Photo: Marjorie Elzey
Mikael Uhre is in Philadelphia.
He’s holding scarves, crowds are chanting his name – in fact, he’s already scoring goals.
https://twitter.com/BrotherlyGame/status/1498709960305397766?s=20&t=dRGT56msAErmysNoqJu0ng
Attack! Attack!
Ok, practice goals, but after 2021’s offensive draught, any DOOPs in the auld Onion Bags are noteworthy – especially from a brand-new DP attacker.
What’s more enticing is how the goal was scored.
A diagonal run, a softly weighted pass, and a true striker’s finish are all a welcome sight for a team that has struggled for the past year with generating any offense that doesn’t start from a cross (and the Boys in Blue whipped in a whopping 25 crosses against Minnesota on Saturday).
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with crosses – the Union scored their only goal off of one on the weekend, after all.
It’s when an offense is settling for crosses and little else that the problem arises.
Crosses are low-probability events and defenses who know they’re coming can simply park the proverbial bus in the spot where the ball is supposed to land, ultimately clearing them harmlessly time and again (and Minnesota had 31 clearances in their visit to Chester).
Moreover, when the only viable alternative to crosses is Route 1 – and the Union would far prefer to counter attack teams as directly as possible than they would slowly unpack them – a parked opponent makes both directions less useful.
A diagonal run is dangerous because it forces more than one line of players on defense to track a run, as well as forcing multiple players in the back line to communicate, handoff, or chase. Compared to aimless crosses and the hopeful long ball, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Speaking of disasters…
Defense is the best offense
The Union need goals to win games, hence the arrival of Uhre and his strike partner Julian Carranza (to say nothing of the oft-absent but obviously potential-laden Cory Burke and Sergio Santos). They’ve won competitions because of their defense, but in 2022 it is a defense with a weak link.
In this clip, fresh off conceding the space and time required for Minnesota to create its only goal on the weekend, Olivier Mbaizo is front and center again, a goal scored by his mark.
We talkin’ about practice, though.
Correct!
No question the stakes are lower on the training fields than they are in the stadiums. However – as the saying goes – it’s not practice that makes perfect, but perfect practice that makes perfect.
A player can spend his or her 10,000 hours practicing, but if the methods of that practice are wrong, he or she will simply be really good at doing something the wrong way.
In the clip, the defense almost wins possession but has to regroup. Sensing some disorganization, an attacking player runs across Mbaizo’s face and behind his next closest teammates.
Diagonally…
The right back sees the run but doesn’t follow, hoping an assistant’s flag will save him. His teammates are already engaged with other players at the top of the box and thus can’t slide, but he doesn’t obviously call for their help either – content to stop and raise his hand.
That is not perfect practice.
More than that, it’s simply not good enough – and it’s a bad look for a player already on thin ice with Union fans. A bad look for someone who seems to own the starting spot at a position so crucial to the team’s strategy – because of the skill set required to play it well and the squad’s right-leaning attack.
Right back is the team’s weakest link, and every link matters in soccer.
Second verse, same as the first
Fans know it’s not good enough.
Readers of PSP know it’s not good enough.
Of course Jim Curtin knows it’s not good enough.
Olivier Mbaizo knows too.
It’s also March and only the first game of the season (though Mbaizo’s sins of 2021 aren’t far behind his failings in 2022), and squad consistency is one of the Union’s strengths. It’s also March of 2022, a year in which locked-in starters Jamiro Monteiro and Kacper Pryzbylko started somewhere else on Opening Day.
The job continues to be Mbaizo’s to lose. So far this year he seems intent on doing so.
Hilarious that Ray Gaddis is back in the league
Wonder if Rosenberry has matured enough to bring back, although he was better going forward than defending…
This. All of this.
The style of play has been my greatest surrender.
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Johan Cruyff once said something along the lines of— crossing the ball (which is not the same as playing a ball along the ground on the same path) is the solution when you do not have the sophistication to figure it out any other way.
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I’ve always remembered this.
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I would love to know the prevelance of concussion or head injury in american soccer yoth to pros verses other countries which tend to keep the ball on the ground more.
I don’t mind the style against either brave or naive teams. In both cases they create gaps and ensuing counter attacks, which are fun. Chaos is good TV, too, and the Union thrive on it…
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Games like Saturdays are plodding though: not enough space, not enough movement, not enough creativity. Low blocks are for schmucks.
