Wednesday Orange Slices: MLS on NBC
by Zach Woosley on Aug 10, 2011 11:30 AM CDT
in Orange Slices
Email
Print
- Emotions mixed as Spencer returns [MLS Soccer]
- Confidence key to Dynamo's success [Houston Chronicle]
- Camargo should bolster Dynamo [Houston Chronicle]
- MLS, NBC announce three-year broadcast deal [MLS Soccer]
- Major League Soccer moving to NBC, dropping Fox Soccer Channel [Washington Post]
- MLSers Donovan, Márquez grace cover of FIFA Soccer 12 [MLS Soccer]
20 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
(Stroking chin)
The move to NBC is a good thing from an audience perspective as everyone gets NBC (as oppposed to Fox)…the downside, of course, is are they keeping the same announcers? One of the benefits of watching matches on FSC was that by and large the announcers know the sport and comment accordingly; it was a sort of niche station but at least they catered to their niche market. If NBC is going to take some cast-offs from other announcing duties and give them a Soccer 101 and put them in a booth this will be disastrous (I’m already fearing that as I don’t see as massive exodus of broadcasting talent from FSC to NBC but large wads of cash can move mountains). I guess I’ll wait to see more details.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Contrary to published reports, Kinnear has never compared Camargo to Ricardo Clark.
"I never said that," Kinnear said when a reporter asked him about the comparisons between Clark and Camargo.
"But they do play the same position," he said.
So it will be interesting to see how Camargo is used. If he’s more of a holding midfielder, does this mean that Geoff Cameron will now mainly be used again as an attacking midfielder? Does this mean Je-Vaughn Watson will be a reserve most of the season?
http://blog.chron.com/soccer/2011/08/camargo-should-bolster-dynamo/
I hope
that this is tempering of expectations, because if we brought in Camargo to replace Moffat and keep Cameron as CAM then I quit. Seriously, it was a noble idea an experiment with Cameron at CAM but even paired with Moffat, the benefits have only been modest and will peak there. It simply won’t work there and even though I was a proponent of trying Cam at different spots the time and circumstances have come where its best to move him back to CB. We need someone OTHER than the DM to hold the ball and distribute and Camargo seems to fit that bill. I know he’s not a pure CAM but now that I think about it are we even ready for that? Do we have the movement up top that can really take advantage of a pure CAM? The more I think about it the more I think we’re better off for now using Camargo (or any other comparable talent) as a DLP. I realize it sounds a bit like making the justification after the fact but what can I say that hasn’t already been said about hindsight?
Frickety, frackety, fruck
This majorly SUCKS!!!
Though i knew he was a holding mid, I thought he also played CAM or could box to box. But another deep lying DM? Without pulling perhaps Costly to link up in a withdrawn slot role? That’s the only way I could see this working- with a ‘link’ FW.
“Same as it ever was?”
“Time isn’t holding us,
Time is BECAUSE of us…”
If we are the prime movers on the transfer market, what ARE we thinking? Are we trying to make a last minute transfer deal since we potentially have 3 DMs? Or is Cameron the CAM because that’s where he wants to play?
This PISSES me off!!!
by playtherapy on Aug 10, 2011 12:57 PM CDT up reply actions
(Sigh)
Yeah I’m beginning to temper my expectations more and more with the team the past couple of seasons. If that’s the route they’re taking (and it seems that way) then it CAN work, just don’t know if it will. If they’re going to use Camargo as a more center-circle-to-box midfielder then it’s probably best to move Ching to a more withdrawn position as he has a great first touch and is a pretty swish passer. Costly has more legs to run and can play off of Ching so I’d imagine he’d play higher up. Again, it could also work even better if you had a winger with some pace but if not it just means better ball/forward passing movement than there is now but nothing electrifying. If you’re going to have someone who can hold the ball and then play it through on passes then you need someone he can link to (Ching) and someone he could play it to wide to create more space and options. Davis of course is great but we’ve seen teams key on him all year so you need someone on the other side with some pace who can keep the defense honest. IF we find a pacey winger then I’m much more at ease, but of course that’s if. And this is of course assuming that Camargo is used as its being described here. If we use him as a holding mid/DM and Cameron or Watson as a CAM then all of this means f***-all. I do hope that isn’t the case but we’ll see how it goes…I wish we somehow could get scouting reports from practice but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
I see a withdrawn man as more of a runner/dribbler with the post up target forward in the box. That way, the target can feed anybody making runs. Therefore, I’d plant redwood Ching in the box, with my runner in the slot.
