Ando

I don't know that we're committing fouls because of mental errors or anything like that, but there have been a few games where it seems like the other team gets an inordinate amount of dead balls in dangerous areas I don't have any numbers on that, but that's my impression. In terms of reasons why teams score on the counter fairly often - (1) we tend to be high up the pitch, and thus prone to in (2) partly as a result of our possession, the other teams are content to try and generate offense solely off the counter I'd rather give up one on the break every now and then, because I think that's inevitable given our style of play. What would be really discouraging was if the other teams were scoring a lot with the run of play

yeah you can't really expect a club to make footballing decisions based on fanbase whims that said, if they feel like taking a zip is a good fit, that'd be great for a few groups of people on a few different levels

Wasn't it Zarek who stopped that shot? Am I going crazy?

just as food for thought, here's another idea: both Quinn and Tommy operate as inside forwards (opposite footed wingers cutting in), Luke's a 10, and playing narrow gives plenty of room on the flanks to the fullbacks We can talk about shapes to death though, and what really probably matters is performance, movement, and creating/exploiting space - I'm willing to bet if you look at a typical akron heat map from last year (curious as to whether or not Porter collects this sort of data) you wouldn't really be able to guess our shape, just that lots of players were running around in the attacking third a whole lot

I don't think it's a bad idea - in a three man midfield I sort of seeing him playing the linking role ideally (think how Torres has been deployed for the USMNT lately), and let Holmes operate as the 10, but that's sort of been the opposite of how they've played this year. He might work in the 6 role, but traditionally I think you want more size there. I still prefer Balogun in the deepest mid spot I think. If Scotty starts burying some of his chances again, though, I think he's fine as leading the attack from the middle I still think we go 4-3-3.

I think, given our lack of real wingers, a 4-4-2 resembling more of a 4-2-2-2 (think Villareal - and actually sort of how we played last year) might make sense: -----Holmes/Schmitt - Mattocks ------- ------------- Caldwell - Trapp ---------- ------------- Balogun - Brenes --------- Stevenson - Gallego - Barson - Yedlin -------------------- Meves ---------------

I tend to agree that in terms of creating, we actually played pretty well against WMU, but I'd be a little more concerned than Porter was in his post game interview with the finishing. I mean, the misses by Caldwell and Schmitt were just appalling. Those were complete sitters, not to mention the probably half-dozen or so half chances we had as well - The post-game highlights are a reel of horrors in terms of the number of misses Other than not putting the ball into the back of the net, I thought Darren played really well. I'm not going to clamor for him to get a strike partner, because I definitely think he can operate as a lone center forward; in fact, it's probably important to remember that this is soccer at a developmental level and playing as a target man instead of just a poacher has forced Darren to add things to his game that just weren't there last year. For him, that's more important than getting results - And he was the one who put Tommy and Scotty in on what should have both been goals, hands down. So while I was calling for a change for to a 442 about halfway through the season, I don't want that now because (1) 442 doesn't really lend itself toward possession soccer in and of itself and the players aren't used to playing with each other in that shape, and (2) it's probably better for Darren (who, let's be honest, is above and away the player on this team with the highest ceiling) in the long run, even if he's best going back to the 'Welbeck role' at the next level and (3), I don't think we have the same quality candidates that we had last year to play wide midfield positions

Montero's goal was as dependent on bad clearing almost as much as Hassli's I'm giving the nod to Nags, but I like Hassli's strike a lot and Chumiento did the Henry move which I'm always a fan of

I don't like the idea of everyone participating because it takes away from the significance of the regular season - placing emphasis on knockout tournaments is a very American phenomenon to begin withRPI is a little arbitrary to use as a deciding factor in determining which teams are better too, but it seems fair to say that WMU isn't the 4th best team

the play by play seems to be working, but the clock isn't

I swear we used to do this a couple years agoAm I making that up?

I pick Aodan Quinn as the scapegoat

No Bunbury is probably due to there simultaneously being a senior team camp.

