Back on the Mapp and/or Lance comes to town.
By: Winslow Homer | July 27th, 2010
Look who we got! Well not realy…(and thankfully so)
but first…
what’s happened in the last week and half since we posted?
Beat Toronto in Stoppage Time on the 17th.
Lost to Man U in a pretty entertaining scrimmage, (at least Man U put up more of a fight than Celtic),
Le Toux was named to the All-Star Team
And we’ve signed two players. Lance Bass *cough* I mean Chacho Coudet and got Justin Mapp.
I don’t think we have to go over the games too much, (Although hopefully in a bit we’ll be posting consistently enough to do the usual previews and recaps, my apologies again for being away for so long).
We played well against Toronto and thankfully had a little change in luck with the late penalty by Le Toux.
Before we get to our new additions I’d like to take a minute to salute the Marquis. Could we of asked for anything more as an expansion team from Le Toux? As it stands he’s getting some major consideration for Mid Season MVP. Our club has 18 goals. Le Marquis has assisted or scored 14 of those. He’s responsible for almost 75% of our offense. And if we make the playoffs you have to think its going to be on his shoulders. Bravo Marquis. Bravo.
Ok on to our new guys.
First the not so new guy Chacho Coudet. He played in both exhibitions against Celtic and Man U. I didn’t get to see him against Man U, but in the first half against Celtic he did well to pace the attack and set Le Loux up for his goal. Dude’s old and isn’t exactly speeding down the pitch. He also didn’t get the memo about NSYNC breaking up. Expect this, however, bleached hair aside he’s got good experience and knows how to hold things down. He had a good run with River Platte in early 00’s and a small stint in La Liga. He’s got a lot of knowledge up in that bleached noggin of his and maybe he can mentor some of the younger players, especially Torres.
How this plays out is yet to be seen. Our attack is fairly fast pased. Mwanga, Le Toux, and Fred move down the field and Torres has done failry well in pushing them up. With the addition of Coudet I think that spells a reduction in Torres’ time, (which is a major disapointment), and that might mean a much slower pace.
We also made a trade with Chicago for Justin Mapp. This potentially could be a steal. Mapp was best XI in 06, He’s only 25 and has USMNT experience. The last few years he hasn’t played a major role with Chicago. Does that sound familiar? It should. Our whole team is basically made up of players that seemed destined for greatness only to sit on the beanch and/or underperform. Le Toux, Jacobson, Calliff, Seitz, Moreno…I mean the list basically goes on and on. That’s because as an expansion team we’re basically made up of the league’s left overs. So far Nowak has done a good job reigniting some of these guys and maybe that’s all Mapp needs.
This also works out because with Salinas out we now have a natural left winger to replace him. And, folks, this is a pretty legit replacement.
Right now the MLS is wide open. Coming into the second half of the season we have a TON of games at home. The last month it looks like these guys have started to come together and build some chemistry. If Nowak keeps them focused and possibly with the addition of another player or two there’s no reason not to think we can’t make the playoffs. Nowak’s said there’s probably another signing in the works. Personally I’d like to see another back. Right now the middle looks shored up and our attack was already strong. The back, IMHO, has been our biggest inconsistency. One minute they look like the Great Wall Of China, the next, Swiss Cheese.
We’ll have to see what they do about that.
Category: Union News
Comments
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The other signing is JT Noone from Harrisburg City Islanders. I love that he’s a born-and-raised Pennsylvanian, but of course he’s only 22 and is as much a rookie as Mwanga or McInerney. Squad player.
I don’t think it’s a “huge disappointment” that Torres will be seeing less time. If it were up to me, I’d have Chacho play as much as his legs will allow, and let Torres learn from him in training (I take it they are like-for-like?). It would be disappointing, however, if Torres goes back to Colombia after this season, but with the importance Nowak seems to attach to him, I don’t think this will happen. I wouldn’t be surprised though.
How long will Salinas be out? I thought he’d be back soon enough.
