The Second Club Thread

[Stan Hullis]

cease and desist from Disney on its way to him

 

[1986]

Question for Alan .

How is Connor Ronan getting on in Colorado ?

I see he is in the team most weeks and plays the full 90 most of the time .

Is Jack Price injured ? Don't see him in the squads lately .

 

[Kenny]

Price did his achilles in pre season so won't be back until 2024

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Price is long term injured sadly, did his Achilles in March

 

[Alan]

@1986

Ken and Dan have it right on Price, that has really tanked Colorado's chances at being any good. For a while now, it's been the rule that as Price goes, so too do the Rapids. He's also one of the top set piece takers in the league, genuinely, and losing that sort of quality always hurts.

Ronan has been a bright spot, almost always involved when they score. Being asked to do a lot though as they don't have a natural replacement for The Beard so often Ronan has to do defensive covering that you can tell he is either not fully comfortable with or just isn't capable of reading the game effectively in that way.

 

[1986]

Thanks for all the replies lads . Great to get the feedback .

 

[Alan]

Eight without a win now for Charlotte, lost 2-0 at Montréal last night.

It is desperately poor right now. Not even putting the highlights because the goals were that embarrassing.

I’m furious with all our players, especially that fraud Byrne. What a fucking coward he is. I thought Kilman was weak, Byrne makes him look like Javier Zanetti by comparison.

Everything is falling apart, and the worst is that none of the players seem to care. We have very much entered Lage Mode where everyone appears to have sussed that Lattanzio is about 20,000 fathoms out of his depth, and so after going down by 2 goals in 2 minutes, there was no fight, no movement, no urgency. Fucking nothing.

Everyone involved last night should be ashamed, and Lattanzio should be e looking for a new job. We cannot play like Manchester fucking City. That we’ve continued to try for the entire season, despite averaging just 3.4 shots/90’ (3rd worst in the league) and conceding 40 (fucking FORTY!) goals, Latty hasn’t adjusted any of the things that are making us shit.

Fucking sport. Who needs this shit?

…

On to the next.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I don't know what the set up is like over there, but that sounds pretty bad.
Would the manager be coming under fire/pressure?
Do managers get sacked mid season or at the end?
It sounds a bit dire Alan!

 

[Alan]

As in any league, it's just going to depend on the exact situation, the DoF and/or ownership, etc.

Bob Bradley is generally still considered a proverbial "safe pair of hands" for MLS; Toronto just sacked him about half way through the season. We're not as obsessed with managerial whiplash as, say, Liga MX, but we're just as impatient with bullshit as most supporters of UK clubs, I'd wager.

The thing buying Lattanzio time is that he wants us to play like City and Arsenal do, and that is one hell of a carrot to dangle in front of people. If it works, we'll be playing some of the best soccer in the league easily. I just don't think it can.

 

[darlowolf64]

Charlotte knock Dallas out of the League Cup on penalties following a 97th minute equalizer

 

[Alan]

Beat me to it!

As you can see, we're still wretched at the back. Byrne, I mean just fuck off his contract, for his own sake as much as ours. Privett is an academy product, making his first start after picking up the first minutes of his career in a sub appearance for the injured Corujo last league game. He's struggling a bit with the step up, but he's not helped by playing as the CB who is supposed to step into midfield. Insane ask for a teen who just made his professional debut.

We're a weird side. 85 minutes, we're all over the place. But for 5 minutes a game we'll play some of the best soccer I've seen from an MLS team. It's frustrating and it's not sustainable.

Oh, I do also need to shout out Kahlina, who has been pretty crap so far this season but played no small part in keeping us in it. Yeah, Dallas' displayed some very "that's why you play in MLS" finishing, but you still gotta save 'em. He's a classic GK who is brilliant until he has enough time to think about what he has to do. Instincts on point, thought processing, not so much.

@darlowolf64 League's Cup is a new competition this season; we're currently in the group stage. No draws. Scoring as follows:

• FT Loss: 0 points (duh)
• Shootout Loss: 1 point
• Shootout Win: 2 points
• FT Win: 3 points

It's a joint venture between Liga MX and MLS, I don't know which side to blame for the above. I think they're just using it as an excuse to experiment by doing away with Extra Time, although why they extended that to the Group Stage, as well, I don't know. Just for giggles, probably.

Our group is Charlotte FC, FC Dallas, and Club Necaxa. That's also why the Messi goal I posted in the other thread was Inter Miami v. Cruz Azul.

 

[Lycan]

I wondered why Miami were playing Cruz Azul. I wish more federations would do this (without the batshit format). A British & Irish cup instead of the League cup would be fun.

 

[Alan]

Curious how the "offside" on Arfield's non-goal strikes y'all.

I wondered why Miami were playing Cruz Azul. I wish more federations would do this (without the batshit format). A British & Irish cup instead of the League cup would be fun.

Eh, I think it's kind of fun. At least we don't do shootouts in league play anymore! That would be too much.

In an inter-federation cup, though? I'm alright with some weirdo shit.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

2.Bundesliga back under way this weekend.

St Pauli away at sleeping giants Kaiserslautern (Bundesliga winners as recently as 1998 but had a horrible slide) this afternoon, HSV beat Schalke 5-3 last night.

Bizarrely ex-Cardiff carthorse Robert Glatzel is pretty good for HSV.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Opened up with a 2-1 win.

 

[Johnny75]

Opened up with a 2-1 win.

Going up this season?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Going up this season?

Yeah right

Would back Schalke and Hertha, they're both in Norwich/Watford/Fulham mode from a few years back. Playoff is always so hard to win if you finish 3rd.

 

[Alan]

Does it still seem utterly unsustainable? Yes. Do I trust Lattanzio is the right man going forward whatsoever? No.

But man, when it clicks, it’s a joy.

 

[Alan]

Very frustrating bit of news here.

Despite winning our group, and theoretically being the host side in our Round of 32 match (against Cruz Azul, who I expect will swat us), we'll have to play the match in Dallas. Why? Because Beyoncé is coming to Charlotte this week.

Blargh. BofA would have been rocking for a knockout cup game. I mean, I guess it still will be, just in the name of Single Ladies. Which is still a bop, to be fair.

 

[Alan]

And, blessedly, Charlotte have announced that we have mutually agreed to a contract termination with Andre Shinyashiki.

I was so stoked when he signed here.