There was a time that we’d try to break the trap with through balls to Bruin, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. Since Costly has more dribbling tricks, I’d try this again. I’d also show film after film of us scoring in the run of play, drilling in the mantra- WE ARE NOT JUST A SET PIECE TEAM.
Hopefully, Kinnear will use the same hard pressing tactic he used against a very tired Seattle. Make them run in the swamplike heat and humidity. This iain’t theb Pacific Northwest and we need to use it to our advantage, especially from Northern teams who may be content to sit back and conserve. Also give them little time on the ball. Dom had it right last home game.
Po-tato/Puh-tato
For me its the opposite: I see the withdrawn man as being just outside the box (considering the DLP’s purview is basically circle to the outskirts of the box) and playing it to a running/cutting forward. But to me either scenario works.
As you note, though, PLEASE emphasize that we actually used to score goals in the run of play. True story.
I think that’s also a hidden gem that is discredited but does have a subtle but noticeable influence: if I’m a team from the western/northwestern/eastern coasts then its warm right now but tolerable. Down here, particularly now, its freaking hot. And not Northern Texas hot: triple digits PLUS 80% humidity. It freaking drains you after 45 of professional ball (side note: I play in a summer league that starts at 8PM and its still stifling hot until about halftime. I can’t imagine playing at a professional level and speed in this heat). While no one ever truly gets used to it, we do acclimate to it much better here than a visitor. So yes, strike while the iron’s hot and press hard in the first half and they’ll be half-dead by halftime.
Especially
Cuz they’re bhoys from the Great White Northwest.
We ain’t got no Timber Joey.
We have something much more deep and culturally meaningful,
DIESEL DA FOX!
Ummm,
yeah…
Says it all
about our other friends from the NW:
/(I’m so glad we beat them)
//(Actually hope for a good match against Portland)
Seattle is NOT the Bhoys
Only one Bhoys. Only one Hoops. And they both play in Paradise.
Just to be clear.
"We don't care who finishes second." -- Celtic's Peter Lowrie
Ummm, what's Dallas's nickname again?
Some type of snake that can form a circle and roll down a hill, beating soap box derby racers?
Dallas Soups? Snoops? Droops? Loop the Loops? A few other teamates adopting Shea’s hair style- the Goops?
You can clover me all day, but in this age of branding dere’s lots of Bhoys and lots of Hooooops.
Shalrie...Shalrie...Shalrie...
Slotting Shalrie Joseph in at CAM now would seem to be that much better of an idea, don’t you think?
"We don't care who finishes second." -- Celtic's Peter Lowrie
It'd be nice
but can he be had at a reasonable price? And also he’d effectively be another rental, so to speak, with him being like 33 years old, correct? I’m not poo-poo’ing it but I’d like to see how this all unfolds. Unless we’re using Camargo as a central mid acting as a deep-lying playmaker then I say go after Shalrie as CAM. But if that’s the case then why the hell did we go after Camargo in the first place??
To re-iterate
I posted this on another thread but I do hope that the FO isn’t done yet, because if they consider their summer transfer activity complete then I think that we won’t make the playoffs and therefore should start playing and planning for next season. We need another midfielder (preferrably a backup player who perhaps is a more pure CAM) and a pacey winger. If we get one or both of those pieces then I think we have a shot at making the playoffs, and we can get a much better idea of what we need to do in the offseason because we’ll have a more complete picture of how these assembled pieces play together. Right now we have a good to potentially very good squad, but in my opinion an incomplete one. If we’re going to go with a more pure CAM then you need either a more pacey forward and/or winger to play off the CAM (who will be playing up higher and will rely on movement which we really don’t have). If we’re going with a deep-lying playmaker (DLP) as Camargo seems to be then having a pacey forward OR a pacey winger helps as it gives him more passing options and you don’t have to rely so much on movement as you have your larger target men and then the options to pass wide or pass to someone with pace. But right now we have an incomplete picture of what we should have, so its tough to say how we’d play with all the pieces because we’re reduced to what we’ve been doing most of the year: speculating and conjecture. It also means that there’s much more pressure on the FO to get it right signing someone in the offseason with the added bonus of basically having an incomplete review of Costly and Camargo, so you don’t know whether to keep one or both.
They better hurry, they have five days left for new player transfer/loans…they can still make trades after August 15th though.
--
"You live and learn. At any rate, you live." -Douglas Adams
Managing Editor of Dynamo Theory
Yo si le voy, le voy al naranja!
by Zach Woosley on Aug 10, 2011 1:43 PM CDT up reply actions
At this point...
