Moffatmania! Dynamo take point and stick it where the sun don't shine!
by Fuzion on Aug 17, 2011 9:35 PM CDT
in Match Reports
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I'll be honest, I have only had the luxury of watching the second half of this match. What I saw was as bad as it's been for the Dynamo all season on the road. Disjointed play between the defense and forwards, the midfield nonexistent, repetitions of what we see in pretty much every away game. And just like every away game, the Dynamo failed to win. They did, however, pull a draw out of nowhere, and for that I commend them.
This week's post-game will go a little differently, because as most of you know by now I do nothing by the books. I march to the beat of my drummer. /end cliches
I'm going to offer up my grades on this match based on only the second half. I want to know your grades as well. Review the performances of the players and tell your brethren how you really feel about the game.
For those that didn't get to watch any of the game, here's a quick rundown of "highlights":
1) The Revs Ryan Cochrane pokes home a ricochet off the bar in the 4th minute of play.
2) A lot of crappy service from all over, for the most part the Dynamo couldn't ever seem to click in the midfield (sound familiar?)
3) Around the 75th minute or so the Dynamo began the "let's send it deep approach and hope our forwards can control it to offer up chances" technique. It didn't really work until...
4) In the 89th minute, the ball bounced the Dynamo way off a Brad Davis corner kick and a Carlo Costly header, and the ever-present Bobby Boswell tapped home what might as well have been an empty-netter.
5) In the 93rd minute Moffat got a little rough with a Revs defender as both men chased a ball headed out of bounds. The defender, in my opinion, flopped just a little but that is neither here nor there. The Revs man of the match, Goalkeeper Matt Reis, took to the defense of his defender and got a little rough with Moffat in return. Things escalated, and Moffatmania was born!
So let me have you, the fans who sit through 89 minutes of really terrible football to get one minute of purely entertaining football, give me your grades. Break it down however you like, and remember, somebody is always watching...or something.
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Oh yeah...my grades
Ching – A+ for effort, dude was putting it all out there
Davis – B+ for effort, lacking a bit on his service from what I saw
Moffat – A+ for effort, intensity, and just all out desire to win
Hall – B+ for turning away what he did manage to turn away, lowered a lil for giving up the goal (though I don’t place this one on him at all, damn defense)
Defensive Line – Z——, they simply look like crap 80-90% of the time and get lucky the rest. Boz has no business being a starter, and Taylor does not belong on the flank. Freeman was horrible not only on the ball, but off his man, too
Carr – A+ for finally persevering and getting game minutes, and for the effort he showed as the Revs tried their stall tactics often at the end
Dixon – B+ for trying to be creative, trying to make moves and do something
Costly – B+ for pushing a lot, even if it resulted in numerous offsides
Cameron – B- for effort and lack of really penetrating runs
Clark – B- for simply not seeing much out of him. He tried, but trying is not succeeding
I don’t even recall anyone else and thus…
Rest of team – C for being so average they didn’t even get noticed.
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
That must've been why I didn't see much out of him
Who was on the other side opposite Davis? They were reeeeeally bad. Lol.
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
Oh Watson, duh
I apologize…the game got me out of bed early…it is my mid-morning right now.
But yeah, Watson was a B- as well. He tried, cuz I saw a few balls from that side, but it wasn’t much in my opinion to warrant him getting a shot there again.
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
From what I saw there's no real reason we shouldn't have won except for Reis
And our spectacularly bad play.
But I mean, if Reis wasn’t as stellar as he is, and we didn’t suck as much as we do…totally a 3 pointer on the road.
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
fluke goals on both ends
We had better chances, and the first half we clearly dominated (didn’t play like crap). 2nd half was closer, but we still had the better chances…the ref did not help things much by calling mostly in favor of the Revs, but hey that’s the game.
I think it was more a matter of the Revs
Sitting back and trying to play out the game for the win more than us truly “dominating”. Sure, we had the lion’s share of chances, but with the way we played it was gifted to us more than us taking control.
