Right, as we’re all still a bit buzzing from the New York match, and I’ve talked in-depth about a few things, I thought I’d touch more lightly on some important factors bit by bit in our dominant win.
Defensively, we were solid: Nat Borchers and Chris Schuler did an excellent job of stopping the hot prospect in Agudelo and the aging star in Henry. While Thierry Henry is nowhere near his old dynamic Arsenal self, he can still be quite deadly, and he was never really given a chance to do that. It helps, of course, that he’s lost a bit of pace, but Borchers has some speed about him and Schuler’s long legs power him up and down without trouble. That kid, that Schuler, he could be something, couldn’t he? He’s done ever so well to cut the mistakes out of his game bit by bit, and he’s at this point an effective backup for either of our two first-choice central defenders.
Our midfield performance was nice and effective, and bar Luis Gil’s goal, wasn’t exactly the dazzling stuff we sometimes see. That said, the whole side buckled down and passed with fluidity and precision, and while Gil could certainly do with adding some more through-passing and refining his young vision, but there is something there, no doubt. But more interesting was the formation — the diamond tip was almost flattened out, with Andy Williams pushing on in the position at times and Gil in others, with Alvarez filling in across the midfield while he was on the pitch. The diamond formation (I’m still not entirely comfortable calling it that) works well for us when it’s flattened, especially without the dynamic movement and passing of Javier Morales.
So for the first time in weeks, we’ve had a nice little win without something controversial marring perceptions of the match. No maybe-a-dive, no unjust red cards, no miserable defending (from the Claret and Cobalt side) — nothing of the sort. The refereeing performance wasn’t golden, but it wasn’t miserable, either, and that was nice indeed.
That penalty that sealed our third goal was a bit unlucky, though calling it unjust would be unfair. (Unbelievable all these un- prefixed words, innit?) It was pure ball to hand, and you’ve got to feel for Roy Miller a bit there. But you connect with the ball in the box, whether your hands are at your side or not, it’s a pretty clear penalty, deserved or otherwise. On the run of things, a third goal was on its way, and there wasn’t much chance of New York coming back from that point, so it’s not too harsh. That said, if it went the other way, I might be a bit up in arms (no pun much intended) about the whole thing.
At any rate, I’ll dive into the stats a bit tomorrow perhaps and take things from that perspective. Don’t forget to check out Kyle Beckerman with the U.S. national team on Wednesday. Hope he does quite well there!
‘Till tomorrow!
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