I have little confidence we’re signing anyone else before the 15th. We heard whispers about Camargo, what, last Tuesday or Wednesday and even then it took until Monday to sign him. Have heard nowt about anyone else so I’m terrified that Canetti & Co have shut up shop on new signings. I don’t want to sound ungrateful because yes, they did bring in 2 new people who can help but I just get the sneaking suspicion we think that’s good enough and we’ll see how this goes for now and make adjustments/trades later. I’d much rather have a bird-in-hand than have to go back out and find someone. We might still make a trade (and thanks for pointing that out, I actually didn’t realize that) in the next couple of weeks but that’s a maybe. I’m likely over-thinking this but I’m terrified that we’re done bringing in new blood.
Ohhh, shiny
I agree. It just feels like this is all we get, Costly and Camargo. Good thing we got all that extra allocation money lying around. Sure is a pretty thing to look at, I guess, though it doesn’t seem to be doing us many kindnesses other than that.
"We don't care who finishes second." -- Celtic's Peter Lowrie
Scrooge McDuck disagrees
In seriousness, I don’t know if that is in fact part of their plan in the summer transfer window: get a forward and midfielder and if that happens then those are our primary objectives, anything else is secondary. Which I suppose is fair from one perspective, but it puts a whole lot of faith in those two signings which, while quality, don’t exactly strike me as being saviors of the season. I think they’re willing to see how things pan out with these two in the team and if it doesn’t work out, drop them both and sign 3 people (2 replacements and 1 addition) in the summer to bring into the shiny new stadium. Again, I know this is me projecting and trying to explain the unknown (with my cynicism button switched to “on”) but its just what I take from this.
I'm okay with it.
From a FO who lives on a shoe string budget, let’s be thankful for once we’re not eating generic. It’s questionable if the season is just starting or already over. More importantly, what happens in the offseason will make a huge difference about the next 2-3 yrs. Will we sit back until the last minute before deciding we need roster changes, then bring a bunch of unemployed free agent journeymen? Will we go to Leagues (like Jamaica) well below the MLS standard so we can identify players that are doing well in those leagues and on their national team, but nothing really special (Watson, Palmer)?
If the cap is tight, are we going to address the players are aren’t pulling their salary weight? If they are unmovable due to salary, are we looking for creative alternatives to offload them- perhaps not domestically, but perhaps abroad where those salaries might not offset interest?
Our season may come down to the wire. We could make the playoffs and go ALL the way on a hot run. What I don’t want to see is what I saw in 2009, a roster fraying apart, in serious decline, and aging by the minute. We have a vastly better roster than 2010, but we can’t stand still, even if we have an amazing playoff run.
Time to build a championship team. If cheap is the word, then we need to clear salary space for when a FREE diamond becomes available, we can net him. Despite a bad history and some major doubts, who isn’t watching the Chivas- Adu capture w/o some envy?
I am… wondering…
Rationalization
Its our tendency to try and rationalize events because its far better to think that things are part of a plan rather than simply random acts. And we’re seeing that alot here with Canetti, and I wonder if part of it is that we’re simply not familiar enough with him. Yes, last year was probably a bad year to evaluate his performance but perhaps we’re beginning to see a trend? My fear (and I’m really talking about myself) is trying to see something where there is nothing. I know Canetti has a plan, its just trying to figure out what it is; and best I can tell from the evidence so far he appears to be Daryl Morey-lite. For those unfamiliar with Morey’s MO, he’s a “stat-geek” who embraces the uses of various metrics in evaluating talent AND value, and I’m beginning to see that with Canetti. He’s not going to swing for a big talent unless he’s fairly certain its going to be a relatively low risk move that brings max value and talent. It appears he’s content with bringing in mid-level quality at mid-to-lower level prices and assembling assets that can be moved for larger talent to build around those quality pieces. Now again, I might be seeing something where there is not but its just what I gather thus far. So I can see him standing pat and evaluating the talent for the rest of the season and letting the chips fall where they may. As you say play, I think he’s already gearing up for the offseason and perhaps evaluating DP-level talent. If we can offload our larger contracts (Boz, Free, E-Rob) plus the allocation money we have we can maybe sign incentive-loaded contracts for Costly & Camargo (depending on their performance the rest of the season, of course) and maybe go for a DP like Francisco Torres, who I think would be lovely in Orange (and please, please, bring in a winger or forward with pace, young & cheap is fine by me). Couple that with a move to the new stadium and potentially coming off a visit to the playoffs and he’s looking golden: lots of young, promising talent who are also moveable assets in case he needs to bring in other talent.
I for one think we can make the playoffs but it will require better play & form and a bit of luck as well. If we make the playoffs, though, I don’t think we make it out of the first round, though I think we’d give a good fight.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
