1: Here we are, once again, talking about something we don’t to talk about, Refereeing. At the time of writing this it’s not 100% clear but based on Pineda’s comments in the post game presser, it seems to him that Rocco have a thumbs up gesture while he was by the post which Rivas took as him saying he was set and ready when he wasn’t. We have not yet heard from Rivas on what he saw and why he blew his whistle when he did but even if he did see Rocco giving him whatever gesture, he’s by the post when doing so, and no keeper would ever signal to a ref that he was set in that position and IMO, Rivas should know better. Deliberately or not, he directly affected the outcome of a match. 

2: After the goal it be came a different game. Orlando basically stopped playing. They were able sit back and deploy the dark arts. They didn’t have to press their attack which didn’t leave much space in behind for Ronaldo to run into as he did against RSL. As per usual with this team, our success is very much predicated on getting the first goal in a match. Very rarely do we have a way to break a team down and a win from a trailing position. 

3: If we don’t make the post season, let’s be clear about why. Injuries and 5 inches or less. I’ve lost count of how many “so close” goals we’ve missed on. There were at least 3 tonight with two of them being from Josef. 

This isn’t, and hasn’t been a team that’s played trash football for the majority of the season. Some chances have not been converted because of missing that little bit of extra finesse, others have been from keepers putting on their best gloves against us. Fortunately the East remains tight and we do have a game in hand. Reinforcements have arrived, the team is playing better with the personnel we have, and we haven’t had an injury in 3 matches and we do have some players that should be returning soon. It is still there for us but we will need to find some crucial road points. 

4: I think Pineda got the substitutes absolutely right. Since we were chasing the game for so long it was better suited for Josef than it was Ronaldo. But keeping Ronaldo on with Josef and Almada was also the right decision. In the event we got the equalizer and things started opening up more, which happened, having Ronaldo still making darting runs was useful. Giving Dwyer the 20 minute runout was also the right move since Ronaldo was pretty gassed at that point and we know Dom has the ability to break a game. He brings a level of chaotic energy that teams struggle to contain. We didn’t get the win tonight but trust that Orlando was defending for their lives for the last 20 minutes. 

5: Even without a goal Moreno played one of his best games tonight. I really really like how he and Caleb are combining. There’s some really good chemistry building there. Moreno won more than half of his dribbles and even had 6 tackles, 3 successful. He also won 20/30 duels, created a chance and was fouled 6 times (he was tackled much more than that). Can’t ask for much more than that.