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
From my perspective
We allowed a fluke goal early and didn’t allow too many chances after that which is good. The first half we dominated both possession (close to 70%) and had more opportunities on goal. The second half we either got complacent or the Revs stepped up their game, but the Revs really wanted 3 points.
All things considered (trying to save some players for next game on Saturday, some players were still tired, and nobody likes playing on plastic turf) we can at least be happy with how we played. We dominated possession, which is in part (to my disdain) to our ability to backtrack rather than move forward at times. I saw too much of that and I think it’s an issue of confidence going forward.
The Moffat incident at the end was just stupid. Moffat and the defender were going for a ball (both were about equally physically…maybe Moffat more so), but the defender crashed into Reis and then…Moffatmania which should be renamed Reismania because Moffat backed off immediately (why did he get a red for backing off???)
Oh because calls were not going our way and it was obvious that Reis deserved one for that.
Hall – B+ : Can’t credit the goal on him really and he kept Revs from scoring after that.
Back line – B- : Ashe was sorely missed on the left side and Hainault has not been playing as well as he usually does. Boswell gets a B+ from this group for tying the game in the same fashion that the Revs scored in
Davis – B+ : Sent in some quality balls, but we couldn’t put them away. I’m surprised he saw 90 minutes as well
Watson – B : The Jamaican is better inside than out, but he still frustrated defenders moving forward (and he does that more than move back which is nice).
Moffat – B: for keeping his cool and not deserving a red card. Would have liked to see another Moffat-Rocket though
Cameron – B+: Played very well, and he should have been on the scoreline but he miss touched a ball that should have been an easy 1v1 with Reis
Weaver – B+: Had a very strong game and held the ball up well. Had some very suspect calls against him and I can only chalk it up to him being the bigger guy so he gets the call if someone goes down. He did miss a sitter though =(
Ching – A: Did it all but score this game. He held the ball up well, chased down balls, and had one very close shot that Reis put over the top. After Costly came on for him we were not as good.
Not feeling like doing subs, but Dixon played pretty well, and it was nice to see Carr. Costly had a poor showing in my opinion. He was offsides just about every play and sometimes it was by a mile. Weaver did a good job of being a withdrawn forward for Costly and sent him a good ball at one point but he couldn’t control it.
Overall, a point is a point. It was nice seeing us tie the game up, and while the game was not a disaster, it would have been nice to see us get the 3 points that we deserved.
I agree about Costly
I think he actually hurt us more during the time he was in. Constantly offsides which allowed the Revs to waste time in resetting. Also, when we reverted to kick ball, he had some trouble bringing the balls down that they were sending him. Almost all of the long balls sent his way were lost. He did have an excellent header that led up to the goal so he redeemed himself. Dixon and Carr did look good.
I think part of his trouble was the playing surface
He wasn’t used to the way the ball bounced there, and you could tell that
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
I know I know
they’re supposed to be professionals and handle all kinds of situations, but those artificial surfaces are tricky…the ball has a different pace on it and it destroys your feet. Not fun times
Weaver
I also think he had a good game. Was very active in front of goal. He did miss a sitter, but he would have been called offsides anyways.
I also agree with you that Watson needs more room to operate and he is better on the inside than the outside. He’s not a winger like Clark or Cruz; being against the line cramps his style.
I thought Davis getting the full 90 was also surprising, but then again if we put this game away early he probably would have been pulled off. Also, I don’t think his services last night were as good as they usually are.
I like Moffat. I like the positions he puts himself off the ball. That is the opposite of what I feel with Cameron. Cameron had a good game against Portland, but in this one I don’t think so. He kept moving into areas where Moffat was patrolling dragging his defender along with him. If it wasn’t for the good attempts at goal he had (except for the failed 1v1) I would have to downgrade his rating.
Does the team read what the media says?
Because it seems as though they came out and thought the Revs were just going to hand them 3 points. Did they think that the intensity they showed against Portland would just magically happen? They showed zero desire at first and we got punished for it. They must have forgotten that this is the team that we beat out for the MLS Cup TWICE. They have a huge beef with us, never mind the fact that they haven’t won in like 14 games. They were going to be motivated, but nobody in Orange seemed too worried about that until after we were already down a goal.