Didn’t know about Justin Mapp and I’m glad to have him on. If he can really play the Salinas role, than I think our attack will become much better. When Salinas has been on the field, he has allowed Fred to get more space and play much better. In every other game, Fred just seems to flit in and out of the action. I hope Mapp can have this effect on the game. Also, you have to say that he’s in his prime by age if not by status, which is just about what we need for a good age distribution in the squad.
Three signings, three midfielders (and a released GK in Brian Perk). Why no defenders? We are very, very thin in that department if the Union website considers Stahl–who’s crap anyway–a midfielder. In fact, according to the Union website, we have FOUR defenders.
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Big conclusions from the New England game:
When I watched this game, I thought for the first time that we will definitely NOT make the playoffs. Except for the goal and a decent buildup toward it, we played like crap on offense and defense. What’s worse is that we really should be beating teams like New England–this was a crucial game, and when we could have leap-frogged them on the table, we stayed right in our place. Deservedly so.
Last week I said we should be doing better on attack to alleviate our defense, and I stand by that. But our defense is definitely our weakest area of the field. New England put together quality passing for a total of about 90 seconds throughout the game, but when those times came, they cut through us like butter.
Harvey might be good enough to start for another team, if that team is looking for an attacking type of fullback. But if our other three defenders played anywhere else in the league, they wouldn’t be seen as always-starts.
For awhile, Nowak played Arrieta as right fullback, and it didn’t quite work out, so he switched Orozco and Arrieta, and that REALLY didn’t work in this game. If we only get one defender, I think we should find a good man for the right side.
Our attack seems to be all hype. In the last few games we’ve been just plain awful. Against San Jose (a turning point perhaps?), and many previous games, we can at least say that we could have won if we had finished our attacks, but we’ve barely strung together anything threatening since, and that includes against Toronto. It’s hard to point fingers at anyone in particular, but most players are giving away the ball, a few are a bit too selfish, no one (not ONE) seems to know where to run off-the-ball, and we play too often straight down the middle…when we go wide, we do so way, way too slowly. Etc., etc., etc…
Coaching decisions. First: If, by MLS rules, move Mac elsewhere for some development, let’s do it. Whenever he comes onto the field, he cannot get his head into the game. I’m sorry, but I don’t see why everyone loves him so much. He has a long, long way to go before he can come off the bench regularly for a professional team. Second: one bright spot was Coudet. Yes, we look slower, and his value to the effort decreased dramatically over the game (then why was Mwanga instead of Coudet subbed off for Jacobsen, Nowak? That would’ve been like-for-like), but he brought quality to the side too, beating midfielders and moving the ball forward. Third: Don’t know why Nowak put Mapp on. He’s just joined the team, and for me, he looked like he was still learning the Philly ropes. Too early to tell with him, but it’s far enough into the season to tell that almost all of Nowak’s subs decrease the quality of the team–and we wonder why we concede late goals.
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I completely agree about our defence. Hopefully with a week or so till our tranfer window closes we’ll sign someone to anchor the back. Any given game that back line is an unknown quantity. You’d have to hope that Nowak sees that at least. He’s been fairly good so far at making adjustments, like playing Le Toux forward.
I have to disagree about Union Jack. You have to remember, the majority of his games have been 80th minute on. In most of those games his teamates look beat and no one is doing much of anything. Usually when he comes on he has one thing on his mind and that’s scoring. Now, lately that seems to have changed a bit. I think he’s thinking too much, maybe because he’s shown he can play and now he just has to perform.
I think the next two games are gona seal the deal for a playoff run. If we get six points we’ll be 21 thru 17 games and that would be only 2 back of where TFC is rite now. But we need to start turning these draws into wins. Again another what the hell play from Seitz…
kinda makes me sad we let go of Perk…but it’ll be seitz for the rest of the season barring a major meltdown.
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Looks like we have our defender, Juan Diego Gonzalez from Deportivo Pereira. He’s wearing the 3, which indicates to me that Nowak wants him to start. Another Columbian, he stands at six feet tall without being too heavy at 160 lbs, so he could be a good complement for Califf. Maybe this will put Arrieta back on the right? Again, I’m not sure who was better at RB–Orozco or Arrieta–but I never thought too badly of Arrieta before he played in the middle. Anyway, welcome Gonzalez, and I hope he works out. I hope he doesn’t get put out there too fast, and we see him break in his new uniform against The Crew.
