They beat us because they are deeper. Games like this excite me more than depress me though. TFC competed with one of the best teams in the league and took it to them. Once we can bring on guys like Sergio Santos and DeAndre Yedlin instead of Alonso Coello and Kobe Franklin, we'll be right there with Cincinnati.
Never feels like a hell of a statement when we just witnessed a fifty fifty match that's a couple of inches on a couple of plays away from a one goal winOriginally Posted by Amir.
I'm proud of this team. Cincy is top class and we could have easily earned a result tonight despite being short handed.
With a full squad, I think we are very close to being at their level.
Had a dinner tonight and didn’t get to watch live but the box score makes it look like a hell of a ride!
Fun game to watch at the stadium and I thought tfc were going to pull it out. Would have be nice to have Fede playing.
Next person in here who complains about Insigne can pound sand
Guy played his heart out all over the pitch and drove the team forward all game
Don't disagree. Boys played hard. Putting 3 past Cinci is impressive its the most goals they've conceded in a game all season.
But man, if we had Fede, Richie and some better subs.
Personally speaking, this off season I would dump Mabika, Kosi, Mailula, possibly Kerr... we need to level up our bench.
Just back from the game. My first game this year. A whole bunch of stream of consciousness thoughts…
- we have tremendous heart. I cannot remember any edition of TFC, ever, like this exactly. Our championship teams had heart too but they were loaded. This team is a middle of the pack team, with great fight.
- much as we could have stolen this had one of those two late chances gone in (just before the Cinci winner), it wasn’t a 50/50 game. Cinci had an unreal number of quality chances. It was 1-0 TFC in the 50th minute, but the number of quality chances was 5-0 or something in favour of Cincinnati at that point. I would say it ended up being 12-6 (I say this without having looked at xG, will look in morning). Our backline got exposed pretty badly throughout.
- Cinci are extremely impressive, very poised and talented. I enjoyed watching them.
- It is trite to bother saying this, but that ref was not up to it. A ton of calls were missed both ways. It is really frustrating how the reffing lags the development of the league.
- we have a lot of misconnecting going on in attack, even though we scored three. Many sequences broke down because a ball got played to nowhere.
- Insigne is in the middle of a lot of these. I know he scored twice, and had that great service on the first goal, it feels churlish to complain… but it wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops for him tonight. He relies on technical combo play in space, but that isn’t Mertens and Naplitano he is playing with, and it seems to throw him. He got visibly upset with JMR multiple times. He also dribbled into traffic a couple of times in crucial moments. Lorenzo wasn’t “bad” or anything, but the stats flatter him, it wasn’t a truly great game from him.
- who knew Deybi Flores had a perfect technical header on corners, as part of his game?
- also that bit of skill JMR showed, where he reversed field in the box and hit it with the outside of the boot, so close, that was impressive
- also Prince really has a complete game. He is a load, tracks back, has tremendous fitness (he was still pressing late)… I really am not sure we need a 9. I think he just needs time to gel, and will score 10 in the second half of the season
- Oso didn’t show much. Sigh. I love the guy, I know its the first game back but… tick tock. We badly need him to be dangerous, it would help unlock Prince, and much else…
- If you saw all the TFC games at BMO this past week, you saw 22 goals scored. I bet you won’t be able to say that sentence again in the next 100 years.
- Best game I have been at in Toronto in years. Echo everyone else's view that this team is a pleasure to watch and cheer for… even in defeat.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Lots of intensity, drama on a perfect night for a match. It’ll be very satisfying when we have a deeper bench (for that matter a better starting eleven) when we are expecting to win these sort of matches. Next season. The stadium’s going to suitably lusty and full throated all the time. Thank f*cking god for Herdman and his staff.
As for the match itself, we lost concentration too often, too many individual mistakes on half the goals. But man had Insigne not been offside on the last one! (The ball to him from Coello was lovely.)
Last edited by los sonadores; 05-25-2024 at 10:17 PM.
Check out this tweet at https://x.com/SGAstarboy/status/1794546768765698471
Imagine if last night Insigne plays like he did and Berna played like he did last weekend?
Can we have a few matches where both of then play like that?
Looking back, I think the coaches got the second half wrong tactically. They moved the line of engagement back and formed into a mid block, but Cincy was very good at using the wingers cutting across to open that up, as well as dropping Acosta back a little.
If we'd managed to maintain high pressure until post 85th minute, we might've held them.
Throw in Richie on the opposite flank to Spicer and man, that's a lot more dangerous.
I think Oso might struggle to keep his first team spot. He's much better than people give him credit for, as his biggest skill is helping possess and advance the ball.
But Longstaff seems just as good, but has more engine and more offensive upside so far. Oso still seems a little off his best from 2018/19.
Clearly, Flores gets the six role ahead of Coello. But the other mid I guess we go game to game, week to week.
I wonder if he plays Richie as a wb, as we've become accustomed, or leaves Fede there and puts Richie next to Insigne underneath the striker. Fede looks so good when he has to play two ways, but he's not a great presser normally when he starts underneath.
Last edited by jloome; 05-26-2024 at 03:56 PM.
Herdman had no choice. We couldn’t keep it up. Insigne isn’t that guy, and once Spicer came off, the press was over.
Most teams can’t keep it up, to be fair, the fitness level required is otherworldly.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
With Berna, Richie, Flores and Spicer all on it may have been possible.
Herdman has an idea of a perfect system if we had everyone.
But as he said himself this weekend, having everyone only happens once a season.
The Saturday approach was probably the best option for us given we don't have the players Cincinnati does(again something Herdman acknowledged)
If anyone feels bad about losing the draw against Cincy
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/fotmob/status/1795175445383540963
I haven't kept up or looked into it, but on Footy Prime last week they were saying that Marsch might hire him as an assistant...!?!
Have not seen it posted here or anywhere else so I sure as heck hope not.
The interview I saw was more Jesse thanking him and saying he learned from Bob. I don't think Bob would accept any assistant role and it would just be an odd fit given how hated he is by TFC fans.
I think the speculation is about Michael, not Bob, joining Jesse’s staff.
Less opposed to that. Would definitely make the USMNT fans hate him even more haha.
^I am opposed to it.
TFC did a horrible job of developing youth in Michael's years here. Given his leadership role here for all those years, he owns some of that.
Then Bob/Michael ran off JRR and Shaff.
Talk to me in 2030. Michael needs to have better credentials than he currently has for this position, imho.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Exactly and also I don't want to see our national team staff become the Sons of Bob. Would it kill Marsch to look at some of his former assistants at Leeds or Salzburg?
Well Marsch can't hire a top assistant yet - Armas isn't due to get fired until 2025
Sets us up good for 2026.
Agreed. They need other perspectives. At a minimum one senior guy (similar to Robin Fraser with Vanny) who serves as a gut check.
But CSA being the CSA I expect everything to be half assed. They are claiming they kept the squad to 26 cause they want a tight group. I think the more obvious explanation is they are poor.
The irony if Bob Bradley had a position named MLS Canada Men’s National Team Assistant Coach Brought to You by Toronto FC.
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