It’s very FRUSTRATING to watch a game where your team is dominating and you know you should win, but your team dug themselves a hole in the first 5 minuted b/c they came out soft and expected it to be handed to them. That was a team to beat. We had over 60% of the possession and played well from the 10th minute to the 80th minute. The Revs should thank their lucky stars they have Reis. We had ~9 shots on goal (and these are good shots/good opportunities) and he comes up like a beast. This team doesn’t have the mental toughness it needs to have. I say that b/c look at the last 10 minutes or so of the game- we became entirely too direct; just kicking the ball up the field out desperation instead of possessing the ball like we had been the previous 70 minutes. Soft first 10 minutes and a soft last 10 minutes with a lucky goal to salvage a point against a team that was ripe for the picking. Frustratiing.
Wow
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch the match but did DVR it…but now I’m wondering if I should even bother because I think I’ve seen this one before:
-Good hustle and creating chances
-Can’t convert chances
-Shaky defending leads to a face-palm goal
-More hustle leads to goal
I think I covered the bases. On the bright side, I can free up my DVR a bit more. And I suppose we can be happy that we didn’t lose all the points and at least got a point out of it. And Moffat, you’re alright by me. He’s been given a shot here and he seems to be taking full advantage of it. He is our DM now and hopefully for the foreseeable future and that’s fine by me. He is active, his ball dictation and passing are good and he generally just has been creating a positive environment despite the fact that he’s basically attempting to control the midfield by himself. Yes I know, Cameron isn’t crap but we also know Cameron isn’t a midfielder so he very much relies on Moffat…so if Cameron has an off game then it literally all falls to Moffat to keep pressure off Davis or Ching.
I SO cannot wait to get Camargo in there so that Cameron can move back to CB. Oh yeah, Dom: when Camargo’s paperwork goes through – and sorry about my moaning about it but I do work for a Brazilian company that has expats coming in all the time so I know in dreadful detail that it shouldn’t normally take this long – PLEASE move Cameron back to CB. I am becoming more and more convinced that Hainault’s play will suffer more in Cameron’s absence. When you pair the two together they form a fantastic duo because Cameron can do the things Hainault can’t. If we have any aspirations of making a playoff run or, if the football gods shine upon us, we make the playoffs then we don’t stand a chance with our shaky defending: it is and will be our Achilles heel. I know that we have a patchwork team because of the current schedule (3 games in less than 7 days, seriously?) but we have to get settled NOW because we have what, 10 games left? I really feel Camargo linked up with Moffat will give us the stable midfield we need to balance things out. We won’t be dynamic or anything like that, but I think we will be steady and be able to really start taking advantage of Costly and hopefully Carr (and a note on that: its so awesome to see Carr in after all he’s been through and the struggle to get back there. Good on him).
Whew. Ok, got that out…I know it could’ve been worse and we did get a point, but if ever there was a golden opportunity for getting 3 points (and our first road win, no less) this was it. Now we have to play balls-to-the-wall against RSL on Saturday because getting a point won’t do. Saturday’s game is truly another must-win.
Feel better now?
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
Draw on the Road
Is like a home win, particularly when you’re seeing the bad side of most bounces. However, I think there should be a lot more C grades than I see above.
Weaver=C- He looked dangerous and active but missed too many chances. If you’re a forward you need to finish and he had some bad misses.
Watson=C and only because I didn’t know he was playing until he got subbed off.
Cameron=C+ I think that’s harsh because I like the guy, but that first touch on the break away was abysmal and he tends to get lost playing in front of the midfield. I REALLY wish Dom would push him back in the midfield, but now that Moffat is killing it…CB?
Cam as CB FTW
He made his name there and will continue to do so….assuming we get our ducks in a row and Camargo performs half of what his potential is, our midfield will be solid, and Cameron moving back to CB will not only solidify our shaky D but will help tremendously in starting the attack and linking up with Moffat, only on the opposite side of the pitch.
Weaver is better than a C- ....
