Let’s just say, I’ve watched better games. It was a draw that felt like a loss, but the Loons match versus the Fury was an insipid affair even before I tweeted out my misspelled jinx of a tweet. Errors happen, but what went wrong and what went well during the rest of the match?
If you’re color-blind this won’t make sense…
TD Place Stadium’s turf has all the qualities of a lumpy trampoline. It is about as smooth as poorly mixed pancake batter. The soccer that results is, as you would expect, far from graceful.
And yet, the Loons completed 200 more passes than they did at home against the New York Cosmos (490 to 298). What gives? Well, as we can see from the team’s passing chart, they played it safe, largely moving the ball in their own half. Their passing accuracy was 80.6%, but in Ottawa’s half it was 67.1%. I think much of this can be attributed to the turf.
But it’s a problem that the Loons will need to tackle at some point. There are a lot of sub-par playing surfaces in the NASL and being able to adapt to those is the only way to get precious points away from home.
The midfield played deeper in their own half than recent matches. I think this too might be attributed to the turf, but more generally to a hesitancy. Whether they didn’t want to get caught on the break or what is unclear. I don’t think it is due to a particularly good, high press from Ottawa, since their midfield press looked like this:
Listless on the Left
Laing has shown moments of that genius we saw in Edmonton, but this was another game when he just didn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders. He, like his teammates, struggled to connect going forward.
Because Ottawa locked down their half of the field, it meant that Speas, Cruz, and Ramirez all struggled to get meaningful touches or develop a rhythm. And that’s what really characterized the match: rhythm. It was like watching a bachelorette karaoke party in Northern Wisconsin try to go through Missy Elliott’s catalog.
Speas and Ramirez took only five touches in the box and were, in general, pushed out of developing a passing game. Yet, they also each scored a goal.
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