Home from the match, and have a full day of work tomorrow, so a quick and dirty post with my first impressions.
Positives:
The Result: A win! Not the prettiest, but we kept our poise under pressure and won a tough one. Joel Lindpere continued to shine, even while he had a little more work to do with Carl Robinson out. Our back line held their own quite well. Tim Ream did not look like a rookie in his first game. He ran the show in back tonight. Bouna with some nice play (which made up for a couple shaky moments).
Atmosphere: WOW! OK, there weren't quite as many butts in seats this week as last week, but the crowd was ROCKING. Last week, there were many Santos fans in the stands. This week, it was all Red Bull and all loud. When the upper bowl started stomping, it was like thunder that shook the entire stadium. This crowd was loud and strong for 90 minutes. As an epilogue to the night, a random Red Bull chant started up while I was heading out of the PATH station at WTC on the way home.
Attendance: Very strong. Not quite a sell-out, and I doubt there were the full 24,500 or so announced actually in their seats, but they sold that many tickets so who cares? The place was full, on a very cold night.
Negatives:
Our play was not as good tonight. I'm a little worried that the locker room has a Hot Tub Time Machine in it, and Mac Kandji hopped in and transported back to last season. The same stuff from him that drives me nuts--too much dribbling, holding, and completely taking the air our of our attacks. Dane Richards might have hopped in that hot tub, too. We didn't see the vision and focus tonight from him that he displayed during the pre-season. We are also weak at left-mid. I'm not going to start a DVDB rant here. Honestly, I believe Backe's system requires someone with more pace than Van den Bergh has got. We need to either find a left mid, or get a right back so Jeremy Hall can move over there. Maybe we can get by with Ubi over there when Robbo comes back, until Chris Albright is ready to go. That sentence has too many uncertainties in it for my comfort.
OK, that's my quick assessment. Work is going to keep me from having much more to say for the next couple of days, but I'm sure whoshotsam's analysis and viper's awesome videos will keep you all entertained. And before I forget, I want to send a shout out to Eli - a great guy I met this afternoon at MMM Bello's, who let me know he was an enthusiastic fan of our blog. All of us at TVN love to hear that folks are reading and enjoying what we do. So, thanks for the kind words, Eli!
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