the interlull well and truly sucks. any interlull well and truly sucks. i know magadh discussed the inconvenience of the international break yesterday, so i will limit my thoughts on the subject to this: is it over yet? for all those who exclaim the wonders and beauty of international play, the rivalries between the united states and mexico, argentina and brazil, argentina and england, france and, well, france, my response is fairly simple. while those games are enjoyable in and of themselves, without the international game do you really think eric wynalda would be on you television set or in your twatterverse? think about that the next time you attempt to pander the beautiful attributes of the international game.
more pressing matters exist at home--gavin has been thinking. as a matter of fact, he has been incessantly watching tape from the colorado match since timbers left dick’s with their bums in the hands. and given his comments, it is clear to me he still has no concept of how to win on the road.
It is not a problem that we've just created. It is one that has been a trend and you need to put a stop to those. We'll analyze it, we will break it down, we will do everything possible. Generally you need a preseason, you need to get some things out of the way. We are still trying things on the road which are a little bit different. How many times we've gone in and tried to pressure.
either he is one of the most obtuse individuals in the world, or he simply does not own a calendar. 7 games remain in the season and gavin thinks the panacea for the road problems is a healthy pre-season. given the obvious, i would suggest either he has no idea what to do or the white flag has been run up the pole.
if the flag has been run, then i return some faith lost in the front office. at this moment, with this defense, there is no hope to win on the road. winning at home is easy--the crowd is behind the team, which emboldens them to pressure sides and play with some flair and passion. on the road, well, the side needs a chip on its shoulder and stubbornly deny the opposition space to attack goal. as i wrote this saturday, this team does not have the defensive personnel to compete on the road. the individual players are not disciplined enough to work as a unit, and several of them lack the basic skill set necessary to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
that should be obvious by now, right? well, clearly not to gavin. his suggestion for success on the road is to punish the opposition. sure, winning on the road is a form of punishment, but it should not be the primary tactic to success. as i suggested earlier, the teams that are successful on the road practice discipline restraint and patience. essentially, they play like a wet blanket, making it difficult for the opposition to move anywhere on the pitch with much freedom. unfortunately, this tactic will likely not be seen when gavin is coaching. he is so obsessed with creating chances goal that all other aspects of the game seem tertiary and annoying issues to be forgotten.
again, this is where i agree that a healthy pre-season can assist in clarifying the roles and the expectations of the side. but even if the timbers had such a pre-season, with the continuous changes within the team's approach to the game the players would still be unlikely to understand what is expected of them when the coaching staff has little idea of what they expect from the players.
at any rate, that is about it for me today. i apologize for the short post, but the milkman required assistance taking out the trash and i had to pack my away kit. the ray bans are in their case and my suits are well and neatly pressed. i have to toddle off, now.
see you lovely people in a couple of days.
sunshine.