The last year of Corey Wray led Crew2 Owen was the one that provided Noah Fuson and Mataeo Bunbury with the final balls they scored on.

Honestly surprised by this. Presthus is a player that has been pushed back his entire academy tenure.

He very much likes to get on the front foot.

I really think it’s no one’s fault but one of the things dragging the team down is our holes in the first team aren’t lining up with academy products.

Yeah personally while I like Herrera fine the calculation is he takes up an international slot and his minutes should be going to Presthus.

This was all very good Dan.

I think Issa gets the summer window no matter how unhappy fans are.

I think his seat should be hot now.

My perspective is this is his window to prove what he can do.

If the feeling is the roster isn’t trending up after the summer window, he’s had his time.

How about Alex Crognale from 70 yards out?

Catches El Paso's Abraham Romero off his line to put San Antonio FC ahead in @copatejas.bsky.social. Wow, indeed.

#USL-C

What leagues cup? 2024? That team still had Cucho, Nagbe, Ramirez, good two years younger, Camacho so Zawa was in midfield with Nagbe.

Spine wasn’t broken yet. I’ll take that spine over the current spine everyday.

Maybe I’m misremembering but I felt like the “doing right by the player” was at least alluded to about Ramirez. I have no reason to think he’s lying to you so I’ll admit this one makes me pretty unhappy.

Just wanted to share this on here for those no longer on X. I mentioned how sad it was to see Christian scores for Austin when he could have stayed with #Crew96 and dominated last year instead of going back to LA. Transparency is definitely needed with the FO and supporters.

People from national writers to Crew fans act like Nancy is an actual miracle worker because he succeeded in Montreal. People ridiculously discount the talent on that Montreal team because it’s Montreal.

I think Nancyball gets rocked with this roster.

I just really can’t abide the people wistfully calling for Nancy with this roster, even if it’s even partially in jest, my honest opinion is Nancyball took hits losing Cucho, Morris, and Ramirez. Nagbe was the final straw.

I loved what Nancyball was the first year and a half. Was it still more fun to watch than energy drink soccer or some equivalent after that? Yes. Did I like where it seemed to be headed? No, not really.

I do not know but it made no sense. Is wasn’t like he didn’t have someone playing the Morris role in Montreal that was Piette’s role. He had a more imposing backline than he ever had in Columbus. And he had forward that could win and hold the ball.

That might work in your fantasy dream soccer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that go well in real life.

I don’t know if Nancy felt he had something to prove, just loved free flowing soccer to the point her over indexed on that type of player.

Am I still frustrated with Tall? Absolutely.

But quite frankly I’m bewildered by Nancy.

I was actually pretty concerned listening to Nancy talk about the roster over time.

It certainly sounded like he wanted finesse players at every position, every time.

My issue isn’t just that the current roster isn’t set up for Rydstrom; I don’t think it’s setup for anyone Rydstrom, Courtois, Nancy, anyone.

The reason I’m not a pissed at Tall as others is, I freely admit I don’t know anything about what went on internally.

It is perfectly fine with me if you disagree with me but in my opinion this is a weak spine and no one fears any part of it. Nor should they.

Now CBs I would argue this is where Nancy was okay, at least with the Crew, of not having players that controlled the box.

But that was fine, the trade off was having CBs that could play out and connect to what was in front of them.

Now compare that to Nancy’s best team.

Forwards that could hold the ball, Cucho and Ramirez.

Midfielders with bite Morris absolutely; I wouldn’t classify Nagbe as having bite but he could hold the ball better than anyone and players had to foul to get it off him.

Does anyone think our starting midfield has bite? Gomes going on tilt aside, no. Now Bangoura seems to.

Does anyone think our CBs control our box? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Do we have a player that anyone thinks can reliably hold the ball up in the attacking third? If anyone says yes I will try not to laugh in your face.

Dangerous to the point of defenders backing off without WAA? No chance.

If your midfield doesn’t have bite it’s generally a good idea to have some CBs that can command the box.

If you’re going to have a fluid attack ahead of the midfield it’s generally a good idea to have a midfield with some bite so when the attackers you’re allowing to play switches and drift lose the ball, which they will, your midfield isn’t enjoyable to play through.

It’s balance. If you have really creative players in the middle it’s generally a good idea to have someone that can hold up the ball or is so dangerous teams back off just to keep that player in front of them.

I will say one last thing and then I’ll drop this because I am happy to disagree. This is the most inexperienced midfield in Raines and Kohler they will come up against this season.

They are not my main concern in the spine but I’m not overwhelmed by the first half either.

Right now Thiare is in we have no center forward so that part of the spine is vacant.

Rossi is best in half space to wide so for me, yes, I include him in wide strengths.

Moreira, Arfsten, Herrera all wide.

Picard at least brings energy, I wouldn’t call him a strength.

Akhundzada plays wide.

It is just my honest opinion that any competent MLS coach, with a decent set of players to work with, looks at the spine that has played most of the minutes this season and things “I have serious doubts we can control this game”

I didn’t say midfield. I said the spine. The current strengths of this team are heavily tilted wide.

The middle of the field from back to front is not good.

There are pieces that aren’t bad, but as a whole? Not good.

If you’re going to have a destroyer on a team, personally I like a profile more like Aidan Morris or an Ozzie Alonso. That said I’m not going to be upset if you offer me Diego Chara. Bangoura has a bit of Chara attitude in him and this midfield is desperately missing that. Play him.

#Crew96

I won’t completely disagree with this but I think our spine strikes fear in the heart of exactly zero other MLS teams.

I don’t care where he came from I was really hoping Bangoura would give us some steel.

I didn’t think Rudy would start.

The spine is bad.

I take your point but built for Nancy not built for Nancy the spine is just not solid.

I don’t care what formation or system you run if you have a weak spine compared to your opponent you will lose most of your games.

I’m very curious how much some have played or coached.