There were a lot of takeaways from this game--some better than others. Now as a blanket statement this is not a good representation of what our team will be this year and we still have to complete transfers and figure out how we want to play over the season. That being said, I am ecstatic that both Miles and Brad are already back to 45 minutes of fitness (even if that 45 minutes isn’t necessarily the most competitive). I am also happy with the idea of Araujo hitting his stride and doing as well as we know he can this year. On the less good side of things I wasn’t expecting our defense to be the part of the squad that needed some work.
Firstly, if Miles Robinson and/or Brad Guzan are back to full fitness and can play the full game against San Jose in four weeks that will be a massive win. It will not only mean we have our best center back and/or first choice goalkeeper back, it will also mean that we will have a set team captain again. Last season I was proud of the guys that stepped up and captained the team, especially Matheus Rossetto who I thought did a good job and seemed to command respect from his teammates. That being said, I am very happy to have a return to normalcy with Brad Guzan or Miles Robinson as captain--ideally our mother-loving wall Brad Guzan.
In attack I was also happy to see that Luiz Araujo will potentially be performing like we all hoped when we signed him from Lille a year and a half ago. All players need some time to adjust, but I am ready for us to have a winger to play alongside Thiago Almada that is truly world class, and if Luiz Araujo can play like he has shown he can he can be that guy. He had some very good performances over his 1500 minutes in Lille’s league-winning season.
As for the bad takeaways, our defense looked a little shaky--to put it lightly. I am going to selectively look away and put my fingers in my ears for this takeaway as I know that we can have a really good defense, as proven many times last year and they even did it without Miles Robinson who would have started for the USMNT in the World Cup had he not been injured. It was pretty bad, though, we should not be conceding three goals with our “starting squad” to a third tier side--no offense Chattanooga.
Speaking of which, I am glad that we are being more and more closely tied to Chattanooga as that could be a very good connection for us to have and no one can argue it isn’t convenient. There is also a growing talent base that it would be nice if we could draw from, including Noah Cobb, who played well in the otherwise poor defense.
All in all, I am choosing to be an optimist and looking forward to our upcoming season, I have really missed going to games at the Benz--less than a month away.