Speaking of our opponents, I’m not too pessimistic about squaring up against the conference runners-up (correct, or are they ahead of Red Bulls? Whatever). If we can hold Man U, whatever strength they were, to 1-0, I feel okay about our chances against any MLS side, notwithstanding our recent league results. Come on the U.
I was thinking for a few days that, maybe, if someone asked me about Seitz, I’d respond, “Seitz? Seitz…nope, never heard of ‘em,” but I’ve calmed down.
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Some more big conclusions re: Crew, and I’m not happy.
1) Irish Eyes here in Lewes, Delaware can be a sucky place. Great environment, great view of the marina, but if you show up fifteen minutes early for a game, you may end up being twenty minutes late because the d-bag bartender doesn’t change the Weather Channel to ESPN 2 quickly.
2) I’m taking off my rose-colored glasses when I watch Jordan Harvey. He had a lot to do with both goals conceded last night, and my favorite defender on the team has to be re-evaluated.
3) Dear Danny Califf, when the ball comes out of the air, and you have space, you don’t need to head it into the %$^#@!$$% midfield and back to the opposition! Chest it down and move the team forward ^%$%$!$! The jury has been out on our captain for some time now.
4) A small tip of the hat goes to “Union Jack.” He didn’t have long on the field, but a good run and an initially good touch led to the best chance to score and equalize late on. It’s a shame he was so crowded-out that he couldn’t put it away.
5) I’m liking Mapp. Maybe I didn’t see it in the last game on a lo-lo-fi internet stream, but on hi-def ESPN2, he looked like a dynamic and creative midfielder. Good runs, passes that looked to make something happen, and some good moments of skinning his defenders. He deserved the start, it seems.
6) Is Fred really our second best player? Is Le Toux really our best player? Le Toux may be the only one that makes consistently decent/good runs, and Fred may be the only one that dribbles with confidence, but do they (particularly Fred) really contribute to making us a good attacking side? Cannot say that yet.
7) Migs’ injury hurt us, and I hope he won’t be out for long. Coudet is looking like a very good signing. It was cool to see Nakazawa for the first time in awhile–he must be training well–but he couldn’t do what Migs can.
Crew was the better team, and it showed as the game went on. What was scariest was that after they went ahead, they seemed content to let us have the ball, knowing we wouldn’t equalize. They were right. We just looked–continued to look, really–un-creative. Most of all, we were narrow, and it showed more in this game than in any one I could think of. Watch that game again, and look at the Union player with the ball, then count how many players are within ten feet of that player width-wise. And then look at how much we have to run defensively when Crew puts the ball on the left or right wing. Width!! I cannot shout it enough. -
Whoa, that smiley was supposed to be an 8 ).
WH, I apologize if I’m pre-empting your posts!
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After Dallas game, well, better luck next year…all I’ve got to say. Oh, we need a goalkeeper worse than Arsenal it seems…
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Damn, it seems I missed a pretty decent performance against a pretty good MLS team. Only one conclusion for this one, from the box score…Mwanga is a poacher. Can’t say he’s a great one, or an always-start, or our best player, or anything. But he’s a poacher–put him on and he’ll pop a goal in. That’s a recipe for success in the MLS, I would contend. Ask Landon Donovan.
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Mwanga was good, but I was really impressed with Le Toux this match. He was always there with with the great passes, and was hitting from the very beginning.
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I missed the Colorado game too, but thanks for keeping me updated on it, and thanks for making some noise on this board, it needs it.
If I’m keeping track right, it was two goals in two games, both scored by Mwanga, and both assisted by Le Toux? I’m reluctant to praise Le Toux to the heavens as much as a lot of Philly fans–though perhaps he deserves to be captain over Califf (throwing that out there)–but both were as quality assists by MLS standards. Further, both were quality goals, the first by MLS standards, the second, anywhere. Really impressed by Mwanga’s instincts.
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