Will it ever be time to talk about Ray? There are questions? Is anyone interested in getting answers?
Ray was under contract for 1 year when he retired 2 weeks before the season started.
After the entire season passed he magically un-retires and signs a contract with another MLS club.
How is it possible that a year of “retirement” wipes out his contractual obligation to the Union? In every other major league in this country it does not work like that. An un-retired player simply reverts back to his existing contract.
So, what happened? Did the U somehow waive him? Was it a loophole in the CBA? Something else?
The fact is, Ray Gaddis was worth AT LEAST 100K in GAM. But I would rather see him at RB for the U. Did the U give him away? What happened?
I think Jim Curtin said they let him retire and then didn’t block his un-retirement. I haven’t seen documents, but I suspect Albright called him and asked him to come and captain the team for a year or two for the sake of culture.
The thing that shocked me about his retirement was his level of play when he decided to hang it up. He was a solid, solid defender with great closing speed. Some fans only saw that he didn’t offer much going forward because, as a shut down defender locking up his side of the field, there wasn’t much exciting to see. However he was improving his attacking contributions steadily and I was convinced we were set to riot when he bagged his first goal. He hadn’t reached his ceiling yet and was continuing to grow. That’s what hurt about his announcement. That and knowing Mbaizo was his replacement.
Lots of people David simply had no idea how good Raymond Gaddis was.
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Keegan Rosenberry brought some attack but gave it all away defensively. Not Raymond. Ray was a shut down defender with excellent reading of the game and as you said was constantly getting a bit better up the field. Too many people watch euro footy and see Pavard and think ‘well yea we should have that.’
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Id argue anyone forever Ray offensively is as good if not better then Mbazio who is a one trick pony but defensive liability.
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Ray used to create and find space in that high right channel with one two’s most often with Ilsinho or Bedoya… that Mbazio never creates and he is unrelentlingly slow to fill that outside channel and get in ‘behind’.
I knew how good Ray Gaddis was. I came to a friendly versus Crystal Palace, and I watched Ray match up against Wilfried Zaha and LOCK. IT. DOWN.
The first goal for Carranza in preseason was a counter/break away based on speed. Santos got out in front of his man on the side and curved in a nice cross on the 6 for an on-rushing Julian.
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This is the same type of play that made up a substantial enough portion of Uhre’s goals on his Golden Boot run last season.
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Considering Bedoya (speed) and Flach (lack of offensive instinct) probably aren’t going to be providing that cross, our offense is going to be pretty dependent on our front three to make these types of quick counter attacks.
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One of the reasons Aaronson was so fun to watch is because his first reaction when he got the ball was to go vertical. I’m hoping to see a little more of that in Gazdag’s play to help set up some quick attacks.
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The fact that both our CB’s are comfortable dribbling up to half field is going to provide some line splitting passes for these as well.
I’m all in for Glesnes holding the assist title this year.
Ray had not reached his ceiling yet? He’s 32!??? He hit his ceiling years ago.
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Lets look on the bright side. We can now dust off the old Fabinho rocket to the sun, for a new candidate…
I thought we pushed that old thing off the Cliff of Union Despair last season…
Harriel was phenomenal against Cincinnati and playing out of position at LB against NYCFC. He deserves some starts. Mbaizo is a clear liability at this point and his offensive contributions noticeably declined. While Mbaizo only recently got back to the US, this is a consistent problem spanning into a second year and apparently he had a poor showing with Cameroon as well; he barely cracked the game-day roster. I think he’s lost the job at this point. If not, then Harriel should at least be getting more minutes.
Cruyff also once said “If I had wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.”
Pure genius.
Maybe the Union could trade Mbaizo for James Harden.
And, please, folks, let’s not expect Uhre to be the incarnation of Shearer or anything.
I am not convinced that Mbaizo’s quality of play and decision-making are elevated by going off on international duty with Cameroon.
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Usually it took him a game or two to get back the level at which he had been playing when he left.
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And It is important for Curtin not to make a change before the evidence is more clear. He needs to be fair to everyone. The Clubhouse needs to accept his decision.
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Final point. Mbaizo got a contract extension mid-season last year, but by memory it was not for a long time. He was an option last year , at the beginning of the season I think, and got the rest of 21 guaranteed and 22? with an option for 23?
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Somebody needs to double check my memory, of course.