The one where we don’t start till the stop

1: Scoring, it better be Greek to us. The new Luiz looked like the old Luiz. His touches were poor. His decision making was bad and the penalty was embarrassing. He got the keeper to go, all he had to do was roll it in and instead he hit it well wide. Dunno what size goals he’s practicing on. He also had his customary # of shots into the stands. Truthfully the shot he had from outside the box was closer than his PK. Literally he was closer to scoring from 20 yards than he was from 12. 

 

2: For me Brad answered any lingering questions about his readiness. He had a great save, his distribution was fine and the goal we conceded was not on him. His leadership will be key in fixing things going forward. 

 

3: Transition, they had it, we did not. We got burned every time they won the ball back. Whether winning it in their own half or ours, their instinct was to immediately go to goal. On the flip side our instinct seemed to be play it back or knock it around mid park for a bit before inevitably coughing it up and scrambling to get back. If we’re gonna play such a high line, it sure would be nice if we did more in the attacking phase. Any time we did get near the 18 more often than not, we froze. San Jose had a clear style of attack and we look disorganized and just searching for an opportunity by any means necessary. 

 

4: I’ve seen enough of Jackson Conway. His instincts aren’t good enough. He doesn’t anticipate the ball like a striker should. He was constantly on the wrong side of his defender so that any time a ball did come his way, he was never going to get it. Unfortunately he’s not worth much more than being a tall target to hit off a corner. 

 

5: So, I’m a little worried about this win. Hear me out. We’ve had thrilling late winners before. This might be the best of the bunch. We should celebrate. I have no problem winning a match like this. Sometimes you need a bit of magic. I’m very happy with the 3 points. Truthfully I was happy with a single point. But it can’t paper over the fact that we were not good in virtually every phase of the game and it took two Goalazos from a World Cup winner to get the win. Pineda has had time. We’ve had a full pre season. I still do not see what we are trying to do or who we are trying to be and that concerns me.