a guy making 80K on loan would mean a player might be out of a job at season's end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 I'm glad to see it to be honest. We need those free kicks. He is coming back from injury and has been looking a lot better recently. He will never be a total player that can do offence and defence. He will be a star at the first and passable at best at the second. That is why teams have players like Laba, Gersh & Russ. I'm hoping the extension puts him in a more relaxed mindset and he starts scoring, assisting and getting back to the play maker he is capable of being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 ^ If we played on grass I might be half as optimistic as you but this is not the building to be hosting hobbled veterans wih little tenacity to play through niggles, fancy new turf or no fancy turf. Love the player (the overall skills) by they way, and seems like a first-class guy. I just think you need a lot more from an attacking DP these days in MLS. I doubt he survives until next summer, be that because of serious injury or a mutual termination. Hope I'm wrong, though. And for the record, I personally am just fine with Rivero, even without the goals. The fact that he has to be so closely marked, sometimes 2-1 leaves so much more space for the likes of Manneh and Techera and co. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shamrock Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 ^ If we played on grass I might be half as optimistic as you but this is not the building to be hosting hobbled veterans wih little tenacity to play through niggles, fancy new turf or no fancy turf. Love the player (the overall skills) by they way, and seems like a first-class guy. I just think you need a lot more from an attacking DP these days in MLS. I doubt he survives until next summer, be that because of serious injury or a mutual termination. Hope I'm wrong, though. And for the record, I personally am just fine with Rivero, even without the goals. The fact that he has to be so closely marked, sometimes 2-1 leaves so much more space for the likes of Manneh and Techera and co. Agree with you on expecting more from DP's nowadays. Just look how important Giovinco is for TFC (on the other hand, Morales still beats Altidore on value for the team). Hope it has to do with that injury cause after last season, I was expecting him to bring more not less in 2015. Regarding Rivero, let's not forget he has been playing for over a year now without a break. His season is now at 41 games and 19 goals (not counting the 17 games he played for Rentistas in the first half of 2014). You cannot underestimate (mental) fatigue. Like with World Cup stars who rarely bring their form into the new season (and some of the league stars don't bring it into the WC). He started superhot. Now he's having trouble scoring but he can't have lost his skills as a player. In time he'll be fine (don't know if that will be this season though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 After the heartbreaking meltdown last week it is good to see them not get psych'd out and they played a great game against Dallas. Nice way to bounce back with clean sheet and win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 I think rarely in the history of football will you find a team leading a league with a real chance of winning able to play so shockingly badly. Today was not inexperience, it was total defensive disorganization, no concerted committment to getting the ball back and terrible positional play from the midfield, once again. So many times Dallas had us outnumbered in their attacking third, it was atrocious. And some Cap running back late to get on the right side of a mark or the ball. Thing is, we have all these wins we did not deserve like today (only showed anything after scoring), and then some dumb lost points like vs. KC last week that prove we can be incredibly good if the committment of the players and coach (Robinson has not really analyzed errors well, has he?) is there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 I thought Gersh & Laba did great. Dallas is a very good offensive team. I agree that some, like Manneh & Techera, did very sloppy passes in the middle of the field giving the ball away but our back 4 plus the 2 DM's held it together. Waston and Parker were also very strong. Dallas is a very hard team to play and we play them twice more in the last 8 games. Dallas have great runs in the attacking third and that can (and did) make teams look exposed. I disagree about our back 6. The ones in front of them (Rivero excepted) showed little fight to get back a lost ball some times. All their energy was spent on attacking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Gersh and Laba look great because when the ball comes near where they are parked, they look great. But they have little range and are poorly coordinated. A potential double defensive mid set-up should allow one player to come out of the hole and meet the opponent, higher up and especially wide. The only thing I liked, apart from Manneh's confidence, was how we time-wasted, drew out injuries, made slow throw-ins and were a pain in the butt in the second half. We got the win, I'll take it. But for me, on the night, Dallas was a notably better team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dub Narcotic Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 This was an exhausted team with a bit of a confidence issue after two late collapses playing a very good opponent. They got the goal when they were up top and then sat back in the second half without conceding almost any good chances throughout the game. Very solid performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 0-2 loss in Houston. Both Laba and Waston get 2 yellows and are now going to miss the next game. All 4 yellows were probably deserving. No PK awarded when Mattocks was pulled from behind in the box on a break and Waston got mugged on several corners for no call. That is life in the MLS with their officiating. Very tired bunch but they get 10 days off. Missing Waston and Laba in the same game could be problems. Missing either one is big but both is going to create problems I hope we can overcome. On the good news side Sam made the field for the last 30 minutes and did some very nice offensive runs. Still a lot of rust but he's on his way back and that is great to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuzzAndSting Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 When are the Caps going to come out with a old school retro 3rd jersey? White with the blue and white "Whitecaps" banner across the front, red number over the left chest, blue arms with maple leafs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 Some very rare poor managing from Robbo, I thought, as the formation (which I thought was brave and which liked in general) put Laba under extra pressure and he didn`t adjust once he had the early yellow. Houston went for him, like they did with Waston, and I would have liked to have seen the manager swap in Koffie at half time. Also, bringing in Sam (as nice as it is to see the odd Canuck) instead of a spark like Techera (and then taking off Manneh) made little sense to me when they were already behind and desperate. Also, Ousted was clearly not right and could have used the night off, no matter what he said the gaffer earlier in the day. Yeah, you could say they were tired and that they heat sapped them but a lot of this hot mess could have been avoided, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soccerpro Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 I really like Robbo and respect the need for certain players to be rested, but I think he got it wrong in Houston. Flores should be in USL not MLS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 Flores was definitely a weak link. Laba had to cover for him a lot whereas Russ did fine on his side. Flores is now 4th DM and will be challenged by Kianz for RM duties behind Techera. He's young but I don't rate him ahead of Kianz who is a similar age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shermanator Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Flores is on loan, correct? Are the Whitecaps planning on signing him or extending his loan spell? If not, the Whitecaps should staple his ass to the bench for the remainder of the year and ship him back to Honduras. To play him makes absolutely no sense in either the short or long term picture, considering his current form is poor, and he is not a part of the plans come December. Likewise with Diego Rodriguez. There's no need to play him in either MLS or USL if he is not in the plans come December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmcmurph Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Both were brought in amid much hype but haven't panned out. I doubt we'll see either next year. Parker has made Rodriguez superfluous. I think that may have been Flores last chance. Next MLS game we'll see if Kianz makes the bench. I'm betting that is the last we'll see of Flores in MLS. Probably play some in the CCL games this fall and given our injuries probably USL but based on performance so far he won't be back in MLS this year or next. Techera is making things happen so he's stepped up his game but the other 2 have not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Flores has some interesting potential and it still quite young, and as Robbo said the other day, he's never been properly coached (or something like that). He has to learn tactical and positional play, and the mental part, but has an upside. Rodriguez is clearly not good enough, even for USL he is not that interesting. So agreed there he should go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted August 31, 2015 Share Posted August 31, 2015 Adekugbe could finally start again next game with two red cards on the file. That SHOULD also get Froese back on the bench for sure, but because Laba was one of the cards, Flores might just get one more chance, with a shortened midfield. Edit: Just realized next weekend Teibert and Adekugbe will be gone, so yeah, no start for Sam, but an additionally shortened midfield, with Laba, Teibert, and a probably still injured Morales all out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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