I eventually sort of see college soccer becoming a safety net in the same way college ice hockey is whether these sorts of changes happen or not. The best 16-18 year olds eventually are just going to stay with their clubs to play on the senior/reserve team, and the college system might have to content itself with the odd gem in the roughThis might speed that process up and made college soccer less fun a lot more quickly, though.We'll always need alternatives to academies here though, because lots of people aren't geographically in proximity to an MLS team.

The other thing worth mentioning is that we've been playing both saturday/wednesday games a few weeks in a row and some of the changes might have just been about keeping certain players fresh

Mostly the changes were of personnel, and not of tactics, but there were definite tactical implications of not playing the same playersGallego not having the same wheels as Yedlin, there were a lot less overlapping runs on the right side Another possible implication is that, when you want to play a high line, it's nice to have pacey centerhalfs (or at least one) who can close down the space left behind for defending balls over the top. A good example would be the Arsenal/Chelsea match this past weekend - Chelsea left themselves really vulnerable by playing a high line because Ivanovic and Terry aren't really all that fast, and the Arsenal wingers (Gervinho and especially Walcott), are incredibly quick. So, they were sort of playing with fire the entire match in that regard. I'm not for sure certain if DG is slower than Gallego, but at a glance he seems a more traditional tall shut-down sort of centerhalf than his freshman counterpart. The first goal was definitely scored on the break, so there's that.The last thing I might say about the backline isn't so much tactical as it is personal - Gallego and Barson have been batterymates all year, and that gives you a certain chemistry I think you can't really replicate on the training ground. So, while I think Matt's a more than adequate technical defender, I think the mere fact that Barson and himself haven't been establishing ways to find themselves on the same page all year partly contributed to the soft-ish goals. I thought the presence of two guys in the midfield we've been thinking of as holders rather than attackers resulted in not quite the rigid triangle we've seen all year, but something a little more fluid. In fact, this was the game with which I was most happy with the centermid play. I liked Holmes back on the wing, because that seemed to give us ability to take people on from both flanks 1v1(especially when Tommy came on for Aodhan). If we were to play a 4-4-2 diamond, I think Holmes would be an ideal CAM, but in our system I think putting him at mid just forces him to sit a bit deeper than where he's most usefulDarren's role was adjusted a bit tonight as well - He wasn't constantly searching for the final ball to slot home, but he also did a lot of standing with his back to goal and holding the ball up to bring others into play. I thought he did surprisingly well at this - Dude's a monster in the air. We also fielded a lineup with a lot more aerial prowess, which paid dividends on the Brenes goal. Tactics and personnel aren't totally separate things.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by "compete int the mac west"? Is there a prevailing set of tactics or something that makes this team more likely to compete there?Haven't really watched much of the women's team this year

I like 'just can't get enough,' too, celtic does that one really well.Toronto does it too but it's not as much fun

love how this starts off as a death march and then it goes nutshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c317n34c8gI mean lyrics would be pretty simple, just swap out "zippers" for timbers

I think it does require a university parking pass, although I'm not sure if they'll actually be out enforcing/ticketing during gametime - I would think you'd be fine without. I'll just be walking over from my house (I live about a block away), so you can just borrow my parking pass if you like. As for the drinking, they let it happen for football games, so I would think we're in the clear.

Porter's buy-out clause is pretty big if I recall correctly, so I'm willing to be he sees his contract here out

Twitter is blowing up with this right now:http://twitter.com/#!/search/caleb%20porterTab Ramos seems official as the u20

If this is true, then it'd be interesting to see what guys from the old band he brings in (also, it'll be interesting to see how long a leash Kilinsmann gives him in terms of player selection as well as tactic selection)Kitchen, Teal, and maybe Nagbe seem like the most realistic picks to me. Nagbe might not get a shot though because our u23 depth chart is almost the same as the senior team's depth chart at striker

No argument here. Pretty sure his gig as a u20 assistant played an integral role in some of our players picking Akron, though (Sarkodie, Valentin, Kitchen, Gallego, Souders, and I'm probably missing someone)

Yeah I'm inclined to believe the linesman just blew the call. Not gonna get salty about it, though, because this is a team we should have beaten in the first 90, and we didn't deserve it.