He actually had a pretty good game B- is as low as he deserves. His sitter that he missed was offsides (thanks DynaNole for reminding me). Cameron also played fairly well..
You are being a little too harsh. The only reason the game wasn’t 3 or 4 to 1 was because of Matt Reis
I think not watching the first half seriously distorted your opinion of the team's play
Outside of the fluke goal they created several great chances, dominated possesion, and generally looked pretty good. The Revs made some adjustments at half and we didn’t play quite as well, and then it got ugly once we got desperate. There some shoddy finishing from Weaver and Cameron, but if not for Reiss making three or four spectacular saves this game would have looked a lot different. It did get ugly late, and the defense had some shaky moments (mostly Boswell), but the performance wasn’t nearly as bad as some of you are acting.
"If my hips had pockets, I wouldn't wear pants at all." @NotBurtReynolds
I stated
that we played well for 70 minutes. So overall I agree with you. However what I was commenting on was if we would have come out strong, it would have been 3 points. Or if after being down a goal the whole game, instead of spending 10-15 minutes panicking & launching the ball up the field, we would have possessed and controlled the ball and really poured it on we might have gotten 2 goals instead of one. So yes, overall not a bad performance, but we started out on the back foot and that could/should have been avoided.
I admitted to not having watched the first half (yet...I may watch it on MDL to change my opinion about this game)
But you’re probably right.
-- "...I was sick, napping, and then woke up and came to the computer to read a note from the Gingered Angel of Doom..." Martek - Dynamo Theory Blog
Some positives
In terms of total possession (61-31), corners (12-3), shots and shots on goal, Dynamo dominated the game. The main story of the game, I think, is that the Revs were lucky to get a point, and would not have had it not been for the superhuman defending of Matt Reis.
The main regret I have is that Moffat didn’t arrange to get Reis tossed earlier than the final whistle. If that had happened in the first half, who knows how many times we would have scored!! Reis was incredible, and all that stood in the way of a massive thrashing.
I don’t think Dynamo played fantastically, far from it, but they did play far, far better than the Revs as a whole. The scoreline flattered them, and really showcased Reis.
So I would not despair Orange hordes. Not by a long shot. And if despair is your lot, then at least the Dynamo Girls’ calendar is on its way. Holy shamoley!
"We don't care who finishes second." -- Celtic's Peter Lowrie
We desperately need a scorer
Sans Clark- if Ching or Davis don’t score, we’re in big trouble…
Its funny
I was thinking of that earlier because if we could do one of those word clouds (or keyphrase clouds) I think we’d see a disturbing trend of “creating chances” but not a correlation to goals scored. We create chances, sure, but its how those chances are created and what we do with them. While we’re beginning to see an offensive trend, I’m not sure we could say what is a consistent source of chances. I know Davis creates chances with his passing or crosses and we sometimes get a through ball, or a busted coverage, but I guess what I’m getting at it is we can’t squander the opportunities we get and we see that time and again. I dearly don’t want us to be a “could’ve been a contender” except for the fact that we can’t put the ball in the back of the net. ’Cause you know, in footie that tends to be a bit of a problem…
Maybe as Costly gets more comfortable it’ll help (he’s close) and maybe if Carr’s form comes along he can help supplement Clark, Ching and Davis.
I thought of this the other day as well
At least a variety of forwards are scoring..albeit at different times during the year. Bruin – 4, Weaver – 4, Ching – 4
Not too shabby..though they should each have 10!
True
I suppose we can look at it that we’re not entirely dependent on any one person to score, which is nice…but yeah, if they could work on that conversion rate we could have some very nice scorelines and it would give opposing defenses second thoughts
Well the real problem is
We have depended on one person for a streak of time, then another person. First it was Weaver, then Bruin (for a game), and now Ching (also to a lesser extent Cameron who has as many goals as these guys too).
If we could have more than one person produce consistently at any given time…well that would be just lovely
Not trying to rag on Bruin either
But 3 of his 4 goals came in one game so how he has produced on the score sheet is mostly wrapped into one game.
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